Oakridge 24 and a Broken Pedal!

Here is the race report from the Oakridge 24 hr Race...

Well Roger and I took off Friday morning for Eugene. We were pretty proud of ourselves for getting our two-person kayak on top of my car and then Roger's one person kayak inside the Explorer - very impressive. We meet up with Jared and then headed off to Oakridge. We checked in and then headed back to Jared's for some great pasta and some entertainment from Boden. Saturday we set off back to Oakridge. For the start of the race, we were driven up about 40 miles up near June Lake and the North Fork of the Willamete river. The start of the race had everyone run out to June Lake - pick up maps and passports and then head back to our bikes. Once on our bikes, we started a truely epic singletrack ride along the Willamete River. I am guessing the bike leg was around 35+ miles. To start the leg, Roger quickly realized that he front shocks were toast - thus over every bump, he would bottom out. This became a real problem as the singletrack was pretty technical. Roger did a couple of pretty epic endos as his front shock would compress and stay compressed - sending him over the handlebars. On one step switchback, I came to all that I could see was Roger's bike upside down in some trees - No Roger. I peered down the end of the steep turn and there was Roger - in a heap cramping up! However the bike issues soon migrated over to myself as somehow I damage one of my pedals. my clip-in point was completely managled, thus I could not clip in. This was not much fun as my foot kept popping out causing great frustration.

OAKRIDGE 24HR RACE UP NEXT!

This weekend we are off to Jared's neck of the woods for a 24hr race in Oakridge. This race is part of the Big Blue series, which we are excited to compete in. We have competed two times in the Tahoe Big Blue Race which were both great races. The race starts on Saturday at 10am. Post race reports and pictures to follow!

Beast Winter Championship

Through some crafty navigation by Dave and a great team effort, team Superfly Snuka pulled off a 1st place finish at the chilly 2006 Beast Sprint Race Championship.

Goat Rocks Traverse

I had been wanting to do a complete traverse of Goat Rocks for quite some time, seemed like a great ridge traverse with several miles of trail running possibilities. I meet up with Jared at 5am in Morton, WA, from there we set up for the Snowgrass Flats TH. We were rolling by 6:45. The trail was in great shape – flat and soft. After 4 miles we made it up to the Flats. We saw a bunch of campers at the various campsites. The area was a big open meadow, very beautiful, with views of Adams on one side and Rainier on the other. From there we cruised up the PCT. We then turned off onto the Old Snowy trail and proceeded to go to the top of Old Snowy at 7900 and the start of the ridge. From the top there were some amazing views of the ridge that we were going to be traveling on and a great view of Goat Lake which looked spectacular. From there we left Old Snowy and proceeded to follow the ridgeline. From the start we knew that it was going to be a scree filled day. We put on the hard hats and began to roll. The traverse over to Ives peak was fun and took a relative short amount of time. The Ridge is made up of three main peaks: Old Snowy, Ives Peak and Mt. Curtis Gilbert. Going up Ives the scree turned evil. Sort of the one foot up three inches back. We traversed more to the back side of Ives and found some better rock conditions and then proceeded to the summit. From Ives we got a great view of the next goal – Mt. CG. The goal was to do the Tieton Glacier route on the North side of the Mt. We cruised down the East side of Ives and made our way to start of the Glacier – Lots of scree! We were continually stopping to empty out the shoes. Next was the Tieton Glacier. Initially I thought our goal was to attain a small saddle on the other side of the glacier. The route to the saddle was very straight forward on fairly level ground. However as we got across the glacier, I realized that our correct route was to go up the glacier, in between two rock formations. Sort of a large chute. The route got pretty steep in places and featured one large crevasse with a snow bridge running across. We decided that we didn’t want to go back and should at least check out the route. So we did. We had a rope (my new 30m shorty), ice axes and in-step crampons. We made our way up to the snow bridge. The snow conditions were great and if we would have had our full crampons things would have been very straightforward. However with only the in-steps it added some excitement to the route. I spent a lot of time trying to kick bomber steps. Crossing the snow bridge was relatively easy the bridge seemed to be quite solid. From there the slope became even steeper as it led us to the top of a small saddle. However, we came across a crevasse that ran the entire length of the slope. We were not able to see it from the lower portion of the climb, so it totally got me by surprise. I brought Jared up to the opening and we decided that a short down climb with a step over was in order. At that point the step across was the only way to go as we were not going to head back down from there. Jared was the brave soul to be the first to step over. We figured that I would have an easy time yanking Jared out of the crevasse than vice versa and once across a better anchor could be set up. Jared made the great step with no problems. I followed and we were on our way to the top of the saddle. From there after a quick stop to refuel. We traversed over to the top of Mt. CG. Really now the real adventure began: getting off the peak! We knew that there was a climbers trail that lead back towards the PCT and the Flats. What we did not know was that the rock was complete trash and the route featured a lot of 4th/5th class moves on horrible rock. The worst part was around the Goat Citadel. As we probably ended up down climbing some low low 5th class stuff. We just kept looking for goat tracks. I would not recommend this route to anyone without fully briefing them on how crappy the rock is. Our goal was a ridge line, which from there we could drop down to the PCT. It was fitting as we hit the ridgeline we saw a large group of Mt goats. It was fun to watch them. From there we dropped into the Cispus Basin area – which was amazing – tons of wildflowers, green and beautiful. This is the place to camp in the area for sure. From there we cruised back to our trail on the PCT and bombed our way back to our car. The traverse took 12 hours. Good times for sure!

