Not to knock the Mazamas too much, but I thought this was too funny to not make.

Esther, Matt, Kate, Dan and I went up to Washington to climb Ingalls Peak over the weekend. We were going to do Mt. Stuart but changed our minds after we heard that it'd be over 16 hours. We figured we should try something smaller first. So our friend Bob told us to do Ingalls Peak right next door.

On Saturday we did the easier (5.4-5.6) South Ridge route. It was super fun and easy. Great views from the top of Rainier and the Cascades and of course Stuart off to the East. We got attacked by swarms of biting flies and mosquitos and had an early night. I tried out my new bivy sack, which worked great except for the exposure to the bugs. Bastards.

On Sunday we rose to a nice sunrise over Mt. Stuart. We huffed it over to the East Ridge after a quick breakfast. I lugged up over 11 liters of water to the base, thinking we'd need it all. It was way to heavy and after drinking our fill I dumped close to 6 liters of water. Matt joked that we'd regret it later, luckily we didn't.

The East route was a bit harder than the South but was more exciting with great exposure and great climbing. I learned a cheap lesson to always wear your helmet. While Matt was climbing I took my helmet off for a second and got hit with a fist sized rock in my back, luckily missing my naked head.

The route was super fun, good protection when needed and a few really fun hand traverses with cool exposure. We all enjoyed our first real alpine climbing experience and hope to get in a few more this season. We ended up getting down kindof late and returned to the cars around 10pm and back to Portland at 3am.

Photos

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Over the weekend I went down to the beach with Sheri to take some photos. Although we didn't have the light we wanted we took quite a few pictures and got comfortable taking shots. After Sheri left to go surfing my friend Jill came down and with her came the sun. We spent our time looking at Jill's recent travel pictures and eating Spanish tortilla. I took entirely too many pictures of Jill's sandals at the beach on Saturday night.

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This weekend Jami, Matt, Keevin and I went up to Beacon Rock in Washington to practice our trad climbing. I had done the route last year with my buddy Ben. Unfortunetely this time I didn't drink enough water and got dehydrated to the point of having trouble talking. I'm sure my partner Jami really enjoyed that. We didn't get lost per se, but I wasn't 100% sure of where to go after 4 or so pitches. A friend was up on a different route and gave us enough beta to get off the damn rock. Keevin and Matt were at the bottom wondering where the hell we were and even talked to the rangers to look for us. Anyway, here are our pics.

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Over the 4th of July weekend we (Esther, Keevin, Matt and I) went over to Eastern Oregon to tackle the Middle Sister. We had plans to do the "East Arete" as it looked like a super cool line with some easy rock climbing inbetween technical snow climbing.

On Saturday we climbed at Smith to get warmed up and practice our trad placement. I started talking to an older guy next to us about the East Arete on Middle Sister. He told us outright that it was shitty rock and unprotectable. So there went that.

So we switched up to doing the North-East ridge instead. We went through Sisters after finishing climbing and got some awesome pizza at Martoleous? before heading up to camp. We got up and left camp at 4am and were on the summit around noon. There wasn't anything really technical and we definetly had more gear than necessary with pickets, rope, crampons, axes and tools. But better to have than not.

Smith Rock Photos

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Middle Sister Photos

On our way to Middle Sister we went to Sisters for awesome pizza before bedding down Saturday night to rest. We left camp at 4am and reached the summit around 11 - not too bad for a 7-8 mile trek. There was a lot of scree on the ridge to the summit and one short pitch of quasi-technical climbing. The views were awesome and we came up with new Summit Poses.

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Smith Rock pictures

Middle Sister pictures

Esther, Keevin, Matt and I went up Hood Friday night via the West Crater Rim route. We left Timberline Lodge a bit after midnight and hit the true summit around 7. The conditions were perfect, freezing temperatures, solid snow, a cloud layer just below Timberline, a sky full of stars and a full moon such that we didn't need our headlamps.

We roped up just below Crater Rock until the summit. I led, which meant everyone had to wait for me so there wouldn't be too much slack in the rope. It was a totally bomber route and we all had a kick ass time. We stopped for the sunrise and to grab some grub and water and got to see the shadow of Hood in the distance. On summit we continued our road to perfection of Summit Poses, as you can see below.

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Trey and Mary had a baby a few weeks ago. Check her out. She kicks ass. Her name is Simone.

Keevin, Esther and I went up Dog Mountain on Saturday for a little training hike and to view the last bits of the wildflowers.

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Over Memorial Day a bunch of us went down to Bend to do climbing at Smith Rocks and biking at Phil's Trail and the Whoo-De-Doos. As usual it was kick ass. Ron's friends Adam and Angel came down and did their first climb every and did really well and (I think) had an awesome time. My buddy Sara and woman Becky drove all the way from Seattle and said they had a good time even though they had to wait all day for us to string up some ropes for them.

Phils Trail Photos

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Smith Photos

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Keevin, Matt and I took a class through Timberline Mountain Guides on advanced snow technique and crevasse rescue. I think the rope mangement for crevasse rescue melted our brains but we eventually got it down.

Photos

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