Mt Rainier story

Sometime in March 2010, I started training to climb Mt Rainier, a 14000+ highly glaciated peak. I hiked on the trails covered with snow where I would never have gone before, I hiked in rainy weather, and with 30lb packs.
Finally after lots of canceled plans, we started for Mt Rainier on 4th September. Weather predictions were not good, it was going to be cloudy and windy. It was already late in the season, so we just had to make the attempt.

Day 1:
Starting from Paradise, it was already cold and cloudy, but they assured us that clouds go away once you get up to Camp Muir @10,000 ft. So we packed our bags and started. Beginning was nice and easy, it was very different landscape from our previous hike to camp Muir when everything was covered in snow. We encountered some snow just before pebble creek, but nothing difficult to navigate. We refueled at Pebble Creek and got ready to get on snow. It was softer by now, so we did not need crampons. Grade got a bit steeper and going little slow here. As promised, we got glimpses of the peak among clouds and it got clearer and clearer as we got closer to Muir. Finally Muir hut was in view, though we knew its a long way away.

At Camp Muir, we took a short break and got ready to travel on the glacier beyond to Ingraham flats. We put on all the gear, crampons, harness and roped up. The first part to Ingraham flat is flat :). Soon we got to a rocky section on Cathedral rock. This was harder to climb with crampons as there were loose rocks and steeper grade. After the rocky sections comes a bit more trickier part, steeper and icier section to get up to glacier. I was quite tired by now and was having some problems in the couple of steep icy parts. Finally, we reached Ingraham flat, a flat area where we could camp.

It was really cold by now, and my hands and everything was freezing. I was almost out of energy and had to get inside a tent to warm up a bit. I could not help much with tent setup. Once the tents were setup, I just wanted to get in my sleeping bag and sleep. So that is what I did, after some food.

Day 2:
Today was sort of rest day here. We were going to do some self-arrest etc. training and then start the climb at mid-night. But the day started late and with bad news. Weather was not getting any better and it was expected to be very high winds and low temperatures at night. It was looking like we were not going to start our climb. So around 10:30am, it was decided that 2 rope teams should attempt the summit. Some of us were going to get left behind, and being slowest member, I volunteered. So 3 of us got ready to prepare food and water of rest of the 8 who were making an attempt. We knew it was late, wind was strong and they would have to go really fast. Rest of us were going to do some training, in the hope that we can start next day. But I knew from beginning that it was not going to happen.

We spent most of the day melting water for drinking, and preparing food. We did some training, but it was just cold and windy. Finally one of the teams returned from mid-way, it was too windy to go further. They headed down to Camp Muir and we waited in tents for the second team. The finally arrived around 9:00 after a successful summit and we all went to sleep.

Day 3:
As expected, we woke up to a proper winter storm. Snow was flying everywhere and it was a whiteout. Inches of snow had fallen overnight and everything left outside was buried. It was clear that we were not going to make summit attempt and top priority was to packup and get everyone back to Muir safely. So that's what we did, geared up again, wearing everything we brought, roped up and started back. It was interesting going down with so much fresh snow. Fortunately route was still marked and we could stay on trail. I think fresh snow made it easier to get down, especially in the rocky part where snow made for a bit more traction space for crampons. Finally other side of Cathedral rock it was completely different story, clear blue skies, calm winds. We reached Camp Muir with no problems. On the way I got to see crevasses up close.

At Camp Muir, we regrouped. We had no water and everyone was just dehydrated. So we boiled some water, drank a little. It was also time to get out of snow gear, crampons, ropes and everything. Mood was good, and somewhat excited to finally go back. I was of course disappointed to not be able to make summit attempt. But there will be other mountains! Going down from Camp Muir was interesting. Snow was fresh with a ice underneath. So it was skidding and slipping. We tried to glissade many times, some successful and some just too much effort. We saw the famous Muir whiteout were it was impossible to see anything. We stuck together to not get lost. Finally Pebble Creek, were we filled water and drank our fill, finally. From there on it was easy going down to Paradise.