Three Sisters Speed Attempt

So Dave and I were flat out rejected in our attempt to climb the Three Sisters and Broken Top, unsupported in 24hrs. We knew the crux of the trip would be accessing the pinnacle on the North Sister, where we hoped the remaining ice would be solid enough to place confident protection. I guess I should not be so surprised that this is where it all went fell apart.

After leaving the Obsidian Trailhead at about 1:30am we planned to attack the North Sister first via the col. It was a delicate balance to leave late enough in the year that the approach trails were not totally snowbound, but there was still enough solid ice to get up the North Sister. We seem to have struck out on both accounts, much of the approach trails were still buried in up to 5 feet of snow. We were basically traveling cross-country immediately after passing the lava flow on the Obsidian Trail. As we were still below the tree line, we could not see any major peak silhouette to get a solid bearing. We simply set the compass and moved as quickly as we could. However, once we hit the deep snow, running was out of the question.

We still made decent time up to the col with our gore-tex trail runners. This cut a lot of weight off our feet and allowed a slight jog on modest slopes. We were climbing the North Sister proper by 6:00. However, we really slowed down as the altitude and mixed scree, sand and soft snow made climbing a chore. Forty-five minutes later we reached what is know as the "terrible traverse" - an aggressive (50-75 degree?) slope over a several thousand foot fall. We had hoped to be able to set up anchors and cross with a running belay, but even at almost 10,000ft at 6:45am it was well above freezing and the ice was quite rotten. We might have been able to get across, but returning an hour later in even warmer conditions would have been down right idiotic. So, only six hours into our adventure we knew the record was not going to happen.

We went on to tag the middle sister summit and might have made the loop with Broken Top in close to 24hrs, but who knows we were a bit pretty cooked with what we did. It may make more sense to bring skis and make a winter attempt next year? All in all, a great day in beautiful mountains. We'll be back. Thanks all for your support.

