Tactical Recon: Tim and Jade Visit Tahoma
Wednesday:
3:45 pm - Tim arrives at Helsing Junction Farm. Jade is packing boxes. Should we leave tonight? Seems like so much work. None of the safety gear Tim ordered arrived in Salem on time. Can we still go? We have to go shopping? Let's just j and go tomorrow.
4:15 pm - Jade finishes work. Lewd comments thrown at Tim from los vattos and las vattettes.
4:30 pm - No wait, let's go tonight. Any time that we're furthur away from that mountain than we should be, we are doing something wrong. Do we need a campsite?
5:00 pm - Packing frenzy.
6:30 pm - Olympia. Go to Alpine Experience. Purchase a picket, a sling, 2 'biners, a pair of glasses, fuel can, and Tim rents crampons. Tim's usual pair only fits on his plastic mountaineering boots, which are 2 sizes too big and cut his shins.
6:45 pm - Order large pizza at Old School, with minced garlic, olives, and broccoli on top. (Aside: we were kicked out of the resteraunt with like 4 other lasercavers weeks before, but that was pilot error, not to be reflected on the quality of the pizza at this rare beacon of pizzalegitimacy in the NW).
7:00 pm - Buy $46 USD of food supplies at the coop. 3 bars dark chocolate, two packages soy jerky, one avocado, one package savory baked tofu, bag of trail mix, bag of oatmeal, bottle of agave nectar, earl grey tea, three boxes of Annie's mac and cheese, one block sharp chedder, one block (???), 3 cookies. Appears that the cracker scene is rather unacceptable. Will pick up some crackers enroute to the peak.
7:30 pm - pick up 'za from Old School. Hit the road, put on Clipse, thick J, then eat the entire large.
8:45 pm - pick up crackers in Puyallup. One box Stoned Wheet Grins, one bag Sourdough Rye Crisps. J.
10:00 pm - Arrive at Mount Rainier National Park, White River Entrance. Enter. Find campsite. J. Sleep.
Thursday
9:00 am - Late wakeup. Go to ranger, sign climber's registry, get some info on the ice conditions, routes, and weather.
10:00 am - Pack, begin hiking. 4,500 ft.
1:00 pm - 7,000 ft. First step onto the Inter Glacier. Rope up, put on harnesses, helmets, and cramp em on.
3:00 pm - 8,000 ft. One of Tim's feet fall through while crossing a snow bridge over big crevasse. Pulls himself up; Jade instantly falls into tactical self-arrest/belay position. Confidence is good.
5:00 pm - 9,000 ft. Jumped over some sketchy 4 ft wide crevasses, made it to a very passable section on the Inter.
6:00 pm - Off the glacier. Onto the scree at the foot of Steamboat Prow. Jade's feet are cut up and blistered. There have been about 8 sunsets/sunrises so far with the ball of fire retreating and revealing itself from behind ridgelines.
7:00 pm - Top of Steamboat Prow, approx 10,000. How do we get down? Sketchy-ass scree slope, with some 4/5th class downclimbing with 50 lb packs on. Not very fun.
7:30 pm - Arrive at Camp Shurman, 9,500 ft. Set up tent, guy down the fly. A painfully beautiful dusk. The sun setting behind the mountain projects a shadow of Tahoma miles and miles away on the horizon. Jade falls asleep instantly. Not hungry. Tim cooks dinner (Tasty Bites rice and Dahl, 3 pkgs). Wakes up Jade to get jade. Look at the shadow!
Here is a panorama of the mountain from Camp Schurman. On the left, the jagged brutal rock is Little Tahoma peak. In the middle you can see the spit of scree on which camp is made. Click to visit the big size version.
8:30 pm - Tim hears a mouse outside and reacts too extremely, jostling Jade awake. Jade has slept off his headache, fatigue, and lack of appetite through Medical and sleep. Clean up and rejay, back to sleep.
Friday
10:00 am - What the fuck? How did we sleep in so much? So good. This day was decidedly untactical. Planned as the acclimatization day, so we just melted snow, organized gear, Jay Glacier, talked with folks at camp. There are two polar explorers up here. One is leading a trip across Antarctica to the South Pole via kite sleds. If you are interested, it is $60,000USD per team member. Lots of eating, pretty much nonstop. Man, we should really go walk the route, it is daytime. Yeah we should. We do not. Look for the circled human forms on Emmons glacier in the second picture down.
6:00 pm - bedtime.
Saturday
00:30 hrs - it's 12:30 am, lets wake up. Melt some snow, make a cuppa, organize the rope, and get ready.
