It was a busy spring.
Jim and I headed to Slovenia in early May to celebrate my 60th Birthday. No backpack or climbing gear. We played tourist like normal people. Started in Ljubljana then off to Bled where I celebrated my birthday.
We did do some day hikes as we circumnavigated the Julian Alps.
We also found ourselves river rafting and doing some cave exploration before taking the train to Budapest.
In Budapest, we met up with Nancy and Bob and Sarah and Jim for a river boat cruise to celebrate Nancy and I turning 60. Bob was turning 70 this year so we wrapped all the birthdays together.
This was mine and Jim’s first cruise together. We settled into the river cruising lifestyle pretty quickly.
Our cruise was from Budapest to Amsterdam. 15 days. We throughly enjoyed all the history, scenery, and especially the food. We will definitely be back to do more Viking Cruises but for now we have a lot of climbing still to do.
After bringing a cold home from Europe and recovering from Cataract surgery, Jim and I were able get back into training for our summer climbing season. Our first big climb of the season was McGregor Mountain above Stehekin on Lake Chelan.
Jim has been wanting to do a carry-over of McGregor Mtn for the last several years. Every time we had it scheduled, the weather had a different plan. Finally, everything was working out as Lisa, Andrew, Jim, and I headed up the Rainbow Loop trail.
For our first night, we enjoyed an official camp. It was nice to have running water nearby for soaking my feet. This was my first backpack of the season, and my body was feeling it.
The next day, we worked our way up the trail until we reach Rainbow Pass.
It was here where we started our traverse. We climbed snow to a high bench where we made camp. The views were spectacular. This is why I love off trail traverses.
After a good night sleep, we were ready to start the traverse. There was lots to puzzle out. The first problem was avoiding the weak spots in the snow where we would punch through to your hip. Lisa and I were happy to let Andrew and Jim take the lead.
Once we got into more solid snow, we started to make better time.
Just as we were cruising along, we came to our first obstacle: a large cliffy rib. We would have to drop down several hundred feet then cross under the cliff before heading right back up on the other side. The steep heather slope was exhausting.
Eventually, we reached solid snow again and started traversing the slope.
Our next obstacle was a rock rib. After looking around for a while, we discovered a class 3 slot. This would have been a breeze in day packs but in a carry over, you take everything with you. We were quickly back on snow and getting high on the mountain. Finally, we were making really good time.
When we came to our next cliffy rock band, we decided to cut over the ridge instead of going under it. Soon after we crossed the ridge, Lisa announced she wasn’t feeling well. Chest pains. We instantly stopped and initiated a rescue via our InReach.
In a little over an hour, the helicopter had arrived with some medical rangers. They checked Lisa out and then hooked her to a cable and they were all off to the hospital. (Lisa is doing fine. She is scheduled for more tests in the near future.)
After Andrew, Jim, and I watched Lisa fly away, we begun the task of working our way around the horn on the ridge. We had to drop much lower than we had hoped.
The rock work was tedious and we found ourselves crossing back over to the snowy side of the mountain just in time to make camp.
The night was cold as a northerly wind blew in a dense fog. We went to sleep wondering what tomorrow might bring. We woke to a light fog which cleared during breakfast. We were in for a beautiful summit climb.
Within a hour, we found ourselves just below the summit looking at our last obstacle. How to get up the head wall?
We decided to go take a look at the rock. If it was too steep, we would retreat and look for another route. Once on the rock, we found it to be super fun class 2/3 scrambling. Very solid.
Jim found a super easy spot to get back on the snow and before we knew it, we were looking at the antenna that marks the summit of McGregor Mountain.
We spent a good hour on the summit enjoying the views. We weren’t in any hurry to leave the summit. It was finally sunny and warm with no wind. We had earned this break.
From the summit, we headed down the snow in an effort to find the trail. The snow was absolutely perfect for glacading.
We thought once we found the trail we would pick up speed and make some good time toward the Stehekin Shuttle Bus. But the trail was actually the most scare rock scrambling of the entire trip.
It took far longer than we had allowed to descend the rocky part of the trail. When we reached the standard trail. Andrew and I put on trail shoes, and we all headed toward the trailhead with a purpose. If we missed the last shuttle bus, we would be camping out another night and we were virtually out of food.
We sent Andrew ahead to see if he could hold the shuttle. This worked well. Andrew was able to hold the shuttle an extra 30 minutes before it decided to leave. Jim and I flagged the shuttle bus down about 3 minutes after it left. We were lucky enough to see it from the trail.
The bus put it in reverse and backed up to the High Bridge parking lot. We arrive just after the bus did. Andrew was super excited to see us. He was dreaming of french fries and there were none in his pack.
We spent another night in Stehekin before taking the Stehekin Ferry back to Fields Point. We all found this carry over a grand adventure, but we weren’t sure anyone else would.
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