Wonderful Friends and Wonderful Weekends

Weather throughout the Inland West, especially in Central Oregon, has been very cold lately. There were probably close to two weeks in town where it never got above freezing and lows were below zero for several nights. This excited me because accessible ice climbing is rare here. However, the down side is that our pipes froze. Eleven days later I am sitting in a hotel, paid for by my landlord, because we still don't have running water. Bummer!

Well, I decided I'd moved to Bend to enjoy life and I wasn't going to let a little inconvenience stop me. So that first weekend Chris and I headed out to Paulina Falls for some water ice top roping. I've climbed lots of snow, neve and rime ice, but very little true water ice so this was a good session. We each did nine laps on various parts of the right flow... and we found a frozen kokanee (not the beer). It was a damn good time and we definitely got our money's worth.

Pictures by Chris Sepic:

Myself on the L side of R falls.

Kokanee!?!? Found frozen solid in the snow... WTF?

Me eating the fishy... I was hungry because it's hard to cook without running water.

The next weekend we were still without water and were supposed to have up to six of my old teammates crashing on our floor for Club Cross Country National Championships. Luckily, by the time everyone arrived my landlord had booked us two adjoining hotel rooms with a kitchen!!! (We only asked for one but I'll take that!) We had an awesome time and it was good to see so many friends in town. Club Nats is quite the race as it attracts professional running clubs and amateur clubs alike. The Open Men's 10km had 410 finishers which is huge for this type of race. It was really fun to watch, a great spectator course. I got to cheer on my friends and former Olympians alike. The course was also hilly and windy with some slick and rough footing... so much fun! I was kicking myself a little for not being in better running shape and competing, but you have to pick your battles and I'm not regretting those weekends at Trout Creek.

On the course I took some video...

Women's Open (4.5 min):

 Men's Open (9 min):

Now all my running friends have left :(
... let's hope our pipes unfreeze soon so we can at least move back home!

One running friend did not come for Club Nats because he is off gnar-bossing trail races. It's okay though because hopefully I will see him for some gnar shredding this winter... Ryan Ghelfi is now officially on the new Nike Trail Running team! And you can check out his great blog's most recent post, an annual recap, here.

In the meantime I'm going to catch up on sleep and try figure out this whole living situation thing... hopefully I'll live in a house that meets legal rental standards soon! Then I can crush it knowing I have a hot shower to come home to. That would be nice.

Winter at Smith Rock

After a super cold December and January the weather has gotten pretty warm and sunny here for the past few weeks. As a result I've been going out to Smith to go rock climbing a lot more than expected. This has been great for my climbing. I haven't been getting out skiing and alpine climbing as much as I would like, but who can say "no" to basking in desert sunshine mid-winter?

I've been climbing with a whole range of people, but my most consistent partner has been Caitlin, my girlfriend. She is also pretty stoked to climb right now, and has been improving by leaps and bounds. Together we have been checking off many of the highly recommended, moderate-difficulty trad routes at Smith. This has been great for my climbing to-do list (and that means great for my OCD, type-A self). It's also nice because I get to lead everything and forces me to adopt a "guide-mode" mind-set.

This past Saturday Caitlin and I went out with a large group of friends... Mike, Joe, Kristin, Dirk and Faith. It was a little windy but absolutely beautiful. We hiked over Asterisk Pass and climbed various cracks and bulges on Spiderman's Butt... ress. (A rock buttress! I wasn't being dirty at all!) Mike, using his new camera, made another awesome video (the man is a natural videographer! mad props!) so check it out...


Climbing at Smith Rock from Mike Arrera on Vimeo.

Routes we climbed that day:
Squashed Spider, 5.7 sport, 1 pitch
First Ascent Crack, 5.4 trad, 1 pitch
Out of Harm's Way, 5.8 mixed, 1 pitch (check mark! short dihedral to vertical face climbing, very fun!)
Spiderman, 5.7 trad, 2 pitches (check mark! slab, dihedral, splitter crack and overhang all in 200ft!)


Other great routes Caitlin and I have climbed in the past month:
Western Chimney, 5.5R trad, 1 pitch (strenuous and complicated for 5.5, don't go up it expecting a cruise)
Bookworm, 5.7 mixed, 2 pitches (off-width crack to a bolted slab)
Lion's Jaw, 5.8 trad, 1 pitch (awesome dihedral)
Moonshine Dihedral, 5.9 trad, 1 pitch (same as Lion's Jaw but steeper and longer)

Ball Butte... a typical day in the Oregon Backcountry

My buddy Mike and I set out early Saturday to try climb/ski Broken Top. This is one of the more picturesque peaks just outside of Bend with three craggy summits surrounding a small glacial cirque.


Mike approaching Broken Top in the predawn.

Sunrise on the approach, car dashboard said 7 degrees... mmm, mmm TOASTY!

Unfortunately it is an 11 mile round trip skin on flat ground to reach the base of this mountain. Of course in typical Oregon Cascades style the weather completely socked in the moment we got close and cleared out the moment we headed home. Mike's knee was flaring up from his new running regimen too, so we opted to go up Ball Butte instead which involves a 1,000 ft less vertical and a couple miles less of ski travel.


Mike on Ball Butte? Ball Butter? Buttery Ball?

On the way back I shredded some sweet gnar... radical overstatement dude! Overall it was a fun day but gosh darn did my feet hurt after that 5.5 mile skin out!

Mike being serious, or maybe understandbly grumpy, as we watch the clouds part.

As soon as we're a mile back towards the car the weather totally clears... WTF!? Ball Butte on the right.

Check out Mike's awesome video clip from the day... Mike, YOU are my hero! Ok that may have been too corny... whatever... watch the video!!!

Ball Butte Climb from Mike Arrera on Vimeo.