The Seasons are changing, and so are the routes...

This past week has brought intense thunderstorms, new snowfall, and crisp fall air to Mt. Rainier. With these changes in the weather, we are also seeing changes on some of the routes. See the Disappointment Cleaver page for information on the latest developements there. The upcoming week looks like it holds beautiful weather, so come on up to Mount Rainier National Park and enjoy the stunning scenery, the wildflowers, and the melted out hiking trails before fall truly takes hold!

M is for Mmmmmm

Well, Marianne's lover has been named. His name is Miles. "M" for short. After the James Bond character. The Co-Habitant likes M so much, that he's made him a name-tag. Behold:

"M" is for "make it yourself!" Ribbon. Oil Crayon. Old canvas bag that you're not worried about ruining.


"M" is for "Men's frames can also be beautiful!" I just love the clean, elegant lines of this bicycle. And the silver is a surprisingly warm colour, with a touch of champagne and sage in it.


"M" is for "Makes it easier to see in the dark!" No lights yet. Any suggestions for a good lighting system for road bikes are welcome.


"M" is for "Mmmmmm!"

Oh! Canada...

This post is being brought to you from the Tourist Information Center in Grande Cache, Alberta, Canada! (Refer to the Map to see where that is... north of Route 16, about halfway to Grande Prairie on the road not shown.) I'm now into my third full day in this beautiful country and have managed to travel a little over 500 miles. It is a gorgeous day. Sunshine and blue skies, though a bit hazy but with no clouds.

When I arrived at the Roosville Port of Entry (north of Kalispell, Montana on US 93) at 4:20 pm on July 28th, there were a dozen vehicles and two motorcycles in line ahead of me. Fortunately the wait wasn't long. Fifteen minutes and a few questions later I was in British Columbia, Canada. The questions? Was I carrying: any firearms, anything I was going to leave behind in Canada, currency of any type valued at more than $10,000 Canadian, any alcoholic beverages? He also asked where I was going and what route I was taking to get there – it's a good thing I finally got around to figuring that out before I crossed the border!

According to the map I have, there were several Provincial Campgrounds within the first hundred miles. I stopped at the first one, called Kikomun Creek, about 20 miles from the border. It looked to be more like a resort since many of the RVs had decks or patios alongside them. I was quite relieved when the nice lady camp host said she had a spot for me. It was a nice place with friendly people. The sun was shining and it was in the upper 80s but there was a nice breeze and my camp site was in the shade. Ya can't ask for anything better!

It started raining just after sunset along with some thunder and lightening and then it rained most of the night, but I didn't care since I wasn't out in it! However, there were scattered showers along the 200+ miles I drove on Thursday. Cloudy skies with intermittent rain and a bit of sunshine. The scenery more than made up for the weather!

Upon entering Kootenay National Park at Radium Hot Springs, the sun was shining once again. This view of the Kootenay Valley is about half-way through the park. (Please, double-click on the images to view a larger version.)

This is half of Two Jack Lake, near Banff, taken between rain showers. I think it is the west half but my sense of direction got totally confused with the drive up there! At Two Jack Lake there is a lakeside campground and then there is the other one. The former was full but there was plenty of sites available at the other one, which is where I spent my second night in Canada.

Shortly after leaving Kikomun Creek Campground I saw a moose with her calf crossing the highway. There were a lot of deer grazing alongside the road. In Kootenay Park there were a group of about a dozen mountain goats, several quite small, near one of the pullouts on the other side of the road.

The drive through Banff and Jasper National Parks was amazing. I'll have some more pictures later (very slow internet connection) but they aren't all that great since the weather wasn't cooperating. It was cloudy and overcast most of the two days I spent there.

Photographs taken on July 29, ...

Wordless Wednesday :: Once Upon a Time

a few years ago...

Encased in Ice

What a difference a day makes!

Yesterday was a sunny, bright, beautiful day.

