Monthly Archives: June 2016

Jun23

29, 30-April and 01-May-2016: Mike and Liz come to visit!!!

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29, 30-Apr, 01-May-2016
My friend Mike, co-conspirator to many of my adventures in Boston (and without) lives in California. Just a quick hop on a plane away… I’d gone to visit him on my road trip, and then for his birthday, but hadnt been set up enough in Hood River to really host. By the time I was set up, he was neck-deep in grad school… now that we found a weekend that worked for both of us, it was time for some epic adventures!
Friday
On top of Mike and Liz (his awesome girlfriend) visiting, there was a nice weather window on Mt Hood… one that was a bit too nice to be passed up by a certain mountaineer that I know and love.  I wished Sarah luck with coffee and kisses as she rolled out to Mt. Hood in the mid-evening, an hour or two before I went to pick Mike and Liz up from the airport.
But with or without Sarah, staying in Portland was a heck of a lot easier than driving back to Hood River at 11:00 at night… so we all went back, relaxed, and spent a bit of time (and a bottle of wine) catching up before bed.
Saturday
Its not normal for me, but we actually woke up pretty early on Saturday morning… I think 8:00 or something? Either way, we headed out semi-early, making bacon and coffee first, of course.
Ollie was with us for the weekend, since she’s not quite old enough to try Mt Hood yet, so our first stop was to drop her off at home (Hood River home) before… Wind Surfing lessons!  Which are awesome, cold, wet, and fun! If you’ve heard anything about Hood River, it’s about wind sports; wind surfing, kite boarding, paragliding, all of it. Thanks to the Columbia, we’ve got some stellar wind that holds really constant: perfect for sails.
So we took a lesson – it’s only been ~9 months since I moved here, so right on time… right?
The lesson was good – we went with a place called Hood River Waterplay; partially because of good reviews, but mostly because they were the only place that was open this early in the year.  I actually caught on pretty quickly, though we did learn just as quickly how important it is for a wetsuit to be whole, and not full of holes… the one I had was nice and new, and I was toasty-warm the whole time.  Mike… well, Mike got an older, more ripped up one, and he was blue-lipped way too soon.  But we still held out for the whole three hour lesson, alternating between carving waves and getting swept downriver by the current, or knocked off the board by random gusts of wind.
Once we’d had enough, we left to wander around Hood River.  I picked Ollie up from the house, and then we all got lunch at a place called Horsefeathers.  Burgers, beers, followed up with a nap at the house ‘Till Sarah arrived finished up the afternoon.  The evening was a quick show-off of the Insitu production building, then a ridiculous dinner (salmon, potatoes, pasta, corn, wine, beef, scotch, everything) followed by hanging out all night by the fire.
Sunday
We start out (not surprisingly) with a nice and slow morning; breakfast out, chilling, the whole shebang. Then hiking!  We started up a route called Munra point, but unfortunately it didn’t work out due to the trail, so we moved back to the parking lot, and a really nice waterfall trail that left from the same trailhead.  It was beautiful, with great views and just the right amount of exposure and elevation gain…  not to mention the good pictures!  Ollie even did really well off-leash, not running off or falling down any cliffs or anything!
The trail took us straight into Portland, where we got all fancy dressed up!  Dinner at Pok Pok Noi (holy shit spicy) and drinks at Migration Brewing (tasty!) and dessert at Pix (delicious, if a little sparce on options).  Forget our leftovers, but it’s all good.  Sleep early, to drop Mike & Liz off at the crack of dawn (literally) Monday morning.
Jun4

22, 23 & 24 April, 2016 – Climbing in Vantage again!

