In hindsight not such a great idea mainly because of freaking winds on summit and late moon rise but nevertheless it was a great learning experience and an adventure which i do not regret one single bit and most likely would do it again or maybe not we shall see.

I setup a Facebook event and was expecting few people to join me but no one did. I was on the fence about doing this as a solo backpacking trip and I have to say it took some courage on my part to get going.

I wanted to take the bear canyon trail which is only 6 miles but you gain 6000ft of elevation so it wasn’t going to be easy, i know what was i thinking. Initially i had company if I left early, a friend of mine was planning on doing it as a day hike but after we found that a meetup group had the same hike planned n were leaving earlier I decided to fall back to the original plan of leaving late and it turned out to be a good thing.

My car tire pressure was getting low for a while now and it happened again so as I was leaving I decided to get it checked out. Sure enough there was a nail in there and I was glad that I got it fixed before hitting the freeway.

I reached baldy village at around 10.45 and after asking about permit and conditions at the ranger station I decided not to carry my shovel. I didn’t need a permit but I was warned about the cold, the rangers forgot to mention the wind.

As soon as I started my hike around 11, I was sure that with a 53lbs backpack it would be a challenge. I wasn’t sure at this point if I would be able to make it to the summit and did think about returning but I told myself lets just get to bear flats and take it from there.

It also takes me a while to get into rhythm while hiking so I just hiked at my own steady pace. I got to bear flats in an hour which was pleasantly surprising so I just decided to continue and I knew one step at a time I would make it to the summit.

It took me about an hour to get to bear flats and i was really happy about it, i just continued on after a brief break and decided that i would take miniscule breaks on the trail instead of a big one after an hour. It also helped that i was carrying my camelback so water access was easy.

Met couple of hikers on their way down and they told me the snow levels were pretty high around 9000 ft so that was my marker to put on the crampons. I had also intended to reach the summit before sunset since the moon rise was around 9 and it made sense to setup camp before sunset.

It was a slow trek up and i wanted to stop couple of times to take pictures but didn’t feel like it, i thought i would take them on the way down but that didn’t happen either so lesson learnt.

I was getting closer to the main ridge and couple of guys on their way down warned me about couple of feet of snow further up, i wasn’t too worried since i had my crampons and gaiters.

It turned out that there wasn’t as much snow as those guys told me and i didn’t feel the need to put on my crampons. i completed the traverse to get on the final mountain to get to summit and took a break for the final push.

As i was going along, i thought all this while to myself that the conditions are summer like. I lugged all this gear for no reason, i could have used my 3 season tent, didn’t need any crampons or gaiters but later i found out how wrong i was.

As i got closer to the summit, it was getting little tricky staying on the right path. I was following some footsteps but they went little higher up and the route i know goes little lower and merges with the manker flats route before ending at the top.

After little bit of scrambling and looking around i managed to find the summit and decided to pitch my tent immediately. It took me 7 grueling hours to get there, i would have liked to do it in 6 but i was happy with the time considering that i doubts very early on. Luckily it wasn’t windy so pitching the tent was pretty easy but at the same time i made sure that i made dead mans with the snow stakes. At one time i did consider not putting on the rainfly which would have been a very very bad decision.

I took some pictures of the sunset and between the time moon would rise i was planning on cooking dinner. I wasn’t expecting any company but a lone hiker showed up around sunset, he wasn’t carrying camping gear just wanted to do a night hike. After a brief chat, he left and i was left all alone again.

As i was making dinner the wind picked up quite a bit, initially i didn’t think too much about it and went about my merry way eating dinner and heating water. I would have liked to have some hot chocolate but i forgot to bring any but i certainly was looking forward to having chai tea in the morning.

I was happy taking some night pics while waiting moon to rise but it was definitely testing my patience. I was done trying to figure out what else to take pics of and the wind wasn’t helping either.

I was almost about to call it a night but i saw a fiery red thing in the horizon, i got really excited and indeed it was the moon rising. It rose pretty quickly but the red glow around it was really amazing. All this effort was totally worth it for that couple of minutes.

I didn’t want to spend too much time outside anymore and immediately crashed in my tent. The sound of the wind felt like rain drops falling and it was little weird. I didn’t try to think too much about it and just tried to go to sleep.

My sleeping bag really kept me comfortable throughout the night but whenever i woke up i could hear the wind howling outside and i was like, glad i didn’t bring my 3 season tent and decided to really bury those snow stakes.

I woke up at 6 am and the wind was really ripping, i wasn’t sure if the tent would hold or not at certain times but at the same time before going to bed i put some extra rocks on top of every stake just to be extra safe.

I was hoping that the wind would die down and give me some time to make my breakfast and tea. i waited patiently for an hour but no respite, tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t and finally at around 8.15 i had enough of it.

i didn’t have motivation to fight the wind to make some tea and breakfast and had 2 liters of water from last night which would be enough for the hike down. So i decided to shake off my laziness and start packing.

It was going to interesting with the wind trying to take down the tent and i had to come up with a strategy to make sure it didn’t go flying down the hill. I decided to take down the tarp first as it was obvious but didn’t take everything out of the tent and made sure it was weighted. The poles came in next and finally the tent, it wasn’t as bad as i thought it would be but i still had to be careful.

On my way down since the snow was little firm i decided to use my crampons for a bit, i also met couple of guys who were planning on climbing denali this year. One of them wanted to hike in ladakh and it was nice to talk to him about it.

The crampons didn’t last too long and i decided to take them off since the snow was getting softer and there were footsteps for me to follow in. I had blisters on my heels from the hike up and they were starting to bother me.

Getting to the ridge was easy and i did manage to do it at a decent pace but then i felt blisters happening on my toes as well which wasn’t a good thing. I had moleskin on me but it usually doesn’t do anything at all, i forgot to tape my feet before the hike and was paying price for it.

My target was to get down in 4 hours but with the blisters and barely anything had come out of my pack so it weighed almost the same it was baby steps on the way down. I was expecting couple of people who passed on their way up, pass me on their way down as well and indeed it happened. i was that slow and taking my own sweet time.

Finally after 5 hrs i was out of misery and managed to get to the car. The blisters were killing me and when i got back home just looking at my feet made my head hurt.

Overall, it was an interesting trip and it definitely gave me the confidence and courage to go backpacking by myself. In past when i haven’t had any company to go for a hike, i have been skeptical about going alone and ended up staying at home but not anymore.

Surely i would have loved to enjoy the trip little more, have some company, could have done without the wind, would have loved to stay out longer in the moonlight, enjoy the morning tea without the wind or not have gotten blisters but its all part of the sport. You never know what to expect when you are at high altitude and that is why you have to respect the mountain and be prepared but even that won’t be enough sometimes.

More Pics are here.

The mountains are calling and i must go – John Muir
Success lies in Courage – Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, India.

Most of the times, i get asked what i am learning in this class or what runs are we doing. When i tell people its mainly the basics and most of the times we are on blue runs doing drills, lot of times they give me surprised look.

Being an “advanced” class one would expect us to be on harder runs which we are slowly progressing towards but at the same time if our basics are not solid we are going to struggle on those runs.

