ONSLAUGHT!

This is probably my best shot at crashing the Blogger folk's server... Below exists a photo onslaught which has yet to have been matched in westcoasttrips history... Either quit now and go do something meaningful with your day, or grab a drink and a hot dog and dig right in. :)

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First off is a batch of photos from Mom and Dad's visit to the west side. I thought I could time their trip for one of the prettiest times of the year, and Oregon obliged (with rain and clouds and hail).


Enjoying some sun on our way up Mary's Peak


Working our way up to the top


Mel with the now famed Mary's Peak Chucker


Dad enjoying the views over a nicely managed Weyerhaeuser forest :)


The fearless (and geographically challenged) Chucker up close


I thought it was going to crawl into Mom's lap!!!


Enjoying the green in an old growth patch near corvallis


I think I love this place


This photo must have been taken before the rain started... See how happy they look!


One big tree!


Okay, that's more like it... Rain jackets on (for the rest of the week?) South Falls


Jungly jungle at Silver Falls SP


Winter falls


Behind the curtain at middle north falls


This one came out okay for not having a tripod...


North Falls


Again


Again


Again... That's all the pics I really had from their stay, it rained most of the rest of the time! :)



Okay, so next was the epic Zion trip... This is something that sorta got thrown together at the last minute, and although I'd call it a success, we lost a couple of members right before the trip due to one new (and awesome sounding) job, and one torn ACL (Bella's). So, while Chris B was finishing up work and Mel was nursing Bella back to health, Aaron, Random, and I got to galavant around the country burning as much fuel as we could. In a nutshell, the trip involved 2 days of climbing in the Owens Gorge (near Bishop, CA), 5 days of canyoning in Zion, a day of climbing at City of Rocks (Idaho), and exactly 3000 clicks on the odometer. So, getting right into it:


Aaron stemming up one of our favorite pitches of the entire trip.


I think maybe he was just showing off here...


A look over the Owens Gorge from the rim.


Woke up that next morning to a pretty rough view of the eastern sierra.


Our saweet campsite.


Kicking back with a cold one after day 2 of cragging in the owens gorge. That day I almost stepped on a rattlesnake w/ my flip flops on!!!


After a quick evening jaunt over towards vegas we found this spot to camp in the Joshua trees


Okay, getting into it now... Rigging the first rap in Keyhole (around midnight). Is that an air guitar?


Clearly I'm pretty excited :)


One of the drops in Keyhole


Zion day two.. Captain America on the approach to Spry canyon.


Yeah, I was excited that the approach was over. It was too hot out...


Ugliness on the first rap in Spry


Random on one of the slotty stemming raps in Spry.


Aaron unropes while Random gawks


Rigged and rolling again.


Classic Spry drop: Rap down a slot, stem over a pool, out a notch into another rap.


Same spot I think


Sure is purtty here


Random realizing that he WILL get wet on this one.


Another CLASSIC drop


Aaron set the bar pretty high w/ this custom hitching sign (credit sign: Random)


...and within minutes catches a sweet ride in this ford falcon


Our crew on the approach to Behunin canyon


Rigging up on one of the long wall raps early on in the day


Looking down into a mid-wall pothole on rap #3 (I think)


One of the few swims in Behunin


Rigging the last 200' drop on Wednesday


Starting down Pine Creek canyon on thursday... Back into the cold water!


Pine creek is deep...


...and narrow...


...and dark!


We finished with Pine Creek pretty quick, Random hitched us a ride, and we bailed to higher (cooler) ground in Bryce Canyon


Funny pic... Aaron didn't see the sign :)


More Bryce awesomeness...


This is what we WISH we were driving around in


Okay, day 5, canyon 5: "Fat Man's Misery" This is looking back down the approach gully along checkerboard mesa.


Slickrock bench on the approach


More slickrock...


Okay, a little more slickrock.


Getting into the first narrows of the canyon on rap 1.


Amazing light in this little canyon


More good light


This is what the canyon seemed to be mostly... Lot's of tight little downclimbs


Nate's Misery?


Aaron on the longest rap of this canyon (which was only 50')


Then the canyon really slotted up and got dark... We passed a hotspring down here.


Down to the confluence with the East Fork Virgin, which was basically stunning


I believe "OMG" would be an appropriate description...


More...


More... I could have done hours more of this...


Parting shot of our total crew... After a miserable hike out of the East Fork (it was HOT!!!!) we had to bail out of Zion, back to Vegas so Random could catch a plane. Vegas was a furnace, so we figured we'd try to drive as far away as we could... We almost made it to idaho!


Around 2am we were looking for a place to crash on public lands, and after a good 45 minutes of ROUGH (!) 4wd, we ended up here... We didn't even know what it looked like until we woke up.


Our last goal was to hit some cragging at the City of Rocks... Here's Aaron topped out on our first pitch of the day


A spontanious game of wiffle ball broke out while we were on the rock, which provided a lot of entertainment


A fun conclusion to an amazing trip... Aaron leads a flaky granite pitch on Elephant


The City of Rocks... Rocks!


Figured we'd drive home that night and ALMOST made it... We passed out in the Gorge and woke up to this... Ahhh... So nice to be back in OR!



And finally, here are some pics from a recovery mission that CMRU participated in on the N. side of Hood. No captions, just some pics: