Back to Tahoe!

                I'm only writing this because I'm blacked out. No, not that kind of blacked out. I'm blacked out from skiing today due to President's Day weekend. That's right, skiing. I have official became a ski bum alongside being a dirtbag climbing bum.

Storm Day!

                I ended up getting my Wilderness First Responder (WFR) back in Bishop. My friend Nate from NOLS joined me for it and crashed in my rig with me in The Pit. It was a great experience and I suggest that anyone that spends anytime an hour or more from a vehicle should get it. The way Wilderness Medicine Institute (WMI) runs their courses are absolutely superb. They teach you how to do things, why to do them that way, then they give you a partner and a scenario with fake blood and bruises to give you experience with the issue. It is nine intense days of training and scenarios with some days going as long as 15 hours.
                In an extended scenario, I was a 4x4 tour guide, that had 3 non-English speaking passengers. I flipped the rig near an embankment down into a creek. One of my instructors said I should jump in the creek and get wet to make it realistic; the wetter the better. Now, this was at about 8200 feet in elevation, in November, into a rushing creek with fresh snow melt water. Needless to say, I was a bit reluctant, but I figured they would show up and have me out within a minute or two, WRONG! It turns out that all three of my "tourists" were up on top of the embankment. All of the rescuers were attending to them (which in the scenario, they were supposed to due to all the tourists having more serious injuries than me. I only had a 3 inch contusion on my wrist). The only issue is that no one knew I was down there!

                I had my watch on and noted that I jumped in the freezing water at about 2:02pm with air temps around 40 degrees. I was hugging a rock with my body completely submerged except for my head, which I had dunked and was dripping wet. My thighs and up were in a pool of water, while my feet were dangling in the current. I noticed that at about two minutes that I couldn't feel the current rushing over my feet anymore. At about 5 minutes, I had a very tough time bending my legs. The rescuers finally saw me about then but it took them a couple minutes to develop a plan to get me out safely. If it wasn't for the fact that serious hypothermia doesn't set in until about an hour, I would have been freaking out! They finally got me out and I was shaking uncontrollably. They were supposed to cut my wet clothes off, but someone had forgot the trauma sheers and they had to pull the wet, cold clothes off of me. They also didn't get me far enough away from the creek to set up a hypo-wrap for me and got the feet of the two sleeping bags they had to warm me up wet. They did have little heat packs and the other proper hypo gear though. It took me about fifteen to twenty minutes to warm back up to a semi-decent state before I stopped shaking. I felt like I had just got done with a two-a-day practice for football. I was completely wiped from shaking that long and hard! Just another day in the life of me...

                I climbed most every day in Bishop. I met a lot of cool new people, got to climb a lot of new things, and I figured out what I was going to do for the winter. That's a success in my book. I met an old (mid 60's) desert rat named Mike who lives out of an old, beat up Winnebago for half the year. The other half he lives in a condo in Santa Cruz. It seems like two totally different lifestyles to me, but I didn't delve that far into his life. He also camped illegally behind a hill, so he wouldn't have to drive to one of the climbing areas. He also bummed rides off of me and a lot of other folks. He is a true dirtbag!
                He knew a lot of the local folks that were bolting new routes in the Owens River Gorge. He would lead me to a new route that has only seen an ascent or two, isn't in any book or online, and in some cases didn't even have a grade yet! It was absolutely fantastic to be a small part of history to give my 2 cents on what grade a route should be. I got on many new 5.11's, and a handful of new .10's and .9's. Many will be very good to excellent routes.

