Flute - at last...

"Alpine hot line calling - which couloir in the high Chugach will you be climbing this weekend?" was Billy's voice mail. With a quick call back, weather check and all reason thrown out the window, it was decided for a one day climb up Flute.
Flute has been haunting and heckling me for some time now. It greets me everytime I head back to the Flute glacier. Last may I got to within 50' of the summit by by myself before having to turn around due to the exposure on the last rock section. Then Dan and I tried it a few weeks ago, only to get stormed away with out ever seeing the peak.
Stars aligned and we headed in under thick fog and cloud cover, with the anticipation (and fingers crossed forecast) that it would burn off.



Julie and Luz left us at Eagle lake and Billy Yvonne and I kept heading back the valley to the first step. The fog and cloud band was just sitting up there, so up we went into it..



Now it got interesting and our moral was starting to drop, making our way to the glacier we did a complete 360 totally disorientated in the fog.


Finally we headed up the steeper snow ramp and popped up onto the bench at the toe of the glacier, just as we did that the sky got super bright and we emerged into a big sucker hole - za zing- hell yeah!


a quick snack and up the left side we went, immediately the fog socked in again and visibility was dropped to 50' "it will burn off..." then it parted again just as we needed it too so we could find our route over the pass to the Organ glacier. Here we left the fog & clouds behind for good.


Over the pass and down to the Organ Glacier and our first view of the climb ahead of us. Basically up the right side of the snow, crossing the bergschrund ( a particularly nasty German Crevasse) angling up and left.



It was hot! softer snow slogging up the Organ glacier..


Finally back in the shade and up the Couloir.





at the saddle,


Now for the rock section. The other time I was up here it was pasted with a bit of ice and just felt much more serious. Wearing plastic boots and crampons didnt help any. So with a rope and we cruised up the pitch placing a cam for protection on the crappy crumbling rock.

ze summit..




It was a good day to do a 6,000' peak, they were the only ones above the clouds!
Yvonne heading down


Billy and Yvonne descending the snow.


Down the Organ...


Up over the pass, down the flute and back to the world of Green...


15 hrs, 22 miles and 6,500 vert later we got back to the truck thoroughly thrashed.
A good day to call the Alpine hotline!

Performance Nutrition

There has been some good recipe sharing on the internet these days. Especially among some people the endurance bike in mountains crowd. So I thought I would share my version of multi-day power fuel.

It all starts here, go Organic if you want to be healthy:


Then get this stuff out of the cupboard...


you should be here by now:

or here if you're slow (its ok if this is your first time)

While that is still going - get a big pot and throw in some of this. the more of the brown stuff the better.


double check the stove gain. 1 1/2 to 2" is optimum. Dont slack off and forget to measure. this is key!


now comes the fun part...

Untitled from Eric Parsons on Vimeo.

Throw in some of this for good measure:


it has been proven that caffeine helps with endurance performance - just ask the people at Gu and all those other food companies.



Zing!!!

if you followed all the steps right your resulting food product should have a nice even glaze to it. That's what you're going for.


done - Food for 4 days.


This stuff is field proven - just ask Dylan!

Untitled from Eric Parsons on Vimeo.

crankin'

Lots and lots of bags going out lately. This bike packing thing is catching on I tell you ;)





total postal run junk show. all I needed was a few kids and a random grandma hanging off. maybe one day I'll get a big dummy / xtracycle. The people behind me in line loved me...

Memorial Day weekend -Yukla!

Where to Start?
This trip simply oozed of awesomeness in every aspect.
Headed up Eagle River valley to the Twin Falls valley Saturday with JT, A, Dogust, Julie & Chunkfest 09.


Very Busy Beavers!


After a few hours we turned and headed up the very steep hunter trail into Twin Falls.


Windy night, chicken curry, a flapping megamid and restless puppy gave way to a stunning bluebird morning.


JT, A and Dogust headed over the pass to Vertigo peak and the ridge, while J, Luz and I headed up Mt Yukla. Its the highest peak in the Eagle River valley but has a nice snow route that twists around the back side of the peak.
up up up... past the little glacier.


