A Great Weekend at The Smith Rock Craggin Classic

 

[caption id="attachment_741" align="aligncenter" width="380"]Clear skies over Skull Hollow. Clear skies over Skull Hollow.[/caption]

This past week was a blast! I headed out from Portland to Smith Rock for the Craggin' Classic hosted by the American Alpine Club. Festivities started at the Redpoint Climbers Supply shop in Terrebonne where we picked up our steel pints, drank some pints, and watched an awesome slideshow by the legendary Alan Watts. We also heard from Meg Kahnle about her Live Your Dream grant to climb Monkey Face.



Live Your Dream #1 from Meg Kahnle on Vimeo.

 

She's doing a collaborative art project about Smith Rocks. Tag your instagram shots of Smith with #ConnectWithSmithRock to submit your photos or head over to Connect With Meg.

The next day we rolled into Smith Rocks from the Skull Hollow campground and met with our clinic leaders. I signed up for the Self Rescue clinic to brush up on some essential rope work skills. I didn't bring my camera with me, so there's not too many photos from that day. With the day winding down and the hangover finally gone, we hit up the festivities at the Terrebonne Depot. Lots of fun brands were out to support and give away great free swag. Highlights were the rock ring tug of war contest by Rab, push up contest by Outdoor Research, and the infamous headstand contest by Goal Zero. We capped the day with a back to back screening of Sufferfest I & II.



 

The next day we decided to skip climbing and instead do volunteer trailwork. This was actually a lot of fun. We repaired spots where the trail was eroding out and turned a social trail to the river into a proper trail with stairs. Putting in the stairs actually went rather quickly and it'll help stem back erosion from people cutting down to the river.

Anyway, here's some photos from the weekend!

20150905-_JUN6283 20150905-_JUN6279 20150906-_JUN6338 20150906-_JUN6332 20150906-_JUN6328 20150906-_JUN6325 20150906-_JUN6319 20150906-_JUN6316 20150906-_JUN6315 20150906-_JUN6308 20150906-_JUN6303 20150906-_JUN6302

And now I'm motivated to get back in climbing shape

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friday Rocks #37: Porphyroclastic Ultramylonite

Image
[caption id="attachment_572" align="aligncenter" width="610"] Feldspar porphyroclasts in the ultramylonite of the Pofadder Shear Zone[/caption] Porphyoclasts are deformed crystals found in a metamorphic rock. In a mylonite weaker minerals deform though crystalplastic processes and form a "toothpaste" texture. Stronger minerals will try to resist the deformation, but may break and stretch along with the weaker minerals. As the weak minerals recrystallize, they will flow around the remnant stronger minerals. [caption id="attachment_573" align="aligncenter" width="610"] Feldspathic porphyclast in the ultramylonite of the Pofadder Shear Zone[/caption] Do you have a cool rock to share? Submit it to FridayRocks[at]Upsection[dot]com
Read more

Teaching geoscience to religious students

The blog En Tequila es Verdad posted an interesting article about teaching geoscience religious students.  Ron Schott noted that taking a slow approach, introducing the scientific method, evidence, and how science is made, encourages them to critically think about the evidence and engage in the class. It's a great article, go check it out. This article reminded me of a time in the 4th grade. Our class was learning about dinosaurs. I was talking with a friend about how dinosaurs were millions of years old. He replied with "but the Earth is only 6,000 years old." I can't remember exactly what my response was, but I do remember giving him a quizzical look. Being in elementary school, we weren't given a proof of how we know the age of the Earth. I accepted it on faith that the teacher was telling the truth, and probably on the fact that dinosaurs and rocks are really old and really COOL (thanks, Dad and ,uhh, probably Bill Nye, too). Hmm, now that I think about it, I...
Read more