Mr. Niceguy

The PPP, Summer Trips, and Holy Crap, I am a wedding officiant!

2011-06-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I competed in my first solo race (aside from some early highschool swimming). Some of you know it well; the Pole Pedal Paddle in Bend. Its a multi sport race that starts at the top of Mt Bachelor and finishes in downtown Bend. I knew a few other people racing it in various teams, but in my solo male category my only real (friendly) competitor was Kalin. I think there were about 30-40 others in that division, with a total of over 3000 competitors total in the race! We both (mostly) trained seperately for the race around Corvallis, but did do a few training paddles together on the river before hand. During these padddles I realized that Kalin was a stronger paddler than I, and thus, I would have to work on getting stronger there.

The race legs are as follows:
downhill slalom ski/snowboard
8k skate ski/xc ski
22 mile bike
5 mile run
~1 mile river paddle out and back
1/2 mile sprint finish

Kalin was out of the gate first, as I slowly put my snowboard on, but I caught him mid way through the skate ski (got too excited and wrecked trying to pass him the first time) and was able to slowly pass the competition on the bike into town. I think we both had similar times on the bike leg, but I know I lost several precious moments in the clusterfuck of spectators and support crew at the bike-run transition. The run was an out and back, and once I rounded the half way point, I realized Kalin had made up a ton of time on me during the run. We both came into the run-paddle transition a couple seconds apart, and in a terribly uncompetitive moment helped carry both boats to the water together. That is when I knew he would win. As stated, I was aware he was a stronger paddler, and as we worked our way up nad down the river, I watched him ever so slowly inch away from me. I ended up finishing 29 seconds behind him, with a total time of 2:30:14; 10th place in the age group I think. Regardless of the competition, I was veeeery pleased with my time. I was really hoping just to get under 2:45, but had no clue really where I would be. Training pays off; who knew! Now I am going to focus on mountain biking and climbing for the rest of the summer!

As far as trips for the summer go, I have some really good adventures planned out. Just got tickets to Kona, Hawaii for a week, and also got reservations on the West Coast Trail in Pacific Rim National Park, BC! Soooo excited for that one. It is a very adventurous coastal trail that should take about a week to complete. Kona should be nice too; it has been about 15 years since I've been to the Robart's family house and I am really excited to revisit it and the rest of the area. The bossman grumbled a bit about the amount of vacation I am taking during summer, but ya know, thats the best time for vacation, and its just what I need. :) I am also really excited that my dad has taken up mountain biking at the ripe old age of 62, and will be coming up this summer to tour the trails around Oregon for a few days with me!

Yesterday some friends and I summited Mt Shasta by way of Casaval Ridge. We had attempted it 2 years ago but had to do an easier variation on the route because we weren't prepared for the steepness it offered, but this attempt we came prepared and had a really pleasant trip. I was able to actually get some sleep the night before at our high camp, and was also able to get some turns on my splitboard as we descended an easier face (though best and largest portion of the descent was too icy for me to board down. It was depressing to have to slowly walk down, board unused, the face that I had been salivating over for several years. That aside, the climb was really fun. There was an ominous helicopter circling overhead periodically through the day though; there were several rescues on the mountain that day. Very sobering. Pictures soon!

Oh, wow, I had to edit this too, because I just found out that after posting the first time, I am going to be a wedding officiant for some close friends soon! Can't tell who yet (wouldnt want to spoil the surprise) but if you are a freind from Corvallis in the first half of the decade, you probably know them... :)

Haceta Head Lighthouse

2011-03-10T16:56:00.000-08:00

Col and I spent a weekend on the coast recently. This was our first experience with a formal B&B and didn't quite know what to expect, but we gave it a try on the recommendation from some friends. We stayed 2 nights in the historic lighthouse keepers' house (on the right in the photo above). I must say, I was seriously impressed :) the house was in great shape for being well over 100 years old, and had a ton of neat historical stuff from back in the day.

The breakfast was an amazing 7 courses, with crab cakes, awesome local fare, berries, home baked bread; basically just awesome. Each plate was pretty small, but after 7 of them you area really full.

What to do the rest of the day? There was a good trail network there (its national forest for several miles in either direction) which allowed us to go for a nice little 6-ish mile hike through the Spruce forest and down to the beach Saturday. The woods there are really interesting and varied due to the steep terrain and extreme winds. The headlands have some severely stunted and windblown spruce, and 50 ft away there might be old growth 6 ft across in a sheltered gully. I also decided that I want some coastal evergreen huckleberry for my yard. It has a really neat look when it gets big.

The place is just a mile or so from Sea Lion Caves, but after finding out it is 12$ to see the little buggers, we passed. Instead we decided to bring kayaks next time so we can paddle over to the mouth of the cave. Much better that way.

We attended the tour of the lighthouse, and I must say, lighthouses are really neat. Finding out how they were used, and what went into maintaining them is really impressive. Factoid: every lighthouse has its own visual signal, a combo of flashes per minute and color of flashes told mariners where they were along the coastline. The handiwork that went into creation of the glass prisms used to focus the light also blew my mind!

We wrapped up the evening with a sunset and champagne on the lawn next to the lighthouse. I really recommend this to any of you who are looking for a mellow weekend away from home.

eug-corv paddle

2011-02-17T16:28:00.000-08:00

Kalin and I along with a slew of others attended the KLCC Eugene Beer fest last weekend, and it was awesome! Aside from buying a few to many tickets and having to really be diligent about consuming the beer I prepurchased, I had a great time. The beer was really freakin good, and there was a cider there that blew my mind too (Crispin). Kalin and I did some "urban camping" in Eugene that night and then put our kayaks on the Willamette Saturday morning, intending to beat Forrest's paddling time established the summer before. We put in at Skinners Butte, intending on running the few rapids in Eugene, before hitting the flatwater. Kalin immediately took a tough line that was really shallow near a bridge and flipped, but I slid up with a perfect T rescue as he supported himself partially on some shallow rocks. After that, it was smooth sailing (litterally). We intentionally timed our trip to a strong southerly wind that day and CRUISED the river with a 25mph wind at our backs for a significant portion of the paddle. Unfortunately the 2 short paddles into the wind we had to do, produced a sprained wrist (overgripping?) on my arm. Grrrrr. Sooo once again, I am out of commission for a little while. Oh well, it'll give me more time to run. I am up to one or two 4-5 mile runs a week now (massive for me) and have started a little of the cross training for the other legs for the PPP.
OH! I also go to go XC skiing in Yosemite for my moms birthday weekend a week or two ago. It was a quick trip but I managed to figure out the basics behind skate skiing. It is exhausting, but very fast. On that trip, I also did a dusk run up the Yosemite Falls Trail to escape the hotel room and ended up rescuing (kinda) an old-timer on the trail who got caught by dark without a headlamp and was very dehydrated. I slowly walked out with him and got all sortsa stories. Apparently he worked in the valley for years in the 60s and pretty much knew all our heroes first hand. I mentioned some names he seemed to have nearly forgotten about too (got some wide grins)! He also participated in a number of rescues. He cashed in some of his karma points, and I gained some that night. :)

Sorry, no pictures this time.

Rebuilding

2011-01-20T15:41:00.000-08:00

Well, I am off to an active start to the new year. I deem my finger to be officially healed so I've begun climbing regularly again. I also got the hairbrained idea to give this whole PPP thing a try. I helped support Greg and Forrest last year in the race, and it looked like a damn bit of fun, plus, I think I can beat their times, though I'm probably a bit far off on Lou, Jaz, Jake, and Keith's times. I have heard the key is getting good at skate skiing, so I am looking forward to trying that out for a few upcoming weekends (any tips?). And I have been running regularly. That sentence, hath perhaps never been uttered by these lips. I don't really run, and have never had a reason to (not really a "racer"). This training thing is weird. It is nice to have a run buddy though; Colleen is always willing (even after a 14 mile run she came and did 3 more with me!) Let the training injuries begin!

I've had a tough time getting photos to upload and display in blogger recently. Last month I was going to do a photo/description only post, but gave up after a few attempts at figuring out the uploader problem. Anyone else have that problem?

The garage bouldering cave has been collecting dust for the last year, but after a few successful climbing parties in there recently, I think we'll be able to (hopefully) keep the Tuesday night bouldering sessions going. I feel like I am at one of the lowest climbing strength/endurance levels I've been in a very long time, (maybe in the last 7-8 years?) and it feels good to be rebuilding that.

