Treacherous Trail

On August 19 I activated Tidbits Mountain, W7O/CM-089 - or so I thought. First let me tell you about the hike, because it’s a nice trek.

Activation of Mount Langley, 14,042 feet, High Sierra's of California, Inyo County.  Sunshine, blue sky & endless granite...but with a little price to pay.

 The Hike (Scramble) is 4.75 miles south - southeast of Mount Whitney, California, and 9.5 miles southwest of the town of Lone Pine, California. This was a father / son outing with my 28 year old son, who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Sherman Oaks (sea level), and I, a 62 year old who resides in Bellevue, Washington, at the high altitude of 728 feet.

It was raining steadily as we left the Willamette Valley Friday morning. Radar showed that a band of showers were over our activation site but we pushed on being always optimistic (heck I'm a QRPer, I've got to be optimistic!) We arrived at the Maxwell Butte Snowpark parking lot ahead of schedule.  I figured that we would be on the summit in a couple of hours, maybe an hour ahead of time. Optimistic, like I said...

First Activation of Cirque Peak, 12,900 feet, High Sierra's of California, Inyo County.  Sunshine, blue sky & endless granite...but with a little price to pay.

The Hike (Scramble) is 5.25 miles south - southeast of Mount Whitney, California, and 10.5 miles southwest of the town of Lone Pine, California. This was a father / son outing with my 28 year old son, who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Sherman Oaks (sea level), and I, a 62 year old who resides in Bellevue, Washington, at the high altitude of 728 feet.

Little Tahoma is a 11,138 ft summit on the east flank of Mt. Rainier. The route requires crossing the Frying Pan and Whitman glaciers. From the trailhead it is about 7400 ft of elevation gain and often done as
an overnight trip. We wanted some exercise so we decided to do it in a day.

We set a moderate pace and made good time up to the Frying Pan glacier. The snow was still hard enough that we only sank a few inches. There were some small crevasses starting to open up. One in

Tuesday last week, with the help, support, and expertise of friends and an experienced mountaineering guide, I summited Mount Hood for my first time, and activated Mount Hood for its first time in SOTA. The climb began under a crystal clear starry sky around 00:37 on Tuesday, 11 June 2013, heading up the snowcat-groomed climber’s trail from Wy'East Day Lodge at Timberline Lodge. At midnight, I had met my guide, Rodney Sofich, at the Climber's Register just inside the day lodge to discuss what I was about to undertake.

Most of the Oregon south coast summits are accessible only by dirt roads.  access to summit bases are on un maintained dirt roads.  Since the South Coast gets, on average, 6 feet of rain a year, well, you can imagine what a steep unmaintained dirt road looks like. 

Note that there is another Idaho "Squaw Butte-W7I/SR-089" and that this "Squaw Butte" is also the name given to the long ridge just to the east of this two-pointer. However, the ridge and it's associated peak, "Squaw Butte South" doesn't have the required prominence for SOTA. But hey, the real peak is only a few miles away. 

You'll be in good company when you climb Greenleaf Peak - Botanist David Douglas was there in September of 1825 without a road or trail. You might think that a hike starting under power lines would not be particularly remote or wild - but once you leave the service road you'll be thinking differently. It's a summit that rarely sees visitors - you might do yourself (and those that might follow) a service by wielding a machete on some of the more overgrown parts of the trail.

Here's a fairly easy SOTA summit not too far from Boise. It has good views from the top and some simple navigation challenges as it's cross country with no trail. This could be a good summit to try out using a GPS - it might help you end up in the right place.