bedellympian

Thank you gentlemen... I have now dabbled in almost all the above listed activities (no details). Just saw a foot specialist after 3+ months of minimal activity. The official diagnosis is now acute tendonitis of the peroneus brevis which is impinging itself and getting all pissy and inflamed. Glad its not a bone thing, but basically cant do sh1t except ice it hard and baby it. Possibility of surgery down the road if it doesn't improve... I am cleared for all boring activities, in-line, low impact motion in supportive footwear on even surfaces (no hiking, climbing or running), only boring stuff like stationary nike and swimming...

Sloth, there are a ton on the three blog posts I linked if you want to check those out.

Yoga sounds hard when you can't stand on one foot. Kayaking sounds fun though. I have some friends with kayaks, maybe I can borrow them for some spins... winter kayaking sounds hard core, maybe even more fun than alpinism in a blizzard! Gene, I would love to build something, used to do that a lot, unfortunately we rent right now so my options are limited. Maybe I'll make a crack machine and invert it for some campus-roofclimbing. I was thinking about a road trip to the coast too... I'm sure some vitamin D deprivation will really speed up my bone growth

Maybe I should start to meditate... then I can amputate my mind from my lame body. Oh wait there are other ways to do that

Yeah I got a little crack in my metatarsal... I have a hangboard at home and access to a gym. Ideas? What should I work on? My first goal was 100 pullups, I did that last week. Now what? My life is meaningless without some sort of exercise

Yeah I know. Normally my other go-tos would be running, skiing, biking, and hiking... all of them are out. I've been watching Netflix but too much screen time turns me into a grouchy zombie :: . I have also been tooling around on the guitar but that's kind of like climbing on sharp crimps... you can only practice so much before it just becomes unpleasant. I've been cranking out pullups on the hangboard too... but again you can only do so much (got a pretty bad crick in the neck when I did 102 last week). My wife gets a gym membership through work so hopefully I can swim and bike a bit as this gets better. Anything worth doing outdoors that only requires one foot?

So I think I have a stress fracture... still. Long story, had it in a boot for 7 weeks, took it off like a jumped up idiot because the dumb doctor couldnt get me in for an MRI for two more weeks... Anyway, I need something to take my mind off climbing. Its prime season at Smith and the good alpine routes are coming into shape and I'm staring down the barrel of another couple months or more of fawk all. I'm in grad school so I'm kinda busy but still need something to break up the homework and endless BS. I know this is spray... entertain me in my self-pity and misery you hopefully healthy assholes!

For those of you who may be down at Smith this fall and like to climb on the basalt of the Lower Gorge, there is now a 10m extension to Gruff (classic 10a crack on Wildfire Wall). Local climber Matt Farrell got the FA. I checked it out this weekend. It still goes at 10a/b and involves some easy ledge climbing past copious birdsheet, followed by a really fun overhanging hand crack and layback to chains. Apparently you can lower/TR with a 60m but only have a couple meters to spare, we used a 70m. A #2 and .75 camalot protect the crux nicely. Matt posted a comment about it on the Mountain Project page for Gruff. He refers to it as Gruff Plus (lame name but its his call)... http://mountainproject.com/v/gruff/105803718

Thanks John, nice to meet you and Loren. I've enjoyed your TRs for a while, Chris and I were actually just talking about your Hyperspace TR on the drive up there. I appreciate the compliments but we've got a long way to go before we're on the level of "ancient" guys like you!

Trip: Dragontail - Backbone Date: 8/16/2014 Trip Report: Chris Sepic and I drove down from Bend Friday to tackle the Backbone. I had wanted to do this route since I first saw a photo of it and Chris had a similar desire. I won't spray all the details as there are a bazillion and a half TRs on this thing, I'll just give our impressions and a brief summary. If you want a complete story and pictures check out my blog... Mountain Mischief Our estimate for the route car-car was 12 hours, definitely wishful thinking. We left the car at 5:30 am and reached Colchuck lake by 7:00, there is a small tongue of ice and snow we crossed to reach the 4th class ledge system. The rock was wet from the rain the day before, especially down low. Chris led the OW, we opted to bring doubles to 3 and one 5. He wished we had a 6, as does apparently everyone else who goes up there for the first time (see MP). This took us a long time and the next pitch was also slow with wet rock. After that we did a couple more odd pitches and then blasted into a simul block to the base of the fin. I linked pitches on as much of the fin as possible but it is definitely longer than expected. We reached the summit after 7pm. The snow field descent doesn't require pons or axe if you hit it in sun, but it was just a little slick in places when we got on it. Neither of us had been down Asgard, we thought we were on the right track, but definitely weren't. The light left us about a quarter of the way down with no cairns in sight. Awful knee bashing on loose rock (maybe from that rockfall Blake and Jens heard a couple weeks ago? or more likely that's just standard, either way, we were way too far skier's left next to Dtail) went on forever. We didn't find the proper cairns until within a quarter mile of the trail. Eventually we made it back to the car at 12:40 am. Overall fun route and we had a blast despite the descent. Gear Notes: doubles to #3, one #5, bring a #6 if you aren't super confident on 5.9 OW, 70m rope allows some serious linkage on da fin. Approach Notes: no pons or axe req'd

Thank you for saying what we are all thinking, so that we can further justify our elitist attitude, and feel awesome about our lives, and our lack of nice cars. I say this with sarcasm but secretly mean it with the utmost sincerity.

Nice work Bellinghamsters! That's an impressive month of alpine rock.

That was a blast to read. Super stoked to eventually get in there. Just when you forget about the Wadd something like this comes along and makes you want to drop out of school and blow a huge wad of cash on a trip to the Wadd and then blow a huge wad of something else climbing in the Wadd. (puns intended)

Nice work. North is intimidating the first time with that exposed choss. You should consider climbing the Oregon Cascades in the winter... sounds like you have some experience with ice. There are many routes that are quite moderate snow/ice and much safer in the right conditions.

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