Cameron's Climbing Stories

First, here are some pictures of my partners in some of these adventures:

Chiu Liang Kuo of Tainan, Taiwan, my main partner since 1991. Jamie Anderson of Hot Springs, Arkansas. A talented young climber who makes me feel like an old codger...We climbed big routes in Nevada in March 96. McRee Anderson, also of Hot Springs, Arkansas (Jamie's brother). My old room-mate in Portland, Oregon, and a great friend. Nearly every alpine climb we try together ends up being defeated by poor avalanche conditions...This is because the only time we have time to climb together is in winter...Alex Hunt with whom I've climbed at Squamish two times. Yours truly, on snowy Squamish, B.C..

• MY ONLINE BOOK: Technical Alpine Climbing for Two-Person Teams

• A Better Bivouac

• Tips on rock climbing in plastic boots

• Tips on Manhauling (building, packing and pulling sledges).

• Speed Tips. How to move efficiently and rapidly, according to my experience.

• Surviving The Epic. Just some notes on surviving terrible situations, with an emphasis on safe descent in foul weather.

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Fueled by... and .

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• Winter on El Capitan. An attempt to climb the Nose. We made it to Dolt Tower (1,200 feet of 3,000 feet)...Some beta for trying this in winter, and some photos.

• The Squamish Buttress An adventurous climb! June, 1997. About 600m of altitude gained over varied climbing on Yosemite-grade granite, including slabs, cracks, grooves, trees, flakes, bushes, moss; you name it! The route took Alex and I about 7 hours, linking Banana Peel (6 pitches, 5.7 but mostly easy slabs) with Broomstick Crack (1 pitch 5.4) and then the Squamish Buttress (6-8 pitches with two bits of 5.8 and a 5.10c crack (A1 for me!) right at the summmit). We cli mbed the route in 17 or 18 pitches, but some were quite short. I really enjoyed this ascent.

• Zero Percent Chance of Precipitation Documenting a March 1997 trip to Squamish, British Columbia, to climb the well-known casual route, Diedre (5.7, 6 or more pitches). About half-way up it began to snow...With pictures.

• Alone on Steel Cliff. My December, 1996, solo of the Steel Cliff route on Oregon's Mount Hood, 11,239'. With sketches.

• 16 Hours, 27 Minutes. Chiu and I on Mt. Hood, in March, 1992: A storm, and we were not prepared for a bivouac; nothing to do but press on...This was a close call on some of the worst 'ice' terrain I've encountered.

• Red Rocks, Nevada, 1996: Old Dog Learns New Tricks. This describes my 12-day climbing trip in Red Rocks, Nevada, with Jamie Anderson. We climbed all of the decent long routes at Red Rocks, including Resolution Arete (17 pitc hes) and Epinephrine (18 pitches). A great trip, and quite a difference from my alpine experiences! Beware, this is about 20 pages or so...you may want to print a copy and take it home for a while...(p.s. you can see my photos and topo sketches here).

• The North Face of Mount Hood. This one is by McRee Anderson. Our attempt in November 1995. A much more lively writing style than my own! I really enjoy this one.
  Here are two of my favorite of McRee's other writings:
  
  
  
  • To Be A Wolf An exciting account of McRee's 'spirit animal'.
    
  • The Tower An ascent of the Kor route on Castleton Tower, Utah.
    

• Expedition to The Devil's Thumb, Alaska, 1995. After climbing together for more than four years, Chiu and I went to Alaska to climb the Devil's Thumb, a stunning granite peak erupting from the bleak expanses of the Stikine Icecap. ..We wanted a real challenge, so we were dropped off by bush-plane, 30 miles from the peak, in order to ski in, hauling our 130-lb sledges loaded with 30-days of supplies and climbing gear...here's what transpired. NOTE that soon I will re-post the ORIGI NAL report (thought I'd lost it) once it is e-mailed to me (some time in mid-November 96). This is a bare-bones report.

• ICEFALL. Probably the closest call I have ever had. Again, with Chiu Liang Kuo.

• Learning Lessons On Mount Rainier. In 1991, on my fifth alpine ascent, I climbed Mt. Rainier by the Ingraham Glacier icefall with my good friend Chiu. The ascent was a study in LUCK: we narrowly missed death on many fronts, and yet we did not really realize this until later...this narrative was written a month afer the ascent, and I come across as pretty arrogant, ignorant...whatever. I've learned a lot since...

• A Poor Belay. Chiu delights in showing me just how bad it is...an attempt on Yocum Ridge, foiled by high temperatures...

• Zebra / Zion. Chiu and I went to climb Liberty Bell in the North Cascades: naturally, it rained. So we drove down to Smith Rock, in Oregon...and the only way to escape the hordes of sport-climbers was to go up cracks...

• Tahquitz Rock: It Never Rains in California. I drove all the way to southern California to escape the Oregon rain...And what did Alex Greene and I find at Tahquitz???

• Thoughts on The Death of Jeff Lakes. A personal exploration of my motives for climbing, and other assorted thoughts.

• Eiger North Face Route Description My translation from a modern German guidebook.

• Regarding Risks: A Brief Note. A little blurb on my thoughts regarding risks in mountaineering, in light of both the recent deaths on Chair Peak, Washington (December , 1996) and my solo of a route on Mt. Hood, several days be fore these deaths.