Matterhorn Peak...Like Fun Only Different

Last Tuesday Myself and two friends of my buddy JJ departed to climb Matterhorn Peak near Bridgeport, CA about and hour past Mammoth. We got to the trail head around 1:00 AM and it was cold somewhere in the low teens. After a cold nights sleep we woke up late around 9 and were hiking by 10. The hike up to base camp was very easy the trail was one of the nicest i've been on in my life. There were patches of snow and ice on the trail but not enough to slow us down. After about 2 hours or hiking we reached a huge scree field around 10,000ft and the trail was still easy to follow. After getting past
all the rocks we reached a small area of trees where we made camp where some climbers we ran into had camped the night before. My buddy Sam wasted no time making a fire which was amazing even though it was still two in the afternoon it was still freezing. We set up camp melted snow and had a early dinner around four. By 6 it was totally dark and we decided to get into bed to wake up at 5:00 AM. The night the worst night I've ever had climbing. My sleeping pad decided to not stay inflated for more than a minute so I was stuck spending the night on freezing snow while it was a few degrees below zero outside our tent. I spend the night wearing my fleece and my down jacket in my sleeping bag and it was still cold. After a night like that I was eager to get up at five in the morning to climb. We were climbing by 5:40 and started scrambling up snow and rocks to the left side of the main route. after topping out on that stuff we down climbed onto the Matterhorn glacier and after putting our crampons on we started towards the east couloir. It was much steeper than i though especially because of conditions. The slope was at least 45 degrees but was as steep as 50+ degrees on what was

mostly hard snow and ice. We had to use more advanced alpine climbing techniques to get up the mountain. It was a tad scary because there was a lot of time where only the fron

t points of my crampons and my one ice axe were all that held me on the mountain. Did I mention we opted to bring no rope. It was still a ton of fun and after climbing what was a much longer couloir than we though we had a short 200ft steep scramble over rock to the summit. The summit was amazing it was super small but so rewarding to climb a peak I failed at less than a year ago. Scrambling down was pretty easy but the down climb on the snow and ice was harder because it was so tiring it because the conditions were to dangerous to glissade down the mountain. So we had to down climb instead. After getting all the way back down to camp I was beat. After taking a break by packing all our stuff u

p we started our speedy decent to the cars. We made it down in about 2 hours and hiked

for about 30min with head lamps but it was no big deal. Overall it was an amazing trip Great

replacement for Shasta although I will be heading up to Shasta in May when I'm done with school. The rest of the pictures are on my picasa page above.

Summit for Someone 2012

I'm about to kick off my fundraising efforts for Big City Mountaineers for the 2012 season! I have made a new Facebook Page (link at the top) and My new and more official looking fundraising page should be up in a week or two! I'm so stoked for this year and I might even be a mentor on some BCM trips this summer! Check out the insentives for donating this year and please give generously! Remember it's for the kids!

Multi-Pitch Climbing at Tahquitz Rock

Last week I went up to do multi-pitch rock climbing with friends of my buddy JJ, Tom and Kate. They were really chill and I'm happy I've gained more climbing friends. This was my first time rock climbing outdoors and it was amazing. Its a totally different beast than mountaineering. On the first day I had to bail after the first pitch of a 5.6 route called Angles Fright. Thanks to some super nice climbers on the same pitch I was able to rappell down. I was scared and not used to vertical climbing so I felt I just needed to get used to the environment. Then later I met 2 very nice women who let me climb a 5.9 top rope route with them and upon finishing the route I felt comfortable with climbing. And on day 2 I was ready to tackle my 1st multi-pitch route. We started up a 5.4 route called The Trough at 2:30 PM.... a little bit of a late start but not a huge deal we though it was only a 4 pitch climb. But it started to get dark fast after getting to the top of Tahquitz Rock it was already past dusk and we still had a sketchy friction decent. We hurried up coiled up the rope an packed the gear and quickly started the decent in the dark... with only the headlamp that I brought up. We made it down safely and were back at the car by 10:30 PM. And headed straight back to LA with a pit stop at In n' Out for a 3x3 with fries and soda.... a 1,500 calorie meal is only okay when you ate under 1,000 calories during a day of climbing and though hiking. It was a great trip super fun route and now I'm stoked to do some multi-pitch climbing again. In the mean time I am planning a Mt. Shasta climb as my plans fell though. And I will be doing lots of backpacking and climbing in August. I will be posting often and I am also start working towards getting sponsored to climb Mt. McKinley in May 2012.

