WageSlave

Wow. I'm surprised by the volume and intensity a little TR on some neat, dry granite has stirred up. It was a fun reason to get away from the rain out west. Billcoe, you're right on about the weather. Driving 4.5 hours isn't so bad if the other options are Smith or sitting in the rain storm back in PDX. That hanging snow/ice sounded like it made that way more interesting. We just found silt and small rocks where that used to be. LostCamKenny, we went out there for the same reason: granite in OR. It seemed novel enough to warrant a drive out east. Plus it happened to be more fun than the shitstorm is seemed to have brought up on the interwebs. Shapp, no one is making you drive out east so no reason to bitch about us doing it. The guidebook was crap, but at least we got the library's copy, so we didn't have to fork over any money for it. All the historical info about the area is awesome and interesting. I knew that there was a lot more climbing out there after some locals gave us beta & history on the area. Having a guidebook to the area would have kicked ass. There's not really a resource for those who don't already know someone out there.

Trip: Anthony Lakes - Various on Angel Peak and Lees Peak Date: 9/5/2009 Trip Report: My buddy Michael and I drove out east from PDX Friday afternoon to escape the coming rains and find some of that fabled eastern Oregon granite. Drove up to the ridge leading to Lees Peak just in time for sunset. We scrambled up the north ridge of Lees in the dark and decided to rope up right before the shelf Michael led out on collapsed about 500 ft down the mountain. No injuries or actual falling involved, so we scrambled up and found this great quality 5.6 handcrack on the other side of Lees. That was enough for the night so we crashed out in the dirt. Dawn was a treat. We hiked over to Angel Peak and found the short cragging that is listed in the Falcon guide. Its lots of fun all fairly easy. The Falcon guide had no routes listed along the north face of Angel Peak, so we decided to do some adventure climbing. We climbed two pitches above Michael in this photo and found old rusty bolt belays, the top one sketchier than the first. Fun moderate climbing with ok gear and super featured granite. Next up was Free Ride to Heaven (4 pitches, 5.6) which goes up the slab in the photo. We simul-climbed the this as one long pitch and found it to be fun friction climbing, though the top pitch was a bit dirty. That could have just us being a bit off route. Michael is a pitch up and I snapped this before starting to climb. Good gear in bomber granite all the way up. All in all, a great mellow granite climb in a beautiful alpine cirque. We scrambled over to the saddle with Lees, back up Lees, and down to the ridge to make a big loop out of the day. Weather rolled in that night and we failed at finding a local crag in La Grande, so we rolled back to PDX happy to have gotten some dry, warm granite climbing in. Bigger/high res photos can be found @ http://colinbohannan.blogspot.com This is a great spot for Portland climbers to escape the rains and gloom. Lots of moderate climbing, especially if you're willing to do some cleaning. Mostly putting this out there so more folks go out and climb the neat stuff that's out there. Enjoy! Gear Notes: Light alpine rack. Some slings to replace the old stuff on bolts. Approach Notes: Short, but no belaying from the car.

The Sphinx in MT or higher stuff in the CAN Rockies. Just two ideas, but its way too much driving for most.

Awesome to see a TR of a rarely done route on Hood. Nice job to you all.

If John doesn't want em, I'll take em. I'm in Portland too.

There's usually some copies of Oregon High at Powells if you're already in Portland.

Does the drill keep him warm enough he doesn't need a jacket? I need answers.

North Face Descent!

Sounds like you brought up the idea of beer and pizza... I expect to see you in the parking lot with said provisions around 1-3 pm... (saturday please) And I WILL be thirsty and hungry. Next weekend? I'm down in the lowlands for tomorrow.

Haha. Oregon CCers are just one big South Side lovefest. Who's bringing the pizza and beer up to the top?

The Old Chute can slide in bad avy conditions. This was back last month (when the avy conditions were HIGH). If you zoom in, 80% of the Old Chute ripped at once and the crown was about a foot and a half deep...

Sent you a PM, korup.

Dane, it looks a lot like the Grivel matrix tech. How's the swing from a straighter shaft?

Devil's Kitchen HW cuts off most the slog around the mountain but shortens it up some. Looks like you got a good day up on there.

Congrats on the sweet trip up to the far north! Beautiful shots you got there.