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Thanks to Mark Weber for his permission to post his images of the climbing action! It was a really scary ride for me, no traction at all. Almost off the down hill side into the timber, I gave it enough throttle to make it back across to the up hill side; hooked up with the bank, and she whipped around on the ice to a combo rollover/hockey stop.

Trip: Rock Creek Oregon - Date: 2/5/2011 Trip Report: Made it up to Rock Creek in the elk horn mountains for some great climbing this past weekend. The approach is six miles in and beware of the ice on rock creek lane! The photos are a little mixed up and funky but the routes are tobacco gully, nicotine free, and my new route rollover, a fine M7 named after my mishap on the way out!! The pillar of nicotine freeJP cruising tobacco gully Beginning the crux of rolloverRollover M7Finishing on the thin ice

Looks like a good time! Cool looking traverse line beneath the roof. When is the best time to show up for the tour!

Trip: Pine creek - Date: 1/22/2011 Trip Report: Pine creek is a love/hate kind of place. For the most part you hike your ass off and watch avalanches scour the routes. Every once in a while though, the place turns into paradise for the avid ice climber. This is one of those times. It is a long way in; a good multi day trip for the youngster's, or bring a snow mobile and be good at riding it! The recent rains have consolidated the snow pack at elevation and has made for current stable conditions, a must if your planning on climbing any routes up high around here. cheers and good luck, Mark Hauter- Starting up open cock pit open cockpit Charcoal

Hooking on popular routes later in the season is definitely easier. All of the ex foliating ice is usually gone, steps are there and screw holes can be found at the rests. Long screws on the well formed trade routes make those holes more secure. And not swinging, a big plus, done correctly it speeds you up and is secure. Reach high and fully weight the tool straight armed prior to committing your move to it. No fighting to remove for the next placement. Keep your tools sharp for this and you can feel them scratch in and bite. Crampons too can be pressed into place rather than kicked if kept sharp. The conditions that John and I found in Colorado were not what I would consider "well traveled". That ice was still pretty young and felt like home to me and I swung at it quite a bit. Even on raw, thin ice though hooking and pressing can save you a lot of energy when appropriate.

Yup, it was a fun trip, thanks John!

Its near there. Strawberry Mountain is two miles away. I think the locals call that rabbit ears, when I first laid eyes on that I was amazed! We went in Thanks giving weekend 1996. Climbed it in February 97 on a continuous hard pillar. The depth hoar can get pretty scary later on. There is some other good lines, but nothing as wild as that. Glad to share! Mark H-

Here is what the conditions look like today in pine creek. The middle flow is dripping which is good! The right hand line is as good as it gets, safe now because lack of snow. The bases of these routes will be buried in up to 20 feet of spindrift and avalanche debri once winter kicks in. The road is passable to the avalanche path (where it gets steep and frozen) with a high clearance 4x4. Hiking is in ankle deep powder and hopefully it stays that way for a while.

Here are some photos from about one year ago during the second ascent of that very route.The start was fun. The business above was tricky.This was the only good gear protecting the crux. Loose dry tooling to the ice.Amazing lead!The upper pitch was a dream.Here is the tree that we used for the rappel. I used it once before!Thats Strawberry lake below. You ski across that on the approach.This climb is very high quality! It is also a serious undertaking in an alpine environment. If anyone gets there let me know how things look. Also the falls down in the timber are a good place with short safe climbing. It should be forming up already; for sure by turkey day.

My fingers are crossed- Yup it worked. These are the ice conditions in upper pine creek as of today. A cold snap is coming here this weekend, things are thin but I will be scratching around this weekend. If any body is really motivated for some hard work, give me a shout-

Those photos are probably from the strawberry range. The climbing out here is not well known Bob and if i lived in Spokane I would definitely keep driving north and east. Most routes are single pitch/long approach and everything is water ice and usually thin. The route in the strawberries is the tallest to date at 120 meters. It is quite hard though and only been climbed twice in thirteen years. In the elkhorns, there are four locations that form good ice almost every year(one year it was dry as a bone everywhere). Rock creek has two parallel flows beneath bucket lake that are good early season 2/3 outings and can reach 300-400 feet before they get buried. Pine creek has more. Easy routes above the reservoir and hard lines at the head of the basin. I plan on being up there this fall/early winter working on new mixed routes; a few lines left! The road into pine creek is rough. When things are right I will try to keep updates coming. Rock creek road is easier to get in on and ice can also be found not far from the trail head up and left. The hike to bucket lake area takes two hours give or take along the rock creek lake trail. Like I said, nothing spectacular but good remote climbing just the same. Feel free to get a hold of me for directions. I posted directions for pine creek on mountain project a while back; right onto ben dier then right onto pine creek road not left. Talk to you all later, mh-

Hey all, ice season in eastern Oregon is coming up soon. My work season is drawing to a close (hopefully) for the fall and winter so i will be able to climb! Ice in the elkhorns usually forms in November and i need partners. Climbing around here that time of year is great, often a day in the mountains on the ice followed by a day in hells canyon on the limestone. Give a shout back here or through the site mail box and i will do my best to reply promptly. Cheers, Mark Hauter-

Still good ice conditions around and dry tooling that never goes away. Anyone interested in the extended season give a shout!

I have a pair of takoons in great shape for sale. 280 bucks with shipping included.

Once you get the rear bail over your boots welt, press forward on the lever side of the bail with your thumb and then pull the lock. Also check for clearance on your boots sole for enough room to allow the lever to clear the sole. I had to cut part of my sole away in order to engage the lever/lock. If you still hate them i will buy them; at a discount!!

