Washington and Oregon are great!

This summer I spent 3 weeks around Washington and Oregon. Chelsea, Dave, and Pete were gracious enough to let me use their house in Seattle as a home base.

I headed down south first, to Oregon, a state I've always wanted to visit but never been. Hannah and I took a road trip in a nice big square which included just about every ecosystem out there - desert, costal, high mountain, rainforest - Oregon's got it all.

We started in Portland where my friend Lea showed us the neat trails, shops, and microbreweries. Everyone is right, Portland seems like a great city to live in.

Then we headed south along the coast, which was in some places rocky and forested, in some places sandy, and in all places cold and windy!

(The Pacific from the top of Cape Perpetua)

We found some good surf spots.

Then we headed east to Eugene (which was a little disappointing, but maybe we just didn't make it to the right places). At least we found this campground with a secret tunnel between the coast and the city.

We continued further west to Bend, which was unexpectedly located in a high desert. We did some climbing at Smith Rock, just north of Bend, but I was sweating in the shade by 11:00am!

(Hannah is the white dot at the top of this route, you can just see her shirt.)

(A great swiss-cheese-like 5.7 route. )

Floating the river is what everybody does in Bend in the summer - on a raft, inflatable mattress, old inner tube, whatever...Hannah just happened to have her inflatable boat in the car - woohoo!

Next, we drove up to Mount Hood and did some hiking along the tree line from Cloud Cap Campground.

(Mt. Rainier looming to the North)

Back in Washington, Hannah and I made a day trip with Dave and Jeff to Index, and climbed a great crack there. Somehow, two pitches took us 5 hours! Index is a beautiful area, especially down by the river.

(Dave climbs General Maintenance)

Hannah and I also went to Port Angeles to hang out with Tyler. We went out on a nice kayak along the Juan De Fuca Strait, did some cliff jumping into Lake Crescent, and drove up to an impressive outlook overlooking the Olympic Mountains.

Hannah and Tyler stayed in Port Angeles, but I headed back to Seattle to go on a long weekend trip with Chelsea and Jen to Goldmyer Hotsprings.

Most people take the 10 mile 2-track which is flat and maintained to Goldmyer Springs. We hiked up over Red Mountain, which was also 10 miles, but up over a mountain. Although we didn't post hole as much as some suspected, we found some big patches of snow and had a good time hiking over and around them.

(Chelsea and Jen vetoed the initial suggestion of sliding down the snow patch, and here they are, safe and well, in the crack between the melted snow and the rock. )

(Teamwork brings the packs down the steep spots. Yak Tracks, what a great invention!)

(Jen checks out a melted tunnel)

The caretaker's cabin at Goldmyer Hotsprings. If I ever get the chance to be a caretaker there I may never leave!

Check out the story behind this awesome spot: http://www.goldmyer.org/

(post-hike water hookah)

(Goldmyer hotsprings)

(the first pool is the hotest and located in a cave. Then there are 2 more which cool off as the water moves along. We had the whole place to ourselves until the last couple hours.)

(Seriously big trees here - Chelsea is sitting at the bottom of this one and looks like a black spot)

We managed to peel ourselves out of the hot pools, put on our hiking shoes and packs, and hike down the valley, and then up another mountain to Snow Lake. Luckily, we had Snow Lake to ourselves as well, and set up camp on a little peninsula hanging out into the crystal clear lake.

We spent the morning sunbathing and reading and hiked out in the late afternoon. What a great trip!

Fusion Festival!

Kickin off the summer holidays with Alex at a great music festival about 1 1/2 hours north of Berlin. The festival takes places at an old Russian airforce base and a lot of stages are in hangars. Mostly elelctronic music, although the only person I'd ever heard of before was Jello Biafra...?

http://www.fusion-festival.de/

a trip to Politz and the Baltic Sea

If every cultivated field was painted its own special color I think violence would cease to exist. Rapeseed, good start.








Somehow, the triangle bread picture ended up being the only picture taken of our camping trip on the Baltic Sea...it was really tasty bread.

France is like Kentucky!!!*

Alex and I took a little road trip to France to check out a few climing sites in Alsace. We found amazing tarte flambee, perhaps the world's best, and great wine, went "wild camping" and were almost speared to death by ferocious wild boar in the middle of the night, and practiced our quickdraw-clipping skills. The trip ended with misshap when Alex injured his knee (torn meniscus?) but he now gets to use a really nifty pair of crutches with built-in reflectors - always look on the "bright" side of life???


Climbing sites - Lorsbacher Wand, Germany; Nouveau Gouberschwihr, France; Bergholtz, France

Lorsbacher Wand, Lorsbach, Germany: a nice little slate rock wall about 20 minutes from Oberursel. Around 40 bolted routes ranging from grades 4- to 8, UIAA system.

Testing out Alex's new rope at Lorbacher Wand. First time lead climbing outside in a long time! This was our warm-up daytrip.

Nouveau Gueberschwihr, Gueberschwihr, France: sandstone climbing, 10 different sections of wall and a whole bouldering area. Bolted, hard standstone. Lots of easy routes. Really beautiful area on a hill overlooking Alsace wine region of France.

Notice how Alex is using a fine white table cloth instead of a rope bag (we WERE in France...)

Alexander, prince of Durp, overlooking Gueberschwihr.

Feels so great to be climing outside again!

Bergholtz, France: Lots of bolted routes on North and South sections. Really beautiful area, a bit of a hike to reach the walls. The sandstone was quite soft in some areas, but some great cracks!

Alex (white pants) on C'est Cholibah

Alex (still in white pants) on Par Benelos

My favorite [meniscus-tearing] lead (you can see my black pants at the top of the crack): Porcos III, la rechute

*okay, so France isn't exactly like Kentucky, but the hills and oak trees somehow reminded me of Red River Gorge

Spring is here in Oberursel!

Alex and I found a new bouldering problem by my house:

Katinka and Fabian's wedding!