My last road trip with dad

I had a conversation today with a fellow photographer about the pros and cons of taking a road trip with another photographer. And like taking a road trip with anyone, you'll either love them or hate them by the end. Then randomly (?) I started looking at images on my long neglected website and Flickr feed and found a set from a road trip I took in 2008.

When my husband couldn't go because of work at the last minute, I invited my dad to go as I was heading to Mt. Shasta to meet a fly fishing guide, and perhaps he could get a day or two of fly fishing in while we worked on Shasta Trout's (then) new website. He was beyond gung-ho and drove to Portland and picked me up.

We opted to take a meandering route to have a look at Crater Lake, which I'd never seen and planned to stay the night in Ashland so I could take him to a fun English Pub my husband and I discovered the year prior. We encountered forest fires, thunderstorms, downed trees that blocked highways and a balloon festival. And through it all my dad never once complained about my wanting to stop to take a few snaps or a few hundred, for that matter. He was as easy going as could be. My dad passed away suddenly last September. My heart is utterly broken and I've struggled for months to put my thoughts and feelings into words. I'm grateful for countless adventures we enjoyed and for his patience and love. I miss him more than words can convey. Thank you dad.

Royce Butte Wildfire

Royce Butte Fire, originally uploaded by Hanmi.

Here is a set of images from the Royce Butte fire last month. When we drove around a bend in the highway we saw a small puff of white smoke... by the time we neared Crescent Lake Junction, it was a large white plume. A couple minutes after we pulled over it was a big, black, ominous cloud. In fact, when we slowed down to speak to a state trooper, I could feel the heat of the fire (though I couldn't see the flames) on my face. After I took a few shots we got back into the car, and stopped again at the top of the hill where I took a few more shots. The fire was clearly spreading very quickly. Pretty scary stuff. Click the image to see more.

Montague Balloon Fair

Montague Balloon Fair, originally uploaded by Hanmi.

More pics from my road trip with dad... The morning we were planning to head home was the first day of the Montague Balloon Fair just north of Mt. Shasta. This was good incentive to hit the road early, and about the only thing that could have gotten me up at 4am... We arrived before dawn and got rock star parking so dad could enjoy the show in comfort while I spent 2 1/2 hours wandering around taking pictures [and freezing my tookas]. Click the image to see more on my Flickr page!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/hanmi/sets/72157607614482080/

Road trip with Dad - day 1

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Mt. Shasta, California to visit a client [and now friend] to climb, learn to fly fish, take some pictures, and get to know each other. Originally Jim was going to come along, but his work schedule is tight and he had to bail. As Craig [my client] is a fly fishing guide, I started thinking my dad might really enjoy going with me. Sure enough, he was game and we took off on Tuesday.
The plan was to drive from Portland to Ashland the first day, with a detour to take us past Crater Lake. The drive ended up being much longer than planned, but our luck prevailed and we narrowly dodged the Royce Butte wildfire (the road was closed 5 minutes after we passed), falling trees, and a lightening storm on our side trip. We arrived safely in Ashland a couple hours later than planned, but had a great meal at the Black Sheep Pub [a discovery on last year's road trip with Jim], and topped it off with a Guinness float. Naturally, I took a lot of photos...
There will be more photos and details to come...

Climbing at Beacon Rock

Anna Climbing, photo by Hanmi.

Last weekend we took our neighbor climbing at our favorite local crag. She's been climbing indoors for a while at school, but has only climbed outside once or twice. You'd never know it based on how she attacked every route we put her on, though. She's definitely a natural, and I'm sure we'll be seeing her out on the rock a lot more in years to come. Nice work Anna!

Squamish, BC

Summer is perfect for climbing northward of us, especially when it's been dry for 6 weeks. So, with our dear friend Christine as our guide, we took a tip up to the town of Squamish, British Columbia in nearby Canada. It's a small but lovely logging and outdoor-tourism town that sits adjacent to some amazing granite monoliths.