Since I posted last, I went to NorCal for work for most of November. This waterfall was near where we were working for a while, so I had to sneak off and check it out. The minor falls are from a spring that dumps out between the lava bands. the larger ones are actually spring fed as well from a few miles away. Burney Falls was called the eighth wonder by Teddy Rosevelt. There's a lot of pictures of the falls from this exact view on google, but none got the fall colors this well :) We got 90% of our project done down there but got snowed out for the last 1500 ac or so of it. I was happy to be headed home.

Col and I also went to explore Oregon's newest state park, Beaver Creek SP. It has kayak only accessible trails for half the year (main access trail turns into a marsh in winter) and lots of good wildlife. From hwy 101 you hop in the slough at a boat ramp then paddle up stream for several miles. We paddled at dusk and got to view beaver, muskrat, all sorts of waterfowl, jumping salmon; pretty much all the classic coastal species.

Thats about all. Its winter and we've been doing a lot of hibernating :)

Mt Adams

2010-09-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

I had to make a delivery for work near Mt. Adams the other day, so I figured while I was up there, I'd climb the bloody thing! I skipped taking a weekend several days before, so I figured I had earned it. I made a late delivery, then got to the trailhead around 1:00 am. Since I was already sleep deprived going into the adventure, I opted to at least sleep for an hour before heading up the trail. Finally got started by 3am. The first few miles were easy enough, but as the trail went above treeline and into the rocks and pumice, the trail became very difficult to discern. I probably lost 20 minutes getting off trail and having to find it again, but I could faintly see the snowfields of the south ridge so I just kept going up and eventually would locate the trail. The morning glow started when I hit Lunch Counter (~9,000 ft) and from there it was straight up snowfields to the summit. I managed to hit the false summit of Piker's Peak in about an hour and then had a nice walk across the plateau and up the final hill to top out.

For a summit meal, I had some smoked salmon from a coworker, and a good ole PBR. I managed to have the summit all to my self too which was a first. It was really nice to be able to travel at my own pace the whole time too. It took just over 6 hrs to get to the top, and on the way out, about 3 hours, for a total car-to-car time of 8:50. Not bad if I do say so my self! And there's something to be said for alpine starts too; I topped out in crystal clear weather, and by the time the other parties coming up the mountain hit the top, it clouded up and was probably fairly miserable. Incedentally, someone actually died the next morning up there after getting lost in a whiteout and sliding into some steep, rocky terrain. That makes 2 deaths within 24 hrs on 2 consecutive mountains I have climbed in the last 6 months. Freaky.

Sam and I got 10 gal of "kick-in-the-pants" 90 minute Imperial IPA going yesterday too. We made it with A LOT of my homegrown hops. One is a dark red IPA, and the other is a more traditional IPA. I'll certainly let you know what it ends up tasting like... Here's the hop harvest from this year:

Anaphylaxis

2010-08-22T15:50:00.000-07:00

I just found out the hard way I have a negative reaction to getting stung! I was biking and as soon as I stopped to move a log that had fallen in the trail I got mobbed. I think there was a yellow jacket nest near by or maybe under the log, and boy did I piss them off! I got 4 or 5 stings (scalp, chest, and both legs). This makes 8 stings in 2 months, with the reaction from each sting being progressively worse. I kinda knew that 4 stings all at once would be a bad thing, so we went straight to the hospital.
In the 20 minutes it took to drive there, my ear canals started swelling up badly, then my face (which went quite numb after a while), then a slight throat swelling, but luckily that never progressed much further. By the time we were at the hospital I had full body hives/rash that itched like I had been rolling naked in a bark pile. I didn't have to get epi-penned, but got a SERIOUS dose of steroids and benadryl to help stop the swelling. I did get an epi-pen for the future which is good, but I am not excited about AT ALL! Now I have one more thing I have to remember to carry everywhere, grrr... Stupid bees.

Life on the road

2010-08-09T22:53:00.000-07:00

At first it was a novel thing; bouncing from hotel to hotel, getting room service (hah!), generally just living the high life, with work paying the bills. Then you realize that all you do on the road is eat a fattening american dinner with alcoholic coworkers, listen to their epic wife stories which are completely blown out of proportion, and drink a few beers until you can go to sleep with feet running all over on the floor above you in the hotel. It really actually kinda sucks. In an ideal life away from home, I'd be seeing the sights at each new town I visited, walking the mainstreet, checking out the nearest waterfront trails, generally just not being bored out of my mind in a hotel room looking at the same websites every hour to see if anything new was put up.
REALITY:
Most of the towns I visit are logging era towns that have already seen their heyday and now are trying to crawl back out of the depths of economic meltdown. The mainstreet isnt worth visiting because the Walmart opened down the street and all the mainstreet shops are out of business, the waterfront trails are where you go to score more meth, and people are generally morbidly obese and unfriendly unless they are hotel staff being paid to be friendly to you. On the rare occasion I do get to visit a nice place like Chico CA (last month) I am generally too tired to do anything because I got up at 5am and drove around for 10-14 hrs (strangely exhausting) in a pickup on shitty dirt roads to look at clearcuts (not exactly the pristine forest I would like to be visiting).
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the problem solving and constant newness of the work I do; there's never a dull moment when planning a new project. Its just that these projects generally mean being away from Colleen, home, cats, my garden, climbing, and all the wonderful friends I have. Hotels are neat at first, but when you look at a hotel room and see "home" for the next 4-7 days, it is a little depressing. I don't know how long I can keep it up. I mean, I have missed more Tuesdays at Bombs Away because of weeks away in the last three years than I missed in all of the 6 years before that combined. What kind of life is this?!?

Time to pass the fuck out to toilets draining down pipes in walls 12" from my head and several children running back and forth somewhere nearby (if it wasn't so socially unacceptable I might consider playing tag with them; it sounds like fun!). I cant wait to be home. 1 week.

The goings on in California...

2010-07-29T23:55:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a whirlwind 2 week CA trip. I went down initially for vacation, and after Yosemite got boring, I went to work for a few days in Northern California to evaluate a project completed last year. As strange as it may seem, this was my first visit to Yosemite. What an amazing place!! This trip was all about long day hiking with family and friends, but I am going back reeeeal soon to climb on some of that beautiful granite.
My mom, little bro Fritz, Brenna (Fritz's ladyfriend), and I departed tuesday and got into the valley right at sunset, which was an awesome start to the trip. Coming around the corner and seeing the sun setting on Half Dome for the first time was surreal. We set up shop in Ranger Phaedra's back yard on Glacier Point and enjoyed a bright moonlit night looking down at the Valley.

In the morning we decided to drive the valley and then hike to the top of Vernal and Nevada Falls. The Mist Trail up to the falls is exactly that, and on a hot day that spray is invigorating! It was beautiful at the falls, but I tell ya, I couldn't take the insane number of people and the paved trail. I do have to give props to the CCC trailbuilders back in the day; they moved a LOT of granite for the miles of granite block staircase. They knew their shit.

Nevada Fall w/ the backside of Half Dome in the background

Day two we parked at McGurk Meadows trailhead and hiked 7 or so miles to Phaedra's cabin, then drove back to the falls. McGurk Meadow was one of the best displays of Indian Paintbrush I have ever seen. The photos speak to that. Past the meadow, we hiked out to Taft Point (on the rim across and slightly up valley from El Cap). The view there was the down valley equivalent of Glacier Point. Mom had some serious fear of heights at this overlook (she was fine at the waterfall cliffs though), and it was impressive watching her try to overcome her vertigo (quite entertaining at times too!). Also, at Taft Point I was tested by the powers that be: a family walked 3 chiwawas right out to the cliff edge 5 ft from me, and I managed to control the urge to kick them into space. I don't know how I managed, but I did. Fritz and I finished the hike with a fun scramble up the back of Sentinel Dome near Phaedra's cabin.

Fritz jumping The Fissures

Fritz scrambling up Sentinel Dome

Day three was a great time because PHAEDRA CAME ALONG! We all hiked 6 miles to an alpine lake and went swimming in the sun at 9,000 ft. It was really great seeing Phaedra, it has been quite a while. Bonus Points for whoever can tell me what the orange stuff is in the photo! (***answer at bottom of page).

After the fun was over in Yos, I had to get back to work to evaluate a project we did for a forest landowner. The sites were spread out between Tahoe, Susanville, and Shasta, so I checked the Tahoe sites since I was already in the area. With a half day to spare, I hiked up to Horesetail Falls on Pyramid Cr. in the Desolation Wilderness. I was surprised how little elevation gain there was in the trail, so I decided to trail run as much of it as I could. It was really fun leaping from boulder to boulder and hunting for trail on the granite slabs, and I only took one header into the manzanita . I need to trail run more often.

The last 3 days have been spent visiting with a number of foresters to look at the (mostly) successful clearcut and fire rehab treatments from last fall. We learned a lot from this, and have some tweaks for a similar project this fall. We stayed one night in Chico, and I was able to meet up with cousin Hunter for a beer at Sierra Nevada Brewery, where she works! I was also able to meet up with Alyssa in Sacramento for dinner one night. We took some scandalous phone photos and texted them to Colleen. It was awesome.

There is a lot more to tell, and many more photos but I am tired, and just wanted to update everyone on what is going on! I can tell you the whole story over a pint at the bar if you want!

*** Dodder

Mt Jefferson photos

2010-07-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

The exhaustion in this photo knows no bounds! Candi wrote up a trip report you can read here http://ccsadventures.zenfolio.com/p860122445

Sasquatch Festival 2010

2010-06-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

I was at a loss of what to do this weekend. It was a long one, so I really had to do something fun, but there were several fun options and I just couldn't figure out which one to pursue, but finally settled on going to Sasquatch Festival with the Old Guard of friends from highschool. I was not disappointed.
Here's a link to the full lineup if you are interested.
With 4 stages and nearly 90 different performers, there was only so much that could be fit into the 3 days, but we did a good job of catching the good ones. As usual, Chris seemed to have done the legwork and researched/planned out the best shows to see. I departed from that schedule a bit though, to catch some of my own favorites. Being the closet raver I am, I had to swing by to watch DeadMau5 (deadmouse) the first night and go to the Rumpus Room for A-Trak, Neon Indian, and Simian Mobile Disco. I can honestly say that I had a TON of fun dancing (voluntarily, mind you!!!) in there to some crazy electronica/trance. It was weird to have that much fun doing something I have shrunk from all these years! I don't think I will ever be comfortable enough to just kick up my heels at any old music, but for some good trance, dancing seems to flow naturally; it felt good. The atmosphere at DeadMau5 and A-Trak was just amazing, and I headed into that tent fighting to get into the thickest, most ruckus part of it. The other thing that amazed me was the endorphin flood after leaving. The rest of the night was TOTALLY different. I had really high energy, and just couldn't stop raving (at least in my head). Totally rode that high for several hours after.
The great shows from the more traditional Sasquatch lineup were Miike Snow, Nada Surf, Broken Social Scene, Vampire Weekend, Kid Cudi, Teagan and Sara (unexpectedly a great performance), LCD Sound System, MGMT, Band of Horses, Ween, The New Pornographers, and Dr. Dog. I had never heard of Dr. Dog before and really liked their music. I was really impressed with Teagan and Sara; they had a seemingly unrehearsed, fun set that really jived with me. Band of Horses got the best start out of the gates with a long, very high energy intro. Think all the energy and running and jumping of a Metallica guitar/drum solo, but with better music! Vampire weekend was fun too, and there was a huge crowd response that made it that much more entertaining. Miike Snow was another fun artist where I immediately recognized a number of the songs, but hadn't really know the artist name.
Of course, the other half of the fun is in the campground after the official show ends. Friday night I was in fine form, if I do say so myself. First I drunkenly talked a lot of bravado about being able to get into a lady's car after she broke the key off in the trunk, but I backed up the big talk with a 30 second (litterally!) unlocking of her subaru with a bent car antenna. Free drinks!!! Then we headed off to a huge mound of haybales a nearby farmer had stacked ever so invitingly. We had seen large groups of people on the bales eriodically, so we figured we better go have fun too. When we got near, there were 3 progressively taller and wobblier fences to hop. I vaulted all three in record time using my ninja skills, turned off the headlamp, and ran the 100 yards to the haybales, not waiting up for the rest of the group. I scrambled up the terraced side and reveled on top for a few minutes while everyone was still hopping fences. After a little bit I walked to the edge to look down, and there I saw 3 security guards down below hiding at the corners, waiting for the group to finish hopping the fence before busting them. That made me feel REALLY SNEAKY, that I had gotten on top without them seeing. Now, I had to get OFF without getting caught. After waiting for a little bit the guards took off to apprehend the rest of my group, and I bailed down that 50 ft pile like greased lightning and took off into the desert. After a few minutes I joined up with everyone again, appearing out of the darkness silently like a ninja (just for more sneaky effect) to a relieved set of friends. I know there was a lot more fun that night, but that is about where things get real fuzzy. I remember rescuing some beachballs, Chris chasing around trying to meet some hot (sounding at least) chicks he met on channel 4 of his handheld radio, and a lot of music.

Yeah, a lot of great music...

Summer Plans

2010-05-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

I have been jonesing to go hike the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island for a while now. I think this summer is the time to get it done. We were planning on perhaps some time in July, but it looks like my July is now going to be very full of work (New York for a week and New Mexico for two weeks of invasive buffel grass removal from Saguaro Nat'l Park). I am thinking about kicking the timing back to some time in August now. With that said, is there anyone interested in hiking the trail with us? Having a few friends along would really be fun! Reservations are required (limited # of starts each day). Let me know if you can work it out!

Some random Flickr photos

Eugene Marathon

2010-05-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

Here's the photos I took of everyone at the eugene marathon. Some aren't the best (you always look a little funny while running...) but I figured you would want proof anyway. You guys rule!

Buggered up fingers lead to diversified outings!

2010-04-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

I partially tore my A2 pulley in my middle finger, and it is taking for ever to heal. It feels good enough now that I can get out and at least screw around on rock a little. I decided that now would be as good a time as any to figure out this whole aid-climbing nonsense, since I can't "really" rock climb still. I got the required mess of slings, steps, hooks, mini speakers (so I can rock out to music while hanging/belaying) and grabbed Matt to go play at Broughtons. We first aided a very steep half bolted half traditional climb. This felt good, so we went over to a flaring, slightly funkier, crack. Matt pulled first lead, which was fine because it started with a bad hook move then a micro nut for the first two moves. Since there was no point belaying yet, I spotted him from the ground. He was able to weight and lightly bounce the micro nut, but after about a minute of it holding his body weight, the thing blew and he was plopped back onto the flat ground. No worse for wear, Matt donned climbing shoes and free'd the first 15 ft to get some gear in, then continued the aid climb uneventfully to the top. I did the same to finish it off.
I have ripped on aid climbers a lot over the years, and while I am not prepared to stop it entirely, I realized that aiding, especially a few hook moves, can feel just as scary as free climbing. Aid is definitely something good to have in the back pocket, but I can't wait to get my fingers curled around a nice big hold again soon!

Spring!

2010-04-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

I recently celebrated my birthday, and I must give Colleen huge props for pulling together an awesome birthday weekend. Unfortunately work tried it's best to get in the way, but I managed to fend off the worst of it and still make it to the party. After a photo finish at work, we zipped up to a lovely sushi dinner friday night with Rachel, Jake, Dev, and Rhiannon, then went to the Roseland Theater to watch RJD2 live (instrumental electronica, kinda). It has been a really long time since I went to a small venue show like that, and I must say, it was great! I really want to go to more in the coming months (works well, especially because Matt Stasiak is a bouncer at the crystal ballroom) The show went until 2am, I went to Col's folks house to sleep for 2 hours, then I drove back to Corvallis to complete a spray project for OSU that started at 6am. Then it was back to Portland! On Sunday, Rhiannon, Dev, Col, and I went to Edgefield McMenamins to enjoy drinks at each of their 12 bars, sit in their hot baths, and walk the 300 ac of gardens. The gardening prowess of their master gardeners is amazing. I can think of only my Aunt Sandy who has a nicer, more creatively composed garden.

SNOW!

2010-04-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

Winter is lurking... Meadows got over 4 feet of snow on 3 separate days, and I tore it up all 3 days. Heaven. And thanks to Graham, I found a whole bunch more terrain that suits me much better than what I have been playing on there. I think some of what I rode this week was the steepest I have ever been on. And with that much new snow, it was just heaven.

Don't Forget to Warm Up!

