Katya & Roman

Awhile back I had the awesome opportunity to hang out with Katya and Roman and shoot and their engagement session photos. We started off at Pike Place Market and then headed down to Discovery Park. They're an amazing couple, beautiful and very fun to work with. Below are a few images from our time together.

Olga & Alexey

Here are some images from Olga and Alexey's wedding. We spent quite some time at University of Washington taking some awesome photos and then headed down to Tacoma for the ceremony. But before we got to the ceremony, Olga and Alexey got into a horse drawn carriage and made quite an entrance. Beautiful wedding.

Congratulations Olga and Alexey!

Mt. Rainer Climb

After climbing Mt. Adams back in September with Dan (you can read about that climb here) we've always been talking about doing Mt. Rainer. We see it everyday, doesn't matter where we go, as long as we're in the puget sound area, that mountain will always be visible. It's a challenge that was staring us in face and just daring us to climb it. At 4,392 meters, Mt. Rainer is the highest volcano in the contiguous U.S. We decided to climb it around the end of June. I thought twice about this whole thing when an experienced climber from Bellevue died on the mountain June 10, you can read about it here. But in the end we decided to climb the mountain.

There was a total of five in our group-

Dan - climbed Mt. Adams with me in September
Vadim - no climbing experience
Viktor - no climbing experience
Henry - no climbing experience
Me - climbed Mt. Adams with Dan in September

So on Monday the 23rd of June we all met up and started our trip. After a quick stop at REI to pick up some boots, crampons and ice axes; we were off. We arrived at Paradise (5400 feet elevation) around 2 PM, got the necessary permit (which took MUCH longer than necessary, the lady who was helping us out was at least 90 years old, used her one index finger to type, couldn't really see the computer screen, and should probably be at home watching soap operas instead of hanging out at Mt. Rainer). After getting our backpacks all packed and organized, we started off at 3 PM. Between the 5 of us we had at least 60 Clif Bars and about a gallon of water each.

This first part of the climb wasn't all that hard except for the fact that this year happened to be one of the years with the biggest snowfall in decades. So from Paradise on, we were walking on snow. It was overcast the whole time we were climbing; the summit was not visible. After 5 hours of climbing we reached Camp Muir at 8 PM. After finding one of the last available camp sites, we started setting up our tent. We had a regular camping tent ($100 at REI) nothing special, it wasn't lightweight and definitely wasn't meant to be used at Mt. Rainer in freezing temperatures. Compared to all the other tents there, our tent looked like a Hummer in a sea of little Mini Coopers. Most of the climbers looked at us like we were crazy little kids just out to have some fun and didn't realize the dangers of climbing this mountain.

After getting settled in (sleeping on snow is NOT comfortable, I don't care what you tell me otherwise) we tried to get to sleep around 10 PM but in a tent with 5 guys that's not the easiest thing to do. We had an awesome time cracking jokes, laughing and just enjoying the moment before we had to get up and continue the climb. Eventually we fell asleep, which was soon interrupted by a alarm at 2 AM. So after about 3-4 hours of asleep we were up again and getting ready for second half of the climb. Henry decided to stay at camp and not continue with the rest of us (he had some pretty bad cramps the day before). After saying a quick prayer we got all packed up, roped up and our headlights on, we set off at 3 AM. After climbing for about an hour, it was light enough to turn off our headlights and continue with the available, which was getting more magnificent by the second. I've seen some amazing sunrises in my short lifetime but this one was definitely one of the best. Unfortunately camera batteries die VERY fast in freezing weather so we couldn't take much pictures.

Crossing our first crevasse was quite exciting, although small (about 2 feet wide) it was still cool to look down and see how far it went. After reading books like Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, you began to respect mountains and realize that once you fall into a crevasse, your screwed especially when you're with 3 other guys who have no training or climbing experience. About two hours into the climb we decided to ditch the rope, it was just getting in the way and making it harder for us, so we unroped and continued on (I know a lot of you are thinking that this was a VERY dumb idea but hey we're young, dumb and invincible). This was the point were breathing got harder, climbing was a pain and taking breaks was becoming very common. We would climb about 20-30 feet than take a little 20 second breather, after about 150 feet we would take a 1-2 minute break.

