Exploring the backcountry and wilderness of the Western USA.
Travel using both feet and hands, whether scrambling unroped or technical climbing using rope and anchors.
In January 1990 I joined a guided climbing expedition to climb three ultra prominence Mexican volcanoes, Popocatepetl, Iztaccihuatl, and Orizaba. If successful, I would set personal bests for high altitude mountaineering and test myself for possible future mountaineering elsewhere.
This climbing expedition was organized by American Alpine Institute, a mountain guiding company based in Bellingham, Washington.
[Read more…] about Climbing Mexican Volcanoes 1990In July of 1999 I joined four friends and followed the Ptarmigan Traverse in the North Cascades National Park. My companions are Garry Stephenson, Keith Garlinghouse, Pam Otley, and Bill Saur, all members of the Chemeketans, a hiking and climbing club in Salem, Oregon. This was the first time any of us had taken this route. It was a memorable alpine adventure.
24 July 1999 (Saturday)
Garry Stephenson leaves his pickup at the Downey Creek Trailhead. I check out the weather forecasts and Ptarmigan Traverse trip reports at the Marblemount Ranger Station of the North Cascades National Park. It is drizzly at the Ranger Station, reportedly wet at Cascade Pass. We decide to wait out the weather until tomorrow.
[Read more…] about Ptarmigan Traverse 1999