A Day at RBQ

One summer day Dan took a newly met female date with him out to Rocky Butte Quarry for a bit of rock climbing. She was unfamiliar with the sport of climbing but was willing to give it a try (and to him it was a compatibility requirement). On this particular outing she opted to bring her small dog, and she let it roam near the cliff edge without any leash. The energetic pup was quite fascinated exploring around the new terrain sniffing this and that, and even getting quite near to the edge of the abrupt drop-off.

Dan proceeded to setup the top-rope at the belay anchor, then clipped his harness into the rope and he was just beginning to rappel down the Video Bluff slab section heading for the base of the Video Bluff section when....

As she stood on the angled slope above 'Stranger Than Friction', she accidentally slipped on the soft slick soil (something that we've all have done!), landed on her rumpsky, and in the same instant her foot flicked up, and accidentally booted her little pup right straight out over the edge. 

Dan heard all the rustling commotion occurring just above him, and heard her brief shriek as well, and quickly glanced up the cliff toward her.

As he looked up, and much to his dismay, he saw an airborne dog in full flight, coming quickly down his way, and he instantly reached out and caught the pup in his outstretched arms as the pup rapidly plummeted down toward him enroute to the ground.

Sadly, something didn't quite click in harmony with the two of them, and that newly met female date didn't last long....

Paint By Numbers

 You can't paint life by numbers, or you'll miss all the good stuff along the way.

Finding Skookum

 At just the exact right hour of the afternoon during mid summer, while we were standing at the Rock Creek crag, chatting about climbing just after doing an ascent of a route, we peered far off to the west, and on the far side of the valley, perched high on a forested hill slope, both of us instantly realized — that a minor rocky looking prominence protruding from the hillside actually IS a small rock pinnacle! The late afternoon sunlight shafts sideways, at just the right hour to reveal the true shape of the little pinnacle from afar.

So, a few weekends later, the team congealed a 'must-do-it' plan, and went out on the hunt for ir, and found it, and done did it — a ground-up ascent of the infamous Skookum Pinnacle.

It's quite rare to find such little odd pinnacle summits anywhere near Portland these days, as the pickin's are mighty slim (most of these types of little climbing treasures have long since been discovered and ascended).

Bring the Pitons

 Life's an Adventure

A friend and I were going after the prize, and long untapped first ascent of a 150' tall dihedral system that looked totally stellar perched high above the forested slope. The proposed route was a series of thin seams and cracks all the way up the corner system.

Our journey would be a 2-day outing with an under-the-stars bivvy in the wooded forest below the Lamberson Butte crag. When we reached the bivvy site, unloaded both backpacks, we suddenly realized just how much heavy iron we both had brought. We both abruptly broke into hearty laughter.

Somehow, we both had, without consulting the other about certain pre-chosen rock climbing hardware that might be needed for doing the first ascent of the route, we had somehow managed to bring a total of over 30+ heavy metal pitons.

Talk about overload !!

So that's how the routes name was struck: The Great Pig Iron Dihedral 

Could be if not for the trees

 A friend once said....

"...this part of Western Oregon could be one of the best bouldering places in the region, but you just can't see much further than about 20-30' from any given back-country road to get a glimpse past all the thick green forest and foliage to spot all the potential boulders hidden right there in the forest barely out of sight."