2010-04-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

I have a project on my garage boulder wall I've been working it on and
off for months. I think Matt Stasiak and I first put it up last spring before
he left. The route traverses across the wall on wide spaced slopers,
with a large matching jug in the middle. The final moves are on large
gently curving slopes that get you spread out in all directions. At
this point, there are three options for movement, a left bump, right
hand dynamic barn door, or a "fuck-it" dyno to the finish hold,
skipping the intermediate sloper. Every combo of this has been tried
by many people, least of all me, with every attempt getting so close,
but ultimately failing. After ignoring the problem for most of fall, I
gave it another go. Lo and behold, working the finish moves, I found
another way, and after a few goes, was able to finish the problem's
last move! This got me all stoked for sending and I promptly spent the
next two boulder sessions trying to link the whole thing. The
strenuous moves early in the problem worked me over and I didn't send
in those two days of solid effort. I gave it another go a few days
later, and got a little hasty in my attempts. I hadnt warmed up
enough, knew it, ignored it, and in my haste for the big send promptly
blew out the pulley in my middle finger. It is a little disturbing to
hear an audible "pop" from your hand, and then involuntarily lose all
grip strength. The best diagnosis I can figure out, without going to a doctor, is that the pulley tendon at the base of my finger is partially torn (a full tear would show bulging finger tendons). So now I am bummin that I pretty much can't rock climb for spring.
On the plus side, I have made great use of my 10 time pass at Mt Hood Meadows, and have gotten out to climb mountains the last few weekends. The most recent adventure was an attempt on Shasta, which fell short due to a storm moving in a little earlier than planned. We camped at treeline (I got to use my new Mountain Hardwear EV3 tent!!!!) and got some really nice turns from about 10,000 ft down. We made the right decision on not climbing; a fatality occurred that morning due to AMS (?) after two climbers bivied near the summit. RIP.

Spring Already?!

2010-03-02T11:01:00.000-08:00

Man, it has been so nice recently! I love the month of February/May! Got some slacklining done in the quad last week which was excellent. I love slacking; you just set up a line anywhere, and people gravitate to it like moths to a light. Inevitably I meet some new slackliner in Corvallis every time. Slacklining is different for me now. I used to have to focus so hard to stay on, that it was a meditation really. Now, it is easy enough to walk and talk or look up that it has lost some of it's feeling of pure focus. Maybe I need to go set up another highline to force that focus upon myself... :)

It is also time to start thinking about your gardens people!!! This week we are turning over the soil, adding year old compost from our composter, and planting Spinach, Bok Choy, Sugar snaps, and snow peas. I think a small project for this spring will also be to remove a strip of grass near the roses so the sprinklers don't get the roses wet s much. They got horrible blackspot the last year and we lost one due to it I think. We are maybe going to put in a border of Lavender where the grass was. I cant wait!

Oh, and Col and I have been drinking crazy amounts of tea the last few months. For Christmas we got some different kinds of loose leaf tea from the tea shop in Corvallis, and I tell ya, they have some amazing blends! Chai-Chai is the best thing ever, and they ahve some really wonderful green tea varieties as well. I highly recommend Da Zhang Mountain Green Tea if you are going by there.

A run up Hood

2010-02-10T14:55:00.000-08:00

Its that time of year again. Climbing season is upon us. Forrest and I went up the old Pearly Gates route on the south side of Mt Hood last weekend (after I snowboarded all the day before...).
We went up sunday morning early looking to climb Leutholds, and made great time up to Illumination Rock, but once there determined that Leutholds was out due to new snow and me being a whiny bitch about the logistics of carrying our board/skiis all the way up knee deep postholing (doable, but not fun). After resting in the avy pit we had dug and killing way too much time debating which route to go to, we decided to head up to Pearly Gates or Devils Kitchen Headwall (inspired by the earlier trip report on cascadeclimbers.com).
We decided to skin up the west side of Crater Rock, and in doing so, realized why everyone typically goes to the east side of crater rock. We picked our way through steep muddy steam vents, slipping and sliding all over, which probably was the most harrowing, sketchy part of the trip. After collapsing a few snow bridges over small vents we made it up to the hogsback in time for sunrise. While gearing up, I remembered that I had carried several roman candles up in my pack. I pulled them out, stuck them in the snow, and fired off a few. Forrest wanted to play too, so I gave him the last one which he lit, held, and promptly had blow up in his face (mom, you didn't read that, k?). After checking for both eyes, ears and a nose, we decided fireworks would no longer be held in the hand...
We chugged our way up through deep, but consolidated fresh snow to the west Pearly Gates chute. 150 ft of clawing up 40-50 degree sugar snow led us to a fun, clean, 30 ft step of BOMBER blue water ice at about WI2. From there it was a quick run up to the top. We downclimbed the same line back to our packs. From there, we both agreed, was one of the best ski/board descents either of us had ever experienced. I got to rip on my new splitboard and Forrest rocked his ATs the whole way down on five inches of 99% virgin powder. We rode the 5,000+ vertical feet all the way back to the car, and enjoyed some cold beers while waiting for Forrest's ride. A good day!
Forrest's video:

Oh, and I had an interesting experience with Patagonia. I was very close to writing a quite negative post about them several days ago though. You see, I have a giant down jacket for mountaineering that recently had a baffle in the sleeve collapse(its about 1.5 yrs old), effectively deflating part of the sleeve of all down. I sent it in to get fixed, but Patagonia called back saying it was unfixable. When I pressed him, the guy said that actually the repair division was just really swamped and only taking care of the easy fixes at the time and the baffle was too time consuming to bother with. Instead they were prepared to offer me a 160$ gift certificate; ...for a 320$ jacket! Bull Sh**!!!!
I just said to send the jacket back and I would take it to the gear repair in town to get fixed. At that point I was very unhappy because this went against every guarantee I have ever heard from Patagonia. Well, the guy called back about a half hour later and said that he had talked to his manager and he had approved a full refund for the jacket. :) So now, I must say, that they are on thin ice, but still holding up to their end of the bargain. I am still questioning where Patagonia's quality is headed as they grow...

What up doc?

2010-01-27T19:18:00.000-08:00

Weeeeeellllll really not a whole lot of interesting stuff going on right now. Buuut I figured I'd check in anyway! I am sitting in a Hilton in Little Rock Arkansas (WTF!, why do they have to pronounce it Arkensaw?!?) rocking out to Obama's state of the union address. I love that guy, even with all the shit he has been getting recently. Being president is a tough job! Anyway, I am in AR with my boss to meet with the head honchos of the company to redesign our billing and inventory web interface. It currently is a P.O.S. designed by backwoods Arkansians (and when I say backwoods, I mean it!) but I think we made a lot of headway in making things easier for everyone here and across the country.
While here I have had an interesting cultural experience. By "interesting cultural experience" I mean, the southeast is a whole different fucking world. Everything edible is fried and they speak a whoooole different language. As an example of the regular food around here, yesterday, for lunch and dinner, I ate the following: fried chicken, fried okra, fried pickles, fried crawfish tail, fried catfish, meatloaf, french fries, and greasy-ass (fried?) corn bread. I have to eat healthy salads for a week to offset that funkiness.
The MLK house was fun this year. There wasn't much snow to be had so we hashed, hiked the river trail, and drank a lot. I think we pissed some people off the last night, but in our defense, we HAD to finish the keg! You understand right? The cop understood!
Oh, and I bought Keith's splitboard, so I am ready to take on the fuckin' world this winter. Unfortunately I did so in an exceptionally "El Nino" year with a very poor PNW snowpack. Colorado anyone? :)

Sunriver Hash

2010-01-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

I am excited. In addition to the usual shenanigans, this year's Sunriver house is going to have an associated Snowbunny Hash. Interested in coming?

Here's some photos from the break:

A close call!

2009-12-18T13:33:00.001-08:00

Greg, Rob and I went ice climbing in the Gorge last week during the big chill. Greg posted a good trip report here and here. I wont repeat the adventure, but I will say that while we were playing hookey from work that day, my boss was too. He was driving to Idaho to visit family, and while driving through the Gorge, saw several "crazy guys" ice climbing below Crown Point. After he mentioned this yesterday, I casually asked some details and I realized he had seen the party above us, and Greg D, while he was leading! Close call! We also made it into the news! Thats Greg, Rob and I on the ledge, with the party my boss saw (orange jacket) above.

Turkey Day; Backcountry Style!

2009-12-07T11:42:00.000-08:00

For thanksgiving this year, I needed to get away and have an adventure. Working in CA had kept me from my monthly allotment of adventures and I needed to catch up. Denise mentioned I could come on a trip withabout 25 other folks to a 4 mile ski-in cabin near Mt. Bailey in OR so I signed up. Over the long weekend we managed to climb up and ride down Mt Bailey twice (thanks for the split board Keith!), build one helluva sled/kayak course, eat 3 turkeys, drink 2 kegs of beer along with untold bottles of booze and moonshine, and soak at Umpqua Hot Springs. I think thats a good adventure!

Epic Thanksgiving Dinner in the cabin
Party Shirts! (I must say, the Kiwis take their party shirts very seriously)
Around the campfire
Fire poi
Fire poi
I gave fire poi a go and only hit myself in the nuts with flaming balls twice! Look ma, no burns!
Headed for the tree at 20 mph.
The sled/kayak run.
Colonel Mackey at your service!
Skinning up the mountain through 6 in of 12 hr old powder.
Digging a pit to see where the layer is
11pm under a full moon. Mt Thielsen presiding over Diamond Lake.
Can you believe these guys actually were the leaders?!
Midnight sledding, no injuries (miraculously)
My humble little sled I towed in.

