Climbing

I've been finding it difficult to sit down and ponder my last course of the summer, mountaineering.  There is plenty to write about and no shortage of photos... but the problem is, my life of carefree playing in the wilderness is over!!  And now I have to face the reality of feeding myself and paying my four bills :(  People have likely wondered how the hell I managed to finance all of my activities in the first place. I won't get into the messy details, but essentially, I sold a bunch of stuff, saved up, and then tried my darndest to make it last.  I have spent a lot of time figuring out how to lessen my living expenses, and not having rent all year helps (living out of my truck).  But the coffers have dwindled and for all intents and purposes, I am at the end of my means.  I've been mentally preparing for this juncture all year, but it still sucks.  Naturally...   (not a call for sympathy or charity btw, just speaking candidly... I've already received some much appreciated help from more than one of the wonderful people in my life, and have enough to make my way south :) Which presents me with my next, and greatest challenge of the year.   Now I have to "settle" in a new place and find a way to support myself.  (damn ;)

   The plan from here is to get to California and find employment of some sort.  I want to be near the Sierras so I am shooting for the towns of Bishop or Mammoth, which are on the eastern edge of the mountains, near Yosemite National Park, in central California.  Initially, I will be looking for any kind of work I can get;  restaurants, coffee places etc.  If all else fails, given the time of year, the ski resort in Mammoth should be a pretty safe bet.  Location is the key factor; Bishop is a major climbing community and is close to lots of outdoor sports destinations, so there are lots of companies that I could potentially work for.  I feel like first, I need to get to the right kind of place and start climbing and meeting people.  And building a climbing resume...yes, that's a legitimate thing--sweet huh?  While I'm doing that, I can be inquiring about work related to all the training I did this summer... for companies like IWLS, NOLS, or a host of guiding companies I have found all over.  But for now, I have to pick a location, make some money, and get out and practice my new skills...at spots like this for instance.... (not from my trip)

Sweet, sweet granite. (dream climb...not in Alaska)

The Incredible Hulk...or this...

(another dream climb...not in Alaska)

The Needles.  And or course, Yosemite.  I learned about climbing mountains this summer, but I still need to learn how to climb big walls...like El Capitan...

(again...Dream climb...not in Alaska)

These bad ass rocks are all within easy driving distance of Bishop, California.  

Ok, I wanted to put that out there first because that's what's currently in the front of my mind...the business of surviving (or getting with the real-world program) as well as all the climbing I have ahead of me!  But, obviously all this dreaming about big, glorious rock climbing must have come from somewhere...the intro photos gave you the idea.  My three and a half weeks in the mountains introduced me to some of the next steps in climbing, beyond the rock climbing I was familiar with, and opened up a whole new realm of possibilities.  

Learning how to travel and climb in remote wilderness on uncharted snow and rock has made accessible some of the most wild and tantalizing territory that nature has to offer.  For me, access is one of the goals...one of the reasons for learning the skills that I learned this summer.  I did kayaking first--and kayaks are a terrific way to explore wild places touched by the sea.  Rafting is the way to efficiently cut deep into remote country by way of the rivers.  Hiking is the most fundamental method of traveling outside.  Skills in all of these pursuits allow one to see and experience plenty of nature's wonders.  But there is something special about the high places.....  

The photos "do it justice" here...it doesn't look real, and it doesn't look real in person either.  

Reaching the top just in time for a 5am sunrise.

Peaks, summits, towers, spires, pinnacles, ridges, walls...these are like the trophies of the wilderness.  And while they can be admired from below, from the kayak, the raft or the trail, from up high in the hills, you can see it all--the kayakers in the sea, the rafters in the rivers and the hikers in the valleys.  And climbing is how you get there.  The views, and simply being in high places is one of the draws of climbing, but I love the actual process of climbing just as much.  I've enjoyed climbing rock for years, but snow proved to be almost as fun.  