The things we are working on,

Short Radius Turns:

Making short radius turns and making sure that we stay in the fall line. This mainly involves isolation of the upper and lower body which sounds easy but its not. Bringing the knees and the legs around at the end of turn without moving the upper body, keeping the shoulders straight and looking forward always is a real challenge.

One of the drills we did to help with this is that our instructor was at the bottom of hill, he would make a number and we had to say it loud as we were skiing. This was to make sure that we were looking downhill all the time while making our short radius turns.

Position of Hands and the Shoulders:

Personally this has been a bane but at the same time has helped improved my skiing a lot. I have a tendency to drop my uphill hand which tends to push me backwards specially in moguls and choppy conditions. It also results in closing of shoulders which makes it harder to lean into the new turn and control the skis.

Heisman drill is something we did to help us with this, i tried to find video of this drill online but surprisingly youtube had nothing on it. let me try to describe it as best as i can.

We left our poles and hopped on the bunny chair and we had to push out our uphill hand forward after initiating the turn. this would force our shoulders to open up during the turn and they would be facing the slope remaining perpendicular to the fall line. While skiing you look like the heisman trophy hence the name.

First it was hard to get the co-ordination right and i kept pushing out with the wrong hand but once i understood the objective of the drill it became lot easier.

I have gotten much better with my hands and shoulder position and on steeper slopes or moguls make a conscious effort to bring them forward, its a constant work in progress.

Flexion/Extension and Leaning Forward:

Right from the day 1 our instructor mentioned about leaning forward and submitting into the turn, feeling that pressure on the boot all the time.

The key about flexion and extension is the angle your hips make in relation to the boots, while extending the hips and the boots should be in a straight line since the ski boots are already at an angle forward this straight line will cause the hips to be forward and all the body weight in front of the ski and not back.

We did quite a few runs in the art park near canyon lodge so while going over series of small bumps we would lean forward and get to used to the feeling of submission. I have gotten into a habit of leaning forward while waiting in the ski lines or on flat terrain. It has helped to build that muscle memory.

Edging and Carving:

This is another area which can be worked on all the time, Skiing is all mainly about using the edges of ski and how much pressure needs to be applied and when. It also depends on the snow conditions.

I haven’t been leaning forward enough and engaging the edge of my skis to initiate a turn. most of the turns have been completed by bringing out the tails of my skis instead of using the front. I am also pushing too hard with my heels while turning and not giving the edges time to engage.

By leaning little bit more and using my ankles to start a turn has helped me to start using my edges. This weekend was the first time i felt that i was using the edges of my skis to carve out a turn. When it first happened, i was like oh wow this is how it feels when i use my skis how they are mean’t to be used.

I feel that overall my skiing has improved a hell lot and i was courageous enough to try out my first double black run, even though it was a small one at June Mountain it made me feel better than i can ski it in a much improved fashion as compared to last year. Its no where close to being perfect or looking good but its a start.

Earlier in the season i wasn’t sure about taking it again but then i decided to and i am not regretting it one single bit.

Basics and Short Turns:

Saturday was the first proper day of the season and at the end of the day my legs were simply toast. It wasn’t my first day skiing but i was surprised to be so sore and was hoping that we didn’t do any crazy stuff in the class.

Sunday morning met everyone at main lodge for the class and once we got the groups going we headed out practicing our short turns. The goal was to make easy controlled short radius turns with proper pole planting, hand position etc.

While my hand position has gotten better i still tend to drop it and don’t hold my hands always in front. I also tend to close my shoulder while making my turns, that is something i have to avoid.

Making those short turns was easy but keeping my hands in front of me was lot difficult. We moved to canyon area to ski our favorite mogul run acts and we were going to put into practice short turns there.

I have definitely improved skiing moguls but it still needs a lot of work and the main problem was the timing of my pole plant to initiate a turn. I am initiating a new turn when there is enough pressure on my heels and just by trying to get a new turn going half second earlier it made a huge difference.

Hopefully this rudimentary sketch will explain it better, with practicing the initiation of turn early, it has made a difference.

One other thing i need to work on is the flexion and extension, when i extend my knees out at end of turn i tend to stand up little taller and push my body backwards. I need to extend only a little so that i don’t go back all the way.

After skiing acts we did a fun exercise to practice the positioning of our hands, our hands were bound by tape so that they would in front of us all the time and we were unable to drop them. We did it for one run but i see us using the tape in future, so if anyone saw few people with tape around their arms skiing down to canyon lodge, it would have been our group.

After couple of more runs on acts it was time to end the class and we were given some homework i.e. to practice lunges and try to isolate upper lower body.

After the class as i tried to isolate my upper and lower body while taking turns, i started using muscles in my legs that i didn’t know existed. All i did was to hold my arms out and looking in a straight line, do my ski turns without any pole planting or moving my arms.

It is interesting on how much i had forgotten after taking this class last year and it felt really good to have someone tell me what i was doing wrong.

the things i need to work on going forward is holding my arms out while skiing and not letting them drop specially while making turns. Upper/Lower body isolation and finally improving my weaker side.

Being left handed, my right turns are little weaker, specially when i bring my knees around at the end of turn and it is harder for me to make a hockey stop with my right side downhill so i just need to keep that in mind and practice more on right side stops.

Of course the obvious answer is to get better at skiing and my ultimate goal is to get into ski mountaineering/back country skiing but there is lot more to it than just that.

Initially this year, I was skeptical about going to mammoth every weekend but it all changed during my first trip of the season during thanksgiving. I was riding on chair 1 by myself and all of sudden it hit me, that i am in love with the place.

It was a feeling that, i daresay, i have never experienced before. I was just happy to be there. The crowds or the lack of snow, these things didn’t matter to me, all i cared is i was there in mammoth on a beautiful sunny day, going down the slopes on my skis without worrying about anything else happening in the world.

Skiing for me is not just about finding deep powder or good snow to ride on. Its about the whole experience, the drive to mammoth after lone pine is beautiful with the snow capped sierras glistening in full moon light. The camaraderie, friendships that i have developed, wonderful folks that i meet add to the whole experience.

Skiing by itself presents different thrills and challenges. Sometimes (well most of the times) i like to go fast but there are times when going through the trees making those quick turns on fresh powder is equally fun.

Another hobby of mine is photography, while i am still hesitant to carry my dslr on the slopes but night photography is something i just started experimenting with and it is quite interesting and fun to play with my camera at night specially on a full moon. I do plan to take it on most of the trips to mammoth and capture the sierras.

My first himalayan experience was when i was 10 and since then i have always loved spending time in mountains and skiing adds another dimension to the sport of mountaineering. The idea of climbing a peak and skiing down is very appealing. In future i definitely see myself doing ski descents of some himalayan peaks.

Since i started diving in nov 07, i have always been around technical divers mainly because at the time hollywood divers used to have a monthly charter to oil rigs and couple of times i was the only guy in wetsuit with rental gear. My 8th or 10th dive is on the oil rigs and i have always wanted to explore the depth of the rigs.

For the past couple of years my dive time has been restricted by risk of going into deco rather than limited the amount of gas (note the change in terminology ) i have in my tank. This has been one of the main reasons that i want to get into technical diving i.e. to increase my bottom time and not necessarily going deeper.

For technical diving I wanted my instructor to be Karim Hamza from Hollywood Divers and for that i knew i had to go through the GUE route. I waited a while to take GUE Fundies because i thought i could do it in doubles only and i don’t see myself getting into doubles anytime soon.

When Jim and Thomas who were my buddies for the north carolina trip decided to take fundies and the fact that i could do it in singles, i decided to join them even it meant that i had to take vacation mid week.

Instead of describing what we did in the course, i want to mention how taking this course has changed the way i will dive in future and the things i learned that will help me become a better diver and an instructor in future.

While going over the class theory it was surprising to me on how the calculations of SCR, Bottom time etc were made easy and while being aggressive about diving it was conservative at the same time.

The calculations of minimum gas using the all useable rule, 1/2 and 1/3 rd rules was made easy and it made sense. Me and my dive buddy randomly calculate at what psi we should be ascending but now i can make an accurate and safe calculation for the same.

The rule of 130 with 32% Nitrox is easy to remember but i love to go little deeper than 100 ft, not by much more like 110-115 so i will have to adjust little bit or just rely on my dive computer to go with deco times. It will be interesting to find out what my dive computer has to say about the rule, it will depend on the algorithm i suppose, and whether or not i will always go into deco according to my computer.

I will definitely stick to the min deco plans and i already have been doing level stops on all the dives but it will be tricky to calculate multi level profiles, the rule says that 90 min SI will reduce the loading by half but getting 90 min SI is not always possible.

So i plan to use my dive computer mainly but also keep in mind the rule of 130 and not to exceed it.

Next thing i want to focus is the dive gear. When the dive goes well it doesn’t really matter but the whole point is to minimize the chances of failure and specially in technical diving the error margin gets even smaller.

i have had a steel backplate and a donut wing but the harness isn’t a single piece webbing and it has a quick release buckle. The buckle is to make it easier to get out of the harness but i haven’t used it even once so i don’t see point to it and if it breaks underwater then i will have a hard time with it.

My regulators are poseidon xtreme which work great but they are upstream regulators so if the first stage fails there won’t be any free flow through the regs. again game over if it fails at depth and buddy isn’t close.

After the course i changed the harness to have a single webbing and invested in a new pair of regulators. Granted my gear hasn’t failed on me “yet” but why do i want to take a chance. Not to mention that the purge button on my poseidons is on the side instead of the front and imagine someone trying to purge it in case of emergency and would be like why is this not working. I have had people tell me this when they used my regulator but i never paid much attention to it.

Having the right gear isn’t enough but how to use it correctly matters too, i have been using long hose since i started diving but i didn’t know until the fundies on how to deploy it correctly and share gas with someone out of air.

Prior to the course i would have definitely donated my primary but i didn’t know how to properly deploy the long hose and not get it tangled with my light cord etc.

Every time i dive the oil rigs i carry a safety sausage but it can be deployed only at the surface.

i can definitely think of one situation where carrying a smb alone with a reel and deploying it would have given me a lot of relief but luckily for me the current didn’t sweep me away on that dive and i surfaced close to the boat. Now i carry smb with me along with a reel all the time and have the knowledge/confidence to deploy it in case of an emergency. Same is the case with mask, a spare is carried all the time.

The finning techniques i learn’t have definitely helped me as i work towards being a divemaster and being in a class with students. using the back kick, helicopter turn i can adjust my position all the time. I might not have the most efficient kicking techniques but its a work in progress.

I did put back on my transmitter for air pressure but i can see how easily it can be a hazard while doing valve drills, for now i would like to keep it so that the dive computer can calculate my SCR but eventually i plan to record starting and ending psi and calculate SCR myself. I have also blocked out the part of my dive computer which shows the air pressure so that i can practice looking at my spg for air pressure and i try to keep track of it mentally too.

Buoyancy in dry suit specially at 10 ft stop has always been an issue for me since sometimes i just can’t get air out of legs. it will require more work on my part for this but i can definitely feel that my trim has improved though it needs to be more consistent. I have been lazy about trim but do not plan to be like that anymore.

One of the first things that you would learn while diving is never hold your breath which is not entirely true, you can hold your breath while diving just make sure you don’t ascend while doing it.

While performing all the skills specially regulator removal or switching to backup to maintain buoyancy you can’t exhale completely, some bubbles are ok but if you let a whole breath out then you are going to descend. I had trouble with that and had to control my habit of blowing out bubbles even while mask removal and replacement. It is a bad habit that i have to get over and make sure that my buoyancy and trim remain the same while doing all the skills.

Finally i really like the emphasis placed on fitness, i am not a smoker but this class doesn’t allow anyone who smokes due to health reasons. Not only that but to consistently maintain trim, carry all the gear you have to be in good physical shape.

One of the reasons i didn’t pass, apart from my spectacularly failed swim test at this time i can’t swim even 100m and i am working on it, was failure to maintain my trim consistently which involved arching my back and on the last dive my tired body couldn’t take it anymore. I just have to keep working at it.

Overall after taking GUE Fundies there is no doubt in my mind that i have become a lot more safe and competent diver. The journey is not yet over, it has only begun….

We had been told the previous night that the first dive would be at 7.30 am so we had to be ready by then to get in the water. Didn’t exactly sleep soundly but it was decent enough that i didn’t feel lack of it.

Dive 5: Flame Reef, Santa Cruz Island

We had talked last night about this site since it is a really good macro site and the conditions at this site were pretty decent so we were going to dive it. There was little bit current but we were used to it by now.

The plan was descend down the stern anchor which was right next to the reef and then swim around to look for nudis. There was some current but as soon as we got to the reef, it was protecting us from it.

As expected the reef was full of nudibranchs and most of them were dorids and cadalinas. I have little difficulty taking pics of small ones since i can’t really fill the entire frame with them., i feel it really limits my creativity

I was initially staying pretty close to the anchor but after a while i wanted to explore the reef more and so i swam off in other direction and thought i would just circle around the big rock and get back to original spot. I didn’t want to venture too far from the anchor because of the current.

As i tried to get around i lost my way and was little lost at this point so instead of trying to find a way around the reef i re-traced my steps and soon enough saw other divers. I have to say that it was indeed a relief, i wasn’t sure which direction the anchor was in.

I asked todd about the direction of the anchor, initially he was confused about what i was signaling but then he eventually understood me and i headed towards the anchor. It wasn’t that far, maybe like 15 ft away but luckily for me as i got close to it there was a bat ray right by it.

I was beyond excited and this is the case where i love shooting with 18-55 mm lens so that if i find a big subject i can zoom out. As i was getting in position, adjusting my camera and strobes to take picture of the ray, the ray was also getting cautious and was looking at me. Sure enough as i fired one shot it didn’t really hang around and took off.

Now that i had found the anchor, i didn’t really wanted to venture too far off from it and spent time taking pics around it. I must have taken atleast 10 pics of a star fish wondering why the lighting wasn’t right only to find later that the dial on one of my strobe had turned and it wasn’t firing. lesson learn’t.

I found couple of dorids and one of them was chasing other, i didn’t really have the patience to hang around to see how the entire thing would unfold and started my ascent.

If after reading this and are wondering where was my dive buddy was, well i started the dive with ron but we lost each other pretty soon. We both are experienced divers so didn’t exactly follow the protocol of looking for buddy and then ascending. The current didn’t exactly allow for such diving where you look for your buddy for a minute and then surface.

