More Pics.....

Exhausting!

Can I just say that was probably the most difficult thing I have ever done! Conditions were perfect, but my conditioning was not. I still had a blast. I made it to around 9000ft before throwing in the towel. I saw an amazing amount of wildlife as well. There were Elk, Mountain Goat, and Marmots. Here are a few pics. Pic 4 is Mt. St. Helens, Pic 5 is Mt. Adams on the Right and St. Helens on the left. The last pics are my battle wounds.

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Latitude:46.7854
Longitude:-121.7345
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Time:07/20/2008 20:05:22 (US/Central)
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ESN:0-7373465
Latitude:46.8016
Longitude:-121.7347
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Time:07/20/2008 12:55:27 (US/Central)
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ESN:0-7373465
Latitude:46.7847
Longitude:-121.7417
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Distance:not known
Time:07/20/2008 10:25:13 (US/Central)
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Mt. Hood

Well I got up yesterday morning around 3:00AM to head up to Mt. Hood. I made it to the mountain around 5:30 and get registered and headed out. It was a gorgeous day from climbing. Weather was nice and there was a slight breeze. The snow was heavely snow cuped. There was a couple of open cravasses on the way up but they were easily avoidable. I had a crystal clear view of Mt. Jefferson and the sisters. I made it up to Hogsback and then decided it would be suicide for me to attempt to go any further. All in all it was an AWESOME day.

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Latitude:45.3059
Longitude:-121.7127
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Distance:not known
Time:07/17/2008 12:05:09 (US/Central)
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Latitude:45.3305
Longitude:-121.7085
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Distance:not known
Time:07/17/2008 11:44:55 (US/Central)
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Latitude:45.3526
Longitude:-121.7021
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Distance:not known
Time:07/17/2008 10:47:17 (US/Central)
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Latitude:45.3526
Longitude:-121.702
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Time:07/17/2008 10:44:56 (US/Central)
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ESN:0-7373465
Latitude:45.3494
Longitude:-121.7024
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Distance:not known
Time:07/17/2008 10:04:31 (US/Central)
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Latitude:45.3419
Longitude:-121.7071
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Distance:not known
Time:07/17/2008 09:01:35 (US/Central)
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Latitude:45.3306
Longitude:-121.7086
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Time:07/17/2008 07:56:54 (US/Central)
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Latitude:45.5189
Longitude:-122.8072
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Distance:not known
Time:07/17/2008 06:16:19 (US/Central)
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Here at last!

As you can tell by my SPOT checkin below I am now in Portland!!! It has be eventful getting to this point. Last sunday I set down at the computer to check the progress of some climbers there were climbing Mt. Adam. I then ran accross a headline that Mt. Adams was on fire! 30 Acres were ablaze. An hour latter 300 Acres, 4 hours later 1000 Acres, a day later 6000! This is not good I thought. Sure enought the south climb trail head was right smack in the middle of the fire. After talking to the Ranger district I found out that the TH would be closed for at least 2 weeks! Ouch time to come up with plan B. I am now planing on tomorrow heading to mount hood and I am going to try to at least make it up to hogsback. Then on Sunday we are going to head to Rainer where we will see how far we make it! But I am jumping ahead. I was suppose to fly out on Tuesday @ 7:15. I had a training class in St. Louis which I got out earlier from @ 4:00PM. That gives me 3 hrs to get to the airport and catch my flight! No problem right? WRONG! No sooner had we left training and got on the hwy, we came to a complete stop were we sat until almost 6:30. Unfortunaly there was a horrible wreck which was litteraly .5 mile infront of us. We got diverted to a side road and finally made it to the airport by 7:00 15 min before my flight. As you guess I missed my flight. They were able to get me out this morning at 6:00AM so all was good. So tomorrow I start my big adventure. Wish me luck. I will be posting SPOT messages all along the way. Stay tuned!

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Latitude:45.5813
Longitude:-122.5735
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Time:07/16/2008 12:46:43 (US/Central)

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Almost There!

Well, I have almost made it to Portland. My flight leaves here from Denver in about 45min. It has been a ordeal to say the least to get to this point, but hopefully it is almost over. I will post more later about the Mt. Adams fire, The 3 1/2 traffic jam, etc. I am so close I can almost taste it.

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ESN:0-7373465
Latitude:38.6498
Longitude:-90.5074
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Distance:not known
Time:07/15/2008 18:21:24 (US/Central)

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ESN:0-7373465
Latitude:38.9267
Longitude:-89.8483
Nearest Location:not known
Distance:not known
Time:07/12/2008 18:58:17 (US/Central)

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15 Days....

Ok, I am down to 15 days. I think I have just about all my gear ready. I am still lacking a few things that I will pick up in portland. Things have heated up in the PNW, but there is still alot of snow. We still have a 3 mile hike to the trailhead, but who knows what can happen in 2 weeks. We also got thrown another curve ball, that are cornices forming on the east side of the crescent ridge, which can lead to avalances conditions, so we might have to find a different route. I am still a bit nervous about glacier travel, even more so after the air rescue on Rainer this last tuesday. Apparently a climber fell 25 foot and got pretty banged up. I am still very excited though. Here is a pic of the my gear so far minus sleeping pad, bag, tent, & clothes. I am hoping to be able to get it all up there on the airlines.... Wish me luck! I was looking at the almanac and noticed that we will be climbing during a almost full moon. This will be awesome because due to the warm weather we will be leaving extremly early in the morning. It will be nice climbing in some moonlight. Hopefully the weather cooperates and we have clear skys! I have been using my SPOT messenger lately, and I am really impressed with it. I think I have the hang of getting messages off, and tracking with it. So I am really excited to see how it does on the climb. Well Happy 4th to everyone!

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Latitude:38.7181
Longitude:-89.8832
Nearest Location: S Main St, Troy, IL, US
Distance: 0 km(s)
Time:07/01/2008 07:07:43 (US/Central)

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