Our trip was short by most standards, so we decided to hit a large adventure our first day our. With a team of three, we had to be mindful of the time out, but the peak was less important than simply all getting a chance to climb exciting rock. With that "The Ultimate Everything" delivers! All moderate grades and quite wild and bushy.

We began on a popular route on "The Apron" called Deidre, which was 5 pitches of wonderful low-angle slab and small cracks. We hit it early (about 7AM) and were the first team out. Eventually we saw more folks, but for such a popular climb it was nice to be climbing alone as a team.

Our team consisted of myself, my wife Hanmi and our friend Christine. Christine's been visiting Squamish for many summers, so we skipped the typical hunt-and-peck for the route starts. The base of many climbs is an exercise in finding an elusive trail or choosing the right path among too many. Also, the starts of the routes we hit were actually up the wall a bit, requiring us to scramble before beginning.

Once up above the traffic, the sky was a mixture of hot sun, cool breezes and hazy horizons. The weather is typically variable and occasional rain can be expected all summer long. Except for the shuffling of jackets and hat on or off, we were pretty comfortable all day.

Ultimate Everything is a link up from the top of The Apron to the top of the Chief, by way of a few trails and a ledge-access short pitch. After Deidre, we took Memorial Crack upwards, then hiked around a gully system to a bushy ledge to an obvious start. The pitches here were exhilarating and yet still moderate, in a word, wonderful!

We reached a ledge by 5PM and looked at the water/time/route options and decided to hit the bar. We didn't need to walk or rap down in the dark just to bag the peak, given that we still had 5 days of new rock to explore.

After a short tour through the Smoke Bluff crags and a day "resting up" bouldering, we were back to play on another route on the Apron: "Snake". This route was new for all of us, and involved some fun exposed climbing. There are a number of traverses, the crux pitch being a traverse where the climber can make use of a snake-like tree root running horizontally. It's great fun and worth a 1/2 day.

We made good time for a team of three, taking it easy and averaging about 1 hour per pitch, with lots of cheering and snacks along the way. I was most impressed with our abilities, given that we've not been pushing our climbing skills for a few weeks. Hanmi especially has progressed tremendously, as her abilities leading, following, building anchors and racking cleanly were great (though I'm not really one to judge).

Some more pictures from various spots on the wall...

Spring Thing 2008

Almost every year, many of the climbers of the Northwest travel down to Smith Rock State Park in Oregon and perform a full day of trail maintenance. More than a simple litter pickup or tree planting (although we do that too), this is back-breaking work to construct safer trails on the steep slopes of the park.

Given the delicate desert landscape, having trails is a good way to join both the community and the climber crowd together to promote the park. This little park is a jewel of geological history and of course - it has awesome climbing routes.

The work parties started at 8 on Saturday and spread out across the park, each under a lead that directed the action. The supplies are carted or trucked to the edge of the park or area, but the majority of the work is bucket-brigade or simply walking with a heavy rock, putting it in place, then getting another.

But when the day progresses, finally wrapping up in the early afternoon (the hot afternoons shut everything down), the trails look amazingly new. These events are a great way to meet new climbers and catch up with old friends.

Also, the bolts that have gotten notices about being ready for replacement are all checked and replaced. This is especially reassuring, as the rock qualities at Smith are touch on any fixed gear, due to the high thermal expansion cycles of the desert and the rock actually being a "welded tuft", a form of petrified volcanic ash.

These pictures aren't a great way to capture Smith's expansive vista, especially from the top, where the majority of central Oregon's lower Cascade mountains are visible across a green blanket of farms and small towns. I believe Oregon to be one of the most beautiful places on earth, but you'll just have to take my word for it. No picture would suffice.