                On my last day though, we found a new route that had been put up by somebody we didn't know the week before. It looked poorly bolted in the sense that it had traversing bolts in a place it didn't need it with a big ledge fall potential. There was also a nasty crux right off the ground. Mike ended up stick clipping (a long stick that clips the rope up higher for safer climbing) a few bolts up, but found it too hard for him. By watching him struggle through some of those scary sections, I got a bit nervous. The ground fall was on sloping scree, and wouldn't have been horrible, but a broken ankle was very possible. The ledge fall up about 30 feet had the same potential and possible worse, and I had no idea what this route was going at grade wise. I was feeling very strong after doing many .11's clean and even a couple .12a's in the last couple weeks. I decided to get my head into it and do the damn thing. I finagled my way through the bottom crux, rested on the ledge, and gained my composure for the traversing bolts with the nasty swing potential. I ended up fighting my way through that section and found myself cruising up the headwall. The only problem was there was quite a bit of loose and dirty rock which made it even more difficult. Ok, that wasn't the only problem, there wasn't any good rests along the way either! I had to keep cruising to keep myself from burning out. I got about 75 feet up the 100 foot route and found a spinner ( a bolt that isn't tight too the rock). I could tell that whoever bolted this didn't know what the hell they were doing. I ended up fighting my way to the anchors and was super stoked. I figured it went in the high .11's once it got cleaned up nicely. On the way down though, I went to unclip the spinner and noticed the whole bolt was just barely dangling in the rock. The dude bolted into an air pocket in the rock! If I had fell on this, it would have given way easily and it could have been a little scary because the next bolt was a good ten feet above that one. That means that I probably would have fallen about 35 feet or so with rope stretch! I was super glad I did it though and it made me stronger for pushing through it. I wouldn't suggest it though, the climb just wasn't that good unless you like getting scared with mediocre moves.

                I cruised the rig on down to my half-brother Mike's down in sunny So Cal for Christmas and to see the family. I spent about three weeks there, doing not a whole lot besides a couple little projects around the place and not spending money. My nephew, Tyler, and I got to help out with police scenarios where Mike works for a couple days. I have some great stories, but I'm legally bound not to share information about it. Give me a call and I can fill you in on some details though. It was good to spend time with the family. Rachel makes some really good wine and Tyler went to state for Junior College wrestling. It's fun to see how much they have grown when I only get to see them every couple of years.
               

From a bridge in Tahoe

I'm currently back in beautiful Tahoe though. My friend Andrew said that I should forget going down to Joshua Tree to climb all winter and that I should come up to Tahoe to work and to learn to ski. I figured I could use some more money and everyone I talk to loves skiing, so why not? He said there was plenty of work and there would be plenty of snow. Well it turns out neither of them have been true, but I've had a great time so far none the less. I have been able to house sit a couple nice places to keep my rent cost down. Too damn snowy usually to bring my rig up here.
               

Top of Alpine Meadows

I bought a season pass for Squaw/Alpine so I get to ski two different places which has been a real blessing. Squaw had horrible snow for the longest time, so I skied at Alpine which has more of a local scene. We finally got dumped on with about 5 feet of snow up top and coverage is good for now with a lot of terrain open finally. Squaw has something like 3600 acres of skiable terrain, so I've been there the last few days.

                I've skied about 25 days or so since I've been here since Dec 30th. Not too bad at all! I have learned so much about how to ski different types of snow. I'm pushing the edge more than most would, but still not getting crazy since I can't afford to get hurt.
               

Powder day at Alpine

My friend, Kyle, that I met last time here in Tahoe flew out and we had a good time a couple weeks ago. We tore up Reno one night, ripped up Heavenly and Alpine, and got to catch up. It was really good to see him and hear, in person, what he has been up to.

                He also turned me on to a friend of his, who has turned me on to other friends up here also. Four of us went down past Bishop a couple weekends ago to climb in Alabama Hills. I had always wanted to go and finally got a chance to with a crew. Alabama Hills is where a lot of the old westerns were shot with the rounded domes of rocks. The climbing was a little sketchy with loose and crumbling rock, but nothing to frightening.

Alabama Hills Crew

                I don't know what's ahead as usual. I do have to fly to PA for my best friend's wedding to be the best man. He is hooking me up fat by paying for everything. I have to fly back home in June for another friend's wedding also. Other than that, I have no clue what's going on. I think I'd like to stay in Tahoe for awhile and see what comes of it, but the only thing constant with me is change, so who knows?

                Keep your stick on the ice!

               

Westward Ho!

                Work is no fun so I won't discuss it here. What is fun is our annual/bi-annual elk and mule deer hunt in southern Colorado with the horses and mules. We pack up a small army's worth of gear and food into the backwoods for 9 days of solitude and camaraderie. We usually invite family friends along to join in on the experience, but this year it was just my dad, my brother Mike and I. It would seem that with about the same amount of gear, that we would have way more work. It wasn't any more work and it was nice not to have to worry about greenhorns messing something up like they always do.

