hemp22

I asked clackamas county about it back in June of this year. the county currently has no plans for construction at Madrone to get it opened as a park. They have no funding to make the upgrades to the highway & the entrance/parking that would be required to open it. A few years ago, the hope was that construction would be done by national guard & volunteer construction planning work, but those fell through. There isn't any public push to get it opened either, so there's been no movement in the past year or two.

don't pass up an opportunity to climb at the city. it can be pretty hot in August, but it's easy to chase shade. get up early and climb on west-facing walls in the morning, siesta in almo, climb east-facing walls in the evening.

I have a tango skull cap and wouldn't really recommend it. It's nice and lightweight and comfortable, but on mine, the glue holding the suspension to the styrofoam came loose after only a couple uses. Maybe this is just an isolated occurrence, but I think there are others out there that I would go with at this point.

yeah, this one was alone. Hung out on the tracks just down & west of pipeline/windsurfer area, before wandering down to the water. I wouldn't know how old it was. It certainly wasn't a baby, but it wasn't very big. We were wondering if they ever went through the campground looking for food.

Nice. Anyone else see a little black bear there recently? we saw one down on the tracks a few weeks ago.

WOW... Speechless. Great job man!

Agreed. It is well-kept and generally clean and full of riff-raff. And some of the sites are pretty large glad to see you getting out there

Seems like Tuolumne has no shortage of great solos. Not that I'm into that, but climbs like Cathedral Peak, Matthes Crest, Great White Book, Tenaya Peak etc. seem to get solo'd all the time.

Edit: Nevermind - I see pictures have been posted online of where the rescue occurred - it does look like the top of Flakey Old Man

All petty bickering aside, Joseph raises a valid point. I have also seen a skinny 6mm dyneema sling get shredded in one of those constrictions. It didn't break, but it was sliced about halfway through and had to be retired. I make sure to have a couple thicker nylon slings for that route. I don't think girth hitching a constriction or horn is always bad - I think there's something specific about the shape of the constrictions on that particular climb that makes the skinny slings more dangerous. The edges at the top of the constriction really come down at a very sharp angle, almost like scissors. A skinny dyneema sling is small enough to get pulled down in there and basically sliced. I don't think that clipping both ends of a skinny dyneema sling (as opposed to girth hitching) is necessarily safer at that particular spot. I think both are pretty risky with a super skinny sling, and just using a fatter sling in either configuration is the way to go. I think it's valid to try and share route-specific protection beta like that with people.

Unfortunately, this doesn't help improve the public's perception of climbers: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/08/southeast_portland_climber_res.html

