Holy Crap

Wow. Today is the second time I have checked my email in 2.5 weeks. There is a lot in there. I am going to ignore all but the most important things and get to more importanter things, like blogging. My roommies aren't actually crazy, and the house now has 5 people living in it instead of 3. Much better environment. As far as the house goes, we still have no internet, but progress was made on the 3 months worth of garbage stored in the garage(apparently ordering a pickup service is too complicated). That was kind of an ultimatium they got when I saw it.
I got a Cinch device, so I have been rope soloing at a short climbing area down by the river that has really sketchy toprope anchors (the bolts are wiggly, but equalizing 4 of them is ok right?) I also found some five star basalt cracks up tumalo canyon while working on a trail last friday. there are toprope anchors on them and some other spots along the river so I have to go try them out tomorrow afternoon.
Also managed to go rafting on the deschutes this weekend with 20 or so from various parts of the area. We managed to be the "drunk boat" and appareantly pissed off the churchies in their boat (not sure how) so I never really met them. Everyone was too drunk/tired/antisocial in the evening to do anything so I went for a hike/climb up the canyon wall that was a lot farther than I thought, but it was really nice to get away from it all and stumble around in the dark for a few hours. Quite a nice view from the canyon rim. Ok, I am going caving with some friends I met.
Oh, and I think I got a job offer. It starts in 2 weeks so I might not be employed by the FS by the next blog. The guy said to call himn next week with a number I want for an annual salary, and I get a new truck. Sounds fun!
Peace

My first 14-er!

Greg and I both quit our jobs last week so we planned to go to Leavenworth this week but realized the weather might not be very ideal. So we ran south for three days and had a very leisurely time on Shasta. It was his second time and my first on the mountain but neither of us had done The Avalanche Gully route before.

After a short hike up in the snow we arrived at the Sierra Club Horse Camp which has a large shelter built in 1922(?). The club owns 740 acres inside the wilderness area and makes the land available to hikers and climbers. We hung out with the camp host and her friend for the evening and watched the weather rage on from the comfort of the lodge and a bottle of Southern Comfort. The only incedent at night was having to convince Greg that he was having a nightmare and the tent was not collapsing. The next morning we hiked along Olbermans Causway (singularly the oddest thing I have ever seen in the backcountry) which is a 1/3 to 1/2 mile long stone pathway that was erected by an old cabin caretaker back in the day for climbers heading up the mountain. We camped at 10,400 that evening at Helen Lake (no lake) and planned for the next morning. Next time I climb Shasta, it wil be in two days instead of three because Greg and I had to kill a lot of time in the tent and we were really bored the whole time. After playing Hold 'Em with rocks, reading every label we could find, taking pictures of everyting we could think of, and considering trying to order a pizza to 10,400 ft, we finally passed out. We woke up at 2am, chased a mouse out of our brekke, and started up the hill by 3am. We moved fast and climbed a small chute to gain the Red Bank before rock and ice fall started. The sun came up shortly after, but not before we both lost feeling in out toes and fingers for a short time (shouldnt have stopped moving). After chasing two disappointing false summits we finally found the real one and got to hang out on top in 5 mph or less wind and sunny skies. On the way down we passed 4 other parties several hours behind us. Couldnt really glissade because all the new snow had filled in the track. While we were heading back down, Greg had two comments I found to be quite funny. One was "I didn't feel like I was going to die once on this trip!" and "Wow, I didn't even swear off mountaineering once this trip!" That really sums up the mountain for us. I highly recommend this route to anyone who wants a mellow mountaineering experience. Great beginner route.

There are more pics at www.orst.edu/~rothi if you are interested.

below Red bank

Greg climbing a chute through Red Bank

Above Red Bank

OMC; alive and kicking at 14,162 ft

The Sierra Club cabin

A Brave New World

Now begins another one of lifes little transitions. Moving one's life to a whole new area is quite a change and one that I am a little apprehensive about. At least I am moving to a place that I am generally familiar with, but it is still going to be a little lonely not having my usual group of funholes around to keep me entertained (and my god, what are folks in Corvallis going to do for entertainment without me around?!?). I don't even get to bring Colleen along on this new adventure. At least she can come visit, but that really isnt as good as just having her around all the time! The last time I did this was 6 years ago and you all can see how that ended up! (drugs, alcohol, sex, and climbing are really all that has come of my last big life transition)
I guess a little change every now and then is good for the soul, so I might as well jump right in and enjoy myself. Hell, at least everyone speaks english where I am going and there is no such thing as fan death in Bend!

Ian update v2.0.0.7

Ok, I am moving to Bend next week. How sweet is that! Go me! An address is still up in the air but hopefully I can straighten that out in the next day or two. I looked at 2 houses and one was in one of the new "sterile" neighborhoods, while the other is in the old mill district near Galveston and 13th with cool roommates and 5 minutes from downtown. The only problem with that is a current roommate's sibling has priority over me. Grrr. I will be working trail crew for Deschutes NF but the really important thing about this move is that it is getting me 30 minutes from Smiffy! Hooray for Tuff Love!

