bedellympian

So I don't know if I somehow missed it or if no one posted about it yet, but I just picked up a copy of the new Hood guide at the gear shop in Bend and it is totally awesome. Looking through the contributors section I saw several CC.comers who helped write it. I would just like to say that I think it's an excellent guide that anyone interested in Hood should have, and give a big thank you to everyone who contributed to such an awesome resource. You guys already have me stoked for winter and summer is just beginning!

Ask around in Bend... I know someone who had an old black and white printout but it fell apart and then they lost the original computer file. Legend has it that JT and BAG put up a 5.12 sport route back in the day... but that could just be myth. You could always "tweet" them and ask...

I've used a found #2 and used .5 and .75 cams in my rack since day one. I did the inspection, consulted other climbers I trust and started using them at the end of pitches and in anchors (where a failure is not certain death as mentioned above). They have never failed me, I have whipped on them and I trust them just as much as my other pieces... I consider them time tested Make your own safe evaluation... and yes I agree, they are pieces of metal, either they work or they don't, it's usually pretty obvious when they don't.

Nice work! Sounds like a great outing. Never been into Boston but TFT is high on my list. Your report makes it sound more involved and adventurous than I had imagined which just makes me want to do it even more. Thanks for the stoke!

Hola internet folk, looking for a good glacier to practice some ice climbing technique during summer... specifically in Oregon. Requirements, day-tripable hiking distance, steep and long ice walls... "I know a glacier way the f-out on some mountain with two foot wide crevasses that you might be able to squeeze ten feet of climbing out of" is not helpful. Preferably, "I know a glacier within 3 miles of a TH where you can TR 50ft+ vertical ice" but hell, its Oregon, I'll take what I can get.

Nice! Sounds like you made good time. Thanks for the conditions report... just got back to Bend from the Sierra and was wondering what it was like up there.

Trip: High Sierra (Yosemite & Palisades) - multiple Date: 6/15/2014 Trip Report: A cc.com user posted this past year that soloing 5.6 was like jerking off with a noose around your neck. If that's the case, then this trip was a copious expression of my sick fetish. Here is the itinerary with links to appropriate blog posts with pictures and details: 6/12 finish work 6/13 drive to Reno 6/14 drive to Yos and hike Mt. Hoffman to acclimatize (class 1-2, ~7 miles, 10,800ft) 6/15 climb Mt. Conness via the West Ridge (II 5.6), approach over North Peak Pass from Saddlebag Lake, see blog: Mountain Mischief 6/16 rest day, climb NW corner on Lembert Dome (2 pitches, 5.6) 6/17 Tenaya-Matthes-Cathedral Linkup: climb NW Butt (II 5.7) on Tenaya Pk, traverse Matthes Crest S-N (III 5.7), climb SE Butt on Cathedral Pk (II 5.6), see blog: MM 6/18 rest day in Mammoth Lakes 6/19 hike up North Fork of Big Pine Creek to Palisade Glacier 6/20 climb Mt. Sill via the Swiss Arete (II 5.7), see blog: MM 6/21 rest day in Reno 6/22 drive home 6/23 start grad school Total: 6 routes, all 5.6 or 5.7, over 12,500 ft of climbing on 5th class or 3rd+ with you-fall-you-die consequence. The biggest problem with the High Sierra is that everything is perfect for doing big days. You have easy approaches and descents, perfect weather, solid rock, lots of moderate terrain... but every time you look around the view is so awesome that you just stare at it for minutes. Then you get to the next ledge and you feel compelled to take yet another panorama with your camera. It makes it really difficult to cover all that awesome terrain at a reasonable pace. If you manage to spend less than 15 min per hour photographing its a frickin' miracle! Gear Notes: gear for anchors and rapping (110ft tag line), but never used it Approach Notes: Guide tennies, no pons (shoulda had em for the Palisades)... approaches are relatively simple, short, and easy in the Sierra.

Thanks for the compliments gents. And thanks for the thoughts on the E Butt and the link to that sweet TR. Looks like there is room for many variations of varying difficulty. I will have to give 'em a go when the next cold snap happens.