Dive 6: Drop off Reef

Our next dive site , drop off reef, wasn’t too far away and the conditions at this site were same as the previous one. This reef is pretty easy to navigate since it runs perpendicular to the island and the current was going parallel to it.

This time me and ron decided to do a better job of sticking with each other, we descended down the anchor line and it wasn’t hard to find the reef.

This reef wasn’t as lively as the previous but we did find few nudis and the structure was more rocky. I swam along the length of the entire reef trying to find something but there wasn’t anything exciting as such.

I decided to move higher since the sand didn’t really seem exciting to explore and i didn’t want to go deep. I found a sun star so i spent good 5 mins trying to take its picture and i thought it made for a decent WA shot with the star fish along side it.

Scott found me and showed me pic of wavy turban snail and i have always wanted to take nice colorful pic of the same. As he was trying to lead me to its location someone else came along and pointed us to a Simnia snail. even better.

I let the pros take its picture first and then waited for my turn. Times like this is when i get really frustrated with my 55mm lens, i am not able to fit the whole subject in the frame, its annoying.

I tried my best to take its picture and then showed the location of the snail to Ron, earlier we had asked each other about air left and he had around 1200 psi, he spent almost 5 mins trying to take pictures of simnia so i figured he must be around 500-600 psi left and the anchor was right above us.

I waited for ron and guided him to anchor line like a good buddy , i had more air left so i hung around more and then as i was making my way to anchor line scott came down again and took me to the location where the snail was there.

Again it was the same problem i couldn’t really fit it completely into frame and i tried my best to take its pic but wasn’t totally satisfied. It was now time for me to do my safety stops and head back to the boat.

Dive 7: Underwater Island

We now moved to anacapa island and since it would be over an hour before we got to our next dive site so i decided to take nap on the top deck. Since some of the folks wanted to dive with harbor seals we anchored at the site where we could find one.

On the bow side the dive site was called underwater island where as on the stern side there was a harbor seal playing, me and ron decided to dive the underwater island since both of us were setup for macro and the idea of just one seal in water didn’t appeal to us.

We descended down the bow anchor and as the name suggests this dive site is an island like reef in about 60 ft of water. This was quite similar to brittle star reef where there were brittle stars covering the floor but there were no nudis to be found.

I found quite a few christmas tree worms, tried to take their pictures and they came out to be ok. I looked in the sand to see if i could find something but it didn’t look like there was anything there so i turned back.

We went over to the other side and the reef was totally different compared to the previous side, there were no brittle stars but the usual reef structure you would find in cali.

There were few sea hares and even though they are not really colorful critters i still like taking their pictures. A sea lion buzzed us which was cool but didn’t really stay around for long. It was a good dive but nothing really exceptional.

Dive 8: Landing Cove Arch

We moved around for a while to find a good dive site where the conditions would be ideal and we settled for landing cove arch. I love this dive spot and last time inside the arch we had found so many nudis.

Me and Ron descended via the stern anchor and i signaled to him to go right towards the arch but he was pointing in other direction. I was like what is going on and there i see, a giant sea bass which was like 5-6 ft. Too bad it didn’t linger around at all.

We then headed into the arch and instead of the oasis of nudis i was expecting it was a barren sahara desert. On the last dive about few weeks ago there were quite a few nudis but on this dive i was having hard time finding any.

I was little disappointed at the lack of nudi action but i was trying to make best of the dive and explore the different areas of the arch and exploring the ceiling of the arch.

Scott pointed out a really small porters chromodorid but i ran into the same problem as earlier, couldn’t just fit it into the frame. I tried to explore outside of the arch but i went back in and explored the ceilings again.

Didn’t find anything too exciting for the rest of the dive but the sighting of GSB was a great way to end this dive trip.

Back on board it was time for dessert and a nap as we made back to the dock.

More Pics

Day 1 Blog

Afte the oil rigs trip my dive computer died for unknown reason, the display was all wonky so i had sent it back to scuba pro to get it fixed, as i was driving to hollywood divers to get a rental i received call from them that my computer had returned from service.

I was really glad about since i didn’t have to rent another computer and work with some unknown algorithm while doing multi day dives on nitrox. Last time a rental computer on farnsworth trip put a 10 min safety stop at 10 ft on my second dive even though i didn’t go into deco on the first dive.

Got my stuff ready and didn’t have much difficulty getting to the boat, i was worried about bringing all the different chargers for the batteries, can light etc. I didn’t manage to sleep as well as i had expected but it wasn’t too bad.

We had crossed over to Santa Barbara island, i was little disappointed since i was hoping to dive either san miguel or santa rosa islands but the conditions didn’t permit to do so.

SBI is a great place to dive and i still remember the dive site of black caverns from last time i dove here so i was hoping we would dive that site.

The first dive was going to be a site called the wall and the conditions at this site weren’t exactly ideal. There was a fair amount of swell and significant current on the surface. I have dealt with similar conditions before so i wasn’t too worried.

First Dive: The wall, which didn’t happen.

I buddied up with Ron who was visiting from AZ for this 2 day trip and even though he hadn’t been diving in CA much, he was pretty experienced diver. Since there were some issues with his rental gear he decided not to do this dive and so i buddied with Eric for this dive.

I decided not put on the inner lining of my dry glove since i suspected it being cause of leak on the previous trip, i was so wrong on that and it turned out a huge mistake.

We got into the water from the bow gate since it would make it easier for everyone to drop in using the bow anchor. As soon as i got into the water my left glove started to leak, oh boy here we go again. I adjusted it little bit and started to descend but the leak only got worse so i signaled to Eric and called the dive.

I could have dove without my glove but i didn’t want to make all the adjustments on the surface with the current and the swell so i just swam back to the boat and decided not to dive. Back on the boat i made couple of attempts to adjust it and see if worked and it didn’t leak once so i was hopeful.

To avoid the swell we moved to the back side of the island and the best dive site available to us was Rookerie which is popular for sea lions. I have mixed feelings about this dive site since there isn’t much of structure but if the sea lions come out to play its an awesome site.

Dive 1: Rookerie.

This time was determined to do a dive with or without my dry gloves working and for some reason i decided to use the inner lining of the glove. I borrowed a pair of gloves from the boat, just in case if i had to abandon the dry gloves entirely.

Descended from the stern anchor line, no currents or swell here and my dry gloves worked just fine and i was super happy about it.

Few minutes into the dive i came across one of the biggest lobster that i have seen so far, that bug must have easily been 10 lbs or more. The sea lions were there buzzing us once in a while but not really hanging around too much which was a disappointment.

But soon enough as i was going through the kelp there was a torpedo ray chilling, i was surprised to find it since usually i have seen them in deeper waters not in 30-40 ft depth. He hung around enough for 3 of us to be trigger happy on our cameras. For some of the pictures i shut off one strobe and tried to take some silhouette pics which have come out to be good.

After this encounter it was time for me to get back onboard and get ready for the next dive.

Dive 2: Rookerie.

Since the conditions on the rest of the island weren’t that great and others on the boat saw a bat ray and angel shark we decided to stay here for the next dive too. I have never had a really good encounter with an angel shark so i was really looking forward to this next dive and hopefully run into one.