Sasquatch not eat you OK?

We went to The Gorge this weekend for some music at the Sasquatch Festival, and of course, climbing. In our campsite at the Feathers we had friends from Alaska, New York, California, Washington and Oregon all converge for 3 days. Friday we just lounged around, climbed, smoked A LOT and drank ourselves silly. I have never seen such a diverse group of people(or so many) camping in one place. There were the climbers, the hippies, the rednecks, the hitchhikers, the yuppies and their puppies too.

Highlites include:
--Creating modern art with toilet paper in the 25 mph wind gusts and having a crazy hippie come hang out with us and ask for some TP but then try and take our whole roll (enviro-hippie maybe?). Either way, the chick just was weird and silently hung out with us for 5 minutes to make sure that we werent wasting any more precious earth resources (come on lady, TP is easily biodegradeable!).

--Making a very potent batch of special brownies for the trip, and then miscounting and giving them all away before Colleen and I got them. (I am a freakin genious!) The disappointment was horrible when I found a baggie with only crumbs left. Apparently they worked though. Kevin reported being "all fucked up" and not being able to walk, Mike, Sasha, Aleta, Farah, and Aleta's BF(?) didnt have anything to report because the brownies put them to sleep within 1.5 hrs (and they wouldn't have been able to remember anything even if they could have kept conscious).

--Climbing an 11.a(/10.c IMO) that I have looked at for a few years. Though only 4 bolts long, it was intimidating because the rock it was on was HORRIBLY loose and the bolts were in the middle of this choss. I really can't get it across in words how loose this route was. I pulled off at least 5 fist sized holds on the route and after inspecting the new bolts on rappell, decided that the bolts definitely should not be fallen onto. Lovely

--Chillin with me homies from Cali. It is always good to see old friends. I was really stoked to be able to show them around my neck of the woods for a few days.

Colleen in her first chimney
The show
Sending

One mountain just isn't enough!

I was feeling particularly motivated last week and decided to try out this whole, punishing physical activity that Will G and Colleen seem to love so much. So, my torture of choice was climbing mountains. I fenagled some folks to climb Hood saturday morning and we were slow(Mikel's asthma was really bad at higher elevation) but made it to the top by way of West Crater route. I gotta say, I dont know why anyone bothers with the Pearly Gates because WC is a WAY better route in my opinion. We descended and on the way down watched a party of 5 still on the way up (hogsback at 1:00pm). Those are the folks you may have heard about on the news. They made a very bad decision to continue because when we passed them it was starting to snow (a very clearly forcasted weather system was moving in over night). They all got off OK but they were still stupid.
Then Colleen Dev and Rhiannon met us in Portland and we continued on to St Helens to Ski In A Dress For Mothers Day! We woke up at 4 am to rain so we went back to sleep till 6 or so and it was finally slacking off so we started up after a very leisurely brekke. About 400 people turned out for the event. It was like a huge anthill with no more than 50 feet between any one group. We all made it to the top, and then got the enjoy a very pleasent bluebird ride down. Wonderful trip. I am stoked I pulled off both mountains. 11,000 ft. in a weekend. I can do better.

St. Helens pix up later(or you might be able to look at Cols blog for pix)

I got a new job!

Woot! I will be spending the next 5 months or so in Bend, OR working on trails in the Deschutes National Forest. Unfrtunately I will have to take a 15 cent pay cut from my job now, but hey, I am still coming out on top because now it doesn't cost 60$ to get to Smith! I will be working 4 ten hour days per week all over the forest. I am on a 5 person crew which is responsible for maintaining 2000+ miles of trail in the woods (I have my work cut out for me). Some of the projects my new boss was telling me about are coordinating volunteer groups, building 2 new XC ski shelters, some backcountry work, and possibly fire training/work. Should be sweet!

Additionally, if you know anyone looking for a roomate in Bend, please tell me. I can't camp at the grasslands all summer. :)
The forest:

StreamRipper

stream ripper is a handy(and simple) liddle tool that allows you to turn straming audio into mp3 files. Shwing! So lets get started. Visit http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=6172 and download the latest version under "file releases." It works in conjunction with Winamp so get that too if you dont have it(best media player ever anyway). Basically once you install it, the streamripper(SR) will hang out with winamp and when you are listening to streaming audio, just click the "rip" button and it will go to work turning otherwise unrepeatable musica into mp3s in a folder you specify. Thanks to my buddy Kevin for showing me this. :)

Revamping

My blog sidebar was having some issues so I got a whole new template, and in the process noticed that blogger spiffed up their interface a little. It is a hell of a lot easier to add/change blog elements. Check out the new stuff in the Template editor. I lost my links, so if you have a blog that I forgot, I can always add it.

