On the to-do list for some time now for the Chalks & Oelbergers has been to climb the highest peak in Maine together, Mt. Katahdin. At 5,267′, Katahdin dominates the surrounding terrain and is actually the northern terminus of the 2,000+ mile Appalachian Trail (AT). Thanks to Ken Oelberger and his fantastic expedition organizing skills in securing parking passes and doing the route research. As Ken & Dianne Oelberger have retired to their beautiful home on the ocean in Maine and thus becoming true “Mainers”, it was only fitting that they climb the highest peak in Maine. Kristine flew back to Maine on a Wednesday while I did so the following Friday. We all went sailing that Saturday, which was so much fun. Ken even let me handle the “rutter” of his pride & joy sailboat, which Thomas & I think he should name. Every sailboat needs a good name. I guess he trusted me somewhat even though I had absolutely zero sailing knowledge before I stepped aboard his boat. After some good quality time with all the Oelbergers (including Kristine’s sister, Carrie, her husband, Thomas, and 2 year old son, Kai), Ken, Dianne, Kristine, & myself packed up at the Oelberger residence on a Sunday and headed out for northern Maine and Mt. Katahdin. We took two cars as Kristine & I would continue on into Canada and Quebec City for a few days to visit our great friend, Rob Casserley, and his wife, Marie-Kristelle Ross. Rob & Marie-Kristelle (MK) met us at the Big Moose Inn in the small town of Millinocket at the base of Katahdin on Sunday evening. Rob & MK took the road less traveled from Highway 201, which comes down due south from Quebec City into Maine, on about 50 miles of dirt roads, but in the end they found their way to Millinocket. It was so fantastic to catch up with Rob & MK. It had been awhile since we had all seen each other. Ken & Dianne stayed at  the Big Moose Inn while the rest of us camped at the campground just next door. We had a big campfire and cooked our homemade Kristine burritos on the fire and had a good ole evening.

The alarm sounded at 5am and we met Ken & Dianne at the Big Moose around 6am. It was a dreary day and started to rain a bit on the way into the Baxter State Park gate entrance and the Roaring Brook trailhead. The rain and cold definitely didn’t inspire a lot of confidence. Nonetheless, we headed out up the trail in the dismal rain and fog. We had an inkling that the skies could clear once we got to treeline due to the 40% chance of rain today for the area. However, once we reached Chimney Pond, 3.3 miles up the trail, the wind and rain picked up and the visibility was next to nothing.

There were lots of folks on the trail standing around at the shelter at Chimney Pond snacking and trying to get out of the rain and cold. We all decided to turn around and head down and to try again the next day (Tuesday) which promised a much better weather forecast. Now the trails in the northeast are significantly different than the trails out here in Colorado. They are not just your smooth dirt trails. They comprise boulders and rocks at about every step and are tough on the legs and joints. Some sections are so “bouldery” that I would be hesitant at all to trail run these trails. The slick nature of these boulders with the rain really added to the difficulty and considering what we climbed the next day beyond Chimney Pond, I am so glad we turned around this first day.

We made it back to the car around lunchtime and headed into Millinocket for come coffee and meandering around. We went to a cool little upstairs cafe for a few hours and ran into some folks who had just completed a thruhike of the AT in a little under 5 months. We were all very impressed by the thruhike achievement and when you think about it, it truly is so amazing. I have heard most people who set out to thruhike usually end up dropping out for one reason or another. Even Rob having 8 Everest summits under his belt and numerous other 8000ers and mountains around the world seemed very impressed. Rob, MK, Kristine, & I were later talking about how cool it would be to attempt an AT thruhike someday, but we wondered if we would get bored or if our joints would hold up for that. Who knows. I guess we’d never know until we tried.

We then headed back to the Big Moose Inn, watched Rob slither into his wetsuit and swim 2 miles in the lake next door in prepartrion for his upcoming ironman triathalon in Canada, and then had a nice dinner at the tavern adjacent the Inn.

Ken & Dianne retired to their cozy room at the Inn while the kids walked back over to the campsite to have a brief campfire with some crazy Canadian mega marshmellow roasting before retiring to our respective tents. 5am came way to early once again and we were quick to get on the road back up to the trailhead for round 2. Despite our strong percolated coffee, I think MK and I were definitely falling sleep in the back of Ken’s car on the way to the trailhead. We just couldn’t wake up. However, once we all got moving in the nice early morning weather, we all felt more energetic.