Today is dull and gray. And everything outside is encased in a layer of ice.

But if we have to have dull, gray, icy days, better today than yesterday! Because yesterday I had to take my mom to the doctor for a follow-up exam. That meant a 30 minute drive to Columbia City to pick her up then a 45 minute drive to Auburn. Fifteen minutes waiting to see the doctor, about ten minutes spent with him in the office, and then reverse the drive back home. I'm so glad yesterday was a nice day! And so very glad that I don't have to go out in this mess today!!

The view from my front door. Doesn't look too bad? Well, there is about three inches of compacted slush, snow, ice and sleet in the drive. I haven't ventured out to the mail box yet. No traction. The pictures were all taken within 20 feet of the apartment and I used the flash to get some definition and contrast.

Looking closely at the trees, shrubs and weeds you'll see there is about a ¼ to a ½ inch of ice covering everything. Not nearly as bad here as it is in Columbia City or South Whitley (where my niece lives and is currently without electricity) or further south. And not even close to what struck the northeast coast last week or the northwest this week. So we are very fortunate here. Most of the schools in the area closed for the day giving the kids an extra day for their winter break.

Watkins Glen State Park Take Two

We headed back over to Watkins Glen State Park late this afternoon. I'm happy to report that the skies stayed sunny this time so we were able to stay and see all of the waterfalls. This has been one of the most surprising things that we've seen so far. Meaning it was unexpectedly awesome.



The hike is not very long, but the entire walk is breathtaking so it was one of my favorite hikes so far. We went late in the afternoon so the lighting was fabulous, giving this place an almost fairy land glow. We especially loved this place:

From the state park website: Watkins Glen State Park is the most famous of the Finger Lakes State Parks, with a reputation for leaving visitors spellbound.

Within two miles, the glen's stream descends 400 feet past 200-foot cliffs, generating 19 waterfalls along its course.

The gorge path winds over and under waterfalls and through the spray of Cavern Cascade. Rim trails overlook the gorge.

This place was so awe inspiring. I'm so glad we were able to see it. It is days like this that I am so incredibly grateful for this life we are living right now and the chance to take in our country's beauty in new ways. It keeps me grounded in all of the reasons that we do this, even when some parts can feel difficult. It's more than worth it.



Living the life in New York!

The Great Arch, Pabbay, finally free

Donald King and myself, enjoying the boat ride back from Pabbay. The mugs were the boatman’s by the way.




June is often a time to get on a boat and go and find some amazing new sea cliff climbs to be done in the Hebrides. I’ve been lucky to have done more than my fair share over the past ten years. Yet they just keep coming! One place I’d never yet been was Pabbay. The obvious target was the Great Arch project.




The arch is of course the most striking and obvious challenge on the island. And like other lines of similar calibre such as the Longhope Route, it’s also going to be the hardest. Great! It was first tried by Cubby Cuthbertson and Lynn Hill while they were being filmed for a BBC TV programme in 1997. On that trip, the route didn’t go free although they did record it with a rest/aid point. With better weather and a bit more time, I’m sure they’d have done it. You don’t get a much stronger team that those two! Talking of strong teams, the next party to attempt it was Steve Mclure and Lucy Creamer a few years ago. Steve inspected the line on abseil and then made a great attempt to flash it, getting through the first crux. He fell in the roof, pulled back up to his highpoint on the rope and carried on to the end. He opted not to come back and make the free ascent. So, after all these years, it still needed doing. The projected grade I'd heard for the free ascent was E9 7a, but in the end E8 6c was more like it.











That is a roof that needs climbing.




I headed over with Donald King to see if we could do it. We had a good window of time to cope with the usual sea cliff problems of sea spray dampness and bad weather. So I was quite relaxed and excited about getting on it. On our first day I abseiled down the crux top pitch through the huge horizontal roof. It was totally damp with sea spray so all I could do that day was pull on and try a few individual moves in the roof on the GriGri and then do the first couple of wet pitches for something to do, abseiling off into the sea around midnight in fading light.