03:30 hrs - Turns out it was actually not 12:30.
03:31 hrs - Begin tactical ascent. Damn anolog watches. Anyway, gear up and start heading up the Emmon's Glacier. Follow the footprints as best we can. Man we should have walked the route in daylight. No moon to speak of, save a sliver of orange glow from the east. The ice cracks under Tim's ice axe as he tests his footing. Morale is wavering. Basically, the route is just a spit of ice in the midst of a clusterfuck crevasse field.
04:00 hrs - Shit. Fuck. What's up man? I forgot my backpack. Jade forgot his backpack. Morale is crushed.
04:01 hrs - Back down the glacier, retrieve pack, head back up. Set a picket, prepare to cross a nasty crevasse. The ice is creaking and groaning under our feet. The picket may have poked through underneath, the way it resisted going in until popping through the snow with ease. The ice is terrible. No one climbs Rainier in the fall, because the ice is terrible and the route is gone.
04:15 hrs - Begin tactical retreat. We should have walked the route. Why didn't we? This is dangerous.
04:20 hrs - Jay Glacier.
04:35 hrs - Morale is soaring. Bed.
Saturday
10:00 am - Wake up. Oatmeal until we are sick.
11:00 am - Explore the Emmons glacier in the sun. What were we thinking? This mountain will always be here, maybe not in this form, however.
12:30 pm - Climb up Steamboat Prow. Tim almost dies, Jade does not. Lots of large rocks falling.
1:30 pm - Reach the top of the Inter glacier. Begin descent
4:00 pm - Bottom of the Inter glacier. Quick, fun descent. Finish out the hike through the wind/rain-swept glacial basin and head back to the car, then Olympia.
7:00 pm - Tim scores free rental at Alpine Experience 'cause he got two left footed crampons from them.
7:30 pm -Another large pizza at Old School. Then to Olympis Welfare Rights party, where two smaller pizzas were eaten. Also many desserts.
Best time.
Jade and Tim
3:45 pm - Tim arrives at Helsing Junction Farm. Jade is packing boxes. Should we leave tonight? Seems like so much work. None of the safety gear Tim ordered arrived in Salem on time. Can we still go? We have to go shopping? Let's just j and go tomorrow.
4:15 pm - Jade finishes work. Lewd comments thrown at Tim from los vattos and las vattettes.
4:30 pm - No wait, let's go tonight. Any time that we're furthur away from that mountain than we should be, we are doing something wrong. Do we need a campsite?
5:00 pm - Packing frenzy.
6:30 pm - Olympia. Go to Alpine Experience. Purchase a picket, a sling, 2 'biners, a pair of glasses, fuel can, and Tim rents crampons. Tim's usual pair only fits on his plastic mountaineering boots, which are 2 sizes too big and cut his shins.
6:45 pm - Order large pizza at Old School, with minced garlic, olives, and broccoli on top. (Aside: we were kicked out of the resteraunt with like 4 other lasercavers weeks before, but that was pilot error, not to be reflected on the quality of the pizza at this rare beacon of pizzalegitimacy in the NW).
7:00 pm - Buy $46 USD of food supplies at the coop. 3 bars dark chocolate, two packages soy jerky, one avocado, one package savory baked tofu, bag of trail mix, bag of oatmeal, bottle of agave nectar, earl grey tea, three boxes of Annie's mac and cheese, one block sharp chedder, one block (???), 3 cookies. Appears that the cracker scene is rather unacceptable. Will pick up some crackers enroute to the peak.
7:30 pm - pick up 'za from Old School. Hit the road, put on Clipse, thick J, then eat the entire large.
8:45 pm - pick up crackers in Puyallup. One box Stoned Wheet Grins, one bag Sourdough Rye Crisps. J.
10:00 pm - Arrive at Mount Rainier National Park, White River Entrance. Enter. Find campsite. J. Sleep.
Thursday
9:00 am - Late wakeup. Go to ranger, sign climber's registry, get some info on the ice conditions, routes, and weather.
10:00 am - Pack, begin hiking. 4,500 ft.
1:00 pm - 7,000 ft. First step onto the Inter Glacier. Rope up, put on harnesses, helmets, and cramp em on.
3:00 pm - 8,000 ft. One of Tim's feet fall through while crossing a snow bridge over big crevasse. Pulls himself up; Jade instantly falls into tactical self-arrest/belay position. Confidence is good.
5:00 pm - 9,000 ft. Jumped over some sketchy 4 ft wide crevasses, made it to a very passable section on the Inter.
