Aerial Mount Rainier, Climbing Route Images

Moving the bear aside... This picture tells a long story. Here is Mount Rainier on May 30, 2006. I was able to capture a few climbing route images during a flight.

A series of recent storms dumped a lot of snow on the mountain. In some places, there were reports of 3 feet. There are rumors that more is expected later this week too. Winter is not over...

Today, however, climbers contended with blue bird skies and light breezes (and quite a bit of postholing.) The tracks indicated that a few made the summit too! Here, two climbers took on the arduous task of breaking trail up the Emmons Glacier... It didn't appear as if anyone else was on the route either. These climbers are at roughly 11,400 feet, exiting the top of the corridor to the left.

Parties were having a hard time making it to Camp Schurman until Sunday, so it's good to see a team getting up the route. This may mark the first successful ascent of the route in 2006.

And here is a nice image of the Ingraham Direct and Disappointment Cleaver routes. The green line traced the visible climbing route up the Disappointment Cleaver. Notice how directly it climbs the spin of the cleaver... Nice...

More images later, this week. All images by Mike Gauthier

Maple Canopy

Taken along Rengo Road on the Grand Portage Reservation in Northeast Minnesota. The Maples were already past their peak but the trees along the road were still plenty beautiful. One nice thing about when the leaves begin to fall is that they usually fall from the tops of the trees first. This reveals glimpses of the blue sky above while the lower halves of the trees still have plenty of color. While most people are concerned only about when the peak will occur each year, I find every stage of autumn to be equally enjoyable.

Delicate Yellow Columbine and a Happy Dance - Finally!

Saturday, June 4th - - We almost made it back from lunch without stopping to take photos of the flowers! Almost, but not quite. These were in the “Pioneer Garden” near the Library.









Photos taken Saturday, June 4th

Oh, and in case you think all we've been doing while in Salt Lake City is photographing the pretty flowers, I did on this day, late in the afternoon, have occasion to do the “Happy Dance” after finding a Deed where the heirs of my 4th great grandmother sold land in 1849 that had been willed to her by her father Andrew Brinker!



Previously all I had was her name Mary C. (wife of Jacob Switzer). Turns out her name was Anna Catharina, aka Catharine. A book with several updates has been published on the lineage and descendants of Andrew Brinker that take me back three more generations (with names of spouses and their parents) to Zurich Switzerland... way cool.



It was an amazing feeling when I read that little sentence in the Deed Book “It being a tract or parcel of land willed and devised by Andrew Brinker, late of Columbiana County, dec'd, to his daughter Catharine Switzer & her heirs..” The transaction was signed by her four surviving daughters and their spouses (whose names I already had from Jacob's estate settlement).



A little squeal of delight. A few tears. Lots of laughter. A “new” ancestor found – the first one in many, many years. Can you say Happy? Oh yeah. I still have the smile on my face!

Mt. Rainier, Kautz Glacier

After climbing the easiest routes on Rainier, we wanted to climb something a little more challenging. So we decided to try the Kautz Glacier.

We crossed the Nisqually Glacier, then we went up a gully called "The Fan." It is full of rocks that break loose each day as it warms up.




We headed up the Wilson Glacier and found a great camp site just below the Turtle Snowfield. The rock wall would serve as a windbreak and there was running water close at hand. Unlike Camp Muir, we did not have 99 people camping right beside us. Mt. Adams in the background.





Jonathan in the kitchen area.





The main challenge of the Kautz Glacier route is a short section of 45 degree ice.










The shadow of Rainier just after sunrise. If you want to get the most out a sunrise, you need to be above 11,000' in elevation!





Jonathan finishing the fun part of the route.





Dave just above the icy section.







One of several large crevasses on the upper mountain.








Dave and Jonathan on the summit. The upper mountain was really windy and covered by a cloud cap.










Doug (holding onto his hood) and Jonathan. We took pictures and headed right back down.










Jonathan found a hidden crevasse on the way down!









Here are 3 tired and hungry climbers just a couple of hours from the car and some real food. Jonathan was able to summit an intermediate route for his first attempt on Rainier! It was fun to climb something new and challenging in this awesome part of creation.

Striped

An exotic leaf in the Berkeley Tropical House.

Wildlife Along the Alaska Highway

In spite of eagerly obeying a multitude of signs imploring me to “Watch for Wildlife on the Highway” I saw very few wild things along the 1400+ miles of the Alaska Highway. But the lack of wildlife may have been due to my driving habits – starting the day on the road between 7 and 8 am and quitting by 6 pm. Apparently (very) early morning and late evening hours are best for seeing the critters.

A large billboard tells me what the signs mean...

Smaller signs, like this one, dotted the sides of the highway.

The guide book that I've used for the drive to and in Alaska is called “The Milepost” and it provides a mile-by-mile breakdown of what to expect along the various highways - from towns and attractions to highway conditions – and it has been a huge help. It too provided some dire warnings about what wildlife to expect and where it would be.

What little wildlife I did see was on August 3rd (my second day on the Alaska Highway) between Summit Lake and Watson Lake (milepost 373-613). Oh, and that bit about not stopping on the highway? Forget it – everyone was doing it whenever an animal was sighted. Besides, the shoulders were nonexistent in many places and those animals certainly never appeared where there were turnouts!

Stone Sheep at 8:20 am near Summit Lake, exactly where The Milepost said they would be! But there was only one, all alone. It was right along the highway just a few feet from the van.

It posed for me for several minutes and was still standing there as I drove away.

Bear at 10:35 am. On the off-chance that I'd see any wildlife I had gotten my other camera out (it has 15x zoom but takes lower resolution images). Otherwise this fella would have been a small dot in the photo! Berries were its idea of a good meal.

These two bears (taken at 12:58 pm) were some distance away when I saw them and stopped. I was able to get just one photo before they scurried off into the forest.

A small herd of Buffalo at 1:20 pm. Another small herd was several miles further on. It is possible that these are “domesticated” buffalo since several of them appear to be wearing a collar of some kind. Or perhaps it is a tracking device?

That's all folks! That's it. That's all there was!
(Well that's all that I saw...)

Note: This post was written at 11:30 pm Friday night using the available daylight only. There was still an orange tint to the western sky. Even later in the night the sky does not get dark. I haven't seen the stars in the night sky since leaving Montana. Temperature was about 55 degrees with a light breeze. And, this is being posted from the public library in the little town of North Pole, Alaska which is about 15 miles south of Fairbanks.

Yard Birds

There has been a flurry of activity at my bird feeders the past two days. The pine grosbeaks showed up yesterday and today they were joined by some blue jays. The blue jays always make such a racket when they are around. There were 6 of them in the big pine tree out in front of my house, but you would have sworn there were 3 times that many by how much noise they were making. The birds hung around for most of the afternoon, and I spent about an hour shooting images of them with my telephoto lens. I have also had flying squirrels at my feeders just about every night, but strangely there have not been very many "regular" ground squirrels at my feeders this winter.