did pretty much the entire Broken Arrow Trail system in Sedona this morning. Highly recommend for people looking for a-not-so-strenuous hike down there. Awesome views (especially Chicken Point) and you can check out the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which is an architectural gem was desperate to escape the winds up here and get some sun, so a nice morning take your significant other shopping at Tlaquepaque afterwards, place is so cool Spoiler
First Class 4 scramble in the books. Likely the easiest in the flatirons. Ditched the approach shoes for soft climbing shoes and it felt super easy.
did Mt Elden in Flagstaff this morning. Gonna see how my legs feel tonight and think about completing a Northern Arizona weekend trifecta tomorrow with the Grand Canyon love having this mountain right in town. 9299 feet at the top Spoiler
Leave for a 5-day glacier traverse thru North Cascades National Park on Tuesday AM. There's 3 of us, will be roped up and with crampons most of the time. Two summit attempts, both class 3/4. 4 days in the high alpine. Hell yes. Spoiler Weather looks immaculate. LFG
did the Blackett's Ridge Trail at Sabino Canyon Recreation Area in Coronado National Forest this morning and man that was a fun day hike. What a wonderful public resource Catalina Foothills neighborhood of Tucson is the epitome of real estate envy for me Spoiler
Let's see if this works Part 1 Spoiler What an adventure. I’ve done multi-day hikes in Nepal, Patagonia, Brazil, some amazing places. This maybe tops them all. The amount of glaciers, towering peaks, views and technical climbing was unreal. Third time attempting the traverse, got smoked out due to forest fires twice in the past 3-4 years. Met a guy at a brewery a few months back, found out he’s a professional mountain guide and has been wanting to try this route forever, with some summits. We tentatively agreed to a July 4 date, and as it drew closer we kept in touch and decided to go for it. Had a hiking friend from Chicago join for a team of 3. To be honest, it was a bit more than I bargained for. I thought it’d be a big hike with some snow and glacier travel mixed in. This was a FULL ON mountaineering route with both of our summits being class 4/low class 5 climbs. We were roped up on a glacier or roped up climbing for about 75% of the time. Crampons on for probably 90% of the route. Climbed two mountains and a total of 6 glaciers. Objectives were the Ptarmigan Traverse, a 40-ish mile high route through the North Cascades, with summit attempts of Mount Formidable (8,325’) and Dome Peak (8.852’). We accomplished everything, with full packs the entire time. At times it was brutal - probably the hardest, most adrenaline-fueled trip I’ve ever done. The sun’s reflection off snow and ice is brutal on your skin, so I always lather up my face. But my chapstick didn’t have SPF, so my lips are chapped to hell and back. Forgot to put sunscreen on the bottom of my nose, so that and the literal inside of my nostrils are sunburned. Worth it. I’ll be trying this one again. Lots more mountains along the route to climb. Day One Enter from Cascade Pass in North Cascades National Park, hike up 4 miles and about 2,000’ to one of the most popular trails in the park. When that trail ends, you get on snow and start climbing another 1,500 ft to a col, which is a fancy word for narrow mountain passes. First climb was to Cache Col, right in the middle of this pic: Leaving Cascade Pass: Going up, about to cross our first glacier: Had to do a little climbing at the top to get over:
Part 2 Spoiler Get over the pass, hike down to a small lake for first night. Had a bunch of goats rooting around all evening: Weather was immaculate, so we didn’t even set up a tent and just slept outside.
Part 3 Spoiler 10:30 PM at 6,100’ Day Two Goal was to summit Formidable, so first step was get to the base of Mount Formidable (the tallest peak in the background of the above photo), which was 3 miles and about 2,000’ of vert over another glacier. 5:00 AM wake up, 6:00 AM departure Cross second glacier: Mount Formidable, our objective, is the tallest mountain to the right here: Top of this col was amazing, about 7,250’
Part 4 Spoiler Right through the col, looking at the glacier we’ll be climbing on day 4: Traverse the other side of the mountain for an easier approach to Formidable. Had to go down this huge snow bank, which was maybe the scariest part of the whole fucking trip: Get down that, cross the snow field, and start climbing on a rope team. Mostly scrambling with some class 4 moves until you get to the knife-edge summit push
Part 5 Spoiler Get to the top, and it a true knife edge with more than a 1,000’ drop on each side. Huge exposure: Summit was sketchy as hell, so we only spent a little time up there. The guide belayed us down, then just skipped on down himself: This was not a very fun climb. Crazy exposure, the rock was loose as hell, and we had to move super slow. We summited, but it took us 7 hours from when we dropped out packs à summit à return. Got to the campsite at about 7:00 PM, so 13-hour day:
Part 6 Spoiler Day Three Huge day. No summits, but three cols and two big glaciers. About 8 miles and over 4,000’ of vert Steep snow climb to start: Up: Over the col, into another huge glacier: One of the most epic parts of the traverse:
Part 7 Spoiler Big crevasses at the top: Cross another col, then onto a fairly mild glacier for one more col: Crossing: Top of this col was, predictably, incredible:
Part 9 Spoiler Day Four Biggest day of the traverse. Climb and cross a huge glacier, then summit Dome Peak. 3:00 AM wake up, walking by 4:00. Wanted to cross the glacier, and summit Dome, while the ice was still firm and before it turns to slush. Only time we used our headlamps the entire trip. In the vert:
Part 10 Spoiler We get to the top of the col around 9:00 AM, about 4 hours of hiking + breaks. I’m fucking dead. No water, legs are shot. End up taking an hour break, melt some snow, eat my last breakfast (meant for tomorrow), have a coffee, and we trek to Dome: Follow the boot path to the left, then get on the other side and climb the snow to that col right below Dome: We start the scramble at about 12:30 – 8.5 hours after we started climbing. Running on fumes and adrenaline, but everyone got a second wind with how fucking wild it was Summit was insane:
Part 11 (!) Spoiler 360 views from 8,852’ Takes about 1.5 hours to hike down, grab our packs, and then another 2-3 hours to camp. Another 13+ hour day Last night’s camp: We were asleep by 8:00 PM, well before sunset Day Five Wake up at 5:00 AM, hiking at 6:00 AM. 14 miles and down 5,000 ft. Get to truck at 1:00 PM
God damn Nug im high and pounding a bag of cool ranch Doritos and that’s the coolest shit I’ve ever seen. Incredible.
My buddy and his wife that I hike the Cascades with take a massive, very expensive camera on their big trips. They got tired of the pics they were taking being nothing like what they were seeing in person. UL everything but haul that heavy ass camera/lens and love it.
Heading out to northern California for work and it is looking like I will have a weekend while there. Seems like Yosemite is only around 2:45 away from where I will be. Not sure yet if I will be able to get there Friday night and come back Sunday evening or if I will need to head there early Saturday morning and come back Sunday evening, but I'm excited to start planning either way. If anyone has any "must do's" for a weekend please share.
have gone down to Sedona after work the past couple days. Did the Broken Arrow Trail to Chicken Point and saw more deer than people which was nice. But no snakes which was what I was hoping for Spoiler
Fay Canyon Trail yesterday. Both of these are good options if you're with kids or just want something easy with good scenery Spoiler
Anyone done a Buffalo River canoe/camp trip? In the planning phase for a good trip to take with my son next summer.
views from atop Doe Mtn this afternoon, been a week of easy trails down there so hopefully gonna get up early enough tomorrow to do something more strenuous before it gets really hot Spoiler
I did it a few times with my FIL and his church’s men’s group. It’s a great trip but I don’t remember a lot of the details like where we put in / got out