Sunday, July 19, 2009

Catching Up - June through Mid July

Well, as usual I'm doing a crappy job keeping this blog up to date. Lot's has been going on and I haven't really had enough time to sit down and sort through photos from the past couple of months. Anyway, this is going to be a photo onslaught, so I apologize in advance :)

First off is a spring skiing trip that we took in early June (Maybe late May??) to Mt Bailey and Mt Thielsen down by Crater Lake. I don't really remember when we went, but I figured that in the doldrums of summer everyone can appreciate a few skiing pictures, right?


Aaron skinning up Bailey


Bailey's summit ridge


Aaron on the first run


Full on lethargy after the first run in the sun


View of Diamond Lake and Mt. Thielsen, the next days objective


Me on our final run through some rock bands


Bailey and Diamond Lake from Thielsen


Lounging spot while waiting for the snow to unfreeze


Crater Lake Rim



Next up are a few pics from a trip that Mel and I took to the Northeast Oregon. We had intented to spend a bunch of time in the Wallowa Mountains, but crappy weather had us searching for dryer weather near Hell's canyon.


We tried to camp here but the mosquitos were a little nasty


Was a nice spot though!


Hills near Hell's canyon


I like this pic... Makes it look like I'm playing hard to get.


Mel and Bella perched over Hell's Canyon


Bighorn sheep we saw on a hike. We also saw mountain goats and a lot of deer.


More Hell's Canyon


More... Lot's of thunderstorms to watch!


Everyone's a redneck in Eastern OR. Yep, that's a hotdog. :)


Parting shot from Hell's canyon


On the way back we hiked up to this lake in the Elkhorns


Mel was digging all the granite out here... We don't get much in OR


Believe it or not I was able to go for a swim here. Kinda wanted to clean up. I went over the basics of CPR with Mel first though ;)


We drove over elkhorn summit on the way back... Probably the first of the year!


Full on!



Here is a few pictures from a Mt. Hood trip I got roped into guiding for a bunch of people from around the country who were in Oregon for the annual Mountain Rescue Association conference (this year at Timberline!). Thankfully half of the climbers got too drunk to go climbing so I had a more manageable group of 4. The mountain was a total zoo, but thankfully my team was pretty competent and we were able to climb without the added chaos of ropes. One of the guys who came was 73, and didn't really have ANY trouble keeping up... I hope to be that rugged at 73.


Looking down on the Elliot glacier from the summit ridge


Summit shadow


My boyz rolling up the final gulley


And then topping out on the summit ridge


Scary/fun traverse to the true summit (see the climbers in the background??)


Total chaos breaking out on the descent


Full on MAYHEM! I've never seen anything like this. Never again I hope... This is why I don't choose to climb the mountain at this time of year.



Then Random came out over the 4th of July for a week... Yeah, we managed to stay pretty busy, and I'm hoping that I was at least able to show him a halfway decent time. The highlights of his visit were probably climbing Three Fingered Jack on Thursday, followed by a descent of upper Henline Creek on Friday. Lot's of disc golf and good Oregon beer too though!


Random approaching the summit of Three Fingered Jack


View from the top


Happy summit shot... Too bad there were mosquitos all the way up there!


Random after rapping off the summit.


Here's the Henline pictures:


Random pulling the entrance rappel into Henline Creek


Mel on the first rap?


Mel digging the scenery!


Happy couple shot!


Mel on a "guided rappel", which keeps her out of the scary slot w/ the water


Mel's guided Rap video


Random sans guiding rope. :)


Aaron on another drop


Again!


Random on the same one. He looks happy!


Aaron finds a comfy pool


Group shot!


Mel on one of the latter falls


Same falls but from the bottom maybe??


Random sitting on what was our anchor for the final 170' rappel


Random goes big!


Mel on the big one!


Again


Aaron with some sunbeams. Cool pic for sure!


Aaron on the big one... Hey, where did his pack go!?



Last but not least, I wanted to throw up a couple of pictures from CMRU's summer rock practice that we held yesterday. I got to plan the training this year and found a pretty cool spot to do it where nobody from the unit had ever been. Lot's of people got a chance to practice running our rope rescue system and acting as litter attendents dangling over a 100' dry waterfall.


Jerry inspecting the main line rigging


Catherine over the edge


Jonathan Hoy getting ready to be tossed off


The Hoy on the way back up... Note the rock in the litter... On the way up the rope dislodged a half dozen of those and Jonathan was lucky to only take one hit (on the hand, he's okay but had he been lower it could have been bad).


View from across the canyon


Again


Again


Aaron working with our patient "Wilson".

Phew, that's it for now. Thanks for checking these out! :)