Climbing Expedition to Smith Rocks and Red Rocks

On May 1st 2011 we set off from Kamloops BC on a road trip we would never forget. From Kamloops we drove 15 hours to Smith Rock State National Park Oregon USA. Arriving at the camp ground at 11pm we quickly set up camp in the dark excited for our first day of climbing. 

Smith Rocks is more famous for its amazing sport climbing rather than traditional climbing so armed with our quickdraws we had 5 days of climbing some 5 star hard sport routes.

 A view across the main sport climbing areas.

One of my favourite 5.10d sport climbs, a beautiful consistent lead with crimps as pockets and smooth face features, its called the headless horsemen. Just out of the picture is another amazing climb 5.11b called popism, very sustained with powerful bolder moves. Very over hung for the first 3 bolts.

The picture above is a climb called Monkey face and this is the west face variation. It is one of the classics of the area and is 4 pitches 5.8 so finally we could pull the trad gear out. Its said that the 3rd pitch is the most exposed 5.7 in America as you step out of a cave onto a sheer face with 100meters of nothing below you. 

A picture of me a few pitches up the Monkey Face.

One of the many beautiful views from the national park.

After 5 days of an unbelievable amount of sport climbing it was time to move on. Next stop was Red rocks Nevada approximately 20min outside Las Vegas. The above picture is of our campsite, the van and trailer are parked to try block out the howling wind that seems to be constantly blowing day and night. 

 First pitch of Cookie Monster.

A view looking down and my belayer as I lead the next pitch.

Leading the crux pitch of Cat in the hat, a nice mellow trad multi pitch.

A view with Las Vegas in the top left corner of the picture, i could see the strip from here.

A hanging belay station on Crimson Chrysalis 5.9, 9 pitches an area classic although very uncomfortable stations for a party of 4  

My two strange but awesome climbing buddies 

 Summit of Tunnel Vision 6 pitch trad 5.7 runout and a runout it was!

Credit to Santiago Espinosa for the photo above. Im racking up to lead the first pitch of Cookie Monster.

Avalanche Operations and Weekend Fun

As I have been on the road for a good part of the last 2 months, ice climbing, skiing and mountain biking I have been neglecting my blog. So to my followers and viewers my apologies for the delay. In the following blog post ill be showing you some pictures from my very busy 10 days on avalanche operations where I was able to find weak layers in the snow pack and do snow science in the Revel Stoke area BC. We were also able to set off controlled avalanches by ski cutting and cutting large cornices of snow. 

When we are not ski touring or flying into the backcountry by helicopter our third option is taking the snow cat into the backcountry. 

A picture of my skis just before I managed to break them.

Full snow profile work, yes this is the office.

Snow density tests on each layer of snow.

And after the work is done on the slopes the weekend fun starts. We climbed a 245 meter waterfall near Fields BC.