More pics

Richard emailed me the pictures from his camera of the climb we did last saturday on Quandary's Cristo Couloir.

Early morning, and trying to wake up.

About 1/4 of the way up.

Having a Great time on the ice!

Richard, just before he headed down.

The rocky slope that Richard descended.


North Star mountain, along the contiential divide, from Richards high point.

The last three are from the parking area. In the middle of the picture, you can see the dam of Upper Blue Lake, where our climb actually began.
Happy Climbing!

A Great Couloir Climb

Cristo Couloir
Quandary Peak 14,265'
June 11, 2011
Jerry and Richard

It was 1130 pm on Friday night when I hit the road to Denver to meet up with Richard for this summer snow climb to the top of one of Colorado's most popular 14er hikes. After getting into Denver at 1am, we were soon on the road through a dark and calm night into the mountains. By 4am we were hiking up the road to the summer trail head. It might be summer in the plains, but up here at 11,000 feet, spring is still hanging on. The road to the trail head is still blocked by some really large snowfields.


The beginnings of another day reveal our objective as we reach the base of the couloir. The cool mountain air felt good. At the top of the couloir, the summit of Quandary awaits us. Quandary has been somewhat of a mountain of mystery to me. A winter ago, I attempted to climb her East Ridge route, only to be denied 3 times. It is time that she allows me to begin to surmount her steep slopes again, and hopefully stand on top!

It wasn't long before the morning sunlight began to light up our surroundings. Across from Quandary, to the south is North Star mountain, along the continental divide. Some clouds began to roll over the ridge, as the southwesterly wind began to pick up.

A quick pic of Richard on the Cristo Couloir. Please excuse my blurriness, at times the wind would gust and it was hard to keep a steady hand.



From the base, it appeared to be continuous snow, but this flatter section was devoid of snow and easy to hike up. Looking up, the remainder of the route is easy to follow.

Looking west, the sun is having a hard time shining on the mountains with the scattered cloud cover and the hazy and smokey skies caused by a massive forest fire down in Arizona.

A quick look east towards the continental divide. Colorado state hwy 9 can be seen below as it hairpins up towards Hoosier Pass, not seen.

A group of climbers above us on the Cristo, the summit is now hidden. The angle of the slope once again, becomes steeper.

Clouds began to cover most of the sky, and I was thankful, hoping they would slow the melting, but worried that they may bring some thunderstorms earlier than expected.

The true steepness of the couloir can be seen above. The snow was rock hard and hard to penetrate with our ice axes. Richard began to feel sick and light headed. He opted to traverse west, towards a grass and rock rib, and descend back to the valley floor. Judging by his symptoms, he was likely suffering from altitude sickness, in which retreat to a lower elevation is the only cure.

Have you ever wanted to climb a couloir? Here was my perspective of the route ahead.


And from the same place, a look below to upper Blue Lake, still mostly frozen over. We began our assault at the dam on the left side of the photo.


My left ankle began to hurt, and I began to worry if I was not going to make the summit, still another 1,000 vertical feet above me from this location. I decided to rest a little, as a group of 4 skiers passed me.

After a few minutes rest, I began climbing again. The slope continued to be in the 45 degree range, and the snow was firm. The climbing was fun, but very exhausting at this altitude of approximately 13,200 feet. As I climbed, it became apparent that if I was to continue up, then the descent would be difficult and long with my ankle in extreme pain. But, if I turned around and descended, it would very be either on steep, icy snow or on very loose and steep rock. Ultimately, while on Quandary peak, I was truly in a quandary. I weighed the pros and cons, and came to the decision that it would be best to descend and catch up with Richard. I was concerned about his condition and worried if he would be able to descend safely on his own. The snow was still really hard and firm. Below me were a series of small cliffs and quite a few large, Volkswagen sized, rocks. At the time, I thought it would be best to traverse east to a rocky rib and descend the cliffs, rather than take a chance on the bulletproof snow. It took some time to get back to some flatter ground as I began to catch up with Richard. I tried to yell at him, but with the windy conditions, he was unable to hear me. When I finally caught up with him, he was traversing a very steep couloir. At the base of the Cristo, there is a maze of cliffs and snow. The snow is a little less steep than the vertical cliffs. Route finding through the mess is difficult, and one can find himself in a pickle if the wrong route is taken. This was Richard's case.

