Sometimes I think my life is blessed. For many reasons. But mostly it’s because I am easily humored. For example, I can get both sides of the gatekeeping debate. Sure, crowds stink. And sure, watching someone get vibed in a tight powder snow zone that cannot handle more than a few tourers is a bummer to witness, too. I suppose that’s why I received a fun jolt from seeing my local quickie mart’s shop windows plastered with the best beta you can find on the north and east-facing lines in the Three Sisters Wilderness. It was/is an excellent display of open-source beta; it’s free for anyone to check out.
But then another cool thing happened to me last spring. First, I learned a few things about the Quickie Mart and its windows emblazoned with the Three Sisters, our local volcanoes. Kudos to my pal Barry Wicks here; he learned that the Three Sisters’ window wrap is provided by the regional/local beverage distributor. I’m unsure who or what to thank here. No matter, my guess is they are not peddling Odwalla’s and Naked juices. Although profitable, I’m sure, the RedBull, Monster, and Dew products are the staples. But thank you for the beta nonetheless.
As the adage goes, open the eyes and the mind will follow. So Barry and I headed away from Central Oregon, crossed the mighty Columbia, and zipped over to Paradise on the flanks of Mount Rainier. Lightning struck twice. The first ah-hah went down in slow-moving traffic through Sandy, Oregon. A public transit mini-bus turned into our lane, and smack dab, full-on, wrapped along the mini-buses’ right side was the holy grail of Mount Hood beta. The mountain’s Northwest Face stared back into our can-you-believe-our-dumb-luck stares. As noted, the traffic was moving slowly. And I was literally at a complete stop. So I did as any documenter of public backcountry touring beta would do; I clicked a few photos. I’m sure Barry and I fist-bumped. At a minimum, we stopped shortly thereafter and scored some donuts for the next morning’s breakfast. That made it two scores in a somewhat short duration of time.
After a night camping, we drove up to Paradise to begin the higher heart-rate portion of our trip.
If you were reading closely, you’re probably waiting for that second lightning strike to drop. So here it goes. We parked. And OMG, it was a holiday weekend, so we could barely park. Opposite us in the lot, a few guides and clients from one of the Rainier outfits unloaded and began staging for their own adventure. However, as public touring beta documentarians, we couldn’t be bothered by their yard sale of gear (or my own yard sale, of which I’ve mastered the art).
Lucky freaking us, because it had been a bit since we’d sauntered on Rainier. Although the skies were as clear as I’d ever seen them before, just a cracking cerulean blue, and I could have simply looked up at the mountain for a conditions report, my eyes fixed on an Alpine Ascents International van sporting a glorious full-length body wrap of Mount Rainier. It was as if the body wrap artist had taken a high-resolution Rainer image from the largest format camera known to humankind, and in all its glory, laid it out there, on public display, waiting for folks like us—fortuitous beta seekers, to absorb and process the meaning of it all.
This got us thinking. We are very into public art, and are very into this concept of touring beta plastered on public buses and businesses, wherever it finds a home. If you are reading this, you probably know how to contact us. Please do so if you have your own tale and images regarding documenting any large-scale public touring beta.
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