Photograph of Mount Moffit in Alaska

Mount Moffit from Mount Hayes -

My rock climbing season got off to a good start this year until something called a thesis got in the way. As a result of my thesis I'm going to be working 24/7 this summer to get the thing done so that I can graduate. Of course that means that I won't be posting frequently this summer. Therefore, I've decided to throw up a photograph from a trip to Mount Hayes that Sean Bemis and I undertook in 2004.

The photo was taken from a spot called Levi's Bump, which is on the northeast ridge. The view looks out across the Trident Glacier to the east. That big peak is Mount Moffit, a truly impressive and challenging peak. After hiking in 30 miles and spending several days on the ridge at 10,000 feet we never made the summit. Frequent snows and rapidly changing weather conditions shut us down and sent us back early. We had to cross the Delta River at flood stage.

Ironically, that week was to be the final rain event of the summer. The summer of 2004 turned out to be a record fire season in interior Alaska. That summer we were forced to live in a thick cloud of smoke, because no matter which direction the wind was blowing from there was always a fire.

Matanuska Glacier Trip, 2005, Republished

Mount Marcus Baker Attempt, March 2005 -

During March of 2005 Sarah Masco, Andy Mahoney, Sean Bemis, and I decided to attempt to climb Mount Marcus Baker, the highest point in the Chugach Mountains. We knew that we would need a spell of good weather as the mountain had a reputation for being quite windy. Afterall, it is at the crest of the Chugach and is quite exposed to weather systems coming off of the Gulf of Alaska. Sean snapped the photograph at the top of the page from the window of an Alaska Airlines jet.

We began our trip from Mike Meekin's place just up the road from where Sarah was living in Chickaloon. High winds delayed us for two days, but once out we were greeted by beautiful scenery. Mike is a very skilled pilot, but his Super Cub is tiny. Therefore, we each had to be ferried in individually. I was the last to arrive just before sundown and was greeted by cold temperatures. Luckily, the others had the tents up and we went to work building a sturdy snow wall that turned out to be very much needed. That night the weather set in and we were grounded for three days. The storm deposited a lot of snow and we were forced to go outside about every hour or two to clear off the tents. Finally, on the final day of the storm the weather improved somewhat and we got out to dig a snowcave, which ended up being far more comfortable than two tents.

After one night in the snowcave the sun broke out and presented us with a choice. Should we move camp up the mountain to a an exposed plateau or should we head down glacier and attempt smaller peaks near the Scandinavian Glacier Hut? Given that we were wet and cold we decided to head for the hut.

The hut turned out to be a nice option. Besides giving us a chance to dry out it was stocked with books, magazines, and games, all of which turned out to be useful because nasty windy weather set in the following day. The day after proved to be beautiful, so we decided to make an attempt on Finland Peak. On a previous trip in 1998 I had stayed at this exact hut and climbed Norway Peak and Denmark Peak. I was eager to give Finland a shot. Plus Finland offered one of the nicest ski descents, as well as a summit ridge that featured some alpine ice climbing.

Photos from left to right:

View of Mt. Marcus Baker from the Matanuska Glacier, Finland Peak, and the Scandinavian Glacier Hut.

Photos from left to right:

Sarah climbing the final slopes to the summit of Finland Peak, the summit ridge of Finland Peak, group photo on the summit.

Mount Shasta -

Mount Shasta simply dominates northern California. When I was moving to Reno in August 2005 I drove Highway 97 through Central Oregon and noticed a massive white mountain off in the distance. That vantage was from north of Klammath Lake over 50 miles away. Mount Shasta is big, beautiful, and covered with real glaciers. It is truly impressive. Naturally, I wanted to climb the mountain as soon as possible.

The first opportunity came during New Years 2005/2006 when Sean Bemis, Chris "Cri" Boratenski, and myself planned a winter ski trip to the mountain. Chris's fiancee Julia joined us, as did Jarrod and Sam Decker. On this first trip we were weathered out in a big way. Several feet of snow fell on the mountain. Julia, Sam, and Jarrod had to leave early and ended up getting stuck on the drive down the mountain. Meanwhile, Sean, Cri, and myself were sitting by the heater in Sean's van drying out before returning to Horse Camp. We did end up enjoying some good skiing on that and the trip that followed in March, however, the summit continued to beckon.

With Sean off doing geology fieldwork over the summer, Cri and I planned a summit attempt of our own in June. This would be my third attempt and Cri's fourth. We met up in San Fran on a Friday and drove up to the mountain during the evening only to find the parking lot packed. At about 9:30 pm we showed up at Horse Camp, pitched our tent, cooked dinner, and prepared for the 1:00 am start. Both of us forgot cameras so we took photos with Cri's cell phone.

