Squamish

We went to Squamish for some trad fun, but didn't realize we were going at the same time as their annual Mountain Festival. The campgrounds were full, packed in tight with climbers staying awhile. So, we stayed at Paradise Valley Campground, which was quite pleasant but a bit out of the way. The other downside of being there at the time of the Festival was that the crags were crowded. But, we did enjoy a presentation by Sonnie Trotter and the Oh Canada Film night, a festival event.

Did some great, classic climbs: Cat Crack, Diedre on the Apron, Penny Lane, Pixie Corner...

Racking up for a 5.9 crack.

There was a film crew here, filming a SciFi series.

A unique climbing area, the Smoke Bluffs,

right in the middle of a neighborhood and with great views of the Chief and the bay.

Cat Crack, 5.7

Bright and early on Diedre (5.8) on the Apron.

A good view of Diedre from here...

(the white streak on the third hump)

Penny Lane, 5.9

Pixie Corner, 5.9

4th Party

We went to the top of the ski hill for our annual neighborhood/friend/family 4th party. Although it threatened rain all day, it only began to drip about midnight.

Mt. Baker

Okay, so I'm not convinced that I'm into mountaineering. I've never been all that interested in summiting big peaks, but finally, Brandon convinced me to give it a go on Mt. Baker.

The short write-up is that I didn't love it. In fact, I'm not sure I even remotely liked it.

First, we had to walk a mile carrying our skis on our shoulders b/c the road wasn't yet cleared up to the trailhead. I can't even walk through a ski resort parking lot with my skis on my shoulder without it being a seriously uncoordinated and near-injury effort.

Then, we skinned -sort of- in the forest. Mostly, we had to pick up our skis b/c there were a lot of exposed trees, logs, etc. And the 'snow' was more dirt than snow. Anyway, the rhythm of skinning never really got started.

Next, we had to up a gully. I HATE gullies! I slipped and slid, got nervous, and cursed.

So then, we took our skis off and boot-packed. It looked like we would just need to boot-pack a little ways, just to that top that you can see...and then as soon as you get to that top, you have to go further...and so on for quite some time.

These big black thunderhead rain clouds were chasing our tails the whole way. We finally arrived at a good camp site on the glacier. The wind howled while we set up the tent. It howled so hard as to make relaxing impossible.

Then we went to bed with the intent of getting up at 4am to summit. Hmmm...I HATE 4am, but anyway. At 4am, it was a complete downpour and the summit was shrouded in clouds. 5am, same story. 6am, 7am, same story. 8am, we packed up, had breakfast, and went down, leaving me wondering what was the point of all of this misery?!?

The first sign of trouble...carrying my skis right out of the truck!

Mt. Baker

Boot-packing...

Still boot-packing.

The summit is to our right, completely covered in clouds.

Mt. Rainier

Brandon skied up & down Mt. Rainier with a friend, Adam. They navigated around deep crevasses and collapsed snow bridges. They had great weather. As I write this post, he is back at Rainier, going up with a group of guys from work.

Winter 2007-2008

We had a record snowfall year this year, as many of you already know. Some days, Brandon spent over 8 hours snowblowing. It got so bad that we didn't have enough room for the snow in our drive/yard. Our first solution was to dig steps into the snow mounds and shovel snow off of the top into Brandon's truck bed...then we'd get rid of the snow in the vacant lot across the street. The next day, after several feet of snow dumped down, you couldn't tell we'd done any removal at all. Brandon got real creative moving the snow around. But finally, we had to pay to have about 30 yards of snow removed.

At one point, the snow was up to the apex of our roof...but, unfortunately, I didn't get any pics at that time (too busy moving the snow around!).

Anyway, here's a pic I took from the side of the house...remember, it's a 2-story house!

Our cat, Scrappy, LOVES the snow!!!