Mt. Adams Summit in the Bag

Check Mt. Adams off the list. Now I know what it's like sucking wind at 12,280 feet!

Mt. Adams is the second tallest mountain in Washington, behind Rainier. We took the non-technical South Spur route, gaining 7,000 feet of elevation in a 12-mile, single-day roundtrip. It was a natural stair-climber!

Our start wasn't ideal. Traffic south on I-5 just plain sucked and we didn't get to the campground north of While Salmon, WA, until 11 p.m., a few hours later than we would have liked. We "slept" for a short time through the windy night and woke up for an alpine start at 3:30 a.m., hitting the trail at 4 a.m.

Barely awake:

We took breaks every hour for 15 minutes to let our legs rest and eat. You can really blow through calories climbing. I ate four Snickers bars, four Clif Bars, a half-pound of beef jerky and a half-pound of dried mangos and drank three liters of water over the course of the day.

Scott at a break:

We shed some layers and put on more suntan lotion at sunrise during our third break of the day. Yes, I wore plenty of suntan lotion!

My shadow at sunrise:

Mt. St. Helens in the distance with Mt. Adams' shadow at left:

Looking up at the challenge ahead, about one-third of the way up:

Break time, again:

The hardest part of the climb was between the lunch counter, where many climbers camp, and the false summit. We had been climbing for a few hours and those steps just burned, even with crampons. It was also a bit defeating. Once we got to the false summit, we saw we had another 1,000 feet or so to go.

The view looking up from the false summit:

Mt. Hood from the false summit:

I got a second-wind on the way up to the true summit, and we reached the top in about seven hours. The sky was clear and there was no wind. You really couldn't ask for better conditions.

The summit:

Mike was happy to be at the top:

So was I, with Rainier in the background:

The guys peeing at the top, Rainier at left:

Mt. St. Helens from the summit:

Mt. Hood from the summit:

Of course, the ascent is only half the climb. Walking back down is usually no fun, but Adams had some insane snow slides -- hundreds of feet long -- that made the descent fast and fun...

...but not without injury. Scott destroyed his pinky finger on the first glissade.

Me with the GoPro before a glissade.

Scott's GoPro footage edit, as posted at Cascade Gravity Research:

We made good time on the way down, taking half the time. We had a better commute heading north, and I crashed hard when I got home. I had a couple small blisters on my feet, but no sunburn and little soreness. Overall, it was a successful climb!

House Painted, Mission Accomplished

In this summer of ongoing home improvements, I'm glad to say that the biggest, most expensive project is complete... We got our house painted!

You may have caught on Facebook that I discovered a French-Canadian named Henry Choiniere first owned our house via the Tacoma Public Library Northwest Room. His permit request to build a "cottage" at our address was published in the Tacoma Daily Ledger on Jan. 11, 1903. The house was completed in 1904.

Because his last name is so unique, Amanda also figured out that Mr. Choiniere is her boss's great-grandfather. Cool, huh? Through that family we received the above photo, which I'm guessing someone took between world wars. What a difference time and new paint makes.

I like this photo because it helps tell the story of the house and gives us some design ideas. We oddly don't have a fireplace (which sucks) but I can see where it was and know that it was removed where a closet in our room was added. We're already planning to build a front porch in the next couple years, and the fact that the house once had a porch just reinforces the plan and how we'd set the pillars. We've talked about removing our chain-link fence eventually (not all that classy) and it'd be neat to replicate the old wire fence.

Now on to more before-and-afters of the new paint color compared to what we inherited.

Here's Daisha and Amanda in front of the house in March 2009 when we were closing on it. That front door was awful (and not very energy efficient)!

Here's the "Before" with the new front door installed:

After:

As I wrote previously, the color choice was a soul-searching endeavor, but we're happy we landed with Cress Green. I was in shock and had some buyer's remorse when I first saw the color because it was SO different. After a day, I got used to it and was really happy with the outcome. The trim color made a huge difference, too.

We outsourced the job because I wanted it done right, and our nearby neighbor, school teacher and two-decade painting veteran John was able and willing to take on the work for us. I felt good enough building the fence while the house was getting prepped and painted.

