Nick came up Conference weekend to experience some "fun" mountaineering. We decided to climb in Central Oregon because this is where Nick served his mission. Mt. Washington is not a terribly difficult climb, in terms of altitude or technical climbing. However, the weather was atrocious, but undaunted we decided to give it a go.
We left early Friday morning, thinking that we would be able to summit before night fall. We were absolutely pounded by rain the entire time we climbed. We hiked about 4 miles and found a decent camp site. By this time, our packs had absorbed so much water that they weighed about the same as a small elephant. 
We climbed to about 250 feet from the summit before turning back. The rain was turning to ice, I couldn't feel my fingers and it was getting dark. All in all a foreboding situation. We completed a small portion of the technical climbing and determined discretion was the better part of valor. We rappelled off the rock face satisfied to think about climbing Mt. Washington in better circumstances. Mt. Washington is definitely a very cool climb and is now on my "must climb list." We were cold and miserable and so we climbed out to the car that night (15 rain soaked miles in 12 hours). As we descended (stumbled around in the dark), Nick had the memorable and first-hand experience of comparing the natural Magellan senses of the "Human Compass" (a.k.a. me) with the accuracy of a small GPS. My recollection is that the "Human Compass" was superior in every aspect to the GPS (Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.)
The Summit from the North Ridge
We crashed in a scuzzy motel and got up early the next morning and headed for Dynamited Cave in Washington. We only did the first rappel, because we didn't have Jumars, prussics or any other device for ascending the big rappels. More important than the climbing, was spending some quality time with Nick. He is truly an outstanding young man. We had a great time despite the awful weather, losing the big toe nail on my right foot and a couple of snagnasty blisters.
Sheila, Nick, Lil D and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Gasperetti's following Priesthood Meeting. All in all a memorable weekend .
1 comment:
All I can say is Nick really is a part of the fam now that he has experienced an adventure with the human compass! Somebody must have warned him to bring his GPS:)
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