Tag Archives: oregon

Wild Eastern Oregon

For the 4th, Catherine and I were kindly invited down to central-eastern Oregon for some off the beaten path relaxation. Catherine’s Aunt Nancy and her fiance Dwayne took us in and showed us what Eastern Oregon is all about: trap shooting, off-roading, hikes, and planned siestas.

We split our time touring and sightseeing places like Dixie mountain, Strawberry Lake, and being introduced to shooting Trap, as well as getting shown around a ranch riding ATVs. It was a blast, and we took it easy, which was great. There’s nothing like hanging out on the 4th, and a watching light-your-own fireworks show.

Nancy and Dwayne were great hosts, who played card games with us like Crap on your neighbor and Sequence. Here’s some photos of the trip.

Sadly, Catherine and I had to leave all too soon, especially with the long drive home. We made the most of it, and took a recommendation from Nancy and Dwayne to stop at the John Day Fossil Beds on the scenic route back. The Fossil Beds had an amazing visitor center, and the landscapes is home to fossils dating back to 65 million years ago, with species that cannot be found anywhere else. The fauna was preserved by 60 successive lava flows spaced out approximately 8,000 years apart. As the canyons have eroded, it’s revealed the history.

Not long after leaving the Fossil beds, we passed through Cottonwood Canyon and got a look at Mt. Jefferson, Hood, Adams, and St. Helens all at once.

Needless to say, the drive was worth it, and we’d go back in a second!

Varied Visiting Vacationers

Over the past few weeks Catherine and I have had our house full of friends and family, most of whom were seeing Seattle for the first time. We experienced the full scope of weather, from pouring rain to clear blue skies, but some visitors were more lucky than others-it does in fact rain more often in Seattle than in the East Coast.

As Spring has taken over the PNW I haven’t been skiing much, though there’s still plenty of snow. Luckily there’s still plenty of time left for that. Instead we’ve been hiking, climbing, and more recently visiting beaches and surfing. Let’s start at the beginning.

I peak-bagged Mount Si along with many other Seattleites, some of whom were testing their overnight gear. It was shortly after Sweeney’s visit, and a great start to the hiking season. The view from the Haystack summit had a lot more solitude and beauty than I was expecting, especially with a crystal clear look at the always present Mt. Rainier. I’d certainly do the hike again on a clear day and see if I can beat my time of just over 3 hours round-trip.

Catherine and I visited Leavenworth and stretched our legs exploring, biking, and hiking. We checked out Lake Wenatchee and rode along it, then hiked in to a smaller lake. We also enjoyed lots of Bavarian style food and beers.

Catherine’s parents visited and we gave them a tour, first around Washington, and then on a short trip down to Ecola State Park and Cannon beach. They caught some great weather, but we assured them that it had rained every day the week before. I explored some new areas at Ecola on a quick trail run to the hiker only camping shelters.

We also spent some time at Cape Disappointment, ‘discovered’ in 1788 and I believe the termination point for the Lewis and Clark expedition. All too soon, we were on our way back to Seattle. It lies just on the northern bank of the Columbia river, across from Astoria.

Not actually at Cape Disappointment, this was the wreck of the Peter Iredale, due west of Astoria.

Just after they left, my sister Beth arrived. We did a ton of hikes and walks with her, and pretty much tread everywhere without sustained hiking on snow. Next time we’ll do some self arrest practice so we can venture further together. After a quick trip to the Issaquah Alps, we got into some real hiking. First we hiked Goat Lake, a moderate but reasonably long trip to a gorgeous glacial lake, with snow still sitting above. On the way home we detoured up to Big Four Ice Caves, which still need to melt a fair amount for the ‘cave’ to be visible, but the area was impressive nonetheless.

Next we went to Deception Pass and toured Whidbey Island. Deception Pass has a lot of variety for being in the Puget Sound and always has something new to check out. It’s a great combo of beaches, forests, and views.

On Beth’s last day we hiked up to Lake Serene on the shoulder of Mt. Index, and found a foggy landscape with a nearly frozen lake. The Bridal Veil falls, and others on the way were impressive cascades which threw a lot of spray towards our camera lenses.

On the heels on Beth’s visit, our friend Dylan moved out here to work with Catherine, which has lead to a whole new set of adventures. We visited Westport, camped out and surfed. We were so busy surfing, in fact, we didn’t take any photos of it.

We’re focused on climbing a bit more recently in-lieu of our recent trip to CA to visit our friend David. We’ve got some great photos and footage of bouldering which I’m still editing.

The Oregon Trip: Wallowas Highlight Reel

This post is part of a series.

The Oregon Trip: Big Mountain Lines

Continued From The Oregon Trip: Road Trip.

We settled on making a push for The Horn. We’d head due west for a few miles, make our way into the alpine and try our luck at the couloirs descending from Horn. We made breakfast, melted some snow to top off our Nalgenes, plotted a few waypoints on our GPS devices and hit the skin track.

Our route brought us down into Bob’s Hole, up and over Norway Ridge and due west along the southern face of Norway Ridge and straight into the alpine. Eventually we’d hit a steep face just beneath the floor of the bowl underneath the horn. We’d kick turn our way up the face, and transition for a boot-pack up one of the couloirs to the top of The Horn and commence the slaying of big lines! Check out the objective area below.

