Oct 5, Sport Climbing Exit 38

Big brother, Kelly wanted to get out with his daughter Hillary for a little rock climbing.  I pulled out my climbing book for Exit 38.   I decided to head to Interstate Park, Headlight Point climbing wall.   Several 5.7 and 5.8 sport pitches.   I guess it's been a while since I have climbed that area.   We managed to go the wrong way several times until we found another climber going to the same place.   Turned out to be a perfect day, and Hillary even finished with a jump in the river, brrr.

Kelly sporting his harness from the eighties.

Hillary makes the 5.8 pitch looks easy

 

Jen Curd gets in in the action

 

May 31, Climb Prospector Wall / Ride Rendezvous Loop - Mazama

It was dual sport day.  Cimbed a couple routes on Prospector Wall (Stairstepper 5.7 & Sidestepper 5.8) in the morning, then did a sweet new loop out of Mazama - Rendezvous Loop.

Don rappels off Stairstepper, 5.7

Kevin

Don,  Sidestepper 5.8

Don got a new trail recommendation from the bike shop, Rendezvous loop.  We were all eager to ride something new.  Again, after the recent rain, the trails were in the best shape ever.  We rode by two sweet huts, Gardner and Rendezvous Hut on our route.  The last trail descent even had some bermed corners.  Once we reached the car, Kevin & Don continued down, to explore some trails that weren't on our map.  They rode downhill while Francine drove the car down.  The boys dropped down on narrow, tight benched trail, crossed a road ( I had no idea where they were), and just as the next trail dropped onto another road, Francine drove by.  She didn't see Kevin, who was squawking at her to stop.  But, she faintly heard a human voice and stopped.  Kevin was sure she was going to just drive on by.  That would be a chance in a million to see the car, after dropping some unknown trail for a mile or so.  Sweet day.  The legs were sure tired.  10.5 miles + 1.2 miles downhill bonus trail.

Don

Francine

May 26, Vantage Rock Climbing

This spring has been pretty lousy.   Rode Rat Pack in Roslyn yesterday and it rained the whole time.  When Brandon asked if I wanted to catch some actual sunshine in Vantage, I couldn't say no. 

August 13, The Tooth

Hooked up with Frank, Don and his daughter Wendy for the classic Snoqualmie Pass climb of the Tooth.  Weather was perfect and company excellent.   We left the parking lot at Alpental shortly after 8am and made it back to the car at 5:10.  A full day adventure.  We managed to be the first party on the route, with three other parties arriving before we finished.   Frank did the first roped pitch, then alternated with me up the four pitches.  Don led his rope the whole route with Wendy cleaning the gear as she went. 

Don and Frank heading towards our objective, The Tooth

Don belays Wendy on the final pitch

Wendy on the summit

Frank begins the rappel back down

Wendy

June 24, Back on Rock

Frank on Rock at Little Si

Hooked up with Frank for my first time on rock since breaking my calcaneous(heel bone)  last fall.  Headed out the Little Si trail and did some easy trad climbing. 

Index, June 5

Chris rappels Princely Ambitions 5.9

Hooked up with Chris Bamer as he celebrated his last day teaching for the school year. Drove up to Index to try out some climbing routes on the Great Northern Slab. Unfortunately on our first route, as I led the second pitch of Roger's Corner, my handheld broke off and I took a fall, jamming my foot in the process. I gave up my lead and then made it to the top of the second pitch. I told Chris I would be happy to belay him, but was done climbing. We walked/hopped around the corner to Princely Ambitions 5.9. A great long route! As Chris headed up, I scratched my head trying to figure out how he would be able to get back down and clean the route of his cams and nuts. The route was too long to rappel off, and required a rappel route that was to the left of the original climb and would not allow retrieval of Chris's gear placed during his climb up. I decided to man up, and put my climbing shoes back on. Excellent route! Glad I was able to climb it, although to get back to car I resorted to hopping on my one good ankle.