                The trip was exceptional in the fact that weather was quite good for the first half or so of the season and it had snowed before we got there. Walking in the woods was peaceful on the wet Quaky leaves and pine duff. Quakies were a vibrant yellow as always and the smell of fall was in the air. Nothing spectacular happened like on our summer trip this year like a wildfire or dad setting himself on fire, which is a good thing but doesn't make for good story telling. About the most exciting thing that happened was me crossing the freezing knee deep creek so I could hunt the other side of the draw. I waded across quickly in the early morning light in my skivvies but had forgot my hunting boots in camp. I had to cross it twice more to get to where I wanted to go. Once was bad enough but three times will teach me to double check that I have everything before doing that again!

                We were fortunate enough to fill three out of our four tags. My deer tag was the only one left unfilled due to me wanting a wall hanger. Oh well, you can't shoot the big ones if you settle for the average ones! Needless to say, we have plenty of meat for the year. I filled up my freezer in my trailer with elk back straps and steaks. They are going a little fast, but I have plenty more waiting for me down at Mike's place.

                After elk hunting I headed back to Denver to pick up my rig. I got to shower and wash clothes for free at the always hospitable Caity Reis' place. I wish I could have stayed longer but I got booted out of the storage facility I was keeping my rig at and all other places cost too much. I can't complain considering the guy gave me an extra five days for free.

                A free campsite awaited me on the Colorado/Utah border with a gorgeous sunset over the desert. I looked at the fuzzy map for a campsite and started heading the right way. Well after a couple miles of sketchy ass roads with washouts and just as wide as my rig, I found a place to turn around and figure out what the hell went wrong. The signs kept pointing me towards the little brown and white sign that has tent on it, but something wasn't right. I went back to the main sign and read the fine print that those were OHV (off highway vehicle?) trails! Glad I got out of that mess without anything screwed up, just a little red dust covering everything on the outside of the rig. I broke down and went to the campground since it was dark and I wasn't about to get into another adventure in the middle of nowhere in the dark. Turns out it was a free campground, not what my info source said. It would have saved me a lot of hassle and some life on my shocks, but made for a good chuckle at myself for getting into crazy shit once again to save a buck.

Butterfly in Central Gorge, Bishop

                I was planning on heading straight for the climbing mecca of Bishop, but  winds 40mph sustained and gusts to 60mph shut me down and forced me to stop in Moab, UT. Shucks, to be stuck in a place that has world class climbing. Only problem was that the weather did not cooperate one bit. It drizzled and rained for three days straight. Moab has world class sandstone rock, but sandstone is frail and it takes quite a bit to dry out and be safe. Luckily, I had not set up my solar system yet and gave me the opportunity to get it up and running fabulously! It's so nice to have power and not have to worry about where my batteries are at with my Trimetic 2025 meter. It cost 200 bucks but otherwise it's like driving without a gas gauge, your just guessing at where you are at! I have to thank Bob over at www.handybobsolar.wordpress.com for all the information to do my set up right the first time (well second time if you consider my attempt at solar on my last rig). If your thinking of going solar, check out his site and there is most anything you want to know on there.

                I did get to climb on Wall Street on my last afternoon with a Random. The dude got sketched out on some 5.9 lead and turned into a self-destructing party pooper after bailing on the route. I lead a 5.8+ thing on the right side of the wall and it turned out to be a flaring crack that took gear like a full baby takes more beets, it just spit most of the stuff I tried out. I did find two decent placements in 30 feet and finished the ugly thing while smearing on sandy feet and cursing sandbagged routes. He was still in implosion mode and I had had enough for the day so we parted ways.

Morning view from my trailer in Bishop

                The next morning was off to Bishop! I stopped in St. George, UT for a bite to eat. I remembered I had part of an Outback Steakhouse gift card my mom gave me about 5 years ago. I weaved my way through the geography of nowhere(suburbia and franchise businesses) to finally find the joint without getting hit by anyone, but sweaty palms none the less. The card was still good and I had a great meal with a beer. I figured I'd get a Foster's to keep it Australian, but didn't realize it came in a 26oz can! I had to stay a little longer to make sure I wasn't going back into the urban jungle driving a little intoxicated.

