Monday, April 09, 2007

Seriously, who took the anchors?

Another Sunday, another hike. Trying to out-run the rain and catch up to the sun, B and I headed east into the gorge yesterday. We ticked another hike off in the book as we walked through a grassy meadow high on a bluff above the town of Mosier. The spring wildflowers are just starting to peak out and the hills are the most brilliant green right now. Then, we checked the book and realized we hiked the wrong way and should have gone up a little mountain, not across a grassy meadow......oh well.We headed east to The Dalles and took the bridge across the Columbia to Washington and a rock climbing area called Horse Thief Butte. Again, I will quote the guide book:

"A very popular, traditional place for teaching beginners as well as escaping from the mid winter blues. The crag offers limited lead routes and is best suited for bouldering and top-roping."

Ahem. Excuse me? Um, where exactly can we do this so-called "top-roping"? Because B and I couldn't find any anchors. Not a single one. Do you mean to tell me that we need to just loop some long slings around the broken out rocks to use as our belay anchor? That, um, sketches me right out. Someone please enlighten us because there was plenty of great climbing to be done. And, after you tell us how to do it, want to come along?

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