Suzuki Modification Commences

Here we go, onto the next adventure.

I'm back into the wonderful state of Idaho and have said my goodbyes to the Aspen Farm family. My time as a working student has come to a close after three years with some of the best people, it was not easy to do but luckily for me I am always welcome back and I'm sure I will find my way back to Washington before I know it.

The past few weeks have been pretty busy, working and getting ready for the last event on the farm had left Joe and I with not much time to prepare for a fall adventure. Which (drum roll please) we have decided to do a US road trip that is mostly climbing based. With that being said we decided to take the most trusty steed we know, that is the 1999 Suzuki Grand Vitara with 160,000+ miles on it- my first and only car. The car is solid (knock on wood) great in snow, ice and is reliable. Will be perfect for pot hole filled forest service dirt roads and becoming our mobile humble abode.

Now the Suzuki is no Classic Volkswagen Van but that doesn't mean we shouldn't give her some credit. We've had to get creative (mostly Joe) but the modification process really took hold after the event and taking advantage of the facilities at Aspen we started to build our Mobile Humble Abode.

I really wasn't much help in this whole process, Joe is much more handy than I am but I will try to do my best to explain in the most knowledgeable way I can.
We started in the most logical way and that is ripping out the back seats. We knew that the back of the car wouldn't be long enough for us to sleep in it without the front seats either laying down or going completely forward. Which in the end actually doesn't matter but Joe measured out everything and started by putting in the base and biggest weight bearing part of the frame. Its about 6 inches tall in the back with more as you get close to the front of the car as the floor of the car dips down where the seats use to be.

When ripping out the seats we also happened to take out the compartment over the emergency brake that had the cup holders. Yes, the Suzuki HAD cup holders but one thing she always lacked was an armrest in between the seats. Which the lack of a place to put your arm happens to be more annoying than not having cup holders, so those left and thus an armrest was created that also doubles as a support for the plywood that is just behind the seats for when the car is in sleep mode.









Next was the smaller support that runs across the middle of the car and helps create the two storage bins that will be key for holding our things. Then on the outside of the front seats you will see two supports that will hold the plywood for when the car is in sleep mode. The supports go to the door side of the seats but also have legs that go to the floor of the car.

Here is a great picture, with the greatest carpenter in the world smiling as his work starts to come together after just putting in two side supports that trail to the back of the car, again they will support the plywood that will overlay the top plus these also frame the space for more storage, preferably drawers that will be installed when its all finished.Then to the right the finishing of the supports get installed and the middle storage bins have been closed up on the sides where the doors are at, making access to the storage in the middle only available from the top, where cut outs in the plywood will go. But makes it so nothing in the bin will fall out the sides when the doors are open. You'll also see in the picture on the right the boards that are screwed into the bolts where the seats used to connect. The only actual part of the frame that is "connected" to the car. Simply making it that much more secure that the frame wont move. Though the frame is quite solid even without the bolts, it makes for a piece of mind.

With supports in place and plywood cut the top of the bed is ready to be placed! This part of the frame sits directly behind the two seats, is screwed directly into the wood and wont be moved when the system is in drive mode or sleep mode.







Here the plywood is set and you can see the two openings for the middle storage compartments. Which now have lids that are easily removable. You can see where the drawers will go that are in the back of the car. In the front of the car, the drivers side is in drive mode and the passenger side is in sleep mode. The piece of plywood on the right side is easily moved for quick adjustment from drive mode to sleep mode and vice versa . The seats can either go forward like it is shown in the picture or they can lie completely down underneath the frame, you just have to take the head rests off.

 Rain Guards are also the newest addition to the outside of the Suzuki. It would be a real bummer if the road trip ended with suffocation so the ability to crack the windows while its raining is key and the rain guards provide that peace of mind. Plus they look sharp, win.