Mt. Saint Helens Circumnavigation

Mt. St. Helens 9-9-2006

Jared and I meet up at about 7pm on Friday night. The goal was a long training session with lots of miles on foot and some great biking. Our first stop was the Ape Cave, which is a 3 miles lava tube – the longest in North America. The cave was amazing. We hiked down about 1.5 miles (the main entrance is in the middle of the cave), the floor was flat and travel was easy. We had on headlamps as the cave is obviously completely dark otherwise. When we reached the end we turned around and headed back. The portion of the cave from the middle to the upper entrance is much more difficult as it features lots of lava rock. It also has one section that requires a little scramble move. There was lichen growing on the cave walls that would reflect light, which made it really interesting and beautiful in the cave. We did see several bats coming in and out of the cave. After the cave we headed back to the car. Our original plan was to head over to the Lewis trail and do some biking, however we really only had a 2 hour window for this and it included at 45 minute drive. So we drove to the Ape Canyon Trailhead and caught a couple hours of ZZs. The alarm went off and 2am and got up and starting getting our gear ready to go. The plan was to bike up the Ape Canyon Trial about 5.5 miles to where it intersected the Loowit trail. The ride up was fun, the trail was smooth and the climb although steady, it wasn’t a complete back-breaker. Although with the amount of water we were carrying we both felt pretty weighed down. We hid our bikes in trees and then set off on foot. It was about 3:30 when we set off on the Loowit trail. The first 5 miles over to the June Lake Trail head were slow and tough. A mixture of scree and lava rocks made for some tough going, not to mention that we were traveling via headlamps. From the June Lake TH the trail climbed quite a bit up to the climbers trail crossing. Thus the first 8.5 miles proved to be the most difficult section of the trail by far. The next major crossing was the Toutle River area, where to go across a canyon that was about 50 yds across we had to travel 3 miles, lose 500 ft and then gain 500ft. At the river crossing we stopped for lunch, which consisted of some PBJs and Goldfish. After getting by the river canyon, we started to make our way toward the breach. At this point the terrain leveled out quite a bit, however feature several little up and down ravines that were prevalent throughout the trail. We were both pretty excited to reach the breach, although we were not able to see into the crater as much as we would have liked, it was still very impressive to see the devastation. The area was a total desert. At this point we passed a couple of streams that appeared to be tainted with volcanic activity and viewed a beautiful array of multi-colored lava rocks. There are a couple of waterfalls that are flowing off the remaining crater in the breach and steaming hot from contact with the active volcanoe. Next we crossed a stream that was being feed from an underground water source. This, along with the Toutle River, were the two confirmed water spots on the trail. Although we found a couple of other spots that would have worked. It was interesting to see lots of plant life growing around the stream, vs. the emptiness of the area. From there we climbed up to Windy Pass and spilt a Cinnamon Crunch Bagel – good stuff! After that we made our way down into the Plains of Abraham, which is a desolate, but beautiful flat area. From there it was another 2 miles back to our bikes and then back down the trail. A great trip! We both actually thought that the course would have been a little more difficult. The traverse took us 11 hours - we had thought a min. of 12 hours. We ending up just doing a fast hike the whole time – no real trail running as it seemed pointless as we were hiking as fast if not faster then our running pace. The trail has lot so different distance estimates – around 30 miles. The biking in and out was 11 miles. It was a fascinating place to visit for sure.

