9-Mar: A day of culture

Today, I got up at a reasonable hour and introduced Alexis to an American classic- granola.  I bought the granola yesterday to go with the kilo of frutillas (strawberries) that I bought at the mercado yesterday; they would not sell me less than a kilo, but for 1$ USD I didn´t really care.

We went to the museum of pre-columbian art (el Museo del Arte Pre Columbino) where there were interesting sculptures, ceramics, and textiles from all over central and south america.

We followed that with another museum recommended by the owner of the hostel: El Museo del Memoria y Derechos Humanos.  This musuem chronicles the rise and fall of the Pinochet regime.  It seems to be focussed positively on remembering the past to prevent it from happening again- in this way, it is reminiscent of Yad Vashem the Holocaust musuem.  September 11, 1993 La Junta under the direction of Pinochet seized the control of the country.  The musuem had recordings of the last address made by President Allende which was moving and incredibly impressive knowing that he would not live another day.  There were also videos of the attack on Moneda, speeches made by Pinochet, and testimonials of the torture people endured.  1000´s of people went missing.  Others were tortured or exiled.  It is sobering to think that this happened during my lifetime and most of the people I have met here had to endure this regime.  One of the most powerful pieces in the musuem was a mural of thousands of faces of people who were murdered.

On a more uplifting note, we took the metro to Providencia barrio to eat lunch at Nicole´s (friend of Tracy Katelman) vegetarian restaurant El Huerte.

I returned to the hostel eary to pack for the early flight to Copiapó tomorrow.  I also mailed my 3rd package back tot he states to lighten my load further.  I am now down to just the basics.

Sculpture en El Museo de Arte Pre Columbino

Dinner was an empanada joint touted by the Lonely Planet for its variety of fillings.  I think it could better be characterized as Chilean pizza or calzones.

8-Mar Santiago de Chile

The bus pulled in to Santiago just shy of 7:00 am.  Weary, we set about finding the hostels recommended to me by the periodista in the Bellas Artes barrio.  Neither had any room, so we ended up getting a dorm sharing with 4 koreans overlooking the plaza de armas.  The rooms leave something to be desired, but the location, the patio and the view make it a choice hostel.  Check in time was at 1:00, so we changed clothes, left our bags and hit the city.

Neither of us had any time to read up on Santiago.  We started with the obligatory trip up Cerro Santa Lucia which offered beautiful vistas of the city and faint ghosts of the Andes obscured by the smog.  I was still suffering from intestinal distress, so part of my day consisted of locating the next public restroom.

We walked to Casa de Moneda next, the capital building, but owing to the earthquake it was closed to the public.  We then ambled over to the mercado so I could look at all the types of fish caught in Chile.

18-Feb Refugio Jakob to Refugio Italia

I spent a lot of time in my tent looking at all the things I should not have brought with me.  My pack is still heavy around 45 lbs, but I don´t have a scale to be sure.  I wished I had brought less clothes and tormented myself with these evaluations.  The trail to Refugio Italia is reserved for experienced climbers and trekkers only and I would soon find out why.

I ate my breakfast in the refugio with two American through hikers (hiked Applachian Trail, PCT, and Great Divide Trail), Katy and Jake, who decided to team up with us for the gnarly trip to Refugio Italia with the strength in numbers theory.  The hut warden gave us advice and showed us pictures.

10-11 Feb Esquel

I was able to find Al almost imediately upon my arrival in sweltering hot (97 degrees) Esquel.  Esquel is actually a cute little city with a distinctly Western feel to it.  The downtown area had energy and there were craggy hills surrounding the city in an arid landscape.

July 21-27: Humboldt County

Lily pads in a lagoon

Text later

Carnivorous Darlingtonia californica pitcher plants

Gardian of the Klamath River bridge

July 18: The Tooth

What a long, yet successful, day!

My friend Preston and I set out today with 2 goals in mind: 1.) to climb an easy peak at Snoqualmie Pass called The Tooth (4 pitches of easy rock) and 2.) to rent a U-haul and move all of my belongings out of a storage unit in Seattle down to Portland.  The day progressed as follows:

3:40 a.m.:  Alarm goes off.  I drag myself out of bed half hoping that it is raining so that I can have a reprieve and go back to sleep.

4:00 a.m.: Depart Portland with coffee cup in hand and drive north.

7:30 a.m.: Arrive Snoqualmie Pass

8:00 a.m.:  Start hiking the trail in to The Tooth
We started hiking in heavy fog, but since it had rained for 3 days straight, we were antsy to give it a try.  Within an hour, we encountered snow.  We were glad we had decided to bring boots, crampons and ice axes.  We agreed to hike up to Pineapple Pass and re-evaluate conditions from there.  We didn't think we'd be able to see or that the rock would be dry.  Nonetheless, we pushed on.  We were thankful for a somewhat melted out or washed out boot pack or we would have had difficulty picking out the correct coulior to ascend.  Luckily we ascended above the fog.

The Tooth peaking out of the morning fog

Preston on the approach: don't ask me why, but I can't figure out how to right this pic

Seeing no reason to turn back, we headed up to the right hand side of Pineapple Pass up a small finger of snow.  We crossed a sizeable moat and scrambled laterally and upward to the pass proper.  From here, it took some minor route finding across narrow snow bridges and up 4th class rock to get to the base of the route somewhere around 11:00 a.m.  We roped up.  We had agreed beforehand that we would take a skinny 70M rope, double it over, and simul climb with Preston in the lead.  I have not climbed much rock lately and it seemed that it would be a much faster proposition with Preston on the sharp end.

Preston took a more direct route than the normal 5.4 rock route.  It was just enough to keep our attention, but nothing scary.  He remarked that it is the first time on an alpine climb that he had run out of gear before running out of slings and had to stop and belay me.  

Summit self portrait

On the summit: thought I had corrected the helmet fit issue I had been having.

The view from the summit was spectacular.  Only surrounding peaks, Ranier, and Glacier peaks showed above the fog.  Being ever efficient, I rigged the rappels.  We rapped 4 times back to the notch and I noted a 1.5 hour round trip to the summit- not bad!.  We put our boots back on and did 2 more raps down the gully to the snow field below, one of which was somewhat technical owing to a moat that formed as the snow melted away from the mountain.  The snow had softened significantly since our hike up and we were able to ski on our heels and plunge step down.  We reached our cars at 2:30 p.m.  Not a record time, but then again, we weren't hurrying.

3:00 p.m. Drive to Seattle

4:00 p.m. rent a U-Hual.  This seemed challenging.  We were tired and the U-Hual people seemed, well, not-so-bright.  They didn't have the van I reserved, so they gave me a 10' truck for the same price.  We drove over to my storage unit without ever hitting I-5.  The advantage of having a truck is that everything fit without futzing.  With 2 dollies and my neatly packed 5x8' unit, we cleared and loaded everything within an hour.  The unit is located next to a Tully's coffee and below I-5 in the southern end of Seattle.  Since we did not observe any traffic, one ice coffee later we were on the road.

9:00 p.m.: Back in Portland
We reached Portland without incident and there was even parking in front of Preston's house- a rarity!  Even better, Melissa (Preston's fiance) had dinner ready when we walked in the door.  Like I said, a successful, yet long, day!

July 7-10: Mount Ranier National Park

I felt this strong desire to escape the city.  Couch surfing on the road is just grand, but while on a long term stay it loses it's charm.  Like the old saying goes: after 3 days, guests are like dead fish, they both start to smell.  Trying to avoid this, and feeling the need to roam, I drove first to Seattle to exchange a few things at my storage unit and next to Mt Ranier National Park (MoRa in Park Service speak).

While tanking up at a gas station in Portland, I learned from the attendant that the tags on my car had expired on June 30.  Shit!  Damn!  I fretted over this the entire way to Seattle.  I don't even have an address!  From the coffee shop next to my storage unit, I did web research on the Alaska DMV.  They don't even have a phone number, just e-inquiries.  Thankful, someone responded within 30 minutes, for I did not want to go away for the weekend without having this resolved.  $177 dollars later and the new tags were being shipped to a friend's house in Portland.  BIG relief!  I don't usually screw stuff like this up, but since the post office will not forward DMV info, it is easy to see why I had forgotten.  Now I will be an Alaskan living abroad for the next 2 years.  The downsides I foresee are not be able to vote locally or procure a library card plus a constant threat of jury duty in Alaska.

The view on the drive in of Mt Ranier

With the ugly business squared away, I headed for the Park.  I reached Cougar Flat campground at dusk, quickly set up camp, cooked a dinner of wheat free pasta, chicken sausage, spinach, and parmesan cheese and relaxed with some wine.  I slept exceptionally well in the cool weather.  I had arrived in the Park with some lofty goals of climbing in the Tatoosh Range solo, but the amount of snow thwarted the possibilities.  I was told by the rangers that certain peaks would be real route finders owing to the snow.  Since I didn't have a map and no one really knew where I was, I decided to stick to moderate objectives.  After gathering info, I did a recon of Castle and Pinnacle peaks.  There was snow right out of the parking lot!  I soon donned crampons and ice axe and trudged up to the saddle in incoming weather.  Again, no one knew where I was, so I thought better of pressing on in what could soon be white out conditions.  I returned to camp and went on another hike up to some falls along the Wonderland Trail.  This was snow free being at lower elevation.  I ran into some old friends who were doing a Mazama climb on Saturday.  So, that evening, I ate dinner in their company and also met some newer generation Mazamas who were also doing that climb.

Handsome grey fox along the side of the road

On Saturday, I decided to get some exercise and hiked up to Camp Muir from Paradise.  Paradise was covered in snow- no flowers in July!  The hike is about 5000' feet of elevation gain.  It was still the slog I remembered but it much easier without a 50+ pound backpack.  I longed to climb the peak and had even briefly entertained a solo venture but it seemed like too much effort to be bothered for a wimpy route.  I plodded up to Camp Muir in 3.5 hours.  Not a record breaking time, but respectable.  I moved at a continuous pace pausing only to watch skiiers come down the glacier with envy.  Why hadn't I taken my skis out of the storage unit?  The direct sun on the snow felt like being in an oven.  I was thankful that I brought my white button down "glacier" shirt to shade me.  After a few minutes at Muir I bombed down the mountain in 1.5 hours (good speed!) without ever glissading.

There was a potluck in the campground hosted by the Mazama group.  What great contributions there were!  I cobbled together some chips, mini carrots, and tofu pate, but others had made Morrocan stew, 3 different quinoa salads, desserts and more.  How great is that!

View on the way to the Camp Muir

The next day, I went with a subset of the Mazama group to climb Castle Peak.  I led the charge up the approach to the saddle of the mountain having just pioneered a route through the snow days before.  We walked at a casual speed, no one was in a hurry, though we needed to be back in the parking lot by 2:30 and we hadn't began until 9:30 or 10:00.  We made our way over the saddle then upward on a snow finger on the back side.  We scrambled up some rocks on the ridge to appreciate the view while 2 of the guys found the remaining rock pitch to the summit.  All 7 people roped up and climbed to the top then rapped off.  Car to car in 4.5 hours.  Super fun and great to catch up with old friends M&M (one of my climbing instructors when I was a beginner) and Griff as well as meet new folks.

With M&M- my original climbing mentor

Ranier under partly cloudy skies