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!