Thursday, June 12, 2014

Lost in some new boulders with my family.Holly Grace and Joy

A few weeks ago I made a trip back to a bouldering area that I was shown in the spring of 2013. Due to an injury I was unable to climb at the boulders that year and could not wait for this spring to get out to them. So when the weather broke my family and I went out for the day. We all had a great time and I sent about a dozen new problems with countless more to go.

Fresh spring flowers were just coming up and there was dew from the cool morning air on the ground. I had seen a waterfall near buy and went to check it out first.
A beautiful falls of about 70 feet. On the way back down to the road I passed some larger firs.
Just below these I came to a boulder that really caught my eye last year. It is incredible and I am glad to report that it is being worked on by some strong people and I hope it goes down.
The den boulder. Pretty sure something spends the winter under this one.
Next my family and I headed down the trail to find some bouldering for all.
Holly Grace and Joy 
Grace gets in on the action.
Joy loves to climb more than I do which is saying something
I decided that the direct line back to the road would be best to find new problems so Grace and I took off. In no time I found some lines to climb.
12 foot slab in the flops is always fun.
This boulder has 8 lines all told on it alone.

The top out on this one proved to be harder than it looked. You are only seeing the top 1/3rd
The boulders are great and the place is huge. Lots of more work to do and info to post soon. Thanks for reading.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

A trip to the Zoo, but I did not see any animals.

One fine day I received a call from a friend asking if I wanted to go to the zoo. I said yes as I had never been to the zoo before and could not wait to check it out for my self. I have heard lots of good things about it which had peaked my interest. With this in mind the following saturday we headed out to the zoo. As this was just a day trip we had to leave early to get there at a decent time in the day seeing that it is about a 3 hour drive to the zoo. As we passed the cascade mountains in the early morning I had to get some shots of the beautiful scene.
Mt Jefferson
After a long drive and some gravel roads we parked at the trail head and headed down the trail with other climbers for the zoo.

In case you have not guessed from the pictures the zoo is a back country crag in oregon. The climbing there is incredible. The climbs are steep in places and have big holds with big moves.
The steep wall at the zoo
On this wall it starts steep and then goes vertical.
We met some other people and got the full tour.
Getting ready to climb
After some warm-ups we headed to the steep wall and got on a incredible 5.10d that is one of the best I have ever been on anyware. I got some photos of some of the great climbers there sending the route.
Getting ready to go.
That's one great flake.
Super fun big move to a jug.
More steep and jugs

Sticking the crux
Pulling the lip.
What a great day we had out there. I cant wait to get back and try some of the harder lines. Must get my strength back first though.