Smith Rock is located centrally in Oregon, not far from the larger town of Bend. It gained popularity in the 1980's as "this birthplace of American Sport climbing", which is to say, some local climbers cleaned the loose rock , bolted the walls into very tough routes, and invited the world to try the climbing. The entire process was bumpy in a few ways, including getting a community used to a new tourism feed in their area, and getting a climbing world used to a few "new school" techniques of putting a climbing route on a wall without always starting from the ground each time.

Many times, routes were so difficult that they demanded a series of "practice sessions" of small sections until they could all be linked up into a single, highly gymnastic sequence. This was new to the world of climbing, where a more mountaineering atmosphere was the norm ever since "traditional climbing" broke into a sport of its own decades prior. During the 1980's, "sport climbing" sought to create or find routes that didn't achieve a goal height, attain a peak, or adhere to a crack-based, naturally protected route. Instead, stone anchors were drilled into the wall and thus every face, however devoid of features, become yet another "project". When records for difficulty appeared at Smith (5.14b), it finally attained status world-wide as a place to visit on every climber's list.



We climbed later that day, in the shadier areas, then met up again that night for a party of beer and burritos. A slideshow, a few movies of some outrageous climbing from around the world (shown by attendees of the party) and the highlight of the evening, an auction and raffle of some great donated gear. This year, a huge amount of gear seemed to appear from some new sponsors.



We're very happy and thankful to get an opportunity to join in with our friends and help make a park a bit prettier and a lot safer for everyone to enjoy. I recommend anyone who has time to visit that park, and a few others, here in Oregon. And if you can find a way, throw some donated labor into your community. It feels great.

Back to the Front Page

Thanks to some prodding from friends, we're back to blog more regularly. Aw - you guys are great. So there should be a few posts appearing more often than the usual "every blue moon." In this post, I'll catch you up on whats been news lately.

If you've not heard the old news, flip back and read about our trip through Patagonia, which wrapped up in January. Since then, I've switched jobs - haha, yet again. I decided to recognize that tougher times are just around the corner and picked up a full-time position at an old client. They're a good shop and have their eye on the long-term, instead of what seemed like very short-term thinking in some other places I've seen. Plus, the people are wonderful.

On the home front, we're still fuzting around with our bathroom remodel - slowly picking through the final pieces and putting them together now and again. We've definitely fallen into the "long tail" finish of this project. There's around 5 things left, its all going well though. We use everything in the room and it all works great.

We overhauled the "back 40" on our lot and tilled the yard up, spread compost everywhere and planted a mix of grass and wildflowers. It's been a cool, wet Spring so the sprouts are slowly coming along, but there's a peach-fuzz of green across the yard.

The chickens have been moved to the side yard. They don't like this area as much since their view is obscured and their sunlight is more limited. However, it gives the back yard time to revitalize and allows us to set up the garden without worrying about their scratching and pecking at all the sprouts.

I'm learning to bake bread! We don't have a bread mixer or a bread machine, so I'm perfecting the use of the food processor (the "chopper") for some initial mixing. I'm quite impatient so the "rising" portion of the making sometimes gets cut short. I still don't know what a second rise is all about, so I skip it. The first loaf was horrendously bad, as I didn't understand the purpose of gluten. (Imagine an all-gluten loaf of gum) The second loaf was better, but it was a little dense, as my yeast poured right through the chopper's center hole (note to self: turn machine on).

Han has been out in the nicer Spring days on paid shooting gigs. She's also picked up a very fun assistant position as a web designer for a sustainability blog. She's quite busy when those schedules converge, and the post-processing is a big job.

The bikes have been tuned up for Spring. I performed my first "brake job" on the mountain bike the other day - it was tricky but when finished, the lines have no bubbles and I could flip over the handlebars as easily as my first day. I rode to the new job yesterday and it was one of the most magical, wonderful routes I've ever enjoyed on the way to work. It's close to 15 miles each way, with a few steep hills, so the evening was a hot bath in the gigantic tub.