Mt. Hood - March 2007

Hit Timberline at about midnight, geared up and signed in. We were off before 12:15. The first few hours were pretty uneventful, we climbed and climbed and the temperature kept dropping and the wind picked up. Amazing stars and milky way, with the mountain silhoutte in front of us. We saw a few shooting stars as well. My nalgene mysteriously popped out of my backpack and disappeared into the darkness below - but other than that, all was smooth.
As we approached 9000' everything really iced up and got steep, so we put on the crampons. Everyone had shells and hats on by this point, but we were moving pretty quickly so we kept warm. Switchback city for the next hour until we hit the approach to hogsback ridge, which was a long traverse on a fairly aggressive slope. I know the angle and distance of the slope really tested Andy's injured knee. At this point the altitude was also starting to come into play, light head and weaker muscles were present.
We finally hit Hogsback with a nasty sulfer smell around, but still managed to clean off a ton of food, including at least half a can of pringles between Andy and myself. Dave wasn't eating much due to his typical "altitude fasting." It was windy and cold, so we didn't stay too long. We roped up with me in the front, Andy and then Dave.
We worked our way up the ridge, hugging the downwind slope for a little protection. Things got progressively steeper as we sidestepped our way up.
After about 40 minutes we hit the bergschrund. She was big and deep. I took about 10 minutes scouting it out as Andy came up closer to the lip to give me a solid belay. There was no obvious snowbridge without a big traverse, but a few spots you could jump over if you could trust the lips.
With a solid ice axe plant and a bit of adrenaline, I popped over. I set up a belay and Andy and Dave followed in the same spot. Coming back down, with the sun up, I realized just how wide that sucker was - I'm glad we crossed it in the dark the first time. We followed the ridge up another few hundred yards until it hit a vertical wall. It got quite steep here - maybe closing in on 50 degrees? I hit the base of the wall and set up an ice axe belay.
No more than two minutes later through the wind I faintly hear Andy yell "falling" and the rope snaps tight and but holds well. He quickly yells "OK" and makes his way up to my position.
At this point, there is no way to continue up, but there seems to be a traverse around a modestly exposed ledge onto another even steeper face leading to the chutes above. With Andy's belay I head around and find the going to be fairly straight forward. I set up anchor and bring Andy around and Dave follows. It is steep climbing to the base of the chute we chose, solid axe plants and front point kicking the whole way up.
The base of the chute had a nice ledge, which was crucial because it started out with a 10 foot step of mixed ice and frost (I think Andy may have got a pic of it?). At this point, the excitement of the climb wiped out any fatigue and I was feeling strong and energized. I worked my way up the step with some trial and error axe plants and a lot of front point kicking.
After about 20 feet there was a spot where I could set up a reasonable anchor and bring Andy and Dave up. It was still dark, but some light was starting to come through. There was a constant fall of ice chips in the wind, but no major chunks yet. The chute opened up a bit and we ran a few more belays up to the top. It remained quite steep, but manageable. Then, when I was about 15 feet from the top bench, I heard Andy relay a yell to "bear down!". Dave's crampons had blown - I'll let him tell that story, but I don't know how he got up the slope without them on. I guess it was one pull-up after another. Andy and I got the ledge and set up a double anchor as Dave worked his way up. This is where we enjoyed the beautiful "mountain shadow" and a few moments of peace. It was certainly nice to be on level ground for a bit. Andy dropped his phone and we laughed as we watched it fall for what seemed like minutes.
We ate and drank and then wandered along the summit ridge to the top. The wind was killer up there, so despite the crystal clear views we didn't stay long. My camera was frozen, but I think Andy managed to get a few quick pics. Less than a minute later we were on our way back down. We REALLY didn't want to go down the way we came up, so we followed the ridge a bit to try and find the old climbers route. Dave was right that we should of followed it farther, but after consulting the map, we decided we just have to suck it up and head down. Going down was worse than going up. The ice fall was picking up, the wind was picking up. It was now impossible to communicate with someone 15 feet away the wind was so bad. Dave had to make the descent with only a bottom belay, so if he fell at the top of any of the pitches he would have had a nasty fall. I think Dave and I both had the idea of just sacrificing a picket and rappelling down, but the snow quality wasn't that great and it would be tough to trust it. It took a long time to slowly make out way down. Down climbing the last step was particularly dicey, but we managed. As Andy was belaying Dave down that last piece a large ice chunk exploded off his helmet and cut his forehead a bit. We had all been pelted with little chunks for the last 45 minutes. This was not a good place to stay. But as we were getting set to drop, we heard a ringing
in the shin deep ice chips below. It was Andy's phone, buried a foot deep.
That thing had amazingly survived the fall and been funneled right down the chute to our position. If it didn't ring right at that moment, we would have just gone on down. Crazy coincidence.
I dropped down the next pitch and set up anchor. As Andy was coming down a large ice chunk came flying my way and nailed my right leg. I was surprised at the force of the impact and got a nice bruise, but at the time, I was so focused that I didn't really spend much time thinking about it. Many more pitches, around the ledge and down to the top of the bergshrund. In daylight, seeing the whole deep blue darkness of the thing, I was even more scared to cross now than going up. With an awkward ice axe plant and a long dangling bridge step down we were able to get a foot across and then lower ourselves completely. You could now see that we were trusting an ice cornice with our full weight.
Once we were all passed, we were pretty much in the clear. We worked our way to the bottom of the ridge and sat down to rest and unrope. My arms were beat and even tying up the rope seemed like a big task. On our way down we spoke to someone going up who said that we just took some unnamed "alternate chute" to the top, between the Pearly Gates and the Old Climber route, but who knows if they were right?
It was a long, pounding descent. The miles just dragged by. Andy attempted a few glissades, but there was not much doing with the ice conditions. We made it back to the car around 2:00? We all felt pretty beat up, but definitely feeling good about the adventure. I was expecting a pretty easy trip, but was pleasantly surprised by the challenge we met. Beautiful mountain. I'll definitely be back.
Long drives home for all. Luckily I had Rebekah with me to drive - I bet it was rough for Andy and Dave.
- J

