Sara and I had been planning for a while to do a hike through The Enchantments. I've been through once before, back in 2005, as a backpacking trip. This time we both wanted to hike the whole 20 mile loop in a day, and we'd settled on the first weekend in October because Boealps was having their fall campout in Leavenworth. Weather in early ( Read more... )

I might have intimated before that I was all done climbing for the season after Labor Day. But I just can't quit.

Over the weekend I went out to Leavenworth with Doug and we climbed Hyperspace. I don't really think it should be called "the Astroman of Washington" as I have seen a couple times- it's nowhere near as hard or as long- but it was ( Read more... )

( I got my hands on Doug's pictures. )

( How the story ends )

I leave tonight. We're doing this thing Doug-style, which means minimal use of vacation time (I don't think he's even taking a day off, since he works a 9x9 shift). We'll drive straight there after work today, catch a few Zs in the back of his car, eat breakfast in town and then hike in. If all goes well we'll climb for 2 days and spend Monday ( Read more... )

For the last weekend before my big trip I knew I needed to do something big. I also knew I only had one day because my sister, who I haven't seen in a couple years and who is pregnant, was in town and I'd be spending Sunday hanging out with her and the rest of my family. So what could I do on Saturday?

( I know! )

As I said in my last entry, Oscar and I had originally planned to take a week off. When I bumped into my friend Monica, who is taking the Boealps Intermediate Climbing Class (which has been my primary passion for the last 5 years) in early August, she asked me if I would be available to go on her graduation climb on August 20/21. I told her I was ( Read more... )

Oscar is expecting a kid in October. We had talked back in June about taking a week down in Yosemite, but I hurt my finger and wasn't as enthusiastic as necessary, and plans evaporated. We still wanted to get out this summer, and plans eventually boiled down to a 5-day trip to the North Cascades in mid-August. With my big climb coming up in ( Read more... )

As I mentioned, I haven't been climbing much this year. I had a good start in April, but hurt my finger in the GYM, and did very little from May to August ( Read more... )

First off, the dream route: The Beckey-Chouinard, on the West Buttress of South Howser Tower, in the Bugaboos range of British Columbia. The object of my desire ( Read more... )