Nepal

In case you didn't know, I went to Nepal. There I met up with Sam and Raquel and after a few days in Kathmandu we headed to Lukla for some trekking.

Sam and Raquel didn't have a lot of time so we planned to head up to Gokyo and back. We took a detour to check out the Mani Rimdu festival at Tengboche and visit Brandon and the Khumbu Climbing Center in Phortse and then up to Dole and Gokyo. There Sam took ill (I woke up to the sound of him puking in the next room). So I climbed up Gokyo Ri alone (with plenty of others) while Raquel watched him. We spent another night in Gokyo and returned to Namche down the valley rather than up over Renjo La to a different valley for the return.

In Namche I said goodbye and they headed back to go to Thailand. I continued up past Tengboche to Somare where I really bonked. I ran out of energy and my stomach had not been processing food all day. I curled up in all my clothes in my sleeping bag under blankets trying to warm up. When I got up I puked. Ugh. The next day I slowly moved up to Lobuche and the next day to Gorak Shep. From there I hiked up Kala Patthar for sunset pics of Everest and others and then the next day went to pseudo Everest base camp on the Khumbu Glacier. By doing Kala Patthar the day I got there I freed up a day so after another night in Lobuche I went over Kongma La on the return and then to Dingboche and back to Lukla. My appetite came back in Tengboche. In Monjo I was woken up by an early morning earthquake (turned out to be a nearby 5.5 or 5.6).

looking down from near Kongma La on a lake with Makalu in the distance and Lhotse on the left 

Back in Kathmandu I was looking forward to a hot shower, but the hotel didn't have hot hot water until that evening. DOH. at least there was plentiful food to slake my returning appetite.

As usual someday I hope to get a trip report up on the trekking complete with some of the 100s of GB of photos I have taken. I'm pretty sure there are a few good ones in there somewhere.

I managed to survive a fair bit of walking up to over 18,000 ft (5600 M or so is the highest I got). There sure are a lot of spectacular mountains there as well as hardy Sherpas carrying huge loads on their backs and Yaks and musk deer and blue lakes and big glaciers and so on.

After another day here in KTM it is on to Thailand and hopefully climbing down by Tonsai.



I have a trip report up for the first part of my travels in Nepal....

http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/nepal2016a.html

Mount Clarence King and Gardiner Peak

Originally Jonathan and I planned a longer trip to the Great Western Divide, but a number of factors including the weather changed our plans to a more modest trip. We delayed another day for weather (wisely it appears) and then hiked in over Kearsarge and Glen passes and into 60 Lakes Basin where we set up camp. The next day we climbed Clarence King and then headed over towards Gardiner but walked past the base in Gardiner Basin opting to head back to camp to swim in the lake before it got too cold and climb it the next day. So, the next day we headed back and climbed it including a most excellent summit ridge. J headed back to camp and I traversed along the ridge passing a number of un-named peaks along the way before dropping down and back to camp for another swim. The last day we hiked out up towards Dragon lake and then south cross country and over the ridge west of Gould and back down. There was a lot of frosty dew - especially the first night. I took heaps of pictures of the lovely scenery. As usual there will probably be a more extensive trip report with more pics to come - I'll post a link here to it if I remember.

Jonathan on the summit of Clarence King

Jonathan picked up mylar balloon litter - it made a nice Thomas the Tank Engine doormat

some of the most excellent summit ridge on Mount Gardiner

Milky Way reflected in a lake

here I am relaxing on a summit

Rae Lake and Painted Lady Peak - quite scenic really

Hurd Peak

Yesterday I hiked and scrambled up Hurd Peak. I started from S Lake and hiked up to Long Lake. From there I cut cross country and started scrambling. I went up the rocky part on the NE slope up a ridge and a gully. The way I went probably up to hard 4th class but I could have made it a bit easier w/ some downclimbing and more careful route finding. From the top of the N ridge I had to traverse quite a bit to get to the true summit. After spending a good bit of time on the summit enjoying the view, eating lunch, and taking some pictures I headed back to the N and then cut down to the west down to some little lakes that were chock full of sierra yellow-legged frogs and tadpoles. It looked like 2 sizes of tadpoles - some that were bigger and sprouting legs and some that were pretty small. They certainly weren't endangered in these little lakes unless they were endangered by overcrowding.

Then I went down to Treasure Lakes (no frogs here) and back down the trail. Back at S. Lake I met a guy who had just finished the N Lake to S Lake loop so I gave him a ride back to his vehicle at N Lake.

Hurd Pk from Long Lake. I went up just right of the rock spire in the center

view from part way up - long lake, chocolate pk, cloudripper, Bishop Pass, etc.

it is always nice to see some friends in the summit register

gratuitous summit selfie

no shortage of tadpoles here

Sierra Challenge 2014 finish - Success?