We got back into the water and i made a conscious effort to stay in the sand and find an angel shark but no luck. Since i was having no luck with the sharks i swam back and knew there would be plenty of sea lion action.

The sea lions were in mood to play but they were being themselves not really giving any good chances to take their pics and not hanging around us as such. I was startled once as sea lion charged towards me, though he was just being playful.

It was a fun dive for sure with lot of sea lion action and i tried to take as many shots as i could but they were stirring up the sand so the pics weren’t coming out to be that clear.

It was time for lunch and we decided to move to another dive site even though the conditions weren’t 100% ideal.

Dive 3: Brittle Star Reef

The swell on the front side had gotten less but there was still some current going there, we decided to dive the site called Brittle star reef.The dive plan was to descend down the bow anchor line and ascend along it since there was a decent current.

As the name of the dive site suggests the entire reef is covered with brittle stars, i have seen sea floors with brittle stars but nothing compared to this site. The entire reef was covered with brittle stars and there were anemones and dorids between them.

This was a really good macro site but with the wide angle lens there wasn’t much choice, i tried to take some close up shots of the nudis and they came out to be decent but nothing too exciting.

I was swimming along and i spotted another dorid but there was other person on the boat who also saw it and we went forward to take its pic at the same time, it was funny. I let that person take pics first and then got my shots of the nudi.

It was a really beautiful site but with the current i didn’t want to venture too far out away from the anchor so i didn’t really explore too much and stayed within a certain range. There was also a sea lion but he didn’t really stay for long.

The rest of the dive was pretty uneventful and after getting back on board we decided to head back to rookerie since the conditions were best there.

Dive 4: Rookerie

We were going to be anchored on this site for over two hours so it gave an opportunity to do two dives or one long dive. I decided that i would do one long dive and then the night dive.

I got into water and there not much action going on. There were no sharks and the sea lions were in no mood to play. After half an hour of swimming around and not finding anything i decided to head back to the boat.

I wanted to do the night dive but i figured that it would be offered at this same dive site so i decided to call it a day.

I was wrong about the night dive but after a sumptuous dinner it would have been really hard to motivate myself for it. The people who did the night dive were fighting the current all the time so in a way i was glad about my decision.

It was a treat on how the dinner was organized on the boat, everyone sat down at the same time and the crew was serving the food to everyone. I have never encountered such hospitality and a formal dinner while diving, really enjoyed the whole setup and the experience.

We agreed to head back to santa cruz island tomorrow and hit two dive sites there for macro and then do couple of dives at anacapa island which could provide us with encounter with giant sea bass and harbor seals.

More Pics

Day 2 Blog

Saturday was spent doing Mt Islip hike and i was little tired so the brief nap i took in afternoon threw me off and i was able to sleep only at around 11.30. woke up at 5 am got ready and i was there on the boat by 6.30.

Sea Bass is the only boat that i have been on while diving the oil rigs and i love it. Capt Richard is pretty easy going and Earl the DM is fun to have around. It has nitrox on board and its fast, takes about 45 mins to get to rigs.

It was going to be a full boat with 12 people and most of us were photographers so there were quite a few cameras on board. As soon as we got going it was time to suit up since its only a short ride to the rigs.

I was excited to try out the new dry gloves i had bought, i was perfectly happy with my wet gloves but the problem is that as i would make a fist water would trickle into my dry suit.

We were going to dive Eureka, it is the farthest out of the 3 oil rigs. Before i knew it, it was time to into the water. Getting in water to dive the rigs is different than the other dives.

Since anchoring is not allowed on the rigs, its a live drop. It means that everyone has to be suited up to jump into water and sit on bench, the camera has to be on your lap at this time. The captain pulls the boat closer to the rigs and when its time you have to jump into water as soon as possible. Sea Bass is perfectly suited for this and i don’t know how other boats do it but i have no intention of finding out.

Dive 1: Eureka

In hurry to get ready i mistakenly put my dive computer on my left hand instead of right, it was little annoying during the dive but nothing i couldn’t handle. Since the platform is not that high and to make things quicker i decided to jump in with my camera instead of asking Earl to hand it to me.

I was going to buddy up with Kevin while Dana was going to buddy up with Ric, we were going to upto 100-110 ft and then if Ric would get low on air Dana would then hang with us for the rest of dive.

As we started descending i was amazed at the viz, at 80 ft i could see all the way to the top. The structures of the rig were visible in their full glory, it was mind blowing. One thing i realized that for some reason i was under weighted, it took me quite a bit of effort to descend which was really weird since except for the dry gloves nothing had really changed in my setup.

We got down to about 110 ft and i was glad that i was shooting wide angle, the conditions were perfect for it. I was trying taking pictures but wasn’t really finding any interesting subjects and at this time a pyrosome was floating by.

Pyrosome.

Last time during the blue water dive i was bummed about using macro lens instead of wide angle so i was glad that i could compensate for it. I wanted to hit the next level of cross beams on the rigs but they were in about 120-125 ft of water so with a 31% mix i wasn’t going to risk it. Instead i decided that i would spend more time on the upper section of the cross beams.

After a while as i was trigger happy on my camera, it was time to ascend so i hit the next level of the beams, i was expecting to find ling cod or a cabezon resting there which would make for nice picture but it wasn’t the case. The sheepheads were a curious lot, there was this huge black male who kept on following me with his mouth open. i thought he would want to bite me somewhere but luckily he kept his distance.

School of Sheepheads

The structures were scrapped so there were mainly only scallops on the structures above 50 ft instead of the usual medley of anemones, brittle stars, star fish etc. I tried to take the pictures of the structure of the rigs but i made mistake of keeping my strobes on and not using the natural light, this mistake was rectified on the next dive.

Doing level stops cleared any stop requirement for me so while i was trying to hang at 20 ft the swell made it tricky for me to stay there and i slowly popped up to the surface.

I signalled to Kevin i was ok and Dana had joined him so while they were still continuing the dive i decided to head back to the boat.

Dive 2: Eureka

Since the conditions were so good out here we decided to dive the same rigs again and after indulging in fresh strawberries and some trail mix it was time to hit the water. Since i was little underweight and had difficulty with my buoyancy i decided to add extra 4 pounds, i would wanted to add just 2 but couldn’t find 1 lb weights so decided to add 2 lbs to each pocket.

As i got into water i realized that my right glove was leaking, i tried to adjust the rings but for some reason it just kept on leaking, earlier the ring had come off so maybe that was the reason it was leaking or the under liner glove got caught into the rings i wasn’t sure. The conditions on the rig were too good to abort the dive and go back to the boat to adjust it properly. i said whatever, took off the dry glove, adjusted the seal properly and decided to dive without a glove.

The water wasn’t that cold so i was just fine without the glove and it also mean’t i could handle the camera controls lot easier but i knoew my right arm was going to get soaked since water would leak in from the seal. i didn’t care at this point

The viz had stayed the same and this time we descended and tried to explore a different area of the rig. Found couple of big metridiums at around 110 ft and some structure which was totally covered with anemones and all the life.

Metridium.

I stayed down taking pictures and before i knew it i was getting close to my deco limits, i indicated to Dana that i was going to level stops and ascend slowly. But i stayed at around 50 ft for a tad longer and was 1 min away from hitting my deco limit.