Trip: Parenthood - First time climbing Date: 6/11/2011 Trip Report: The last time I posted a TR, I had just gone on an amazing journey, consisting of 3 weeks of climbing on the road, and a month touring New Zealand with my wife. It had been a last chance for me to get in as much climbing as possible during that vacation, because after we returned, it was time to embark on a much more serious journey: becoming parents. Sure enough, a year later, we welcomed our little guy into the world, and, as any parent reading this will understand, things have been completely different ever since. He's 2 and a half now, and, naturally, I have been doing everything in my power to instill in him a healthy appreciation of the outdoors, and that includes climbing. From an early age, Z began to show signs of being truly gifted. These weren't the normal signs that most parents at the playground brag about - he wasn't talking early, or self-potty-training or anything like that - but in my eyes, it was too important to ignore. Yes, by "gifted", I mean he was really fascinated in playing with my climbing gear... trying on gear: He's very insistent: I don't get out nearly as much as I used to, but I still manage to get into the local gym almost every week to help maintain my sanity. Z likes to come to hang out in the gym when it's not crowded, while I get in a short and sad excuse for a workout. When he's not busy trying to take all the holds off the wall or spin around until he gets dizzy and falls down on the mats, he has been showing a lot of interest in the climbing as well. So, what's a father to do? Go out and get the tiniest climbing shoes available, and see where this interest takes us. All decked out on his first day at the local crag: Even for the hardened rock master, seeing little size 1 climbing shoes on a toddler can be undeniably cute. After a couple trial runs at the gym and the local crag, it was time to move on to a bigger objective. I had never taken Z camping, and doing so has been one of my main goals for this year. An opportunity came up to join a large group of friends down at Smith, who were going to be there for a casual weekend of climbing. A plan was hatched. I would take Z down to smith for the weekend. It would be mainly for the experience of camping, but we brought along our harnesses and shoes just in case. The first challenge to overcome with this objective was the car ride. Z doesn't like to be in the car for 3 hours, and he rarely sleeps in the car for more than about 20 minutes. So, step 1 was to start the day out by taking him sledding at Timberline, to tire him out. It was a beautiful day for it, and he loved being in the snow for the first time in months. Everything went according to plan, and he immediately zonked out after getting into the car. "rest" stop I may have spent a good portion of the car ride really building up the destination, for after we arrived, Z had settled into a charming routine of saying "I love Smith Rock!" over and over again. I could tell he felt at home. big rock. little man. After I hiked in to the park (with Z on my back in the Deuter carrier), we found our extended climbing family in the dihedrals. There were a couple easy ropes hanging, and Z became immediately excited about climbing when I asked if he wanted to put his shoes on. After a "daddy-assist" getting past the hard starting moves (c'mon, he's only 3 feet tall), he hung out on the slabby knobs and pockets pretty comfortably, and made some honest-to-goodness climbing moves. Sending @ 2.5 years He didn't really go any higher than this, and he doesn't really go much higher in the gym either, but he seemed to enjoy it. After taking the harness off, he actually started doing laps up the retaining wall at the base of bunny face. The rest of the afternoon went pretty well - the extended family even took care of him while I got to go up a couple routes that had ropes hanging on them. By dinner time, the poor kiddo was totally exhausted from all the excitement. He managed to stay awake through a dinner at the Depot, but passed out in the car on the way to Skull Hollow, and couldn't be bothered to stay awake long enough to try s'mores. Considering it was only his 2nd time sleeping in a tent (the first time being in our back yard), it was something of a blessing that he was so exhausted, since he went straight to sleep. Unfortunately, after that, things went downhill a little bit. I awoke in the middle of the night to the lovely sounds of Z puking on me. His lack of energy at dinner time and before bed had been due to the onset of a nasty stomach bug. He managed to fall back asleep for a while, but most of the night was pretty restless, with him trying to crawl out of his sleeping bag, getting cold, and coughing a lot. In the morning, though, he rallied, and was in perfectly good spirits. Despite the unexpected illness in the middle of the night, he proclaimed how much he loved camping and that he wanted to do it again. He was also insistent that he wanted to go climbing again that morning. So, other than having to clean up a massive diaper blow out in the tent that morning, I thought there may be a chance that he really was feeling better. So, we headed to the park to see if we could do a little more climbing, but, alas, it was not meant to be. By the time I had hiked most of the way around the river trail to the southern tip, he was quickly wilting, and decided that he was sick and wanted to go home. He ended up being sick for about a week afterwards - but the whole time, no matter how bad he felt, the little trooper always said he wanted to go climbing again. "I love camping!" Gear Notes: Evolv Vengas, size 1 Petzl Ouistiti Approach Notes: Deuter Kid Comfort II

I'm heading down tomorrow late morning....probably not going direct, but Ill be there. PM me.

they weren't bought out. As a climbing-gear-only specialty shop, they just weren't able to compete with the larger stores that also carry clothes, skis, tents, etc. Having larger stores in town (like 3 REIs) and online climbing gear shops just ended up being too tough to compete with. They intend to keep their guide service / rock-wall business going, but the shop itself is closing. Note that they'll be having a huge going out of business sale starting on Monday the 13th - 30% off everything, I believe.

I don't think I've seen this posted anywhere else, but just in case anyone hasn't seen the announcement, Portland's beloved climbing shop, Climb Max, is going out of business on June 18. They have been a huge asset for the local climbing community - sponsoring endless adopt-a-crags, competitions, films, and other events. Stop by one last time to drop a few last bucks, and bid farewell to a great shop. http://www.climbmaxmountaineering.com/