Good job Marcus on your new route! It looks great. There is a lot of good ice out here, i have been up in the elkhorns for the last two sundays and have kicked the rust off my crampons for the season opener. About 24 inches of depth hoar above 7000 with a firm breakable wind crust at the surface. If this weekends snow event does not lay down too much snow, it will be good access for a while, otherwise it could get sketchy with instability. The strawberries are avalanche prone and the forecast is calling for high winds with the snow. We will see. I am planning to go there in a few days. All of our other areas are forming up nicely too so when you want to head east, let me know. By the way, thanks for being Coles friend! He is proud of that! You can search my name at flickr for last weekends day. Stay in touch, mh-

I believe i posted this in the past, Lute Jerstad employed Dave Jensen and ran a climbing school at Smith and anthony lakes way back when. French extreme skiers Anselm Baud and Lionel Vibault visited EOSC and presented a film of thier descents in the alps. They skied all the steep stuff around anthony and climbed those routes during thier visit(Anselm also made the first descent of the NF Hood too). Previous to that, Stein Ericksen visited while searching for a ski area location sponsored by the Union Pacific Railroad and he skied gunsight on wooden skis with leather boots and bindings. This was witnessed by Fred Phillips, rest in peace, a local rancher who gave me my first job in 1980. Steve House grew up here and i dont think put up any routes at anthony; one though with me at hells canyon and two others at Benthos. As i look back, i am beginning to see a valid point for producing a guide book for historical value and user enjoyment. While still just a thought, i am open for hearing the pros and cons by interested parties. If i move foward with this idea, i would also be up for partners or teams to help with photographs and logistics. I think the time is right and a guide would be full of objectives to offer PNW climbers alternatives to go at. Let me know what you all think- Thanks, Mark Hauter-

Cool to see the interest. It is true that i backed off the matterhorn west face, but the line I attempted was a differant variation from the left hand route. I managed to free an alternative start after akward drilling of two bolts and making some scared moves on rotten, wet rock. I have been thinking of that face ever since (that was in 88') and believe it would make a killer winter mixed route; a burley undertaking given the approach exposure and remoteness. Maybe a fly by would be in order, it could save a lot of energy. I have been climbing on that rock type a lot and it is definitely better/more secure when frozen. It is permeable!! It would be a good adventure! Mark H.-

nice climbing on lees peak, another good route goes up the yellow dihedral to the left. you start it via a traverse from left to right to the first stance. then you traverse left (kinda exposed) and up over a bulge to another really cool stance. the fixed gear is like visiting a vertical museum on this route! the original route goes left here, but bring some cams and step right into the dihedral for a few moves and then on up right to the second stance of the ramp route. it takes good pro throughout and is 5.8. over behind angell peak above the crest trail is another really good crag. it is like most stuff around here (short) but you can do two routes that are worth the hike- the hike is worth the hike! they are both on the east face of the formation. county line follows the obvious dihedral for two pitches with exicting undercling crux action at 5.10. the next crack to the right (cant recall the name) is a fun 5.9. lakes lookout has a fun 5.8 on its north face. flake of july starts left of the black slab and follows flakes and cracks to the shoulder in one long rope. bring large cams and i think a long sling to loop the flexing flake! its really fun. for more challenge, try the dutch flat wall. it is about 300 feet tall and has a line up of mostly steep friction routes but at least one vertical twin crack line that goes around 10d or so. it is on the divide between antone creek and dutch flat creek facing east. there is long history out here for sure. dave jensen has been very prolific. anselm baud and lionell wibault visited and skied on the ramps at anthony lakes way back, but not before the locals!! all told, regionally there are close to 500 rock climbs unofficially documented by thier authors and not a decent guide book out there yet. have fun out there!

here is some more twin falls action from the same weekend. we talked with dean lords who has bolted three lines there in all. he told us that he hadn't redpointed this one as of yet, and unfortunately, the ice all fell down a few days ago which will delay success possibly until next season. twin indeed has a long history of bold traditional routes put up by quiet locals that climb brave as well as hard. don't let the media hype fool you. tough mixed routes at twin aren't new there, rp's and pins aren't regularly left behind. "pro" climbers like dean have to sensationalize there efforts for sponsorship commitments with little regard for those who live there. commercial climbing can be like that though. fact is, most of the climbing around there is on private ground with sensitive access, and it is a shame that it had to be brought into the spot light even after a word of confidentiality was assumed. /Twin Falls 095.jpg/Users/kristinhauter/Pictures/twinfalls/DSCN2825.JPG

kurt hicks, let a brother be free, the more diversity on rock, the better. nice job mister pope-

how did you get those bolts through the ice kevin?

no ice, no rock- plastic and "styrofoam??" should be fun plus you will get to see and/or try modern tools for free.

is this for real?

the ice is probably still there but could be suffering a little because of the inversion. to access it, you need to go west from baker city on pochohontas road until you reach the pine creek road turn off. follow this to the left at the mail boxes onto the dirt road. put it in four wheel drive and baja in there. there are few really good turn arounds and the snow is considerably deep already in this shady canyon. we walked from the baisley creek crossing. its a ways in there on skis. allow three hours. skiing out can only be described as triple black diamond trail skiing in the conditions we found. i recommend planning an overnighter with a three or four person group to really enjoy the area and climb everything. snow is forecast for the weekend so maybe skiing will improve but dont count on it! it usually sucks. mh-