Several months ago, my friend Chris approached me at the climbing gym, psyche-level at an all-time high. "Dude, we need to recreate the Bishop magic, and I need you there!" Of course, I give a verbal, purposely half-committed, "Sure, that sounds fun! I could get down." I mean, Bishop was a lot of fun. And I love climbing. But October was several months away, and I am a chronic non-planner. "How about Joe's Valley?" Chris continues, confirming that, with my half-ass commitment, there would be at least three of us going. Little did I know this was just the start of amassing an entire crew of Portlanders to head out to the Utah desert. I am not sure how a random group of 15 people all got off of work the same random week in October. With different jobs and life activities, I thought it would be impossible to reunite everyone. I believe this shows how the sense of adventure ties all of us together.
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Labor Day in Leavenworth /
A short post this time! Over the long Labor Day holiday this year, Leavenworth was experiencing some relatively cool weather for September, so I grabbed my friend Jenn and drove up. We met up Kevin, who you may recognize from other adventure posts, as well as some other Portland folk who also made the trek up to utilize the nice weather window.
Read MoreWeekend Bouldering - Squamish! /
A few weekends ago, I grabbed my passport and headed up to Squamish for a long weekend of bouldering. Squamish is located an hour north (or 41 miles... or 60 something kilometers) of Vancouver, BC just off of the Sea-to-Sky highway on the way to Whistler. The city itself is located on the banks of the Howe Sound, and is a climbing mecca. It's prominent feature is the Chief - a large granite monolith. There are a plethora of routes (trad) up the Chief, as well a dozens of boulders strewn along its base. Nearby are a lot of other quality granite sport and trad routes. Pretty much everything you can ask for!
Read MoreWeekend Bouldering - Lost Lake and Carver /
A couple of weekends ago, I made it out to climb at a couple of local bouldering spots in preparation for a trip up to Squamish. You never want to go on a climbing trip with "gym hands," so I had to get out and grab so real rocks. One classic Portland spot and another newly developed/developing area. I have been trying desperately to finish out the remaining frames on three rolls of film from the Enchantments too, and this was the perfect opportunity to do so.
Read MoreSurf Wax America /
This last weekend, I headed out to the Oregon Coast for a little surfing adventure. Lauren and Erik go out surfing with some relative frequency, and I always tell them I want to tag along some day so I can take pictures. So we finally made it happen! Early Sunday morning, I piled into the back of their Mini with their pup Fu, and embarked a fun little day trip to the beach.
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