Hints of Lime

You all need to be present at Breakfast this week. “Why?” you ask, because we will have a special guest! Alex’s mother will be joining us all the way from New York City! Plus, I can’t remember the last time we ALL got together. Clearly, it’s been way too long!

So get yourselves down to the Daily Cafe in the Pearl

www.dailycafe.net 902 NW 13th Ave (+ Kearney St)

You know the drill: Coffee starts flowing at 7:30am!

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Pamelia Metolius, cha cha cha

May 28th, 2008 by Blindy
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Check out the good times had by all in the beautiful Mt. Jefferson area.

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Urbanteering - Saturday, July 20, 2008

May 27th, 2008 by Austin
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From the same people that brought Portland the Urban Iditarod, the first annual Urbanteering event promises to be a good time. From http://www.urbanteering.com:

Urbanteering is a little orienteering, a dash of urban exploration and a bit of strategy all mixed together. Individuals or teams are given two hours to find as many targets as possible, answer a simple question about the target and return to the start. Teams are rewarded for correct answers and punctual return. Targets are given assigned point values between 10 and 50 points. Maps with targets are supplied at event check in. Maps may be topographic, historic, tourist or any other map we can get out hands on.

Saturday, July 20, 2008
4:30-6:30 p.m.
North 45 Pub
517 NW 21 Ave
Portland, OR

I think we need to put a team together….

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Confessions of a YouTube junkie

May 23rd, 2008 by Peter Franzen
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I’ll be frank here– there was only 1 character in Weezer’s new music video that I didn’t recognize. All of them are YouTube stars in one way or another (the Daft Punk girls, the Numa Numa guy, etc.), and Weezer brought them all together in thier new video:

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“You Eat Here Because We Let You”

May 21st, 2008 by Rachael
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Good Morning Bloggers!

This week’s tasty breakfast spot is…wait for it…..

NW Portland’s Stepping Stone Cafe!

2390 NW Quimby
Portland, OR 97210

http://www.steppingstonecafe.com/

See you at 7:30 Thursday morning!

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For those about to rock…

May 20th, 2008 by Austin
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we roll tonight… well actually we roll on Friday night. Thought it might be high time to get a reasonable headcount of who is going to head down to City of Rocks this Memorial Day Weekend. And start figuring out how many cars we need.

So… lets start counting. Who’s in?

We salute you.

camalots

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Giant Canyon Swing

May 20th, 2008 by Kalle Crafton
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My buddy Tim (Portland’s favorite, ever-ebullient geologist) was climbing in Fremont Canyon in Wyoming a few weekends ago. Narrow, deep, and awesome, as far as I can tell; one raps down next to the river then climbs up and out–belaying from river-side or above.

After a day of trad climbing, his buddy decides to rig up a massive swing/bungee-esque scenario off the canyon bridge. Using the full length of the rope tied to slings at the base of the bridge, then secured to his harness, each guy took turns stepping off the edge of the canyon to freefall before the rope caught to swing them out, deep under the bridge, and up the other side.

–Click the Picasa link for the must-see photo album. The Blog gods aren’t letting me post the photos here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/stdittmann/FremontCanyon02

Finally, they each jugged back up the hanging rope, or, in Tim’s case, he untied himself, fell 15 feet into the river, and swum to shore to hike out.

Just another relaxing weekend.

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Victors!

May 19th, 2008 by Ethan
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Andrew and Ethan race to the kayak launch.

Every once in a while every man encounters an opportunity to prove his virility, strength, and overall badassity to his brethren.

For Pole-Pedal-Paddle team we-couldn’t-think-of-a-better-name-than-”Nau”, Saturday was that day. Under a burning sun in the dry summer heat that only Central Oregon can produce, Alex Hamlin ran up a steep slope of soupy snow and straight-lined his skis through three-foot deep ruts, Win Goodbody (we pretty much won the race as soon as he was listed on the team roster) battled through nordic trails described as “ankle deep cement”, none other than Otis Rubottom cycled down from alpine wilderness through overpriced subdivisions into the bustling city of Bend, Andrew Barrett pounded feet to steaming asphalt, Ethan Smith took on the platoon of kayaks clogging the class I waters of the Deschutes, and Andrew made a final mad dash to glorious victory.

Yeah, that’s right, we won it.* We beat em. Our names will be forever blazened into the hearts and minds of Oregonians everywhere.

* “It” is hereby defined as the 30-34 year old age group within the Men’s Team division.

We are all awaiting the calls from potential team sponsors, and are already preparing for the next slaughtering round. The custom hand-glazed ceramic mugs we won will be cherished for years as symbols of our badassity. Rock!

Big thanks to Hal, Darcy, and Luther for hosting us over the weekend, throwing an apres-race party that couldn’t be beat, and showing us how to play with a few of their water toys. If you haven’t tried “Look ma, I’m Jesus” stand-up paddle-boarding yet, you’re totally missing out.

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Some Thoughts On The City

May 15th, 2008 by Alex
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So y’all are thinking about the City of Rocks, that magical land where dinosaurs roam between 500 foot spires of granite. The setting is spectacular, a rolling maze of stone fins reminiscent of the sandstone of Arches National Park, except that here the solid granite is spangled with pockets and split by beautiful cracks. It offers climbing for everyone: from 5.12 sport routes to 5.6 trad leads, from multi-pitch bolted 5.5s to scary boulder problems, there’s something to keep every climber happy.

Living in Jackson, WY, the City was a weekend road-trip destination, offering walk-up approaches to a crew used to the 5-mile hike into the Tetons. It was also a desert destination, offering mild temps in the shoulder seasons when the peaks at home still had to melt out from their armor of snow. Since my current schedule being a bit, ah, flexible right now, I’m not sure I’ll be able to join you all for this trip; hence, here are some thoughts on what to do and where to go while there.

