Silver Peak - May 31-June 1, 2014

This overnight outing was part of the Bushwhackers Glacier Course. But before I go into the details of our trip a little back story. I was all set and ready to leave super early Saturday morning. Friday night Derrick and I went out with some friends to celebrate a birthday. Everything seemed normal and we headed to bed at a decent hour. Some where around 4 am Derrick wakes me up and says his stomach hurts. I go through the usual; did you take some medicine, what are your symptoms, why don't you just rest and try to sleep, etc. I fall back asleep and think nothing of it. About an hour later, Derrick wakes me up again and says it really hurts. He decides to call a 24 hr nurse line. The woman on the phone told him it could possibly be his gal bladder or something else major and he should go to the ER immediately. Although, I didn't know that's what she said at the time. We have a conversation about options and Derrick insists that its probably nothing and I shouldn't miss my trip. He decides to call his sister who arrives soon after I leave and takes him to the ER.

Well, long story short, my hike was in cell range almost the entire time so I start receiving text messages informing me about everything happening at the ER. They rushed him in for a bunch of test, decided it was an appendicitis and prepped him for immediate surgery. Sure enough the surgery was over before we even reached our camp site. It was a crazy turn of events that escalated way quicker than anyone expected. Needless to say, had I known he was going to have surgery, I would have definitely bailed on the trip. I love the mountains, but I love Derrick more.

With that said, it was a pretty awesome trip. Obviously the first part was a little weird, but once I knew all was well and our friends were looking after him at home post surgery, I was able to relax a little and enjoy a pretty sweet area. 

We set up camp just below the large bowl below Silvers summit. We were in camp pretty early and spent time practicing our rope skills. It was a huge confidence booster to do team self arrests over and over and over and to be able to stop real falls. That evening, myself and some of team one headed up for a fun little scramble along the ridge to the summit for a lovely sunset and views over the cascades. The next day we walked through initial response and practiced setting anchors and belaying. All while enjoying a beautiful day of full sun above the clouds. 

Looking down at Team One's campsite

Nice bowl below the summit

Team One getting ready to go

Team self arrest

More practice

Snoqualmie Peak

Silver Peak

Some folks hanging out on the ridge above the bowl

The bowl and our camps

Mt. Rainier

Annette Lake down below

Summit sunset

More sunset

Sunset over our camp

Sunset glow on the peaks north of I90

Sunny camp Sunday morning

Our camp above the clouds

Peaks of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness

Wrong Turn, Three Brother Teanaway Loop - May 24-26, 2014

Sam, Sarah, Derrick and I decided to kick off the backpacking season with a weekend in the Teanaways. After Sarah and my last great adventure in the Teanaway, we were pretty excited for some peak bagging and ridge camping. This time we set our site on the Stafford Creek basin. We drove up Friday night to car camp and get an early start on the trip.

Lower Stafford Creek Basin

After several miles on the trail we eventually began to reach the upper basin and break through the tress and on to the snow. At Navaho Pass, Sarah and I ditched the guys and head up to Wrong Turn peak, a quick climb ridge climb up the saddle to the left. The views were splendid although not quite as stunning as some of the neighboring peaks.

Snow covered Earl

Stuart

Panorama from Wrong Turn

Navaho from Wrong Turn

Back at the saddle we regrouped and set our sites on Navaho's south eastern ridge. We originally thought we could take the trail to the saddle, but struggled to find the trail even with relatively low snow. So instead we began a long, steep, scree-filled traverse. After getting completely sick of traversing, we found a less steep slope and headed up the scree to gain the ridge. It was a rather unpleasant climb that put us at our destination a bit later than we had intended. We quickly made a pizza dinner and set up camp. Unfortunately, Sam was suffering from some stomach issues and Derrick was at his limit of off trail route finding adventures. But Sarah and I were in high spirits and enjoyed a lovely sunset over a special landscape.