Hanmi set out the sprouts and our first round of garden plants are just about ready to go in the ground. She also prepped the plot and sowed seeds directly last weekend. I'm very excited. After a break last year from tomatoes and similar plants (peppers) - we're back with a full-range of vegetables: Potatoes, Cucumbers, Peppers, Tomatoes, Strawberries, Blueberries, Swiss Chard, Cilantro, Basil, Oregano, Sage, Spinach, Snow Peas, and 2 different kinds of Beans. The lots of Carrots and Brussel Sprouts, Mustard Greens, Kale, Lettuce, Chives, Onions, Garlic and other stuff are all around the house in planters. We also have a fig tree and a persimmon tree we planted last winter that will hopefully bear fruit this year. Should be interesting!

The eggs are arriving steadily, about 3 a day. We have given a lot away lately, which feels good. We received a cute Thank You note from a small child (and family) that walked by to "visit" the chickens, since they are now visible in the front yard. The chickens are quite friendly, almost to to point of being nagging in their quest for food, sunlight and attention. Riding on shoulders is a common sight when we're in the yard. We let them out to clean the front yard of slugs now and then. It's a fun, carefree feeling to relax with chickens napping on your legs on a lounge chair on the porch.

We are harvesting rain! The first 2 rain barrels are in place and full already. I'm slowly adding delivery pieces to the output side of the system. Our barrels are "nonstandard" in their storage, so that I could fit them under the back deck. But after a few tests everything seemed to work out. I'm very happy with it. We'll have the garden on a pH-balanced and filtered water system, run off a battery timer, flowing every morning for an hour or so. It's drip irrigation so there's not a lot of waste. The pressure from the gravity feed, with 110 gallons about 2 feet about ground seems fine.

We've played a lot with the numbers and the space we could devote to this concept. We have room for 6 more barrels for a total of ~400 gallons (about 3200 pounds!). I've been imagining some neat uses for all the water in later phases (toilet, basement sink, bird feeder, etc). For now, I've been advised to finish some older projects first. Wise, those unnamed advisers.

New Photography Exhibition!

I am delighted to announce my second exhibition of photography at the Morning Star Cafe.

There will be an opening reception Friday, March 7th from 6-8pm. The photos in the exhibition are from our recent trip to Patagonia and capture various aspects of the wild, rustic, stark, and vast landscape. I'm very excited to be able to show the work, and hope to see you at the show!

The Morning Star Cafe is downtown at:

510 SW Third Avenue
Portland, OR 97204
phone: 503-241-2401

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Home Again

Well, its one week late in posting, but we are now back home. Our bags took a few more days than everything else, so there was some consternation for a bit, however everything is fine now. Flying the route Santiago to Miami to Seattle to Portland across 2 airlines is a bit messy.

Of course, returning home always presents the new challenges of "gearing up" for the routines you left. Mail, work, taxes and the rainy season are here. Well, its nothing we can't handle in stride.

The trip was fun and we'll be hosting several dinners soon with friends to show slides and tell stories.

We're eternally grateful to Susan, our longtime friend who watched over the house for the weeks we were away. As she explains, getting used to a half-remodeled bathroom, a chicken coop and three dogs (one her own) every day was a chore. She handled the job beautifully, and even managed a few small crises.

Since we were gone over the Christmas holidays, we're a bit behind in actually sending out the paper cards, but we'll be writing letters soon.

Other than that, there's a few more reviews of places in Patagonia, but I think everyone would just rather look at photos ;) So we'll put together a few more posts soon, stay tuned.

Fitz Roy or bust!

At 7 AM we began the hike from the cabaña to the base of Fitz Roy. Its only 12km to the camp, and we had no trouble getting there. We have a filter so there’s no need to carry a lot of water in this area with its numerous lakes and streams. Actually, we didn’t even need the filter (except to remove some silt) since the water is less than a mile from a pristine glacier and quite potable. It was quite possibly the best tasting water we’ve ever experienced.


