South Buttress on Pingora Peak

September 2, 2020

After hiking into the Cirque the day before, we decided a great intro to the area and really fun day would be to head up Pingora’s South Buttress as two groups of two. We got a leisurely start at about 8:30am and could see many parties on the route already. We were in no rush.

The approach was well-worn and easy to follow, curving away from the Cirque Lake area and scrambling up the lower buttress. We short-roped the approach pitch since we could see two parties waiting at the base of the dihedral above us and then hung out in the sun for a bit on a nice ledge, waiting for our turn.

The route was great—good rock and protection up a fun couple of open dihedral pitches before gaining the open ledge below the K Cracks. We investigated down climbing to continue on 5.6 terrain, but the down climb didn’t look great and the left 5.8 K Crack looked awesome, so we decided to head straight up and boy am I glad we did. The crack was secure and off angle, including some really fun movement with good right hands and smeared feet as it traversed back left. We all had a blast on that pitch and got some great shots as everyone came up.

From there, we scrambled to the summit to enjoy our lunches and soak in more sun. Our descent went smoothly, with a scramble back down to the top of the K Cracks and then 4 raps. Our 70m rope was perfect.

We were back at camp by 5:30pm or so—the climbing and rappelling were both slow due to other parties on the route, but we had plenty of daylight and weren’t in a rush, so it all worked out great.

Mount Baker Artist Point from Maple Falls Ride

August 23, 2020

Looking for more ways to mix it up this summer and capitalize on the bike fitness I’d accumulated during COVID lockdown, I set my sights on the Mount Baker hill climb, starting from Maple Falls.

I got started just after noon and enjoyed rolling terrain with some steps of climbing for the first 20 miles before the proper climb began. While there was certainly traffic on the road, it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared for a beautiful summer weekend.

Knowing the main climb was just over 10 miles, I tried to hold a consistently high effort the whole way and was pretty happy with it. I started fading above the ski area on the final switchbacks to Artist Point, but was able to keep moving pretty well. The stunning views of Shuksan near the end really kept me going.

It ended up being my best estimated hour-long wattage output at ~260w for the main climb after not taking it easy on the first 20 miles, so I was pretty worked, but happy at the top. The descent was a dream, with fun switchbacks and wide-open sections that kept me moving at the same pace as the cars on the road.

Marblemount to Seattle via Barlow Pass Ride

August 9, 2020

Looking to mix things up from climbing and hiking, I decided to hitch a ride with Erica and Anjuli on their way to Hidden Lake Lookout with my bike in the car and have them drop me in Marblemount with the intention of riding home via the Mountain Loop Highway and Barlow Pass.

They dropped me at 9:30am and I got to work. The first set of ~26 miles from Marblemount to Darrington went quickly (1.5 hours) with relatively little traffic headed South in the morning. It was fun to see Whitehorse Mountain come into view and think back on my climb and ski of the mountain earlier this spring with Kelsey. I stopped at a gas station in Darrington to inhale an ice cream bar, a gatorade, and a coke—a shock to the system, but very much needed in terms of calories and cooling. Then I set off for the adventure part of the ride.

Whitehorse Mountain from just north of Darrington

I’d scoped out the Mountain Loop Highway to see how fast folks did the ~14 miles of gravel climbing up to Barlow Pass and decided, despite knowing that I needed to conserve energy for the rest of the ride, that I wanted to push myself on this section to see how I could do. It was fun blasting on well-packed dirt for much of the ride, especially the sections that flattened out. I was on my old road bike with 25mm tires and racing gears, so the steeps and loose sections were especially tough, but the flats were awesome. I nearly kept up with some motorbikes for a while and then finally hit the grind up to Barlow Pass, slowing considerably 50 miles into the ride.

Thankfully, the highway turns to pavement at the pass and leads to a long descent towards Granite Falls, 30 miles down the road. I stopped there for more ice cream and drinks—I must have looked a bit haggard scarfing calories in the gas station parking lot all kitted up.

The ride went smoothly from there. I’d ridden to Granite Falls and back from home earlier this summer, so I knew the way. Snohomish was 100 miles into the ride on the dot. A bit of climbing before Woodinville and I was on the home stretch, riding the Burke Gilman trail around Lake Washington and then finally up Capitol Hill for 133 miles and 5,400 feet of climbing. Really fun to do a point-to-point ride and cover so much ground in the mountains.