Mt. Adams 9:44 PM

On the first weekend of this month, Melvin, Anne, and I took a trip out to Mt. Adams for a day hike to the summit. For the most part, Mt. Adams is done either as a 2-day summit or a day hike. We arrived at the trailhead campground Friday evening and tried to get as much shuteye as possible. An early alarm of 3:30 AM got us up and moving. The hike itself was pretty fun. We reached lunch counter at a pretty good clip(took about 2 hours). Lunch counter is a camp area for those pursuing a 2-day summit. Seeing all the tents was pretty sweet. We had enough daylight at this point to take off the headlamps we were wearing.

From lunch counter, we hit the real ascent through the snowfields. We had ice axes with us, but no crampons. This was my first time using an ice axe and Melvin gave me some short lessons in how I should use it. Very well appreciated, but its very tempting to do something ridiculous and stupid with something as cool looking as an ice axe. Very tempting, indeed....

It was another brutal 4 hours of climbing until we finally reached the summit. Upon reaching the Mt. Adams summit, we also reached another summit of emotional disappointment. The recent heat wave that blasted the Pacific NW has encapsulated all the emissions and smog from the surrounding areas. The views were less than spectacular with the brown smog clouding up Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens. The smog and haze completely obscured Mt. Hood and the range moving south(Jefferson and Sisters). But regardless, we made it to the top and were thankful for that.


We rushed down by glissading through most of the snow field. Unlike the nice plush soft glissading chutes at Mt. Rainier's Muir Snowfield, there were plenty of times when the chutes turned into hard rock and ice. It was painful at times and added to the let down of the summit. Glissading is one of the best rewards for doing an arduous climb up a snow field. This reward was snatched away and left us crying. Our frozen tears did nothing to comfort us.

I had borrowed my roommate's rollup sled to try down the chutes. Bad idea. I had zero control. The sled just goes way too fast and rockets out from under you. The sled goes one way, I go the other way, and unfortunately my ice axe finds itself somewhere else. I end up at Melvin's feet and look up at his disapproving face shaking left and right. Shame sets in. It still didn't stop me from having some fun with the ice axe though. The worst possible way to self-arrest is to do it like in "Cliffhanger". A power driven lunge and slamming the ice axe into the snow/ice like a hammer was too much fun.

Eventually we made it all the way down and now we can check Mt. Adams off of the list.

Mt. Rainier Is Less Fictional Than Rainier Wolfcastle 11:01 AM

This past 4th of July weekend, I had the privilege of doing some camping out in Mt. Rainier organized by Ian. Ian, Janel, Julien, Michelle, Melvin, Anne, Jason, and myself made the trip from Portland and met up with Kevin and Andy out in Seattle.

We went on a pretty sweet hike to Comet Falls. We were actually fooled for a little while. We reached a set of falls that we thought was Comet and spent a good amount of time there until Andy pointed us in the right direction. It was good to chill out by the water anyway. Melvin took the time to practice his modeling skills. Is that Melvin on a hike to Comet Falls or is it a budding young model in a remote tropic location doing an intense photo shoot? I can't tell.


Ian, Kevin, Andy, Michelle, Julien, and I took the extra adventure to really get to the bottom of Comet Falls. It was pretty intense watching the water crash into the rocks and see the snow/ice around it. We got pretty soaked from all the mist. Here's Kevin priming for a wet t-shirt contest at the falls....ok, maybe he's just enjoying the ambiance.


The next day, Melvin, Anne, and myself did a day hike up to Muir Camp on Rainier. Summitting Mt. Rainier is generally a 2-day affair. The first day is spent getting to Muir Camp(the base camp) before the really technical stuff starts. We ran into a sign saying only 2.7 miles to go. Melvin and I were like "oh shit" while Anne was more like "hooray!". The thing is we hadn't ascended all too much and with only 2.7 miles left, that could only mean some pretty steep stuff was up ahead. Every flatish step was another reminder of the impending doom ahead.

We reached the Muir Snowfield and that's when we really started to climb. I can't say I've ever hiked slower, but we did reach Muir Camp in the end. It was the 4th of July and Melvin's first as an american citizen, so he felt it was appropriate to bring an American flag.


The views all along the way were pretty amazing. We were fortunate to have a clear view of Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Hood.

As strenuous as it was to get up to Muir Camp, the reward was nearly as sweet. Glissading!


Once we were nearly down, we tapped into our inner thespian. Michelle has kindly named this "Mort d'Allen".


That night was pretty great. We feasted and had some fun with sparklers especially since it was Melvin's first 4th of July as an American. We wouldn't be obnoxious self-absorbed americans if we didn't have fireworks of some sort. Sparklers are probably my favorite low-key firework representing freedom, independence, and secession from the land of tea and crumpets. We really shouldn't have had our only non-american(Julien) write the "S" in USA....but he got it right the 2nd time around.


Good times. Good trip had by all.

Ashton Kutcher Shares My DSLR....Not My Sex Appeal 8:40 PM

As of a week ago, I became the proud owner of a Nikon D90. How is it, you ask? Basically, it's awesome. It is really odd, but the feeling is probably similar to being a wise and all-knowing sorcerer with a wand of power in his/her hand. Except, in my case, the wand is a camera.

It's sweet cause now I can take some pretty great pictures. They make the pictures that come out of a point and shoot camera look like a pile of fuzzy and out-of-focus monkey feces.

Here's one I took at the apartment...


I took it out of the house for the first time this weekend to take pictures at the farmers market. It was pretty cool since some color is starting to hit the farmers' goods. Here's Melvin with a gigantor zucchini...


I was also able to take my camera out on a sweet bike ride I went on with Ian and Janel. We went to Kelley Point Park. Kelley Point is where the Columbia and Willamette Rivers meet/split. It was a really cool park and a lot larger than I would've expected. What made it nice was that it wasn't a zoo or nothin'....a lot more quiet and peaceful than the usual popular waterfront areas.

Here's Ian and Janel brushing up on their map-reading skills at our lunch spot.


Ashton Kutcher is jealous.