Over Twinsicle pass to the back side of Yukla. Mt. Soggy just plastered with ice..

up up up, made our way through a little couloir and over an ice buldge that Luz needed to be carried through. We were not sure at that point how to get her down but 'll get to that later...

summit ridge, luz needed to be tied off to prohibit 4000' cornice hucking.


Yukla has twin summits, J & luz stayed on one, while I went over to the other.




View down Yukla's North face into Icicle Creek. Nice contrast between summer's lushness and the alpine. About 6,800' vertical relief!



Time to go down. Luz was short roped as the exposure was quite stiff for a fearless puppy.



To the ice step. After some quick thought, the only real option was to sack the dog. She really did not protest at all and quickly started snoring. A good reason to bring a decent sized pack!






down down down, 1000's of feet of glissading:





Monday was beautiful again. A hiked out early, so after a mellow breakfast with JT we headed up to the ridge for a little hike before going back. JT headed over the pass again to traverse around to Emerald peak and out Thunder gorge.


Glacier Lake - the start of Eagle River and the crow pass trail valley:



Devils Mistress and Beezelbub - Two hard to climb peaks in the western Chugash.


Yukla from the trail hiking out the valley:


still oozing..

Africa

Jesse sent me this link.
Looks like a well produced and edited piece of work for sure.

abort 2x

Feeling antsy - Plan B went into action, to try to climb Killiak in Eagle River with JT and his friend Jennifer. Hiked in to above the river at the enterance to Icicle creek Saturday night to the most stunning campsite you could ask for.







Views of Organ, Compass Butte and Flute were jaw dropping.. in a taunting sort of way.


I was feeling pretty crappy on the hike in.. J's cold seemed to pass my outer defenses. The early start to a huge day confirmed that I am indeed fighting a cold again. Turned around after like 45 minutes heading up the hunter's trail zapped for energy. Some weekends just don't work out like you hope for. Had a nice hike out the valley in gorgeous weather and went home to bed. The obsession continues.

abort abort abort...

When high pressure comes crashing down.





Didn't even make it to the glacier. grrrr...
next time.

Ze big Three

Time for some Chugach.
Going to attempt to traverse the peaks in the header photo of this blog over the next 3+ days, Flute, Organ and Polar Bear. Yes there is a reason that photo is up there!

First up Flute:
I tried it last year via the Couloir on the Flute Glacier side which was fine, but got turned around at the top rock pitch solo. So this time should be better with ropes and gear.

On to Organ:
The west face of Organ is a stunning alpine wall, but rounding the corner on the Organ glacier shows a somewhat more straight foreword route via the glacier ramp just left of center in this photo...



And lastly Polar Bear:

vamos a ver.. time to pack!

Vancouver & Squamish

Got back last night from a great trip and much needed vacation to the pacific northwest.
Julie had long been planning and training to run the Vancouver B.C. marathon so it was only natural that we extended the trip by going to granite rock mecca of Squamish for the rest of the week.

A quick buzz through Seattle and a hop over the border to the glass city of Vancouver. At first I was taken a back by the city, then began to like it. It has a huge Asian population and it kinda feels like you're in Hong Kong with the glass high rises.



That's her on the home stretch.. rock star

On to Squamish.. with one of us with dead legs and unstable rainy weather we did lots of walking around the first few days and warmed up on some nice and easier climbs and got scared on wet cracks. It had been over a year since I lead trad rock so I had to get my head game together a bit as well!


The Cheif - big wall playground!


We pretty much stayed in Smoke bluffs the whole time. Fantastic 1-2 pitch climbs around every corner. Like Pikie Corner a nice 5.8 pair of cracks:


This was another fun crack at the Neat and Cool wall:

The weather got better later in the week and we climbed till dark on one of the evenings. Hiked up to the shannon Falls climbs and lead a nice 5.8 crack that turned to fists higher up and was wet.. it generally blew me mentally for the rest of the day leading that thing.

Anyway, fantastic quality 2 pitch climbs at Mosquito - here we are topping out on Flemish Dance an awesome 5.8 that is quite stiff!


Great week, J's first real into to the world of gym-free climbing and it was great to get on some stellar granite climbs. Just as we had to leave we actually felt like we were warmed up and were ready to step it up a notch and get on some harder climbs but there is always next time. Looking foreword to more mixed in this summer at Hatchers.