This day’s weather was a complete 180 from the previous day’s weather. Moderate temperatures and sun had replaced the miserable rain, cold, and wind. It was great.

Mt. Katahdin from Chimney Pond was such a sight to see, one we did not have the previous day due to the socked in clouds and fog. For the east coast, Katahdin sure is a steep mountain on many sides. I’ve climbed many of the southern states highpoints (Mt. Mitchel in NC, Clingman’s Dome in TN, Brasstown Bald in GA, and Mt. Rogers in VA), but Katahdin really is so much more gnarly and thus exciting. I am sure there are some technical rock and ice routes up this peak. It would be fun to come back at some point and attempt a technical route on this awesome peak.

There were lots of folks on the trail this day due to the good weather and we noticed the hike to Chimney Pond was popular among families with kids. However, we saw several kids make it to the summit, which was great to witness.

After a nice break at Chimney Pond, we signed the ranger’s register and continued on up the Saddle Trail which took us up to the ridge and saddle between Baxter Peak (the highpoint of Mt. Katahdin at 5,267′) and Hamlin Peak (4,751′) to the north. The trail was very very “bouldery” and there were small sections of class 3 scrambling, i.e. using your hands for upwards progress. Ken & Dianne did wonderful on this scrambling despite having never been accustomed to this type of “hiking” at all in their lives. No doubt Rob, MK, Kristine and I were all so very happy to be here with Ken & Dianne. It took awhile to get up to the saddle, but we all did and took a nice break.

We then continued the remaining 1 mile up Baxter Peak’s north ridge on a good trail, albeit “bouldery”, to the summit. The views along the ridge were phenomenal and we reached the summit around 1:30pm.

It was very exciting for me to watch Ken & Dianne top out on the top of Maine. They were very proud of themselves as they should be.

The views down Katahdin’s north-northeast face were awesome all the way down to Chimney Pond.

We could see climbers on the so-called “knife-edge” over to Pamola Peak (4,902′), a sub-summit of Baxter Peak. We were thinking of descending the knife-edge ridge over to Pamola Peak and down the Dudley Trail to Chimney Pond while Ken & Dianne retraced their steps down the Saddle Trail. However, we absolutely decided not to do this after experiencing the steep, complex, and scrambly nature of the Saddle Trail on the way up. I don’t think any of us were about to let Ken & Dianne descend that trail on their own. The knife-edge ridge and Pamola Peak can definitely wait another day in another year in the future.

We spent around 30 minutes up top enjoying the views of beautiful Maine with all its dense forests and countless lakes. We took several pictures with the famous Mt. Katahdin summit sign as well. I grabbed a summit rock for us and one for Ken & Dianne as well. It was also so fun and memorable to share another summit with Rob & MK.

I think we all knew the descent could take some time, so we got going. Ken & Dianne did extremely well on the steep descent down to Chimney Pond from the saddle. Rob, MK, Kristine, & I were not going to let anything happen to these two stellar mountaineers.

We all took a long break at Chimney Pond looking back up at Katahdin and then continued on down the Chimney Pond trail. When we passed the Basin Pond, I saw a good outlet through the thicket to the water’s edge and decided to take a dunk. Dianne wanted to check out the cold bath I was about to take and was nice enough to take a few pictures of me. Burr. It was a cold one. It took my breath away, but definitely was rejuvenating. Its always as if I just drank a pot of coffee. That’s how energized I feel.

We eventually made it back to the car around 7pm for an 11 mile and 12 hour roundtrip day with approximately 4,000′ of elevation gain. I know Ken & Dianne’s feet were hurting, as mine were, after such a long day on difficult terrain, but they had made it. We quickly departed the trailhead and headed back to the Big Moose Inn. We needed to get on the road to Quebec City as quickly as possible so we packed up camp, grabbed some coffee, and headed out around 8:30pm. I was sort of envious of Ken & Dianne’s relaxing evening of showering, a good beer, eating a nice meal at the Inn, and hitting the sack early. However, we wanted to get to Quebec with Rob & MK to maximize our time with them as we were to return to Maine on Friday.

