Multnomah Falls Rappel - 4/26/09

Today I had the unique oppertunity to do a ~550 foot rappel off of the top of multnomah falls as part of a garbage collection and "public safety demonstration" (the area is usually off limits to climbing and rappeling). Once a year Oregon State Search and Rescue units conduct a high angle clean up of all the trash that gets tossed off the cliffs, which means that a group of us got to rap the big one. It was certianly one of the cooler things I've done with SAR, and all the driving was certianly worth it!


Drew practicing at the Gresham Fire Rescue training tower


View from the top


Rocky from Portland Mountain Rescue scoping out the line

Next is a sequence of my rappel that Mel shot from the lower deck. You have to click the picture to actually see me because it's so big!











Drew's at the fire tower... The objective was to rappel with 40 lbs of weight below you to simulate the weight of 600' of of rope below you. Half way down the guiding line begins to pull you away from the wall... At this point, for training, we practiced locking up the ASAP (a device that clamps down on the rope if it suddenly accelerates), and then unlocking it. It's a unique setup to go along with a unique problem!


I shot this about 2/3rds of the way down...

More catching up...

Okay, yeah, I've been lazy again, so here are a few pics from random trips we've been on in the past couple months. First was a ski trip into the MTTA High Hut near Mt Rainier. This was a trip that Justin and Laila put together and we got lucky enough to get a spot on... The hut was 4 miles from the trailhead on a ridge crest that could pounded by weather all weekend. Overall we probably had something like 3 feet of snow. Skiing was okay, but the weather made it rough to want to leave the plush digs and good food to go make turns.



Part of the crew getting ready for our first run


Drying out the gear... A theme of the weekend! :)


Evening activities


Breakfast before the LONG ski out


Bunch of rippers on our first run of the day


Justin and Mother Nature going head to head



Next is a quick ski trip we took up at Tombstone Pass... Highlight of the day was awesome views and great turns down the east face of cone peak.


Working in a skin track for the lower snowfield


Skinning up after our first run


East face of Iron Mountain


Self portrait on Cone Peak


Summit of Cone Peak


Someone was getting tired...


Cone Peak Summit Pano... Windy!


Skiing through the trees near Iron mountain



About a month ago we took a weekend and drove down to the desert in southern oregon. I don't have many pictures, but one of the highlights was eating at a place called the cowboy dinner tree... They only have 2 menu items to pick from: a 28oz steak or a whole chicken! Talk about absurd.


Some cool lake out in Eastern Oregon... I forget the name.


Mel somewhere near the cowboy dinner tree


Couple of cuties


Awww...


Then I figured I'd toss in a few pics from our last lift serviced day of the year... The mountain was closing the next weekend, but it had just snowed 8" and the conditions were about as nice as they'd been all year. Cool views I'd never even seen before (usually it's cloudy).


Blinded by... what is that... the sun?


Mel with Diamond Peak in the background


Odell Lake from Willamette Pass


Top of the lift shot showing bachelor, broken top, and south sister in the background.