Summit 2010

My Mountain Adventure


A few weeks ago a buddy of mine from Church asked if I'd like to try and climb Mt. Hood with him and another one of our friends. "Sure, why not" I said thinking three weeks would be sufficient to train to climb our little mountain. Follow as hilarity ensues...

Here are Troy and I before taking off. Notice I'm not gasping for air yet.

Here is Phil and I. Phil's the guy to blame thank for this gruesome awesome trip. We began in the Timberline Lodge parking lot (5900' elevation) at 4:00am.

This picture doesn't do justice to the steepness, which I knew would be getting worse, I just didn't realize how much worse. 

  Here is repair #1, putting duct tape on my heals to help prevent blisters. Believe it or not duct tape is highly effective and recommended by MANY outdoor enthusiasts.

Sunrise over the Palmer Glacier

Looking like some medieval fort, this is the top of the palmer chairlift at around 7800'.

A random rock outcropping just above 8300'.

The view to the top just above the Palmer. Funny how close it looks.

A frozen ridge-line and an idea of how much steeper things had gotten.

The view of the summit from below the Hogs Back (about 9000').

Looking down to White River Canyon (you can see the bridge for Hwy 35 cut across almost where the river disappears from view).

Looking towards the summit from the Hogs Back (about 10,400').

Looking to the last 800 feet. At this point I was taking between 5 and 15 steps before taking a minute to catch my breath. Having trained at around 1000' the three weeks previously the air up here was unbelievably thin. Taking too many steps caused me to get pretty light headed. Not good when trying not to slide down the side of a mountain into a boiling sulfur steam vent.

Just about to the top. Only about 150' to go.

An idea of how steep it was near the top.

The last push. From here it was up a small chute to the top.

Finally on the summit ridge. This is looking west towards Portland.

Looking down, mostly in disbelief that I made it.

ON THE SUMMIT!!! 

11,239 feet above sea level.

8 hours 15 minutes from parking lot to summit.

This one's for Robb.

St. Helens, Rainier, Adams in Washington

Looking west once more to the other end of the ridge-line.

Descent. Now this I could get used to. The only good thing about packing so much up, is letting it pull you back down (carefully of course).

This is one of those sulfur vents I was talking about earlier. From top to bottom this hole/hill is about 400 feet. The smell is other-worldly; sort of a rotten egg magnified to the level of an atomic bomb. Even when you don't breath through your nose you can still smell it. Try breathing this in when you're exhausted and trying to hold down food and water because you're exerting yourself so hard. 

From just below the Hogs Back. You can see the parking lot on the far left of the picture just above the tree line.

Happy to be back and still not sure I just climbed a mountain. 12 hours on the mountain.

A look back on our trip. Wow!

Eating Solids + 2 Teeth= 6 Months Old!!

My little man is half a year old! Cooper officially turned 6 months old on February 27th. He is 27.5 inches long and weighs 17 pounds. He can now sit up without support for even longer periods of time before he falls over. It makes bath time easier because he can stay sitting in his little tub. Cooper loves playing in the water too. He still loves to jump and stand up when he is being held. Cooper also loves to try to get his toes or his socks in his mouth. This month has had some adventures for our sweet little man. He got his first cold which was rough. He was all stuffed up and had quite the cough. None of us got much sleep while he was sick. We ended up at the doctor's office twice in one week. His cough got really bad so the doctor had us use a nebulizer with Cooper. It really helped him and we were all able to get some sleep. He is all better now. It was pretty amazing that through all the sickness he was still our smiley little boy. Cooper has also gotten his first teeth. He is getting his bottom front two teeth. They are almost all the way in. We just started solid food now that he is 6 months old. He still isn't sure what to think of or do with the rice cereal. The pictures below are his 6 month photos and some fun ones from the last month.

You can almost see his little teeth in this photo.

Trying to get his sock.

He loves making this face and then blowing. Silly baby!

First time having rice cereal.

Not really sure about the stuff.

Not sure how much he managed to actually eat. He wore most of it.

Jumped until he fell asleep.

Bath time fun! :)

Loves his daddy!

Playing with his binky.

Silly drooly baby!

Awwww!!

Trying to chew on daddy's nose.