Been There, Done That

Day 83: The phenomenon first made itself known to me when I was about 45. I was engaged in a conversation about mountaineering with a couple of much younger friends and mentioned that I'd made six successful summits of Mount Rainier on five routes, only to see eyebrows go up in that inimitable, disbelieving arch which precedes the dismissive, "Oh, really? That's nice," phraseology which falls just short of calling the speaker a liar. Part of their skepticism could be blamed on my diminutive size, but the bulk of it lay with the silver threads which had begun to weave themselves into my raven-black hair. The older I got and the greyer I became, the more frequently my stories were met with suspicions of embellishment or outright doubt, and although that might have irritated another person, I found it amusing (if in a mildly aggravating way).

Last night, I had the slide projector out for another reason, and as I returned one slide to its catalogued slot in a plastic sleeve, it occurred to me to pull out a few others from my climbing files. Capturing them from the textured screen was a less than perfect process, but I did get better results than previous attempts with a scanner. All were taken on Mount Rainier: top left, on the crest of Disappointment Cleaver, 1988; bottom left, camp in the summit crater (ascent via Kautz Glacier), 1984; right, vertical ice climbing, Cowlitz Glacier, 1977. My last successful summit attempt on Mount Rainier was in 1990, and I continued climbing lesser peaks for another decade or so.

Highest Point In Pack Forest

Day 99: With my eye set on the summit of the peak known only as "Pack" on the map, I was less than five minutes out of the parking lot when I found myself faced with a big orange sign stating that the south loop of the 1000 Road was closed for logging operations. I didn't want to chance sneaking past it to try to get to the Hugo Peak trail, leaving only one other option: take the north loop and add an extra mile each direction, i.e., a ten-mile round trip instead of eight if I also completed the 2000 Road loop like I'd intended. Pack Forest is a maze of roads, the 1000 and 2000 being the two main lines, meeting at Kirkland Pass to form a figure-8. Motorized travel is prohibited to the public on all of Pack Forest's roads, but when a road closure is posted, it also applies to foot, bicycle and horse traffic.

Fortunately, the north 1000 Road was open to Kirkland Pass where another sign warned walkers not to proceed. At this point, I realized that I might have been able to take the Hugo Peak Trail after all, but since I'd already come one extra mile, I decided to complete the 2000 loop and go back down the way I'd come. Hugo Peak is a popular destination, but the view of Eatonville, once unobstructed, is now limited to a narrow window in maturing evergreens. The peak of Pack affords a much better vista which on clear days may include the Olympic Mountains to the west. Today, they were visible but hazy, with clouds mounting behind them along the coast.