I ascended higher and spend most of the time taking pictures of the rigs in natural light, me and dana swam to one end of the rig where there was a lone sea lion. But he wasn’t in mood to play so didn’t really get any change to take its pic.

Rigs Structure in clear viz.

Got back to the boat and had lunch, for the final dive we decided to head towards the twin rigs of Eily and Ellen.

Dive 3: Eily/Ellen

The inner lining and the dry glove were completely soaked from the previous dive since i stored them in my dry suit pocket but still i decided to use my dry glove without the inner glove to test it out again, the worse that could happen is that it would leak again and i will have to dive without it.

Got into water and as we started to descend the viz out here was almost the same 80+ ft but there was a pretty decent amount of current going. We had to fight it all the time.

But unfortunately for me it just wasn’t the current that i was fighting, my mask was starting to leak and i had to clear it every minute. I came across a cabezon on the rigs and spent good couple of minutes trying to take its picture.

Cabezon.

Another cabezon got really curious of my camera and came right up to my focus light and wanted to eat it or land on it, i wasn’t sure. But immediately as it touched the light it wasn’t interested in it anymore and just swam away.

I was constantly fighting the current and at the same time clearing my mask every couple of minutes while trying to find subjects to take pictures of, it was really starting to get annoying but i hung in there.

Kevin tried helping me with my mask and adjusting the straps but it didn’t make significance difference. He also had trouble with his backup light and it was almost hanging by a thread. I was happy that even with my mask troubles i was able to assist my buddy.

We were at about 40 ft and Kevin pointed out a mola at one end of the rig, it was about 20 ft away from us and i tried to swim towards it but the current made it really difficult and that mola didn’t linger for long either. It swam away into the depths pretty quick.

I was really happy since it was the first time that i saw a mola while diving, i have seen them from the surface but never while diving. I wanted to end the dive and surface since i had completed my safety stop obligations but Kevin still needed couple of minutes so i stayed with him till his computer cleared him off.

We ascended to the surface and immediately were drifting out in the open ocean waiting for the boat to pick us up. On this dive my dry glove didn’t leak and it worked fine so i am guessing it was the liner glove getting caught up which caused the leak.

It was now time to head back to the dock. I had a really wonderful time, have heard about the viz on the rigs being upto 100 ft but for the first time ie experienced it. There were times where it was hard for me to believe that i was diving in california.

if you are interested in taking look at more of my dive pics they can be found here.

We had to get to AAI office by 6.30 in the morning and things got to slow start when we got there but we got moving pretty quickly since there was no gear check or anything involved. Couple of people dropped out for the Rainier part so we were only 5 people now. Phil and Tom joined us as two additional guides since its AAI policy to have a client guide ratio to 2:1 for expeditions.

We made couple of stops for gas, breakfast and by the time we got to the parking lot of Rainier it was almost noon. We distributed all the group gear, myself, tony and chris were going to share the 3 person tent so we divided that among us and my pack was back to the usual weight now which was around 50-60 lbs.

First view

I knew it wasn’t going to be easy making it to the summit or for that matter even to the camps with my already sore legs and this heavy pack but i wasn’t planning on giving up so easily. I had to take it one day at a time, hour by hour and step by step, it had been and was going to be my mantra for this whole course.

For first couple of hours we didn’t gain much altitude and just crossed the Nisqually glacier, during this time i had pretty interesting conversation with Phil, not that i didn’t enjoy talking/interacting with Matt or Victor. Phil had just been to indian himalayas where he did some ski mountaineering around Manali region and it was great to talk about his experience, someday i will get there too.

Break on Glacier

We reached the part of Rainier called the fan and it was time to gain some serious altitude, Victor was leading his rope team and since there wasn’t much room to traverse the steps he was making were little bigger. Those big steps were killing my calf muscles and i was having a hard time keeping up, by the time we made it to the top of that small section i was totally exhausted.

I was hoping that we would setup camp out here and call it a day but then it would have mean’t tomorrow would be a longer day. We decided to continue for another hour or so, gain another 1400-1500 ft so that our base camp would be at around 8400-8500 ft. This would make tomorrow a short day i.e. hike for couple of hours and set up advanced camp at around 10,500 ft for summit attempt.

Instead of going around, Phil decided to take a direct route up the glacier. It would mean less walking but at the same time it mean’t walking on a much steeper terrain. He was going for it at a pretty good pace and i was already tired so couple of times i had to ask him to stop so that i could take a breather but that didn’t last for long since that breather was less than a minute. I had to push through, Tom kept on egging me which was great. We finally made it to the area where we would setup camp.

Even though i was completely pooped, I did my part to flatten the campsite, help put in the tents etc. We had Pad thai for dinner along with some hot chocolate. It was not going to be a long day tomorrow which was great and those EAS protein shakes which i was carrying helped a lot, maybe its psychological thing about them helping a lot but i didn’t/don’t care .

Day 8: Setting up Advance Camp

We got up, had breakfast, packed the camp and after couple of hours of continous ascent we got to advance camp. It was going to be lot windier out here and since we were planning on being at this spot for a while we had to make sure that we secured our tents really well. Even though it was windy the weather seemed fine and was definitely lot better than Mt Baker. We had really good views of Mt Helens, Mt Adams and Mt Hood in the distance.

The plan for next day for summit attempt was to wake up at mid night, have some breakfast or late dinner (whatever you want to call it) and then head out. Since we were going to go directly under some ice fields and lot steeper snow than baker it was imperative that we got going as early as possible.

We had our lunch at around 2 and then dinner at around 6, i couldn’t believe how much we were eating but at the same time we were using a lot of calories too. I tried to get some sleep without any success, must have slept only for maximum of couple of hours. There was a lot of tossing and turning around going on and it wasn’t just me.

Some people also floated idea of going back down all the way tomorrow itself and not spending an extra night at advanced camp. I wasn’t exactly thrilled by this idea because of the obvious effort it would entail but we decided to make a final decision after the summit climb and play it by the ear.

Day 9: Summit and back out.

Phil was in charge of the kitchen, it was a lot of work melting all the snow, cooking for 11 people, cleaning etc. and since there were 4 guides on this trip he decided not to join us for the summit. I was on the rope team with just Tom for the summit attempt. We got going by 1.30 and the weather was just awesome. It was almost full moon night, our path was really well lit and we could see the stars, i was excited to do some climbing in the moonlight but unfortunately my excitement didn’t last for long.

I was already sore and tired, the extra rest yesterday helped but it wasn’t enough, so as soon as we got going, i immediately got in the zone and had to keep pushing myself all the time. After couple of hours we reached the section called turtle where we had to be on belay and down climb on some rocks and traverse across to get to the snow field. It wasn’t super tricky but still we had to be careful with the ice axe dangling and backpacks since there were rocks over us.

Tom was constantly pushing me and i was doing my best to keep up with the pace he was setting but there were couple of times when i had to catch my breath. the weather had started to turn bad and the clear skies were soon replaced by dense fog. I didn’t have the energy to really think about it since my focus was completely in keeping up the pace and making sure i followed in footsteps of Tom.

