klenke

Are you there in John Day for only the next couple of weeks for Boot Camp or there indefinitely throughout the summer?

Another CC.comer was asking about Eastern Oregon a couple of weeks ago. See... http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002188 There's also the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument west of John Day. Interesting area, though I've only seen it from the road. The John Day River along Hwy-19 around the towns of Kimberly and Spray (perfect town for this website?) is also quite a pleasing eyeful.

I second Strawberry Mountain. The mountain is quite picturesque and is right by John Day. Only the distant views are lacking but when you're 9,000 feet up, who cares. When I did the climb I did a clockwise loop starting at Strawberry Campground (el. 5,800'), getting to moderately pretty Strawberry Lake in about a mile of pleasant semi-open forest, then going past Strawberry Falls, then up to the mountain itself. The terrain is very nice below the summit itself, though a recent burn has blackened some trees. I then went down via the Onion Creek Trail. Here there was even more charring and it was hella hot, but that was August. Onion Creek Trail provides additional views of the mountain from open meadows which seem more wilderness-like than that of the main trail. The trail comes out on the same road that leads to the campground. From there, it is about a mile and 800 feet of gain to get back to the campground (car). 5 hours round trip (maybe 9 miles). A good day trip for one coming out of John Day. There could be a little snow at the summit but it's not really steep so no technical gear needed.

I plan on doing the climb around the end of June, if that matters in terms of snow cover.

Anybody out there climbed Rock Creek Butte west of Baker City, Oregon? I'm looking at climbing it either via Pine Creek Reservoir Trail from the northeast or via Rock Creek Trail from the northwest. Which is faster, more enjoyable, etc.? If I have time I may traverse the ridge over to Elkhorn Peak too. Is this traverse easily done or is it frought with danger? Thanks.

Steamer must be Larry the Tool's son...or at least something else from him.

Thanks, Lambone. Are there things like rap anchors or rocks available to make these anchors? I am thinking I'd take a short rope (25m?) to do some rappelling if necessary. Would this be sufficient? So these 5.6 moves are not sustained but merely 10 feet or so of climbing here and there? I plan on going up the "Shocked" to Death Way like you suggest, camping there as necessary. If I start in Alpine, I may make a loop out of it--going down the southeast side to Granite Creek.

I intend to solo Granite Peak in Montana around June 20 and would like to gather some info on the peak. I've read the summit push is class 4 scrambling. How much would snow on the route hamper the ascent/descent? Any other useful info would be appreciated. Thanks.

Terminal, Is that 1,700-foot grade-5 wall the huge west face of The Matterhorn? When I climbed the Matterhorn (from Ice Lake side), I was amazed at the make-up of the summit rock (very brittle limestone with loads of fossils in it). I brought home a little golf-ball sized chunck of this rock and it promptly commenced disentegrating on my mantle. I have the Falcon Guide I was talking about somewhere in a box, but I was too lazy to get it out to verify the climbing on Twin Peaks. I just remember Twin Peaks being really steep looking from a distance. There are plenty of steep faces in the Willowa Mountains, but I can attest that a lot of them will be loose piles of crap.

The Eagle Cap Wilderness in NE Oregon is worth the visit. It's very attractive landscape and geologically interesting as well. Highest summit is the Matterhorn at 9,845 ft. Many other peaks are over 9,000 ft. Lots of pretty lakes and meadows too. Can be crowded on weekends though--especially in the Moccasin and Mirror Lakes areas. It's less crowded to the east around Aneroid Lake and Aneroid Mountain. I'm pretty sure there are fifth-class technical climbs in the area too--such as Twin Peaks (9,673'). There is a Falcon Guide book out there that elaborates on this. Strawberry Mountain SE of John Day would be a fun weekend trip. Then there is Steens Mountain SE of Burns for anyone who is interested in the differnt types of orographical landscapes possible in this world. Diamond Craters is also interesting for two-hours of one's time while down there.

