snclimber

Hey Jim, thanks for posting. Can you give us a bit of the story of All Along the Watchtower?

I'm planning to drive to Smith from Portland Saturday morning, and am looking for a climbing partner. Anyone up for some moderates (.7-.8)?

Hey, MVS, thanks much for putting up a TR. That was a great adventure. Thanks to you and RobertM for a heckuva lot of fun. Mountain bikes are definitely the way to go until the Dosewallips River road is repaired. My pictures also don't seem to do the mountain justice. I have some good pictures of the peak above the lake and of the lake itself, but I think it is probably tough to get good pictures of Mt Constance itself since it is not visible from the lake and on this route you can't see the summit until you are fairly close. For anyone planning to climb the route, the steep wall 2/3 of the way up is interesting. You get a good view of it as you start traversing a couple of hundred feet of flat ridgeline. From the first place you see this wall it looks improbable for the grade, appearing nearly vertical for about 250 feet. We spent some time at that first viewpoint trying to determine the route. None of our theories were correct. The wall turned out not to be nearly as steep as it appeared and the route is pretty obvious from right at the base of the wall. I highly recommend this route over the standard route. The vast majority of the elevation gain on the standard route is on scree and talus of various sizes. Would be very tedious unless covered by snow, but then the narrow ridges you have to traverse could be interesting. (But maybe that's just my aching knees talking.)

http://climbsworegon.com is a companion site to the "Rock Climbing Southwest Oregon" book. I don't have direct knowledge of Acker rock access or beta, but on the BB of the above site the Tiller Ranger District posted the following on July 12: "The seasonal closure on Acker is now lifted. The resident pair is still present, but by all appearances has failed to produce young. A young falcon was found below the rock on road 29, but it seems to have come from another site. If, when climbing Acker, you find a ledge with broken eggshells, dead chicks, or anything that makes you think the falcons may have attempted to nest there please contact the Tiller Ranger District 825-3100, or the US Fish and Wildlife Service 957-3474. We appreciate the monitoring efforts from the volunteers who helped out this season."

I'm interested in hooking up with somone to do some moderates (5.6 - 5.8) this weekend at Smith. Please send me PM if interested. There's a 50% chance of rain on Saturday, but I'd be happy to climb between the showers as long as it doesn't get ridiculously wet. The Sunday forecast looks good, but chilly.

CM3, how did the East Ridge route of Forbidden look? Did it seem to be clear of snow? Also, was the road open to the Boston Basin trailhead? Thanks

I found a camera at Smith on 2/17. If you send me an e-mail describing it, I'll mail it to you.