Looking for urban roof cracks in Portland

Hey folks. Anyone know of any good overhanging and/or roof cracks in Portland? Could be under bridges, roofs, up the sides of buildings etc. It looks like some great times could be had :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJx5hPpWA3A

Grub in rocky butte is the only one I can think of. Wide crack through a bulge

I just drove past the Nike campus off Walker? It looked like they had some artificially places basalt blocks towered next to eachother. Looked like 20 different finger size 10ft routes. Gotta get back to check it out

Aaron Sincoularwrote:

I just drove past the Nike campus off Walker? It looked like they had some artificially places basalt blocks towered next to eachother. Looked like 20 different finger size 10ft routes. Gotta get back to check it out

Where abouts? That's a large campus!

Edit: Found it! Since it is right at a big entrance, I doubt they want a bunch of climbers chalking up their rock and stepping on the oh-so-manicured landscaping :(

Shane Bennettwrote:

Where abouts? That's a large campus!

Edit: Found it! Since it is right at a big entrance, I doubt they want a bunch of climbers chalking up their rock and stepping on the oh-so-manicured landscaping :(

You found it! Sadly, I do agree with you. I’m sure they would prefer people don’t climb them… that being said, shoot me a PM if you ever wanna check it out a little closer

Bump. Any ideas anyone? 

Last Buffalo out at Drop Zone, never climbed; only gazed up in awe at the overwhelming looking 5.12 roof.

There’s also some more juggy/easier roofs out there too. 

Shane Bennettwrote:

Hey folks. Anyone know of any good overhanging and/or roof cracks in Portland? Could be under bridges, roofs, up the sides of buildings etc. It looks like some great times could be had :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJx5hPpWA3A

OK, this is a secret I haven't shared outside of a small group and that was a long time back. A buddy showed me this spectacular aid climb under one of the bridges over the Tualaton river south of Hillsboro about 40 years ago. Unfortunately, I forgot which one/where it was. I headed out that way to look for it @20 years back and the memory of that part (ie, location) has been totally erased. 

I remember climbing under it, pretty sure several times, and it was 100% spectacular. Leeper pins and sliders worked best, there were no cams that would fit at that time although there are now. Wild Country Zeros would kick butt there. You'll see pin scars from buddy's who were overdriving pitons. With small cams it would be much safer as well. See, these were longitudinal expansion cracks. Essentially you were on an expanding flake, and as you nailed one in the one you were on became less secure. The ground is fairly close so for a good part of it it would be a simple bouldering fall onto flat soft dirt. At it's lowest you are standing on dirt and can simply reach up, then the ground gradually drops away until you are @30' high over the river. If you do the full thing it's well over 100 feet long. Fantastic workout as we didn't use daisy's. 

With tiny cams and adjustable daisys it would be easier, I might be able to do it now even as a fat old guy. One caution, if you "zipper" your pro, it could easily be fatal if you are  over the river when you pop off. Your gear could easily drown a person. I'd heard (but missed the event) that Wiss Macomson zippered a bunch of pitons and just missed that watery grave when he smacked into the mud right on the bank. Someone like Ashira might be able to get her tiny fingers in there and get some free climbing in, but the crack is too narrow for most folks, being pretty much less than 1/4" at it's very widest. There were places where lost arrows fit tight and you can look up that size range on BD's site. 

To narrow it down a bit, I just pulled up Google as I was not spelling "Tualatin river" correctly and they have this marvelous map/photo thing. It is not any of those bridges in the pictures. It's a modern concrete bridge and the only cross structures (supports) were located just on the far side of what would be the river bank. They were @2-1/2' of concrete, but you could reach up and around, seating a piton in the gap above them for a bomber anchor and then you could belay across the river. It would be a good winters day exercise to map out all the potential bridges and go take a look see some rainy day. 

If you find the location of the "Lost Bridge"  would you share the location with me? billcoe@gmail.com

Good luck and have fun Shane!

Billcoe, that’s exactly the type of local-knowledge-gold that I was looking for. Unfortunately I don’t aid climb (yet) but I’ll keep this in mind. A fantastic rainy day idea    indeed! My job (river work) has me under bridges often and I can never quite find the perfect one.

Keep them coming folks!