With almost 4 meters of new snow in the last month, it was really nice to wake up to some cold and clear arctic high pressure up north in Canada. The snowpack has doubled in depth, tightened up, and the last storm finished off with a sweet icing of cold smoke. All of this has coincided with my first few 'days off' from life at Valhalla Mountain Touring. I know, tough life that I live, having to be up at a backcountry ski lodge full time. But its nice to ski some where different, drive a car, and watch TV in a hotel room!
With the good weather and free time Jasmin and I have decided to hit up Rogers Pass, and our timing is perfect! So day 1 we decided to try our hand at Mt Rogers, one of the bigger summits off the pass. The stats are simple. Put your skins on at the car and start climbing. Climb until its too steep to skin, and then throw your skis on your back. Boot it up to the unskiable summit with ice axe in hand. Look down the 3,000' rock walls off the summit, go back to your skis and slay cold smoke for a LONG ways back to the car. It's about 6,500' vertical feet in one climb up, with a 800' 45 degree headwall at the summit. I like those numbers.
But lets let the stellar photos from the day do the talking!
Enjoy...
After 4,000' of up, we are finally getting to the glacier, with good views of the Roger's Headwall
Looking back at some skiers in front of Mt Tupper
Jasmin, and her hot hot pink ski pants leads the way up the 48 degree headwall
Nothing like a knife edge ridge to the summit. Rogers Pass elevation: 1300m. Summit of Rogers: 3200m. It's a long ways down to those valleys
Skiing down the headwall, glad it had slid before we got there, giving us the confidence to travel safely up the old path.
Post headwall powder shladdelling in the alpen-glow. Life is good!
For the second year in a row, New Year's week has delivered the goods. 40cm+ of cold smoke fell for the first few days, and then arctic air kept it light and fluffy for a few more. Summits, powder skiing in the sun, and 40 degree open shots. It doesn't get much better. Take a look at some photos from last week:
Katy Drops down Ruby's Nose in blower pow
Ken makes sure the top of Ruby's Nose is 'safe' for us
Jas let's her big skis rip on Crown Jewel
Kelly on the split board on Crown Jewel
Crown Jewel
Benny with some birthday face shots. He's 3 now.
Last summit of 2010: Rugged peak on Dec 31!
Rugged Peak
Rugged Peak
Yes, those skies are real, no photoshop for the arctic blue sky.
Well, the snow gun was turned on for us. A cold air mass has settled its way down to us wringing out every last drop of moisture in the atmosphere. 40cm + has fallen, and with snow densities so low that feathers seem heavy, the constant trickle of snow from the sky has kept pace with the slow settlement rates.
Personally, these cold storm days are my favorite. Endless face shots, so cold you stay dry, and bottomless powder. What could be better? Here is a quick video to get you psyched, because we sure are! Remember when the snow hits my helmet cam, that the cam is 6 ft off the ground...
Well, climbing caught up with me and free time didn't, but let's just say the fall trip went really well for me. The hit-list including sending such classic trad lines like The Alien Roof on the Rostrum and a free attempt on Half Dome in Yosemite (12b) and the spectacular overhanging off fingers to roof of Desert Gold in Red Rocks (13a), and some sport lines up to 13a. There was also the IFMGA mountain guide meetings in Boulder, as well as a climbing trip to Moab before hand, where me and my old college best friend (also a mountain guide) Adam George got to school some europeans on Indian Creek splitters and climb scary desert towers hung over. A productive season for sure, but maybe my last in the desert SW for a few years, there is just soooo much else to climb in the world!
But now I have fully transitioned to winter and am writing this from my winter home at Valhalla Mountain Touring. Yesterday Jasmin and I battled our way 16km up the road on the snowmobiles, with the powder over the head on the sleds. Somehow the old little 340cc machine with huge new powder skis got me to the lodge and we made a shuttle trip up to bring in some basic supplies. A bit of digging and turning on the water (well almost!) was the goal of the day. The beauty of having a micro hydro electric system is that the power and heat has been on all fall so we got up the hill to some warm lodges heated with zero carbon footprint!
