City of Rocks Rock Trip May 2006

Well for our post spring pre summer trip we went to the City of Rocks Idaho for some classic granite rock climbing. The fist day of climbing was amazing. We started climbing around 8:30am it was warm in the morning and then got colder and colder as the day went on. We met up with some friends from PDX John, Lani, and Eric and did some routes together. By the last climb Elisif and I were both pretty cold so we decided to call it a day at around 7:00pm we ended up getting 6-7 classic routes done. We drove to an area where we decided it would be ok to poach a camping site easily enough (John’s secret place) if we got up and out climbing somewhat early. We went to sleep with out an issue.
We all woke up around 7:00am to hear rain showers on out tents and by the time 8:00am came around the rain turned to snow so we decided to get a little more sleep and try and figure out what to do. We woke back up to a voice asking up to pay $10 dollars for out campsite, nothing way going right. We got up and go mobilized and only to see the snow start accumulation. We all jumped into our cars and headed through the City of Rocks over to Burly (45 min away) to get some breakfast at the local dinner. After some thinking Elisif and I decided to go to Boise for a few days to help out my grandma and eat some great food and head back to the City of Rocks when the weather got better.
Elisif and I were excited to come back to the City of Rocks, with warm weather and no snow we were able to get some amazing routes in. We were very lucky to get a total of five days of climbing in!! 5 day without a shower = a gross sweaty feeling…. Enjoy the photos!

Above- Elisif approches the crux as she leads Adolescent Homosapien on the Decedant Wall (5.7)

Above- Elisif leads Weat Thin on Elephant Rock (5.7)

Above- Daniel checks out the start of Bloody Fingers on Bloody Fingers Wall (5.10a)

Above- Daniel leads a "Pummpy" Bloody Fingers on Bloody Fingers Wall (5.10a)

Above- Danie leads her first 5.8 Rye Crisp on Elephant Rock (5.8)

Above- Daniel leads My Private Idaho on bath rock (5.9)

Above- Elisif reaches the roff of pitch #1 No Satisfaction (5.8)

Above- Daniel leads a fun corner (5.9)

Above- Elisif leads Skyline without a problem on The Incisor (5.8)

Above- Elisif stands on top of a route in the City.

Above- Elisif shakes off her nerves before leading her fist 5.8 route (Rye Crisp)

Above-Elisif and I on top of a climb, what a nice spring day to be in the City!!!

Mt. Hood April 2006

May 4th-5th
Spring time only means one thing, alpine climbing!! After watching the weather constantly for a week we decided to climb Mt. Hood 11,249 feet via the Leuthold Couloir. Elisif got out of class on Thursday and met me at my place at 2:00pm and we got our gear together and headed to the mountain (90 min away) and started climbing at 6:00pm on a blue bird night. Starting elevation was 6,000 feet and we arrived at our campsite 9,500 feet just before 8:30pm an elevation gain of 1,500 feet per hour, good pace. We made our camp at Illumination saddle just before it got dark. Cooked some food and went to sleep.

Daniel takes off his pack at Illumination saddle 9,500'

Daniel get some gear out of his back on Illumination saddle 9,500'

Daniel takes a break right below Illumination Rock 9,500'

We woke up to a clear sky with some light wind. The temp was a little cooler, but not too bad. Melted some snow for water and made some oatmeal packed up our gear and we where climbing by 8:00am. We had to climb over Illumination saddle and down about 200 feet and across a small crevasse ridden snowfield to get to the base of our climb.

Elisif pokes her head out of the tent ready to do some climbing

Elisif gets ready, Mt. Jefferson in the background.

Once we made it across the snowfield I had to figure out what line we needed to take, this was a little difficult since I have never climbed this route before. We climbed a spiny ridge for about 1000 feet and a little bit of traversing got us to the Leuthold Couloir.

Elisif climbs the spiny ridge after a traverse from Illumination saddle.

Elisif traverses to Leuthold Couloir (Illumination saddle in the background).

Daniel approches Lethold Couloir 9,800 feet

From the base of the Leuthold Couloir we climbed another 1,300 feet on steep snow and ice. This was one of the coolest parts of the whole day other than getting back to the car. We protected this climb with flukes and pickets incase of any falls occurred, fortunately no falls did occur.

Daniel lead the fist pitch of Leutholds Couloir.

Elisif Follows on the first pitch of Leutholds Couloir

We gained altitude to the summit ridge where we were both hungry and tired, but we had to push to the summit. The summit ridge was a fun climb, but high wind made things really cold, I guess that is what alpine is all about.

Daniel nears the summit ridge 10,600 feet.

Elisif climbs on the summit ridge, tired and hungry, too the summit we go.

Elisif gains altitude on the summit ridge (Yocum Ridge in the background)

Once we gained the final amount of altitude and traversed along the summit ridge we finally made it to the summit Mt. Hood 11,249’ at 12:00 am, and yes it was cold I would estimate 5-10degrees with wind-chill. A short break and we descended through the pearly gates and down the Hogs back on our two hour decent (2,500 feet per hour) down to our car where we got to change and get some food and water. It was a great trip and we are looking forward to getting back into the mountains for many more adventures.