Mailbox Peak

Elevation gain - 4000ft
Distance - 5.0 miles
Pack weight - 10 lbs
Time: 3hrs up, 2hrs down

Finally a check on Mailbox! I decided to do this hike today as it was warm, clear and dry. I decided to not take the pack as I was going with meetup and needed to maintain my speed. The hike starts out ok, but then wastes no time in becoming outright steep. Its literally cable line times 2. But I soon realized that I was lot more scared than I needed to be. It was steep, which is usually ok going up and I kept thinking about way down. First 1/3rd is dirt trail. After that it becomes full of roots and becomes a little confusing. Just follow the white diamonds. Roots help as they make it more of a stair master. After a long time you get out of the trees and reach a rocky section that can be scrambled, but I decided to take the trail. There is still about 30 - 40 min of hiking left after that. Towards the end its Bandera Mtn style scramble, a little less steep. This is where I found some tricky spots, especially going down.
In this last section there were great display of wild flowers, tiger lillies were just everywhere! And so were paint brushes. Finally reach the false peak and from there can see the mailbox which was awesome!
Coming down was easier than I had imagined. Couple of tricky spots in the beginning and then towards the end, rest was just slow careful stepping to not trip on roots!

Squire Creek Pass

Elevation gain - 2400ft
Distance - 6.5 miles
Pack weight - 10 lbs

The hike starts at Eight Mile trailhead. It used to be one-way hike with car shuttle, but part of the trail after Pass got washed out. It starts out quite steep, almost too steep for 2400ft hike. Mid-way we saw the 3'o clock rock and saw some climbers. After 3/4th of the way you get into meadows where the grade eases out. There were couple of interesting creek crossings and muddy patches. There are no real clear views on the way, its all in the forest. Only when you get to the pass you see 4-fingers and other mountains. In all I was not very impressed, too much work for such little reward.

Bandera Mountain

Elevation gain - 3300ft
Distance - 8 - 9 miles
Pack weight - 35 lbs

Gorgeous day to hike Bandera. Beargrass was in almost full bloom, and so were lot of other wild flowers. I carried ~30lbs for conditioning. The trail is easy, so that was not a problem. First glimpses of Rainier were great, but main attraction was definitely beargrass filled slopes. We first went to the lake which is about a mile from junction. It was not really impressive, probably good to sit and eat lunch but nothing else. Then we headed up the scramble section to the top of Bandera. Its much longer than it looks, there is bit of climbing even after the scramble section ends. But the scramble was definitely the best, wild flowers and bear grass everywhere. I saw so many tiger-lillies, it was just delightful!

http://picasaweb.google.com/tulika.agrawal/BanderaMtn2010#

Mt Si and Tiger West 3

5200 ft elevation gain and 14 miles, that was the hike for today, and just 40 min away from Kirkland. I took Saturday off because I thought my leg needed rest. It was rested today so decided to go for Si and was prepared to turn back in case it started hurting or anything. Started the hike with 30lb pack. Around 2 mile mark, it felt that I should get rid of some of the water and lighten my pack. So I did, and down to 25lbs.
Made it to top in about 2hrs with a light pack. I did not want to run down this time as that puts too much pressure on legs. Walked down slowly. I started at 8:48 and was back before 1:00.
While going up Si, I was thinking, not yet challenged enough, especially with light pack, so how about Tiger. I remember from days of training for full marathon, how I really needed to push myself beyond what I could do. A hike up Si was not going to do that. So next I went up Tiger West 3. No pack this time, but it was still tough. Last 1/2 mile was really hard. Luckily I saw some tiger lillies. That totally made my day. Tiger lillies on top of tiger mountain :) I did the last 1/2 mile from one flower to other.
The way back was fast as I just wanted to get in the car, go home and relax.

Adams Day 2

We headed out @8:00 am. First task was to gear up in the cold, put on crampons, helmet, ice axe etc. etc. That itself felt tiring. The day was perfectly clear and we could see all the way up to the false summit, straight way up. The slop is steep at places where we were learning to traverse by making our own switch backs. At the false summit it was very windy and cold. The real summit was looking like in a full all white-out. It was also very cold at this point and I needed to put on second layer which was impossible to do in the cold and wind and with cramponed shoes. I had chosen a full pants as extra layer instead of proper rain / wind breaker pants that have side chain. Now I know why they make those special pants with side chains so that they are easy to put on and off. Not surprising I tore part of the leg of the pants with crampons, I did not care. Finally were on and provided little relief from the cold. I almost did not want to go any further. We did not take much break, just headed straight up. The way from false summit to real was much better, longer traverses, but I was able to follow. It also felt less cold, less exposed.