The Cove

2009-12-01T15:14:00.000-08:00

My hatred for the people of Taiji knows no bounds. This is the most despicable thing I have ever seen. The whole world should be forced to watch this, to understand what terrible things these fucking bastards do.

CRAB!

2009-11-16T19:50:00.000-08:00

Cousin Jack and I scored 24 crab this weekend in Puget Sound. We found a super secret crab spot while scuba diving that paid off in a big way. In two dives we limited out each morning, and then went for a recreational dive each afternoon. I was really hoping to show Jack an octopus, but unfortunately my dive lights are both broken, so we couldn't actually look in the two octo dens we found on the last dive. I think every time I go diving up there, I see something new by weekend's end, and this weekend was no different. I got to add several 10" Giant Nudibranchs to the list. Most nudibranches are 2-3 inches.
(not my photo)basically they are just predatory, ornate slugs.
Saturday night Deverton, Rhiannon, Jack, Emily and I sat down to an absolute feast! Crab, turnip, potato, fancy salad w/ brie cheese, and tons of other tasty things were on the menu. Yum. Good weekend.

Slot Canyons anyone?

2009-11-06T12:33:00.000-08:00

Will G and I are talking about going to the SW to cruise some slot canyons in Zion NP around Jan 1. Anyone interested?

the unknown

2009-10-26T15:34:00.000-07:00

This 60 yr old pilot listens to Tool, System of a Down, and other hard rock while he is flying. He said it keeps him alert and he got bored with his generation's music decades ago. Awesome.

It's been a while since I've been back to CA. Unfortunately this visit isn't for fun. Work has taken me to the northern half of CA (think Lassen area) for 18,000 ac of forestry work with 2 helicopters. Part of the project is fire rehab and part is forestry. It has only been a week, but I am ready to head home. Unfortunately there are still at least 2 more weeks (if we are lucky and the weather cooperates).
We stayed at the worst "nice" hotel ever in Susanville. Don't EVER stay at the Diamond Mountain Casino. It is only 2 years old but the list includes: 2 broken/destroyed desk chairs in my boss's room, not cleaning the room for 2 days, checking me into someone else's room, no sheets on the bed, clogged drain, no refrigerator and microwave after asking 3 times over 2 days, our truck driver had a sticky nightstand cover and never had his floor vacuumed once, and no one was EVER at the front desk. It doesn't seem like a big deal really, but when you are living out of a hotel for 4 months a year, you need a certain standard to keep sane.
Enough with the bitching already! I have had some fun in between working. Yesterday we had a half day due to wind so I took the opportunity to go climbing! There is a formation called Lone Rock that I have had to drive past every day on the way into work. The local forester said that when he was a young lad back in the day he had climbed it. I had to go play. I warmed up on a really fun boulder sitting very invitingly in a soft meadow, and then a large flat slab wall on lone rock itself, traversing across the very solid andesite(?). Once I was comfortable with the feel of the rock I went over to where the forester said I could probably find a weakness to the top. Sure enough, in a large alcove, there was a ledge system with steps of 20 ft boulder problems on very solid rock. After a few timid starts, I committed to the crux (juggy, steep, 5.6ish) and pulled past it, making sure I was comfortable with downclimbing later. A short scramble took me to the top, and I sat there celebrating with nothing but the wind for a while.
I found some old climber's chalk on rocks, so I definitely wasn't the only climber who'd been there, but it felt like I was. I have never celebrated a summit by myself, but it was really peaceful to just sit cross legged, smiling ear to ear, and listen to the wind wash through the needles of the few pines remaining after the fire. I considered whooping and hollering from the top, just because I could, but decided it would be inappropriate to try and break the calmness. It felt more respectful somehow to sit and experience things rather than impose myself on the world.

To get no beta more than, "it's been done before" and to then go out and climb, solo, was incredibly cool for me to experience. There was no question about safety, I felt 100% in control, and the rock was solid and perfect for climbing. There is something that just feels so much better about climbing the unknown! I know the word "better" isn't very descriptive, but it really encompasses the whole feel I have from this, and I want to experience it more. Jake and I got a similar experience this summer at Carver Cliff, when we looked at a climb, said, "hey, that looks fun," had a blast climbing it, and then found out it was .12a. The unknown is something we rarely get to experience anymore unfortunately, because there is always a map, guidebook, or description of some sort. It is scary to just go out and do it, but the rewards are always, for lack of a more descriptive term, BETTER!

Oh, and while I've got you, I managed to experience my first on-the-job accident. I had a hoody on (acted like blinders to my peripheral vision) yesterday morning while we were calibrating a new fertilizer bucket (to sling under the helicopter) and I accidentally stuck my head into the 1100 rpm spinner at the bottom. Through the hood, I got a 1 inch cut on my scalp that immediately hemmoraged blood all over. by the time I could get gauze on it, it had filled the bottome of my safety goggles with blood. I probably should have gotten stitches, but I figured that since it is all covered in hair anyway, who cares!
I really shouldnt be smiling with that much blood all over.

Serpentine Arete on Dragontail

2009-08-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

Myself and Deverton climbed Serpentine Arete 2,000 ft 5.8 Grade IV, 23 hrs car to car last sunday. I haven't done a ton of long alpine routes and I definitely learned some lessons on this one. I felt the route had 5 great pitches, but the looseness (comparable to cascade volcanoes in the summer) of the upper pitches really detracted from the total quality of the climb. The quality pitches included a gorgeous finger crack, and a perfect hand crack for a full rope length. Shortly after the fun crux pitches things became a slog just to get off the peak. I am hard pressed to recommend this route to others unless you really want a low 5th class adventure. The descent down Aasgard pass also detracted from the overall adventure. We were expecting a little more of a real trail to descend (at night with one headlamp, Aasgard is sketchy to descend). The positive thing to come out of this was that we brought enough food and water for the whole adventure. I think this is the first time that has hapened for me personally. (probably means we brought too much, huh...)
Notes for next time:
dont let the stoner be in charge of the alarm (he went back to sleep and got us up way late,
always bring 2 headlamps,
bring less shit,
anticipate more time for approach,
simul climb on shorter rope lengths (60m = way to much drag on low 5th class),
dont do it car to car; it hurts,
Oh, and make sure your ride waiting back in icicle doesn't have to be somewhere on monday early; they left without me and took all my stuff. I had to take the train back to OR. Fuckers.

Over all, a helluva adventure, but no pictures unfortunately. And I think I had a slightly better time than Dev did. :)

Garden update

2009-08-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

Our garden officially rocks! anyone want cucumber? Just say the word! We have already gotten a ton of squash and zooks, tomatoes are just starting to go crazy, carrots are perfectly straight and big, the pumpkins are doubling in size every week, and we've gotten a modest first blueberry crop.
Lessons for next year:
more basil
less cucumber
more eggplant
more winter squashes
earlier start on the onions & garlic
more leeks (spaced wider)
more green beans (planted 2 wks apart)

Oh yea, and Colleen is officially an excellent cook! I "graded" the "final exam" on a blueberry pie/cobbler she made, as well as some curry/squash quinoa. She scored very high marks for both on taste as well as presentation. There was also some scrumptious zuchinni bread made recently.