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We have just a few more things to add. We ran out of plywood for the driver side for when the car is in sleep mode, so we will finish that when Joe gets back from working on the east coast in a couple of weeks. We are planning on making curtains for the windows and getting some drawers for the back storage spots in the car. Which both of those I can do while Joe is gone. Then we're planning on trying to make a little table on the back door to make cooking a little easier. We got a rocket box for more storage that still needs to be attached but it shouldn't be much work. Last but not least get some sort of foam pad for sleeping on and that should be it! (Hopefully) I am sure the more time rolls around the more we will think of things to add to it.

While I couldn't be much help with the process of building our humble abode I did spend hours of looking up climbing places around the US. The first thing people ask us when we tell them that we are going on a climbing road trip is "Where are you going". We usually tell them is that the plan is no plan. We are going to go by word of mouth and see where we end up. I wrote down a ton of places I have found from state to state which will be a great reference but the idea is, is to feel no pressure if we decide to stay somewhere longer than originally planned. Just today I was talking to a girl from the climbing gym from New Mexico who told me about 5 different places to climb down south and the more I talk to people and the more research I do the more I see that the possibilities are endless and you could probably spend a lifetime going from place to place. Even though we plan to be on the road for a few months, I doubt we will be able to hit all the places we want to go.

We finished about 85% of the Suzuki modification and then packed her up and made the 9 hour, 386 mile drive south from Yelm Washington to Meridian Idaho. Where we are spending a few days decompressing after a lot of work and long days. Joe heads out for a couple more weeks of work on the east coast while I stay in Idaho and then he will return and we plan to hit the road in the beginning of  October. One thing I realized while I was in Central America last fall was the fact that I literally have never explored my own country and I am so stoked to see it in the best way possible, by hitting the road and getting outdoors and climbing. Whether it be on rock, ice or just sitting around and enjoying the view there is no better way to see new things.

I am hoping to be able to blog along the way and keep everyone updated. But until then, here is a picture of our road trip mascot Jacob, testing out the ropes in her driving spot on the way from Washington to Idaho this last weekend.  If you have any recommendations on places to go and things to see PLEASE share!

The North Ridge of Mount Baker (10,781ft) July 12th-14th 2016

           This trip feels like its been a long time coming and I am so glad we were able to make it happen. Joe and I had talked about doing some sort of mountaineering trip together for what seems like awhile, then he had briefly mentioned the idea of doing the North Ridge of Baker this last winter after I had done some ice climbing for the first time. Then after we had been looking at calendars and trying to find the time to actually make it happen there was a point in time where I wasn't sure if we

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were going to be able to find a window of time to do it, not to mention if the weather was going to cooperate.

Once we had found some days that would work for both of us we started watching the weather. The weather seemed to be giving an opening around the 13th and 14th of July. So the trip was set to leave the afternoon of the 12th and hike up to base camp, stay at camp and go over all the necessary knowledge things on the 13th and head out for the summit on the 14th.

So with that packing and getting gear ready began. Just like anything your new at it can be overwhelming and a bit of struggle to actually get a grasp on what your getting yourself into. Joe started to pull all of the gear out of the closet and I started to realize why weight matters so much and that we were going to be packing all this garb up the mountain. After time spent getting everything together including the rope, gear, packs and food we loaded it up in the car for the next days departure.

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We headed out around one in the afternoon. From the farm to the Heliotrope trail head was about 4 hours. Driving through some rain near the end of the drive we were expecting to be hiking through some solid weather to get to the camp. We arrived and though it was raining it wasn't terrible and we decided to head out. We started on the trail and met up with other climbers who were heading down, most of which had summited but were giving us fair warning of the rain we were about to head into. Though ironically enough the rain had stopped since we had started hiking up the switchbacks and the sun was shining. After multiple warnings we were expecting to be drenched by the time we got to camp (6000ft) but happened to arrive at the Hogsback completely dry and with light to spare.

We set up camp with some view of the mountain, the Coleman Glacier and with a tease of the ice wall we were hoping to tackle in just a couple days. My nerves and stomach at this point were starting to feel the excitement and really the unknowing feeling of what was in store.

That night we had quite the visitor when we both awoke to what sounded like a mouse running around our tent. After moving everything around then eventually taking everything out and with no
luck we thought we were going crazy until the little beedy eyes of our rodent friend peeked up around me. After much persuasion he finally left the tent but needless to say it was quite the entertainment for the evening!

The next morning we woke up to a socked in mountain but I was ready to tackle the day and get started fine tuning the skills Joe had briefly taught me the last few months. We started with self arresting which I had done a little bit of on Mt. Ellinor while glissading down a couple months ago. Then went on to work on Crevasse rescue. Which we had done a little bit of on the farm along with watching some videos but honestly I felt like a deer in the headlights and was glad to be able to go over it a couple of times and be able to problem solve with someone who knows what they are doing. Later that afternoon we ended up roping up and

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climbing to the top of the Hogsback as practice for glacier travel. As we were climbing I lead and happened upon our first crevasse which put my stomach in my throat. Once we got to the top we were able to get a pretty solid look at the climb and decide whether we wanted to tackle the traditional Coleman-Demming route or the harder and more technical North Ridge. With all things considered the traditional route almost guaranteed a summit on a blue bird day, where as The north ridge was ominous but would add technical climbing that would otherwise not be contributed.

After climbing down and making Annies Mac n Cheese (a staple for all outdoor adventures) for dinner we decided on the North Ridge. Quite the thought for my first idea of mountaineering but I think my saving grace was the fact that I really didn't know what I was going to see the next day.

We took some melatonin and set an alarm for 2:30 the morning of the 14th. With hopes to make it to the top of the hogsback at sunrise to see the glacier field. We left around 3:15 and made it to the top in about 50 minutes. The sun came up earlier than initially assumed, around 4:00AM. After making

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great time we headed towards the Coleman Glacier with Joe leading. The Snow was hard and made for great Climbing. It was the first time I had used my Crampons (Petzl Lynx) and they were working great. I was nervous but physically felt quite good for my lack of training prior to the trip. We were stepping over crevasses and I was definitely starting to get a feel of my sea legs. But as the crevasses got larger I tended to not look in them especially the ones that could easily swallow a car. We ended up following some tracks that headed across the Glacier field and came to a fork at a massive crevasse. We went right uphill around and were walking between what seemed like the hole to the bottom of the earth after realizing that we had made the wrong decision we back tracked back down to the the fork and went left. But first Joe had drawn an arrow for future climbers to help them not make the same decision. We started climbing and finally came to the point where we got to the ridge prior to the Ice Wall. You could only see the first steep part and beyond that was behind rock and ice fall. Joe looked
at me and asked how I was feeling, physically great but mentally I was intimidated but ready to go. We got to the first quite steep part which was probably around a 60 degree angle. The snow was great for climbing so it made foot placements pretty solid.

We made it to the top of our first steep hill and could not really tell where to go from here. The ridge was now to our right but the bridge to get there was steep, at an angle and something that I don't think I could mentally undertake at this point in time. We decided to keep going left of the ridge. After walking through old avalanche debris we started up our next grade. This is where it really sank in for me. We traded our trekking poles for an Ice Tool and started up. It was steep, and I didn't look down once. My body at this point was most definitely getting tired and mentally I knew that I was climbing pretty well but it probably wouldn't last for long. Joe had pointed out two other climbers that were now ascending the Ice Wall, and I knew that we had quite a climb to still get there and I was getting tired. We got to the point where we were able to see where the route headed back to the ridge and needed to decide whether or not to keep going. I knew that I could make it to the Ice Wall but what I didn't think I could do was be able to climb it successfully once we were there, and with that we decided to turn around. We made it to about 8500 ft.

