Summers coming

Just finished my first 22day raft/mountain course of the year. Oregon has been desperately hanging onto spring with lots of snow in the mountains and the river still high. The first week on the river was made even better by Benny Kaiser coming over from Australia and coming on the river with me for a couple of days and then me getting to instruct for a couple of days. I then decided to take my skis into the first section of the mountains (yes - for work!). I only had to carry them for the first mile and the last two of 5 days and got to ski all over the Sisters Wilderness. Summer is finally here though, right in time for my 1.5 days off between two 25 day blocks of work. 1.5 days of climbing at Smith trying to avoid the heat interspersed with lots of good food and drink. Now back to work.

Benny perfecting his baking while employed as my personal chef (meaning I had even less to do than normal on the river)

Probably my favourite shot so far with the fisheye lens - Nadia, Drew and I on the gear boat on the lower Deschutes

Watching the sunset from the Cheat Grass on the Lower Deschutes.

Evening circle on the river.

My canp on the NW ridge of Broken top waiting to get some sunset shots of the Sisters

One of the shots.

Another Fisheye shot. Trevor, Erin and Bri playing farkle (yes that s a game) in their tent at night. 22min exposure.
A cool bug a student gave me at course end.
The day off - Ashley leading in the shade at Smith.

Multi Tasking

After a quick afternoon skiing with Mike Mourar and Steve Baume I left our base for a week with my van packed with Skis, Mountaineering gear and a full Kayaking set-up. I started with a three day Swiftwater Rescue Technician Course at wet planet on the White Salmon River in Washington and followed it up with an ascent of the Reid Glacier Headwall route on Mt Hood with Trevor (descending via the south side) followed by running the White and West fork of the Hood Rivers with Mike Mourar and then two days safety kayaking for the Assistant Instructor Training course on the White Salmon. It was great, if a little tiring, trying to tag so many things back to back but definitely made the most of the conditions available.

Reid Glacier Headwall - Ski up till level with illumination saddle, drop skis and traverse to saddle. Rope up, descend onto Reid Glacier then head up up up trying not to be scared when the 4 pickets and 2 ice screws didnt seem to be enough. Descend via south Side to skis, ski (badly) back to vehicles.

White River - A long off road drive (my van is rear wheel drive) to the start of the river. Pray that said van will make it out, leave in the morning and the van makes it out, decide to use mountain bike for shuttle instead.

West Fork of the Hood - Only a short section of river but ran after the White making a very full whitewater day. Feel ready for the White Salmon

White Salmon - put in at 820am to recon river for staff training, 7 miles takes 45 mins, realise that the river is a little high. Run it three times in the next 2 days.

The Week - Highly Succesfull but am now very tired

Trevor (approx 7am) high on the Reid headwall after the main difficulties (a steep ice pitch) were passed.
Trevor leading out below some serious rime ice on the Reid Headwall
Oregon Road, still learning how to use the new fish eye lens - taken on a few hours drive around Northern Oregon with Mike trying to see what rivers where actually "up"
Trevor leading through the final technical section - a rime ice tunnel on very unconsolidated hard wind slab snow.
Loading my van for the portage on the white salmon (definitely making my daily wage as it reduced my fuel efficiency to 8mpg)
The bottom hole of "Maytag" (Class 3) on the White Salmon - the first 2 miles was essentially survival paddling after this rapid as the boats were so full of water.
Skiing Tumalo Mtn with Mourar and Baume - Mourar drops in to a couple of inches of powder with his usual flair.
Anyone whos ski-ed with me should be able to guess which line is mine (clue - Mike Mourar teaches kids how to shred in the back country)
Trevor and I loving it high on the Reid Face - we summited at 930am, grabbed our skis (stashed on the south side) and ski-ed back to our vehicles in a 10.5hr round trip) it was blizzarding within the hour.
Mike Mourar and I pleased with ourselves after a rather full on off road drive down to the put-in for the white river - 12 miles of constant class 3+ with the odd 4.

I only have a couple more days off before our "All Staff" Training - possibly some time for more climbing at Smith Rock

Mount Jefferson

So I am working right now but here are some photos from my time off. Lots of climbing, relaxing, coffee drinking and an attempt on Mount Jefferson by the Park Glacier Route. Steve, Amber and I skiied in from as far up the Whitewater Trailhead road as possible up to a high camp at around 6000ft. The weather was amazing but surprisingly (and worryingly) warm. We got up the next day and left camp at 5am, only to see the clouds roll in and drop our visibility to around 30ft (I couldn't really see steve on the other end of the rope team). We tried to go upwards through some steep crevassed terrain and poor weather until we could go no further at 10,000ft (the summit is 490ft higher). We got back to our skis and headed to camp, packed out and got out of there. A long day but a fun one with the only thing missing actually getting to the top.

Steve and Amber at our camp
A slightly random shot with my new fisheye lens - taken on the deck of the staff lodge.
Night view of our camp
Packing up as fast as possible. We made it to the trail head at 7pm after some survival skiing with large packs through the trees.
Sunset from camp. As soon as this weather clears up another attempt might be in order.

The Unblelievable (Part 2)

Canoeing, it would seem, was not the best idea considering the weather for this new year period. We did pack and set off (in the cars at least) but a few phone calls and a look at a very icy loch confirmed that skiing was a better option. After a day at Glenshee and I nice warm night in a bunkhouse we skied up the valley from the linn of dee to Bob Scotts hut were we were met by some rude drunk Aberdonians (one boy drank 3 bottles of red wine in three hours and then did not appear to be able to talk - this said Aberdonians are hard to understand at the best of times!) - hard to see beautiful places full of rude idiots. The next day Clare, Bob and Robin headed down the valley and off to Hogmanay at Tummel and Rich (the dirty one), Lucy and I continued up to the ice cave (otherwise known as Hutchinsons hut). We were treated to clear skies, lots of snow and an empty hut. The next day we slept till 8am having not woken up for the bells but still managed the deep slog out to the cars in daylight.

The final straw - loch laggan frozen up (looking west)
Bob "the mountain man" taylor (he grew his beard just for the photos) slogging up after I forgot to bring his skins down.
Clare and Rich in the dry, warm kitchen of the bunkhouse the night before we set off
Looking up the valley - the hutchinson hut is in the furthest back coire on the left.
Trying to find a place to cross the river - beautiful wind blown snow in the valley.
Rich cools his bum off after some hard uphill slogging
From L to R - Me, Lucy and Rich almost up to Hutchisons hut
Rich in the ice cave - ice covered the walls of the hut inside and out - note the gas cylinder on top of the stove to help it along.
Rich and Lucy outside the hut on Hogmanay. This was taken at about 9pm just before bed!
Messing around in clear evening - I have been told to point out that I am writing a name - yes, a name. the squiggle below the A is where i fell over - oops i gave it away!
A panorama looking up the valley on the ski in to hutchinsons.

Unfortunately I have no photos of the epic ski out in up to waist deep powder. Hard work but hilarious as we all spent time stuggling and disappearing into drifts. By the time we hit the "easy bit" Rich and I were spent - just in time for Lucy to get a burst of energy to get us down the last 4 km. A great Hogmanay.