the way to long AK post

2009-07-30T22:36:00.001-07:00

Ok, sorry this has taken so long to post. Col and I have been having waaay too much fun the past 4 weeks to slow down long enough for a blog post. At the end of June we(Colleen, Ariel, Sesha, Jake, and I) went for a 10 day trip to Alaska, with six of those days spend sea kayaking in two inlets across the bay from Homer, AK. Sesha’s uncle Steve lived in Anchorage and was an immense help with logistics before and after our adventure. His friend actually drove 4 hrs from Homer just to pick us up in Anchorage and give us a ride. (Thanks Tom!) On the way down Tom also acted as our tour guide, making sure to stop at all the cool side trips and wildlife (just on the drive we saw moose+babies, eagles, dall sheep, beaver, and otter).
For boats, Louie and Jasmine pointed us towards True North Kayak on the Homer Spit. As TNK ferried us across the bay I was the one tasked with remembering directions on the exact locations of our camp spots and yurts. We were dropped us with our mountain of gear at the boats with little fanfare and then proceeded to figure out how to fit a square peg (our gear) through an oval hole (the boat hatches). After two to three hours we had it all packed. We then paddled one mile, got hungry, and exploded the boats again looking for lunch! We made camp on a sandy point two thirds of the way into Sadie Cove and hiked around for a bit. AK, being bear country, had us (mostly me I think) a little nervous, so earlier when Steve insisted we take a revolver with us, I didn’t hesitate. Thus, on our land explorations we quite literally “loaded for bear.” (we didn’t see a one the whole trip). Sesha and our newfound friend Mike (Tom’s summer hand) met us at camp the next morning by ferry and joined up for the rest of the trip. We paddled in the morning to a yurt at the mouth of the bay and relaxed for the afternoon. Near the yurt was a perfect cliff jump, so we had to do it. Swimming in AK was a must-do for bragging later. Unfortunately Mike slipped getting out and put a deep gash on the bottom of his foot (definitely would have gotten stitches if we had been near a doctor). Sans Mike and Sesha the next morning we hiked 4,000 vert. ft. up a ridge to an amazing view of the surrounding area. Above treeline the trail petered out into rolling heather tussocks all around so we took off cross country to the summit on a spongy 8” mat of tundra. Tired of yelling “hey bear” on the way down, we called out different types of cheese for the 4 mile descent with only a few repeats.
I pointed out earlier that I was in charge of navigations throughout the trip. Well, I kiiiinda forgot where a few of the beaches were. They all look so similar after three days of bobbing around on the ocean! It all turned out ok thanks to a salmon hatchery which let us use a phone to call TNK for directions. And we actually found a better spot on an island for one night.
The second to last night, we stayed in a yurt near the end of the inlet. This was a really nice spot because we had a nice view of the bay and there was a Bald Eagle chick in a nest 40 ft from the yurt. I climbed a tree next to it for better photos and really felt like a pro wildlife photographer, dodging mother eagles, dangling from branches, and trying to get the perfect shot. Unfortunately I think they are all just good to mediocre photos. I needed a longer lens. (Of course it comes down to more gear!)
The last full day, Col Mike, Jake and Ariel went for a hike up a knife edge ridge while Sesha and I took the opportunity to paddle 4 miles to the far end of the bay on the glassy morning water. After a paddle through arches, past otters, and dodging seals, afternoon found us camped on the point again for our final night. Sesha and Jake paddled to a spring for water and I decided to go for a solo paddle to some arches off the coastline for the evening (had to paddle through all the arches I could find). After an hour or two of that I got back to Sesha and Jake flipping out about Killer Whales they’d paddled with (so jealous!) for an hour. We went out to try and find the pod at about 11pm (still light mind you) but only found a few porpoises (still, a pretty good runner up prize!). Sesha started each days paddling with, “Guys, today is a whale day,” and she finally got to see them, up close and personal.
We rounded out the trip with a wonderful hour long tasting and tour at the Fry’s Bear Creek Winery (I left with a case of assorted berry wines). The 4 person swing there is amazing! We also shot some guns at Tom’s cabin in the woods. One was a true elephant gun that, after two shots, left my shoulder veeery sore the next day. This was an amazing trip made all the easier by the kind people we met along the way. We were planning our return trip before we had even gotten on the plane to leave!

I made it into Climbing magazine! (AK coming soon)

2009-07-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

It isn't as amazing as it sounds, but it was a real surprise when I saw my name there. I sent a letter to the editor telling them about a new campground fee at the previously free Skull Hollow CG on BLM land and it was published. I really didnt think they'd just publish it verbatim, but whatever. I guess thats what happens in letters to the editors, huh.

I am withholding the post on our Alaska adventure until I get all my photos organized (700+), but check back for that soon. It should be up by the end of the coming week (when Col and I go down to the Sierras for some more vacation time.

Here's a teaser:

huge roof .14.c/d

2009-06-11T22:56:00.000-07:00

fun to watch

Passages

2009-06-09T12:04:00.001-07:00

RIP Micah Dash, Johnny Copp, Wade Johnson.
A really good Johnny Copp Film
What happened

I don't know them personally, but in the various climbing films and articles I've seen over the years, these three guys were all amazing people and climbers. Every loss in the climbing community feels like it was a close friend.

TED

2009-06-06T16:09:00.000-07:00

I have started watching a lot of TED. TED is an organization of great minds who come together each year and give 10-20 minute talks or performances on any number of different subjects. The speakers are all selected because they have some very forward and PRACTICAL ideas. I guess I shouldn't just say ideas, because many of the subjects are showing a business model, or creation that has already been successful in the real world. The talks are all free on the web (thank goodness because it is a $6,000 per person club if you want to be there in person!). There's also a good number of musical performances too. Check it out! You wont regret it.

on the river

2009-05-31T08:14:00.000-07:00

Colleen and I are camped out on the Willamette this morning and we chose a most interesting campsite with lots of entertainment. We have an industrious and well fed beaver going back and forth 10 ft in front of our feet. There were 10 students who passed in 2 orc rafts at 9:45 last night with no shirts (it was cold then) or camping supplies. By far the most random is a boiling cauldron or water. Yup. There is a huge gush of water shooting up from the sand bar and then heading upriver in a slightly separate channel from the river. It doesn't look like the water is coming from a pipe, and the boil is a little higher in elevation on the sandbar than the river. Weird.
I guess I could also mention that we are on the river because we are paddling from Eugene to Corvallis for the weekend. I think we could have done the trip in a day but we kinda just wanted to take it easy and camp. The upper streches were a little speedy at times (for a 17 ft long kayak anyway...) and surprisingly clear (who'd have guessed the water below Eugene looked drinkable!). Once we got to about a half way point, several tributaries turned the river into the green lazy thing we know in Corvallis.

Col relaxing on our beach. Easiest camp spot ever.
The beaver buddy we shared the beach with
had to test out the underwater function on the camera
Snacktime on the water
Colleen just cruisin along in the perfect weather.

People pay good money to do the things we do. How lucky are we...!

granite, oh blessed granite!

2009-05-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

Climbing is my thing and this weekend I got to do my thing. I started the weekend with the homies from the bay area who were driving up to sasquatch festival. It was great to talk about old times and watch them flail on the climbing wall. We roadtripped up to the 'squatch festival for the evening and got lost and found several times amongst the 20,000 or so tent campers there. I felt kinda old running around all the teenieboppers there, but whateva. I know I rock in my old age. After unsuccessfully trying to get scott laid several times, we quit and went to bed. Logan and Melvin were kind enough to pick me up the next morning on the way to Leavenworth so off to climbing it was! I tell ya, pulling into a granite wonderland like that is just magical. Gets my heart going every time. The original plan was to get on serpentine arte IV 5.8 on dragontail peak, but that was very snowed in so We played for two days on the pearly gates wall near snow creek wall. There I got my MUCH needed crack fix. In two days we threw up everything worth doing, with the highlight for me being a redpoint of a 10.c roof finger crack. Just heaven. Granite is granite is just so soft and cuddly to climb on compared to so much else (jtree excluded). I didn't have to tape up once the whole time in Lworth. Oh, and there were some mtn goats cruising. Around that were very very friendly and provided some very nice photo ops. I think they are the snow creek wall goats who came down due to the raptor nesting on outer space ( no climbers means no climber handouts and pee to lick up). Oh, and icicle creek was a raging river, with about 5 miles of massive constant class V+ water.
We rounded out Sunday evening with some minigolf, but not before HOT Rainier Beer from the car, chips and queso, and another twelver of can beer in the parking lot. Winning the round, Logan and I tied about ten under Greg and Dev. At about the 5th hole of golf when all the brews were kicking in, I heard the best line from the weekend: "So uh, who's driving home?!?"
For monday we drove partway home then stopped at Tieton for some basalt column cragging. I would compare Tieton to trout creek, only with more broken colums and a but more jagged in spots. And a ton more routes. I would call the ratings there a little stiffer than leavenworth or smith, but a little softer as the grade gets harder. Definitely going to have to go back there again for a weekend or two. My favorite lead of the weekend, the 10.c finger crack.

Plastic

2009-05-18T12:13:00.001-07:00

2009-04-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

and, in light of the latest fanatical coverage of the newest threat to humanity, I give you this:

Adventure report

2009-04-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

This won't be that last time I ignore my blog for a month or so, but Sorry. Ok, with that said, heres the adventure report for April. I got out to smith a few weeks ago with an eastcoaster who moved out to Newport last year. Pretty normal guy(for being from Boston). Our goal was to climb 2000 vertical feet in a day, but we only got half because of the absolutely epic winds. 40+ mph gusts on a 6 pitch 5.8 X ridge climb is sketchy as hell. We bailed on that and spent the evening eating Cody's freshly slaughtered, apple fed beef in his wood stove heated 20x20 canvas tent, while it rained, froze, and then snowed outside. If that aint camping, I dont know what is.

