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.

Photos

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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.

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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.

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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.

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