Seattle, Denmark, London Trip, Summer 2003
June, 2003
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In June, 2003, I went on a trip to Seattle/Washington, Denmark,
and London. While in Seattle, I did some climbing. We did
West Ridge on Forbidden and Liberty Ridge on Rainier. We then
went up to Canada, but it kind of fell through there because of
the weather, and we didn't get to climb much.
To see more pictures from each leg of the trip, use the links below:
To see more pictures from each leg of the trip, use the links below:
Mt. Angeles
While staying with my good friend Susan in Port Townsend,
we took a day and went up to Hurricane Ridge. I climbed
Mt. Angeles, which I had tried, unsuccessfully, twice before.
(To my regret, I have no pictures of my wonderful time in
Port Townsend).
Liberty Ridge
Tom and I climbed Forbidden (W. Ridge) together, as a kind of
warmup. Then we hooked up with Ryan and the three of us climbed Liberty
Ridge on Mt. Rainier. That was a long time wish for me to accomplish. As
such desires often go, it was a bit of a disappointment -- a lot of
work, a long trudge, for a few hours of good climbing. Still,
it was fun, spectacular, and certainly challenging from a
physical perspective.
Canada, Bannf Area
Then Ryan and I drove through British Columbia, to Bannf
in the Rocky Mountains. We approached Mt. Louis in the hopes
of doing the Gmoser route, but the mountains were under heavy
clouds so we had to abandon that. We went down to the town
of Banff and did some lime-stone cragging instead. We had
been told that the rain doesn't make the limestone lose friction
much. This turned out to be true; we did get a few sprinkles
while climbing, but it didn't impact performance much.
Canada, Andromeda
After playing around at Banff, Ryan and I went up north
and found Tom at the campsite near Columbia Icefields.
The plan was to climb N. Face of Athabasca. Tom was
concerned about the snow, and I was concerned about the
weather, so we decided to go for plan B, the Skyladder
route on Andromeda. That is a slightly easier climb,
and I thought it would make bailing easier in case we
encountered weather. As it turned out we did. We made it
up to the base of the glacier above 8,000'. The whole
time, we hadn't been able to see the top of the mountain.
The route, which was visible right in front of us, went
in and out of the clouds. Weather seemed to have
deteriorated, and we decided to play around on the
seracs for a bit and turn around. Ryan and Tom stayed
at the campsite while I drove back by myself. On the
way, I drove through some hefty rain, and was glad
about our decision to not continue on the route.
Canada, Glacier Park
On the way back, I stopped at Glacier National Park.
That's Glacier Park in British Columbia, not Montana.
I did a hike up Mt. Abbott. There were great views to
Mt. Sir Donald. The hike wasn't that long, just over
ten miles roundtrip, but the snow made it a challenge
nonetheless. I had to use gaitors on my approach shoes,
something I hadn't tried before. It worked surprisingly
well. (I didn't want to hike the first half on dry trail
in my plastics and didn't have leather boots).
The Rest
That was it for adventure.I didn't take many pictures in Denmark. Here's one of my dad and I.
On my way back, I stopped in London for a couple of days. My friend Tom Hodgman graciously hosted me while I was there. They live in charming apartment in Woking, just outside London. Tom and I went to Stonehenge and Avebury for a day-outing. A fitting finish to an awesome trip.
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