Now back to the water system. Every year it seems there is some little hiccup at startup that keeps me from sleeping at night. This is either my 6th or 7th winter up here, and I have almost learned about every little system up here from snowcat mechanics to micro hydro systems to septic tanks; I always joke that my job description for running this place would be a page long! This year's minor hiccup was the water. Jasmin went under the sauna building to turn the water on for that building and went under it with out a head lamp. When she got down there she just turned the only switch should could feel. We went into the lodge and tried to turn on the water with no luck at all. No water. Oh no. No flush toilets, no shower, no running water? All the little perks that make our lodge one of the comfiest around? I went through the whole system to try and figure out what was going on. The water all comes from Ruby Creek where we have a tiny dam that feeds water into a water box and to the hydro electric system. I skied up to check it out. All full. Now I had no idea except either a pipe burst or was clogged, either one was NOT going to be fixed this winter! After two stressful hours I went back under the sauna just to see the valves, and realized (with a head lamp) that there was two switches there; one for the sauna building and one for the main water line to all the buildings. Jas had turned all the water off! With a quick flip of the switch all the stress was washed away and life was good again.
Today the snowcat started right up and I even had time to bust out a quick 2,500' of the first turns of the season at VMT. And it is oh so good right now! 125cms at the lodge, with 15cm over night at -7c. That spells cold COLD FLUFFY smoke. WOW. So good to be back at it, even if it means I am working 15 hour days right now for start up...it is oh so worth it for being able to ski 6 days a week from now until the end of April.
Enjoy this quick vid from todays 'lunch break' tour!
If this doesn't sum up why I climb, I don't know what does! 5.9 jugs on pitch 17 of Half Dome at Sunset
I love climbing. I really do, and maybe that is why it frustrates me so (so so so) much sometimes. There is always another route, harder and longer, waiting to be done as soon as you clip the anchors on the last route you are still finishing. It is constantly motivating and driving me; and often times frustrating me. But in the end it is always inspiring and brings me to the most amazing places along side the most amazing people.
So this October has found me in Yosemite with my wife trying to pursue my life long climbing ambition of free climbing big walls. I have done almost all of the major formations in Yosemite, in a day, going as fast and furious as we could, pulling on gear and stepping on bolts with the summit being the main objective. But as I have matured with my climbing, and taken it to standards that I have never thought possible (I one day dreamed of sending 5.11a trad and have since done 5.13a trad) one form of climbing has always stood out as the highest form of climbing, in my mind. Big Wall Free Climbing. Maybe it was the Huber brothers doing multiple free routes on El Cap, or Lynn Hill freeing the nose in a day, or my late, great friend an climbing partner Micah Dash free climbing the Freerider, but I was inspired, and have gradually tried to build up to free climbing the big walls with in my reach.
Having done a few small alpine walls, 10 pitch lines in Squamish, and small walls in Zion free, it was time to try something bigger, and that was Half Dome. My wife and I had tried to do Freerider on El Cap a few years ago, but sickness and snowfall stopped us half way up. We figured this time around we would try something a little more bite sized, only 23 pitches instead of 35, and 5.12a instead of 5.12d++. We also figured we would do it over two days, and haul a small pack and sleep on the small but comfy Big Sandy Ledge.
Right off the bat are about 4 easier pitches, and then you get to the first free variation around a bolt ladder. A quick 5.11a traverse left to a heinous and awkward 5.11 dihedral brings you to a good ledge. Jasmin was leading this pitch and did a great job fighting through the Yosemite weirdness. The next pitch, dubbed the 'Higbee Hedral' after the pioneer of this free variation Art Higbee, goes at about 5.12a. It has a short, but fierce stemming crux off the belay to a ledge and then 20 m of funky and hard 5.11c crack above. It took me a few tries to stick the crux moves, but I managed to send the pitch, which puts you at the top of pitch 5. Now we had 12 more pitches of 5.10- and under to get to our bivy ledge. Tons of stellar pitches and easy climbing got us to Big Sandy at sunset, but the crux was by far trying to haul our 'light' pack behind us. We brought way too much extra food and water, and trying to hand haul that gear behind us was wearing us down - hopefully not too much.
