Fall is here!

I know I have been kind of missing over the last few months from Just Northwest and I apologize. It's certainly been a busy time.

I'm still recovering from my knee surgery that I had in June and just haven't been able to get out hiking yet. My outdoor activities have been consisting of mainly walks around the block. Kinda lame.

But hopefully I'll be hitting the trails again soon! (At least for a test run with the knee) And with fall here it's a great time to get out and see the leaves! I'll post some trail ideas for going and seeing the colors of fall in the Seattle area.

There is even reports snow might be showing up in the mountains by next week. So until then, enjoy these wipeouts!

February flowers bring February snow

Just two days ago the first flower blossom of spring came out.

And last night the snow came.

Poor little flowers.

First flower blossom and snow!

I've shown you two photos from the past two months as the flowers have started showing up around my apartment since early January.

As I am typing this it is currently snowing outside my window. When I snapped this photo it was really coming down.

And the weather people are saying to expect up to 6 inches by tomorrow night. But shhhh....don't tell the flowers.

The first one just bloomed today.

Winter X Games Commercials

These new commercials for the 15th Winter X Games are some of my favorite in a long time.

Let's just say that even the mule deer know that Bobby Brown is awesome and they give mad props to Sammy Carlson. Snow owls know Shaun White is gonna kill it at the Games and that Gretchen Bleiler is gonna go huge. Oh, and even some saplings get in on the action.

Check them out:

Dutch Winter

This is a pretty neat video about what the Dutch do for fun in the winter.

Igloo building time lapse

With winter here why not try something new on your next campout. Just because the snow is here doesn't mean you have to stop camping. But maybe this time, leave the tent at home and build an igloo.

Snow hike

If you're not in the Northwest then you might not know about the arctic freeze that hit our area the last few days.

Well, yesterday while most of the Seattle area was scared stiff cause of the ice and the snow, the Northern Rangers headed up Poo Poo Point for a hike.

And it was very much worth it.

The weather was sunny but in the 20's. However, the view was awesome. Snow all through the valley.


One thing that did surprise us was that when were up there, two paragliders showed up. They were getting set up when we headed down and we saw them land in the snow right as we finished our decent. Check it out:

A Skiers Journey

Winter is just around the corner and soon snow will be falling in the mountains.

Until then, check out this film by Jordan Manley called A Skiers Journey.

There are some truly beautiful scenes in it.

Glacier National Park: Part Two

Here is Part Two of mine and Brandon's trip to Glacier National Park.

This is our hike to Hidden Lake.

Part Two includes: hiking to Hidden Lake in Glacier National Park, Logan Pass, Brandon chased by a goat and beautiful views.



Watch Part One here.

Enumclaw guide summits Mount Rainier 400 times

The Tacoma News Tribune ran a great article yesterday about Brent Okita.

Under clear, sedate skies, mountaineering guide Brent Okita ushered a party of five to the top of Mount Rainier on Thursday morning.

It was their first time reaching the summit. It was his 400th.

The 49-year-old from Enumclaw hit the peak about 6:30 a.m., becoming the third climber to summit Mount Rainier 400 times.

“I had a great group of climbers with me, great weather … all my dreams have come true,” said Okita, who has been a guide for Rainier Mountaineering Inc. since 1986. At first, he viewed the milestone as “just another number,” but the enthusiasm of co-workers, friends and strangers rubbed off on him.

Read the rest of the article on the Tacoma News Tribune site.

Outdoor Photo of the Week: Mount Shuksan

This week our Outdoor Photo of the Week is from Rakesh Malik. Here's a bit about the photo:

In early March, I went to Mount Baker and parked at the Bagley Lakes trailhead. There were a lot of people there, with snowshoes, skis, snowboards, and sometimes just boots. Oddly, the crowd thinned out drastically near Artist Point; I suppose most of the visitors were interested in the sport rather than in the view.

This is a picture of Mount Shuksan as the sun set. I used a Nikon d300 with a manual focus Nikon 105mm f/2.5 lens, and stitched 14 images together.

To view more of Rakesh's work, you can visit http://www.whitecranephotography.com or http://www.flickr.com/baratheon.

Think you've got a great outdoor photo? Want to see it hosted on Just Northwest? Send your submissions to justsouthofnorth@gmail.com.

Please include your name, a short caption about the photo (date, location, and what makes it special) and your location.

Check back each Sunday for a new Outdoor Photo of the Week.

Campus Rail Jam: Spokane Style

A few months ago I wrote about the Campus Rail Jam Tour and how it would be cruising through Spokane on the campus of Gonzaga University.

Well, it happened. And here's how it went down.

To a bus full of college-bred shredheads, the city of Compton doesn’t sound like a pleasant place to hold an inner-city rail jam. Sure, we all enjoy a little Eazy E or N.W.A. every now and again, but let’s face it, a shred-mob wearing tall-tees and tight pants probably wouldn’t be welcomed with open arms by the local homies. So naturally, when the Campus Rail Jam Tour crew began to head to a little city in Washington dubbed “Spo-Compton” everyone was a little skeptical. However, this ghetto-fabulous stereotype couldn’t have been further from the truth. Not only did Spokane welcome the Campus Rail Jam Tour with open-arms, but the event laid-claim to the best skiing and snowboarding of the entire tour. Spo-compton represent!

