bedellympian

Where are you located?

What routes are you looking to do? Do you have skis? If you're interested in more technical ice routes and/or ski descents let me know. I'm down in Oregon but will have weekends and some time in mid June. -Sam

Good for you guys for getting out there. Pretty sure this is in almost every year. Also, how did it take you 9am to 5pm to get up there??? I would review your efficiency.

What kind of routes are you trying to climb (at the crag and in the mountains)? Keep in mind you'll replace a rope after a couple years of hard use, so forget those dream goals and only consider what you'll do in the immediate future. Second, is age/fitness or budget more of a constraint? When I started doing alpine routes I was working a shit job part time, but I was 24 and an ex-collegiate distance runner. I got one fat rope and took it on everything and it worked fine. Simplicity will force you to adapt and think creatively. My advice, spend the extra money on gas, go climb more with a cheap rope and the mountains will let you know when the extra skinny line is worth it.

I've got a couple people partnering up on different days but otherwise free. Looking for partners for multi-pitch ice or alpine depending on conditions. Happy to rope gun WI4/M5 or follow harder. PM me if interested. -Sam

Oregon111 could you possibly say where you were on the John Day River?

Thanks for the responses. I'm not going to be paying that much for forecasting, just an exploratory trip and low budget. Would be nice if there was a good international weather stats page I could just check at an internet cafe in Leh or Padum before heading into the backcountry for a week to see what the general trend is in terms of pressure and what not. If anyone has ideas for that let me know. Thanks, Sam

Wondering if anyone with recent firsthand experience can comment on what they used to predict weather in Northern India in both the Himalaya or Karakoram. Heading over there this summer and would especially like something I can use for elevations outside of towns in the 4-6000m range. Thanks.

I hear Steve House dry-tooled Picnic Lunch Wall before he moved to Colorado (it hadn't yet been free climbed, but now goes at 5.12+ R). Also, a certain mountain guide claims to have dry tooled Churning in the Wake (13a). Personally, I think as long as you stay off of popular climbs no one would care, but we have a couple other crags in the region that offer dry-tooling in a colder and less-popular location.

Go ski touring or go rock climbing. Based on what you are looking for the nearest reasonable objective would be to climb something on the south side of hood (timberline is only a 2 hr drive). All other objectives are going to be prohibitively longer approaches for minimal "climbing".

Last Feb I took a 40 foot fall when a block came off while I was 3rd-classing back to the car at Smith. Most of the damage was on my knees. My R knee had a torn ACL, partially torn MCL, tibial plateau fracture to name the worst of it. My L knee had torn PCL, fibula head fracture, 3"x8" laceration into the interior knee joint cavity that also chipped my patella bone and shredded part of the patellar tendon. I was in a wheel chair for 6 weeks, on crutches for another 9 weeks (non-weight bearing on R leg), then had ACL surgery on R knee two week before the crutches came off. Since ACL surgery and my slow return to activity I have been really fortunate to recover faster and better than anyone expected. Obviously all injuries are different and not all factors are in our control but I wanted to point out some things that I think helped to accelerate the healing and reconditioning process so that others can benefit. Obvious things that are probably out of your control but worth pointing out for perspective... 1. Being really well conditioned pre-accident (middle of Max Strength Base training from TftNA). 2. Having been through long-term injuries before allowed me to mentally deal with the process better. 3. Having a shit-ton of family, friends, and most importantly a wife who took me to appointments, cooked me good food, and kept me psyched. 4. Happening to have a really good surgeon available when I came to the ER who did my ACL repair later on too. 5. Having time-off from work to focus on rehab and fitness. Things that were within my control... 1. Getting a really good PT who has worked with lots athletes and has tons of experience with knees, Ellie Meyerowitz at Rebound PT in Bend. Compared to other friends who had also had ACL surgery in the last few years I was on a much more intense and proactive program. 2. Working with a strength coach to plan an upper body strength training program that I was able to implement in my wheel chair at home so that I could continue to progress in some way (set huge hangboard PRs and got way stronger in the shoulders). However, this was most beneficial because I was able to super-set these exercises with my early PT. Doing pull-ups, dips, etc. are big muscle exercises that have been shown to release Human Growth Hormone (HGH). This is why climbers will super-set dead-lifts with hangboard sessions to release HGH that then helps their smaller finger muscles respond better. I was flipping it and doing big upper-body muscles to benefit doing small exercises in my legs. 3. Finding a LMT. I was lucky enough to befriend our neighbor Mary as she was starting massage school. She used me for practice and multiple school case studies. I had weekly deep tissue massages for several months. 4. Diet was super high quality and I took a light protein supplement too. I ate more than I ever had as an adult and only put on 5 lbs. 5. Pool workouts rehabbed my movement. I was cleared to move in the pool as long as my feet hit on the bottom (not swim or aqua jog). I practiced A/B/C skips and other running specific drills. This was really helpful to retrain my muscle movement in a non-impact environment while also controlling inflammation with water pressure. When I was starting to do plyometric movement at PT again I was way ahead of the curve because of this. 6. Maxing out my workout time with aerobic activity rebuilt my aerobic system and increased circulation which is a limiting factor with any healing process. I was cleared to start with 10 min of biking on the stationary bike and add 5 min every 48 hrs if not painful. Within 2 months I was doing 2+ hrs on the stationary bike (thank god for entertaining podcasts), plus 30-45 min of pool drills, plus over 2 hrs of PT exercises every day. Results... 1. Able to start running 4.5 months post-ACL-op (faster than normal ACL repair despite massive leg atrophy from 15 weeks non-weightbearing). Six months post-op able to run 10 miles comfortably. 2. Climbed numerous 5.10 cracks, started taking lead falls again, climbed Royal Arches in Yosemite last week in under 5 hrs (not super impressive but also not too bad given that we pitched everything out). 3. Climbed Broken Top with the wife and friend in September 4 months post-op, was the fittest uphill walker of the three (YESSS!). After-note: was told by my surgeon after my ACL surgery that there was a good chance I could never run more than a couple miles or do long hikes again, so this is definitely a success.

Sounds like you need to go do it and see if there are any old pins or tat.

I read it last year and agree. Great perspective on climbing at a high level for may years, and a great view into the changes and cultures in that part of the world.

Awesome! You guys should make this and the TRs more obvious on the home page.

Here's the survey I have so far. It's a little wordy but I'm trying to be specific. If you folks have any suggestions whether its wording or redundancy or blank spots I'd love to hear it. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScEqjRWvaNk8jGesz9zN_P31SKmjvS5Od7JoXKqMyNQLHfgLQ/viewform?usp=sf_link