We were soon on the hardest section of the climb, the 500-600 ft long 55 degree snow section of the Kautz glacier. Matt had earlier planned on using belays on this section of the climb but i suppose everyone was doing just fine and the snow conditions were good enough for us not to worry about it. We just kept chugging along without worrying about it, i didn’t even realize this until later. I was thinking to myself that soon we would hit this steep section and belays would be setup but that didn’t happen. We did come across other climbing party which was using running belay.

On this steep section of the climb with all those high steps it wasn’t easy for me at all and it was a constant struggle which i was determined to win. Things got little easier with the slope becoming little gentle but the weather got nastier, it was windy and starting to snow. The snow wasn’t heavy but the wind made matters worse, i was glad that we didn’t have to use glasses yet since i was sure mine would fog up.

Soon slowly darkness was fading away but the fog wasn’t, i was surprised how quickly time went by. We were on the final stretch of the climb and the wind was picking up too. I was beyond exhausted but there was no choice, i had to make it now and the summit wasn’t that far either. Indeed before i knew it we made to the summit crater which provided us with protection from the wind. My backpack was completely frozen along with its contents.

With all those layers on i didn’t really bother to check what time it was but my guess is that it was around 6 am when we made it to the summit, we went to the true summit which was minutes away from the crater and the wind made our life miserable out there so we stayed there only for couple of minutes. It was now time to head back.

On our way back, the thick fog made it little tricky for us to find the way. It was time to use the glasses and i had hard time preventing my skiing goggles from fogging up so i decided to try out my regular glacier glasses without much success. I continued on without using any glasses, squinting and protecting my eyes as much as i could but then ultimately i had to get my glasses on.

Luckily the wind died down little bit as we got to lower elevation and i managed to put on my glasses without letting them fog up. It was easy going till we reached the steep wall. I was leading the way down short roped to Tom and the soft snow kept on collecting in my crampons, i didn’t think it was a huge problem but Tom did and he continously asked me to keep on clearing my crampons/

The only way to clear soft snow from the crampons is to hit them on the side with ice axe. Doing so would mean that i would have to use my already tired mind to balance myself on one foot on a 55 degree slope with bad run out and then hit the side of boot with my ice axe to clear the snow. ummmm i don’t think so and i tried to delay clearing my crampons as much as i could but tom kept on insisting that i do it, it was starting to get little bit frustrating specially because i was comfortable with some snow stuck on my crampons.

I don’t blame him for asking me constantly to do so because both of our lives sort of depended on it, i think this fact made him nervous. If i took a fall chances are i would also pull him off and take both of us tumbling down into the valley unless either one of us arrested the fall. One team comprising of Tony, Chris and Matt were going at a really good speed where as us and other team of Victor, Jonika and Ryan were taking our sweet time. Tom suggested to Victor that maybe we should setup anchors to speed things up since he had pickets etc but victor didn’t want to. I slipped little bit once and even though it wasn’t exactly a fall n i wasn’t going anywhere, tom told me to that i should have got into self arrest position etc etc.

At this point i had enough, i could have continued to go at snail’s pace and with every step making tom nervous or just ask tom to setup belay and lower me down. I chose the latter and asked tom if it was ok for him to setup anchors so that he could lower me down this steep section. It took a while for us to setup anchor since uncoiling the rope was turning out to be huge problem.

Not that i was in any danger but there were few times when i wasn’t clipped onto anything and just relying on myself to prevent me from going down the slope, it was totally fine with me but i just thought during this whole process of trying to get rope untangled tom could have asked me to clip into anchor or something just for extra safety.

Finally it was time for me to get lowered but it wasn’t fun. The speed at which i was being lowered was too fast and my crampons kept getting stuck in the snow. I would have preferred to rappel down rather than being lowered but oh well, i wasn’t going to argue or anything at this point. I got to the end of the rope and Tom just walked down the slope but he didn’t ask me to untie myself from the rope. I was using ice axe to pseudo belay him and if he had slipped and taken a fall there was no way i could have held him and he would have definitely pulled me off the slope.

We still had about 100 ft or so to go down this wall and tom asked me if i wanted to be lowered again, i said no and we slowly kept on going. We made it fine under the ice field and over the small descend/traverse. I knew the hardest part of the climb was over and from here i could be my lazy self in descending without having to worry too much about the snow sticking to my crampons etc. The snow was still sticking to my crampons and giving me a hard time but since the slope wasn’t too steep it wasn’t a huge deal and i cleared it once in a while.

I finally made it to advance camp at around 11 am and we had decided to pack up and descent all the way down today itself. I wasn’t too thrilled about it but i figured with the weather not being that great it didn’t make sense for us to stay so i just had to suck it up and go for it. We decided to leave at around 1-1.30 pm so it would give us about couple of hours of rest.

The good thing about this descend was that we were going to glissade for the most part so it would make things quicker and lot easier. I wanted to learn proper glissading technique as it is so now i was totally onboard with this plan

We packed up and were ready to head down at around 1.30 or so, glissading is nothing but a fancy word for sliding down the snow slopes only thing is that we had to be careful about the runout and the speed at which we were sliding. It was pretty fun but i had little difficulty maintaining my stability since the backpack wasn’t helping. I did take a couple of tumbles and ate the snow, it wasn’t pretty but i didn’t hurt myself so it was all good.

There were certain sections of the descent where it wasn’t possible to glissade and with the snow being so soft there were some bridges being formed. I was traversing in this section which had soft hard snow on top but there were thin layers in other sections . I had to step on this hard snow to avoid falling into a hole but i slipped i got myself stuck pretty bad. I had to ask Victor to remove my backpack so that i could dig myself out, it was tricky and tiring.

Once we got past our base camp there was a final glissade, Matt went in first and then phil followed him but he was skiing on his shoes. Yes you read it right, the slope was steep enough for him to be able to ski down just on his shoes, i was totally speechless watching him do that. On this part we had to be little careful of our speed since it was a steeper slope, i went in after tony and chris but couldn’t really control my speed. I tried to arrest using my axe but it didn’t happen and i lost my axe somewhere on the slope.

Luckily, Ryan saw my axe not too much above him so he volunteered to get it, i also started to walk up the slope without my backpack and i was reunited with my axe thanks to ryan. If i had a leash on me i might have not lost my axe but there was a chance that i could have injured myself. The weather this entire time wasn’t great at all and i had couple of layers on but as soon as we got to the final glacier crossing i was really sweating since the sun had come out. Once we crossed the glacier and i took off my soft shell jacket, the weather again got little colder but i wasn’t going to stop again and put on another layer.

It was time to go over the final hill and Tom for reason took us in a different direction than what we had used to get to the glacier, while walking up this slope me, victor and matt got seperated from the pack and ended up taking different route. Matt went back for the main group where as me and victor just kept on going to the parking lot. We walked for what seemed like couple of hours but it was another hour and we made it back to the van at around 5 pm.

This time around i was smart enough to carry my sandals and an extra pair of clothes to change into and after a sumptous dinner at local restaurant it was time to head back to seattle. We finally made it to seattle at around 11 pm and boy did i sleep well that night

It had been really tough nine days but a lot of fun and provided me with great learning experience, i pushed through and managed to make it to the summit which at times did seem unlikely.

