Supercrack in central Oregon?

[beacon]

While climbing Karate Crack at Smith last week, I got in a discussion comparing fun crack climbs with some Bend climbers. They made the remarkable claim that there exists somewhere in central Oregon, a crack as good as Supercrack (of Moab, presumably.) They had not done or even seen this climb themselves but were interested in finding it. Supposedly, the local free weekly newspaper ran a vague blurb about a "shangri la of crack climbing" near Madras in its "Best Of" issue.

While it is easy to dismiss rumored hype, perhaps there is some nice desert crack climbing closer to Portland than Smith. Surely, if this supercrack exists, someone on this board knows about it.

[rbw1966]

Yes--someone on this board does know of the existence of this shangri-la.

[Winter]

I think its near some school in Renton.

[cj001f]

I think there's a big problem with dropbears there

[Macson]

My brother is into geocaching. There was some controversy about a place in Oregon last year called "Oregon Hell Hole". A place where the lower ground is literely sliding down the mountain like a crevasse creating a huge 1 1/2 mile long gouge in the earth. This place was removed from all maps sometime in the 1930s because it was deemed too "dangerous" to visit.

 

So the folks he knows from a geocaching website went to a university library in Portland and found a map from the 1920's which clearly identified it. My brother then took me out looking for it armed with a (poor) copy of the map and his gps. We found it, and it was pretty impressive. The section we saw had pretty dirty walls, maybe 200 or 250' down. It was maybe suitable for exploring, but definitely not in that spot for climbing.

 

See here for a pbs video he also found on this place.

 

http://pbs-afg.virage.com/vss-bin/vss_SR/pbs_afg/search?template=search.tmpl&query=hell+hole&query2=&query3=or

[Dru]

Here is a photo of the Oregon supercrack. The only granite in central Oregon!

[iain]

I bet one could find some super crack in or around Madras, though I only need step out to Burnside for this

[lancegranite]

I have seen pictures of an area in Oregon that has better splitters than Indian Creek.

The name escapes me....something something.

[Szyjakowski]

Liar!

[RuMR]

Here is a photo of the Oregon supercrack. The only granite in central Oregon!

 

hmmmm...looks like cobra...hmmmm

[snoboy]

good eye for a short guy.

[lancegranite]

I'll start the bidding at $100.00...

[Szyjakowski]

i will give you one 40

[Sargent_Rock]

Here's one. It's "super" and it's near Oregon

[rbw1966]

This crack looks pretty nice.

 

[Rad]

Sunshine crack.

[ryland_moore]

How about give them a little more. It is near a stream near Madras! And id memory serves me it is more like 85 ft. high.

[shapp]

I have a really old climbing mag or some thing that has the Madras area wall on the cover. I think it may be near the warmsprings reservation.

[goatboy]

uh, hmmmm...... thank you for inquiring . . . . all our crack identification agents are , uh, busy right now, please know that your request is important to us, and we will take your request in the order in which it was received . . . . please continue to hold.

 

Meanwhile, please loan me all your 2-inch cams while we go do some "research" on your inquiry . . . .

[ryland_moore]

I think it may be near the warmsprings reservation.

That should only take people a few years, with the reservation being several hundred thousand acres not including the seeded territories!

[rbw1966]

Yeah--there are miles and miles of tall, basalt splitter cracks all over warm springs.

[billcoe]

But not many ya drive right by on the way to Smiff.

[shapp]

rbw1996,

Is the above pic on the reservation or is that some other crag? Also, there are a bunch of pretty good and I think mostly unclimbed basalt cracks of high high quality west of Dayville along the John day river where the road forks and goes either north towards the fossil beds or west towards prineville.

[ryland_moore]

Shapp I was on that road up to Hwy 218 on Saturday as I am hunting elk over there this year. It was hard to see alot with a big burn going on the Pine Creek COnservation Area, but I could see promise. Along the Deschutes, near a tributary stream there are some amazing splitter cracks. Hint: downstream from Warm Springs town and you can't get there from the warm springs Kaneeta Resort side. Hence why it is close to Madras. If any of you are trout fishermen, then you already know the answer.

[Ireneo_Funes]

Are there access issues to deal with for crags on the reservation? Is it like climbing the east side of Jefferson, where you're supposed to get a permit from the tribe?

 

I assume that you can't just wander wherever you want on tribal land.