Camp was set among many other travelers from across the globe (French, Italian, German, Dutch, English, Hebrew, Spanish was overheard), a short nap and then another hike, out of boredom. It’s amazing how many days fit into 24 hours when the daylight last 18 hours! We headed out to explore, do some bouldering and find the trailhead that leads further up the mountain for the next day’s adventure.




The hiking was spectacular. The winds are always fierce; blowing all along the hike up to 50 mph in gusts that could make you skips a few steps – which is fun when you’re crossing a tiny log bridge. Thankfully, the camp is set up under some trees. Whenever you want water, you simply need to scoop it out of a nearby stream. The lakes and smaller lagunas are bluer than sky from the pure water and fine silt from the glacier melt. The camp was good, although the latrine was overused. The camp hosts were giant “caracara” falcons common to the area.


At 4:30 AM the next morning, we left camp, taking just one daypack to hike above the tree line into the snow and glacier zone. The trail is steep, rising 500 meters in only 2 km. I explored the area while Hanmi waited for good photos of sunrise and few clouds. There was only one other person around, although there’s evidence at the climber hut of several parties attacking the summit.


We didn’t see anyone else until the hike down to our own base camp, when many of the “early hikers” were panting up the trail, asking about how much further. Not far is the best answer one can give.


After a quick nap we packed and hiked back out, down to the town again (about 3 hours) to pick up the car and find a place to eat and sleep. The routine repeats and we end up in some fairly nice rooms, although a bit musty. It seems common in Patagonia for the rooms to be built to withstand the incessant winds, but suffer from a lack of ventilation at the same time. The windows open and the entire room’s air in exchanged in about 3 seconds, but the musty backdrop is always around due to the season when the room stays dormant for months.

After hiking so much (about 25km) we treated ourselves to a big meal of grilled steaks, with lots of beer. Sleep came quickly and before we knew what hit us, it was morning again.

El Chalten, part I

"Ruega por nosostros" means "Pray for us"...

While traveling in Patagonia, we noticed there are very few roads. Even fewer are paved for any length.

Along the road to El Chalten, the pavement once again ends and you note the map shows this is the only road to the town. The town is nestled in the foothills of the Andes, and the Fitz Roy mountain range looms above the town like a great stone gate. Shrouded in fast moving clouds, the peak occasionally reveals itself as a reminder of how small we all are.

We cruised the town for about half an hour, and inquired at a couple hostels (all full) before we found an empty cabaña. These are freestanding cabins, usually one or two rooms, that enable you to cook, wash and sleep. They make no promises about heat, drafts, bugs or sometimes, electricity. They do, however, make for excellent fort-like mini-homes where you can be alone to review and plan.

So we got one with 4 beds in 2 rooms and cooked a huge meal of rice, meat and a salad. We planned our next 2 days, which was to hike up to the base of Fitz Roy and explore. We taught Cristian and Vanesa everything we knew about eschewing unnecessary stuff from the gear. We worked out a deal with the owner to leave our car with remaining stuff behind her own house.

I have to note something about the wind: It blows almost constantly and is tremendous. People flip over, vehicles flip over, sands gets into eyes past your sunglasses, trees creak and break. If two car doors open at once, the car is flushed clean of all lightweight material. Its pretty amazing.

Photos

Theres so much written that i have yet to post here, but we do have about 3,000 photos. So I'm going to burn a post on just pictures from all over our trip. These are in no particular order, and realize they may not be the best shot, but its what we have sized and ready in this little cafe at the moment. Enjoy!


Guanaco ("won-NOK-oh"), relative to the camel and llama, pacing the truck.



Armadillo. Funny little creatures.


I called and called, but no passengers arrived for this train.


The Moreno Glacier, which movs about 3 feet a day and calves icebergs constantly.


An afternoon crowd gathers at the observatory.


The road winds through some amazing territory.


This is a funny story you'll read about later. Our truck "Molden Oldie" acting up. Molden was abused heavily and yet he managed to get us around.


The colors all around were constantly beautiful.