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22, 23 & 24 April, 2016 – Climbing in Vantage again!
Thursday through Sunday, 21 – 24-April-2016
So, I’d talked with some of the interns at work about climbing.  They were curious – they’d been in the gym a time or three, but hadn’t ever gotten a chance to climb outside.  Well!  That?  That we just couldn’t allow.  My NUHOC leader exploded from it’s hiding place, and I planned out a trip for us all.  
To Smith, originally… but then Smith was rained out.  So instead of driving South, we drove North – to Vantage, where Sarah, Dave and I had climbed a few weekends earlier…
Thursday:
Since I’ve got Friday off, thanks to the whole 9/80 work schedule, I take Thursday evening slowly.  Sarah’s starting her Wilderness First Responder class this weekend, so I take the time to relax with her, and hang out with Ollie.
Friday:
Sarah heads to WFR, I climb at the gym early morning for a bit of a preparation workout, before taking some more time to relax and chill with Ollie before heading out to Hood River.  Get some stuff done around the house.  It’s chill and nice.  Meet up with Dave ~6:00, and hit the road to… Vantage!  Drive late into the evening, find a parking spot that doesn’t rip the bottom out of my car, and sleep!  Note: we forgot Dave’s tent… so he sleeps out under the stars while Ollie and I crash in my ultralight tent.
Saturday:
Climb time!  Meet up with Interns A and B, AKA Jon and Sam (A and B change, depending on who’s farthest away.  Yes, we’re annoying).  We climb!  Tons of routes… don’t know all their names, but I do know… meh.  Who cares, honestly?  We have fun!  A quick synopsis is as follows:
Pre-Lunch, 4 climbs.
Sport line up the arete, face variant of arete, move anchor for 5.10b face, save gear for army guy.
Rest & lunch
Post-lunch, 2 routes, one twice.
Route near chimney, overhang, overhang again
Post-lunch rest… then two more routes!
Same route that I saved gear on, Jon’s first lead on a slab!
Basically, we took it easy… and I still got a solid 9 climbs in.  The rest didn’t re-do as many, but we still totaled out at… ohh, 30+ routes.  Short routes, but still.  Go us.
Ohh, and also.  Before we get to the photo gallery… there’s one thing that should be mentioned.  Sarah was in class this weekend – not able to come with us.  This marked the second weekend that we were apart… since we started dating almost 8 months ago.  So… it was special.  As a keepsake, Sarah gave me a little figurine of Rarity, from My Little Pony… she got it ages ago, and it’s near and dear to her heart.  She asked that I take pictures of it with me on the trip, so… I’m not one to refuse a request like that.
So that’s why there’s a cute little pony in my pictures.
Dinner for the night is canned Chili… which is kind of sad, but it’s what happens when four guys go camping together.  We’re not creative.
Then we chop up some firewood with my awesome battleaxe (see pictures of it in the firelight), and just relax and hang out!
One quick adventure does occur that evening; Dave gets to play First Responder when we hear a small creature (a child) screaming bloody murder.  Turns out she tripped over a tent-line, and only scraped up her knee.  But still – by the time we learn that fact we’re already over there, so help is offered and medical kits and presented.  None are used or accepted… but people are grateful none-the-less.  Dave feels good for being able to offer, and I feel good for dragging us over to make sure everything’s okay.
Then?  Sleeeeeeep…. with so much dust stuffed into the tent that I feel like I’m eating a desert.  Seriously.  It was WINDY  that day… and my tent is designed against rain and snow.  Not a full-power dust storm.  So… I eat dirt, and sleep.
Sunday:
Up early, and start the drive back.  Ollie does well, and we find ourselves in Hood River not too late.  A good weekend.
Jun4

15, 16 & 17-April, 2016 – Another tough weekend climbing

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15, 16 & 17-April, 2016 – Another tough weekend climbing
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 15, 16 & 17th of April, 2016
So last weekend was a bit rough – I tried to train on Mt. Hood, only to run into trouble from the start (getting started late, etc…).  Then the next day Sarah and I bailed out from Smith without even really starting up a climb… Not a bad thing, since it would be worse to try to force a climb when it wouldn’t be safe.  But still – disheartening.  So when another weekend threw us off our game… well, life is full of challenges, right?  
The original plan for the weekend was to do Prime Rib of Goat, a huge climb that Sarah’s had her eye on for a long time.  It’s beautiful – 11 pitches of 5.9 sport climbing out in the wilderness.  But snowed-in passes held us at bay, keeping us from even driving out to the start.  Instead, we aim for the lofty goal of 12 pitches in a day at Smith – to make up for the lost adventure.
Specifically, we aim to do Super Slab (3 pitches), Dirty Pinkos (4 pitches), Moscow (3 pitches), and then a few climbs in Pleasure Palace.  Sort of a training weekend, you know?
So it starts on Friday – we drive out, find a campsite… and then get told by an old dude that we’re too close to his truck (75+ feet away)… thankfully we’re leaving early, so we convince him to let us stay for the night, as long as we’re gone early in the morning.  A rough start, but nothing we can’t beat.
Saturday dawns, and we get up a bit later than planned… but still damn early for me. we’re hiking by 7:30, starting into the park with a newly risen sun at our back.  We start up Super Slab, but run into some traffic… It’s a fun route, but that mean’s that it’s a popular one, and we’re behind another team from the start.  Thankfully they let us pass, but we pretty quickly run into some troubles on it, in regard to gear and more traffic.  But we persevere, pushing through to a very pretty summit after a fun final pitch.
Dirty Pinkos is a traffic jam, and we end up sitting around at the base waiting for a solid hour or two.  By the time we start up, we’ve been sitting for almost two hours, waiting on a team who’s “just about to start, hold on a minute”.  By then we’ve lost the mental game, and we end up bailing off the top of Pitch 1.  It’s a tough choice, but we throw in the towel and head home.  We’re tough, but that’s a strength that Sarah and I both have – we know when we’re beat, and when we don’t have the energy to push through… and when we don’t need to force it in the first place.  So we pull back, rappel down, and head back home.
Some rage against shoes may have taken place as well… I don’t know what you’re talking about.  We totally didn’t beat up Sarah’s climbing shoes, because they kept pinching and not fitting right.
Definitely not.
Sunday we take it easy.  Go to the park with Ollie.  Relax.  Re-center.  Enjoy the simplicity in life.
Or try to, at least.  Bailing on a weekend’s adventure is hard, and it’s not something that either of us likes doing.