Had an awesome day climbing to Muir and snowboarding down!
Will comment later...
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Camp Muir Adventure with Greg Jones
Another trip to Muir... really trying hard to build that base that will help get me to the top.
The original plan was to meetup with Reid Warner and friends from Microsoft, as well as Greg Jones and possibly some of his friends, and climb Mt St Helens. But as can so often happen, plans go sideways, and I found myself hiking to Camp Muir with my long time buddy Greg Jones. Buddy Reid... we need to connect soon for one of these!
A beautiful blue bird day up on Mount Rainer.
On our way up to Muir.
Pizza and Vitamin R at Camp Muir.
Greg and I had a blast glissading down... I had a garbage bag, and he had a strong piece of plastic. The snow was very slushy, but we managed to power through it for I'm sure over 1000 feet. One thing I will say is that it would have been a epic, tasty day to descend via a snowboard... next time! I saw a dozen or so people "skinning" and skiing down... no splitboarders though.
Greg has a lot more knowledge than I regarding mountain climbing, so it was cool to hang with him and listen/learn from his stories. It was also great just to chill with him and share such a successful, enjoyable trip.
Thanks Greg... let's not wait another ten years!
Another note, I saw a fox in the Paradise parking lot for my third time. And on the way home, saw a baby fox just outside of the den, right next to the road! What a cutie, but sure seemed a dangerous place to grow up! Too bad the video I took turned out too grainy.
It was a perfect weather day, if you like sun and warmth! I learned several things on this trip...
1. Sunscreen can lose it's effectiveness over time. Make sure you have new stuff when exposing yourself to such extreme sun and snow glare. Luckily I learned from someone else's mistake. You want to make sure you have lip gloss with some sunscreen protection. You want to make sure you get under your nose, ears, back of neck, back of legs, etc.
2. Greg mentioned hearing of people hiking with their mouths open and getting the roof of their mouths burned from the reflection of the snow.
3. Definitely bring two pairs of sunglasses or goggles in case one fails... on a sunny day like this, you would get snow blindness very quickly.
4. When it looks like a nice sunny day, pack shorts... I unzipped the sides of my snow pants, but it would have been nice to have been wearing shorts.
5. Bring something that is cotton to wipe eyes and sunglasses of sweat. If everything is wool or synthetic, it doesn't clean the sunglasses well.
This hike I was trying to accomplish a couple things:
1. Get to Muir carrying a 45 lbs pack.
Outcome... It was much harder than my previous hike, and I was much slower with the added weight, but I made it! It was a good sanity check... I still have a fair amount of conditioning to do before the summit attempt. I want my legs feeling stronger once I've reached Camp Muir. After some rest, food, water, etc. I felt much better, and the descent down was no problem.
2. Spend more than an hour in my new hiking boots, breaking them in.
Outcome... I spend about 2 1/2 hrs in the boots, which is the longest I've hike in them. Made about to the middle of the Muir snow field. I probably could have worn them to Camp Muir, as I was only feeling very mild hot spots, but I did not want to take a chance of blisters forming again. So I changed into my old reliables and had no problems with my feet after that. I will have to dial in those boots before the actual attempt, and I'm confident I can (I found out heel lift has more to do with space on the front of your ankle than the heal cup.)
That's it for now... until next time, cherish every day, and live life to the fullest!
-Dennis Lapchis
The original plan was to meetup with Reid Warner and friends from Microsoft, as well as Greg Jones and possibly some of his friends, and climb Mt St Helens. But as can so often happen, plans go sideways, and I found myself hiking to Camp Muir with my long time buddy Greg Jones. Buddy Reid... we need to connect soon for one of these!
A beautiful blue bird day up on Mount Rainer.
On our way up to Muir.
Pizza and Vitamin R at Camp Muir.
Greg and I had a blast glissading down... I had a garbage bag, and he had a strong piece of plastic. The snow was very slushy, but we managed to power through it for I'm sure over 1000 feet. One thing I will say is that it would have been a epic, tasty day to descend via a snowboard... next time! I saw a dozen or so people "skinning" and skiing down... no splitboarders though.
Greg has a lot more knowledge than I regarding mountain climbing, so it was cool to hang with him and listen/learn from his stories. It was also great just to chill with him and share such a successful, enjoyable trip.
Thanks Greg... let's not wait another ten years!
Another note, I saw a fox in the Paradise parking lot for my third time. And on the way home, saw a baby fox just outside of the den, right next to the road! What a cutie, but sure seemed a dangerous place to grow up! Too bad the video I took turned out too grainy.
1. Sunscreen can lose it's effectiveness over time. Make sure you have new stuff when exposing yourself to such extreme sun and snow glare. Luckily I learned from someone else's mistake. You want to make sure you have lip gloss with some sunscreen protection. You want to make sure you get under your nose, ears, back of neck, back of legs, etc.
2. Greg mentioned hearing of people hiking with their mouths open and getting the roof of their mouths burned from the reflection of the snow.
3. Definitely bring two pairs of sunglasses or goggles in case one fails... on a sunny day like this, you would get snow blindness very quickly.
4. When it looks like a nice sunny day, pack shorts... I unzipped the sides of my snow pants, but it would have been nice to have been wearing shorts.
5. Bring something that is cotton to wipe eyes and sunglasses of sweat. If everything is wool or synthetic, it doesn't clean the sunglasses well.
This hike I was trying to accomplish a couple things:
1. Get to Muir carrying a 45 lbs pack.
Outcome... It was much harder than my previous hike, and I was much slower with the added weight, but I made it! It was a good sanity check... I still have a fair amount of conditioning to do before the summit attempt. I want my legs feeling stronger once I've reached Camp Muir. After some rest, food, water, etc. I felt much better, and the descent down was no problem.
2. Spend more than an hour in my new hiking boots, breaking them in.
Outcome... I spend about 2 1/2 hrs in the boots, which is the longest I've hike in them. Made about to the middle of the Muir snow field. I probably could have worn them to Camp Muir, as I was only feeling very mild hot spots, but I did not want to take a chance of blisters forming again. So I changed into my old reliables and had no problems with my feet after that. I will have to dial in those boots before the actual attempt, and I'm confident I can (I found out heel lift has more to do with space on the front of your ankle than the heal cup.)
That's it for now... until next time, cherish every day, and live life to the fullest!
-Dennis Lapchis
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