Conclusion:

I was really happy with this entire course and learn’t a lot. I have been to 20,000 ft in himalayas, been part of expeditions while being in india but the climbing culture, gear etc is so different here than that i am used to, i got a lot out of this course. It was first time that i spent a significant amount of time training for something, even though it wasn’t ideal it helped a lot and i am glad that my mentality has changed with regards to training. One important thing that i learned in this course is how to plan meals, for the first 6 days we had to carry our own breakfast, lunch and dinner so going through the whole process of planning my meals really helped me. I probably ate healthier on this trip than i usually do

Next goal would be to climb Denali or some himalayan peak but the thing stopping me is getting enough vacation i.e. 3-4 weeks for it. Maybe not next year but in future i definitely see myself standing on summit of some of the big peaks.

Part 2: Mt Baker Summit

We had covered most of the basics required for glacier/snow travel and since we weren’t planning on moving to a high camp for summit attempt, it was decided that we would do some ice climbing. I was really excited by that idea since i have never ice climbed before so it was a great opportunity for me to try it out.

As usual we started around 9 and descended into the glacier to find some ice wall, we came across one but the area around it wasn’t as safe and we would be resting on a bridge whose stability was hard to judge.

So we moved on and tried to find a much secure location and after another half hour or so we did find a great spot to practice ice climbing. I thought we would set up top rope on the shorter section but Matt led a climb which was abt 30-40 ft high and we setup two top ropes.

Matt Leading.

I was the second one to go on the route which was little harder and to my surprise i did pretty good, i was at ease ice climbing though it took lot more effort than i had thought. We spent the entire afternoon ice climbing and on my 3rd route which was the hardest my body gave up.

Ice climbing

I didn’t have the endurance in my upper body to hold on to the tool anymore and it was time to call it a day. Everyone got chance to attempt both the routes and some were successful, others not so much. The weather was also getting little nasty and by the time we got back to camp it was almost whiteout and windy.

Everyone went inside their tents as soon as we got back to the camp since the weather was nasty, i couldn’t resist making some hot chocolate and heated the water inside the vestibule of the tent. It was a fun experience and dinner was also made in similar fashion.

We were going to attempt the summit of Mt Baker tomorrow and we decided to get ready by 6am, there are no hazards on the route so waking up in the middle of the night for the climb didn’t make much sense.

Day 5: Summit Climb to Mt Baker

We all got up, ate breakfast and tried to get ready by 6 am but the weather hadn’t improved much, it was snowing and whiteout like conditions so we decided to wait and try to get going by 8 am. I felt it was much needed sleep and the conditions did improve later so at around 8 am we decided to head out for the summit.

Yesterday while deciding on how to make rope teams Matt asked if there was someone willing to be on their own rope team without a guide. Myself, tony and chris had no problems with it so we were going to be on a rope team. Matt led the way and the conditions weren’t exactly ideal, it wasn’t raining or snowing but there was dense fog and the visibility was about 15-20 ft. Route markers were placed on the glacier while we ascended.

It was hard to figure out which way we were headed and there was barely any time to look up since all we had to do is follow the footsteps of the person in front of us. It was a slow and yet very steady pace and i didn’t have too many problems.

I had a faint idea of the landmarks on the glacier that we would be encountering on the way but as we got closer i was mistaken. I thought we had reached the icefall area of colfax peak and it was time to turn right into the col but it would be a while before we got there. We took breaks every hour/hour and half and that was the only time when i had chance to look around, get an idea of where we were and possibly take some pictures. It was around 11 am and there was no sign of the sun whatsoever, sometimes it would get windy and sometimes it would be calm so we had to constantly adjust our layers during the breaks.

Break Time

After couple of breaks, Tony wanted to be the lead for our rope team so we switched places and we got on short rope as soon as we reached the summit ridge. While traveling on glaciers in most circumstances the distance between the climbers is usually 30 ft, it provides enough slack in event of someone falling into crevasse but on steeper terrain this long slack would increase the momentum of the falling climber thereby making it difficult to hold the fall and the entire party could get pulled off.

On the ridge

So to prevent this build up of momentum we shorten the rope distance between the two climbers to about 6ft, it does provide with less response time for the other climbers to arrest the fall but at the same time there won’t be too much of momentum buildup by the falling climber. Some people believe strongly against short roping and think that it increases the risk but i think its a matter of trusting your fellow rope team and your own skills as a climber.

The sun finally come out but unfortunately we had just moved above the cloud layer so all we could see is clouds everywhere around us. It got warm and less windy because the ridge was protecting us against the wind. We made good progress along the ridge and the main wall which was about 35 degree slope didn’t pose much of problem either.

Almost there

We were just taking it one step at a time, following each others footsteps and in almost a robot like fashion making our way to the top. I love this feeling where your mind is in a totally different zone and every single thought is just focussed on the next step. All you are thinking about is maintaining your balance, planting one foot in front of other, into the steps in front of you thereby making your way up the mountain one step at a time.

Once we got on the summit plateau it got lot windy and the true summit seemed like really far away but it wasn’t too that far. We stopped closer to it, got rid of our packs and then went to the true summit to take some pictures. The wind didn’t make it possible for us to linger there for a long time, definitely made me wonder how windy it would be on the summit of all the big himalayan peaks.

I was little concerned about the hike down specially on the steeper section but it didn’t turn out to be bad at all and we made it down just fine. Further down along the ridge, one of the spikes of my crampon got caught in the gaiter and i fell. It wasn’t a bad fall where my team had to arrest me or anything but at that moment i felt that i had pulled my calf muscle and it was game over for Rainier. Fortunately for me, it wasn’t that bad as i initially thought and not only i was able to walk properly but the feeling of my calf injury being serious was going away with every step.

We had our crampons on for the entire part of the climb and once we got off the ridge the snow had really softened up and it was sticking to my crampons. It was starting to get really annoying since i was having like more 6 inches of snow getting stuck on my boot. It was time to take the crampons off and we finally reached our camp at around 5 pm or so and after a heavy dinner it was time to go to bed.

Day 6: Back to Seattle.

We were planning to get back to seattle as early as possible so we could get maximum amount of rest before embarking on our Rainier adventure. We had our breakfast, packed everything up and around 9 am started to hike back out. Getting past the first few snowfields was going to be tricky with the heavy packs on and the snow being firm, having crampons on would have helped but then it was too much of hassle to put them on and take them off.

It was tricky but slowly and surely we made down the snow fields, there were times when i was being aggressive and then there were times when i was being lazy while descending. My legs were definitely sore from yesterday and i was dreading the rainier part but i knew i had to think about breaking the whole thing in parts and not look far ahead in advance.

Once we got off the snow field i was in high gear and just powered my way through to the parking lot, it was surprising how many people we ran into but then it was a weekend so it made sense. On our way back we had lunch at one of the local restaurants, of course there was beer involved and we got back to seattle by 2-3 pm.

Kartik picked me up and after showering we went to Gaurav’s place for some BBQ, i was sore and tired but i knew a protein shake would make a difference and i also planned to carry couple of them with me for the rainier part. I thought that my pack would weigh a lot less because i won’t be carrying all the meals or tents but unfortunately i was mistaken. I didn’t get the amount of sleep that i had hoped for and by the time i went to bed it was already past mid night.

Part 1: Snow Skills
Part 3: Rainier Summit