Camas blooms:

More about Red Rocks

Ahhhh, life has finally slowed down for a little bit. I just got back from Red Rocks (you'd think I would be bored with that place by now!) with Darrell, Greg D. and Rob. The plan was for a day of sport climbing and then long routes the next 4 days with the last evening in a hotel on the strip. I had a great trip and felt really good about my climbing. The first day I redpointed an .11c sport route at Dog Wall that I had been projecting for 2 years now. Apparently that meant that I was ready for some heavier stuff, so I followed Darrell on a mixed 4 pitch .11c on one day and then we hiked in to the base of Levitation 29 for an early start. Levitation is a 9 pitch 5.11c and the supposed "best" route at RedRocks. I had looked at it in books and pretty much dismissed ever climbing it but Darrell convinced me to go and WOW! what a climb! I led a .10 and a .8 pitch and Darrell led the rest up to pitch 5. The rock quality is just incredible on the whole route, it protects very well, and the climbing is incredibly diverse along the way. The coolest feature in my opinion is the big roof on the second pitch that has some huge jugs in it. Way gnarly! Unfortunately, it was also snowing for a good portion of the day (in April!?!) so we bailed after the crux pitch. I will have to go back and finish that at some point. It is just too good.

While we were camping up the canyon, we saw the most interesting wildlife. I spotted eyes in the shadows watching us so we lit it up and there was a little Ring Tailed Cat. It looked exactly like a ring tailed lemur which was kinda creepy but it was way cuter. There were also several herds of Bighorns up the canyon. Oh, and Perigrines too. There was a nest near the route and I got to see a few of them up close. And Greg caught a scorpion trying to enter our tent. I guess that is the one plus of winter there; no arachnids.

Ever notice that it snows on trips alot if you are an OMC member? It really is kind of a guarantee that you will see some snowy weather on OMC trips. So Rob thought up a new slogan for mountain club. "Oregon Mountain Club: Get Snowed On!" I think on a sticker it would work nicely.

I officially lose my job on June 5. Man, job hunting sucks. Among others, I got 2 apps in to a place in Corvallis in March and called the other day to see what the deal was and they said the hiring comittee made its decision early July. Sooo, now I am looking again. Maybe I will just hang out with Greg and go climbing for all of June. If you havent heard, Greg quits Target June 1. Way to go Greg!

Unfortunately, I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, but here are some from the trip and a few from the past weeks.

I fucking hate Rob!

Rob Hernandez can suck my ballz!!!!!!!!!!! That fucker has bailed on so many trips it is amazing. And this is the final straw! Greg, Darrell, Me and Rob planned 3 months ago to meet in Red Rocks. Rob was going to drive the westfalia down from Utah and we were going to camp in that. Easy right? Not when the car blows a head gasket. LAST MONTH! he had a whole fucking month to fix it. I talked to him and he assured me it would be good to go by the trip. Money wasn't an issue. But now, a month later, it is not working and I just got a call from Greg saying he is a no go. I think the solution is not to count on Rob. Ever. ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!

Stat counter

I put a stat counter on the blog recently, and I am surprised by the number page loads this blog sees. Try it if you have a blog. It takes about 5 minutes. Search "statcounter" in google.

Here's another old pic I found buried in the computer. Congrats Paco and Rach on finding a job!

Chaco Day

I am so excited to be wearing Chacos again! Tis the season! This is the first day I have worn them this year and it really is a symbol of spring for me. I considered breaking them out during a heat wave last month but March was just too early. And besides, I need to make these guys last. They are going on their sixth season after all! I have been limiting their use over the last few years to river trips and perfect days so the bottoms and webbing wouldn't wear out any faster than absolutely necessary. Both are paper thin at this point. Cheers to Chacos!

Californigonian

I am so an Oregonian now. No reason for the declaration really. I just feel like one much more so than a Californian. Bunch of fuckin hippies in california anyway. End of statement.

Oh, but some people in Cali are cool. But just barely.


Oops, almost forgot the tick count.

Ticks found: 20
Ticks embedded: 0

The great and mythical, Friday!

Its friday. Well, my friday. I ran out of stuff to do at work, so my boss wished me a Happy Friday. I was stoked and took off as any person would. He wished me Happy Friday pretty much the same way you would talk about any other yearly holiday/birthday. It is like it is some incredible holiday, but no, it is just like any other day of the week. I bet prisoners in jail talk about their release dates like we talk about Friday every week.
I find we start thinking and talking about Friday pretty much starting Monday morning. If someone who didnt know what a "Friday" was, they would hear us talking about Friday and probably assume it was a great god or at least Santa Clause.
Friday can also be a goal. Friday can be the day you have to have something done, or want to Making it to Friday is another reason to really keep at that job for just one more week. Keep telling yourself that you can make it till Friday.
God, after working for 40 years I cant imagine how incredible Fridays must seem.

