More Blackberries

After breakfast we decided to take a walk around the large yard that Paddy calls home. It was so pretty and green and there was one of northwestern Oregon's light, misty rains sprinkling on us. But that didn't stop us from exploring the huge blackberry patch to find the fruit that Jim had missed earlier. For once I had my fill of fresh blackberries.
Of course you have to fight the birds and deer for them. But that is part of the fun.

Mt. Adams, South Climb

One group at the start of a good climb on Adams.



Chris on the steepest part of the climb.




More climbers heading up Widowmaker.




Mt. St. Helens and sunset as seen from our camp at 9,300'.




Climbers starting up the south face early in the morning.







The true summit as seen from the false summit. There were a lot of threatening clouds and even some wind-driven 1/4" hail, but it did not last long.



One group on the summit...



and another...



and another...



and another.




What a great climb. The road was clear, the weather was good and the snow was excellent. The guides were awesome, the sherpas were strong and the climbers were determined. What more could you ask for?

Evening Wood Lily, Ham Lake Burn Area

If you're thinking of taking a drive up the Gunflint Trail, be sure and check out the Magnetic Rock Hiking Trail. About a half-mile in along the trail, the Wood Lilies are blooming and there are quite a few of them! In my opinion they are one of the most beautiful flowers of the Northwoods. I loved the contrast between the colorful flowers, green grass and charred black ground that remained from the fire, which occurred in May 2007.

Abstract Ice at Hollow Rock

Okay, just in case anyone has been looking for a little more perspective on the last two ice shots I've posted, here is a wide-angle view of the wave pool that contained that eye-catching ice. Hollow Rock is in the background.

Owl's Clover

An owl's clover flower, Castilleja exserta, growing alongside a trail.

Whitethroat and Orange Tip and good morning viewing

A good mornings viewing with Whitethroat, Yellowhammer, Orange Tip, Large White and a Speckled wood.

Wacky Weather!

We all thought La Nina was going to give us a cold and wet winter with lots of snow and great skiing. Well, there have been some good days of skiing at Paradise, of course, in the last month, but there's been a lot of wild weather.

We're currently on the tail end of a 7" rain storm at Paradise. It was raining at times, clear up to 9000 feet. Fortunately, no major flooding damaged any roads (so far). We're planning on opening the road to Paradise today, after keeping it closed yesterday, due to avalanches (both snow, rock, and mud), flood, and rockfall potential.

Ranger Drew Bryenton dug a pit last week. Look for more full profiles from Drew. We'll post them here as well as on the NWAC website. Here's the January 11th, full profile / before all this rain.

Currently, the rain has switched to snow. It's sticking to the old rain surface pretty well. The new snow density is about 40%... Not good skiing, but good for stability.
There are some scheduled climbs this week. I hope to hear back from them so stay tuned.
~ 2 hours later: Just got back in from digging around for avalanche stability along the road to Paradise:
Date/Time: 1/17/ ~ 10:00amElevation: 5250Slope: 49degAspect: 170degTWeather: SnowingTemp: 32FLat: 46.781244Long: -121.743672
Results:
SST (Shovel Shear) - STE @ 35cm Q3 (Weaker waterlogged snow just collapsed).CT (Compression Test) - CTE(5) @ 35cm Q3 (Weak snow collapsing)ECT (Extended Collumn Test) - ECTX (No propogation across collumn / shovel only plowing down)RB (Rutschblock Test) - RB3 @ 35cm Q3 MB (Weaker snow collapse / no shear surface).