I had heard GoPros were cool and I know a bunch of people who have them, but I had never been compelled to buy one, and I was lucky enough that I didn't have to. This summer I won a GoPro 3+ camera in a raffle at work. Let me tell you, this thing is awesome and if I hadn't won it, I'd go out and buy one today.
It's super easy to use, it captures really great video and it has some really cool photo options, including time-lapse and burst mode. So far I've only made a couple of videos, but I've shot a lot more footage that I'll eventually do something with.
Check out my vids below.
Enchantments:
Enchantments Traverse from Joe Pasteris on Vimeo.
Ruth Mountain:
Ruth Mountain from Joe Pasteris on Vimeo.
Showing posts with label Washington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Washington. Show all posts
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Monday, October 22, 2012
12 Months of Skiing
Yesterday I went skiing on the Muir Snowfield on Mt. Rainier and it marked my 12th consecutive month of skiing in Washington. This is the second time I've skied every month of the year (although, not in back-to-back years) and it can sometimes start to feel a bit like a chore in September and October. Fortunately, the Cascades received early-season snowfall this past week and it greatly improved the conditions compared to last month.
In September, Dustin and I went up onto the Muir Snowfield and found sun-cupped snow covered in a layer of volcanic dust. Not the greatest skiing conditions, but it was a beautiful day to be out.
Yesterday, with probably about 8 - 12 inches of new snow, the sun cups and dust were well buried but there were rocks hiding just enough to trick you into thinking you could let it rip. Dustin and I were conservative and tried to protect our bases. Other skiers were a little more bold and will be paying a local ski tech for it.
Let's hope the cold, snowy weather continues and many, many powder days are had!
In September, Dustin and I went up onto the Muir Snowfield and found sun-cupped snow covered in a layer of volcanic dust. Not the greatest skiing conditions, but it was a beautiful day to be out.
Yesterday, with probably about 8 - 12 inches of new snow, the sun cups and dust were well buried but there were rocks hiding just enough to trick you into thinking you could let it rip. Dustin and I were conservative and tried to protect our bases. Other skiers were a little more bold and will be paying a local ski tech for it.
Let's hope the cold, snowy weather continues and many, many powder days are had!
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| Snowy slopes on Mt. Rainier in October |
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| Dirty September snow on the Muir Snowfield |
Monday, August 20, 2012
Skiing in August
This poor blog just continues to get neglected.
In the interest of simply posting something, anything at all really, this is going to be short and sweet.
Ben, Dustin and I got in some August skiing this past weekend on Mt. Rainier. We drove down on Saturday, secured a permit from the Carbon River Ranger Station to camp in the Ptarmigan Ridge backcountry zone, then drove to Mowich Lake.
The hike from Mowich Lake to Spray Park is only 3+ miles and from there you meander through meadows full of wildflowers to find a campsite. I have visited this area 3 times now and will continue to go back. The easy access to Spray Park brings out all types of folks, but it's still not nearly as busy and Paradise or Sunrise, and in my opinion, it's more beautiful. The views of the mountain are amazing, the flowers are spectacular and the access to snow is fairly easy. The Park Service only allows 2 parties in each backcountry zone, so once the day hikers leave you really feel like you have the place to yourself.
When we reached camp on Saturday, we chilled out for several hours, taking pictures and exploring. Dustin and I threw our skis on and did a quick lap on the Flett Glacier.
We were attacked by some of the worst mosquitoes we've ever experienced in Washington and were forced to retreat to our tents early. I then discovered that my sleeping pad had sprung a leak. Needless to say, I didn't sleep that great on the hard ground.
We woke up Sunday morning to dark clouds and a few rain showers, which delayed our start a bit. Eventually the clouds blew through, the sun came out and we had great weather for the rest of the day. We left camp around 8:30, climbed the Flett Glacier, crossed onto the Russell Glacier where Ben and I skinned up to about 8,700 ft. before turning around. We had to hop a few little cracks, but other than that the route was in great shape. Views of the Mowich Glacier and Mowich Face were jaw dropping. The skiing wasn't pretty good, too!
I will post more pictures later, but here are a couple I snapped with my iPhone and ran through Instagram.
In the interest of simply posting something, anything at all really, this is going to be short and sweet.
Ben, Dustin and I got in some August skiing this past weekend on Mt. Rainier. We drove down on Saturday, secured a permit from the Carbon River Ranger Station to camp in the Ptarmigan Ridge backcountry zone, then drove to Mowich Lake.
