Rope Climbing

I took full advantage of the great weather we had this weekend and started preparing for one of my future adventures. If you remember Matt Fuller's visit to Colorado in the summer of 2011 (check this post for a refresher), we spent most of our time exploring abandoned mines and the rest of our time working on an elaborate system to drop into a vertical mine shaft. To summarize, our system was unsuccessful and I only managed to drop about 20 feet down a 100 foot vertical shaft.

 

Ever since I climbed back out of that hole, I've been planning how to go back in it, but this time make it all the way to the bottom. Safely.

I finally started buying some of the equipment we'll need to safely explore the mine. Getting down the shaft is the easy part. It's getting out that requires some work. Here's a video of me practicing climbing up a rope hanging from my back porch. This particular rope climbing method is called the Yo-Yo system and is used by tree climbers and spelunkers (in case you want to Google it).

I still haven't bought all the equipment I want (you can see in the video that I'm using a carabiner and short section of rope, known as a Bachmann knot, instead of the more common mechanical ascender) and have some tweaking to do to the system. This is a first step, though, and a good proof of concept. Here's a close up of my current ascent system, for the curious.


I like it because you are always connected to the Grigri (the blue thing) and you can switch from ascend to descend and vice versa quickly and without any potentially unsafe connections/disconnections. The Grigri is great for descending because it allows you to easily stop mid descent and hang without using your hands or tying off the rope.

I also practiced prusiking, a method of climbing a rope using only two loops of smaller cord. It works pretty well.

Eagle Creek

We've finally started to have some good weather in Portland, and I've taken full advantage of it. Yesterday, I went on a 15 mile hike in the Columbia River Gorge, one of the most impressive areas around Portland. It has the highest concentration of waterfalls in North America. I saw at least a dozen on my hike up Eagle Creek, ranging from several feet high to a couple hundred feet high. I definitely miss living in the Rocky Mountains, but I keep telling myself that the Pacific Northwest has a different kind of beauty. I think this is it. My pictures don't even begin to do these waterfalls justice.

This hike was not for the faint of heart. Many sections of the trail were on narrow cliff ledges like this one, often hundreds of feet above the creek below.

This is Tunnel Falls, a 160 foot high waterfall with a tunnel through the cliff face directly behind it. You can see some people in the picture just to the left of the falls, about to enter the tunnel. 

About to go in the tunnel!

A scramble off of the main trail brought me to this waterfall. Standing at the base of it was like standing behind a jet engine in the rain. The wind created by the waterfall was intense! Hence the poor quality pictures. I was only willing to use my phone to take them, and the lens was constantly getting sprayed with water.

The treat of this waterfall was that I got to walk right behind it, which was the driest spot within 50 yards of it. 

I got soaked by the mist while I was checking this one out, but it was well worth it.

There are many more great pictures in my flickr album. I will definitely be back to this incredible area.

Here's a video taken next to Tunnel Falls.

Visitors to the Far West

It's been a while since I updated my blog, and a lot has happened. I've had several visitors over the past couple months, started with my Mom and Aunt Nancy. Unfortunately for them, their trip was more of a work trip than a vacation. They helped me do a lot of work to make my duplex more homely. We spent a lot of time shopping (lots of time in Ikea) and putting together furniture. They helped transform my apartment from a place that I slept and ate to a place that I enjoy spending time. Here are some pictures my mom took (which explains the blurriness).




We did have some time for fun, though. On Saturday, we visited the Pittock Mansion, a huge estate that was built by one of the first families to strike it rich in Portland. The mansion is a museum now and a very impressive building for its time period. An intercom system, a central vacuum system, and an elevator were part of the home, which was built by 1914. Unfortunately, I didn't know how impressive it was going to be, so I didn't bring a camera.

Just two weeks after they left, Matt Fuller visited for a weekend. It was great to see him and catch up with one of my best friends from college. Matt wanted to see the Pacific Ocean, so we went to the coast for a hike. It was pretty muddy and we got rained on a little, but we accomplished our goals of seeing the ocean and some very big, old trees.

Right after Matt visited, my dad was in town for a week. My dad helped me with some stuff around the apartment, too, but more importantly, he brought me some personal protection: a .45 Hi-Point and a 1911-.22 Chiappa. Both are very inexpensive guns, but are a lot of fun to shoot.

One of the highlights of my Dad's trip was going to the Evergreen Aviation Museum. The Evergreen Aviation Museum is a huge building full of vintage and modern aircraft, the most famous of which is Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose. We paid the extra 25 bucks to get a tour of the cockpit and take some pictures. Well worth it.

This is an incredibly impressive airplane.


Unfortunately, we didn't have near enough time to look around the museum. I look forward to an excuse to go next time I have a visitor interested in aviation. The rest of the pictures I took at the museum are on flickr and a well worth taking a look at.