Lostine River Canyon, OR - Wallowing in the Wallowas 2/9/2008
Trip: Lostine River Canyon, OR - Wallowing in the Wallowas
Date: 2/9-10/2008
Trip Report:Well, here's the story I'm going with, as much as I can remember of it...
I went down solo on Saturday to scope out the area before pup_on_the_mountain would arrive Sunday morning. We had a meeting arrangement for 8:30 Sunday morning at Terminal Gravity Brewpub there in Enterprise (great food, greater beer, highly recommended!). Anyway, I found the end of the plowed road in Lostine River Canyon, and skinned up the forest road about a mile, actually passing the point where I was supposed to leave the road and go bushwhacking. It wasn't until I realized I was traveling faster than my budgeted estimate that I had gone too far. So I turned around and looked up, and I saw the most beautiful blue ice runnels clinging to the cliff face about 500 vertical feet above me and about a quarter of a mile back down the road. So I spun around and headed back down, then up. Going up this ~45-degree slope in mashed potatoes on AT skis was "athletic" to say the least. After about a half-hour of this nonsense and not getting very far vertically, I abandoned this idea of going up to "check it out", as it was about 4:00 now and there was no way I was going to make it before dark. So I stopped by the Blue Banana at the Lostine River Road turn-off and got a 3-shot latte and shot the shit with Jerry the owner (fun, interesting guy), headed into Enterprise for the night, called p_o_t_m to get him stoked, and vowed to approach on the morrow with snowshoes instead.
I didn't really plan on this part, but I got good and drunk Saturday night at TG. Yasha the Barkeep was a hoot, and Frank the Local was fun to hang with at the bar. Eric the Birthday Boy sure had a nice posse of wimmin there for his celebration, and all in all I don't think I publicly embarrassed myself too badly. Now after closing and in a drunken stupor, I threw down my tent in the parking lot, then promptly threw up in the parking lot 3 times before finally getting to bed around midnight (I shoveled it all up, Steve). Pup showed up promptly at 8:30, and I was already out of the tent and nearly packed up and ready to roll. My head was clanging. But y'all would have been proud of me nonetheless, given my past history surrounding "early" starts, seeing me standing there grinning and picking chunks of the previous night's revelry out of my teeth.
After about an hour at the Lostine Tavern sucking down local coffee and regaining consciousness, we made the mile trudge in along the forest road, then turned left and ascended the slope, wallowing in mashed potatoes up to our thighs, many times dropping in up to our crotches and waists. There were a few slides and face plants as well. Pup's got a few pics of this bullshit. It was brutal, and I kept belching these horribly nasty-tasting vurps (vomit-burps) the whole time. And I couldn't even think of eating anything at this point, either. Oh man...
Well, after ~2.5 hours of this crap, we finally arrived at the base of what I can only say would have been an excellent WI-4 flow of about 400 feet in height. The lower half would have been cruxy, as it was not totally formed anymore and was very rotten and aerated after the warming spell. There is a short vertical/slightly overhung section to access the upper half of the climb, which was rambly, WI-3 blue ice. But our biggest problem was the climb was actively detaching from the rock while we were standing below it. We sought shelter behind some boulders, rehydrated and ate (I felt better by now), and discussed politics and religion for about an hour while icicle explosions went off to our right. It was kind of surreal, to be sitting behind some boulders, wearing our helmets, huddled against the wind, and enjoying the scenery while 30 feet away a whole 3-pitch ice climb was actively disintegrating next to us.
We assessed the avy danger for using the drainage gully proper for our descent, as neither one of us wanted to backtrack our ascent route. We got in the gulley about 25 yards below the "blast zone" of the climb, and one quick glissade had us down to the road in less than 15 minutes! Back at the rig, Pup swigged a few sips of some Deschutes Buzzsaw Brown I had picked up the day before, then passed to me. I took one swig, and I'll be damned if I didn't just pour it out on the ground. I've
never done that!
All in all, a fun weekend out, although I could have done without the drunken stupor part. I think Pup was impressed to learn that I was at it as strong as I was Sunday morning, especially after he learned that I had thrown up for about an hour the night before. This fat, 48-year-old fart kept up (most of) his end of the trailbreaking along with the studly 29-year-old! And I felt pretty darn good Monday, although driving back home Sunday night was dicey. Had to pull over for an hour's nap in Cody's parking lot after dinner.
Pup's got some pics of the ice and some other shots of the canyon walls on his camera. Mebbe he'll post them up here.
Gear Notes:took it for a stroll in the woods
Approach Notes:hefty servings of mashed potatoes, no gravy
snowshoes better than skis
ryland moore was right on about the Blue Banana and the Lostine Tavern.