Trip: North Sister - South Ridge Date: 5/3/2014 Trip Report: Mainly posting this to provide conditions although the Sisters are getting stormed on right now so I imagine stuff could change a bit this week. Travis and I climbed North Sister via the South Ridge on Saturday. We brought skis and had to carry them just over 1.5 miles before we could skin. We followed a creek up to the glacial moraine between the SE and E ridges, then climbed snow to the south ridge. This was very sun affected snow, wet and soft with a harder crust in places. The ridge was mostly snow with some exposed rock. The summit pinnacle had really ideal rime ice for climbing, compact and hard but still dagger-able. Winds were very high in the creek bed approaching the ridge and on the ridge top itself. Clouds from the west fought to roll over the ridge all day and eventually succeeded, although we had sun on the summit. Temps varied greatly, when the sun was out and we were sheltered behind gendarmes from the wind it was really hot and summery, when the wind was on us with cloud cover it felt like a bad winter storm. This seemed to change every 10-20 minutes and hit such extremes that I would be sweating in just my R1 with the hood down and have my beard stiff with ice in the same ten minute period. One question for the community: Is there a somewhat direct route straight up the east buttress/ridge? Oregon High does not list one but it doesn't list the black spider on Hood either. Pole Creek TH: SE face/E ridge climbing up to S ridge gendarmes on S ridge terrible traverse, so called top of the bowling alley Travis approaching summit (lower left) summit in background this orientation is as precisely correct as I could get it: vertical rime/snow! for more pictures, info, and witty prose you can check out my blog post on the trip... Mountain Mischief Gear Notes: We felt comfy simul soloing everything up and down, but if you wanted pro the rime on the summit pinnacle is really excellent for picket placements right now. Approach Notes: Pole Creek TH is dirt dry, skis/skins usable just past junction w/ Green Lakes Trail (flotation definitely necessary: mashed potato post-holing)

Major: I would say that it is very doable. My skis are old, long and heavy so I opted not to. Plus my partner was not up for skiing Cooper Spur off the summit. Best snow conditions were in the gully itself though. Cooper was nice up high but the final half of the steep slopes were very variable and would not be that fun as you couldn't just rail it. Someone go ski the R Gully right now! and jump the schrund too

Trip: Mt. Hood - North Face Right Gully Date: 4/13/2014 Trip Report: Travis Holman and I climbed N Face R Gully Sunday morning. Perfect conditions except for step 2 which is bone dry. Slab rock on the left side seemed pretty easy though and had decent rock and pro to boot. We finished with a fairly direct line that topped out right on the summit... no cornice. Minimal wind, great snow, not a lot of rock or ice fall despite warm temps. Cooper Spur was easy to descend. 2nd step: It was a blast and having wanted to do this for a while I was surprised by how short and easy the route was. Best part of the day: sticking my head up and spooking the 7 or so people on the summit when I topped out Also... huge fat ice flow on the left of the Eliot Glacier right now! Excellent back-up or warm-up if you're out there?! Here is a link to my blog post with more pictures and details... Mountain Mischief Gear Notes: Used: 2 screws on 1st step, 3 tricams on 2nd step, pickets and slings too. Approach Notes: Tilly Jane TH, no flotation necessary, descend Cooper Spur. black spider looks gnarly right now

Well I'm in Bend so N Cascades are a long drive for a 3 day weekend as supposed to Seattle or even Portland. Still, you're right Alex, I should do something awesome. Thanks for your encouragement. I have a partner currently talking about doing a Rainier route with me at the end of that trip so that could prevent a Ptarmigan Traverse. Maybe I should just go Pickets ramble/scramble for five days.

