Mount Catherine and Mount Hyak 1.11.11

 With another chance to get out before the impending week long dump of snow I wanted to get out. ONELUV1 was available along with his friend Fletcher so we shoehorned all the gear and the dog and we were on our way. I had read a recent report of a large group doing Catherine and since I didn't know the area I thought it would ease route finding along with not having to break trail. Over the years I have read many reports of Catherine and I never really paid attention to the specifics of the route. I somehow thought I would park and the route would be lit up with lights. Well of course that isn't the case and I spent way too much time getting us on route. The upside however was that we missed the creek crossing that looked like so much fun. Once I finally was able to find the route we were about half way to Windy Pass. Thankfully I was able to use the groomed runs avoiding any unneeded trail breaking. We were very careful to stay on the margins so that we wouldn't upset any of the laid skin tracks. I would guess by now that is a pretty moot point with all the new snow.

    Once on the heavily trodden track my spirts lifted. I had been quite aggravated with myself for not doing enough research. It is one thing when I am out on my own and I am the only one that suffers. It is something else when two others are dependant on my choices. The route to Windy Pass was much longer than I had anticipated and it was surprisingly full of ups and downs. We quickly were able to reach the ridge and this portion seemed to go on forever. Most of the time it seems like we were just traversing but finally the steep last push appeared and we finished it off. The winds which had been horrendous as we suited up had diminished but returned with a vengeance at the summit. This cut our summit stay short. Just before the descent to Windy Pass we had a short lunch thankfully sheltered from any of the biting wind.

  Again the way back to the groomed runs seemed endless but we decided that we had enough time to make our way up Mount Hyak as well. We retraced our road walk until we hit a junction that led us to the top of the chairs. I had expected this to take much longer but soon we were on the top. Since the runs were not running we decided to just head straight down the ski run back to the car. While we had only seen one skier earlier in the day we saw a few groups on the way down. I was surprised that 3 of the skier/snowboarders had dogs with them. I wouldn't have thought dogs would make good company on this type of endeavor but judging by the groups we saw I was wrong. The runs were an interesting descent, I had hoped to be able to glissade to the bottom but the slopes were a mix of icy snow and pockets of knee deep powder. It actually made for an annoying descent. But alas it was much quicker and shorter than heading back the way we had come.

All in all it was a good day and was very cold and very windy at times. It was nice to meet Fletcher who I hadn't met before. It sure is hard to keep up with someone half my age. Thanks both to ONELUV1 and Fletcher for providing great company on this day. And also a very big thanks to the large group of NWhikers who laid the amazing trench. It was very interesting to follow after a large group. I certainly don't remember having such an easy path as today.

Approx 9 miles 3100' of climb 6 hours car to car.


   See the full set of pictures here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/etecky/sets/72157625679000203/

2010 year in review

Here are my stats for the year along with a comparison to years past:

Well I was pretty stoked to see my numbers until I read some of yours, wow I feel like I am not doing nearly enough.
anyway my count:

49 Trips
36 New Peaks
379 Miles
133,100 Gain
compared to the last 2 years

2007:Here are my modest numbers:
39trips
351 miles
110,000 Vert Climb
9 backcourt peaks
4 homecourt peaks
5 other summits
10 lessons learned

2008 total summits: 36
Home Court 100    4
Back Court 100    16
378 miles
115,100 ft of climb
42 trips


A few thoughts on the past year:

I ended last year with a desire to try my hand at Randonee skiing. While the ascents went well the descents proved to be way beyond by ability and I thought it best to shelve it for the time being. I was pleased that I was able to sell by setup for more than twice what I had paid for it taking some of the sting out of the purchase. The new year started with a resolve to try put more of a focus of my climbing. I have always been able to get out on a regular basis but I wanted to make it even more steady and try to improve my rate of summit success. Based on this alone my year was a success.

 I was blessed with an usual snow year that provided very high regional snow levels allowing summits that I wouldn't have been able to attempt in the Winter most years. In most cases being able to drive further up the road allowed less walking assuring more success. I was able to string together quite  a few new summits early in the year providing some confidence. Early Spring came with some heavy snows making most summits out of the question. Thankfully some others hard work allowed me to piggyback on their hard work. Once May came along I had to shut it down to provide help on the home front allowing my wife to work. This time off set my fitness back and I struggled in late Spring to catch my stride. With the nice weather I was able to keep marking off my lists and regained some of my fitness.