We met three parties on our way up that were heading down. We asked why they were heading down and they all said that somebody was either fatigued or to sick to continue. This is the one benefit of not going on a guided climb, if somebody gets sick, you tell them to go down and you continue on. But in a group if somebody can't go on, than everybody turns around and goes down (and you just threw away $2000 and didn't even summit). Around 12000 feet our group of four spit up (yes, I know a another very bad idea) I didn't want to sit and wait for the other three so I continued on by myself. The views were amazing our second day, we were blessed with a perfectly clear day. Standing on top of a mountain, looking down at the clouds is an amazing feeling. On my way up, I ran into a few guided groups coming down, I thought they would give me trouble for climbing by myself but nobody said anything so I continued on. I reached the false summit around 9 AM and after crossing the crater I was on top of Mt. Rainer, standing at 14,100 feet. The views were incredible, you can see Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Baker and Mt. Hood. It was also VERY windy, I took a picture of another group of 4 guys and then decided to climb down a bit to hide from the wind.

After spending about an hour by myself at the summit I began to get very light headed and was debating whether or not I should head back or wait for the rest of the guys. That's when I saw Viktor come over the ledge and was quite relieved to see him. A few minutes later Dan and Vadim also showed up. At this point I was really beginning to feel sick, so we took a quick group picture and started back down.

Going down was much easier but seemed much more dangerous (we were still un-roped), it was very steep and it seemed like on slip could get you in some deep trouble. We did some glissading, which was more scary than fun, I lost control one time and slid a good twenty feet before I could get my ice axe planted into the snow, that had my heart racing for the next thirty minutes. We tried to take short cuts, except some ended with us actually climbing back up the mountain to get back on the path. We crossed some very scary crevasses on the way back; in the end we reached Camp Muir around 2 PM, safe and sound, except for a major headache that wouldn't go away until I swallowed an undisclosed amount of Ibuprofen. After getting all packed up, we started our last leg of the climb. By this time the snow was practically slush, because of the sun and warm temperatures. So we practically ran down the mountain to Paradise. We were all out of water awhile back and had been eating snow for quite some time. Once we reached Pebble creek, we filled up our water bottles and continued on (we didn't use water filters, too expensive and heavy). After reaching Paradise, we checked in and let them know we were safe, threw everything in the car and drove home.

We stopped by The Rock Restaurant, for a quick celebration and headed home. We were all sunburned pretty bad, mostly our faces and the next two weeks were a pain. I couldn't smile, laugh or do anything that required my face to stretch. After going through quite a bit of Aloe Vera, Coconut Oil and lotion, it got a little better.

All in all, this was an awesome trip. Lot's of people climb and summit Mt. Rainer every year. If 4 guys with no climbing experience can do it then I'm sure just about anybody else can to. I would not recommend doing what we did (not roping up, splitting up, glissading, etc) but if you do it by the book, you shouldn't have any trouble.

I think Mt. Baker or Mt. Hood is next...........

Boots and crampons courtesy of REI in Tacoma


Viktor, Henry, Dan, Me, Vadim


Day 1












Our insufficient camping tent


Sunset, Mt. Adams


Day 2, Summit


Getting down, yes it was very steep




Some of the many crevasses

Euro Pics Part IV

One of the stops on the trip was Munich. We weren't really planning on going to Munich but since we couldn't find an affordable way to get into Switzerland we decided that Munich was the second best bet. And I'm very glad we did, we ended up staying in Munich for a total of 5 days including Christmas. We stayed at an amazing hostel, met some incredible people

Dasha & Alex

I had an awesome time hanging out with Dasha and Alex awhile back for their engagement photos. We spent quite some time together visiting a cool barn by my place, Pike Place Market and Discovery Park. They are a beautiful couple and very fun to work with, looking forward to the wedding. Here are a few images from our time together-