Looking out the side window.

Mt. Disappointment, er, Garabaldi 5/21/06

Nick, Smudges and I tried Garabaldi again. All I can say is that we are getting closer to the summit each time. Today we were at around 2400 m when the conditions made it stupid to go any further. We dug a pit and waited to no avail. We couldn't tell where the horizon was due to low cloud and spindrift. A good time was had by all though and with 1 1/2 brits in the party there was lots of talk about trousers(pants), biscuits(cookies) and rucksacks(backpacks).
The road up was snow free until the Y branch before the bridge so the hike up was pretty short.

On top of Brohm ridge.

A jesus ray.

Nick and I brewing up.

Suiting up.

On top of Warren glacier.

A few crevasses are starting to appear.

Nick disappearing into the distance.

Smudge did good on the uphill without heel risers.

Nick.

Smudge.

My neck looks strangely elongated for some reason.

Grovelling in our hole waiting for the weather break that never came.

Some good corn snow lower down.

Smudge, crankin'it, olde skool.

Tele-skiers look like they're ballet dancers sometimes(haha).

We'll be back.

Lift skiing - Cypress Mtn. 4/29/06

Nick and I went skiing at Cypress Mtn., thanks for the free passes Jeremy. It was nice not to have to ski uphill for a change. We heard it was their last day of the season and conditions were really not too bad. We had fun and were home at a decent hour.

Mt.Garabaldi - 3rd try...

This is starting to get to me.
Another attempt, another failure.
But this time conditions were perfect, perfect, perfect. I had lots of energy, food, time. OK, the first two times we knew the weather conditions were poor or that we didn't have the gas to get up and down in the time. But today I had everything going my way and felt the summit via the North East face was mine. This is what I've been waiting for.
Nik, Jason and I tried this route last weekend but were put off by the weather. This time I went solo and packed for a high bivy. I hitched a ride up the snowmobilers clubhouse which saved me a ton of time and energy. Perfect. I skinned up and along the ridge making good time. Perfect.
As I crested the moraine, serac breakage was all around. It wasn't here last weekend or maybe it wasn't apparent with the low viz we had then. I looked past this to the route up the icefall slopes and had a strange feeling like "don't go up there". The temperature was very warm and forecast to get warmer, there was 8" of fresh snow from this weeks dump on top of an icy layer. I had not observed any avalanche activity on the way up and conditions felt very solid. The climb up the moraine and lower glacier was trouble free. I saw the snowmobilers were absolutely fearless of steep slopes with cornices above them, or maybe they are just naive of the danger.
I thought of my options: bivy in a safe place instead of trying to make it to the upper glacier today. But where? The top of the moraine where the usual bivy site is, I deemed way to close to the serac fall. 500 m away on the other side of the glacier is a another moraine but who know if a big chunk couldn't make it over there after accelerating down this side. Shit! Perfect weather. Lots of time. I'm not tired at all. Tomorrow is going to be another blu sky day.
Let me just take a look past this serac debris, at the snow slope that I need to climb up.
As soon as I moved, my preminition really kicked in " if you go up there today, you will die". It sounded inside my head as clearly as if someone next to me said it. Followed by. "you are solo, there is no one who can help you or go for help"
Ok then, off come the skins and down I go.
It was, one of the strangest and unique moments in my life.
Today, while taking my 10 mo. old daughter for a walk I looked up at the blue sky. And it was nice to see.
The mountain will still be there for me some other day.

I hitched a ride to the clubhouse with John.

At the start of Brohm ridge. The Pinnacle and moraine can be seen farther along.

Looking back on Brohm ridge, untracked except for mine.

Atwell on the right, Dalton Dome on the left. Garabaldi is behind DD.

Looking back at the pinnacle.

At the foot of the moraine.

The route to the upper glacier passes to the left of last serac. I decided to turn around here due to the unique preminition I felt.

I stayed at the edge and didn't venture further into the debris field.

A car sized chunk.

Dalton Dome icefall.

Well at least I was able to make some turns on the way down.

Self-portrait.

Garabaldi 4/15/06

Nick and I had plans to try a climb the North Face of Garabaldi after taking a look up there a few weeks ago. Jason came up from San Francisco to get in on the party. Too bad he was working in Chicago or something and had been up since 2 am that morning. We arrived at the trailhead at 5:30 pm.
The weather was not forecast to be any good but there was a small glimmer of hope it may break for a little while.
By 9:30 pm Jason was falling asleep on his feet so we stopped for the night and made a bivy pit near the top of Brohm ridge.
Morning saw it still snowing and low vis as we started up again. After a while the sun started to peek through and suddenly there was hardly a cloud around. Yippee! we scooted up the moraine and on the glacier when it just socked in again with quite strong winds. We decided that the energy level just wasn't there and turned around. Warren glacier was great to make some turns on in the new fluffy snow.

Jason, Nick and I. Jason has already polished off 1/4 of a chocolate cake I brought.

A quick stop at Timmys.

Jason. The snow line now starts at about the 5 km point on the road.

Up the road on fresh snow.

Quick Nick.

Special BC altitude compensation herb.

"I can't feel my face!"

"Dude, that magic herb evaporated my aches and pains"

Morning dawns on the bivy pit.

It's alive.

Me.

Past the tree line, heading for the ridge.

Nick making tracks.

As the visibilty improved, some interesting terrain featured appeared.

Starting the ridge, the weather is clearing up.