Too Much Driving...: 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).