Where in the world is my husband?

Tristan and his group hiking down Mt Baker last September

Tristan stuck in a Crevasse waiting for his group to pull him up.

Some of his group on Mt Baker rapelling down an ice wall. Last year Tristan did a 5 day expedition on Mt Baker to learn many mountaineering skills (including: rapelling, self arrest, crevasse rescue, and lots of other skills needed for climbing big peaks). This year Tristan is learning more skills on Mt Rainier and later in the summer (Labor Day) he has another expedition planned (and paid for) on Mt Shuksan in Washington State. He is becoming quite the accomplished mountaineer!

Tristan left for Mt Rainier last Saturday. That morning we had a brief period when we were both in the same time zone but did not get to see each other as I was at Dulles Airport and Tristan was at BWI.

I called Alpine Ascents on Wednesday (the guiding group Tristan went with) and they suggested he is fine (although perhaps they are told to hide the truth for a few days as to not alarm family members). They also suggested the entire group did summit Rainier. Knowing how hard Tristan trained I was confident he would summit. And apparently they had good weather the whole time. I am a little jealous because all of my major expeditions have a 50% chance of being somewhat miserable (based on 2 out of 4 hundred milers). Maybe in just over 2 weeks this statistic can be revised to 40%.

In the meantime Gilligan had a medical issue that led him to be in the vets overnight. One of his wounds is just not healing but essentially the problem is that Gilligan continues to itch and scratch at it re-opening the wound. Recently this wound did become closed but then it filled with fluid. The doctor drained it and I am doing my best to keep Gilligan from fussing at it. This is a full time job because he is quite determined to scratch. Recently I added cold compresses to his medical treatment and this actually seems to be helping.

Where's my husband?

Picture below: Tristan on Mt Rainier in 2007. We just walked up along the Muir Snowfields on this day, but the year prior in 2006, Tristan climbed Mt Rainier...he's a nut!!!

This picture of Tristan and I at Mt St Helens was taken last year (2007). At this time Mt St Helens was spewing a bit of stuff: bus sized rocks, but the folks in Washington seemed unconcerned!?!!?
Tammy with Mt Baker. Last year I was running Skagit Flats Marathon while Tristan climbed to the Glacier Fields on Mt Baker. Mt Baker is the snow capped peak towards the left of me. Oddly enough along the course of this very nice marathon you see signs for Volcano Evacuation routes as well as Tsunami Evacuation Routes. At my pace at least pretty much I was doomed in either case!


Tristan my husband is "off the radar". I heard from him Monday night (recall I e-grumped about getting woken up at 9:30 p.m.!) and then Tuesday night he called. But since then no word.

He is somewhere on Mount Baker learning mountaineering and survival skills with the expedition group "Mountain Madness" (I hope).

I assume he is okay, but maybe Mountain Madness is afraid to call me... He suggested on Tuesday night that during their crevasse rescue he and his partner nearly got abandoned. Tristan explained climbing 50 verticle feet up a crevasse is tough (apparently the jump into the crevasse and are abandoned and have to get themselves out...at least that is my impression, which is why I am here and not paying perfectly good money to have people torture me!). I tried to relate to climbing 50 verticle feet but perhaps I offended him by not being as impressed as a good wife should be. (I am a child of the 70's I can only use metric:-) or distances that I can relate to: 1 floor, 2 car lengths, a school bus...)

I am also unsure where the cell phone spends the day while Tristan is at mountaineering class. It is old so perhaps the battery died (or it could be cold again contributing to the batteries death). Or maybe it goes climbing with him and it is now crushed, lost or abandoned. Or maybe Tristan is using up battery and minutes keeping on top of important news and world events (like who's pregnant, who's going to rehab and how the republican national convention is progressing). Or maybe Mt Baker blew up but other pressing news is keeping us unaware of this.

Speaking of bad news. Saturday is North Face Endurance 50 km. Last night runners recieved a discouraging e-mail warning us that the race may be cancelled. After Umstead (24 hours of rain) and Vermont (thunder, lightening, hail), a hurricane seems like a natural progression for the challenging weather I have experienced during this years Ultra's. I can only ponder what JFK50 will bring...actually I am a little hesitant to speculate because a blizzard, ice storm or other natural disaster may be tame compared to what I'm in store for.