Corvallis woman scales 100 tallest peaks in Oregon

By Jennifer Nitson


Gazette-Times reporter

Pam Otley of Corvallis thinks she might be the first woman ever to have climbed every one of Oregon’s 100 highest peaks.

From the state’s highest mountain, Mount Hood, elevation 11,239 feet; to the lowest on the list, Crook Peak, elevation 7,834 feet in the Fremont National Forest in southeastern Oregon, Otley has climbed them all.

Otley’s only indication that she may be the first female climber to achieve this feat is that the man who compiled the highest-100 list at the Mazamas mountaineering club Web site, www.mazamas.org, told her no other woman has reported this accomplishment. This confirmation, while not entirely official, was good enough for her.

“We were so happy,” said Otley, who climbed the majority of her century of peaks with her boyfriend, Jay Avery of Portland.

During their trip that culminated in the 100th climb last week, Avery fell from some downed trees he was scrambling over and cracked some ribs. He experienced a lot of pain over the next few days, but forged ahead.

“I kept saying ‘I don’t feel we should go on,’ because I didn’t want him to go into shock or have a lung collapse or something,” Otley said. “It was a really close call for us to go on and do this.”

On Aug. 30, after finishing their 99th peak — the Lostine-Granite peak, elevation 8,627 feet — Otley and Avery stood at the top of the higher portion of Twin Peaks, at 9,673 feet in the Wallowa Mountains in northeastern Oregon’s Eagle Cap Wilderness.

“We just felt joyous,” Otley said. “It was almost disbelief.”

Otley sort of stumbled by chance onto her passion for mountain climbing.

She was working at the Oregon State University Bookstore in the early 1990s.

“This crazy man came in to get a book and we almost had an argument,” Otley said. “Before he left, he looked at me and said ‘You look like you would like to hike.’”

The man told her about a regional hiking club, the Chemeketans of Salem, and she joined it.

Since, she has learned to rock climb and negotiate hazardous terrain, ice and snow.

By 2002, when Otley and Avery decided to scale the 100 highest peaks, she had already climbed 16 of them, including the five highest — Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson and the Three Sisters — all above 10,000 feet.

“We were already pretty experienced mountain climbers, so we had already climbed all of the Cascade mountains,” Otley said.

Their travels have taken them from the Cascades to the far reaches of eastern Oregon.

“It’s been such a great project, just because of going to places we would never have gone without that reason to go,” Otley said.

Her favorite part of the state is, hands down, the Eagle Cap Wilderness.

“It just can’t be beat,” she said of the arid region of pine trees and majestic rock formations.

“The geology is just unbelievable,” Otley said, describing the white and red striated stones of Sacajawea Peak and the sedimentary rock of the Hurwal Divide.

“It’s got green stripes and red stripes and brown and white. It’s just an incredibly colorful area with the rocks,” she said. “I know nothing about geology and I really don’t care to, but I just love cool rocks.”

The Eagle Cap Wilderness is where the couple tackled their toughest ascent, on Marble Mountain. It took two tries to make it up. Last year Avery and Otley hiked nine miles in to a camping spot and got up the next morning to thrash through an overgrown trail only to end up at a sheer cliff face.

They gave up and hiked out.

In July they tried again, approaching the mountain from another direction. After having to retrace their steps in two gullies of loose rocks, the third gully finally led them to the top where they found cairns — stacked rocks.

“We said ‘Oh, people have been up here, but probably not very often,’” said Otley. “We sure don’t see many people where we go.”

OREGON’S 100 TALLEST PEAKS

1. Mount Hood, 11,239 feet

2. Mount Jefferson, 10,497

3. South Sister, 10,358

4. North Sister, 10,085

5. Middle Sister, 10,047

6. Sacajawea Peak, 9,838

7. Hurwal Divide, 9,776

8. Steens Mountain, 9,733

9. Aneroid Mountain, 9,702

10. Petes Point, 9,675

11. Twin Peaks, 9,673

12. Chief Joseph Mountain, 9,616

13. Eagle Cap, 9,572

14. Red Mountain, 9,560

15. Cusick Mountain, 9,518

16. Mount McLoughlin, 9,495

17. Wallowa-McCully, 9,440

18. Sentinel Peak, 9,400

19. Hurricane Divide, 9,386

20. Kiger-Mann, 9,348

21. Elkhorn Peak, 9,233

22. Mount Thielsen, 9,182

23. Broken Top, 9,175

24. Glacier Mountain, 9,169

25. McCully-Little Sheep, 9,128

26. Rock Creek Butte, 9,106

27. Dollar-N Imnaha, 9,080

27. Krag Peak, 9,080

29. Bachelor Butte, 9,065

30. Strawberry Mountain, 9,040

31. Needle Point, 9,018

32. Traverse-Trail, 8,949

33. Echo-Tombstone, 8,934

34. Elkhorn Peak, 8,931

35. Red Mountain, 8,928

35. Mount Scott, 8,928

37. Eagle-Lawson, 8,924

38. Marble Mountain, 8,921

39. Twin Mountain, 8,897

40. Ruby Peak, 8,884

41. Cougar Pond, 8,880

42. Blue-Minam, 8,839

43. Last Chance-Long, 8,820

44. Lookout Mountain, 8,800

45. Diamond Peak, 8,744

46. Van Patten Butte, 8,729

47. Granite Butte, 8,679

48. Lookingglass-Culver, 8,676

49. Chimney-Wood, 8,675

50. China Cap, 8,656

51. Angell Peak, 8,646

52. Pueblo Mountain, 8,632

53. Lostine-Granite, 8,627

54. Mount Ruth, 8,600

55. Cached-Eagle, 8,587

56. Graham Mountain, 8,570

57. Indian Spring Butte, 8,529

58. Cunningham-Dutch Flat, 8,525

59. Riner Basin-Slide, 8,511

60. Crane Mountain, 8,456

61. Arrow-Copper, 8,448

62. Lostine-Moccasin, 8,441

63. Modesto-Little Cottonwood, 8,420

64. Drake Peak, 8,407

65. Gearhart Mountain, 8,370

66. Mount Bailey, 8,368

67. N Minam-Bear, 8,352

68. Hidden-Minam, 8,335

69. Light Peak, 8,325

70. Howlock Mountain, 8,324

71. Mount Ireland, 8,321

72. Aspen Butte, 8,208

73. Yamsay Mountain, 8,196

74. Mount Thielsen/East Peak, 8,178

75. Hillman Peak, 8,151

76. Dutton Cliff, 8,147

77. Twelvemile Peak, 8,144

78. Dead Horse Rim, 8,134

79. Applegate Peak, 8,126

80. Vinegar Hill, 8,120

81. Columbia Hill, 8,117

82. Ball Butte, 8,091

83. Llao Rock, 8,049

84. Pelican Butte, 8,036

85. Lookout Mountain, 8,032

86. Stevenson Peak, 8,027

87. Warner Peak, 8,017

88. Crown Point, 8,006

89. Berry-Norton, 8,000

90. Paulina Peak, 7,984

91. Mount Harriman, 7,979

92. Pine Creek Mountain/East Peak, 7,975

93. Sugarloaf Mountain, 7,960

94. Cougar Peak, 7,919

95. Beatys Butte , 7,918

96. Indian Creek Butte, 7,886

97. Mount Carmine, 7,882

98. Bullrun Rock, 7,873

99. Three Fingered Jack, 7,841

100. Crook Peak, 7,834