May 29, The Tooth

Last time I climbed the Tooth with Frank, the approach hike was the worst part. I vowed the next time I would do it with a snow covered approach. Unfortunately, by the time the snow melted off the Tooth's upper slopes, the ski area chair had already stopped spinning. Oh well, that's why we have randonee gear. Met Frank at Alpental at 0700 hours. We skinnned up through lower international, then traversed out to Pineapple Basin. The snow was soft and creamy and it was already getting warm. Quickly climbed up the slopes below the tooth and scrambled up to the notch between Pineapple and Melakawa basin. This is where we transitioned from our ski boots to climbing shoes, harnesses, and using a rope. This is, also, where we encountered a climber's worst nightmare! As we approached the start of the technical climb we encountered fellow climbers. Not just any kind of climbers, but a pack of six Mountaineers. They were on their very first alpine climb! They were also on our route. Three teams of two, moving at the speed of racing slugs. We settled in at the base of the climb for what was to become a two hour wait just to get started on the first pitch. Luckily after summiting, we decided to rappel off a different anchor on the summit, and mangaed to pass them on the descent. Thanks to one of the leaders, finally allowing us to pass through. The ski down was pretty poor due to the warm snow, and further down the large amount of pine needles and other sticky debri. Reached the bottom at 1900 hours, a twelve hour day, thanks to the Mounties. Oh well, a beautiful day in the backyard with incredible views, good rock, and a friend that had beer back at the car!

Frank passes under International on our way out to Pineapple basin and the tooth.

Frank reaches the top of the third pitch

Rappelling back down to the snow
Not sure what is fuzzier, my face or the bottom of my skis?

April 18, Icicle Creek Canyon, Leavenworth Wa.

Hooked up with Chris and Jim from a Avy course taken this winter. With warm weather in the forecast, we headed for Icicle Canyon, just upriver from Leavenworth. Found some good rock and made a start at trying to get in climbing shape.

Chris leads a nice corner route (5.9)

Jim adds a little more protection

Jim belays Chris up the last route of the day. The crux had a fist jamb that had me hanging by one arm trying to get my feet on something. Glad I wasn't leading.

Las Vegas March 28-30

4/28: Francine cruises the Cauldron trail at Bootleg Canyon

4/29: Frank leads the way at Calico Canyon on Bottoms Up 5.7. He is on the route on the right side. The route on the left was Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun 5.7. We did that first and then swapped routes with the other pair of climbers.

4/29: Heading for the Dead Horse loop out of Blue Diamond.
The skinny guy in the bike shop said he did this loop in 2 1/2 hours. We only took about 7 hours to go 29 miles. We may have taken the long route.

Kevin rips the downhill

4/30: Frank tops out on physical Graffiti, a two pitch 5.7 trad. route at Calico Canyon.

Las Vegas March 24-26

3/24: Kevin leads Classic Corner 5.8 trad. Most of the pitches were over 100 feet. Need a good amount of gear to protect these long routes and still be able to build a anchor at the top.

Just right of Calico Corner, "Welcome to NIMBY" a 5.8 sport route. One of only two sport routes we did on this trip.

3/25: Riding the Blue Diamond trails with Frank.

3/26: Oak Creek Canyon

The Tooth, July 8, 2008

I had set out to do the Tooth, a classic rock climb in the Alpental valley, last year. Unfortunately, we forgot our rack of cams and nuts. This year, things went a little more smoothly. Hooked up with Frank at 7:15 AM and headed up to Pineapple pass. With snow covering much of the ascent, it took 3 hours to reach the foot of the tooth. From there, it took us another 2 hours to climb the 4 pitches to the top of the Tooth. Headed back down, and was at the car at 4:00. A full day of sunshine.

Frank leads the way.

Which nut do I need?
Summit
Rappelling down
The Tooth as seen from Alpental valley

June 11, Monkey Face - Smith Rock

Our last day of climbing at Smith Rock was capped off, with a climb of Monkey Face. The first pitch was 5.9 then it was mainly a 5.8 climb with one section of aid climbing.

April 4, Vantage - Rock climbing

Frenchman Coulee, Vantage Wa.

March 27, Peshastin Pinnacles

Originally I was only going to post my backcountry ski adventures on the website, but that would make it pretty boring throughout the summer, and I would be missing some great photos of my summer adventures. Last Sunday while it was raining at Snoq. Pass I drove down to Ellensburg and went Mt. Biking in the hills above town. The scenery was great and I didn't bring the camera. So from now on, I will try to bring the camera more, and post more off-snow activities.

Today we drove an hour and half to Peshastin Pinnacles to get some Eastern Washington sunshine and climb a little rock.

Frank works the crack

Kevin hanging out