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Plaidman
Trad climber
South Slope of Mt. Tabor, Portland, Oregon, USA
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Another adventure in the 100 Days, 100 Miles, 100 Climbs saga.
Plaid
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 6, 2013 - 01:56am PT
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awesome
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kpinwalla2
Social climber
WA
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So Plaidman, where are those cool choss towers? Looks like the stuff I see in the cliffs above I-84 while driving down the gorge towards PDX. Always wondered if anyone had scrambled up there to check them out. Also wondered whether you could actually climb them without trundling something the size of a washing machine onto the interstate below...
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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PLAIDMAN FOR PRESIDENT!
You gotta admit it has a nice ring to it.
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
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Plaidman
Trad climber
South Slope of Mt. Tabor, Portland, Oregon, USA
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Reilly I'm crazy, not stupid. I gave up on polotics a long time ago. Even if your winning, at what cost to you and your family.. Besides I have a sorted past. Just look what I turned into. A climber.
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Plaidman
Trad climber
South Slope of Mt. Tabor, Portland, Oregon, USA
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@Don HOLY CRAP!! This is a real place. Bryce Canyon Hoodos Utah at Twilight.
Can we climb that stuff! Not really can we climb it, but will they let us climb it? WOW!
Kingdom Forlorn. I thought it was a fantasy picture. That is CHOSS PORN!
Answered my own question:
Climbing the rocks and sliding on the slopes
is illegal and dangerous. As per http://www.nps.gov/brca/parknews/upload/2012-13_Winter_Hoodoo_web.pdf
The dream has ended :(
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 6, 2013 - 10:31pm PT
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I think the ones that are in that pic would be watched like a hawk by the NPS rangers, and any that are oft photographed.
paging Dr. Van Belle, please report to the Chossoperating room, stat!
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Plaidman
Trad climber
South Slope of Mt. Tabor, Portland, Oregon, USA
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^^^^Plaidman needs a frontal lobotomy! Emergency frontal lobotomy before he is a danger to himself and others. STAT MEANS HURRY UP!
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Plaidman
Trad climber
South Slope of Mt. Tabor, Portland, Oregon, USA
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So Plaidman, where are those cool choss towers? Looks like the stuff I see in the cliffs above I-84 while driving down the gorge towards PDX.
Yep these be the ones...Just 6 miles east of The Dalles. They are fairly well away from I-84. No real chance of any one of the blocks making it that far...now one landing on your belayer may be another story.
Here is my story from Day 47 of the 100 Days saga:
Silverman sent me a message that he wanted to climb. I was going to take a rest day but I couldn't turn down a solid climbing partner. I called him right away and told him it was on. He didn't even know where we were going.
We met up for the drive out and I told him our objective. He was pleased as he had wanted to climb the spires we were headed toward. The Apocalypse Needles have at least 6 or more spires that I have had my eye on for a while. The Adventure Queen and I looked at doing Fire Spire but the approach was above her pay grade. She opted out.
Now Silverman was available and the weather looked reasonable. We arrived at the west end of the Apocalypse Needles at the railroad access road turn off, got on the game trails and headed up. I didn't know that the game trails were made by bighorn sheep until the Adventure Queen and I saw some on these trails a week ago.
Silverman and I arrived at The Bump and I racked up to lead the climb. There are 3 routes on this spire. I chose the easy 5.6 as I didn't know what the quality of the rock would be. It didn't look good but after climbing St. Peter's Dome I think I have been recalibrated. Most rock looks a lot better now.
I had to run it out a bit to get in some solid protection. My foot slipped a bit before I got high enough to get my piece of gear in. I held it together and got a #2 Camalot in and then a red 1.5 Totem Cam to back that up. Place early and often is the credo when lead climbing.
Now that those pieces were in I could really climb. I worked my way up past some dubious looking hanging blocks. I gingerly worked my feet up and got some really solid hand holds and continued up. I placed two pieces of gear, a blue offset nut and a blue .65 Totem Cam. Then I moved up to the bolt at the crux of the route. I moved up and clipped the bolt and now knew I was home free.
One more move and I was at the anchor. There were two bolts with hangers on either side of the summit block with a nest of webbing and cord wrapped around them and the summit block. The summit block was solid and on top there was a pile of fish and small rodent bones. This must be a feeding station for raptors. So climbers are not the only ones that like these places.
I brought up Silverman and we enjoyed the summit and he gave me a high five for the good lead. He was probably just glad I didn't pitch off before I got my first piece in. That was really the hardest part of the climb. The rock wasn't that great so we decided not to do any of the other routes. We rappelled off and packed up for the next spire.
We got to Fire Spire after making some sketchy moves on the approach. Silverman was worried that we would have to down climb this section. I told him we would build an anchor and rap off. Upon getting up to the headwall we were greeted by a welcome sight. Someone had placed a bolt and a piton as a rappel anchor already. We were overjoyed.
Now on to the objective. Silverman took the lead and placed several pieces of gear as he moved up. The route we took was 5.7 or A1 and the rock looked even better than The Bump. There were not as many loose blocks. Silverman placed one piton and stood in a sling to make the crux move. That was the A1 placement and seemed reasonable.
He made it to the summit easily and then stood up to touch the summit block. He then brought me up. I went up and went to stand on the block that Silverman had stood on to touch the summit block. Just as I did Silverman gave a whelp and told to not stand there, the block was moving. I moved off and down climbed quickly.
After I got down we signed the summit register. There was a Tupperware container that had a pad of paper, pencil and a snack size Snickers candy bar in it. We read that the last entry was January 28th in 2001. It was hard to believe that we were the first ones to climb this in the last ten years. There must have been other climbers since then.
We rappelled off the ropes that were slung around through a crack below the summit block, pulled our rope and made it back down to the rappel of the headwall to the bench below were we had started.
What an awesome day. Two spires for the 100 Days, 100 Miles, 100 Climbs project. Now the count stands at 56 out of 100. I climb on to the Next Adventure!
Plaid
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
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(previous formation is in upper left corner)
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kpinwalla2
Social climber
WA
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When Mother Nature gives you choss....
make choss-en-ade!
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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Now that is Chossy!^^^^
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Plaidman
Trad climber
South Slope of Mt. Tabor, Portland, Oregon, USA
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kpinwalla2 where the heck is that. Looks fun! We got to get out together sometime since we are in the same neck of the woods..... I personally am in the deeeeeep woods. Kinda like an ogre or hobbit. Maybe more like a dwarf cause of my little stature. 5' 7" and shrinking.
Plaid
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 9, 2013 - 01:02am PT
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I feel out chossed. dang!
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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This thread is kinda like the Deadhead thread.
And like Garcia said,
"Not everyone likes licorice. But the people who like licorice reeeaaaallly like licorice."
For the record, the power of choss does not compel me but chunder on, my choss loving brothers and sisters.
edit: what about those dirt towers near Grand Junction where Pete Takeda climbed with ice axes and rebar. Now that dude was compelled by the chawse.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 9, 2013 - 01:22am PT
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The ultimate choss climb in the West
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Michelle
Social climber
Toshi's Station, picking up power converters.
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Now that's one pile if choss! 108?
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Plaidman
Trad climber
South Slope of Mt. Tabor, Portland, Oregon, USA
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I think the choss climb of all time is The Great White Fright. Where those guys climbed the White Cliffs of Dover with ice axes. It used to be on Youtube. Now the only way to get it is via the DVD. The only problem is that it is in a UK digital format which the U.S. DVD players don't use. I tried to order the DVD for the Mazama library. We had to cancel our order. So no choss porn. DAMN IT!
It is a real shame cause that was one scary choss filled adventure.
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