Well here we are again. It has been nearly a year and these are the results photos of the second Mt. Rahm attempt. I didn't see any reason to go on my birthday this year so we chose to go on August 2nd which represented the 30th anniversary of the loss of my father. It just seemed fitting to climb it that day.

I have been training like a madman for a year with weights, running, trampoline stabilization work, and stair work. It definitely paid off.

I was very sorry that Greg Reid was unable to go this year but John Carbin repeated the trip and one of my graduated massage students, Mike Olt, agreed to come along. Frankly I was a little worried about that one as Mike is a bit of a free spirit and hard to figure but he turned out to be a real fighter when it got tough.

We rolled into Canada on July 31st and headed for Lake Chiliwack.

This is the route needed to get to the mountain with Lake Ouzel as the first night base camp.

We got the vehicle to the trail head late at night. I will say that I was able to drive at a much more frightening speed with the Jeep Cherokee we rented last year compared to the Buick SUV this year. Both exhibit good flying qualities when the bumps call for it but I wasn't able to terrorize the occupants as well this year.

We unloaded and started off. The trekking poles laying against my pack in this photo came from Greg Reid and are my way of taking him with us this year. I must say they do help with the load on the legs and stabilizing when the muscles start to go.

As we entered the forest at 6:15 am it was still dark under the tree canopy.

I won't bore you with a lot of photos of the lower trek in if you have already seen the first attempt photos. If not go there

Here is John pulling up over the boulder which is the entrance to the waterfall.

What is not readily apparent is how the falls turn off to the side and you are looking at a sort of false top. This seems to be a theme with the whole trip but we'll get to that.

Here is a shot of the upper falls.

Here are a couple up the falls climb photos.

If you have broadband you can check out this combination clip of the two hour trudge up the falls. Just click here

When we reached the top we were faced with the rocky section that ate my legs alive last year. This year that wasn't the case and it was relatively easy to get to Lake Ouzel. The worst part was the number of false ridges we came to. It seemed like every time we thought it was just over the next hill there would be yet another. Here the crew travels across the rocks.

At this point John began to overheat and sweat pretty heavily.

It was a little while later when we found ourselves at Lake Ouzel and set up camp. This lake was pretty disappointing as it seemed little more than a puddle but it was home for us that night.

After I ran around naked in celebration (You MIGHT be able to get Mike to sell you that video) we set up home sweet home.

The temperature was dropping and there was a constant mist from the spray off all the surrounding waterfalls. John was getting into trouble but we didn't know it yet. His body was running very hot and trying to throw off heat even as the temperature dropped. It was way behind the curve and we were awakened by him in a near freezing condition that night . It became apparent that we needed to get him off the mountain before the next night. Mike and I talked and decided that we could wake up early and get up the mountain and back in time to get all the way out as long as we started early. We dragged ourselves out and started onto the path up the notch leading to Silver Lake at 4:15 in the morning. Even knowing the 1500 feet we had to climb I only figured it looked like a little over an hour to the lake. The video you can get by clicking here is worth it just for laughing at my miserable estimation capability but you have to admit it doesn't look too far in this photo.

Everything here is like being an ant on a staircase. You just never see over the next ridge or rise enough to know that there is yet another on the other side.

There were several ice outcroppings on the trip up the notch and we mostly went around them. I thought going around one of them was too much trouble and decided I could cross it. That wasn't one of the more brilliant decisions I have ever made as this is generally done with ice axes, crampons, and a rope firmly attached to a solid anchor in case anyone slips. In this case I tied a rope around myself and asked Mike if he thought he could hold me if I took to sliding down the ice. He replied with a really solid "maybe" so I fashioned some high tech hand axes from local materials and proceeded to chip and drag myself across the icy slope. Boy was THAT fun! I was so proud of my improvised climbing tools.

This was very slippery but it wasn't too steep yet. It was the rocks at the bottom of the ice field that were the main concern. Fortunately I didn't end up bouncing off of them. Mike came across on the rope I trailed behind. I have to take time to thank Vision builder Ken Ulrich for providing the hat which kept the sun and ticks away.

We finally got to the top of the notch a bit off to one side so that we were already part way up the ridge. The next photo shows Silver Lake and the range which includes MT Rahm which is the highest point in the photo.

This is really big country. We really didn't want to walk down the ridge after all the work we had done getting there so we decided to traverse it for a bit and see what we would run into. What that turned out to be was an impassible ice field on very loose and steep rock. I had started down and suddenly all the rock began slipping on me. This was seriously bad and I had Mike toss me a rope. He tried to hold on as I lowered down another 20 feet to a semi solid spot and tried to convince myself that it was solid enough to hold me stopping Mike from sliding past as he came down as well. Fortunately he was able to creep down without sliding past and taking us both for a ride. With that scary part done, we both made our way down to the lake shore for a closer look at the peak from the base.

From there we could see a real problem. There is a rock outcrop that needs to be crossed to get to the upper part and there was a steep ice patch below it which normally isn't there this time of year. Despite my improvised insanity coming up the slope, we didn't have the equipment to get past it and the slot through the outcropping was flowing with icy melt as well. We decided we should go up near the peak and take a look at whether there was any way to traverse above that point.

Mike proved to be up for anything and so all the decisons for our safety fell on me. I found a great respect for his perserverence.

We hit our highest altitude some distance from the peak and were only 600 feet below summit. Later we were far closer but a little lower.

This was when we were looking at walking the ridge itself but that appeared too narrow with too many obstacles. As we got close for the 2nd or third time I stopped to take a significant photo.

My son Jeremy had made two rings from twist ties and said that we should both wear them when I am up there and think about eachother. I stopped to photograph proof that I had done that.. .I started thinking.

With the mountain nearby and having proved we could do the work I looked at that ring from my son alongside my wedding ring and thought a little harder about how hard we were going to push it with inadequate equipment and training. We had proved all we needed to and consider this a very successful trip.

With another traverse we left the area to go get John off the mountain. This was one of my last views of the family mountain.

We wandered out, grabbed John and trekked

another 6 hours out of there. In that day alone Mike and I had hiked or climbed for 16 hours. During the 39 hours we were away from the vehicle we were hiking or climbing for 24 of them. Mike did his unintentional imitation of a "downer" cow as his legs turned to mush but we managed to get all of us out of there at 9:00 on the second night. It was a great trip and I thank all of you for taking time to share it with me. I certainly do thank John (for TWO years in a row) and Mike for being there and Greg for being there in pole form.