The Descent

The route crosses the glacier in the foreground, ascends Snow Dome on the right, then crosses back left over the false summit to a 60' section of 5.4 rockclimbing to get to to western summit.  For the full set of Olympus photos go here.

We were wrecked.

Summit of Olympus West

View towards Mt. Rainier

Looking West

After a 3am start, it took us 12 hours camp to camp. Then we passed out for an hour in our tents (avoiding ravenous mosquitos), and backpacked an interminable 5 miles down to a lower camp, leaving only 12.4 flat miles for the hike out the next day.

The Ascent

Oh My Goat!

This mountain goat thought very little of us as it walked by on the trail.

Beardish Mossy Thingy

This moss-lichen agglomeration was discovered on the 17+ mile hike through the Hoh River rainforest. We also discovered that hiking with heavy climbing gear-laden packs sucks, a lot.

Mt Olympus Gear!

Some of the extremely technical gear required for a summit attempt on Mt. Olympus (WA). We'd been planning to do this trip with our friend Ondrej for a while, but hadn't had a chance to get out here until now. Fortunately none of us had jobs so 4 free days in a row was no problem. :)

Birthday Breakfast

For breakfast Adam, Myron and Gabe caught us fresh trout. We cooked this up with Potatos from the Lee garden for this most delicious birthday breakfast.  More Steens photos here.

Family Portrait Above Wildhorse Lake

Kiger Gorge

At Steens Mountain Oregon, a traditional Lee family vacation spot - looking out over the glacier carved Kiger Gorge and Big Nick.

Lake Tahoe

Candyland!

Middle Spire, Candyland 5.10c - Crazy lead, required slinging four head-sized knobs for pro!  More Photos

Phantom Spires

South Lake Tahoe - we camped in the Phantom Spires area (literally 5 minutes from this climb - Over Easy 5.7, Middle Spire)

More Photos Here!

Towin' The Line

Adam eyes the line

The Line

this is The Line, 5.9, at Lovers Leap near South Lake Tahoe. I saw this route somewhere (in a book I think), and have wanted to climb it ever since.

End of Matthies Crest

If you look close you can see about a zillion little flying demons sucking our lifeblood.

The Rock Cornice on Matthies Crest

Wow!

Matthies Crest

5.7 Grade IV, this route took us 17.5 hours car to car, 5:30am-11pm. Made it off the route before dark though. :) Peter Croft did it before work at 8:30, but he didn't have a rope.

The Great White Book

5.6R slab, offwidth, chimney, yum! Tuolumne has the goods!

Camp Cookin'

Potatoes, onions, peppers, quinoa, and orzo. Cooked in the dutch oven on the fire at our campground in Tuolumne Meadows. It got a little blacker later on...

Thanks Rene for the gift certificate to Goods for the Planet, which we used to get our pot. :)

Half Sandwiches on Half Dome!

This was about a 12 hour day for us, so we got kinda hungry. On to Tuolumne!

Snake-like Dike

Climbing the Snake Dike (5.7R) route on Half Dome. Fun route with long runouts climbing up a crinkly dike.

Climbing in the Sierras

Summit of Lone Pine Peak, near Whitney Portal in the Sierras. Climbed for a week with Mikey and Rob for Mikey's bachelor party.

The Beach

Flying the kite on the beach at Crissey Field with Mikey, Van, and Rob.

Alexis and Josh

Went over to the eastside to visit Alexis in Oakland.

San Francisco, CA

View from Natasa's Place

Salem, OR

Eating Joong Ches (Chinese tamales) at home with the family

Seaside, OR

More Photos

Digging razor clams at Seaside, Oregon with the family.

Farewell Seattle

Packing up the truck in Seattle. Thanks for the help moving!

Our Blog

Mostly photos of what we are seeing and eating : )