The couloir in middle center, you can see Richard traversing over to avoid the vertical drop. I had taken a route to the left, and out of the picture. This pic and the one below were taken from the base of the climb. The dam is to the right, out of picture.

Above is a close up of what I like to call, Richard's Traverse. Notice the large boulders below him. A fall here would not be good!

The pictures below were taken at the base of the climb.




A final view of the Cristo Couloir and the summit of Quandary. The snowfield in front, was the route I took to get to the base. After a few tricky moves and a nice glissade, Richard was down at the base with me. Ahead of us, was a short 1/2 mile hike down the partially snow covered road to Richards car.


A look from where we parked, up towards the dam. Quandary lower slopes are on the right.

Can you find the Mountain Goats? These goats were traversing some cliffs above our parking area. It is really neat to see wildlife when you out in the woods!



This last pic was taken of Quandary, right side of photo, from the turnoff to the trail heads. The Cristo Couloir is on the right, the far one.

Quick Update

Just a quick update to keep her alive.

Almagre Mountain May 8th, 2010

May 2nd 2010 Snowstorm

The weather forecast for today was suppose to be 40% chance of thunderstorms and a high of 50F. But it is dumping snow right now, with about an inch on the ground so far! Wow! and it's May! Crazy weather! Well, it just thundered! I guess it's thunder snow!

Autoblocks

I don't have much time to write, but I'd like to share a write up from the American Alpine Institute concerning autoblocks. Click here for the link.

The Avalanche Encyclopedia

A great link to a site that gives basic definitions to the terminology involved in avalanches. The Avalanche Encyclopedia is one to bookmark. I have added it to my links.

Pemmican recipes

I been searching for a new source of food while in the backcountry. One that will neither melt, nor freeze into a concrete block. The old standbys, Cliff Bars and Power Bars, are getting real old, so I need something original. While reading stories of expeditions in the Himalayas, I came across countless examples where Pemmican was used as a staple. A quick google search revealed that the pemmican of today is not the same as yesterdays. Nowadays, Pemmican is a brand of beef jerky. As I continue to search for the pemmican of the new millennium, I will add them to this blog, so that everyone can share. The first one came from this site, EasyFunSchool. Pemmican, in it's purest form, is a very simple and often easy to make concoction. The most important ingredient has got to be beef or venison jerky. Store bought jerky is not recommended. The very thought of having fresh venison as the base, sends my taste buds into a frenzy. I will have to make deer hunting more of an effort next year. This year season has already come and gone. Below, is the recipe from the link above.

SUPPLIES/INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Jerky, either beef or venison
1 cup dried blueberries*
1 cup un-roasted sunflower seeds or crushed nuts of any kind
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 cup peanut butter

DIRECTIONS:

1. This version uses peanut butter rather than melted lard as the binding agent, which is much better suited to today’s tastes and need for conscious diets.
2. Grind [or pound] the dried meat to a mealy powder.
3. Add the dried berries and seeds or nuts.
4. Heat the honey, peanut butter until softened. Blend.
5. When cooled, store in a plastic bag in a cool dry place.

Supposedly this will keep for months, but it doesn’t last long at our house. If you can’t find or use dried blueberries, please feel free to use other dried fruits. You can used dried cranberries, raisins, applies, apricots, peaches, etc.


Also, I found a really good blog about surviving day to day. Here is the Daily Survival take on pemmican. It is a little long to paste here, so you'll just have to follow the link. Lastly, The Campfire has a nice write up with step by step pictures for those of us that have yet to learn to read!

You might be a mountain climber if....

You might be a Mountain Climber if...

1. You own a $75 dress suit and a $1000 Gore-Tex suit.
2. You have ever frozen your lips to an ice screw while blowing an ice plug at your partner.
3. You have ever used an ice axe to chop weeds in the garden.
4. You have more summit pictures than wedding pictures.
5. You've ever had icicles hanging from any part of your face.
6. You've ever fallen so far that you've run out of adrenaline before you ran out of rope.
7. You say "Namaste" instead of "Hello."
8. You like the smell of burning yak dung.
9. What you call cold is not on the thermometer scale.
10. When you hear the words "nose," "captain," or "aid," your hands start hurting and swelling.
11. You arrive at a climbing gym with stoppers and cams still in your bag.
12. You hear the name "Hillary" and think about Everest instead of the Secretary of State.
13. And finally, you understood all the previous lines. If you laughed at any of these lame lines, then you should definitely get back to work.