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Going down the grades was no easy feat, Slow moving we made it safely back to camp and I sat down and was completely exhausted. But with the fact that we still had two hours of hiking still ahead of us just to get back to the car in the back of my mind. And honestly the hike back down was probably the most brutal part of the whole trip. Tired and aching feet I had yet to have the feeling of complete absolute muscle pain to the point of tears until this point. By the time I had gotten to the car I had made solid note of not to hike in mountaineering boots and leave them for the climbing of ice and mountains and leave the hiking boots to do the trail walking.

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Needless to say there are a few things I have learned from this trip.
 One being that fitness matters, not only physically but mentally.
Knowing your strong suits and trusting the person your with.
 I know for a fact there was no way I was going to be able to make it up that Ice Cliff that day but sure as hell doesn't mean I wont ever make it up..
 Taking a deep breath and taking one more step is always a good idea.
Crevasses are fucking huge and not to be messed with.
 And finally Im completely stoked on the sport of mountaineering and trying to better myself at it.

Im relatively new still to the sport of climbing in general. I had climbed for the first time ever the spring of last year, ice climbed for the first time this last winter and just ventured out and did my first trad climbing just a couple of weeks ago, then topping it off with the first mountaineering experience this last week. Needless to say its pretty awesome in a lot of ways, and Im stoked to learn more.

So grateful to my boyfriend Joe, who was beyond patient and willing to let me tag along on this trip. Thanks to him I'm hooked and ready to do it again! Hopefully one day there will be a trip report on The North Ridge with a summit picture!

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Dear Finn

Dear Finn.

 

 How do I put into words how much I love you? How can I ever thank you enough for the things you have done for me. I remember from day one you were just another horse. Sitting in the stall with your head out eating your hay, and little did I know that this would be the start of our journey

together? You came home with us and jumped the moon, and just blew us away with your kind spirit and simple attitude. You then went on to live out in a pasture and never really standing out, until the day we decided to start you into work. When it seemed like id have nothing to ride you just happened to come along. And one thing led to another and by the time I knew it you were mine, my first horse.

 

From the moment I sat on you, I knew you were different, and from that point forward you changed my life.  When I found out you were hurt I never thought that it would’ve led to this. We all thought you’d be back in a couple weeks, when recovery actually took 6 months. But when in reality those 6 months were the glue that held me together. When the world I knew came crumbling down into a million little pieces you were my constant. You taught me how to love and communicate with a horse without riding them. Our bond was made stronger from the time we spent rehabbing you. I will never know as much disappointment in my life again I don’t think. Watching you fall again and watching my dreams with you come crumbling down more than once. But at the end of the day it was still you.

My Finny.

 

 If it weren’t for you Finn, I would’ve given it all up. The years of practice and hard work would’ve gone down the drain. And without you relationships would’ve been burned forever. And without you, relationships would’ve never been lit. You tried 110% every day. And little did I know that you would be trying your heart out for me until the very end.

 

You and I,  

Finn and Katie.

 

I’ve never known a relationship like ours. You are so much more than a horse. A friend, a mentor, my dreams, my reality, my everything. Every waking moment I see you and think of what’s next on the list of goals. How can I ever thank you for everything. But most of all Finn, I hope that now and forever more you know that I did everything I absolutely could do for us. I hope that you know I never wanted this and that you know that I’m doing this so pain never grabs your beautiful soul. And I hope that when you cross that beautiful bridge into heaven that would be one of my guardian angels. And I pray that when I come your way, that you will be waiting at the gates, like you do here on earth. Life is never fair, and I’m so incredibly sad that our time together was so short. But in a way its like we have been together for a long time, you and i. And further more I pray that you and I will be together forever. God put you in my life for many reasons.  I’m so incredibly thankful for

that. Finn, thank you for walking those 3 socks, crooked blaze, and quirky personality into my life. And I hope that I did half of the things for you that you did for me. Most importantly, I want you to know that this isn’t a goodbye… but a see you later. And please Finny, don’t forget to show off that beautiful smile.

 

Rest in paradise my beautiful boy. I love you forever.

 

May 22nd 2009 - August 8th 2014