Wicked Ocean

Wicked Ocean Race Report 10/1/05

This was our first race put on by Wicked AR and our first race on the ocean as a team. We arrived at race HQ, were checked in, got our race packets and vests and then headed up to Cannon Beach to look for a hotel. We had planned on camping but the thought of organizing all of our gear in the rain did not seem like a very appealing thought. So we checked into, I think, the cheapest hotel in the area. The next morning we got up dropped off our kayaks and bikes. We noted that most everyone else had sleek ocean touring kayaks with rudders. The race started on the ocean shore on bikes. Everyone except for a couple of teams rode on the shoreline to CP1. Great way to start the morning, except the sand can play tricks on your drivetrain. After checking into CP1 it was off to TA2 on Highway 101. The route was uphill for most of the way except for a short decline as we made our way to the TA. We dumped our bikes and gear here and then set off on foot. From here we started out on one of the trails in the park, but then quickly headed up a “trail”, really it was a drainage pipeline, until we found an old road. We headed up the road. Only fifteen minutes into the race we were totally alone. On the hill Jared noted that his knee was starting to scream at him. He pulled out some Advil and started popping them like candy. The road eventually came to an end and through the brush we were able to find the trail that we were looking for. Stepping onto the trail was incredible as it was much darker on the trail and such a cool contrast to the more open road. Once we hit the trail there was an important decision to be made -which way to go! The correct way and the way that Jared had us go was counter intuitive as you started out going the wrong direction, however the trail slowly bends around to put you in the right direction. This is where we saw DART coming the other way. We kept going the same direction as Jared was positive that we were on the correct path. Although when the best AR team in the Northwest is going the other direction from the way you are going, you do start to wonder. We continued on the trail and ended up running this section of trail with the eventually wining team Time is on my Side – or should a say solo competitor. She was cruising through this section of the race with a big smile. We eventually came to a road crossing (the one before the 101 crossing) we proceeded to head towards the ocean at this point. This is where we made the blunder of the race. Somehow in plotting out our route we managed to leave out CP2. I think because it really was the third point during the race that you had to acquire ( after CP1 and TA2) so it seemed logical to hit CP3. Somehow in the rush of the morning, we assumed it was for the sport course. Bottom line, we were complete idiots who rushed into a decision. Hopefully we can learn from this mistake . . . but this is not the first time we have made quick and WRONG decisions! We were even told by Team Time is on my Side (the race winner) that the correct way was to stick to the trail. Of course hindsight is twenty-twenty. We did not realize that we had really made a huge error until reaching CP3 and were asked “Did you not hit CP2?” – our response “CP2?!?!?!?” I will say that running on the ocean to CP3 was one of the best sections of the course – especially right by CP3, around Cape Horn, where you were able to duck through the opening in the rocks. We assumed you could get around (to get back to CP4), but we had no idea if we were just running into a cliff. When we first got to CP3 we thought cool we are in second place. Shortly after we got there Team Time is on our Side cruised in – meaning if not for the blunder we would have been right behind her. But you have got to do the race in order so we heading back to CP2. It was here that it was apparent that Jared’s knee was not going to make it. His comment “I have had 6 Advil in the past thirty minutes and the pain is getting worse.” Here is where a tough decision was made. Stay as a unit or finish as a two-person team. Roger was fired up and chomping at the bit to get going and going fast. I am usually the start as a team finish as a team type of person. At Jared’s urging, we decided to finish – heck we did already pay our money, might as well get the exercise! We headed back to CP2 running by just about every team on the course – in the other direction. (I know they all thought we were crazy) We broke off with Jared just above CP2. He walked back to CP2 and then headed back to race HQ. After getting to CP2 we then headed back to CP3 to make sure that we did the course in order – running to hopefully make the cut-off. By this time the short cut by the rising tide was closed so back up past CP2 we went – what a bummer! I took over the navigator role. Our new goal was to finish the race, but to pass every team that did not make the cut-off at CP3. So away we went back past CP2 on our way to CP4. Before we hit CP4 we were able to meet our goal – we had passed everyone who did not make the cut-off. Hit CP4 (which was in a great location) then headed back to TA2. At TA2 I personally hit another small low. When we came into the TA we were right with a two-person team, thus the