After making it through border control, we finally arrived at Rob & MK’s wonderful new home on the south side of downtown Quebec City and the St. Lawrence River around 2:30am. Rob was so excited to have us there, he immediately got to baking a new loaf of bread until 3am. We had a great time in Quebec with Rob & MK. From biking around the downtown area, seeing the Ross family flat in the city where MK lived while attending university, visiting & hiking the awesome Montmorency Falls outside the city, going on an adventure run with Rob through cross-country trails and backroads while the ladies went to hot yoga, it was all good fun and quality time together.

We then left Quebec City and Rob & MK around lunchtime on Friday and made the 6 hour drive back into Maine and the USA and to the Oelberger Residence. Kristine & I then flew home to Colorado on Sunday after spending two more nights and a day with Ken, Dianne, Carrie, Thomas, & Kai filled with cornhole and lobster/crab roll sandwiches. Yum. All in all, a wonderful trip back to Maine & a new adventure for me at least up to Quebec to visit great friends. Maybe in the future we can join Ken, Dianne, Rob, & MK on more hikes and summits in New England.

I had climbed Rainier 9 yrs ago in August of 2000 via the standard Disappointment Cleaver (DC route) with two buddies of mine as my 1st real glaciated mountain climb and absolutely fell in love with mountaineering. I hence named my golden retriever after the mountain as well and have been climbing higher and more involved glaciated peaks ever since. When my two buddies, Steve & Nico (the Cizik brothers), asked if I would like to come with them to attempt the Tahoma Glacier route on the west side of the mountain, I was definitely in as was buddies Matt, J, and Baba. I had done many glaciated climbs with J before including Hood and Denali and I think the Ciziks liked having us along because they believe we bring good luck with the weather. This would be Baba’s 1st big climb on a glaciated peak. The Ciziks had attempted this route 3 yrs prior but due to the lower part of the glacier being heavily crevassed and hence difficult and time consuming route finding, they made it to 12,000′ on the Tahoma Glacier headwall before having to turn around. They had also avoided the lower part of the Tahoma due to being heavily cracked up as it was August and ascended the Puyallup Cleaver adjacent the glacier which took up additional time. Thus, the Ciziks were extremely motivated to climb the Tahoma and our plan was to carry full loads up and over the summit with a camp in the crater rim and descend the easier standard DC route. The Ciziks’ father, Rob, had tried this route three times throughout the 80s and 90s and again with his sons but unfortunately never made the summit from the Tahoma. However, Rob and Nico’s wife, Celeste, would climb the DC route and meet us in the crater rim after our overnight at 14,200′ and we would all descend the DC route together. It was a great plan and fortunately it all went according to plan.

The lower Tahoma Glacier was filled in enough where it was much more direct and less time consuming then climbing the Puyallup Cleaver to the north. Our late start that day had a small price of some annoying post holing for the leader but we didn’t mind one bit considering we didn’t have to deal with the additional weight of snowshoes on our person. The lower part of the Tahoma Glacier was definitely some fun crevasse meandering and route finding.

After 4,000′ of moderately steep glacier travel and route finding and sitting out an intense electrical storm in which our poles, pickets, ascenders, biners, etc were building charge and making noise, we rolled into our camp 2 at 10,000′. I’ve never had to deal with electrical storms on a glacier but I tell you it is a scary ordeal. Nowhere to hide or run…all you can do is take off your pack and metal gear, put it a good distance from yourself and get low and wait it out.

The Ciziks did a bit of route finding through the remainder of the lower Tahoma Glacier to the base of the headwall after we rolled into camp. This was much appreciated as it probably saved us 2 hrs of route finding and headaches in the morning for summit day.

After waking up at 2:30am and entirely packing up camp on our backs (as we would carry all our gear up and over Rainier), we departed camp 2 around 4:30am.

We made it to the base of the headwall (around 11,000′) and considered our future.