Sun setting on Earl

Rainier

The next morning Sarah and I set out for Three Brothers. The weather was starting to take a turn but we decided to go for it anyways. We found a section of the ridge without cornices and dropped down into the bowl on Navaho's southeast face. From there we fairly easily connected with the Three Brother's saddle and proceeded up the ridge. By time we made it to the top the wind, rain and snow had picked up and the views were lacking. We made quick time back to the bowl and then up the snowy slope back to camp.

Busted up cornices east of Navaho

Snowy side of Navaho's ridge

Miller

Three Brothers

At camp, we met up with the guys and began descending the ridge towards the saddle between Navaho and Freedom. Once in the saddle we debated whether or not we were going to go for Freedom. The guys were not motivated to climb anything in the deteriorating weather and Sarah and I decided we were content with our two summits. We then began to descend from the saddle back down to the Stafford Creek trail. The descent was fairly straight forward. We stayed on a slight ridge to the left of a gully. Once on the trail we made good time back to the car.

Clouds over Earl

Clouds blasting Freedom

Three Brothers

Navaho and Three Brothers

Derrick at our ridge campsite

One more look at Earl

Stats:

2 days

5,984 ft of elevation

14.2 miles

Stegasaurus Butte - 2/8/14

Sarah and I were feeling the need for a winter leg stretcher and decided to check out Stegosaurus Butte near the Pratt River trailhead. This was a pretty straight forward ridge climb up to a high point. There was some snow, but we didn't need our axes. Tucker came along for one of his first off trail adventures. 

Garfield 

Stats:

1,100 feet of elevation

1.4 miles round trip

The Enchantments - Round 2

Derrick and I managed to scored Enchantments core zone permits for six, but unfortunately none of our friends could make it, so we set off just the two of us. Having done this route before, we had a better idea of what to expect and made it up Asgard Pass without much issue.

Ready to go

Blue water of Colchuck

Culchuck Peak

Dragon's tail and the lake

Taking a breather on Asgard

This sign may bit a tad bit misleading

Once in the basin we wandered for quite a while trying to find the ideal campsite. Eventually we headed down the trail towards Perfection Lake. We thought we could take a short cut to Crystal Lake by skirting around the west side of Perfection Lake. It was going well until we were just about 20 feet above the lake when we started to get cliffed out. Maybe with fresh legs and no packs we could have made the final descent. But the steep drop down was a little too much after a long day. We headed back up to the ridge above Perfection, found a pretty sweet site and watched a lovely sunset.

We got cliffed out just near the center of the photo

The next day we headed back up the trail a bit to climb Little Annapurna. It was a fun straight forward scramble up big solid rock. Once on top we were treated to stunning views and lounged for a while taking it all in. Afterwards we headed back down, grabbed our packs and went to check out Crystal Lake.

Inspiration Lake

Looking towards Little Annapurna

The "stone henge" of Little Annapurna

Needle-like spires down below

The Teanaways

Derrick on top of the world

A beautiful basin

Good times

Looking back at witches tower

Dropping back down to Inspiration

Crystal Lake

Sprite Lake

Leprechaun Lake

After relaxing there for a while, we headed to one of our favorite campsites near Lake Vivian. We enjoyed the site, went for a brief swim and then watched some ominous clouds begin to roll in. As it begin to get dark the thunder and lightening began. It was near enough to be impressive, but not so close that we were worried.

Lake Vivian

Derrick's tent trench

Waterfall campsite

The next morning we had planned to climb McClellan, but lowering clouds started to deter us. We decided to have a relaxed morning, explore Temple Lake and then go spend a night in Leavenworth.

Morning mist over the lake

Sun and clouds

Clouds hanging out in the basin

Looking down at Lake Vivian

The after shot

Stats for the trip:

Day 1: 6,611 ft in 10.3 miles

Day 2: 2,173 ft in 5.1 miles 

Day 3: 1,394 ft in 9.5 miles (6,857 ft descent)

Grand Total: 8,859 ft in 22 miles