Bryan called and his group just arrived at base camp, 13,800 ft. He said they had a “great” beef BBQ last night that was prepared by the porters. They were climbing strong so expect to have Christmas day off at the next (higher) camp site. He is doing well so far!

11 days and counting til I take off.

Here’s the day by day itinerary

Trip guided by Aventuras Patagonicas http://patagonicas.com/

New DSB Mountaineering logo. Thanks Nick!

In less than five weeks, I will be in Argentina doing a final gear check prior to heading out on a ball busting three week journey up Aconcagua. I think I have the majority of the gear I’ll need for the trip, but I’m sure I’ll impulse buy a few things here and there before I take off.

More for me than anything else, but here’s my current gear list for the trip:

Scarpa Inverno double plastic mountaineering boots w/ high altitude liner
Asolo GTX Fugitive hiking boots
Feathered Friends down booties
Outdoor Research Expedition Gaiters

Outdoor Research Mentor Jacket hard shell
Mountain Hardwear Syncrho soft shell
Mountain Hardwear Windstopper Tech Jacket
Patagonia Fleece Retro Jacket
Feathered Friends Icefall Parka
Feathered Friends Hyperion Jacket
Arc’Teryx expedition weight baselayer
Misc soft shell pullovers and fleece tops

First Ascent Igniter Primaloft pants
Mountain Hardwear hard shell pants
Mountain Hardwear soft shell pants

Outdoor Research Meteor Mitt
First Ascent Guide Gloves
Outdoor Research PL 150 Liner
Mountain Hardwear Medusa Mitt
Mountain Hardwear Fulcrum Gloves

Grivel G12 Crampons
Black Diamond Raven Ice Axe 65mm
Black Diamond Venom Ice Axe w/ hammer 57mm
Black Diamond Half Dome helmet
Black Diamond Momentum AL harness
Black Diamond Trail Compact trekking poles
Petzl Ascension Ascender (Left & Right)
Gregory Denali Pro pack 106L
Osprey Switch 36 (39L) pack
Petzl Headlamp
SOG Flash II Knife
Feathered Friends Ptarmigan -25F sleeping bag
Closed Cell foam pad
Therm-a-Rest ProLite Plus sleeping pad
North Face Base Camp Duffel bag to put everything in

That’s all the crap I get to lug around with me up and down the mountain, and through several airports. Should be good times.

Now it’s time to put all this junk to use and climb as much as I can for the next 4.5 weeks.

Giddeyup

B

Today we rocked Mt Rainier. If I barely make sense, bare with me, I’ve basically been awake for 40+hrs and have 14+hrs of climbing mixed into that somewhere.

First off, thanks to Nate, John, & JP at Alpine Ascents for helping to make a truly incredible climb possible. They were pretty killer guides/cooks/coaches and we were lucky to have them.

The itinerary that I posted earlier is pretty close to what we ended up doing. The only edits I’ll make are the lack of consideration I gave to getting any amount of sleep or specific snacks eaten while hiking.

Day 1 was just a long slog from the parking lot at the Paradise Visitors center (5,400 ft) up to Camp Muir (10,000 ft) which is not an all bad vertical gain, considering we’d be staying the night, and pushing for another 1,000 ft the next day. We got into camp about 4:00 and quickly set up shop, got a hot drink in the works and topped off our water bottles. Here, is where I’ll say that the guides really started to shine. They kicked the door down bearing gifts of food – burritos cooked from scratch. I gotta say that I was pretty impressed to be having a meal like that instead of freeze dried whale dick that I was expecting to have. Apparently I was a lumber jacker and sawed serious logs during the night.. I think the guys in the bunk below us were fit to be tide by about 6am.. Oh well, should have brought ear plugs – as suggested by the guides.

Day 2 starts off right with coffee, fresh blueberry pancakes, eggs and bacon. How bad can this deal be one might ask? After wrapping up from breakfast we had a day of “snow skills” which included things like self arrest (stopping yourself if you fall down a hill), the most efficient stepping techniques (who knew that the French would get something right?), crampon use, and avalanche beacon use. Pretty straight forward stuff that ideally you will not have to use. Fortunately, no one had to use any of the safety techniques taught, so that’s a bonus. After class we ascended over the Cowlitz glacier, through Cathedral Gap and up to Ingraham Flats.