Daniel nears the summit on the final push. 11,100 feet.

Daniel & Elisif on the summit of Mt. Hood 11,249'

Rock Fest Spring 2006

April 2006
So it's been a while since we've posted but following our epic Spring break adventures we've shifted attention to rock climbing. April has found us at a local crag called Broughton Bluffs as well as Smith Rock. We've been having fun getting back into climbing shape and Elisif has started to learn how to lead trad as well as cultivating her love for crack climbing, much to Daniel's delight ;-). The future looks good, we are heading to Leavenworth Washington in the middle of May and we are also going to the City of Rock in Idaho the last week of May. It's time to get in shape so we can do some long multi-pitch climbs next month. Here are some photos from our recent rock trips.

Elisif belays Daniel on "Classic Crack 5.9" out at Broughton Bluff

Elisif climbs "Classic Crack 5.9" out at Broughton Bluff

Jason and Alexandria's new puppy "Davie" sleeping on the quickdraws

Elisif follows "P1 of Spiderman 5.7 " at Smith Rocks

Daniel gets ready to climb "Where ever you may rome 5.10" at Smith Rocks

To Bozeman for Spring Break 2006

Elisif and I went to Bozeman Montana to climb ice, tele ski, and rock climb. My twin brother (Mark) goes to school at MSU so we had the hookups for a place to stay and a good climbing partner. We climbed at Hyalite Canyon, Pine Creek (45 min away), and Cooke City (3hours away). All the ice was amazing, it was hard to get back to Hyalite canyon, but once we did we had all the ice to ourselves!!! The weather was great, freezing at night and 40-45 in the afternoon.














above left (Daniel climbes M7 at Pine Creek Falls)
above right (Elisif leads WI3 at Pine Creek Falls)
Rigth (Elisif climbes over a tree in Pine Creek)

Day #1 Pine Creek was some amazing climbs, good mixed section and some great 40-60 meter WI3-4 climbs. We got to the base of a climb called green gully the fist day and thanks to my brother who heard a “load roaring sound” yelled at our climbing party (6 of us) to get out of the way as a very large avalanche flew past us 10’ feet in font of us to the base of the climb. We all would have been buried if we were actually climbing, but since we just got to the climb all of us were just to the left of the climb and out of harms way. One guy did get all of his gear buried and it took some time to find it all again. After the avalanche stopped we went down and climbed at the falls where there is some ice climbing and some good mixed routes. We did go back a few days later when avalanche danger was lower and climbed both green gully and blue gully.
Right (Daniel climbing some rock "SketchFest!!")


Day #2 we woke up to four inches of fresh snow on the ground so we decided to go to Bridger Bowel and we tele skied in knee deep powder all day long!! First tracks on almost every run!! Nice and dry!! We got done skiing and went home and slept.
Day #3 & 4 Cooke City was our destination for some excellent ice climbing. It was cold at night 8-10 degrees and 40ish in the afternoon, all good climbs and 30-35 min approach and great ice. We spent two days their and climbed as much as we could. Soaking in the hot springs on the way back was key!! It’s called the boiling river just inside the west entrance of Yellowstone Park.
Day# 5&6 we attempted to go back county skiing and go hoaxed both days. We decided to climb some rock instead, I don’t recommend leading any crack climb in the “pass” right outside of Bozeman, and the rock is super crumbly. The sport routes are fun though!!



Top (Elisif stands below the fist climb in Cooke City)
Bottom (Elisif climbes Genisis #1 WI4 in Hyalite)


Day# 7 Hyalite canyon what can I say epic ice all to ourselves…well almost. Lots of climbs and every climb is huge right now!!! It is hard to get back their if you don’t have a snow machine or some crazy off road rig, but thankfully I am good friends with John Bowser and we rallied 14 miles through all kinds of snow in his Toyota Land Cruiser!! It was worth all of the winching and shoveling we had to do!!







Above (John get sucked into the ditch... winch and shoveling got us out everytime!)
Below (Daniel streches druing a move in Hyalite WI4)










Above (Mark climbs WI4 in Hyalite)
Below (Daniel cooks dinner in Cooke City)

Right (Elisif grinds on a park table with here tele gear in Hyalite)

Below (Elisif and I are happy to spending time togeather)

That’s all for now, great ice in the Bozeman area!! I want to give thanks to Mark and John for an excellent time in Bozeman!! What to do for our next break? Its alpine time...

The Davis kids with their significant others 

Daniel & Elisif

p

Mt. Hood Back-Country by Daniel

Elisif, Jason, Nat, Pam and I went up to Mt. Hood on a blue bird day for some back country Tele / snowboarding. After stopping off at the classic doughnut shop (yumm) we were on our way to the mountain. We put our skin / snow shoes on and hiked approximately 2.5 miles up Heather Canyon which is located just east of Mt. Hood Meadows ski resort located on the South East face of Mt. Hood.
We climbed a ridge to gain altitude and we climbed out of the tree line at 6,000 feet when the ridgeline opened up into two giant bowels one on the east face and one on the west face. We ate some lunch and chose the west face for our decent.