Alpenglow at The Pit

                I decided to go down to the north side of Vegas to avoid "the loneliest highway in America". A little farther but at least there was gas! I decided to take the Wheeler Pass road into Bishop. I thought I remembered from two years ago that someone said you don't ever want to take a rig on that road. I played it off as a wild imagination since it didn't look that bad on the map. I found my turn west in the dark into the White mountains and started climbing hard immediately. It was still 40 miles to the summit though. I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on! I was crawling at 25 mph (which means about an 8% grade in my rig) and I was not even close to the mountains yet. I started flipping a little bit due to there being 150 miles between gas stations and I was sucking down the liquid gold at an alarming rate with the next station being 60 miles away and it being 90 since I filled up. All of a sudden a sign came into view stating a summit of 7300 feet. This summit wasn't on the map though but it's name matched a micro-village that I needed to go by so I had to be on the right route. Down, down, down I went back into the 3000 foot range which pissed me off since I knew I had to gain all that back to cross Wheeler. I found my next turn and a sign stating "Road not recommended for large or heavy vehicles". "I'm not that large or heavy", I thought. Up, up, up I go twisting and turning in the sage brush like a Brahma bull getting spurred out of the chute. To make the corners, I had to be in the opposite lane most the time and mind you I was only going 15mph! I was climbing once again at an alarming rate and losing fuel at the same rate but this time I was still 20 miles from Wheeler Pass. Once again, I hit a sign saying some other random ass pass and down, down, down I go again into a valley weaving like a snake trying to hold back my 10,000 pound rig from taking a dive off the deep end. I hit the valley with wet armpits and a deep thirst. Turns out there is a miniscule college town in that valley and being a Friday night, I assumed a party had to be going on. Too bad only about 4 lights were on in the whole town. If there was a party going on, it would be a game of Twister or Uno with "college" students sipping on ginger ale's and shirley temples by the looks of it. I pressed onward with hopes that the worst of it was behind me. I knew I had at least one more climb, but it couldn't be as bad as what I just went through. WRONG! Not only did I have the bobbing and weaving of the road but huge dips in the road now got added just for the hell of it! It would seem that California being the all-including state it is, decided that they should give a black crayon to a kindergartner and told her to draw a "cool" looking road on a map! This kid also though it would be a great idea to turn the road into a one-lane cleft in a 40 foot high rock band for a little bit with a sign saying "Yield to oncoming traffic".... AT AN 8% GRADE DOWNHILL! I'm sorry, but if you were on the other side of that tunnel, you'd had better got on the reverse program real quick otherwise we were going to be playing a game of bumper cars where I automatically win. After 15 miles of 8% and dehydrated due to loss of fluids by osmosis through my steering wheel and seat, I was in Big Pine. Next stop was the infamous Pit in Bishop, dirtbag heaven!

Group dinner in my trailer!

                The Pit, an old gravel pit turned campground by the BLM, nestled in the cleavage between the Eastern Sierras and the White Mountains. The best views around for two bucks a night. There is free camping around but almost all the dirtbags end up staying here to find climbing partners. I find that $2 is cheap security for my rig. The only issue is a 60 day stay limit, which I plan on testing the waters of this year. The Pit would be my base camp for my WFR up in Aspendell and for my climbing adventures afterwards.

               

Jackie getting high and scared

Brandon yarding hard

NOLS Wind River Trip

I was quite apprehensive going into my NOLS Outdoor Educator course. Apprehensive about what gear they would make me bring, which I thought would be unnecessary, like a wind jacket and a rain jacket. A rain jacket by nature is pretty dang windproof, and why carry more when less will do? I was have daymares (that's nightmares during the day!) about getting into a verbal battle over crap I didn't need. I was also a bit nervous about my fellow classmates being Debbie Downers or, equally as worse, way too damn psyched about every little thing to try to impress the instructors. Luckily, none of these came true and the course went well, very well!

                I left a few days early from home because of super hot temps that were forecasted for when I wanted to leave, and I had a really good tailwind. I was planning on heading straight to Lander and just cragging at Wild Iris and Sinks for a few days before the course. Well, while driving, I decided to go hit up Ten Sleep Canyon just west of Buffalo, WY. World classic limestone and not a whole lot of people. I made the 40 mil detour to Buffalo and sussed out some free camping near the top of the canyon and some climbing info from the local forest ranger. The road to the dispersed camping was absolute hell! It was some of the worst washboard I have ever encountered, let alone pulling my trailer behind me. When I found the first available site after two miles, I found that a bomb went off in my trailer. Not a literal bomb, but shit was exploded everywhere. Dishes on the floor, clothing strewn about, and worse of all my coffee spilled! Blasphemy!

