The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle.

 A little landscape painting from the San Diego Museum, it has everything, a shipwreck in the distance, waves crashing, someone standing on the rocks. Reminds of of the beginning of a Dr. Dolittle voyage, he never knew what he would find.

Howard Hodgkin Painting, very small, maybe 12 inches square, and a few gloves I am taking. Never can have enough gloves. 

 Last hike up Mt. Millicent, and the weather at Brighton when I left.

Preparing to Climb a Mountain

 People sometimes ask, how do you get ready to climb a Himalayan mountain?

 First, go to Mexico and climb Orizaba, the 3rd highest peak in North America

 Then go to Hawaii and find some old lava crags and climb up Koko Head.

 

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Then hike two hours  into El Cajon a couple of times and  do a few long and strenuous climbs with Josh

 take a trip to Moab and schedule a 2:00 meeting every afternoon to hike in Provo Canyon

Then hike up to Mt. Millicent before the ski lift opens. and ski down.

Then hike 30 miles in two days carrying a pack in the snow to the top of Mt. Whitney.

 Hike up toward the Everest ridge on Mt. Timpanogas until well after dark.

 Be sure to sleep at Brighton as often as possible.

Annapurna Range

 

Annapurna Range

 

April 22 It is a snowing blizzard at Brighton.  A few weeks ago, well, 10 days ago I was sleeping on  a rock in a snowfield after hiking, getting lost, snowshoeing, up to the 2^nd scout lake in the Eastern Sierra Mountains, below Mt. Whitney, cooking snow to make water, I had been hiking for 12 hours, thinking about sitting by myself in Ama Dablam base camp for how many days would I have to be there? Two weeks?  I was thinking that soloing that mountain was a pretty dangerous thing to do, soloing up to camp 3, until a Himalayan snow and lightning storm chased me down the mountain in an interminable series of rappels.  I tried to find someone to climb with this year, but, although many were interested, no one could make that leap of faith to head to the Himalaya.  And the long walk to Namche, to Tengbouche, to base camp, without Tom or Meryl or Cam or Chris to talk to, it seemed like a little much.  

The next day, after summiting Whitney, and reaching the trailhead at 9:30 PM, with 3 miles left to walk to the car, it was going to be 18 hours of hiking, I thought, I want to see Annapurna and scout out some other Himalayan mountains. 

Then there was the huge avalanche in the Khumbu, on Everest killing 16 Sherpa guides, which just made me feel bad.  I will return to Ama Dablam with a few climbers next year.  So Nima and decided to go exploring into  Annapurna Sanctuary, scout out some high altitude rock climbs, go up a mountain or two. Maybe climb Singu Chuli and Tharpu Chuli. 

Mt. Whitney

 3 mile walk to the trail head, took the wrong trail, 4 extra miles, carrying snowshoes, tent, novels, took the wrong trail again going up to scout lake, looking for places to camp, when I arrived at the lake, the sun was going down, and discovered everyone else had gone to the next lake "only a thousand feet up", arrived around 10, set up tent, cooked dinner.  Woke up at 4 am and started hiking with crampons,  saw the beautiful east face of Mt. Whitney, but hiked instead up the steep snow coullor to icy slabs and the summit. Back at the trail head at 9:30  PM, after some sketchy descent on the ledges, back to the car at 11:00, over 30 miles in two days.

Ocean to Mountain

 To climb a mountain
To climb a really big mountain, I started with the ocean, then El Cahon

Then climbed Kokohead on Oahu