Missouri Mountain Oct 18th

My brother came up from Austin on his way to Billings Montana to buy a pick up truck. The first weekend he was here brought freezing temps and icy conditions around town, making normally a short hop from Lubbock into a very long day. He was more than willing to give up his rear wheel drive car for a 4wd truck. Bekah's birthday party was on saturday, the 17th, until noon, and after that we were free to go climbing. I wanted a relatively easy climb mixed with a backpack and camp in above tree line. The Elks were pretty snowed under, the Front Range climbs seemed a little too short, and the Sangres were a bit too far of a drive. And that left us with the Sawatch Range. We narrowed it down to either Harvard or Missouri. They both seemed like good choices.

We left town around 230pm after a stop at REI and Mountain Chalet for Jay to pick up some last minute supplies, like a new backpack, which by the way, is totally awesome! I need one of those now! We arrived at the Missouri Gulch trail head at about 5pm and were geared up and ready to hit the trail by 530pm. The sun had already set behind the mountains, as we began our race to beat darkness. It was a clear sky, with warming then normal temps. About half way up the trail, darkness took over and it was time to turn on the headlamps. We still had not reached snowline yet, but from the view at the parking lot, there was a lot of snow up there.

We made it to camp at 11,000 feet and found a place to pitch our tent on some soft snow, and sheltered from the relentless wind. Once dinner was ate, we crawled into our bags for a cozy night winter camping style.

The view north across the valley where my truck is parked.















The next morning, we woke up extremely late, which we found out later in the day, would prohibit us from making the summit. The alpenglow on Missouri was a
spectacular sight, especially with all the snow. This is the view from our campsite, out away from the short, stubby trees.

Mount Belford's Northwest shoulder, standard route. I climbed this route last August, in winter like conditions, ice and snow!
A closer view of Missouri, the summit is roughly in the middle, out of sight behind the ridge.

The route we intended to climb is starting to receive it's morning sunshine. It is behind the shoulder that is in the middle of the picture coming off of the large mountain on the right, still in the shadow of Belford.








A closer view of the sub peak along Missouri's North Ridge.

Jay and me geared up and ready for the climb, as we leave camp at roughly 830am; extremely late in the morning!
As we hike further up the basin, we begin to realize just how much snow is up there.
I am not too sure of the name of this sub-peak, but it has some interesting lines to climb.Jay, taking his turn of breaking trail in the snow. Missouri's impressive North Face is behind him. The trail would come and go, as we tried to follow it the best we could. The day before, a couple descended from Elkhead Pass, at the head of Missouri Gulch. We tried to follow their tracks, but they would often go through deep snow, which was difficult to climb up.







Me, with Missouri behind and Elkhead Pass behind a shoulder off of Belford on the left.













Another cool looking pic of Jay.














Another shot of me with a cool looking shoulder that would be fun to climb.

Contemplating a climb for another day.
The creek would appear and disappear under the snow. It was really cool to see the ice formations within the creek.

We made it to the sign for the turnoff to the standard route up Missouri, roughly a mile and half from camp. The sign is visible at the base of the cliffs in the foreground.
Jay crossing the creek on a snow bridge.
A closer view of Missouri's East Shoulder, the standard route is up the ramp to the left of the rocks.
At the turnoff to Elkhead pass, below the route up to the ridge. We decided to opt out of this climb for various reason. One being that it was really late in the day, roughly 1130am, and two, the snow was not stable. We noticed several avalanches high above on Missouri. The more we hiked up into the basin, the more slides we could see. none were large, but they all could be damaging to anyone caught in one.
Jay, looking up at a future climb, and wondering what the summit looks like.
Here is two more of a close up on the North Face Couloirs.

Given the time of day and the work involved in a retreat back to camp, we called it a day. Turning around from such a beautiful, but a dangerous place is always hard to do, but it must be done. The return to civilization begins. We made it back to camp by 130pm to an open tent. Apparently, we forgot to close up the tent before we set out earlier in the morning. Luckily, nothing was missing or chewed up. Arriving at my truck at 330pm was a sad, but a relief to be there. A bad day in the mountains is always better than a great day back in the real world. I look forward to many more climbs and boundless mountains. My next adventure will be over Halloween weekend, maybe I can act more like a true mountaineer rather than dressing up like one!