The headwall’s sustained 45-50 deg snow let up around 13,300′ but not without a major obstacle for us to overcome…a major crevasse that traversed the entire glacier and only two potential snow bridges to cross at around 13,100′. We decided on the larger one, but the uphill side was severely overhanging the crack. Steve went first on a tight boot axe belay from Matt and made it across. Then, Matt went on a tight boot axe belay from above by Steve and below by Nico. Then, when we thought Matt was across, the entire bridge and overhanging part of the crevasse wall went! Nico immediately hit the ground to arrest the fall, J jumped on top of Nico and I set up a picket as an anchor with ascender on the rope to Matt. However, there was no tension on the rope. We did not know what was going on and why there was no tension. Low and behold, the crevasse constricted to about 7 feet in width about 20 ft down and the snow debris had wedged in between the constricted part and Matt had fallen 30′ onto his back on top of the wedged debris. Fortunately, he was ok as Baba called down to him. We pulled Matt out on the downhill side of the crack and he regained his composure. I don’t know of anyone who could have regained their composure as quickly as Matt did.

So, we had a dilemma…Steve was on the uphill side of the 8 ft wide crack and the remaining 5 of us on the downhill side with only a foot wide by 3 foot deep bridge that we didn’t even consider crossing before. It seemed like it would go if we just touched it. However, it was our only hope. Matt got back on the horse again after his fall and crawled across the narrow bridge without his pack while Steve anchored himself in from above with a picket and belayed him and Nico belayed him from below. He made it! The bridge held! We went one by one, crawling across the bridge and all of us had made it except Baba who was deeply concerned with the bridge holding considering he was 215 lbs and had a 60 lb pack on his back. However, we had 4 pickets in the ground and belayed him from above with a very taught rope essentially trying to pull him upwards and the bridge held much to Baba and our relief.

If there had not been any bridge to get across after the collapse of the seemingly large one, Steve would have had to set up a bombproof anchor from above and we each would have had to drop down into the crevasse and ascend the rope up the uphill side…it could have been very time consuming but doable for us. Fortunately, we didn’t have to go there. Another couple sunny days and that small bridge would be gone and the route wouldn’t go anymore without setting up a ladder or tyrolean traverse. With the drama behind us, we gathered ourselves and climbed the remaining 1,100′ to the west end of the west crater rim dodging crevasses here and there.

We made the west crater rim at around 11:30am and then deroped and walked across the west crater rim to Columbia Crest at 14,411′ and topped out around 11:45AM.

I knew my good buddy Caleb Wray and his team of skiers had successfully summitted Rainier the day before since I saw their ski tracks heading south off the summit towards the upper Nisqually Glacier and the Fuhrer Finger. Congrats guys on a great climb and ski descent! We then headed down to the east end of Rainier’s main crater rim and set up our camp 3 about 50′ away from where the standard DC Route comes up and over the crater rim so we could watch out for Rob and Celeste the following morning coming up that route. After hours and hours of eating, drinking, sipping some scotch, and napping, Baba, J, and I walked back up to the summit for some sunset views from the top of Washington.

We then hit the sack for as soon as the sun went down it got really chilly. I think the low that night was around 5 degrees on the summit. However, the weather couldn’t have been better for a summit crater overnight. We woke up at around 7am and brewed coffee and ate bagels and listened to some Seattle radio stations on my solar powered radio. A few RMI guided groups reached the crater rim at that time and I have to admit they looked at us with a bit of confusion like what were we doing up here. Nevertheless, one of the guides asked where we were from and we said Colorado and then he asked “Is Brandon Chalk there?” Wow…it turned out to be my good friend Mike Horst who was guiding for Alpine Ascents. Last time I saw Mike was at Aconcagua base camp 3 yrs ago when he was guiding a group and I was climbing Aconcagua independently with two good friends. We asked his clients to wait a bit and he and I caught up on old times. It was great to see him. Celeste and Rob crested the crater rim around 9am and the Ciziks went with them to the summit while J, Baba, and I explored the many deep caves expelling sulfur below the crater rim. We then all packed up and headed down the upper Ingraham Glacier down the normal standard DC route…it was indeed a highway and made me feel so happy that we ascended the much much less traveled Tahoma Glacier.

We then made it in no time to Camp Muir, had lunch and re-filled water bottles, and plunge stepped our way down the Muir Snowfield to Paradise for a total descent time from the summit to paradise of 6 hrs and 9,000′. Rainier beers were on the menu and we celebrated our success and safe return and how this climb (excluding the crevasse fall), the weather (excluding the electrical storm), and timing with Celeste and Rob worked out just perfectly.