On summit night we were supposed to go to bed at 6:00pm and get as much sleep as you could by midnight. I must have climbed that mountain and every possible obstacle or hazard a million times in my head from 6 – 12am. I may have gotten a collective 1-1.5hrs of sleep, but I’m not sure. Suffice it to say, adrenaline is what fueled the first half of the day.

I tried to power down some oatmeal to give me some energy even though I had little if any appetite. After putting on our layers of clothes, head lamps, crampons and roped up, we were off. Disappointment Cleaver was the first obstacle, and quite one at that with 1hr 45 minutes needed to get beyond it. To summarize – 2ft wide ledge on a glacier in many spots, walking over crevasses and using fixed lines to ensure stability when traversing really hairy spots on the trail. Apparently the deal behind Disappointment Cleaver was that original mountaineers believed this to be the summit, and to their incredible dismay when they reached the top of it, they still had a good 2.5-3hrs of climbing (in good conditions) left.

Our breaks were very short lived due to the extremely cold temperatures that were not helped with a ripping wind coming off the mountain causing all sorts of fun. Switch back, after switchback, and steep pitch, we were nearing the summit of Mt Rainier at about 4:45am. Unfortunately we didn’t get to cross the crater rim – something to do with -10F and 60mph+ winds ??? Lame… oh well, we turned around, for what was to be a long slog of descent ahead of us. The upside of not risking the crater rim is that I’m here to tell you about it, sunburn and all 🙂

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b187/besus-dsb/Mt%20Rainier%20May%202008/

Photo’s from Brian D.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Sponsor7Summits/MtRainier622008

At Camp Muir

Cracks in the glacier

More big cracks. See the tiny trail on top of it? That was the start of our day at 1am

I guess I’ll give a little context to my climb to Mt. Rainier (14,411/ft) next weekend.

I got roped into climbing Rainier by Brian D & Adroc last winter, and before I knew it, I was knee deep in climbing gear (not cheap by the way) and committed to a climb on the 31st of May 2008. The next logical question for anyone that has known me for any amount of time is: OK, What’s next?

Well, my friends, obviously the king shit peak of them all is the end game (Mt Everest – 29,035/ft for those keeping track). However, one does not go from climbing backyard mountains (Mt. Si, Tiger Mountain, Rattlesnake Ridge and Little Si) or even Mt Rainier straight to Chomolungma, unless however you want to go casters up before even reaching base-camp. The roadmap is about 5yrs long for Everest and includes other incredible accomplishments by themselves along the way.

Denali (20,320/ft), which by the way has more elevation gain from base camp to the summit than that of Everest (little known fact), is being targeted right now for about 2 yrs out. I think I’ll do the 8-day Denali prep class offered by Alpine Ascents next summer to make sure that I’m as dialed in as possible.

After Denali, the next logical step as far as I see it, is to tackle Cho-Oyu (26,906/ft) which is a peak reached from Tibet and is over 8000Meters. It gives you the chance to bag a massive peak without the exorbitant cost that goes along with doing Mt Everest with a bit lower risk as well.

If all goes well, on Cho-Oyu and Denali, then there is no reason not to go for the big daddy.

Given that by the time I’ll have done Everest (hopefully), I’ll have the biggest peaks out of the way . I’d love to do the 7 summits over the course of my life if time, money and health permits. I’m going to bag Mt Kosciusko (7,310) this summer while we are in Australia to take down the largest peak on the island. Technically, Australia is part of the continent of Oceania, and therefore the tallest mountain on that continent is in Papua and is named Puncak Jaya (16,024/ft).

Lastly, to address everyone that says: “Do you have a death wish?” “Do you just want to die?” “Why in the world would you do this?” “”

• First, get over it, I’m going.
• Second, you’re just jealous I have the balls to do something few others have. 🙂
• Mt Everest has had a death rate of 4.4% since 1990, and 9.30% overall. (179 deaths since 1959)
• Each year, 90 – 100 people die from bee stings. In two years, more people die from bees than have died on Everest in nearly 50 years.
• ‘Because it’s there – George Leigh Mallory 1923 http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/everest/game/

that’s all