Pumice Slots at Crater Lake Nat Park OR

[errinevans]

September 8th:
I was on a 10 day adventure itinerary with my mom and friend Liz, who were visiting from Northern BC. They hadn't seen the sun all summer so they were easy victims for my grueling schedule to try to see all the things I had on my to do list in such a short window. We started with the 1/2 Marathon in Eugene on Sunday, headed to the Skinner's Butte crag to get Liz some rope experience and then went to Crater Lake to set up camp on Tuesday. We went to Thielson on Wednesday to shake out some of the lactic acid from the race and played around with the ropes for about two hours up on the summit plug. Poor Liz, she was getting a crash course in rapping, climbing and anchors. On Thursday, we went out to find Whitehorse Creek, it was fairly easy to find since I had already been out there twice scoping the goods. We headed down the creek from the road and continued in the water. Most of my canyon experience has been in Utah or in Northern BC, so I wasn't too sure which would be the best footwear since both regions are entirely different. I opted for the gum boots and that turned out to be the best choice. We had the beta from Ken's site but I wasn't sure if the 'dead log' would still be in place for the short rap, as noted in the beta. We brought along the 'sand trap', two snow pickets and a deadman since I didn't know if the dead log would be there or how I might construct an anchor.
Yay, when we arrived at the top of the drop, after weaving our way through many wasps, the log was there and someone had left a nice fat static line on it. Since Liz had somehow ended up coming down left handed by mistake on Thielson, I put her in the line above me and rapped down. It was easy for me to stay out of the water, but Liz was a little wet. Mom also stayed relatively dry. Past there, there are a few fun downclimbing and stemming moves. When the canyon levels back out, there were some snow bridges across the creek that one could walk under. We headed down to the alcove ate lunch and then headed back. We wanted to have time for Wheeler Creek too. I did a quick demo for Liz on the SRT basics of climbing a rope back out thinking that the climb looked relatively easy. Sorry Liz, I should have spent more time on that.... I went up first and was able to stem up and stay out of the water. I sent the gear down for Liz, but neither my mom nor Liz had much ascending experience. I prepared a little three:one system and tried to sign language enough info down over the noise of the water to at least get one point of contact on the rope. I got enough info to them that Liz was finally attached rope correctly. I don't know what they did with the croll. Liz started to stem up, didn't care much for it and ended up dangling in the water. I easily hauled her up and sent her up into the sun above me. Mom climbed up tied directly into the rope as a belay with only a little reef on the rope from me when she got to the first lip of the falls. In retrospect, I would have just tied Liz directly into the rope initially and hauled her up that way. Sorry Liz, hind sight is 20/20. The first time I climbed a rope was in a waterfall in a cave but maybe I should be a better friend than that. :) We decided to walk up on the east ridge to make better time instead of following the water the entire way back to the road. Whole trip took about four hours. We raced back to Crater Lake, changed a few things out, including my shorts that ripped out in the butt seam and drove down to the pinnacle outlook. We parked there and walked up the road. There was a significant amount of whining about the heavy brush on Wheeler. The water was too high to walk in gum boots and it was really dusty. The wind continually blew pumice dust on us and coated the vegetation. It was quite some time before we got to the formations. They were worth the wait. I think the whining was probably more of a result of the hectic schedule rather than the bushwhacking. There were more snow bridges and we had a riot placing large pumice stones afloat. Since it was late in the day, the light was fantastic for taking pictures. We hiked out, wishing we could just go around one more corner and took more pictures also being careful to avoid the poison oak. We headed back to the camp to prepare for the next leg of the trip that included the South Face Gully route up Broken Top and a trip up Mt Shasta for more views.
anc[ATTACH]48043[/ATTACH]hor in the pumice.

[jman]

Beautiful! Very cool man, thanks for sharing!

[CarpeyBiggs]

Beautiful! Very cool man, thanks for sharing!

i have a feeling that errin might be a woman? cool stuff though!

[errinevans]

i have a feeling that errin might be a woman? cool stuff though!

Yep, definitely a girl not a man. :) I am so excited that there are some slots in Oregon, but I miss Utah more than you know. There seems to be alot of potential for more routes too especially in eastern OR.

[CarpeyBiggs]

Yep, definitely a girl not a man. :) I am so excited that there are some slots in Oregon, but I miss Utah more than you know. There seems to be alot of potential for more routes too especially in eastern OR.

you checked out the stuff in the gorge? that stuff looks world class...

[ibenick]

Awesome.

[accadacca]

Yep, very cool terrain. Thanks for sharing.

[spinesnaper]

Ken

[errinevans]

you checked out the stuff in the gorge? that stuff looks world class...

Not yet, I am located in S Oregon. I will probably check out more of Crater Lake soon because it is only 20 mins away and the conditions are good right now. I have seen some good trip reports lately for the gorge area though on the PNW yahoo group. I will have to head up there at some point.

[jman]

Yep, definitely a girl not a man. :)

ohh whoops. Sorry! lol I think I read just a little too quickly...

Looking forward to your other TRs from up there!

[wasatchghost]

Great TR, and cool pictures! The rock in those slots looks a lot more painful than Utah sandstone

[Scott P]

Nice!

I think the rock is actually tuff rather than pumice though.

[ilipichicuma]

Awesome report! That looks amazing!

[nonot]

Wow, amazing geography, great photos!

[Sombeech]

Great report!