That morning we awoke to several other parties with loud voices and loud footsteps within a few feet of our tent. We quickly mobilized by strapping on the skis and heading up the mountain in the dark. Dawn hit as we were ascending the headwall of the Avalanche Gulch route with a hundred other people. We stashed the skis and continued up past the Red Bank and up Misery Hill. Eventually we reached the summit just in time for the clouds to clear out and the winds to die down. Fortunately for me I felt no effects of altitude on this climb as I had on Mt. Whitney. We took it easy on the summit and on the descent we even caught a brief snooze on the lee side of a rock bank.

The ski descent down the lower mountain was simply amazing. The snow was perfect powder. We were happy that we had brought the skis, but at the same time we were glad that we hadn't hauled our skis to the summit where the snow was boilerplate crust. Everything on this trip had worked out quite well.

Hopefully, some future trips to the mountain will include ascents of the West Face route and the north side routes. Shasta is the perfect halfway point for Sean, Cri, and myself, since Sean is living in Eugene, Cri in San Francisco, and I'm living in Reno.

-Tom

Link to SummitPost for route info:
http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/150188/mount-shasta.html

Alaska -

Since 1990 Alaska has been my home, and I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to grow up and live in such a spectacular place. I moved to Juneau in 1990 from Olympia, Washington when my Dad took on a new job. As a young Juneaite I had abundant opportunities to tramp about in the woods, hike the mountains, explore the glaciers, and enjoy the sound of salt water lapping upon pebbly beach. In 1997 I left Juneau to move to Fairbanks to go to college. There I met great friends and mountaineering became an important part of my life. I began my winter pursuits climbing in the Delta Range (the easter portion of the Alaska Range). Throughout the years I had opportunities to climb mountains in the Alaska Range, Chugach Range, and the Coast Range. I also lived in Glennallen, a small town outside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, for a year and a half while I worked my first job with the BLM. Throughout the years I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel throughout much of southeast, southcentral, and interior Alaska, as well as to the North Slope and the Bering and Chukchi Sea coasts.

In my previous entry I posted a few links to friends' webpages. In an effort to streamline things a bit I'm going to add those links to this journal entry in a more direct fashion:

Black Rapids Glacier 2002 - 130 miles southeast of Fairbanks (or 30 miles south of Delta Junction)

http://www.uoregon.edu/~sbemis/pages/blackrapids_1.html

Ruth Gorge Trip #2 - Denali National Park

http://www.uoregon.edu/~sbemis/pages/ruth2003.htm

Ice climbing in Valdez, Alaska

http://www.uoregon.edu/~sbemis/pages/valdez/valdez1.htm

Mount Hayes - 125 miles southeast of Fairbanks (or 25 miles south of Delta Junction)

http://www.uoregon.edu/~sbemis/pages/hayes_1.htm

Kesugi Ridge - Denali State Park

http://www.uoregon.edu/~sbemis/pages/kesugi.html

Mount Marcus Baker / Scandinavian Peaks - about 40 miles east of Anchorage

http://asuaf.org/~ftted/MMBclimb.htm

Enjoy!

-Tom

About Myself -

I'm a graduate student here at the University of Nevada Reno in the Department of Geography studying landscape ecology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). I've been living here in Reno for nearly a year now and thoroughly enjoying it, particularly the climbing and mountaineering opportunities that exist in the Sierra Nevada. This blog is intended as an online journal of my climbing and outdoor adventures. Also, I'm holding out some hope that it will encourage me to take more photographs of my adventures.

So, you may ask, what brought me to Reno. I had been living in Fairbanks, Alaska with my girlfriend, Holly Hemming, and working for the Bureau of Land Management as a contract employee doing GIS. I enjoyed my job, but at the same time we both had decided that it was time to further our careers and build our skills. In other words, we decided to go to graduate school. In looking for graduate programs we both decided to only consider universities that had both geography and speech pathology (Holly's career of choice) departments, and we only considered western states within the U.S. (minus California). After phoning several potential advisors and weighing my options Reno stood out above the rest. In addition to the good academic environment, and the good weather, the outdoor opportunities were a big attraction. So, here I am.

As you'll see soon my outdoor pursuits are varied, as are my interests. However, I one unifying theme stands out; the mountains are where my heart is. I enjoy all forms of climbing: big mountains, traditional rock climbing, sport climbing, ice climbing, backpacking, river rafting, trail running, etc. For starters, I'll point to a few websites of three of my closest friends: Sean Bemis, Nate Pamperin, and Andy Mahoney. Sean, in particular, has been photographing and documenting our adventures for a number of years. He has pictures of two trips to the Ruth Gorge in Denali National Park, Alaska, as well as the Black Rapids Glacier and Mt. Hayes, Alaska. He even has some good ice climbing pics from Valdez.

Sean Bemis - http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~sbemis/
Nate Pamperin - http://mercury.bio.uaf.edu/~nate_pamperin/index2.htm
Andy Mahoney - http://www.gi.alaska.edu/~mahoney/Research/Research.html

So without further ado I'm going to sign off. Expect to see journals from a trip last year to Mount Marcus Baker in the Chugach Range in Alaska as well as Mount Whitney from this past January and Mount Shasta this past May.

-Tom