Yeah, I definitely want a range of options. North Couli on Robinson and NE Ridge on Black both look cool but pretty mellow. I kinda feel like I should try do something that is big and comprehensive to make the trip "worth it." Maybe I'm just under estimating those routes because of their low technical grade? Any other suggestions? Maybe I should go to the Sierra and climb alpine granite under sunny blue skies instead

I have 10-12 days June 12-23rd and want to do an alpine climbing road trip. Nothing super hard or technical, just some easy-moderate routes, at least some of them alone. Obviously it depends on weather but I was hoping to get some feedback and alternate ideas to add to my existing list. So far I am considering: Baker N Ridge, Shuksan N Face, Torment Forbidden Traverse, J-burg N butt, Goode N butt, Southern Pickets scrambles/moderate rock routes, WA pass moderates. To give some idea of my experience: I will lead up to 5.8 in boots, 10+ trad in rock shoes, solo 5.6 onsite if the rock is solid. I am very comfortable soloing on 50 deg snow and ice. Will lead WI3/4 fairly comfortably. Climbs in the past year include Stuart CNR, and Jeff Park in winter.

tvash- I know stats is a good tool, I'm just saying that every situation is unique and we should consider those unique factors in our decisions, as well as the stats of climbing/soloing as a whole. jared- I appreciate your comment, maybe I am rationalizing to make myself feel better, maybe all climbers do that a bit. I don't know. I am young and I am relatively new to this. Sometimes I think I know I'm not invincible and sometimes I almost convince myself I'm willing to pay the price. Maybe all that self-discovery bs that Twight and House talk about will one day give me the answer... or maybe a coffin. Who knows? Keenwesh- I have experienced what you're talking about, thanks for posting. Water- Thanks for the input, I appreciate the TR compliment and the sage advice. I hadn't considered wasps although I have considered bad food and such. I do like soloing with a harness, rope and gear... maybe I could go "indirect" in a pinch, MAYBE.

I guess you have me all figured out. Maybe you could explain what is so foolhardy? Wait that was rhetorical... I saw a friend get hurt, evaluated the situation and decided that it was POSSIBLE to still do the activity within my accepted safety tolerance. Mainly I was just trying to word why a simple stats equation does not provide me with a satisfactory explanation for climbing accidents. Is every climber who witnesses an accident and still participates foolhardy? What about drivers who see a wreck? Statistically we're all gonna die so maybe you should lock yourself in a sterile bubble and wait for the end? I'd rather not. I cragged 3 days this weekend, had a blast, no soloing but I did on-sight two awesome routes that pushed me mentally and physically. Maybe we should all stop spraying and go climbing, our cool TRs might rejuvenate this website! ::

Really? What's the logic of which you speak? Gravity? I'm just saying that some rock are loser and more likely to fail based on what they are made of, how they have weathered and connected to other rock, etc. I'm not saying we can just know which rock is going to kill us, just pointing out that it is possible to make a logical guess as to whether or not the rock will break. We may guess wrong but we don't get F'd because the grim reaper rolls snake eyes.

Used to run competitively... XC and track, won a few races, went to a few national championships, now I mainly run for enjoyment and training for other stuff. Road/commute biking... this is part of my job too as I get paid to teach kids bike handling, rules of the road, etc. It's fun when rednecks and drunks aren't trying to run you into a ditch and biking to work at 6am when its -10F is great training for alpine stuff. Skiing of all types. Been downhillin' since I was 6. Did my first BC run at age 12. Bachelor is flat and overpriced compared to Tahoe so now I just go Rando. Food... local food, growing your own, foraging, cooking delicious stuff, fermentation, as long as I get to eat it I'm stoked. I've made a lot of my own yogurt and sauerkraut in the past year. Anything where I'm learning. Constant progress, self sufficiency and improvement is very satisfying. Other cultures, languages, ecology and physical geography, biology and human physiology, DIY and hands on skills. This might be why I got so into climbing without meaning to.

Thinking along the lines of Tvash's stats equation, and maybe trying to rationalize my own dumb decision making: If the chance of not making moves successfully was enough to accumulate a greater than 50% chance of failure then you would expect to fall on roped climbs (because I doubt anyone solos as much as they roped climb) and this would let you know you were playing too much of a probability game to solo that grade, or type of move. I've never fallen on anything less than 5.10 but I've felt shaky on some 5.9s, therefore I have chosen to solo several 5.5 and 5.6 routes, some 5.7 routes I'd climbed before, and one 5.8 I'd climbed many times. I guess I feel like at this level the stats have nothing to do with the moves and their difficulty. It's that rare hold breaking that will get you, and that has less to do with stats and more to do with the science of what, when and where that rock is. It may feel like it, but we're not rolling dice. There is a more logical explanation to why shit happens.

