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.

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