Jas and I settled in to a romantic shiver bivy on our ropes and my Mutant pack with a delectable meal of tasty bites, cashews and chocolate bars. All the while the crux pitches of the route are right over your head, taunting you all night while you try to sleep on a crooked and sloping bivy ledge.
12 hours of 'rest' later we gave it our best. The first pitch off the ledge in the Zig Zags, is about 5.12a, and it was the warm up pitch. I was sending the whole route to this point, but Jas had hung once lower down, so I asked her to lead this pitch so I could try and warm up on it. She tried hard, and came close, but couldn't send it, and try as I may, I could not send the pitch. 5 times I lowered down to a no hands stance, and tried again, but fatigue from the day before, cold temps, and no warm up added up to not being able to pull off the tips climbing crux. Which is unfortunate, because I managed to scrap my way up the next two pitches with (5.11 and 11+) and then only hung once on the final crux 5.11d slab pitch, which would have been easy to try again.
But on this day, the mental fortitude was not with me. Without a doubt, this is the hardest discipline of rock climbing. Trying to climb your hardest pitch after pitch after pitch, either all day or day after day is so mentally and physically taxing. At the same time however, it is the most motivating thing in the world. Now I want to train harder next year, and try harder the next time around. Go back to Half Dome, and try it in a day with out hauling a big pack behind me. Think about my weaknesses and try harder then ever to overcome them so I can reach my goals. Sometimes failing just makes you want to throw in the towel and pick up something else entirely, but I guess that is the difference with climbing, most of the time failing makes me want to come back and try harder!
Here are some photos and a cool time laps video of sunset over Yosemite from half way up Half Dome...
Looking up at the 23 pitches of the NW Face of Half Dome
The 5.11a traverse pitch 4 into the Higbee Hedral
At the belay of pitch 15
The first 5.12a pitch of the Zig Zags, pitch 18
Spectacular pitch in a spectacular place: the 5.11d slab pitch 22.
First hit was the Slocan Valley for a week of maintenance before the snows at VMT (video to follow) and some family time. Then we hit Smith for a day, or 3 pitches, as we drove south to Lake Tahoe. But that is where we detoured to skip out on the big fall storm that closed all of the High Sierra road passes. Well, it was easy to decide on a few days of hot springs and sport climbing in the Owens River Gorge as we waited for the weather to clear up. A few pitches a day between rain storms, and before we knew it the weather had cleared and it was time to take the hound to the kennel and settle in to Yosemite.
Sad times as we dropped off Benny for two weeks, but so it goes in Yosemite. Since we got here we have tackled 'The Crucifix' IV 5.12- on our first day - amazing - then the Rostrum via what I call the excellent alien adventure...the first half of the excellent adventure, make a belay and then the Alien Roof variation. That adds two SOLID pitches of 5.12 trad to ye ol Rostrum, good times! I managed to not send the Alien that day, but we came back the next morning so I could send, nice to have some success on such a classic line I have looked at for years and never thought I could do...a wild and inspiring pitch for sure.
Now we are racking up for bigger lines, but lets see how the bodies and minds hold up.
Enjoy a few photos.
Family hike near June Lake while we wait for the weather to clear
I have driven by Mono Lake for years, but never stopped before...this is what I have been missing!
True Love in the Camper with an 80lbs lap dog.
Blinding light in the East Side hot springs...oh wait that is just my white thighs
Storms and light on the East Side
Oh ya, we have been climbing too...the 50m '5.10c' big hands pitch on the Crucifix. The regular NEB route is behind us.
After 4,000' of up, we are finally getting to the glacier, with good views of the Roger's Headwall
Looking back at some skiers in front of Mt Tupper
Jasmin, and her hot hot pink ski pants leads the way up the 48 degree headwall
Nothing like a knife edge ridge to the summit. Rogers Pass elevation: 1300m. Summit of Rogers: 3200m. It's a long ways down to those valleys
Skiing down the headwall, glad it had slid before we got there, giving us the confidence to travel safely up the old path. 
Post headwall powder shladdelling in the alpen-glow. Life is good!
