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.

OWYHEE

Spring is almost over which means that I just finished work. Wrapping up the Wilderness Instructors Course with a 7 day run on the Owyhee River in Eastern Oregon could not be better. We were a little worried in the days leading up to the long drive across the state as the river peaked at 18000 cfs (1000 -10,000 cfs being considered runnable). We got on the river at 9,000 as it slowly dropped, ideal circumstances for this river making rapids a little less technical. 7 days of phenomenal scenery, wildlife, hotsprings and great rafting is hard to beat.

Levi and Steve working hard (probably discussing what type of bird they're staring at)
Indian Paintbrush in one of the side canyons
Eric and I sailing the flotilla of rafts across Lake Owyhee on the second last day. (we actually got 4 miles an hour out of this rig while towing a paddle boat)
Mice practicing for the olympics in out dishwashing tubs (frozen in place in the morning)
Me doing what I do best, reading my book and drinking coffee in Ryegrass hotsprings.
Camp fire as the river and clouds flow past, Pruitts castle camp.
The groover - do toilet locations get any better??
Camp in Green Dragon Canyon.
Okay so not actually the Owyhee. I managed to get an evening of climbing in just before heading off and grabbed this picture of one of the bald eagles at Smith Rock.

Now I have some days off and just have to decide on Climbing, Mountaineering or Rivers.....

Mountain Weather

We just finished the mountain section of the 50 day Instructors course with some of the most variable weather I have seen in Oregon. The crews set off in snow storms which gradually turned to torrential rain for a day (on top of 2 ft of powder!) before the sun finally showed its face. It seems to have been a great educational experience for everyone with challenging navigation, snow condtions and just staying warm and dry. We are now headed off for the final section - a run of the Owyhee in far eastern Oregon.

The Sisters from the top of the Snow Creek drainage (you can see the groups trail in the left side of the picture). Levi and Trevors crew camped near here with spectacular views for a couple of nights
Trevor and Levi cooking in camp.
The view out of my snow hole on my last night in the mountains - I had been a bit cold in my tarp so thought this might be warmer. Luckily the clouds moved in a little adding to my warmth.
Levi baking some birthday brownies for a student at 930 at night. (For those of you not used to "fry bakes" the fire is on top of the pan to help bake the food properly - its meant to look like that)
Trevor and Levi snow shoeing with North Sister behind
The ladies in Meagan and Lenka's crew showing off their hat hair only 4 days in!
Cailin valiantly slogging it out with a sled helping me resupply the crews with food and fuel. She's actually crossing Green Lake in the this picture on our biggest (10mile) day with the sleds. We were both struggling to stand when we made it to the van as it seems that 100lb (50kg) sleds don't move too well in deep slushy snow.
Broken top from park meadow.

Twelve Thousand Cubic Feet per Second

Just got off the first river section of the Wilderness Educators Course. Lots of snow and some warm days set us up for a massive volume of water in the Deschutes. We put on the river at around 8000cfs (the rivers normal flow is 4500-6000) and it rose every day timing the peak perfectly for the biggest rapids. Rapids that we would normally swim through (Buckskin Mary Rapid) had holes that could stop and surf a paddle raft. Some rapids were no longer present along with campsites and boat ramps. We saw a huge amount of debris in the river including fishing platforms, benches, tables and broken boats. We also saw the Deschutes at one of the best times of year (if you have a dry suit), large water, green grass and amazing wildlife. The crew have one more day on the river before we take them too the mountains (which could be interesting given that the oregon mountains have got an average of about 4 inches of snow a day for the last month!)

Levi pulling through the bottom of a very different looking Boxcar Rapid (Class 3)
Oak springs (Class 3 - 4) at high water - for the oregon folks you can just see the entry to the far left line.
Another one for the oregonians, the top rock of Wapanitia (class 3) with the whole left side washed out.
The boat ramp at Wapanitia (you might be able to guess what nadia is saying to Justin across the parking lot and see a floating picnic bench)
A beautiful morning at Davidson Flat
Rafts tied up at Redside in the evening light
Leaving Davidson Flat with a storm behind.

Black and White World

Today was my first real day back at work for the year though I seem to have made more days into work days recently (when the weathers bad) which will hopefully pay dividends later. Bad weather or rather cloudy skies have made me try and understand black and white photography a little more so here is a selection of black and whites from the last couple of weeks (as well as a sneaky one from Scotland in January). This spring I am again working the Oregon Wilderness Educators Course for 50 days this time joined throughout by Levi and selected appearances from others as the days progress. The last couple of weeks have been great to catch up and climb and ski with lots of people and slowly get ready for the long block of work ahead.

Looking back down the ridge from Three Fingered Jack toward Mt Washington on a dark and lonely ski up through the old burnt trees.
Max leading something (?) at Trout Creek - a new climbing area for me - in the bitter cold (there was snow on the ground!)
Amber pulling through the top move of "Voyage of the Cowdog" (5.9) at Smith Rock with the Crooked River far below. (this is the third and final pitch)
Classic central oregon, Big Old Truck for Sale in a beautiful place (the Three Sisters behind)
Thad leading "JR Token" (5.10) at Trout Creek
The Scottish one - Buachille Etive Mor on a very cold morning with lots of Ice in the Etive river
Steve Baume climbing "Teddy bears picnic" (5.10) at Smith Rock.

First up for work will be the 9 day rock camp at the beautiful Smith Rock.