Thanks for the 2cents guys... I think all those cents add up to at least 50c which means we can get tvash and rob their own quarters to flip by themselves until they have solved all our real problems with mathematical models. But seriously, I appreciate ALL the comments, at the very least they either made me chuckle or mirrored a thought I'd already had which is good to see. Probably won't be soloing in the immediate future, but I've been having a good time cragging and will hopefully get out and enjoy myself this weekend in the mountains. I feel like the odds haven't changed and I may as well go if I feel like it will be fun... hopefully I don't shat my long johns

If you do go up there, please let us know what you find. I'm particularly interested in the W face (Reid/Yocum) and I-rock (N side).

Last Tuesday I was climbing at Smith Rock with some friends. One of them got a call from another mutual friend saying he had fallen while soloing and needed assistance. We ran over there just as the park ranger arrived on scene and generally felt useless until we helped SAR take the litter out. He had been soloing Super Slab (3 pitch 5.6). He was 25 ft up pitch 1 (5.5), it was still a little damp from recent rains (compromises tuff integrity) but he thought it would be OK. He thinks a foot hold broke. Luckily he landed feet first and tumbled down the hill to a switchback. He got out of the hospital next day with 4 staples in his head, 5 broken ribs, broken elbow, bruised lungs, swollen liver, sprained wrist and some serious bruising/road rash on his thigh/butt/torso. All in all pretty lucky and he is now walking around without assistance less than a week later. In case you think he was out of control: he has redpointed many 5.12s, is solid/onsight 5.11 trad and sport, had soloed this route 8-10 times before (it is known for solid rock). I have climbed the route probably 8 times and soloed it 3 times myself. I wouldn't consider either of us unsafe, and most people who have climbed with him before commented that they felt he was a very safe and proficient climber. Everyone who knew him was surprised that it had happened to him. I guess the reason I'm posting this, besides saying don't solo or climb sketchy gear routes at smith when the rock is damp, is because it has definitely taken away some of my psyche and made me unnecessarily fearful in certain situations. It's not that I'm aware of new dangers, I knew and accepted all the risks before and did my best to negate them within my chosen style. I feel like this fear has the potential to be paralyzing and to prevent me from enjoying certain climbs. I recently read Twight's Kiss or Kill, read about Chad's death on Fitz, and now this. I've been thinking a lot about accidents and death in climbing. I don't want to stop, I still feel the same way about risk taking and how I climb when I assess it objectively. I guess I wonder what other, more experienced climbers feel in this situation. Do you cancel a trip if you know a climber who gets hurt? Does it just not faze you after a few years? I know I'm asking for personal responses and ultimately I need to decide for myself. I guess I'd just like a little perspective from others who have been around the block. If anyone has questions about the incident too, please feel free to ask. I went up on the Super Slab Saturday (w/ partner and rope). It was just as easy and solid as I remember. I did see a fresh flake scar in kind of the right place but it seemed too big and I don't remember seeing it from the base on Tuesday.

I'm a relatively new user here. I just started climbing two years ago and moved back to the PNW then too so I have no concept of what it used to be like. I guess I'm guilty of posting TR's that are photo-less little conditions reports and just linking to my blog. I guess sometimes I feel like my trips aren't super cool and climbers are more interested in some basic beta and conditions. Plus I also post to share with friends and family who don't come to cc.com. I guess what I want from the site is a way to connect with and tap into the collective knowledge of the greater alpine climbing community in this part of the world, possibly meet mentors and other like minded people, and learn as much as possible. Sure I check twit and facebook, etc. but I would rather read a good TR any day, even if it's a blog. But I will keep that in mind and try post more photos and story, especially if that's what you all want to hear. -Sam

Thanks for the stoke! Sometimes the internet spray-feeds makes it hard to remember you don't need to be a sponsored 'rado rock jock to do something big and awesome in the alpine.

Thanks for sharing. I've been reading your guys' blog for a while and it is really inspirational to see people living in OR with regular jobs and tackling some really awesome rock climbing all over the place! Keep on trucking!