Josh Allred

Josh and Kt on the summit of Independence Monument celebrating the 100 year anniversary.

Independence Monument via Otto's Route (5.9) - Colorado National Monument, CO

When our good friend Eric Peet called us and told us about Otto's Route we knew that it had to be done. Historically, it is a must do Desert Tower. We were looking for some more training before the Titan and this was going to be our chance. This was Kt, Peet and I first Tower in Colorado.

When we arrived in Colorado National Monument we tried to climb Sentinel Spire. To get there we rappelled into the canyon skipping the hike. Eric made a great first lead on the first pitch. Unfortunately, the beta (info about the climb) was terrible. We brought the gear that was listed and none of it worked. Eric leap-froged all the gear having to drop back down to get more gear and then work his way back up to his high-point. At this rate we knew we would not have time to finish both Sentinel and Independence Monument, so we bailed on the route vowing to return.

Rappelling down into the canyon.

Eric Peet pulling through the crux first move on the Sentinel.

The route on Sentinel is called Fast Draw since the first ascentionist had a piton start popping out he took his hammer and hammered it back in saving his life; hence the name Fast Draw

We walked across the canyon to the real prize Independence Monument. Although we didn't hike around to find it, the Deceleration of Independence is inscribed in the sandstone - hence the name. The route is rated around 5.9, which is only possible because of a man name John Otto. Otto was a cowboy who helped create Colorado National Monument. The first ascent of the tower was only made possible by drilling holes and sticking metal poles in to use as hand holds. This technique would be frowned upon these days, but back in 1911, when Otto climbed this route, this was completely radical! No ropes. No harness. Draws? Forget about it. Not only did he climb without a rope, he did it in cowboy boots! Anytime the route felt desperate you could reach up and find a drilled hole, left behind from the poles, and stick two fingers in to regain your position. All we can say is "Thank you Otto."

Independence Monument via Otto's Route - Photo by Dave G.

The sun was going down and there was a crowd ahead of us. We started up. I lead the first pitch by combining Pitch 1 (class 4) and 2 (5.7). This was my second Trad Lead, exciting at that. Even though the grade wasn't hard, if you botched a move it was easy to deck the ground and break an ankle.

Josh on lead pulling through the class 4 terrain.

Eric lead the next pitch (money pitch) with the sweet off width using a hip jam. Unbelievable moves for the grade. Next we unroped and moved through the Time Tunnel. A big tunnel that felt like we were canyoneering. We roped up and Eric lead the next pitch. This short pitch gained us the final platform and lead to the final bit to the top.

Eric leading through the first crux of the climb.

Kt using a hip jam.

Kt's turn. She lead the most exposed pitch and one tri-cam in for about 50 ft to the her first bolt. The angle was not steep but enough to keep you on your hands and feet. The final two moves were about 5.9 and slippery. The sandstone had weathered away the there to stick your feet.

Kt wishing she had a bolt.

Pulling through the final crux.

At the top we enjoyed the beautiful sunset and met some new friends on the climb that graciously drove us to our car so we didn't all have to jumar back up our fixed rope we left at the Sentinel (thanks Kt).

Someone left an army man to honor Otto.

This marked our third Desert Tower and very memorable at that. Thanks Peet for bringing the cams! Lastly thank you John Otto. The climb was established in 1911, 100 years later we celebrated this climb to mark the anniversary.

Mt Rainier. We first started preparing for the Mt Rainier in January. By the time we got to Rainier we had seven mountaineering trips under our belt. We had experienced winds of over 65 mph, multiple white outs, seen a couple small avalanche and lots of freezing temperatures. We were able to attain the rest of the gear for Rainier with all of your help at the wedding. Thank you again, you know who you are and we love you!

Interesting facts of Mt Rainier via Kautz Glacier:

14,410 ft of elevation
19 miles round trip
8,950 of elevation gain
#1 most prominent peak in the lower 48
Largest glaciated peak in the lower 48
Highest volcano in the lower 48

The weather through the first section was not the most ideal but doable. We later talk to another party at base camp that turned around the first day because of the weather. With the practice we had with dealing harsh conditions things had to get much worse if we were going to turn around. We felt very prepared.

Base camp was located at around 10,500 ft. It is called Camp Hazard since it is famous for lots of rock fall. We were careful to choose our camp site. The weather got the worst right when we were setting up our tents. Exhausted, we all went to bed really early. Sometime in the middle of the night there was a huge boulder that fell! It sounded like explosions of rocks coming on top of us. I awoke to hear it. Helpless, I jumped on top of Kt told her to keep her head down. Fortunately, nothing happened. It passed, we went back to bed and could not find it the next mourning.

The next mourning we woke up to the most breathtaking scenery (even better than the summit). It is an amazing feeling to be on top of the world. We spent the day working on crevasse training. In case one of us fell into one of these cracks the team catches that person with the rope and plunges into the snow. From there we have to rescue that individual by fishing them out using a pulley system. Fun! During our crevasse training, a part of Nisqually Glacier calved and started to head in our general direction. With one of our team members in the crevasse we quickly pulled him out. It passed us with no quarrels. The rest of the day was spent relaxing regaining our strength. We went to bed early, wake up time was 11pm, out on the mountain at midnight. I did accidently flash some climbers when I was taking care of business around the corner of base camp, all I could do was smile and wave. Even at 10, 500ft there is no privacy.