                I chilled for the night and decided to go pretty early to find a partner... Turns out that no one starts climbing 'til about 11am in this country. I found a dude and a chick from Casper. I followed a couple easy routes that they put up and then threw up an .11 for them to top rope. The girl got WAYYY to animated when talking to her while belaying, being that she talked with both hands and didn't have a brake hand on the rope... I proceeded to "be busy" and not talk to her anymore so she didn't kill her boyfriend should he fall. During all of this, I met Bridgeta and her party. She was leading a couple newbies next to us and she asked if I could give her a belay up this .10c roof since she didn't trust the other guys much. I also led a couple other routes for them to hang top ropes. Bridgeta said she needed a partner for the next day and we decided to meet at my campsite.

                We went to the Back 40 wall since there were some super classic endurofest .11s. We came to the wall and it was nothing but gorgeous, pocketed, sustained limestone. Way better routes then what we were climbing the previous day. I led a .10 for a warm up and we got straight to business on the .11s. Some of the best routes I'd ever been on! Only one other couple was there and they were fun to talk to since they were living out of their van and traveling the country. Always interesting to hear vandwellers' stories.

                I packed up and headed down to Lander late the next morning. I picked up Sabrina (a course mate) in the Riverton airport on the way and we got to know each other a little. We ended up playing some disc golf at the Lander course which was in some open terrain surrounding a hospital. I figured she had better get acclimated since she lives in Florida and smokes. The next day I took her climbing at The Shady Side of Sinks since it was pretty damn hot. She did really well for never climbing outdoors before getting a tough .7 slab and a couple .8's.

                Before I knew it, we were at NOLS getting a brief from our instructors, Allie, Rob and Kurt. We all got to meet each other and find some commonalities to talk about. The next day was bright and early at NOLS gearing up and getting ready to hit the trail for 17 days and 6 days of front country climbing in Sinks. Gearing up went really well since I didn't have to rent anything and got to go a hell of a lot lighter than I thought I was going to. I came in at 35 lbs and the closest second was 44 lbs I believe. All this meant was I got to carry more group gear down the road since little girls had 50 lb packs and I felt bad for them, and wanted to try to help out since I was in plenty good shape.

                We did about a half mile the first night into Roaring Fork Lake in the southern Winds, very close to where I did a 7 day trip back in '07 with my then girlfriend Rachel. We learned how to properly poop in the woods in an hour long class by Rob. Part of the instruction was about how to find good natural toilet paper. Yes that's right.... We didn't have any toilet paper for 17 days. You learn to find smooth rocks, sticks and pinecones (wiped the correct way of course!). That was a bit on an eye opener!

                The next day was up to an unnamed lake by I want to say Arm Lake. There was a really nice looking north facing wall up there that looked like it would be real fun. I digress. We broke into three groups and did off trail navigation the whole way to our "X". Allie brought out the GPS to do a little nugget (teaching moment) about it. Unfortunately, it told us the we were over a mile away from where we thought we were. We checked and double checked and came to the conclusion that the GPS had to be wrong. It turned out that Rob's group had the same exact problem. The mind is smarter than technology sometimes!

                The following day we split up into three groups (as almost always) and went over an unnamed pass into the Stough Creek Basin. Nothing special except the views! So many big peaks that are beckoned to be climbed! Camp was just off an unnamed lake in a sub alpine setting. Since some students had fishing licenses for the next day, I asked if I could teach my fly fishing course. We all had to teach a "skills" class and a "passion" class. Fly fishing was my skills class since it turned out that I had more experience than all the instructors combined. I didn't have and training in how NOLS wanted their courses taught but did very well according to student and instructor feedback. They said they were "throwing me to the wolves" because I hadn't had any training but I like being put on edge like that.

                We stayed at that camp for a layover day and I did some one-on-one teaching to a few students and got them to catch a few trout. Sarah got her first fish ever and Nate caught 7! I was quite proud of that. We had a bunch of classes and learned how to make pizza in a single pan in the backcountry! We made our own dough and let it rise and made pan size pizzas that were absolutely awesome. They tasted amazing, but the amount of work involved was a bit much for the reward in my mind. Good skill to know though.

