101 things in 1001 days

Instead of new years resolutions I made a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days.

I wrote most of it down on Jan 3.
Just figured out that the end date is Oct. 1 2011.

I've aready taken care of a good chunk though :-)

Guest Post: Dan's view of the Matterhorn Peak trip

Ugh... I am lacking behind on posting again!
Until I whip up a report of the trip to Matterhorn Peak, Daniela and I made a few weeks ago here's Dan's report!

Thanks Dan!

July 27 2009

Matterhorn Peak – North Arete

Friday evening, Bjorn and I did the usual rush hour crawl out of the bay area and arrived at a campground just off of Twin Lakes Rd in Bridgeport just about midnight.

Before 6am, we hopped in the car for a short drive to the Twin Lakes trailhead. Our trek started out at 615am. The trail headed through another campground then followed the creek upstream. We passed rushing waterfalls, beautiful wildflowers and enjoyed the views of the mountains surrounding us. Soon we could see our destination in the far, far distance. The path was easy going until we headed away from the creek and up steep sections of rock and boulder field. The going got even harder about 3 hours into the approach when we reached the lake. I, having only a pair of trail runners, had very little grip on the glacier and scree sections which made this approach more difficult then it had to be. Bjorn made quick work of the difficult sections with his trekking poles and solid approach shoes, digging out steps for me to follow in the last steep glacier. I basically crawled the rest of the way up and reached the beginning of the climb at noon.

A pair of very happy climbers was descending the east side and verified we were in the correct place to start to the first pitch. Bjorn led the entire climb, combining the 2^nd and 3^rd pitches to speed things up. Rock quality on the 1^st and 2^nd was shotty but it became increasingly better as we made our way to the summit. We reached the top in good time and I couldn’t have been happier. Thanks to Bjorn, I was able to complete my first “successful” alpine climb. It was about 4p, storms were in the distance, and we made our way off the summit, back to the gear we left at the first belay and got ourselves geared up for the hike back. We knew it would be dark before we arrived at the car and wanted to be passed the lake and hopefully back on well-traveled trail before sundown.

We couldn’t help but create mini rock slides all the way down the scree section to the top of the glacier…that kind of terrain is very tricky and I haven’t mastered a good technique. The glaciers also proved themselves to be just as problematic down as they were going up. After some time of trying to make my way down as if I were descending a ladder (thank god I brought gloves), I said F-it and slid down the whole way on my ass. Oh and by the way, Prana pants are NOT waterproof. Bjorn was making good time above me with his poles and started making incredible time when he slipped, landed on his ass, and zoomed past me heading down to the rocks below. Thankfully we both made it to the boulder fields without injury...only very cold and wet backsides. Shortly after that, we could see the lake and knew the hardest parts of the day were behind us. We followed the trail back to the creek, picked up the pace and made it through most of the remaining boulder hopping before we broke out the headlamps. Arriving back at the car around 1015p, were too tired to do anything but head back to the campground. We were lucky enough to find the same little spot to lay down for a few hours before the alarm went off again for an early start back to the bay area.

Awesome trip and very excited for the next alpine adventure.