Oregon Section. Keith Daellenbach along with Kellie Rice were the super-achievers of the Oregon Section on the Madrone Wall Preservation Project. One mile south of the City of Damascus along the Clackamas River Bluffs resides an amazing civic treasure. The Madrone Wall is a publicly owned 44-acre Clackamas County site which has been closed to public access since 1997, when the County pursued an ill-conceived rock quarry that would have destroyed these splendid bluffs. Over a quarter million dollars were wasted studying how to blow up the cliffs. In 2000 the County dropped plans to quarry the site with “County forces.” With the help of Mazama Club funding and the climbing community, a study by the Madrone Wall Preservation Committee showed the County why it was uneconomical, even under the most favorable circumstances, to reduce these beautiful cliffs to aggregate, thus destroying their unique watershed, natural habitat, and recreational and educational resources. Keith and Kellie have worked diligently on the Madrone Wall Project along with other members of the MWPC (Mazamas and AAC) to create a climbing park in the suburbs of Portland. Kellie is an active Portland climber who also works with the Access Fund. Long-time AAC member and exploration geologist Richard Bence hosts the Madrone Wall Web site.

On a Columbia River Gorge Service Project, Christy Hansen, myself, and others worked on the rescue litter shelter at Broughton’s Bluff. The Oregon Section has had good success with the rescue litter station program and will collaborate with A1 Schumer and the Cascade Section to create more such structures in the North Cascades.

In September Christy Hansen and I made a number of ascents testing concepts for the Space Mountaineering Analogue Project (SMAP). The idea is to learn from each discipline to bring new ideas to space exploration as well as mountaineering. A brief abstract of our work may be found in “Earth and Space 2008" in the Proceedings of the ASCE. Members of the Oregon Section will be testing ascending mechanisms and techniques in space tether climbing.

Robert McGown. Chair