Dream Achieved! Mt. Whitney Via The Mountaineers Route

Yesterday I got back from climbing the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states. It was a dream of mine since I started climbing. I was even told by some that I MIGHT be ready to climb the Mountaineers Route in 2 or 3 years. Well I don't underestimate myself because of my age and I proved a lot of people wrong yesterday at 10:00 A.M when I topped out on the mountaineers route. I almost cried tears of joy when I saw the summit hut realizing I had accomplished one of my dreams. I went up with my former senior project mentor and now great friend Josh Stricker, and my new friends Peter Styffe, Ben Jones (former record holder for climbing the 50 high points in the USA, solo I might add), and Roy Hartzler. A Great group of guys to say the least. The trip was a ton of fun and I realized how much i've already grown as a climber since my first trip up Mt. Baldy 6 months ago. Anyway now for the good stuff the Trip Report. We left the LA area around noon on monday and got to the Whitney Portal Camp Ground 8,336 ft around 6ish. We made camp, sorted gear, and cooked dinner. I made chicken stir fry with noodlesand veggies. I figured that I wasn't carrying the food so I might as well make a good dinner for my friends and I. Anyway after dinner we met some thru hikers of the PCT (those guys were crazy 75 days on trail!) and talked with them for a good half hour until josh heard something at camp 30ft away. It was a young black bear sniffing at our packs. We sprung into action and started yelling at it. It was young so he got scared and ran away. Paranoid we put our packs in bear lockers and went to bed. We woke up around 6:00 A.M and started on the trail around 7:00 A.M. We weighted our packs at the start and I won with a the heaviest pack at 40lbs flat. And I left a lot at the car. Guess I have to keep moving away from the over prepared boy scout method to the practical alpinist method. The hike was breeze we never got lost and didn't have to bushwack at all. I was a bit worried about tackling the Ebersbacher Ledges where we were either scrambling (class 3) and/or hiking on trail asthin as one boot. But that was the easiest non-straight forward hiking the whole trip. We continued on to LowerBoy Scout Lake where we pumped water and took a break. It was here I though it would be a good idea to start killing my farmers tan inthe end worth it despite the sun burn. After we hiked though a high traverse of a snow field to Upper Boy Scout Lake 11,500 ft but being that it was only one we decided to head to Iceberg Lake 12,500ft. The snow was soft all the way so the hike was easy and there was little post holeing though a well traveled set of tracks, but we reached a steep 30 degree slope that lead to Iceberg lake around 5:00 P.M and decided to make camp off to the side of the trail away up on a snow filed right at the base of Whitney. Camp was chill we spent a lot of time melting snow for water but we had a high efficiency stove and 7oz of fuel so we were totally good. We went to bed at 8:00 knowing we had an early alpine start ahead of us. For the first time in my climbing career we stuck to it and woke up at 2:50 A.M and were climbing at 4:00 A.M. The snow was nice and icy thanks to the early start. Thanks to goodconditions we made it to the end of the snow in the main couloir around 8:00 A.M werewe took crampons off and tackled a easy scramble to the notch (There was WAY more snow on the route than in the picture above). Once at the notch we realized conditions were not ideal. There were large areas of exposed rock at the bottom that were climbable but there was ice all over the rocks. So we decided to some mixed climbing/dry tooling up that section. Ben being the resident expert soloed this section and set up a belay were he belayed us up. I was the first one up after him and climbed a different route were I was using my BD raven ice axe for some fun dry tooling and it helped me get up the section of the route. Did I mention I'venever done any technical climbing like that before or used a belay in a non-gym setting. Anyway we all did it. That section was the right amount of scary and fun. After the rocky section it was as steep 50 degree slope to the top that I would say was a though class 3 or class 4 because of conditions. As soon as I topped out at 10:30 A.M I saw the summit hut and was a bit in shock that I did it. We all walked to the summit were we took pictures ate and took a nice summit nap. At this point we had the summit to our selves not a single other person was there until we woke up form out nap and met some hikers from the main trail and some rock climbers who came up the east buttress. After talking to these climbers we learned that the other team climbing the mountaineers route turned aroundbecause they were post holing up the route due to a late start. So we were the only people to climb the MR that day. We decided to head down a different route so we took the traverse route around the summit. Which was a tad sketchy because the snow was really soft at that point. We had 3 rules have a solid self-belay, solid footing, and dont fall. The traverse was tedious for this reason but we made it back to the start of the notch were it was just a simple scramble and glissade back down to camp. After a few hours of resting at camp and melting water we decided to hike out that night and made it back to the portal in 2.5 hours. We enjoyed burgers that the Whitney Portal Store and headed back home and got back to LA at 1:00 A.M. It was the best trip I've been on and I'm proud to say i've climbed 2 California 14'er and not by the easiest routes at age 17 and after climbing for only 6 months. Now I've got Mt. Shasta and Mt. Rainier on the list and Im super stoked for those trips! Photos are posted under the Photos of Me link above. Also on the route picture above there was A LOT more snow when we did it. And to all my donors and Sponsors you will be receiving your thank you shortly.