Lauri making no bake cookies

                The next day was the start of my 3-day leadership section along with Keri and Lori. I lead my group including instructor Rob for about 9 miles up to a camp below Tayo Lake. It was a really good day with Rob telling an enthralling story about a young student of his last year that collapsed at the very spot we were at. Long story short, the kid got evacuated out by chopper since he needed rescue breaths since his face was turning blue, he was convulsing and was unconscious for 4 hours. Turned out the kid had his first attack of epilepsy and had never had any previous problems, CRAZY! We got to the Tayo Lake sign and turned up the last mile of the trail. We started getting dumped on almost immediately and we got socked into a cloud. Once we got up to where we were supposed to camp, Kurt's group wasn't anywhere to be found. It also didn't look quite right, but we decided to go up valley a bit and see if they moved higher. When we didn't find them we knew something was definitely wrong. We busted out the maps in the rain while everyone was dancing around trying to stay warm. We were socked in the cloud so we couldn't really figure out where we were. The clouds gave way a bit and I saw two close hills and then figured we might be close to Coon Lake about 3/4 mile off track. I did a solo 5 minute hike and sure enough found out the we were at Coon Lake. Son of a bitch, it was getting late, soaked and we had to make a decision to go off trail for that 3/4 of a mile or on trail for 2 miles. We chose to go down off trail and we hit the other trail and were in camp in no time. It turned out Kurt's group did the same exact thing right before us. Allie's group could thank her for figuring out that the sign was pointing down the wrong trail and got to camp early. I got praised on my handling of the situation up at Coon Lake even though inside my head I was freaking out a little bit since I got lost on my first day as leader! Turned out to be a blessing in disguise luckily as it showed my fortitude in difficult situations.

Kurt showing Sean the way of the wilderness

                Wind River Peak sits at 13,192 feet above sea level and it was our goal as one big group to summit it the day after the Coon Lake fiasco. It was my job to lead the group up the first section of the hike to get us to about 11,500 feet or so. Oh yeah, it was at 4am. Completely in the dark, going off a bearing I had shot the night before to the peak and going by dead reckoning, I got us to exactly where I wanted us to be at daybreak. I was super stoked on that since I hadn't done any night navigation in completely virgin terrain to me before. We ended summiting sometime around 10, took pictures, signed the summit register and came on down the boulders and rocks back to camp. I had never summitted a high mountain like that before. It was cool, but I would have rather have done something technical to get to it, not just a hike.  I think the word "badass" was dropped about my night navigation and that felt pretty damn good that other people thought it was an accomplishment too.

Me on top of Wind River Peak

                Back to that blasted Coon Lake for the next night. Nothing special except that Rob (who was my mentor) and I had an hour and a half long chat about my wanting to see if being a NOLS instructor was right for me. He gave me a lot of great insight into the life and how NOLS worked inside and out. At that point I was on the fence about if it was right for me, since I hadn't seen enough of how everything ran. I also wanted to wait 'til near the end of the course to figure out if I got sick of it after 23 days and the nostalgia wore off. With the setting of the sun, so set my designated leadership part of the course. I challenged myself to be a leader in other ways and to help the new leaders out with anything I could.

                Coon Lake Sneak and Temple Pass were on the agenda for the next day. Coon Lake sneak looks damn near impossible on the map, but there is a small ramp you walk on to get down to the Little Sandy Creek basin. We got off route and came upon sheer cliffs multiple times. We eventually found the narrow passage. We then went over Temple Pass and set our eyes upon Temple Peak and the Temple Peak basin. One of the most pretty sights I have ever seen! We camped at Deep Lake and sometime during that period I lost my headlamp. What a bummer for the rest of the trip! I'm a lightweight, but I just might bring a small back-up headlamp from now on.

Looking down Little Sandy Basin

                Early the next morning we saw guys leading up a wandering route on Haystack Mountain. It looked super fun and I later found out that it was a .10 I do believe. I'd look it up in my Wind River climbing book but I don't have one. So if you're feeling generous, it only costs 27 bucks and my birthday is right around the corner... just saying :) . We ended up at Clear Lake, only a short distance from Deep Lake as a staging area to get our re-ration from a horse packer at Big Sandy Lake the next day. That went pretty smooth and we headed up the dreaded Jackass Pass. I had heard how much it sucked in magazines and online postings, but it wasn't bad at all in reality. Then there it was once again, the Cirque of the Towers! One of my favorite places in the world. A semi-circle of steep climbable peaks surrounding Lonesome Lake in its basin. The last time I was here I wasn't a climber. Now, I have lots of single pitch and some multi-pitch under my belt and this is the next world I want to step into. Long, hard to get to, routes on pristine mountain granite surrounded by nothing but the wilderness and a good climbing partner. I came over the pass and said "This is what I live for", seeing and experiencing places like the Cirques.

