As I rolled down Salmon street on my way to work I saw a group of bikers on the side of the road with police. I thought it was pretty cool the cops were giving out coffee and donuts. Not so. They were busy handing out $250 tickets for running the stop sign up the block.
I've been wondering when they'd have the police monitoring the 24th and Salmon street stop sign. It's right at the bottom of a pretty nice hill so who wants to stop? I always double check the side traffic and cruise through if no one is there. That doesn't really work for the police. I asked the officer how many they've given out so far that morning - at least 30. That's like $7500.
I really think they need to make 4 way stops into yields for bikes if no other traffic is present. I'm sure most drivers won't feel the same way, but if people rode their bikes they'd understand.

Saturday morning my friends Keevin, Frank and I went up Mt. Hood from Timberline Lodge. We left around 2 am and hit the base of the Hog's Back around 5:30. We decided to skip the Hog's Back and traverse over to the West Ridge. I was a little freaked cos I hadn't done anything like that, but once we started it was totally bomber. We did a running belay with snow pickets every rope length.
The view from the West Ridge is totally awesome, the North side of Hood is quite amazing. I had to take a break at one section cos the wind knocked me a bit when it was really narrow so I hunkered down for a second.
It was totally bad ass and here are some pictures.

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Trey, Henry and Dan came down to Moab this Tuesday and joined up with Ron and I. We started off with Monitor Merimack - as per custom, and then did Bartlet Slickrock and Amasa Back.
After riding we've gone climbing twice so far. The first was a warm up on Potash Road (Wall Street). Dan and I went up the Fist Full Of Potash (5.10). Yesterday we drove out to Sunshine Wall and put up some top ropes on a nice slab with some 5.9s and 5.10s.

Climbing Photos

Wall Street climbing

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Sunshine Wall Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Biking Photos

Moab IX. Ron, Henry, Trey, Dan and I riding Bartlet Slickrock, Monitor Merimack and Amasa Back.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

More Biking Photos

Ron and I finished off Moab with a short trip around the Slickrock trail. Our bikes were complaining so we only did the practice loop and the S curve of the main trail. On our last day we went to the BMX track and emberrased ourselves.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Arches National Park, Utah. We had an abortive attempt on Bullwinkle Tower as I didn't have the right gear. So we came back and took more pictures another day.

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Ron and I just got into Moab after spending the weekend in Fruita, Colorado. We did a few days of biking and some climbing as well.

Climbing Photos

Ron and I climbing near Fruita in Colorado National Monument. I did my first 5.6 trad lead, which scared the shit out of me and maybe even Ron as I freaked out on him as well as myself on the wall.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Biking Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

This weekend a bunch of us went over to Smith Rock to do some climbing, and celebrating Jami's 30th birthday. We just climbed on Saturday because Sunday it was raining and certain people were hung over.
On Saturday we did 5 and 10 gallon buckets for a warm up before heading over Asterisk Pass. Then there were five of us to do Spiderman Butress. Keevin did the lead climbing and we followed and placed gear as practice.
It ended up taking around 4 hours to do the three pitch climb. The weather changed from sunny and warm to hail, snow and wind. In the end we rappelled off the top to the first set of anchors and got Keevin's rope caught in the overhang. Apparently you're supposed to do the walkoff and not rappel. But we were tired, cold and hungry so we screwed that up. I was going to jumar up the rope and do the walkoff but Matt pointed out that now wasn't the time to try an untested technique. We bailed to get warm food and beer.

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

I just received my first bit of trad gear today. I've been wanting to do trad climbing (where you place your own protection) for a year now, but never got around to buying gear or going out and practicing. This weekend we're heading over to Smith Rocks for a friend's birthday so I will get my chance. I'm hoping that for the Moab trip in 2 weeks I'll be able to lead up some easy stuff with Ron.
I don't have a full rack, or even a partial rack, in fact this is pretty pathetic, but it's a start. I also bought a set of Black Diamond stoppers earlier at REI. I even have a few Yates Screamers for sketchy placement.

Gearhart, Oregon.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Last weekend I went up to the Olympic Penninsula with my buddies Matt, Keevin and Josh to do the Third Beach to Oil City Road hike. It is a very cool hike, 17 miles of rain forest and beaches. About half of the hike is on the beach and when crossing the headlands into the forest you take these steep ladders with ropes up and down. We had awesome weather, only 20 minutes of rain, the rest of the time was sunny and cool.
It turns out I'm still taking pictures with unlevel horizons. As my photos are now digital it's much easier to fix the horizon problem.

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

After about 15 times not passing, I finally got my damn lead green card.