Split Mountain 6-13-11

Last Monday myself, and my climbing buddies JJ, Hunter, and my new friends Sean and Jamie attempted to climb Split Mountain 14,068' The trip was eventful to say the least. From overheating radiators to popped tires and horrible snow conditions. I grew as a climber on this trip which was really great. I know how I will function depending on my mental state of mind, I also know I have the will to turn away from a summit. It was a really fun trip to. It started with a long 6 mile hike up to a small alpine lake at 9,800' Because of car trouble on the way up we didn't make it to the trail head until 3:00 P.M. and we hiked until 9:00 P.M. and had to bust out the head lamps to make it the last hour and a halfof hiking. We got straight to work after getting to camp JJ and Jamie made a back country gourmet dinner with fresh chicken and vegies and rice. while I leveled a sleeping area in the snow with my trusty ice axe, hunter made a camp fire and Sean pumped water. After eating and hanging the bear bag we went to sleep at 12:00 A.M on the snow with no tent and I slept great! My new down jacket in a stuff sack is just like a down pillow making the mere 3 hours of sleep amazing. Even though we wen to sleep at midnight we woke up at 4:00 A.M. Jamie and Hunter opted not attempt the mountain for various reasons. So myself, JJ, and Sean left base camp at 5:00 A.M. to climb. after half an hour we made it to red lake at 10,500' from there we chose our route. This is where we made a mistake and chose the wrong route. We ended up heading to a class 3 route that was supposed to be started at 3:00 AM in order to avoid post holeing in the snow. Well we ended up post holeing a good amount of the time. After realizing this route was way to difficult to attempet in thebrutally hot and sunny and slushy conditions we decided to glissade down to base camp and head back. The hike back was not to hard but it was long as well. With good amount of bush wacking which was the worst any of had ever experienced. But we made it back to the trail head around 7:30 P.M. and after popping a tire on off roading to get back to town we made it back to LA around 3:30 AM. It was a great trip and Im stoked to kick to the climbing season. Next week is Mt. Whitney Via the Mountaineers Route followed 4 days later by Middle Palisade Peak. I'm super excited to get this summer of the outdoors on the road. Also a word to my sponsors and donners I have not forgotten about you you will be getting your proper thanks, very soon I just want it to be worth it so look out for it in about 2 weeks.

Climbing Plans

I have very exciting news! I have an epic summer of climbing ahead of me one that I never even dreamed possible. Here's the schedule:

June 12-13 Split Mountain

June 20-23 Mt. Whitney

July 15-17 Mt. Shasta

August 5-8 Mt. Rainier

This is a dream come true for climbing and i never though i would have the chance to attempt these peaks so soon and even in my first year, its insane. So stoked to go out and climb these with my new climbing buddies JJ, Hunter, and Todd.

Here is the link to the movie of my last climb Mt. Langley.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BhR55S6jDU

My First 14'er (Mt. Langley 14,042 ft)

On May 22 Myself and 3 strangers set off to climb Mt. Langley(14,042 ft) via the more technical Tuttle Creek route to the North East Couloir. We started on the trail at 12 P.M on Sunday. The route was straight forwardup until the covered well where we lost the trail and ended upScrambling up scree for 2 and half hours so we back tracked a bit and found the main trail to snow fields around 9,000 ft. Then we hiked until about 7 P.M. and ended up camping around 9,500 ft. The next morning we woke up around7 AM after our 4:30 AM alarmdidn't go off. But we were able to pack our summit packs and get our crampons on in 20min and we headed up to the summit. After about 2 hours of hiking through snow fields we made it to the NE Couloir. The Couloir is some really tough and steep class 2-3 climbing especially towards the top. But half way up one of the guys had several symptomsof altitude sickness and decided to wait for us back at camp. He was okay later in the afternoon but was not able to summit. It took about 3 hours to get to thetop of the couloir and from there we encountered some super steep terrain that was near class 4. But even though we were not expecting it we made it to the summit after a quick traverse to the summit. At the summit we took pictures, had lunch, and took the best naps ever. Now is where the fun starts. We realizedwe had to down climb near class 4 terrain in order to reach the couloir. We just had to take it one step at a time. Even though it was mostly solid ice under the little bit of hard snow. It was like doingsome low angel ice climbing to get down but it was super fun and we made it back to the couloir. From that point we glissaded down several thousand feet in perfect glissading conditions. Then hiked back to base camp. We packed up and hiked back to the truck and made it to Lone Pine around 8:30 PM. Overall It was an amazing trip and the strangers I hiked in with became some really good friends. More pictures of the trip are on the "Photos of me"tab.