Finally a summit, one quick summit photo and then heading back. It was all ok to false summit but from here the way to go down the steep slope is glisade! There were a couple of glisading tracks made, you are support to just sit in one of them and slide down. Me, terrified of sliding of any kind, even never went down the phisal-patti in school, did not know how to do it. The alternative of walking down the steep slope was also worse. Somehow skidding sliding, sometimes making my own path, I made it down. Phew.

Adams Day 1

Gear check, permits etc.
Drive to trail head
Lunch Counter, no crampons, not icy, grade was ok, feeling good.
Dug to create platform for tents
Too windy, melting snow, not feeling great, too cold I suppose even with all gear. Did not eat too much.

Adams Day 0

Drove to Beacon State Park, camped

Ecuador!

Can't believe that I am visiting Ecuador trip advisor forum, less than a year after I was exploring Kenya and Tanzania. This seems to be turning into year of foreign travel. If I can make New Zealand happen at end of the year, I would have visited all 6 continents in same year! (yes, Antarctica does not count!) Just booked my tickets, but there are still so many unknowns in the trip. Though if I did end up going and doing something even of not much hiking, it will not be a waste of $1000.

4th-of-july-creek

Today was a beautiful sunny day in Leavenworth. I headed for 4th-of-july-creek with meetup group. Its a not so easy hike, so I decided to not take heavy pack. I needed to keep pace with rest of the group. This hike starts out steep, gaining lot of elevation in first 3.5 miles. After that you enter the ghost forest and its quite flat from here. After a mile or so of ghost forest, you climb up to Icicle Ridge with lots of switchbacks. There is some snow towards the very end, but its melting fast and was not a problem at all. I did not need to use my stabilizers also.

I do not know why, but I was quite exhausted in the beginning. I just could not make my legs move any fast on the steep uphills. Had to dump some of the water in the middle to keep up with the group.

The views were just amazing. Clear blue skies. First we saw the Cashmere range, then Enchantments. The hill sides were full of wild-flowers rigth from start. At places we were literally switch-backing through fields of flowers, mostly purple lupines. We also spotted a few tiger littles and bunch of unknown purple, while and yellow flowers. There were also some pink wild roses. After 4 miles, you enter the ghost forst, its a bunch of tress burnt down in a forest fire a while ago, it looks creept and ghostly. When you reach the Icicle Ridge, there were views of North Cascades behind, enchantments and cashmere ranges in front.

Elevation gain - 4800ft
Distance - 11.5 miles
Time - 4:00 hrs up, 3hrs down
Pack weight - 20 lbs

http://picasaweb.google.com/tulika.agrawal/4thOfJulyCreek#

Rock'n'Roll Volunteer

A day of volunteering at Rock'n'Roll marathon expo! This is second year of Rock'n'Roll marathon in Seattle and they had 28000 runners. I chose not to run this year as I wanted to concentrate on hiking, plus I am not keen on running same course again. So I decided to volunteer this year. The Expo was less grand than last year's. There were more and more things for sale, than for give away. There was also an increasing number of energy bars and gels, things I have never heard of or seen at REI. They all tasted almost the same, the world as just become even more confusing!

Seeing the runners from other side of desk was interesting. Some were seasoned runners, just give me my packet and I will get out of here. Some were OMG, my first marathon, I have no idea what's happening. There were couple of people who (or their significant others) wanted to record every moment, even packet pickup. I think it was rude to take my picture handing the packet without asking me - bcoz I would have said no! Overall it was quite fun!

Mt Si - 32lb

Today was quite a sunny day and I decided its better to not waste it sitting in office. So I put the idea on meetup group to start the hike @2 and 3 other people joined. I am loving meetup! We started the hike @2:10. This must have been my first sunny Mt Si hike this year and I was glad for all the shade along the trail. View of Rainier and surrounding mountains was gorgeous! Temp up at peak was nice and warm and it was hard to leave and come down.

Pack weight - 32lb

Time up - 2hr 15min

Time down - 1hr 15min.

Tiger West #3

This weekend was totally miserable. Wanted to go to Bandera yesterday with meetup group, but just could not get out of rajai, tired and gloomy weather. Then got paged just when thinking of leaving, so good excuse to not go. Spent rest of the day sleeping. Today packed the backpack and lunch to do a Mt Si and then Tiger hike. It was raining on the way, lost interest and ended up just doing Tiger West. The trail is not as easy as I thought, or I was just struggling because of yesterday's comatose state. Hopefully sun will come out and will have better rest of the week.