And check out video from the event at their site. I had it embedded but it kept auto playing. Very annoying.

Summit on the Summit

A few weeks ago I wrote about the Summit on the Summit documentary that would be airing on MTV on March 14.

Here's your reminder that Sunday is March 14.

For the Summit on the Summit, a number of celebrities climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to create awareness of the growing global clean drinking water crisis.

Here's another look at the preview. The show airs at 9 PM Eastern/ 8 PM Central.

Campus Rail Jam Tour 2010

I was cruising around the internet today looking at snowboarding stuff. Why? Because everyone was talking about Shawn White and the Olympics today.

Anyway, I came across this site about Campus Rail Jam 2010. And imagine my surprise to see which schools they are going to but none other than Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington on March 18. (Why they didn't choose Eastern is beyond me. I mean seriously, Eastern is getting red football turf)

The site was pretty neat and the event seems like a lot of fun. Their first stop was the University of Arizona. Yes, Arizona of all places for snow. But I guess that if Vancouver can bring in truckloads of snow for the Olympics, why couldn't U of A bring in a few loads for a rail jam.

You can follow this link to view video from the event in Arizona. The female host is super annoying, but snowboarding in the heat and sun looks like fun.

Climber's body found on St. Helens

The body of climber Joseph Bohling has been recovered from Mount St. Helens.

Apparently Bohling fell into the crater of St. Helens while posing for a photo near the edge. The snow he was standing on gave way and he plummeted 1,500 feet into the crater.

Rescue teams were immediately called into the area but high winds and increasingly bad weather conditions forced them to delay the search until today.

According to the news site, his body was found on a ledge of the south crater, nearly covered in snow.

This is a tragedy on many levels. I feel for the climber's family and my heart goes out to the them.

This is another warning that cornices (snow overhangs) are not stable and at no time should be approached. All over the Mount St. Helens climbing site there are warning after warning about not approaching the crater of the mountain.

Cornices are unstable and prone to sudden failure. Extreme caution is advised! Do not approach the crater rim unless you can find a wind-scoured area where the surface of the rim is visible. The crater rim is unstable and is subject to frequent rockfall and collapse. Stay back from the crater edge, it is potentially hazardous at any time of year (especially during the period of elevated avalanche danger and rockfall during the spring thaw).

Especially during avalanche and spring thaw.

While it may only be mid-February right now, the weather outside is like mid-spring. It was almost 60 today just outside of Seattle. Not your typical winter weather.

That means the snow is becoming less stable and the spring melt isn't far away.

It is truly sad that the search ended the way it did.

White Style 2010

It was another beautiful day in Washington today. And I was wishing I was outside mountain biking.

Yet, for as lovely as a winter as we've had in the Northwest, a lot of the country has been having snow. So they are still thinking about snowboarding season at the moment.

But what if you combined the snow and mountain biking? Well, then you'd get this:

Summit on the Summit

A few months ago I heard about how a number of celebrities would be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa, to raise money for the global clean water crisis. Their expedition, called Summit on the Summit, was successful as the group reached the summit in January.

The list of celebrities was very diverse with different levels of outdoor knowledge. The celebrities included:

• Jessica Biel, actress
• Emile Hirsch, actor
• Lupe Fiasco, musician
• Alexandria Cousteau, adventurer (oh, and the granddaughter of Jacques Cousteau)

And a number of other celebrities.

Well, their trek to the summit of the mountain was filmed for a 90 minute documentary that will be airing on MTV on March 14 at 9 P.M.

Here's the trailer for the show. Looks pretty good to me. I don't have extended cable, so I'll have to see if they post it online.

Winter vs Spring

For those of you who don't know, Punxsutawney Phil (the most famous Groundhog of all) saw his shadow yesterday.

That means that there will be six more weeks of winter.

However, the Ground Frog from Sammamish, WA didn't see his shadow. I'm not sure who to believe. A frog or a rodent. Hmmm....

One thing that I do know though is that winter has been very mild in Washington this year. So mild that it feels like spring. But in other places of the nation winter has been fierce.

Here's some pictures that my Aunt sent me. These are of North Dakota the other day:




And these are some pictures of our winter in Washington that my dad sent me today. Can you see a difference?

Ice climbing

I have been to Banff, Canada during the summertime, but I have always heard about the ice climbing there in the winter.

I won't have a chance to make it up there this winter, but how about a 2011 Northern Rangers video? Sounds like a plan to me.

Ski resorts to donate to Haiti relief

I saw this over on The Adventure Guys site and thought it was really great.

Are you looking for something to do on Saturday? Then why not head to the slopes for some fresh powder and to donate to the relief effort in Haiti.

Two Washington resorts, Crystal Mountain and The Summit at Snoqualmie, both operated by Boyne Resorts, will be donating $1 from every lift ticket sold on Saturday, January 16, to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund.

According to the Crystal Mountain site, they've received six inches of new snow in the last 24 hours and have 39 inches at the base.

And at The Summit at Snoqualmie, they've received a little over an inch of new snow in the last 24 hours and have 52 inches at the base.

So hit the slopes this weekend for some exercise and to support a great cause.