Rainier - Week 2

Two weeks in a row at Mt. Rainier… I’m putting my new snowshoes to good use. It was warm, sunny, and 55 degrees last week – today it was cold, windy, snowing and 30 degrees, maybe less.

Matt and I suited up in a building that was completely buried in snow except for a small tunnel dug to the door. Inside:

These pictures document the first hour of our hike up the mountain. We got one look at the mountain through the shifting clouds… they cleared just enough to give us a look at a bit of a blue sky.
Although he looks like a pro, this was Matt's first time snowshoeing:


After the first 60-minutes or so it clouded over, and it got too cold and too windy to take pictures. We went another 30-45 minutes, but eventually it was snowing so hard and the wind was burning our faces and blowing snow all over the place… we couldn’t see more than 10 yards ahead of us or behind. Since we were wandering up the slopes of a massive mountain, nowhere near a marked trail we had to turn back. We found some shelter in a grove of trees for lunch and hoped the snow and wind would let up a bit. It was a bummer that we didn’t make it further, but the intensity made it pretty fun anyhow…

And at the end of the hike, the icing on the cake was the ice on my face. As you can see, we were pretty frosted.

two months ago I purchased 4 new tires
decided not to purchase a full warranty for $16 per tire
i got a flat tire last night driving over a pothole
i was pulling out of my culdesac on my way to the grocery store
where i was pretty much going just because I had nothing better to do
i probably should have just stayed home and watched more hockey playoffs
i went to discount tires this morning and shared that i regretted not purchasing the warranty
the guys said "you can purchase it now... then i'll go look at your car"
i told him perfect
for the purchase of a 4-tire warranty (about 69 bucks) i got a brand new ($150) tire
sweet deal

Pictures from Snowshoeing @ Mt. Rainier on Friday

A beautiful day at Mt. Rainier:

Mount St. Helens in the distance:Mount St. Helens Close-up:

I bought some snowshoes today that I'm pretty excited about. It was an impulse buy -- they were used rentals for a couple seasons, but still in great shape and well below half-the-price of brand-new-ness. It's doubtful that I'll be able to use 'em yet this season, but we'll see what happens...