...yeah, the urinals at Russian Mafia headquarters. ...Shoot! Shouldn't have said that. Now I'm a dead man. But seriously...

My thoughts exactly, Captain of the Cavemen. All those bail out dollars that went to Russia, I wonder if they went into trail improvements in The Urals?

Does this day coincide with Tax Freedom Day? If so, then it'll have to increment beyond June 15 every so often in the future. When Tax Freedom Day reaches Dec. 31, we'll all be communists and Karl Marx will from his grave.

I can just see it... Many years from now, whenever we look out at Mt. Rainier from our modest abodes in Seattle we'll have to pay a small "viewing tax". Windows in residences will be a thing of the past, as no one will be able to afford the view. [ 05-06-2002, 03:59 PM: Message edited by: klenke ]

Too bad there isn't a way to do an on-line petition with electronic signatures. Or maybe there is. We could petition this lousy double-taxation Fee Demo Program out of existence. Or maybe not. The government is addicted to money--ours. Sad to say, but quite often I get the feeling that the day the fee program started it was already too late.

Dude, that's K2! See the Yeti in the foreground? See him?

I have the N. Cascades one as taken by Will Landon (copyright 1980) from Sahale Peak (Sahale "Mountain"). I think I've seen it for sale at the University of Washington Bookstore in Seattle, but since you're in Portland, that might be a little out of your way. I did a search on Yahoo of "Will Landon panorama" and several results came back. You might want to look there. Looks like Mr. Landon may even have an email address: landon@rain.org. A few words of note about the North Cascades poster: Being a self-acclaimed Cascade Peak name-dropper, there are several naming mistakes on the poster. In addition to misspellings (e.g. Chaval not Cheval, Snowfield not Snow Field, and Snowking not Snow King), there are ten mis-located/labeled peaks on it. There may be more I haven't found yet. These are: Mt. Blum, Whatcom Peak, Mt. Challenger, Mt. Spickard (barely; line is actually pointing to neighboring Mt. Custer), Sourdough Mountain, Frisco Peak is "probably" actually Abernathy Peak, McAllister is actually Reynolds Peak, Whitechuck Mountain (where Mt. Pugh is labeled is actually Whitechuck), and Mt. Pugh (misplaced to the north) ---Paul

The name of that park I was talking about whose name I couldn't remember: TUCKER PARK Campground. Info on the park can be obtained with a simple search on the internet. It's probably 25 minutes from Timberline. If you're driving all the way from Vancouver, why camp in the parking lot when you can be more comfortable in the campground (costs about $15)? The South Route is not a huge undertaking so there is no need to camp so close to the trailhead in order to get an early start. I've heard of people doing the climb in as little as 5 hours roundtrip car-to-car.

But seriously... A good option is to stay at Hood River. There you have your pick of several low-elevation campgrounds (with full facilities) or motels or hotels. It only takes about 45 minutes to drive to Timberline Lodge (your starting point for the South Route) in the wee hours of the morning when there is no traffic on the road. There are a couple of campgrounds along the Columbia River--most notably one just west of Hood River--but the closest one to Mt. Hood in the area is south of Hood River along one of the main rivers flowing into town (either the Dog River or the Hood River). For the life of me I can't think of the name of it, but it's where a lot of climbers and windsurfers camp. Others could probably say what the campground's name is. Hope you summit. A couple of summers ago I was up there to climb Mt. Hood around July 2 and it was snowing heavily at Timberline so we bagged climbing it.

Okay, CED appears to be a crime fighter, so everybody better shape up now...including me. Welcome, CED, though you might want to close your eyes for half of what goes on here. Example:

This study has been completed. [ 04-12-2002: Message edited by: klenke ]

This study has been completed. [ 04-12-2002: Message edited by: klenke ]

This study has been completed. [ 04-12-2002: Message edited by: klenke ]

This study has been completed. [ 04-12-2002: Message edited by: klenke ]

This study has been completed. [ 04-12-2002: Message edited by: klenke ]