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

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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.

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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

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

Last Sunday we did Mt. Defiance for the last time this season. Brynne came along, though I didn't see much of her as she and Keevin booked ass up the hill. They're insane.
Bottom
Top

Today Matt, Keevin and I went up to Timberline Lodge to get in a little hike at altitude and practiceour basic snow technique. We went above Palmer almost to Illumation Rock, but it was blowing snow pretty hard, so we took off back down. We spent about 2 hours practicing self arrest, belaying on the snow and catching each others falls on rope. It was a pretty kick ass time.

As you can see from the pictures it got rough up there and Keevin had to save Matt on the 70 deg slope. But he got him, so don't fret.

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I have to say this weekend blew. We went for our training hike up Mt. Defiance and I was so tired I was resting on trees on the way up. Matt and Keevin had to wait a half hour at the bottom I was so slow.
On the drive home I wanted to get to my hot tub, so I drove a little faster than usual. I saw the police lights behind me and thought "Hah! Some asshole is getting pulled over." Oh wait, he's following me into the other lane. I'm the asshole. $427 ticket.
That night Keevin and I watched Aliens in the tub until we were like Jello. In the morning I got ready to go out and rent some more 24, cos like you, I like to watch Jack Bauer kick some ass. I go out my door and notice my car locks are up. "That'd be funny if my car was broken into" I thought to myself. I got to the door and saw the broken window. Not so funny. They cracked my dash ripping out the stereo (the one night I didn't bring in the faceplate), stole the amps, bent the window trim, and lastly - stole my backup milkshake money from the glove box.

Last Sunday was Mt. Defiance numero 3. We started at a respectable 8am after chowing on pancakes and eggs. Click for pictures:

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