Two weekends ago, I organized an OMC trip up Shasta. That went about as well as a mountaineering trip could possibly go. we had temps in the mid 80s during the day, with a nice freeze at night. We split into two groups of 4, with the skiiers going up west face via hidden valley and my group climbing Caseval ridge on the southwest side of the mountain. Greg and I climbed Avy Gulch two years ago, and I must say, Caseval is head and shoulders above AG. It begins at 7000 ft or so, climbs up to 9600 and there it levels out and follows a half mile of steep traversing on snow slopes. Then you gain elevation quickly up one of two gullys next to the ridge (we opted to downclimb and ascend the east face for a short time to avoid a large cornice on top of the west gully). From that bench at 11700 or so you get back into cruising up rock bands and snow slopes for another thousand feet. A final band of red rock is encountered with a narrow snow ramp with tons of exposure, then we hopped onto misery hill for the final summit approach. Total time to summit from bivy at 9500 was just over 7 hours. The glissade down Avy Gulch covered about 2000 ft in 5 minutes. Fun! Oh, and when we talked to everyone back in the parking lot, we found out that Celene didn't handle the thin air so well and puked 5 times above 14,000 ft. but she topped out anyway, so you go girl!

This most recent weekend, We had a party at our place on friday night, then I went with Greg to Smith for the day, then I went up to see Colleen's parents new house in Camas. They overlook the gorge, and have an absolutely amazing house. Want!
I am kinda glad I didnt bring my camera to smith, because Greg and I both had an absoulutely terrible day at smith; one of the worst. It has been a really long time since I didn't enjoy climbing, but this was one of those days. We climbed two laps each on Herasy first thing and turned our arms to jello for the rest of the day, making everything else we climbed scary and unpleasant. bummer dood! Col and I rounded out the weekend with a paddle on the lovely little Lacamas Lake near her folk's house. I was pleasantly surprised by the wildlife that was able to exist there among the zillions of boaters and fishermen. We watched ospreys catch fish litterally right in front of fishermen, and then watched a big bald eagle swoop in and chase the ospreys until they dropped the fish so he could get it. This happened 30 ft over our heads, and we got to watch the bald eagle eat the fish on a tree branch from about 20 ft away. Just a really nice remainder of the weekend to compensate for the crappy day of climbing.

Teabag the President!

2009-04-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

The conservatives are getting rather irate now! Dear god what will they think of next!
Teabagging conservatives everywhere!

youtube

2009-03-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

I've got a nice collection of youtube videos up now. Check 'em out!

Published!

2009-02-25T09:56:00.000-08:00

Oh, and Col and I just got tickets to Alaska this summer! We are going to try to go on a kayaking adveture and likely a little hiking too.

I found out 2 really cool things yesterday. I won a contest and am going to have two photos (above) published in an upcoming book on climbing, annnd the American Alpine Institute took a video I posted and put it on their blog! It feels really neat to actually be in something besides facebook! The AAI blog is a really cool feature they have now. There is a lot of entertaining video on there if you need a pick-me-up at work. I climbed Hood last weekend (found out about the trip about 2 hrs before everyone was leaving). Here's a little movie from it. Also, the Corvallis Red Dress Hash took place last weekend (yes I climbed Hood and then ran 4 very drunken miles to 10 bars than night). If you want a taste of Hashing, here ya go!

Address to Congress

2009-02-24T19:06:00.000-08:00

I think Obama's address to congress this evening will go down in history as a turning point and one of the most important and well delivered statements in US History. I have no doubt in my mind he can lead us back to the best nation in the world. What a GUY!

a new addiction

2009-02-15T22:49:00.000-08:00

I have a terrible new addiction. I get on craigslist, and I look for things I don't need. There is so much great stuff in the "free" category! Not even junk either; I have noticed a trend of the really good stuff being given away by estranged girlfriends. They call it all junk and put it out in the front yard and post an address. Today I found a guy selling shitake mushroom blocks. I think I am going to get one or two. 10$ a block for tons of shroomies sounds great to me!(If you are interested I can pick u up one). Craigslist will keep me busy at work. I got a blackberry and have bookmarked craigslist. I think I will call it just craig. Yea, craig and I are becoming fast friends.

Snow caving and Composting

2009-02-10T12:04:00.000-08:00

I have wanted a proper composter for some time, but the damn things were too expensive ($250 easy for a 55 gal drum on a spindle) I looked around at plans and finally just decided to build my own. This is the result of combining a few different ideas. The whole thing ended up costing about $70 for the barrel and hardware, but I think it could be done for about $50 without too much skimping. If you are inspired by this, I recommend finding a barrel that previously contained food-grade material (not industrial cleaners), and using stainless steel in all the fittings. This one has two doors; one big one on the side for getting compost out with a shovel, and a small door on the top for adding daily material. A spindle added too much to the cost, so we are going to roll the barrel around the yard whenever it needs mixing! Easy!

I also must show off our snow cave from this weekend. It was a perfectly constructed 3 enterance, 5 person +2 dogs cave that kept us all quite warm, with almost no drippage during the night. We had a kitchen outside, a fire pit with a 5 ft wall windbreak, Cone Peak to ourselves to watch the sunset and get turns all day on, and lots of tequila and good wine to wind the evening down with.

It is currently snowing in Corvallis, and dumping in the mountains, so I am going to play hookey tomorrow, and hit the slopes! Winter is Back!

You know she's a keeper when.....

2009-02-02T21:49:00.000-08:00

Today, I retired a pair of boxers. they were yellow, with a big smiley on them. Whats special about these, is that they were the first pair of boxers that Colleen ever gave me. (Awwww) I figure, if you have worn through a pair of boxers, and the gal is still around, she must be a keeper. (Ooooor, I have really rancid farts). Either way, Colleen is a keeper. To those of you with a significant other, I highly recommend this test as a bellwether for relationship success.

In outdoorsy news, we rocked the weekend with stuff around, but not in, Corvallis. As a famous mountainclubber once said, "the key to enjoying Corvallis is to get away as frequently as possible"(or something like that). We kayaked from Peoria Landing down to town on Saturday with a lunch stop filled with agate hunting on a gravel bar (I found a fatty crystal laden one!). Sunday Colleen ran part of her marathon course in Eugene (yes, she is actually going to run it this time) while I rope soloed and aided at Columns all day. I really can think of no better way to spend a day than nonstop climbing with tunes in your ears and rock in your hands.

Oh, and the best news I have heard in months: Corvallis is going to get a Trader Joes soon!!!! An inside source who shan't be named informed us that the shopping center on the corner of 9th and circle (Riteaid) is they are looking right now. Woot!

Carry on!

Antarctic time lapse

2009-01-29T18:16:00.000-08:00

If anyone was wondering what Logan or cousin Jack is experiencing in the deep south, the above video probably gives you a good idea of the beauty they are surrounded by.

Santa forced to evacuate North Pole

2008-12-25T21:06:00.000-08:00

Santa forced to evacuate North Pole

by Ernest Istook

Evacuation operations continue at the North Pole, as Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, their reindeer and an estimated 5,000 elves are being relocated due to global warming to a secure but undisclosed location.

The forcible removal began shortly after Santa lifted off from the North Pole Airport on Christmas Eve as the United Nations Intervention Team , or UNIT, moved in unannounced even while Rudolph's red nose was still dwindling in the distance as Santa's sleigh headed south.

"The only way to save future Christmases was to evacuate the toymakers and Mrs. Claus and to re-locate operations before the ice melts," said Nobel Laureate Al Gore, who was on the scene with a camera crew for the occasion. The footage will be included in Gore's new documentary, "An Inconvenient But Jolly Old Elf"

Gore added that he asked his followers among international scientists to determine whether Santa Claus really exists, and expressed confidence that they will. "They believe in global warming," he said, "so believing in Santa Claus is easy."

When Santa, his sled and reindeer returned to the North Pole, exhausted, drowsy and overdosed on milk and cookies, they were taken into custody by blue-helmeted gnomes. His elves previously had been herded into ships provided by Greenpeace and swiftly removed to an American port. Upon landing, they were met by dockworkers who quickly surrounded them and persuaded most of the elves to sign pledge cards to join the longshoremen's union.

Before he was permitted to see anyone else, Santa was herded into a ship's infirmary for a check-up by public health doctors "It's just as we feared," said the lead physician. "All that milk and cookies has raised his cholesterol well above acceptable levels. We've asked New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to help the United Nations propose a new tax on all Christmas treats, excepting of course nonfat milk and diet cookies. It's for Santa's own good."

Observers confirmed that Santa was red with anger and threatened to retire. Said one onlooker:

His cheeks were like roses and his nose like a cherry.

