Weekend Accomplishments
This was a watermark weekend in terms of personal accomplishments.
On Saturday, I summitted Granite Mountain at 5,629 ft., along with 3 other people who will be attempting a Mt. Rainier summit this summer. The hike started at about 1,800 ft., and the snowline was at just over 3,200. So a good 2,400 ft. was in increasingly deeper snow, and once we got above the treeline at about 4,000 ft., I regretted not having sunscreen and sunglasses. The sad part about it is that I had thought about it the night before, but forgot to actually pack the stuff in the morning. We got off to an early start (by our standards) by hitting the trailhead at 8 AM sharp. The avalanche forecast called for increasing danger the longer into the afternoon we went, since the sun was going to be working hard on the south slope where we would be. The hike without snow is supposed to take maybe 2.5 hours, but because of the deep snow, the fact we were carrying 40 lbs. in our packs to train for Rainier, and because we decided to take a route up the west ridge instead of going across the avalanche convergence zones in the bowl, it took us until 12:30 to reach the summit. Still, it was a great feeling to make it to our first summit of the season. We've had to turn around about 400-500 ft. from the top of every attempt we've made before this, for various reasons (time, darkness, worsening weather, dangerous conditions).
For the first time since we started hiking this season about 5-6 weeks ago, I felt very prepared. We all had ice axes, and two of us were also carrying shovels and radios. I felt good going up, even though it was tiring. All the waterproof stuff actually managed to keep the water out for once (though you can't really blame it too much since we've been hiking in some pretty awful conditions until this week). I still need to figure out how to get my gaiters really tight down at the bottom, because I get snow creeping up between the gaiter and my boot on the descent. Fortunately, I had another pair of socks and boots to change into once we got out of the snow.
It was a great feeling to be on top of the mountain on the clear day... we could see Mt. Rainier, some 150 miles off in the distance, looming, waiting. It tempered the exhilaration of reaching the top by reminding us of how much more we have to prepare in the coming months. But we could also see the Olympics way out west, past Puget Sound, the white peaks almost cloud-like. And we could also see Mt. Baker in the north, standing guard over all the "lesser" peaks we'll have to work on before we can even get there. All in all, a great day and a great hike. As the weather gets nicer, we'll have to start worrying about staying cool, rather than staying warm, which will be a nice change. But for now, it was a good workout in the snow, something we're going to have to get very used to, and something that is going to be harder to do once the snow at the lower elevations starts melting.
Having spent myself on the hike, I decided to take Sunday as a complete rest day. Didn't even leave the house. Instead, played Project Gotham Racing 3 and other video games all day with J. Managed to collect every single car in PGR3, so really at this point the only things left I care to accomplish with that game are to play a little online with friends, and to finish up the Gold Championship. I'm not even going to try Platinum, because it's just insane and painful.
Well, that's the weekend report. I'll try to keep updating the mountaineering stuff here, but I'm actually trying to work it into its own section once I reveal the redesigned jetlin.com... but we'll see.