NWOutdoorGrrl

We have an old Minolta film camera and set of lenses on permanent loan from my dad. A small adapter ring was all it took to mount the lenses on Nick’s GF1. The marriage of old technology and new is incredible. Simply incredible.

It might have been snowing hard in Seattle yesterday, but I was on safari with a gang from Digital Photography Challenge, an online community of folks who use informal online competitions to improve their skills. I’m not sure I got anything worth writing home about, but it was a fun way to spend a snowy morning.

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Mark, Laura, Nick and me before things got really stinky!

One day we’ll look back on today and laugh. Stinky Spoke started innocently enough – cloudy and cold. We rode and walked up “heart attack hill” as fast as possible to stay warm then enjoyed the ridge-top ramble toward Redmond. Rain the night before turned the single track in the watershed into goopy fun. Then it started to snow. Hard.

When Nick got a double flat, we knew we were in trouble. He only had one spare tubular. (!) The long pause while he changed one of the flats sent our core temps down, down, down. Then we rode down, down, down. I lost feeling in my fingers and toes. At some point after that, we lost all sense of camaraderie. With cries of “see ya at the beer garden” we raced for the warmth of dry clothes.

Like I said, someday we’ll look back on today and laugh.

My year of wilderness adventures got off to a good start yesterday with two new summits in the bag – Dixie Peak and Mt. Teneriffe. It’s likely that many of you have heard of Teneriffe, but Dixie is probably somewhat of a mystery. (Go ahead…search for it…it’s unlikely you’ll find it on a Washington topo. Here’s a hint: it’s a minor peak located more-or-less between Mt. Si and Mt. Teneriffe.)

We left the trailhead at 8 a.m. and ascended the old “scramble” route to Teneriffe Falls, being careful to stay away from the watershed. (If you’re wondering where Teneriffe Falls is, it’s actually Kamikaze Falls. The signs on the trail now call it Teneriffe Falls. Who decides these things anyway?)

From the falls, we continued our no-mercy ascent to the ridge leading to the summit of Teneriffe. (I refuse to call this part of the journey a hike anymore. Anything requiring your hands for balance is no longer a hike in my book.) We continued up the ridge until about 4400′ then traversed over to the minor bump to the east of Teneriffe. From there we descended through forest, then on a logging road to a 4100′ saddle.

Conditions up high were interesting – alternating between ice and ice with snow drifts on top. Our microspikes were not really up to the challenge. For starters they weren’t quite long enough to bite into the ice buried under snow drifts. Second, they balled up worse than any crampon I’ve ever worn and wouldn’t clear with a knock of an ice ax. Now, we could have changed into crampons, but that would have been too easy. I also wouldn’t have a story to share about gear malfunctions!

At the saddle, logging roads disappeared in three directions, but we chose the forested ridge leading to the open summit of Dixie (pictured above). About 45 minutes later, we were enjoying tea and sandwiches on the summit. Sounds civilized doesn’t it?

On the way back, my near-constant pestering to also tag Teneriffe prevailed. Even the reluctant souls agreed that an extra 250′ of elevation gain wouldn’t hurt. And it was definitely worth it! Mt. Rainier never disappoints when the skies are clear

The descent was spicy near the top, owing to our less than ideal microspikes. Once we were off the ice and snow though, we made good time dropping down the ridge and eventually back to the trailhead.

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Here are a few snaps from our recent ski vacation to the Methow. We stayed with our friends Sean and Susan in a small cabin in the Lost River area (the back of beyond) and skate skied every day except our last. We also enjoyed a couple snowshoe outings.

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