Fellow Comrade...

All my colleagues think I am a socialist because I feel closing corporate tax loopholes and letting the Bush tax cuts expire would be good for this country.

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Mt Hood and Portland

I went up to Portland last weekend to see my good friend John "Griz" Erickson and to climb Mt. Hood with him. Here are the pics.

Mt. Hood is a great mountain to start with if you are interested in learning basic mountaineering. It is 11.3k ft, covered in snow all year (so it requires crampons) and can be done in a single day. We were lucky to have Griz leading the trip. He guides at Mt. Rainier during his summers off from high school teaching.

Portland was super rad as well. There were lots of hipsters and cyclists and cycling hipsters like James Valdez who let us crash at his awesome house in Arbor Lodge part of the city. James showed us how Portland is as covered in strip clubs as its residents are covered in tattoos. They also have a sweet light rail system which seemed really convenient even though we never got on it.

After living in Seattle and San Francisco, I could definitely see myself in Portland. I doubt I will return next summer for more fun on Mt Hood. I think I want to attempt Rainier instead.

The Conquest of Happiness

"The happy man is the man who does not suffer from either of these failures of unity, whose personality is neither divided against itself nor pitted against the world. Such a man feels himself a citizen of the universe, enjoys freely the spectacle that it offers and the joys that it affords, untroubled by the thought of death because he feels himself not really separate from those who will come after him. It is in such profound instinctive union with the stream of life that the greatest joy is to be found."

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Climbing Mt. Shasta

Last weekend, I drove up to the Oregon border and I climbed Mt. Shasta with Shasta Mountain Guides. Here are the pics. It was an awesome adventure but the high altitude is no joke. It really does affect you. Above 11k feet, my heart would not slow down even when I took breaks.

We had a good group composed of two doctors (Andrew/Jeff), two lawyers (Dave/Kevin), two guides (Natalie/Jamie) and me. We made camp at Horse Camp which has water and a toilet and at a place on the mountain called "50/50" which had nothing but snow. At 2am on Sunday, we got up and began climbing to the summit. After a very long slog and altitude sickness, everyone except one of us summitted to 14,179 ft. Only after reaching the summit did Natalie tell us that we had rushed up it in 7 hours, ninety minutes faster than they had planned. No wonder I was out of breath the whole time.

If I had to do it again, I would sign up for a 2 day trip and bring skis for the descent. However, it was a great climb and my first above 14k ft and I feel much more prepared for my Mt. Hood trip in July and Kili in October. All in all, for beginnners looking to get into serious mountaineering, I would definitely recommend Shasta and SMG.