The hike from Mowich Lake to Spray Park is only 3+ miles and from there you meander through meadows full of wildflowers to find a campsite. I have visited this area 3 times now and will continue to go back. The easy access to Spray Park brings out all types of folks, but it's still not nearly as busy and Paradise or Sunrise, and in my opinion, it's more beautiful. The views of the mountain are amazing, the flowers are spectacular and the access to snow is fairly easy. The Park Service only allows 2 parties in each backcountry zone, so once the day hikers leave you really feel like you have the place to yourself.
When we reached camp on Saturday, we chilled out for several hours, taking pictures and exploring. Dustin and I threw our skis on and did a quick lap on the Flett Glacier.
We were attacked by some of the worst mosquitoes we've ever experienced in Washington and were forced to retreat to our tents early. I then discovered that my sleeping pad had sprung a leak. Needless to say, I didn't sleep that great on the hard ground.
We woke up Sunday morning to dark clouds and a few rain showers, which delayed our start a bit. Eventually the clouds blew through, the sun came out and we had great weather for the rest of the day. We left camp around 8:30, climbed the Flett Glacier, crossed onto the Russell Glacier where Ben and I skinned up to about 8,700 ft. before turning around. We had to hop a few little cracks, but other than that the route was in great shape. Views of the Mowich Glacier and Mowich Face were jaw dropping. The skiing wasn't pretty good, too!
I will post more pictures later, but here are a couple I snapped with my iPhone and ran through Instagram.
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| View of Mt. Rainier from near our campsite |
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| View of Mt. Rainier and my tent |
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Prusik Peak - West Ridge (5.7) - 09.22.07 - 09.23.07
In what is looking like the last climbing trip of the year, Kyle, Kristy, Brian and I went to climb the west ridge of Prusik Peak. Kyle and I had attempted this climb last year on Oct. 15, but were faced with high winds once we reached the ridge and decided to bail. We hoped for a little better weather this time.
The original plan was to leave Friday night after work so that we could get up early and try to get a permit to camp in the upper Enchantments on Saturday night. While this would mean a longer hike in on Saturday, it would allow us to have a little more leisurely start on Sunday and a shorter hike out. We had to amend our plan when I fell ill on Thursday and still wasn't feeling well enough on Friday to leave. Everyone else was nice enough to wait until Saturday morning to see if I felt better, and if I didn't then Kyle and Brian would go while Kristy took care of me. I woke up Saturday morning fever-free, so I decided to give it a shot.
Leaving Saturday morning meant we had to scratch the idea of camping in the upper Enchantments and fall back on our original, original plan to camp at Snow Lakes. So, this meant a 6 mile hike on Saturday and then 4+ more on Sunday to get to the climb. The 6 mile hike is pretty straight-forward. It does have a decent amount of elevation gain and quite a few switchbacks, but it's not too bad. We didn't leave the parking lot until about noon and I think we were to the camp by about 4:30 PM. We setup camp, ate some alpine mac and cheese and not too long after dinner we were in bed.
Up early, we were on the trail by 5:15 AM. It was crisp and cold. Some of our water bottles even had a bit of ice in them. By about 7:15 or so we were were standing at Lake Vivian with an excellent view of Prusik Peak. After hiking and scrambling for about 45 minutes were at the balanced rock at the base of the climb. The sun had not yet hit the west ridge so it was still pretty cold. Leading out on the first pitch I was wearing a long-sleeve shirt, Marmot DriClime Windshirt, down jacket, hat, gloves and wool socks crammed inside my climbing shoes. It was cold. My feet were practically blocks of ice while I belayed Kyle up. I don't think it was until the end of the second pitch that the sun finally started to hit us. Once in the sun, it didn't take long for me to peal of the down jacket and remove the gloves.
Lake Vivian
Prusik Peak from Lake Vivian
Some friendly visitors
Cold climbin'
I think we did the ridge in 6 pitches. You could definitely do it in 5 or less, but I led a pitch up a lichen-filled crack that clearly was not on route. This got us up to where we could have just scrambled to, but that wouldn't have been nearly as fun. Kyle led the last pitch to the summit, shimmying his way up an unprotected chimney. The unprotected 5.7 friction slab on pitch 3 was really pretty straight-forward. By Darrington standards it felt like 5.5.
Kyle after the 5.7 friction slab
Oh the exposure!