11pm. It was go time. Everything we have been training for came down to this day. It was pretty cold mourning as anyone would suspect at 10,500 ft. The gear was packed, freeze dried eggs in our tummies; We were off. Our first section went up the cleaver. Nice way to warm up and by traveling on talus. Not much later we were roping up, setting up a rappel to start our two pitches of ice climbing. I busted out the new crampons, only the second time using them. On the way down the crampons dragged across the rock making sparks!! This inspired much confidence in having sharp equipment for the ice up ahead. Our rope team had four of us. I was second and Kt was third. We made this traverse with complete darkness surrounding us. Just far enough from each person to feel alone at times. Total darkness below. What was down there? A gentle slope, a huge crevasse, a cliff? The unknown is scariest thing when looking into a dark abyss. All we knew is to focus what was 10 feet ahead of us. Nothing else existed. We turned the corner and found very vertical stair steps of snow. "Where's the ice?" we wondered. With such a high snow pack year, the two pitches of ice were covered in deep deep snow. Scraping around we pushed forward but could not place any pro (protection in the ice and snow such as pickets and ice screws). The higher we got the more we realized that we just needed to climb. So we did. We soloed it. We had a rope intending to use it but never could. Every once in a while we came across a thin layer of ice. It seemed forever but eventually we pulled through. All of us in tune with our senses to the max.

Above the ice climbing pitches we continued to push forward. The crevasses became larger and the navigation became trickier. We left behind flags to help mark our way back. The most exciting parts when we had to jump over these voids. Hundreds of feet down some of them went. Roped up we all took turns jumping. We didn't dare look down until after jumping. At one particular crevasse our fearless leader DK was having to time his jump with the wind. The jump was far enough that if you didn't time it with the wind it could stop you dead in your tracks resulting into one exciting ride. Too make things more complicated it had a two foot drop in clearance. This made things simple going forward but coming back would be quite a challenge.

The final push to the summit was not technical but with the altitude catching up with us, we were all starting to feel it. Headaches, dehydration, frozen cliff bars, we wanted to be done. We were so close we could taste it.

We had done it! Wooohooo! Mt Rainier, our first 14ner! Kt was the only girl on the team and the only girl to summit in our climbing club. Makes me feel so privileged to have a wife that is so inspiring. The summit was truly specatacular and windy. We went around to Register Rock and snacked on what we had left over. After our Hero pose pictures, smiles and some rest it was time to go. The day was getting late and getting down and home was creeping in the back of our minds. Going down mountains is when most accidents occur. The snow is softer, people are tired and mistakes are made. We had to be careful.

Time to jump back across the crevasse that gave us trouble the first time around. Fortunately the wind was in our favor. Now with two feet of vertical clearance this jump was no cakewalk. Kt was first between us two. She took a big gulp and needed some reassurance (being one of the shortest on our team) and jumped that sucker. She plunged into the snow with great style. I was next. Again, took a big gulp and made it. The next guy in our group almost did not make it. I had to help pull him up when he couldn't get high enough to plunge. After all the excitement we needed a break. Kt being the only girl had to go to the bathroom and made seven guys turn around. That is power! The final crux was getting down the ice chute. We rappelled half of it but had to down climb the second half. One of the scariest moments of my climbing career. The snow was soft and I couldn't get good footing most of the way. Kt was their to back me up. Finally we made it too base camp, broke down camp and glisaded the whole mountain (the longest slide we have ever been on). We were back down in about six hours from the summit.

We made it down safe. It was our first true alpine route. What a crazy experience. We'll never forget it. Special thanks to Darren "DK" Knezek and his wife Jen for pushing us to do great things and planting the seed to tackle Mt Rainier. Extra props for DK leading this expidition (I don't know how you pull this stuff off). Thank you Travis and Andy for some awesome photos we have here. Thanks for all that helped get the gear to make this possible and Brett "Are we having fun yet?" Francis for helping get last minute supplies

You can watch this great video of the rock slide here. We crossed the bottom of this and traveled along it to the left in the snow/ice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzRhLs5GkYs&feature=player_embedded

Also check out this video by Travis Richins. Travis was part of the other rope team and documented the trip with his GoPro. http://vimeo.com/34195956

Camp Hazard around 10,500ft

Kautz Glacier Route (The route sort of follows the cleaver on far left)

Mt Rainier - Kautz is smack middle of the picture, if you look closely you can see our Glacier is covered by a MAJOR rock slide (which only happened couple weeks before we showed up)

Conditions were not ideal to start.

The team just got done with our first section of steep snow and crevasses. Left to right: Derren Knezek, Dave Rackam, Kt Allred, Josh Allred, Daniel Thrasher, Travis Richens and Brandon Cannon. Photo by Andy Earl.