6:00 pm - Off the glacier. Onto the scree at the foot of Steamboat Prow. Jade's feet are cut up and blistered. There have been about 8 sunsets/sunrises so far with the ball of fire retreating and revealing itself from behind ridgelines.
7:00 pm - Top of Steamboat Prow, approx 10,000. How do we get down? Sketchy-ass scree slope, with some 4/5th class downclimbing with 50 lb packs on. Not very fun.
7:30 pm - Arrive at Camp Shurman, 9,500 ft. Set up tent, guy down the fly. A painfully beautiful dusk. The sun setting behind the mountain projects a shadow of Tahoma miles and miles away on the horizon. Jade falls asleep instantly. Not hungry. Tim cooks dinner (Tasty Bites rice and Dahl, 3 pkgs). Wakes up Jade to get jade. Look at the shadow!
Here is a panorama of the mountain from Camp Schurman. On the left, the jagged brutal rock is Little Tahoma peak. In the middle you can see the spit of scree on which camp is made. Click to visit the big size version.
8:30 pm - Tim hears a mouse outside and reacts too extremely, jostling Jade awake. Jade has slept off his headache, fatigue, and lack of appetite through Medical and sleep. Clean up and rejay, back to sleep.
Friday
10:00 am - What the fuck? How did we sleep in so much? So good. This day was decidedly untactical. Planned as the acclimatization day, so we just melted snow, organized gear, Jay Glacier, talked with folks at camp. There are two polar explorers up here. One is leading a trip across Antarctica to the South Pole via kite sleds. If you are interested, it is $60,000USD per team member. Lots of eating, pretty much nonstop. Man, we should really go walk the route, it is daytime. Yeah we should. We do not. Look for the circled human forms on Emmons glacier in the second picture down.
6:00 pm - bedtime.
Saturday
00:30 hrs - it's 12:30 am, lets wake up. Melt some snow, make a cuppa, organize the rope, and get ready.
03:30 hrs - Turns out it was actually not 12:30.
03:31 hrs - Begin tactical ascent. Damn anolog watches. Anyway, gear up and start heading up the Emmon's Glacier. Follow the footprints as best we can. Man we should have walked the route in daylight. No moon to speak of, save a sliver of orange glow from the east. The ice cracks under Tim's ice axe as he tests his footing. Morale is wavering. Basically, the route is just a spit of ice in the midst of a clusterfuck crevasse field.
04:00 hrs - Shit. Fuck. What's up man? I forgot my backpack. Jade forgot his backpack. Morale is crushed.
04:01 hrs - Back down the glacier, retrieve pack, head back up. Set a picket, prepare to cross a nasty crevasse. The ice is creaking and groaning under our feet. The picket may have poked through underneath, the way it resisted going in until popping through the snow with ease. The ice is terrible. No one climbs Rainier in the fall, because the ice is terrible and the route is gone.
04:15 hrs - Begin tactical retreat. We should have walked the route. Why didn't we? This is dangerous.
04:20 hrs - Jay Glacier.
04:35 hrs - Morale is soaring. Bed.
Saturday
10:00 am - Wake up. Oatmeal until we are sick.
11:00 am - Explore the Emmons glacier in the sun. What were we thinking? This mountain will always be here, maybe not in this form, however.
12:30 pm - Climb up Steamboat Prow. Tim almost dies, Jade does not. Lots of large rocks falling.
1:30 pm - Reach the top of the Inter glacier. Begin descent
4:00 pm - Bottom of the Inter glacier. Quick, fun descent. Finish out the hike through the wind/rain-swept glacial basin and head back to the car, then Olympia.
7:00 pm - Tim scores free rental at Alpine Experience 'cause he got two left footed crampons from them.
7:30 pm -Another large pizza at Old School. Then to Olympis Welfare Rights party, where two smaller pizzas were eaten. Also many desserts.
Best time.
Jade and Tim
hecticfrenzy
computer: lost three keys in 3 days. spacebar broken.
news: jade's dvd will be printed soon
lasercave will become a business
powernap 7 inch
moving to portland
finishing job for real
farm fest was incredible, overwhelming
going to climb rainier with jade
picked lobster mushrooms and ate them
rode bike from salem to washington
going to new hampshire
going to utah
going to make mind over matter matrix mastery machine with jonah
news: jade's dvd will be printed soon
lasercave will become a business
powernap 7 inch
moving to portland
finishing job for real
farm fest was incredible, overwhelming
going to climb rainier with jade
picked lobster mushrooms and ate them
rode bike from salem to washington
going to new hampshire
going to utah
going to make mind over matter matrix mastery machine with jonah