The 2014 Sierra Challenge is over. It ended with a wimper for me in that I was wimpering. The last day proved especially painful with a bout of gut wrenching vomiting and weakness about 12 miles out from the trailhead. I sure was glad for the Leki treking poles that helped me keep moving and also make great support when puking. In some ways it was a success though as I did manage to summit the challenge peaks all 10 days as well as 6 bonus peaks (and a bonus 1/2 point for the "bat pinnacle"). Unfortunately some others were also felled or pained by stomach issues. I ended up tied for third in the polka dot "king of the mountain" race and was in a distant fourth for the yellow jersey (I was one of only 4 that did all 10 challenge peaks, but my time was much longer than the others). Eric dominated easily winning the yellow, white, and polka dot jerseys - impressive. I felt pretty lousy on days 1,2, and 10. The other days I was tired, but didn't feel so lousy too. As usual we visited some spectacular country and covered a lot of ground and a lot of vertical. I'll make a trip report at some point, but I wanted to get this up in a relatively timely manner. For more details see the links on the previous blog posts about this...

Thanks Bob for organizing this and I am sorry you were unable to make the last day.

also here is a link to an article in the San Jose Mercury News

http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_26373988/silicon-valley-peak-bagger-leads-pursuit-sierra-nevada

Mason on the summit of Langille - day 4

Mason on the slabs next to the waterfall coming out of Dusy Basin day 4

Mason, Luke, and Nick on Piute Pass - day 5 

people heading down from Striped S. I followed Eric along the ridge to Striped (day 6)

Jonathan heading up towards Courte-Echelle (day 7)

zoomed in on previous pic - Bob tries to shoulder stand on Eric to get to the summit

here I am on the top - maybe 5.6 up the side, but a whole lot of exposure

Matt, Nick, Jonathan, Eric, and I on top of Anna Mills - day 10

I am not feeling so good - day 10

2014 Sierra Challenge days 1-3

I certainly can't say that I am feeling particularly fit or strong so far. I have managed to get up the challenge peak and a bonus peak each day, but I just don't feel like I have any pep in my step and my times are pretty bad. Still, I haven't had to use the headlamp yet, although with a 14:25 time on day 1 I was pushing that pretty hard. Thanks to the ability to keep on plodding and my Leki trekking poles I can keep moving, I just can't always keep up with others that are going faster. This has always been the case for downhill trail running, but this year it feels like it for the uphills too. In fact the only time I can really keep up is if the terrain is really technical.

This is a brief trip report. I have more pictures and stories for later...

Day 1 Slide Mtn plus bonus Matterhorn Peak 14:25

there was lots of scenic scenery all over

attempting to revitalize my legs - Matterhorn in the middle left

there were some old m&ms in the register - thanks

Day 2 Mt Andrea Lawrence plus bonus Donohue 14:10

Donohue on the left, Andrea Lawrence on the right

Day 3 Patricia Peak (tribute to Pat Hadley) plus bonus Pointless Peak no times - but about 6 hrs

It took a while for most people to get together, then we had a nice tribute to Pat. Laura even hiked up earlier and left some beer and a poem for the group.

group on Patricia Peak in memory of Pat Hadley. 

ridge on the right to Pointless Peak

Tomorrow is going to be a big day. hopefully I am up for it.

There are some other pics and info on the links in the previous sierra challenge 2014 starts blog post

2014 Sierra Challenge starts tomorrow... gulp

Somehow despite knowing the dates months in advance, the 2014 Sierra Challenge is suddenly here. While I wouldn't say I am completely unprepared, I don't think one can ever be really prepared for something like this, and I think I was better prepared in 2011 and 2012 when I did it before. I only did one day in 2013 because that was when the concrete was poured in my place and because the end was truncated with the tragic death of Pat Hadley.

This year's Challenge averages 16.4 miles a day with 5,820 feet of elevation gain. That assumes you don't get too lost or do additional peaks.

You can see the individual peaks and maps and so on here on Bob's Page:

http://www.snwburd.com/bob/challenge/2014/

It is likely that there will be some updates as the days progress here:

http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/2014-sierra-challenge-aug-15-24-t67565.html

I'll try to have my spot tracker going - it can be seen here:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Dc9Uh3Nfi5gSoXCZcVqStstGq6beNZ8X

Thanks to Bob Burd for organizing this extravaganza of hiking and suffering. It is a lot of work and it is nice to not have to think too hard in trip planning sometimes. To anyone thinking about joining for a day or all the days - do it.