Lots of Good News!

Last Saturday I was able to make my second successful ascent of Mt. Baldy. I organized the climb with the meetup group The SoCal Hikers and Peakbaggers. I met many amazing people and I thank them all for letting my climb with them. I can now climb and hike when ever I have free time thanks to the group! I'm even climbing to the top of SoCal on the 19th aka San Grogonio. I'm very excited for this climb and then I will only have 2 more peaks to climb (Wilson and San Jacinto) until I've climbed all the major peaks in southern california. I hope i can accomplish this goal before i go off to college. Right now my project is almost complete I just need to make my display and notebook for QSP Night and then I'm done. I can't wait to do more climbs and I can not wait for Whitney this June.

Matterhorn Fail, but Whitney's on the Horizon

So 2 weekends ago I attempted to climb the california matterhorn, but due to level 3 (of 5) avalanche danger I didn't even make it past 8,000 ft. But some of the good news is I got great avalanche training and awareness and great winter camping experience. It was pretty darn cold while I was climbing the daytime high was in the low teens and the night time low was -4 degrees. Thankfully my gear performed great I was warm all the time except for my toes because i got snow in my boots.... I think I got a bit of frost nip because right before my toes were a tad pale and i could not feel them until i used my hands to warm them up. Even more good news is I will be heading back up to Bridgeport for either a 2nd shot at the mountain this month or next month or a advanced snow and basic ice climbing class AND I may climb Mt. Baldy this weekend AND I'm climbing San Gorgonio on the 19th. So I have an exciting month coming up. Best of all I just got my permit to climb Mt. Whitney this june 4 days after I graduate. Even more exciting is I will have a famous mountaineer go with me. He once held the record for the fastest ascent of the 50 high points in the USA this includes Denali and Rainier and Whitney and he did it alone. So I will be in good hands for those of you who worry about me. So although I failed my most recent summit attempt there is still much more to come and the journey is still just getting started.

Mission Accomplished

I've met my fundraising goal for Big City Mountaineers! As of right now I've raised $2,050 for Big City Mountaineers which is $50 over my goal! I'm super happy I have now raised enough money to send 5 kids with 5 mentors into the back country for 1 week with all their gear and food. Now one half of my project is over and the second half will be finished next week when I go on a 3 day climb to the summit of the California Matterhorn. But that does not mean I will stop climbing or fundraising for BCM or updating my blog. So keep checkin in with updates with all my future climbs.

Geared Up and Ready to Go!

I just got my last piece of gear this friday so now I am 100% geared up for my 3 day climb to the summit of the California Matterhorn in two weeks. When I got my Black Diamond Sabretooth Crampons in the mail I was super pumped as I inspect my new toys i realized how much fun climbing is and I know these crampons are going to take me though a lot of climbing they can do anything from climbing Everest to Technical Ice Climbing so i know i wont have to buy any other crampons. I know I had crampons before but I had to return them because they did not work well with my Vasque Radiator mountaineering boots that I got from REI. They were a steal $205 for boots that go for $425 Im very happy with them and I know they will take me far as well. Now all that is left is to wait out these next 12 days until I leave for my climb! I am really nearing the end of my project with my final climb 2 weeks away and being only $90 from my fundraising goal itseems like this project is over just as it was really getting started. But at least I already know climbing mountains will be a lifelong passion of mine.

Mt. Baldy Success!

