Tuesday afternoon was spent at Rat Cave. After a quick warm up I hopped on Dorkboat 13a and slowly worked the moves. Then Matt armed me with the beta and I did it clip to clip. Feeling good after lowering I gave it another go and got all the hands just right and with a little impromptu foot work sent 2nd go! Thanks Matt for the beta, again! Lisa made some links on Shitfre 13c and then four days later onehanged it!
The next two days were rest days spent mowing the lawn and hitting up Powells for the recent Jack Reacher Novel. Nothin' better then reading in the shade/tanning on a sunny day!
Friday was French's Dome, a super shaded area recomended to us by the locals. We drove on out and managed to find it with no problem. The aproach was nonexistent, luckily, since we forgot to bring the rope down. The dome is an old volcanic tube and the holds are not basalt like at all. the climbing reminded me of exit 38 and kinda looked like baslat collums folded over sideways. Regardless the climbing was really good with lots of feet. Guide-less we picked a vert route that happened to be an interesting and technical 10c. Lisa got the onsight and I followed with a quick and pumped send. Next was a cool 11c called Crankenstein that I swear was the hardest thing I did that day! It had cool crimps and was pretty straight forward but was quite unrelenting! Next we peeked at guide book and saw that we were on the left end of the '5.12 wall'. So we migrated up the next level to a 12a called Pump-O-Rama. I guess was nicely warmed up by now because this climb was only more bouldery, making it seam easier to me. Next was an adventure climb by Lisa on a 12c called Darkness. After finding all the holds I gave it a go and almost blew the gaston crux but held on an easily migated the 5.10 climbing to the chains, psyched! Lisa epiced for a little on this one due to her not wanting to be tipped out at the crux, she'll bag it next time. Up next was a cool looking line 3 lines in from the right. I think it was BSD but I don't know yet. It had a V3/4 boulder problem to a Jug then some more cirmpin followed by more crimping. I managed to navigate the sea of mossy ledges. Luckily the importnat ones didn't have moss and I found myself clippin the chains! Another adventure onsite! All in all Frenchies is an awesome summer crag. Sitting only a lil over an hour from Portland and being literally at the base of Mt. Hood makes this a cool stop for anyone headed to Smith.
Saturday was an early moring, arriving, at Rat Cave at 7:30. Lisa did extremely well one hanging Shitfire and I was feeling tired and played on the stiffler .13 and got the beta hardwired. Next I jumped on fully warmed and made it to the last clip but with no finish jug pealed off just below victory. All in all Portland Rock Climbing is adventurous and beats Smith due to it's steepness and tons of pinhes/open handed goodness IMO. Up next is Equinox on Sunday and the adventures continue........
