Mt Defiance #1

In preparation for climbing mountains this year, Matt, his friend Dobson and I went up into the Gorge to hike Mt. Defiance after eating some kickass breakfast burritos. We ran into two other groups getting ready and they had snowshoes on their packs. Matt hoped that they were over prepared.

Turns out we were under prepared. At around 3000 feet the snow was about 5 feet deep. It was fun to post-hole through it for a few miles, but then it got a little tiring so we ended up turning around a mile or so from the end. We don't really know cos it was cloudy and we've never done it before. But it was a hell of a lot of fun and we're ready to go up again this Sunday before SuperBowl.

Matt practicing for Mt. Defiance

Lead Test == Beer

On Tuesday I took my lead test, again. This time they were kind enough to pass me. After I finished the belay portion of the test and was told to be careful who belays me (as everyone is a midget), they handed me and Matt two cold beers. Matt happens to be the only person in Portland who doesn't drink beer, so he gave it to Scott, who is smart enough to drink beer. That was probably better than passing, drinking beer in front of everyone at the gym.

Achilles Tendon

I pulled my achilles tendon a little over a week ago while running Mt. Tabor. I just got into the doctor today and he told me to ease back into running and to stretch. So I'll stop running hills and stick to flats and doing hikes on hills. That's not too exciting, but an x-ray of my foot is:

Lead Test

Tonight I took my lead test at PRG, and blew my last clip. But I have it down now and most importantly, got a video of my fall(17MB). I'm retaking tomorrow and should pass this time, with less swearing and falling.

Portland Madness Scavenger Hunt on New Years!

For New Years I went out with Aimee, Kim and Matt to the first annual Portland Madness Scavenger Hunt. We were team We Like Big Jugs (A technical climbing term). Our mascott was named Hotness. You'll see her in each picture. We had to take pictures with Hotness at various place around town, only taking public transportation. Each team had a theme and we were climbers, thus our name.

We didn't quite come in first place but we had a kickass time, I even got my name and hand into the paintings at the end of the night. They showed everyones pictures from the night, which was pretty damn cool. Here are ours:

Start of Scavenger hunt on Alberta