Cirque of the Towers! (Pingora on right)

                We camped not too far from the South Face of Pingora that night and it was decided that a group would go by Jackass Pass and take some morning photos of the Cirques. Turns out that clouds and Mount Mitchell got in the way of spectacular photos, but it was an adventure none the less. I then went with a group to go fish Lonesome Lake and its runoff, the North Popo Agie River. I went over another quick lesson on casting and catching with some of my peers and watched them have a ball. A few fish were caught, but not as many as I had hoped. The rest of the group joined us and we headed the roughly 3 miles up to Bear Lake. Nothing too spectacular happened up there except the start of the monsoon season in the Winds. This was the start of something like 8 days of rain on us, the same system that hit Boulder, CO and caused all the devastation.

Above Bear Lake

                We then headed downhill to the north end of Sanford Park. I had been through the south end of Sanford back in '07 and remember good views of the Cirques. Unfortunately, we were still in a cloud most of the time. We camped in a very nice flat area that bordered a large meadow and the river. Since there was an established fire ring pretty close to the river, we decided that it would be okay to have a fire. It was just getting dark and a few of us heard small rustling of brush and grass at what I guessed to be about 50 yards away. I didn't think much of it, probably just a deer coming down to the river to get a gulp. About 15 minutes later, there was a breaking of a couple sticks really close, damn close! By the sounds of the snaps, I could tell that this was no deer. It's the size of stick that an elk breaks when you bust one in the timber and it rings loud and clear. I had images of a nice bull coming to the edge of the firelight and everyone getting to see an elk finally. That only lasted a moment though as I heard a deep guttural moan. OH SHIT! Leadership mode kicked in faster than girls turn to run once they hear I live in a trailer! I told everyone to not make that noise that they just heard and to turn off the headlamps. Instructors started to question why and I said something to the effect of "Just fucking do it!" I'm sure this use of profanity helped my grade enormously,  but the defecation could be hitting the oscillation real quick if Mr. Moose decided to come join the party. As you may not know, bull moose tend to rut right at that time of year and they are known to charge headlights of trains and cars. 15 headlamps on bright mode was definitely not going to be helping our situation out one bit. He was probably just curious, but at the time I had to figure he was looking for a fight or some action. I assumed none of us wanted either of these options. We quickly decided to back the heck out of there ASAP. We did have a few bear sprays with which was a minor consolation to the situation. About 5 of us guys formed the front line as we backed away from the fire and the river in pitch black conditions across a meadow. Rachel handed me another bear spray and unbeknownst to me, she had taken the trigger guard off (so had everyone else, which looking back I would like to have a conversation about weapon safety...). I grabbed it from her and while readjusting it in my hand it shot a little spray out. The wind was pretty calm but a little drifted back towards us and a few hacks started behind us while my eyes started stinging a bit. Luckily it wasn't much and didn't really cause any problems. We reconvened about 100 yards away and I asked about the green light headlamp I had seen earlier in the trip. Once again everyone was bewildered and queried me. I explained how ungulates couldn't see green light and we would have the advantage going back to the fire to grab gear and put it out. Bear sprays in hand and in a line formation several guys went in! Some jokes were cracked about our "mission" and a reference was made to Jurassic Park about the potential of us getting flanked by the moose, hence laughing ensued and the situation was taken pretty lightly. It probably should have been a little more serious, but I'm guessing it was peoples' way of dealing with the gravity of the situation. We returned with no MIA/KIA and all headed directly for bed, except for me. I needed a little time to process the ordeal. It had actually been one of the most scary situations I had ever been in. I can chase black bears in California, get run out on trad routes and deep water solo in the middle of nowhere, but this shit was way more scary. The thought of a thousand pound beast with antlers charging in the dark at us stirred something deep, some primeval. I came to the conclusion that it was a damn good thing someone knew something about moose. Like I said, I'm guessing he was just curious and was checking out the situation and would have bolted if we all started shouting, but who knows...