  Summer allowed for another string of successful trips, although weather did kill my first overnighter which didn't allow any of the many summits I had planned for that trip. Late in the season I tried for another epic trip only to be thwarted by cool and wet weather. This didn't allow me to cross off any of the five summits I had planned for that day. Thankfully September came and allowed me some better luck. I had a memorable summit of Jim Hill and looked forward to finishing the year off strong. I cranked out my longest day ever which was a source of great accomplishment but it was tempered with losing my faithful climbing Beagle. This was deeply moving and I had a rough time coping. I believe it was not so much losing of the Beagle but more of my feelings of not doing enough to prevent it. As in the past I had a strong sense to push on to honor the lost little buddy. Fall brought some more great summits highlighted by Atrium Peak on a most perfect fall day. As I shifted into the Winter months I had some struggles trudging through waist. deep snow for summits of Red Mountain and Finn Peak. I had a fun stretch where I put the car into the ditch and with much surprise I was able to extricate it with my trusty  snow shovel. I finished off the year marking off some scrub peaks off some of the quads in my area.


As a general feeling I am much pleased with the year and how it turned out. I eagerly look forward to this coming year and even though it is very much in it's infancy I feel very hopeful for another year of great summits and all the good feeling that go along with it.

E

South Cle Elum Ridge West 5040', 4665' 1.3.11

After a very hectic weekend I really needed to get out. I wasn't able to go out on Tuesday so today it was. I normally  don't like to go on Mondays because the thought of an early wake up time in never appealing after finishing my work week. I had expected my wife to get up early and when she didn't neither did I. I was hoping to do Arrowhead because I was waiting a stellar day like today to make sure I made the most of the views. With my much later than expected departure I didn't feel like I had the time for that so I looked for a back up plan. I have been spending a lot of time recently in Cle Elum so I thought I would give that another shot. I was hoping to do Hick's Butte and the West End of South Cle Elum Ridge both needed to be crossed of the quad.

More North Fork Wanderings 12.28.10

    With the new storm system making it's way onshore yesterday and dumping a large amount of snow over everything worthwhile I grew concerned about a safe choice. I only had a short day that ended up being pared down from that. I decided that I didn't have enough time to get far enough East to find snow conditions that I was comfortable with.  It was time for some dumpster diving in the North Fork of the Snoqualmie drainage. There are still many knob, knolls and bumps that I haven't climbed so I thought it wise to use this day for that endeavor. My wife came down with a cold so I got the kids up and let her sleep in. She was out and by the time she got up I had to shorten the list of victims. I was hoping to do both Mud Devil and Deep Devil both plays on the lakes they reside next to and the fact they are on the Devil's Slide Quad. On a previous trip I had done Black Devil so I knew the route. With my day being shortened I knew the 13+ miles of road walking would be all I could fit in if I was lucky. I parked at the last gate before the Wagoner Bridge and was off. There is plenty of active logging in the area so I kept the mutt on the leash for most of the day just to be safe. I made good time to the crossing of Deep Creek where I contemplated using my route that I used for Black Devil since it would be much shorter than using the road. I decided to keep on the road and shortly thereafter I reached the mainline. There were plenty of full logging trucks to be wary of. Shortly before Mud Lake I came to a rather large operation that was up and running. The smell of fresh cut trees filled the air as I made my way to my turn. Once reaching my spur I took a right and headed up. It felt good to finally making some elevation gain. Once I rounded to the East side of the ridge my goal came into view. I had nearly another 2 miles to go and was running low on time. I decided that I had enough. I had a hearty debate of which route to take home. I wanted to shorten the distance. It appeared I could traverse the clearcut underneath Black Devil but the South side looked brushy. In the end I decided to retrace my steps. The way out was long but I did give the legs a bit of a stretch. My shins didn't seem to like the walk on the hard road and are crying at me as I sit here. I think these bumps are better suited to a cross country ski when snow permits or a mountain bike when snow isn't present. I guess I could pony up the money and buy the gate keys and just drive to the top.

Approx 10 miles 3:20 car to car