It is the day that keeps on giving! (once a week to be exact)

Note: I wrote this a while ago but forgot to post it, so here ya go.

God I hate Blogger.

I had this really nice post all written up about my trip to CA and forgot that this computer and blogger photo post dont play well together. So blogger decided to delete the post when I moved a picture around. So here is your abbreviated version:

California was fun. I did all the usual things you would expect one to do while visiting family and friends. Don't go to Hooters(wasnt my choice), everything about it sucks (the dumbass waitresses too). Pets are good for taking pictures of.













At work we started a huge burn pile with 30 gallons of gelled gasoline(napalm), 8 gallons of diesel and leaf blowers. Then it went out because everything was too wet. We had hotdogs and marshmallows.

Ticks found: 18
Ticks embedded: 0

The latest threat to my insanity

Ticks! They are disgusting little creatures that like to pull a vampire move on any part of your body they can burrow into. And spring is the season for ticks. I have counted 6 ticks on me at work in the last week or so and 3 today (none have burrowed yet). I can honestly say that I enjoy watching them die an agonizing death when I torture and then kill them. I find no other animal more repulsive than a tick. I even recently heard (true or not, it is gross) that a guy had a tick burrow into the inside of his colon and stay there until he got some sort of paralysis. Took the doctors a long time to diagnose that one I am sure. Be careful out there America; ticks are comin' for ya!
I also had an excellent weekend in portland at Graham and Greta's wedding. Loved seeing all the old friends and really loved seeing Graham in the gutter in downtown portland thursday with a homeless lady at his side. I really felt like a true friend standing around laughing at his comatose efforts not to puke. Apparently he doesnt remember a thing from the latter part of the night (and I wont spoil his new marriage with the details). Cheers Graham!

Snowboarding

Sometimes I find I get bored with going to the mountain. Just zooming down the hill penis* sometimes can get a little monotonous when you already know the hill like the back of your hand. Groomers can only be done so many times. Just when I was starting to question whether it is really worth it to pay the money to get hoisted to the top of a mountain repeatedly, a day like I experienced last weekend comes along. Lots of powder was laid down by the mountain gods on Mount Bachelor all week and then I got to ride in it all day Saturday (unfortunately Bryan tore his MCL and he was our ride home so we left that night). It really made me realize how much fun it is to snowboard again. A price cannot be put on first tracks. I see now that I really just need to time my snow trips better so I get the most out of my money. God I love powder days!

*Colleen inserted this while I was away from the computer. Gawd, I wonder what is on her mind.

Done with planting

Thank goodness, I am finally done with planting for the year. I really thought I woudl be jumping for joy when this moment arrived, but I am jsut too exhausted to. The best I could manage was a "Wahoo!" before getting into my truck as we left this afternoon. In 3 weeks and one day the contract crew of 8(average) planted 102,000 Doug-Fir seedlings. I dug up, scrutinized, and replanted about 3,000 of these. It rained, hailed, snowed and froze. I am so happy it is over. Well, not really; I have to start surveys on a 93 acre unit tomorrow which is going to occupy at least all of this and next week. God Dammit.

While I was out and about I thought up something interesting to blog about almost every day; and then promptly forgot it. I find myself using this as a journal too much and I think I need to start putting more profound thoughts down.

On that note, Colleen has become addicted to the show Top Model. Honestly people! I thought she wasn't like that, but apparently I was wrong. Paco, Rachel, can you fix her? I cant. Oh well, I guess she has to have her girlie shows.

Oh, and I gotta say, (caution: inflamatory comment ahead) it sucks to be a skier. Why you ask? Because in 3 weekends, 3 friends who ski have all torn their ACL and or MCL. And meanwhile, us snowboarders are just chuggin along injury free. Cheers to powder days you cant touch now Meg, Bryan, and Brad!

Worked to the bone

Holy Crap! I have been worked to the bone the last 2 weeks. I am SO over this whole forestry thing right now. I have spent the last 2 weeks up near Astoria with a coworker and a 7-12 person contract crew planting 65,000 doug fir seedlings. I don't actually have to plant the seedlings thank god, just dig up a sample of what has been planted to make sure the planters aren't doing it wrong (doug-firs are really finnicky about how they are planted) . Either way, hiking around shitty terrain while it is pouring rain for 10 hours and then having to return to an empty, Colleen-less hotel room SUCKS! Only one more week...

Greg, Me, Rob, and possibly Darrell are going to Red Rocks in April to get some real climbing in. On my tic list: Epinephrin, Tunnel Vision, Rainbow Wall.

Oh, and I am sure you saw the latest Mt. Hood incident on the news today. Well, that finally spurred my dad into getting me an Avvy beacon. ...Sweet