Next day I waited until the evening to even go on it in the hope the sea spray might dry out a bit more. It was fortunately drier when I arrived. I went down and played about a bit more on the abseil rope for an hour or so and had that feeling that maybe I ought to stop there and have a good go at the whole route the next day (and last before a big rainy front arrived).




On day three we were disappointed to find the dreaded sea spray hanging like a mist under the great arch. It was a roasting hot sunny day, but the route was dripping. All we could do was lie and sleep in the sun on the hot boulders at the base for four hours. Hard life eh?












Pitch 2.




However, sunbathing was not what I traveled all that way for. So at around tea time, almost without speaking, we got ourselves together and just started going upwards. Pitches 1 and 2 round the first pitch flew by in minutes. The big third pitch was a grunt with still wet holds lurking in the big roof, but it also went fairly smoothly for both Donald and myself. The infamous offwidth slot of pitch 4 was only a few metres in length, but my first experience of ‘scapular walking’. I have no idea if that is a climbing technique, but it worked. Pitch 5 was the most gloriously exposed and finely positioned 5a pitch I’ve ever climbed. It was so relaxing. A cool breeze began to blow as I started it, and became more and more noticeable as I shuffled across the brilliant incut flakes of gneiss, a huge roof below my feet, another looming directly overhead.












The roof of pitch 3 looming overhead. This pitch was about E5.





By the time I reached the belay below the crux 6^th pitch through the great arch, the breeze was chilling me, and I could see the colour of the gniess turning before my eyes from a that familiar flat grey of dampness to the crisp white of dryness; and friction. It’s been a wee while since I’ve had that great feeling of ‘now is the time to go for it’. Simultaneously feeling a little queasy in the stomach, and anxious to release the physical energy and adrenaline which is bursting to get out.






The next thing I knew I was 10 metres up the pitch, leaning back with my hands off with double knee bars behind a huge undercut in the most outrageous position. The first crux was right above. A full stretch reach from the undercut to a tiny crimp and then a boulder problem to get to the break at the back of the arch itself. In the space of ten minutes I’d gone from a bag of nerves with a stomach full of butterflies, to feeling totally relaxed and just eager to go for it. So the first crux felt easy.




Unsurprisingly, the transition to completely horizontal roof climbing felt a bit of a shock to the system, and I fumbled with two cams, and then decided not to even bother with the third. I was getting too pumped. I got really excited about the next seconds as I’d find out whether I had enough power to do the crux, or fling myself into the huge space below and test the cams and wires in the creaky roof flake. So I realised I better move it before excitement turned to nerves. What followed was a classic climbing moment of a blur of slapping hands, quickly made up sequences on the hop when I did it all wrong, and a bit of aggression. In no time I found myself stood above the lip, panting to catch my breath.




The great thing about roof climbs is once you get over the lip, it’s usually over and you know it. All that was left was to fully soak up the spacey atmosphere as I abseiled back down to strip the roof and dangle around on the rope waxing about the route just climbed as the sun finally sunk into the sea.




After a 1am dinner of curry, rice pudding and cups of tea at the tents, the rain started. 36 hours or storm later, the back of the great arch had become a waterfall which would have taken days to dry out, and we got on an early boat home. On the ferry back from Barra, we were suitably inspired to seek out some more obvious great lines to point ourselves at in the Hebrides in the not too distant future. A good start to the summer, which has come seriously late in the highlands this year.













Well happy abseiling back down to strip the runners from the roof.












A happy rock climber












A still happy rock climber abbing in to do Prophesy of Drowning, E2, just before getting the boat home. If you climb E2, you must do this route.












Smiles are a running theme for rock climbers on Pabbay. It’s pretty good!












Do you need any more convincing that Prophesy of Drowning is a very very good E2?












Hebridean sunsets on the ferry home. A good moment to dream up new climbing plans.