The past week I spent climbing at Washington Pass in the North Cascades. It was great to have some time off from work to relax and reconnect with my personal climbing. WA Pass is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to, it seems strange, but every time I go to a new place in Washington I seem to think that it is amazing. I spent 7 days climbing nonstop and I came back to Ashford completely exhausted but rested and replenished at the same time, climbing is strange like that. I have a lot of great pictures, but my camera and computer are at a friends house in Seattle so I will post some later when I go to pick up my computer. I arrived back in Ashford around 2 am and had to work the next day. George actually called me on the way back and asked if I could go up early the next day and climb the mountain to do some work on the route, so I woke up and did route work all day then met up with the rest of my clients that night. So I was fairly tired to start the climb and it went down hill from there. We had an epic summit day; no one else stood on top of the mountain that day except for my crew if that tells you anything. But we all made it up safely and made it down with 10 fingers and toes which is always good, and everyone was really happy with the trip which is even better. I think I have around 15 summits so far for the summer. I have only 4 trips up Rainier left and I am excited that the summer is almost over, it has been good, but I am ready to do some of my own climbing and and am even more excited for my Rock Course in October.

Alan comes to visit

This week I climbed Rainier with my cousin Alan Keller and 2 of his friends. Alan came up for the weekend and it was nice to have some family out to visit. We had a great trip and everyone got to the top which was nice for them. Then we all went back to Seattle and stayed at his friends house. He has a really nice house and it was fun to spend some time in the big city. We went out on his boat for awhile and cruised around the Sound, we went golfing in the morning, and then I was able to run some much needed errands. The season is starting to slow down a little bit for me which is nice. I had this week off, then another week off from August 17-24, then I work 2 more trips and its off to Kansas City to see the family. I am going to the University of Washington for a preview day on the 17th to see what there masters in education program is all about. It should be interesting and a step in the right direction if I want to go back to school. But all is well here in Ashford, it has been a little rainy recently which is nice because it had been so dry and hot for a few weeks.

Mt. Stuart Mini Epic

Last week some friends and I decided o go climb Mt. Stuart. Stuart is in the North Cascades about 5 hours from Ashford, it is one of the largest pieces of granite in the world, it is 9,400 feet tall, and the North Ridge is one of the 50 classic climbs in North America. So I got down from a summit climb on Mt. Rainier, drove the 5 hours to the trailhead, slept for a few, then started the hike in to the base of the route. We planned on doing it in 2 days, with the first day consisting of the approach and about half of the rock climbing, then we were going to bivy on the rock and finish it the second day. But as it turns out our plans changed after climbing for about 5 hours because one of the guys ending being a fairly slow climber. My partner Kelly and I ended up waiting for a couple of hours for the second team to catch up and when they did we decided it was best for them to go down because the speed at which they were moving was just too slow for comfort and it would have been quite unsafe for them to continue. So we rappelled down the ridge, which is not an established rappel route, until about 1 in the morning. We then bivied at the base of the climb for a few hours, then got up to walk out. But the fun was not over, because when we woke one of my fellow guides Mike woke up with some crazy sickness. He was throwing up all night and could not hold down any food or water. So we had a 6 hour walk to the car through trees, boulders, streams and all other sorts of fun, and Mike could hardly stand up without falling over. So we half walked, half carried Mike out the entire way. Oh yea, did I mention that the mosquitoes in that area are the worst they have been in years because of the heat wave we have been having in the northwest. So it was hot, and I was getting destroyed by mosquitoes the whole way, we did not get to summit, and Mike ended up in the hospital, so all in all it was another successful mountain climbing adventure. Really though, the climbing was spectacular and I cannot wait to go back! Unfortunately I had time on that trip because I had to get back to work the next day to climb Rainier again. So needless to say, I was fairly tired on that trip, but I got everyone to the top and back down safely, so all is well.