For all the challenge participants, in the words of the Roman gladiators:

morituri te salutamus

Sean and Pat plotting their course in 2013

Church of Grundy July 4th weekend revival and backpacking teaser

Over the July 4th weekend I hosted a Church of Grundy Revival. Basically a bunch of YogaSlacker people visited and we set up slacklines and did acro at the park and climbed and hung out. It was a lot of fun and will probably happen again. Some people stayed on through Tuesday morning for more fun and play and then Tuesday evening I went backpacking with Willow and Jana. Peaks were climbed at midnight, passes were passed, beautiful blue lakes were jumped into, moonrises watched, wildflowers smelled... I will have to write proper trip reports for both of these events, but for now here are some teaser pics.

The trip report can now be seen here:  http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/2014cogjulrev.html

high hand to hand with Leah 

There was a lot of water line failure 

Ariel bases Rob like a boss

Ariel and Rob cook while Kathryn, Paul, and Leah chat and eat at the COG

Kathryn climbing at Iris Slab (the old tilt the camera trick)

Kathryn flying Paul

walking the line

YogaSlacker TT 2013 mini - reunion. Kathryn, Tom, Willow, and Leah

Willow boulders

For our hike we went in over Piute Pass, Snowtongue Col, down to Evolution Valley, up Goddard Canyon, past Davis Lake, through Evolution Basin, Darwin Bench, Lamarck Col and out. I have many pics to process, but here are a few to start. 

A more complete trip report for the hike can be seen here:  http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/wjthike2014.html

There was a search underway for a missing hiker who went in to climb Goddard. We saw a few searchers and lots of helicopters. Evidently he summited Goddard and fell on the descent and crawled down to Davis Lake w/ a broken leg. In the evening a helicopter landed almost next to him to drop off searchers and he managed to signal them by throwing rocks and waving something. The next day we saw a helicopter landing by Davis Lake as we went by on the other side.

Willow flying high bird in the back country

there were lots of wildflowers

cold blue lakes were jumped into (Davis Lake)

A busy few days in the Sierra...

I had a busy few days. Friday I hiked out of S. Lake up past Green Lake and on up to some point overlooking Chocolate Peak among other things.

looking down over Chocolate Peak among other things

Saturday I went backcountry over Piute Pass to the Humphreys Basin and camped by Desolation Lake (still mostly ice covered) with Laura and Matt. Matt's altitudinal woes had us hiking back Sunday instead of an early morning trip out to Four Gables and hiking out. I got a little headlamp bouldering in at the Happys that night with Julie.

happy hour fun

Mt Humphreys as the sun sets

camp below Mt Humphreys

Milky Way over the Glacier Divide

bird nest that Laura spotted hiking across the alpine tundra

Yosemite Toad - Laura's friend

Laura drops in on a big snow wave

Monday I hiked the lakes loop out of Glacier Lodge up the N Fork of Big Pine Creek with Julie - spectacular views. Monday night I bouldered at bro-night.

Julie in front of Second Lake and Temple Crag

Tuesday I rested - except for a little more late evening bouldering.


I'll post more pics and a proper trip report eventually - unless the summer gets crazy busy in which case maybe not.

Last gasp skiing trip teaser

They say there is no snow in the Sierra this year, Laura has been posting pics almost every weekend proving that wrong. For the most part it is above 10,000 feet, which means some effort is required to get to it.

We headed in from Virginia Lakes on Sat May 24. It wasn't long before we had to walk across snow fields and our walking shoes got pretty wet before we switched to skis and started skinning up over the pass and with a little bit of steep snow and rock scrambling and a bit of fun skiing to Summit Lake.

Grey Butte reflected in the small melted part of Summit Lake

home sweet homes

We set up in a dryish spot and relaxed and ate delicious foods. Appetizers were flavored triscuits with brie and gouda and then bacon wrapped sirloin with bacon mashed potatos and pesto... (yes, this was a trip with Laura, so Moose Lodge hospitality was in full effect.

bacon wrapped steak with bacon mashed potatoes and pesto = YUM

The next day we skinned up a nice bowl and then higher on another slope and skied down. That was so much fun we did the bowl again. There were nice clouds making for interesting light. We took lots of pics.

Laura drops into the bowl

and continues to the creek

an epic fail attempt at a handstand w/ skis

That night dinner was my turn for dinner - I brought dehydrated curried lentils with sweet potato. Luckily we still had some crackers and brie and gouda too.

I tried to get some night pics when I woke up at midnight. I got a few, but I couldn't figure out the K3 cameras modes that I thought would help.

Memorial day we packed up and headed out. It was amazing how much less snow there was on the way out compared to hiking in. That meant hiking instead of skiing back from the pass, but it wasn't too bad. Then a stop at the Whoa Nellie Deli and on to the Tufa at Mono Lake to take pics. I got brought out the big lens and took a bunch of detail pics and pics of gulls and osprey.

osprey bringing a stick to the tufa top penthouse suite

same pic - cropped in even more

There will be more details and pics in a trip report eventually. I'll put the link here when it is done.

and here it is:

http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/lastski2014.html