Decent in Temple Basin

                The next few days were the start of student led days with the instructors meeting us in camp. It was raining pretty good in the cloud still and the temperature had dropped pretty good. We only had a few mile hike to Baer Lakes and finding a good campsite by NOLS and LNT standards wasn't easy. Everything that was flat had puddles and was too close to the water. We ended up scattering tents a bit on slight slopes. I don't think anyone had a "good" tent site, but at least they wouldn't pool water. I was shaking due to my rain jacket not being totally rainproof after 6 years of use. I wasn't soaked but wet in a couple places. Standing around deciding what to do and where to place tents wasn't helpful. If it was my trip, I would have set the tent up, boiled some water, got in and got dry clothes on. Since I was at the mercy of the group and instructors, I waited for supper to be cooked and a game to be played. Now I understand that the idea was to get us moving and get us warm, but no one retained the information made since we were all pretty cold. Supper consisted of less than luke warm mashed potatoes with Nature Burger. If you have never had the pleasure of having Nature Burger, go to your pantry, pour some salt and some meat seasoning in your hand and enjoy thoroughly. It is some of the worst stuff I have ever had! I finally got into the tent by forcing down the horrible mixture and got into all my warm clothes and sleeping bag and I felt warm in about 10 minutes. It turned out to be a valuable lesson for when I lead groups, let people get warm and then we can learn! We got into the tents about 4pm and due to constant rain, we didn't get out until noon the next day. Being in an effectively 6x6 tent with four people is REAL cozy, but the leaders (not the instructors) decided that for the remaining 15 miles, we should take about 6 miles that day and 9 the last day. I was up for rocking out the 15 miles in one day by getting up at 4am, but It was better for the group that we decided to split it up. Putting the wet, cold clothes was miserable but the hike itself wasn't bad at all.

Approaching the Cirques

                We camped by the Middle Popo Agie River in Three Forks Park. Nothing spectacular except that it didn't rain on us during the evening activities. The next day was out to Bruce's Bridge and situ-civilization. I coerced my group my group to take a short detour to see the Popo Agie Falls since we were ahead of schedule for the bus to transport us. I wanted to go all the way to the natural waterslide, but others thought it best to stop short and take some photos from afar. We got another dumping at the trailhead waiting for the bus. Huddled in and under the entryway of the vault toilet we met our new instructor for the climbing section, Margo. She is a Dutch transplant with a pleasant personality and easy to talk to. She also seemed to be quite knowledgeable about rock craft. The bus showed up and transported us down to the Popo Agie Campground, which is also the parking spot for the Shady Side crags in the Sinks. The 3 out of the 4 days in the canyon had been partially or wholly out of here and I knew we were headed for The School in the next coming days. A placed I had already explored well and wasn't totally impressed with due to the broken nature of the climbs. Oh well, at least I would be climbing!

                Campsites were chosen and new tent mates assigned. We were right on the river and with all the rain it was roaring and rising every day. I definitely didn't need my earplugs at night to get a good rest. The first couple days consisted of learning about gear, belaying and safety. I knew it would be a snooze factory for me from the get go so I just went with the flow. A few days into the climbing section we got to do the long hike up to the Granite Buttress on the top end of Sinks. It's a neat formation with 2 well defined ledges that allow for ease of top rope set up. Sean, CJ and I worked on gear anchors while the rest of the group worked on natural anchors. We had some criticism but nothing major. It didn't help that we were all working on different things and trying to cobble them together to make an anchor. The next day a few of us got to go to the right of Killer Cave and get on some fun problems. We got lead belay checked off and got to lead some routes on the last day finally. Nothing was really hard, just some short fun routes. All in all, climbing camp was fun. It was a nice ease back into civilization by talking to some folks in the campground and hearing cars whiz by often. I would have normally preferred a backcountry setting, but with all the wetness, I was glad we were in the front country.

                Debriefing, returning and cleaning gear, and getting a hot shower was the last day of our trip agenda. The shower felt damn good as anyone knows after coming out after a trip, but this one was especially good after 23 days! We had a grill out at Kurt's parents house (his dad was once the head of NOLS) a few blocks from world headquarters. There was then an after party in my trailer with a whopping 13 people in this beast! Only 2 or 3 had to stand and I was happy to see that everyone thought it was a nice home. As always, people showed interest in purchasing and living in something similar, but I doubt anyone ever will. It's a big commitment and I find that most people don't want to drive a truck that get 13mpg on a good day by itself and 9 pulling the trailer.

                It was time to do a four shifter gear box (it's a NOLS thing) and get ready to fly back home and do some work to fund the winter out in Cali! I shipped on down to Denver, parked the trailer in a storage facility and flew on back home for a few weeks.

                I would like to thank you for being patient with my postings. I've been quite busy since the course and now it looks as if I won't be. I will try to be more timely in getting you some stories about the outdoors and small space living.