You’ll be approaching from the west, so it may be faster to drive to the park from Oakley; my experience has always been coming in from the Almo side. Either way, find your way into the park and pick out a campspot. The best ones snuggle in the shadow of the Bread Loaves: check out the folds along the formation’s southern edge for a good spot. You’ll be close to the water spigot on the North end of the Bread Loaves, and right in the heart of the best climbing.

The bread loaves themselves offer some great Trad lines worth exploring. The Super Hits Wall, situated kind of between the breadloaves, is home to the stellar 5.10a trad crack Bloody Fingers, a nice 5.8 mixed route just to its right with a runout to the first bolt, and Intruding Dike (5.7), and awesome little crack with chickenheads at the finish. You can scoot around to the west side to climb on the Decadent Wall on the lower Breadloaf. There are a couple great moderate trad leads here, including the 5.7 Adolecent Homosexual and the 5.8 Carol’s Crack.

A little south east of the Breadloaves is the Parking Lot wall, a very popular (crowded) area that seems to be a hit with boy scout troups. Yeauck. It is, however, the parking area for the absolute must do Morning Glory Spire.

The classic line on the spire is Skyline, on the North face (in the picture at left, it’s the left horizon). A longish but easy trad lead, it’s worth waiting for. I remember the rap as a long one, though they say it’s 100′. Just remember to tie the ends of your rope…

While waiting for Skyline, there are a couple good lines nearby on the Anteter Face. It’s just around to the southwest, and has a bunch of fun, huge-hueco bolted routes in the 5.7-5.9 range: Scream Cheese and the runout but easy Swiss Cheese. Also if you want to stay closer to the base of Skyline, you can throw yourself into the fun little 5.8 chimney on Morning Glory’s east face that finishes over an exciting little roof. The neatest part of this climb is also it’s biggest drawback: the route tops out through a tunnel in the spire’s summit that also seems to be aviary habitat. (Keep your hands out of the shit.) This was my first lead after MCL surgery; my brace was never the same, shiny thing again….

A little farther afield is Elephant Rock, with the SUPER classics Wheat Thin (5.7) and Rye Crisp (5.8). Both are trad, and both will have big lines. Pete will recognize Wheat Thin from the magazines; it seems like it’s featured every other month. Show up early and do both; Wheat Thin has some of the best easy finger crack/laybacking you’ll ever do, and Rye Crisps huge layback flake is something special.

The central part of the City contains many super classics, but perhaps the best iis Tribal Boundries (5.10a) a sport route which is solid for the grade but amazingly positioned with a huge drop off beside it, make the hike from south of the Bath Rock parking area and experience the heart of the City.

Finally, for a multi-pitch alpine adventure, head northeast to Steinfell’s Dome. It’s a bit of a drive to the east side of the park, but the small formation on the left of the main dome is called Jackson’s Thumb, and it offers a fun, WAY easy clip-up. The guidebook puts it at 5.7, but that’s for maybe one move down low. Most of the 4ish-pitch route is 5.4 and would be fun for the new leaders. Watch the tricky rap from the summit; it drops you into a gully that’s an easy scramble down.

It should be very, very crowded for the memorial day weekend, so if you’re feeling adventerous you could go explore Castle Rocks State park, just a few miles Northeast of the park. I’ve never been, but have heard rave reviews that the climbing is great and the setting offers far more solitude than the scene in the City. Whatever you do, however, be sure to make the trip out the east gate to Almo and go to the Outpost Restaurant/Bar there (it’s on the left as you head north with the big parking area). They have, without question, the best hamburgers you will ever eat in your entire life. A trip to the City without one of those Burgers simply isn’t worth the trip.

So that’s it! Having written this, I’m now thinking I have to find a way to make the trip with y’all… It’s going to be a great time.

Tags: city of rocks · climbing1 Comment

Consumed

May 15th, 2008 by Peter Franzen
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Well, it has happened again. As you will undoubtedly remember, I started my current job at a company called TechTracker back in February, 2007. Things were going well for little-old TechTracker: we had 35 great employees, we were profitable, and we had a great company culture. April 20th 2007 was spent pulling ivy out of the trees on Marquam hill as a part of a big volunteer effort, and our president took everyone out for drinks after. It was a great time to work for a small software/net company.

Fast-forward to September, when it was announced that we were being purchased by CNet Networks; it was a complicated transaction, and we are still handling aspects of the transition to the bigger company to this day. I actually just passed a fairly large milestone in my job duties just yesterday that completed the transition of one of the last bits of TechTracker over to CNet.

Somebody, somewhere, was obviously not content to just let things be and so this morning every CNet employee was greeted with an email from our CEO, Neil Ashe, in which he informed us that CBS will be purchasing CNet.

Indeed:

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Midday musings

May 14th, 2008 by Kalle Crafton
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Hi campers,

Welcome. As I sit here in this cafe, watching highschool kids across the street practice sweet tricks on their skateboards, shirking a structured, free education that, really, would be a totally lame and pointless waste of time, I think of things like potential. The potential of that firetruck that nearly obliterated the one emo skater kid just now, for example. They both have places they should be, but the 5-ton truck, unlike sad Jimmy, is actually pursuing its destination. Oh the irony.

It would have been a duel for the record books.

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Thursday Breakfast #4: Tin Shed

May 14th, 2008 by Alex
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This week we’re hitting the Tin Shed, at 1438 NE Alberta St. Weather calls for temps in the 80’s, so with any luck we’ll be able to take advantage of the garden patio.