Elevation gain - 2000ft
Distance - 6 miles
Time - 2:30 hrs
Pack weight - 30 lbs

Cable line

A quick hike up cable line today. Decided not to carry pack, the weekend and rest of week had been very tiring. Did not seem to have made any difference to timing!
Pack wt - 20lb

Lake 22

This was a easy hike, wanted to chillout before the weekly madness starts. Did not even carry a pack. The views were just great.

Data:
Elevation gain - 1200ft
Distance - 5.4 miles
Time - 4:00 hrs
Pack weight - 15 lbs

http://picasaweb.google.com/tulika.agrawal/Lake22#

Mt Washington - 3

ya, fine, call me crazy, stupid, why, what or whatever. I decided to go back to Mt Washington again this weekend. Last weekend was cloudy and I did not take heavy enough pack. This time I took 32 - 35lb pack. The view was as awesome as I had remembered on this clear day. This time went up the shorter 4 mile trail and came down the great wall trail.

Data:
Elevation gain - ~3400ft
Distance - ~10 miles
Time - 6:00 hrs
Pack weight - 32 - 35lb

http://picasaweb.google.com/tulika.agrawal/MtWashington#

Mt Washington - 2

Second trip to Mt Washington. The first one was a snowshoe, so this was different. I was carrying only about 25lb this time. We took the great wall trail up and regular trail down.

Data:
Elevation gain - ~3400ft
Distance - ~10 miles
Time - 6:30 hrs (a 40 min detour also)
Pack weight - 25lbs

At the first junction, we were suppose to make right, but we thought that we needed to go straight to go on the great wall trail. This trail led us to some sketchy trails which were clearly meant for climbers and not hikers. So we came back to the juction and followed the one on right. Soon we were at owl lookout point. Little bit ahead of that is second junction, the real one for Great Wall trail. So we took that one to summit. Its long and mostly flat. But there is a nice ridge walk with much better views that the shorter trail. Way back the shorter new trail. It was partly cloudy, some view of Rainier and surrounding, nothing as dramatic as what we saw last time.

Tiger Mtn Cable line

Yesterday we did the "short" after work hike to Tiger Mtn. Cable line to go up - 1 hr 13 min. I had a pack of about 20lbs. The trail is relentless climb of ~2000ft in 1.5 mile. I am beginning to find flat section on the trail now :). Back using the regular 3 mile trail - 50min.

Mt Si with 35lbs

or probably 40lbs. This was a long weekend, but weather had squashed all the plans. So I headed back to Mt Si. This time I opted to be brave and stuffed almost 35 lbs in my pack. I don't think I have ever carried more than 30lbs in any of my backpacking trips. And it totally showed. Even at the first mile, I was already tired and celebrating the quarter of way done. By mile 2, I was starting to doubt if I will make it, and I was playing with the idea of emptying half of the 5 gallon water. Then I told myself, the only difficult stretch is mile 2 - 2.5, rest is easy. So I went upto 2.5. I was doing 18 min per half-mile. After 2.5, there was no way I was going to give up. It actually became better after 3 mile, though the last section was getting really hard. I reached the peak in little under 2 & 1/2 hrs, what a disaster! I gave up at bottom of the rocky section, sat there and had my snack bar. It was strange that I did not see too many hikers with pack this time.
To make up for the shameful extra 20 min I took, I decided to hike down with same full pack. I really had to pace myself so as not to hurt my knees. Just one stop at the flat mid-way point and was down in well under 2hrs.

Mt Si with 30 lbs

When it is rainy and cloudy and alone, I hike Mt Si for timepass :) This time I carried a 30lb pack. There were about 200 people at the trailhead and a group of high school boy scout something. I usually don't mind crowded trails, and definitely not when I am hiking alone. Though this time it was a nuisance. I started just about the time the scout group started. First they wanted to run, and overtake me, then like usually teenagers, lost all energy and I had to pass them all one by one. It was rainy, and still there were all lot of annoying young people on the trail, who have no idea that they are suppose to give way to folks going up.
After 3 mile, I started seeing snow. It was actually snowing there. A couple of slushy patches slowed my down a little. I made it safely to the top, and it was great, I was not tired at all, the pack seemed fine and I made it in 2hr 10min. It was a proper snowfall at the top, nothing to see. The rocks were covered in snow, so I decided to not scramble with my pack. My hands were getting numb and I could not find the stupid gloves. Somehow found the cap when I was almost about the cry and warmed my hands one at a time, while almost running down to get to lower elevation.