Climbing a lichen-filled crack. First ascent?
Kristy and Brian summited shortly after us and we chilled for a bit and then prepared for a long descent. Two double-rope rappels got us down far enough to where we could scramble back over to the balanced rock. We gathered our things, ate some food and then scrambled back down to Lake Vivian. My malfunctioning SteriPen purifier was still not working and we were too thirsty to mess around, so we just drank the water from the Lake. No negative symptoms to report as of this posting. By this time it was about 4 PM and we still had 10 miles to hike out. We knew we would be breaking out the headlamps in a few hours.
Kyle on the summit
We all made it
Kyle does a jig on the summit
The hike out was for the most part brutal. It was somewhat pleasant before then sun went down, but then it was just a long slog. We were at camp by about 6:30 PM. We broke that down and kept on hauling out. Kyle and Brian were to the car a bit ahead of Kristy and I, but I think we arrived at about 10:30 PM. Exhausted, and still with a 2+ hour drive back to Seattle. And this is supposed to be fun?
The original plan was to leave Friday night after work so that we could get up early and try to get a permit to camp in the upper Enchantments on Saturday night. While this would mean a longer hike in on Saturday, it would allow us to have a little more leisurely start on Sunday and a shorter hike out. We had to amend our plan when I fell ill on Thursday and still wasn't feeling well enough on Friday to leave. Everyone else was nice enough to wait until Saturday morning to see if I felt better, and if I didn't then Kyle and Brian would go while Kristy took care of me. I woke up Saturday morning fever-free, so I decided to give it a shot.
Leaving Saturday morning meant we had to scratch the idea of camping in the upper Enchantments and fall back on our original, original plan to camp at Snow Lakes. So, this meant a 6 mile hike on Saturday and then 4+ more on Sunday to get to the climb. The 6 mile hike is pretty straight-forward. It does have a decent amount of elevation gain and quite a few switchbacks, but it's not too bad. We didn't leave the parking lot until about noon and I think we were to the camp by about 4:30 PM. We setup camp, ate some alpine mac and cheese and not too long after dinner we were in bed.
Up early, we were on the trail by 5:15 AM. It was crisp and cold. Some of our water bottles even had a bit of ice in them. By about 7:15 or so we were were standing at Lake Vivian with an excellent view of Prusik Peak. After hiking and scrambling for about 45 minutes were at the balanced rock at the base of the climb. The sun had not yet hit the west ridge so it was still pretty cold. Leading out on the first pitch I was wearing a long-sleeve shirt, Marmot DriClime Windshirt, down jacket, hat, gloves and wool socks crammed inside my climbing shoes. It was cold. My feet were practically blocks of ice while I belayed Kyle up. I don't think it was until the end of the second pitch that the sun finally started to hit us. Once in the sun, it didn't take long for me to peal of the down jacket and remove the gloves.
Lake Vivian
Prusik Peak from Lake Vivian
Some friendly visitors
Cold climbin'
I think we did the ridge in 6 pitches. You could definitely do it in 5 or less, but I led a pitch up a lichen-filled crack that clearly was not on route. This got us up to where we could have just scrambled to, but that wouldn't have been nearly as fun. Kyle led the last pitch to the summit, shimmying his way up an unprotected chimney. The unprotected 5.7 friction slab on pitch 3 was really pretty straight-forward. By Darrington standards it felt like 5.5.
Kyle after the 5.7 friction slab
Oh the exposure!
Climbing a lichen-filled crack. First ascent?
Kristy and Brian summited shortly after us and we chilled for a bit and then prepared for a long descent. Two double-rope rappels got us down far enough to where we could scramble back over to the balanced rock. We gathered our things, ate some food and then scrambled back down to Lake Vivian. My malfunctioning SteriPen purifier was still not working and we were too thirsty to mess around, so we just drank the water from the Lake. No negative symptoms to report as of this posting. By this time it was about 4 PM and we still had 10 miles to hike out. We knew we would be breaking out the headlamps in a few hours.
Kyle on the summit
We all made it
Kyle does a jig on the summit
The hike out was for the most part brutal. It was somewhat pleasant before then sun went down, but then it was just a long slog. We were at camp by about 6:30 PM. We broke that down and kept on hauling out. Kyle and Brian were to the car a bit ahead of Kristy and I, but I think we arrived at about 10:30 PM. Exhausted, and still with a 2+ hour drive back to Seattle. And this is supposed to be fun?
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