volunteers thought we were one team. Thus we did not receive an orienteering course map. Roger and I got our bike gear ready, only to realize that we had some more trekking to do. Next I got a race saving tip from our fellow racers that the CP markers on the map were not close to the points - thus I avoided leading us vastly astray. (In my mind I repeated an announcement from the morning meeting – “I put the CP markers of the map away from the points so that you would not lose any topo information”) We hit the CP’s 5 and 7 without much fanfare. After that we jumped on the bikes and hit CP8. We took 101 rather than the forest service road. Which seemed to be the best route as we passed a team that was in front of us. Then it was back to CP1. When we got there the volunteer said that we were only the fourth team to hit that CP. We thought that seemed crazy, but I guess everyone missed it thinking it was time to head back to the kayaks. I guess we were not the only team prone to oversights. (Although after seeing that there was only a half-hour time penalty – we would have for sure skipped CP2 and taken the penalty as we lost at least that much time running back to CP2 and probably 40 minutes more from not being able to take the coast out. Total lost time of over an hour – plus a lot of extra energy was used) Next was off to the kayaks. Jared actually rejoined us for this leg as it required sitting. He was in a one-person kayak and Roger and I in the GI Joe’s two-person. We had a devil of a time keeping the boat straight – weren’t sure if that was due to the currents in the bay or just poor steering. Drunken sailors we were. We battled some nasty tide and basically had to paddle “up-river” for a while. After hitting the kayak CP’s it was back to the TA and what I was thinking off to have a juicy burger. However after checking in, we were given an O-course map (less 3 CPs). I was like NOOOO! But off we went; it took me a little bit to get dialed – in as I was mad that we still had to complete an O-course. But away we went – hit 4 with ease then on to 8 – which after lots and lots of nasty bushwhacking! I have the scraps to prove it! . We meandered through the thick brush for a while, looking for that magical tree with the punch – but no luck. Since there were not any teams coming nearby we assumed that the O-course had been closed. (Which it had been) Thus we thought maybe we should hit the rest and then come back to 8 if time permitted, as we knew that they wanted to have the course clear in time for the awards, raffle and party. The O course was tough as we were both tired. I know I was personally mental exhausted after going through the ups and downs of the day. Plus it started to rain on us at this point. Roger had some serious chaffing issues and was in pain – I won’t go into detail here. (Although I must point out that despite the pain he was much stronger then myself at this point) We hit 1, 7, 5 and 6. Next was off to 2 and then back to 3, which was near the finish. OCP2 had one exciting moment as we were moving North cross-country to find the punch. I climbed over the barbed wire fence and managed to snag my shorts. My new bike shorts (first ever pair!) It brought back memories of myself trying to run through a barbed wire fence at the Beast Race at Rattlesnake Lake. I typically like to bushwhack through things - not around them. After getting OCP2 we then headed to the beach to head over to OCP3. At this point it pretty much was dark and we figured the safest route was to head back into the park and back to HQ and then head over the dune to pick up OCP3. Plus we figure that people might get a little bit worried as everyone was supposed to finish before dark. Good thing as OCP3 had already been taken down! When we got back to HQ Shane was happy to see us and gave us both hugs. Turns out we were the last team in. Everyone was starting to get a little bit concerned. Although we were fine and in good sprits – still a little miffed that we could not find OCP8. Jared was there waiting for us as well. He told us that he knew that we would do everything we could to finish the course. The best part about finishing was there were burgers waiting for us even though everything was being taken down. Big thanks from Roger and myself to all of the volunteers. Especially everyone who hooked us up with food and drinks – those were some great burgers. It was an Epic race for us. Lots of way-ups and lots of low points. I got to navigate most of the course which was good – learned how critical it is to keep a level head as the navigator versus just a racer – as wasted a lot of navigation time just being mad and frustrated – when I should have been navigating. Personally the most difficult race that I have done in terms of mental stress – losing a teammate, navigation, etc., not physical stress as that goes to my first 12 Hour AR where I wasn’t sure I was going to make it back to the finish. The course was just incredible – great job by Shane and his entire crew putting the course together. I heard there were some great raffle prizes. Wicked AR gets two thumbs up in our book.

The first post

So here is the intial post of the Superfly AR Blog - pretty exciting stuff. We will be publishing crazy reports of adventure and mayhem!