The Frenchman Coulee and Hot Drinks

Hot drinks anyone? So I think this weekend I rock climbed with some of the funniest people I have ever met. We laughed as much, if not more, than we climbed and we climbed a lot. Team OC, Andrew, Scottie and Jack (not to mention OC employee and experienced climber who tagged along for the ride, Dave), all stepped it up to make the rock climbing excursion to Vantage quite memorable. Between the 4 leaders they lead 11 pitches in 1 1/2 days for us beginner climbers to practice our skills on the verticle surfaces. After practicing in the indoor climbing walls prior to the trip, I was quite ill-prepared for the cold we endured this weekend. With temperatures in the lower 50's and winds up to 13mph, it felt like we were climbing up ice cubes rather than rocks. But for the OC Trio it was nothing compared to their loads of experience with the alpine, climbing ice and snow.

The venue of our excursion was held at the magnificent Frenchman Coulee (Vantage, WA). The rock that supported our ropes, in which we dangled so trustedly, was an outcrop of basalt cliffs formed in a sequence of pillars as a result of a lava-flow-cooling 10,000 yrs ago that has endured much weathering. The outcrop is quite young on a geological time scale and we witnessed this fact as the basalt occasionally crumbled and loosened on hand holds (note the helmets). As the sun (yes we did have sun!) set behind the igneous rock formations, the crew enjoyed fire, food, good company and not to forget HOT DRINKS! Keeping with the true Environmental Education (EE) tradition, team leader and fellow EE major, Andrew, kept it real and made sure the water was boiling. Also keeping true to the EE name, I added a little extra flavor to the boiling mix and everyone stayed comfortably warm (which is the entire purpose of hot drinks [with or without the extra flavor] to keep warm, an very important factor when exposed to the elements). Other memorable moments include midnight bouldering, pumped arms, first-time lead climbing (lil' Scottie), Crazy Dave and ass kickin', Jack's lead on the 5.10 (pictured above), Eric's obsession with Kokanee and the abominable snowman, reuniting with fellow kayakers and personally succeeding in climbing a reachy 5.8. Vantage climbing: what a trip.