Networks

Introduction

I'm from the West Coast (Seattle) and now attending a PhD program in the DC area, but missing the mountains terribly. It's really pretty ridiculous. I've been mountaineering for the past ten years, in the Cascades, Sierras, and Rockies.

Where would you like your next mountaineering adventure to be? Is it a daydream, or a firming-up plan?

Realistically, in the near future I'm just looking to get to Seneca some time this Fall. I hear it's pretty much where it's at for old school trad in this area. Longer term...I'm looking to get back to Seattle for next summer and completing the Torment-Forbidden traverse (attempted it unsuccessfully last month), among other alpine objectives.

Have you done any skiing in the backcountry -- if so, where?

I'm pretty new to skiing—it's the one mountain discipline I don't yet feel at least basically competent at. I've completed the Birthday Traverse (circumnavigating the Liberty Bell group in the Washington Cascades), but I was pretty much falling down the whole time. I would really like to become more experienced in this area.

Have you done any rock/ice climbing? (Not a pre-requisite, but helpful -- and you have to be willing to learn.)

Yes. Extensive multi-pitch trad leading experience. Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Indian Creek, Washington state crags like Index and Leavenworth, etc. Currently leading 5.9/10. Have trad rack. Moderate ice climbing experience in Banff, Washington state, Illinois (yes, there is ice climbing there!). Lead WI3. Currently, my ice gear is back in Seattle.

What is your most memorable summit? (Yes, they are all memorable... But we are interested in your mountaineering/technical experience, so let us know about that hard one!)

Mt. Stuart, via North Ridge (el. 9,000 ft, 5.9, 20 pitches, glacier travel, 3 days): After navigating the nerve-racking late season ice conditions on the Stuart Glacier, we had a minimalist, stove-less, planned bivy on the ridge approach gully. Day two say high winds and slower-than-expected simul-climbing, but the two 5.9 crux pitches went smoothly. We finished the ridge and were a short scramble to the true summit, but impending darkness impelled us to start searching for the descent couloir while we still had light. Failing to do so, we made an unplanned second bivy near the summit, subsisting on nominal water and little food. Our third day saw a descent of the far side of the peak to the delicious water of Ingalls Creek and a long circumnavigation of the mountain. Not the one-day ascent I still dream of completing, but it was the complete mountain package: forested approach, glacier-protected access to a ridge of exposed, hard ridge climbing on solid granite with a scenic descent.