Today I woke up at 2:15 a.m to climb 10,068 ft Mt. Baldy with my mentor and friend Josh. Our climb was a success and it was a perfect climb. After meeting at 3:00 a.m we hit the road and were on the trail to the Baldy Bowl at 4:30 a.m after two hours or hiking we reached the ski hut and baldy bowl. We watched the sun rise over the snow covered mountains while we ate breakfast and then we put our crampons and helmets on and started the 2,000 ft + climb to the summit. The conditions were perfect nice crunchy snow, cool temps, but a bit windy. We climbed for about two hours or so until we reached the summit. Once there we rejoiced, enjoyed the view of down town LA, Catalina Island, Mt. San Grogonio, and the greater LA area! We took some pictures then descended down the mountain... this time with style. We glissaded down the 2,000 ft we had just climbed up. Glissading is a mountaineering technique used to quickly get down large peaks were the climber sits down with his legs straight out in front and slides down the mountain using his ice axe as a break. This was one of the best parts of the climb! It was like being a little kid on a super fast slide that you controlled. It was amazing! After the glissade we packed our gear back up and hiked back out not to tired surprisingly. Then we headed to In n' Out for a much deserved meal. It was one of the best times of my life and I know I will continue climbing as long as my body lets me.

Pictures are on my facebook and on the link above.

Climb Numba 1

So I have a wee bit of exciting news. I have finally managed to schedule a date to go climbing and that day is this Friday!!! I will be attempting to climb 10,068 ft Mt. Baldy with my mentor and friend Josh. This will be my very first mountaineering experience and I am super excited! We plan to meet at 3:00 AM thats right three in the morning to be up at the trail head by 4:00 AM We will climb all morning and hope to be at the summit around noon so if your out side around then look up at the mountains and look at the tallest one you can see with the most snow on it and that is the mountain I will be on (this applies only to those living in the SoCal/ LA area.) Well its an exciting time and its only a day away I will be posting a update with pictures and video of the climb as soon as I return. Wish me luck on my first climb ever!

The Rainier of LA

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

I was able to speak to the manager at the Spring st. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and they are going to support my senior project by allowing me to set up a donation jar in their store (right around the corner from Millikan.) I will be setting these jars up on Monday or Tuesday of next week so go get some of my favorite coffee at the Coffee Bean and donate your change or give a little extra. Now I am just waiting for Ganahl Lumber to contact me about a donation and then I would have more than enough money to send 10 kids backpacking. Also thanks to my spanish teacher from freshman year my fundraising total is now $1800/$2000 only $200 until my goal is met!

muchas gracias Snr. Goldman

Also new pics of most of my gear on my photo page (link above)

Fundraising Success #1

Today I followed up on some of my leads for fundraising and I had my first success with local businesses. NHC Martial Arts gave a very generous donation of $100 to Big City Mountaineers putting the fundraising total at $1,700. I have added a link to their website above. Be sure to check them out if you are interested in martial arts, or any of the many fitness and kickboxing classes they offer. I trained in Hapkido for many years at NHC Martial Arts and earned my black belt in 2005. Again a huge THANK YOU to NHC Martial Arts! Also I am in contact with two corporate offices in hopes of getting donations from larger businesses in addition to local ones. I will keep the blog updated as I make progress.

Also If you have not donated please so what ever you can give is greatly appreciated. There is a link above to my official fundraising page. If you can not donate online contact me. I take checks made out to Big City Mountaineers or cash donations that I will send to Big City Mountaineers on your behalf.

Happy New Year!

And a great new year it will be! I have lots of news to share with you today. First I am now officially scheduled to take a three day intro to mountaineering course in the Sawtooth range of the Eastern Seirra Nevada Range were I will learn all the basics of mountaineering and climb the California Matterhorn Peak at 12,300 ft. I will be climbing Feb 19th-21st. I am also hoping to climb Mt. Baldy Sometime this month to give all my gear a test run and get used to using it all. I am also trying to schedule a climb of Mt. Langley this climb would be my tallest climb at 14,026ft and could take up to a week. Also some even more exciting news is that I have gotten some great leads on fundraising for BCM from so local businesses and even an international company. I gave my presentation to four businesses so far and they all liked to idea! Now on Monday I will follow up with three of them and possibly finalize their support. The best part is that The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf liked my idea so much that they told me I should contact corporate marketing and possibly be a corporately sponsored climber. Wearing a Coffee Bean patch on my jacket and climbing helmet. And holding a Coffee Bean flag on every summit I climb. So I will be following up with an email request I sent Thursday. This is a truly exciting part of my project and I hope that with these businesses support I can make my fundraising goal for Big City Mountaineers more of a success than I could have hoped for.