Making the Best of the Shrimp Chimichanga

So the goal for Sunday-Monday was to go up to Darrington, WA to do the second ascent of the NE Face of Three Fingers. The approach to the climb starts at the end of a road outside of the town and is about three miles to the start of the route. While potentially a little warm, the last few days were one of the first weather-windows we have had in a while. The route was put up by our friends John and Dave last winter and is pretty impressive. It involves pitches of amazing ice and a short mixed section at the top (their route is the last pic in the previous entry).

Anyway, we drove up North about 4 hours dropping off Reuben in Olympia, only to find the road was not only plowed but they had stopped with quite a large berm at the end of where it was maintained. We were already pushing it regarding time as we really needed to get a good look at the route before our alpine start in the morning, and hiking the road would have added ~5 miles onto our approach. After a few exercises in futility and then some pointless "discussion", we decided to bag it.
Exercises in futility

We drove back home, picking up Reuben and spending some quality time with my parents. One important note is don't order the shrimp chimichanga from "La Hacienda" in Arlington, WA. Well.....actually don't order anything from that restaurant at all. It left both of us with a bad taste in our mouths....mostly of shrimp that may have been left unrefrigerated for over a week.

And thus ended my 25th birthday................................

Monday, we woke up late, really late, 12:30 late, but decided to drive up to White River Canyon for some snowshoeing. Reuben loved it and is very, very tired now. Such a pretty bluebird day, I'm really glad we went up there. While it wasn't as hardcore as previously planned all three of us had a great time! We ended off the evening in Hood River at Horsefeathers, Hmmm beer and sweet potatoe fries. And Daniel will be angry if I don't add that he beat me at scrabble by 73 points. I mean shoot, he was even telling the waitress, who I'm sure was impressed :-p