March was filled with Park Crew mornings. A trip West, and southwest for some climbing, biking, and hanging with friends. A quick visit to Silverton for our third year in a row for what may end up being the last turns of the season. BC closed, two weeks early, but with 100 days on the hill I feel I managed to make the most of this season. Thankful for this place, and the people that make it special.
Shut it down, watch it melt, fix what you can, fire it up, fix it again, get a truck stuck, get a sled stuck, bring in a ground set up, Happy New Year!, finally everything is running smoothly, shut it down. #snowmaking
Another humbling day at 14k.
@chasn_views and I spent Saturday morning hiking up the never ending staircase that is the northwest ridge of #24 Mt. Belford. This route is steep! After deciding we wouldn’t go after Oxford, @chasn_views suggested we do a bit of a lollipop and come down towards the saddle of Missouri. I think this saved both of our knees, and had better views. The fall colors were in full transition, the traffic was sparse, and the weather was perfect. Loved this trip into the alpine, and I’ll definitely be back to tag Oxford, and Missouri in the future.
Little over a week an ago I went back to 14k chasing Bierstadt, the sawtooth, to #23 Mount Blue Sky. It was a beautiful, quiet Monday, and I was joined about about 25 others on Bierstadt, but only one chased me into the sawtooth. Bierstadt is pretty straight forward, so I did my best to not burn too many matches after being at sea level for a week just one week prior. The sawtooth was engaging, but approachable, and like any scramble you can make it hard as you’d like. My journey to Blue Sky was a bit of slog, but was blessed to have the summit to myself. A rare thing in today’s world, but the road closing for repair helps. The decent down the gully was steep, but beautiful. Spitting you out into the bowl below the sawtooth, my favorite view of the day. Getting absolutely pitted in a sea of willows was the path home and I did it all just a minute over seven hours. Proud of this effort and the fact that I was able to sneak in another trip to 14k on a new to me peak.
Memories from the alps.
The last week of January this year, @camille.rohrlich and I flew to France to visit her family and ski Les 3 Vallées. The hospitality I experienced was overwhelming and the views in the alps, unmatched. Skiing/ riding “new to me” terrain is always exciting, but to be in a range of mountains with so much of the skiable terrain above tree-line was a unique experience for me. The infrastructure that makes up the world’s largest ski area had me constantly impressed. Can’t wait for the next international ski adventure with @camille.rohrlich , where should we go next?
A week in Olympic National Park.
Back in September Camille and I spent a week traveling around the Olympic Peninsula living out of a rented 4Runner.
Starting south in Kalaloch, we then continued north, visiting Ruby beach, inward to the Hoh Rainforest, finally we got to see the extraordinary views from Hurricane Ridge before spending our last night in Seattle were we got to visit with @matt0rich and @laurenvizzarich after checking out the city.
The PNW is an incredibly diverse place, and we can’t wait to get back that way and explore the Cascades!
