Downtown Portland

There are some amazing opportunities for architectural photography in downtown Portland, and today turned out to be a great day for photos as the mix of sun and clouds made for some great lighting. This is something I had been meaning to do for a while. Let me know what you think.

Hiking in the Columbia Gorge

Since I couldn't find anyone to climb with today (and the sun was out!) I decided to check out a hike in the Columbia River Gorge. Hamilton Mountain rises to almost 2500 feet (in four miles) above Beacon Rock, which is a well known landmark and climbing area about thirty miles up river from Portland. The trail winds it's way up through the forest past several waterfalls then on to more open grassy slopes closer to the top. Once you are out of the forest the views are fantastic. I would have to say today was a perfect day for this hike considering it probably gets super hot in the summer. Sort of an unreal day being that it's still winter...

The "Pool of the Winds." (A bit dramatic, no?) Still a cool little waterfall that has carved out the rock.


The rest of the falls below...


Wishing I had a fish-eye.


Climbing potential?


The patchy clouds made for some dramatic lighting down on the river.




More cliffs up by the summit and the Bonneville Dam in the background.


And... the top! The snow was only an issue for the last quarter mile or so...


Mandatory self-portrait on the summit.


There were more amazing views from the saddle directly to the north of the summit.




One last shot of the Columbia on the drive back.

Bridge of the Gods

Today I went to check out the 'Bridge of the Gods' boulders on the Columbia river with my co-worker Andrew. The weather was looking nice and I was excited to take some climbing photos (which I hadn't done in a while...). It turned out that the directions I had found on the Internet were no good and not a single boulder did we find. It wouldn't have mattered much anyway since everything was covered in two inches of snow! Big change from pleasant and sunny Portland. We stopped a couple of times on the way back to check out a waterfall and take a look at the Rat Cave climbing area.

Bridge of the Gods


Beacon Rock


Horsetail Falls


The Rat Cave, choss at it's finest.


Steep!

Stuck on the wall

Some friends of mine happened to be up on El Cap (Zodiac, I think) when the storm cut loose (see previous post). They were stuck in their portaledges for three full days before it let up. It was pretty exciting to watch huge sheets of ice break loose above them, but the wall is so steep they came out of it unharmed. I can't remember whether they finished after that or not. I would have come down. You can spot one white and one yellow portaledge in the lower center of the image. (click on image for full size view)

I miss Yosemite

These photos were all taken on one day in January 2007. A winter storm had just started to clear and I set off with my new d200 to see what I could find. I was very happy with the results.