The Amazing Elastic Abdomen

And now, for everyone's viewing pleasure, we are proud to present the progressive formation of our baby as seen on Christa's belly! Above is one of the first pics we took on September 20th. Not too much change from normal.

Here we are on December 7th, and although there is some rounding going on, there still isn't too much pronounced "baby belly". At this point Christa was getting eager to see some big change. We had no idea what was in store over the next few weeks....

The growth spurt hits! This one is from January 11th, and as the photo shows Christa's belly really has begun sloping nicely. It is incredible how fast this happened! We don't know exact weight gain during the spurt, but let's just say that she has gained 17 lbs so far and at least half of that in the first three weeks of January! Wow! This entire pregnancy is one amazing adaptation after another. I am continually in awe of Christa's ability to be the perfect vessel for this growing child, and the baby isn't even here yet!

This is documentation of something Christa holds near and dear to her, and is very reluctant to lose. Yes, that is her "innie" belly button quickly becoming an "outie". It will be a sad day for her when the inner navel pushes out, but I try reassuring her that the change is temporary.

Walking Glacier's Skyline

This is one of my favorite shots from a spectacular day I had with my 2 good Glacier buds Kyle and Tyler during the summer of 2001. Here Tyler sits perched at the summit of Mt Siyeh, looking northwest at the mountain's sheer north wall striped with a sill of diorite, the Grinnell Glacier basin, and the north Livingston Mountain Range beyond. On this day we hiked what's referred to as "The Skyline Experience", but in a direction reverse to what is described in the Climber's Guide. That is, we began the day at Siyeh Bend, hiked up towards Piegan Pass, scrambled up the ridge right before the pass, and followed the long, sometimes cliffy South Slope route to the top of Siyeh. From Siyeh we moseyed along a 5.5 mile-long, high elevation ridge that terminated on the top of Mt. Wynn, cresting the summit of Cracker Peak en route. All along the ridge we were treated to views of startlingly turquiose Cracker Lake sitting in its cirque far below. One of the most scenic ridgewalks in all of Glacier, and definitely a distinctive landmark that can be seen from other high points around the area. For a great photo gallery and further description, see the album posted by distressedbark at: http://www.summitpost.org/route/463934/Skyline-Experience.html

Sweet Relief!

It being a beautiful, clear January day in Missoula, I find my thoughts already drifting to the summer. And in my estimation, there isn't a better way to spend those warm days than high on a windy peak or ridge in the Northern Rockies, away from the increasingly sweltering towns and valley bottoms. Naturally, I harken back to an especially grand trip I made across Glacier in 2002 with my good friend, Andy. Starting out at Gunsight Lake, we went cross-country over passes and peaks, through snowy meadows, along rocky ridgelines, following the Continental Divide all the way to the seldom-used Cut Bank Camp on the park's east side. In 4 days we visited the Blackfoot and Jackson Glacier basins, lonesome Almost-A-Dog Pass, historic Red Eagle Meadows and Pass, and then J. Gordon's classic Norris Traverse that tops out on 2 peaks--Norris and Triple Divide--before exiting out the Triple Divide Pass trail to Cut Bank. The pic was taken from atop Norris Mountain on our last day, with the deep Nyack Valley about 6000 vertical feet below towering Mt Stimson.

The Epiphany and The Thumbsucker

Yes, this double line changed our life forever-- so did the eleven other double lines that Christa saw just to confirm this first one! It is amazing to remember when I first learned about our pregnancy-- I was at White Pass, WA about 250 miles from finishing my summer walk from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail (more on that adventure later!). Suffice to say I think I ran many of those final miles to the border! The bottom photo is from our ultrasound taken before Christmas. Yes, that's definitely a baby! And look, it's either giving us a thumbs up or sucking on it!

A mountainside I won't soon forget...

While standing on the summit of Ipasha Peak, I came face-to-face with the imposing SE wall of Mt Merritt and a lower pinnacle called the Lithoid Cusp (just noticeable to the left of me). This climb was one of the more exhausting, though absolutely thrilling, that I can remember having in Glacier. We followed what's referred to in the Climber's Guide as the Yo-Yo Route, which begins from Iceberg Lake, goes up Iceberg Notch, down to Ahern Pass, then up Ahern Peak, down to a saddle on the other side, traverses the rock ridge above Ahern Glacier, and finally up the summit of Ipasha Peak-- a total elevation gain of about 6000 ft, but also a loss of about 1500 ft! The tiring part, however, was the return trip to Many Glacier. It was so late in the day that we bailed out down Cattle Queen Creek, hit the Highline Trail just as it was getting dark, and still had to hike roughly 12 miles to the Swiftcurrent Trailhead---finally getting there at 3AM.

Goldbug Hot Springs near Salmon, ID

Despite tempermental weather and less than optimal road conditions, we braved crossing the Continental Divide at Lost Trail Pass and went to Goldbug Hot Springs over the New Years. The pools are situated up a narrow canyon that one must hike about 2 miles through high desert sagebrush-juniper woodlands to reach. The last couple hundred yards are steep and switchbacking, but when one emerges from under tree cover there are long views down the valley and the pools themselves are surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs. Definitely one of the most scenic hot spring locales in the region, and always a pleasant approach hike. Plus-- thermal waterfalls that pound down onto aching shoulders!

A precarious place to decide to sit down

We have to go back to the time before digital cameras, megapixels and memory cards to arrive at the year I discovered Glacier National Park. It was 1997, and all my pics were taken with a 35mm Nikon camera. You'll have to excuse the grainy resolution of some of the scanned images.

Here my good friend Kyle sits, seemingly bereft from anything stable, on a pillar of limestone below the south-facing summit cliffs of Mt Wilbur. This climb began with 6 people, but was whittled down to 4 when a good friend fell on a lower rock band and tore her ACL. Suffice to say that the climb became very interesting when two things happened: it began snowing while we were on the summit, and then, when descending the mountain's Chimney Route, we realized the rope had gone with our injured friend! Undeterred, we tied together some webbing and came safely down the chimney.

One happy dog

And this is the other member of our small, but rapidly expanding, family-- our energetic border collie Camper! Kind of looks like he's ready to bounce right off the screen doesn't it?

The most important person in my life

This is a photo of my lovely wife Christa during a hike in the Bitterroot Mountains. She is my confidante, my truth, the one I look to in times of need--she is my best friend. Although we've shared many adventures together, nothing will compare to the experience of building a family together.

The genesis of The Heart's Great Red Basin

I'm excited to begin this blog site documenting my passion for wilderness adventure, and the remarkable unfolding of the lives of my wife, Christa, and I as we start a new family. The content of this blog will entail much about adventures taken here in Montana and afar, but also a fair bit about perhaps the greatest adventure of all, that being the pregnancy and birth of our new child.

Please feel free to browse my photos, read the journal entries and comment on anything you like, or just say hello!

About the blog name "The Heart's Great Red Basin"-- You'll soon notice in my blog posts that I have a particular fondness for the Northern Rocky Mountains of Montana, especially Glacier National Park. Towering above the Many Glacier Valley, on the east side of the Continental Divide, is a grand stratified mountain called Mt Henkel (see title photo). Viewing the massive formation from the popular Swiftcurrent trailhead gives one the impression of a giant bird with wings outspread. A common climbing route follows the main drainage, called the "South Couloir", and enters the said great red basin, which is actually just a thick layer of oxidized sedimentary mudstone, or argillite. Nevertheless, since first climbing the route years ago that red basin seemed a perfect metaphor for not only the heart of the mountain, but of my love for those crumbling, billion-year old rock mountains as well.