View Norway Basin in a larger map

When we hit the trail, the whole place was totally socked in. It wasn’t really fog, just low cloud cover. Armed with map, compass, and GPS we hit the trail with confidence and determination. We kept spaced out for most of the skin track, but regrouped for route-finding discussions at islands of safety. For most of the skin we could really only see the person immediately in front of or behind us.

Instruments only. Rob skillfully breaks trail and navigates.

Karl and I get ready to space out before making a traverse.

The clouds start to break up, and we realize we’re right on target!

Rob gets to work on a snow-pit. He gets a Q2 CT 20 and an ECT with no propagation at all!

We emerged from the fog and cloud cover to discover that we were more or less where we wanted to be if not guilty of setting a ridiculous skin-track.

Until the fog lifted, there was some debate as to which route was best…

From here we had only a short climb into the floor of the bowl, where we could start our final ascent and get ready for the skiing! As we made our toward the last big push, the clouds totally clear out, and we start to get a good look at what we’ve gotten ourselves into. We can’t help but split ear to ear grins…

Karl, on the floor, just beneath run number one. In the background, a large cornice can be seen with avalanche debris below it.

Brad, with our second run of the day in the background.
Photo credit: Ryan.

Me, in the floor of the cirque facing out toward Red Mountain.
Photo credit: Ryan

Ryan, ready for action.

Here’s where it starts to get good…

After having a good look around, eating some snacks, drinking some water and joking around, we put on our game faces. It was time to throw the skis on our backs, set a boot pack, and then ski! Until now, we hadn’t really done anything remarkable. Sure, we’d had a few good turns the previous afternoon, and we’d done some nice skinning in a relatively pristine wilderness, but this is what we were really here for. We were in the alpine, the sun was out, stability was excellent, and there were only a few precarious steps between us shredding couloirs and bowls! The planning, the, flying, the driving, the credit card bills, the labored breathing, and the sweat were all about to pay off…

At the top of the climb we arrive at a convenient landing area. We stop to admire our boot-pack and scope out run number two.

A short stroll from our landing area, Brad makes a discovery…

…and we all go to have a look.

We sit in awe for a good 20 minutes, speculating endlessly about the bewildering array of skiing and climbing spread out before us.

Rob surveys the land.

Mountains, desert… …and mountains.

The entrance to run one, and run two in the background.

A view of the ridge, as it wraps back from our position toward the south facing flank.

After we’d had our fill of breathtaking scenery, we returned to the task at hand: slaying big mountain lines. After some debate, we decided to split up: Rob and Brad would ski the steep, narrow chute running northeast off of The Horn, and Ryan, Karl and I would take the wider, mellower chute off of the northwest flank of The Horn. We’d regroup in the floor of the bowl, then cross the floor, and ascend the south facing slope, traverse northeast along the ridge and drop in from somewhere near the top. Most of the best GoPro footage is from these two runs.

Gettin’ ready for action!
Photo credit: Brad

Rob does the honors…

Brad follows suit.

Rob and Brad’s line can be seen winding it’s way down from the buttress at the top left of the frame.

A closer view of the same.

Me, taking that tentative first turn.

Karl, dropping in. Ryan spectates from the top.

Karl opens up the throttle.

Ryan gets after it.

Some high speed shredding.

All smiles, for some reason…

The line skied by me, Karl and Ryan.

Mission Accomplished! Our first objective of the day was a resounding success, and armed with a powerful adrenaline rush, we concocted a route up the opposite face in search of our next conquest. The next climb was relatively short and totally non-technical – we took our time and enjoyed the climb. We were greeted by stunning views in practically every direction we turned.

Brad on the traverse.

Ryan and Karl breaking trail toward line two.

Scale… Right around here Karl remarked that he was ‘baking’ and felt like he was ‘crossing the desert’. We were, after all, in the middle of a Superdome sized parabolic mirror.
Photo credit: Brad

Rob on his way.

Kick turns…
Photo credit: Brad

Just one last traverse before run two!

Not a bad place to hang out.

On the home stretch…

Ryan looks back over our skin track.

Ryan and Brad dropped in just below us.

Karl, wrapping up a transition.

Rob, ready for round two.

Again, we were compelled to loiter around the top of the ridge admiring the scenery and contemplating the awesomeness of alpine touring. We lazily traversed across the ridge from the saddle toward the high end where we planned to drop in. It was mostly non-technical, with one brief steep section that simply required some deliberate movement. We stopped short of the absolute top of the ridge because the snow quality seemed to deteriorate close to the craggy top. There were certainly a few cool chutes dropping down from the top and emptying out into the wide-open run-out. However, in the afternoon sun the snow was warming up quickly. Lots of wet slough was running down from the craggy peak and ruining the snow surface. We kept our eyes open for rollerballs and planned to make this our last run for the day before heading back for Bob’s Hole and the yurt. We stuck to the middle of the slope for the best skiing and laid down some nice super-g turns.

I start getting the camera ready for action while Ryan and Brad, to the left, and Karl and Rob to the right study their line.

Ryan, all smiles as usual.

Brad slays.

Rob charges the fall line.

Last but not least, Karl gets after it.

Making our way back to the yurt.

After an epic day in the alpine, the yurt might as well have been the penthouse suite: we split some wood, stoked the fire, and made ourselves at home. The view from outside the yurt was nearly as good as the view from the alpine, and the yurt itself was like a haven of warmth and comfort in the midst of a vast wilderness. Truly, life was good!