Corner view before painting:

After:

The garage before, with some broken trim:

After:

One final note on house color: You can't please everyone. We asked for the of at least a dozen people about color and received a dozen different recommendations. That helped us narrow colors down but didn't make the final decision easier.

House color is like cake. Everyone likes cake but has different opinions about which flavor, frosting and combinations of the two are best. Amanda and I decided it was our party and we wanted our cake Cress Green. I like to think Mr. Choiniere would have approved of the color or been polite enough to just take ice cream without further comment.

The Epic Fence-Building Weekend

When we bought our house, the fence was an issue. It was incomplete, poorly built and took winds like a sail, bending and flapping with every storm. In short, it was an ugly liability. That was three years ago. Last weekend, while the house was getting painted (I'll detail that in a later blog post!), we finally tackled the fence. Here are the results...

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

I started the demolition of the old fence on Thursday night after work, which only took a few hours.

Amanda jumped in to help when she came home from Seattle.

We dumped the old fencing and picked up new wood on Friday morning before work.

I set the new posts on Friday night so that we'd be ready to build on Saturday morning.

Scott was my partner in crime for the construction on Saturday. Sun's out, guns out!

The Tacoma shirt and Home Depot utility belt is a fashion statement.

Scott cut the 2x4s while I set the brackets on the posts.

After the 2x4s were set, we put the 1x5s on in a "shadowbox" design and completed the bulk of the work in five hours.

You can pay most friends in beer for manual labor. Scott required an ice cream sandwich.

Here's another view of the result!

I built the back gate on Monday night and now (before Fall)  just need to cut off the top of the posts to call this job done. The fence has made a huge difference in the look of our backyard, and I'm glad it's finally done!

Bastille Day 2012 in Ballard

Amanda and I caught up with Katrine last weekend for Bastille Day 2012 in Ballard. We started off walking the Seafood Fair, which had more vendors than seafood, and then headed to a community space on Old Ballard Ave. to play a game of Pétanque (French version of Bocce), sponsored by a local restaurant appropriately named Bastille. (Amanda took the photos that I'm in.)

The community space.

Look at that form!

The (illegal, foot-lifting) form of our foe/Katrine's boss.

Talking trash.

Katrine throwing like a lady.

More trash talking.

This guy was the judge. He was a serious dude.

We beat our opponents, who had held the court for the first three hours and claimed to have been undefeated for the last two years (not so sure about that). Katrine and I decided to retire after our win and drink. I think that's what the French would do, too.

New Zealand in Photos: Part 1

These photos are long overdue, and there are still some in reserves.

Back in February, Sergio had a wedding in outside of Auckland, New Zealand, and I took the opportunity to travel with him and second shoot at the wedding. We spent half a week consumed in wedding activities and the other half getting lost around the greater North Island, roaming from our base in Stillwater between beaches and towns, only limited by my terrible driving on the wrong side of the road. Here's were some highlights:

A view at the winery where we stayed.

The beach at Orewa, the town nearest the winery.

Driving on the right side of the road on the right side of the car was something I never got used to.

A typical view on the roads around Stillwater.

We ventured to the west coast of the North Island to see some beaches famous for their beauty and rip tides.

The view above Piha.

Touchdown.

The view from our feet.

The rock at Piha.

Here's a lot more from Piha.

We drove a little further south to see a less frequented and allegedly more dangerous beach (note the correlation) called Karekare. Apparently Eddie Vedder nearly drowned here surfing. The walk down the stream to the beach was just as beautiful as the beach itself.

Sergio walking into the ocean.

Looking back from the beach.

We took a trail to a waterfall where we learned a scene from The Piano was filmed.

I jumped into a small waterfall pool along the trail and Sergio was convinced it was an old pterodactyl nest. He was probably right.

The falls.

Sunset at Orewa.

Driving into Auckland. The "big city" of the north felt a little bigger than Tacoma but smaller than Seattle. Maybe more like Bellevue if it had a port.

I'll post Part 2 when I grab the rest of the photos from Sergio.