Besides climbing and hanging out on mountain tops, we spent time in or around camp learning and practicing skills such as self-arresting, placing snow anchors, and ice screws, building multi-point anchors, rappelling, crevasse rescue, and using avalanche beacons and searching for/uncovering buried beacons, and crevasse rescue methods.  We also had lots of lessons on avalanches.

Launching downhill!

Self arresting, by digging the mountain ax into the snow...first to turn around then to stop.

We had plenty of days where the weather was too nasty to do much of anything besides hang out in the tent, so I did a lot of reading.  I've heard and read that tent time is just as much a part of mountaineering as climbing is.  Weather conditions affect the snow and rock significantly, especially in terms of stability.  "Less cold" can lead to more snow and rock letting loose down slopes and gullies, so it's not just a matter of comfort, but also safety.  

A tent shot on a better day.

Weather's fine today!

The group, minus Nate, who only spent the 1st 12 days with us.  From left to right: me, Chris Roots, Myles, Chris Corona (assistant instructor), "Big" Tim Benson (trip leader), and "little" Tim. 

** Lots of these photos were taken by other members of the group, so I give them credit and thank them for keeping cameras handy and taking lots of great shots.**

  

To cap it off, here are a few more images from my folder of dream climbs!

Devil's Thumb, in Alaska.

Howser Tower in Canada.

Lotus Flower Tower in Canada

Cerro Torre in Patagonia

The Diamond, on Longs Peak in Colorado

Backpacking and whitewater rafting British Columbia and Yukon.

I'm afraid I squandered some of my time here in Haines this week and don't have much time to write this post, but I wanted to at least get something up before I head out again, which will be in an hour or so.  

So the course that I returned from on Sunday was backpacking/whitewater for 24 days.  Our group was 6 students and 2 instructors.  I knew one student, Chris Roots, from Sea Kayaking.  Myles (age 23) was from Massachusetts, Eli (age 18) was from Memphis Tennessee, Ron (age 40) was from Kansas City, taking the course to learn skills in preparation for leading hiking trips with his son and his friends with their kids.  Chris P (age 19?) was from Maryland.   We backpacked in British Columbia, about 90 miles north west of Haines, for the first 12 days.  The route that they usually do had too much snow and swollen rivers so we had to do a different, unexplored, area...which was also super snowy, but less so I guess.  Apparently, they had crazy, record snow levels this winter.  Anyways, about 90% of our hiking was on snow.  We made our way to a glacier valley with a deep river gorge and waterfalls.  It was some tough hiking...very little level ground, let alone trails.  

The second half of the course was whitewater rafting.  After hiking to the road at the end of the backpacking section, we got a ride from an IWLS driver up to Tatshenshini Expediting which is a rafting company in the Yukon.  After living with nothing but what we carry on our backs for 12 days, the rafting camp was a luxurious vacation spot to us.  The place was built from scrap wood, metal, logs, and salvaged school buses, but it had everything we needed.  We spent most of our time in the cook shack which had a roof, a woodstove for heat, and multiple coleman stoves and more dishes and utensils we could use...and a sink.  

Anyways, the first 3 days were swift water rescue where we learned about rope systems and methods for rescuing people, and ourselves, from rivers.  We also rafted the river every day, for good measure ;)  The next 4 days were guide training, where we rafted the river everyday, practicing guiding the rafts, sometimes with 5 paddlers, sometimes with only 2, or sometimes with only one other person in the boat.  I also spent a lot of time rowing the oar boat.  Next was a 3 day river trip where we learned what's involved in putting together a multi-day expedition.  Then finally, we went to a different river for the last 2 days and made two runs down some more extreme rapids.

My break in Haines has been great.  Weather is perfect...mid 60s or 70, sunny and clear and calm.  Been doing some reading about mountaineering, getting psyched up for my next 24 day course.  I have to go now actually...we are driving out shortly.  We'll be in the vacinity of Flower Mountain, which is 30-40 miles west of Haines.  We'll be learning about traveling and camping on snow and glaciers, crevasse rescue, ice climbing, and we'll be climbing some peaks.  I will be back on August 13th :)  Sorry this hasty post sucks...