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the heat of his anger was as white as the snow.

It was unclear who would have the power to appoint a replacement, but several governors volunteered to accept responsibility for picking a successor to Santa. Said one, "You don't get many opportunities like this. Appointing a senator is worth a lot. But choosing a new Santa Claus? Priceless!"

Caroline Kennedy volunteered to become the first female Santa Claus, saying, "After all, I may have neglected to vote, but I've never missed a Christmas."

President-elect Barack Obama confirmed that a special federal bailout is being considered to subsidize the relocation of Santa's North Pole operations. An estimated figure is $250 billion. "Yes, this money will be borrowed, will contribute to our national debt, and will ultimately be repaid by our children and grandchildren. But that's only fair, because they're the ones who are getting most of the toys anyway."

"This would be our biggest stimulus package since the interstate system known as the Louisiana Purchase."

"Only a Grinch would say no to this," said Obama. Republican congressional leaders could not be reached for comment.

Detroit also volunteered to become the new capital of toy manufacturing, as auto assembly plants would be re-tooled to make toys. "The only problem," commented one Michigan representative, "is that next year Santa would have to deliver the toys by flying commercial."

Others in Congress are quietly discussing merging Santa's operations with the federal government as part of the bailout. Said one key Senate staffer, not for attribution, "We already have so many federal giveaway programs, so this is just a natural extension."

the weather

2008-12-22T13:24:00.000-08:00

I hate to post on something as mundane as the weather, but holey moley! Gresham just declared a state of emergency. Reports of 14 inches of snow in the Portland area are becoming frequent. And I am having a helluva time convincing Col that getting to the mountain is gong to be worth it in the storm. I wanna go ride!!!!!! Meg's brother got off the mountain and said he has never skiied that much pow before. WANT!

Col and I went XC skiing from our front door into Mac Forest last week and it has snowed here in corvallis nearly every day for a week (a bunch of warm rain yesterday melted it all away though). Before that I think we had about 5 inches persisting on the ground.
Winter is HERE!

we's gots cats

2008-12-15T19:07:00.000-08:00

Col and I got two young cats over the weekend. Its been a while coming, we just couldn't quite find the "right" ones. At the humane society we finally found a 6 month old and a year old male and female to bring home for christmas. I am quite amazed at how quickly they have adapted to a new house and owners. And they are apparently fine around the ferrets, mostly just annoyed that the ferts follow them around everywhere. We are still keeping them under close supervision with the ferts for now. The picture here isnt posed, they are just that good of buddys already. Hooray for the beginnings of a zoo at our house!

Chillin in Idaho, Climbing in Oregon, aaaand the holidays begin

2008-12-03T13:36:00.000-08:00

Not much to report here in Boise. Just watching a tractor drive back and forth reseeding a burned area. "Project Management" I guess you could call it. I call it nap time. Depending on where I am in the work area, I can poach wireless signals form houses nearby, so that is what I am doing.

For once, my family had a pleasant, low-friction Thanksgiving and I am contributing most of that to Colleen's presence. Everyone was trying to impress. While with the fam, I found out that my younger brother is headed to Oxford for winter classes (rock on Alec) and Fritz is headed into two surgeries this holiday season to fix a shoulder and broken foot (continued to play football for 2 weeks after breaking it, then getting it stomped on in a game).

On my way out here (before Thanksgiving) Sam, Jimmi and I climbed at Trout Creek in Central Oregon. It is a crag with the best collection of splitter cracks in OR. We tried to better acquaint ourselves with wide crack climbing with some very bloody results. Nevertheless, it was really good to get out and bleed on some real rock. I also must talk up Sam Mackey just for a second. I have never seen someone take to cracks, OW specifically, as smoothly as he did. James and I FLAILED up two 5 in cracks, with 10+ falls and on both cracks, Sam didn't fall once. Not once! Granted, when he came down, his ankles and fingertips were absolutely shredded, but god damn son!

I had to leave for Boise just as Greg D and Graham M showed up to the crag but I at least got to trade some choice comments about their shoddy climbing technique and them just being all around wankers!

Obama and river bears

2008-11-05T00:48:00.000-08:00

...Aaaand the world breathes a collective sigh of relief as Obama takes the whitehouse. I don't think I even threatened to move to Canada once this year!

In other news, I've got the latest round of photos from the Rogue this year. I rowed Ben's "glass bottom boat" which was akin to taking a leaky bathtub into a hurricane. Aside from having no floor at all, a metal grate tied on for a footrest, very leaky side tubes, too short oars, and the most drag of any boat EVER, oar boating is great! (I really did enjoy rowing the river actually) I got the hang of it really quick and styled Blossom Bar on day two.
I was stoked to have the pirate flag along. It really completed the look.
June's dad running Rainey
Cody's boat on Rainey
Ben's boat on Rainey
Ben's boat again (somewhere....)I have a faint memory of someone (Molly?) tellling me about the "monkies" along the river years ago. Well, this year I finally found them. Keep an eye out, they are in the second half of day one...
Col on the oars. I must say, having two people aboard, one to feed the other wine and one to row, works really well. At one point, right around when the boats started catching up, saying they were out of booze, folks noticed a bear had been following the rafts for a half hour or so. Apparently this pissed off a very drunk Bryan. He decided he was going to kill a bear - with a 4 inch knife. He swam ashore, and with some indian whooping, ran down the trail to kill himself a bear. We saw Bryan round a corner and disappear behind some rocks, then the bear came running out at full tilt from the rocks with Bryan just a few feet from it's heels. Fortunately (for Bryan) the bear was fast and cowardly. We asked Bryan later what the hell he was thinking, and his response was something to the effect of, "I was gonna fuck it up!"
Bryan, knife in hand, climbing up to git hisse'f a bearskin rug!

Wassaaaaaap!

2008-10-30T14:06:00.000-07:00

Love it!

A Good ol'e fashion Corvallis weekend

2008-10-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

what a great weekend around Corvallis! On Friday we went out with some friends to a super secret, chop your head off if you tell anyone, chantrelle spot and loaded up on the fleshy fungi of the NW. Saturday, was a house cleaning day (not too much fun but we did sleep in till noon, which is a rare thing and needs to be celebrated. That night we did go over to Will's to enjoy some homemade pear brandy and another concoction that although tasty, was about the sweetest drink I have ever had. Keith, ariel, Col, myself and Becca all headed over to Squirrels later to enjoy some pitchers (it is still just barely warm enough to make use of the outdoor patio there at night) and talk of sinful things.
Then today Rhiannon and her family hosted an apple pressing party in the orchard below the house at Beazell where we pressed about 15 gallons of lovely cider. There is a very, very old orchard with a single tree of each different variety and the apples are delicious and huge! Keith even showed up (I hope he made his flight) for a few hours. The potluck randomly had a bit of a middle eastern theme and was half desserts, which was fine by me! My goodness, I forgot to mention that Deverton even came down for the party! It was quite the collection of miscreants in the orchard for that afternoon. What a good bunch! It felt like 2003 seeing those faces all in one weekend!
It was grea

More gear for the garage

2008-10-13T19:36:00.000-07:00

Colleen, as you know, really doesn't like climbing. And I as you may or may not know, don't like running. Nor does Col like biking down mountains crazy fast, as I do. For a while we have searched for something to do together that we could both enjoy immensely (if we aren't having immense amounts of fun, it just doesn't count). Last fall we found that sea kayaking was something we could both enjoy a lot. We tried another trip this fall, to really make sure that this kayaking thing is really for us, and guess what, it was still as great. So we splurged and bought two demo sea kayaks at end of year sales this year. They are awesome! So far we have only taken them out on the willamette and to the roll session at OSU (we were such outcasts with our huge boats!) . It is still so nice to be able to have toys for water now! Boats are the one thing that we have avoided up to now; dont know why, it just seemed like too much to have to move around I guess. I can not wait to take them out and explore!

The Keating Quandry

2008-10-07T13:56:00.001-07:00

poor communication

2008-09-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes work really sucks. I have my boss and another guy (i guess technically my other boss, but he is in new mexico) both pissed off at me. They didn't talk to each other until the last second to decide which project I would be working on for the next 4 weeks, so now I am working on two at the same time. The catch is, both projects have stipulations in the contract that there has to be someone "on the ground" with knowledge of GIS (me). Being in NM and OR at the same time is a little tough, never mind that I am trying to juggle both projects work loads in my head. Of course one is bound to make mistakes (I only made a small one) and the stress of one boss having VERY poor communication skills and not knowing if the contract manager is going to call off the project because we arent meeting the specified obligations has them both on edge. I misinterpreted something in excel and put in a wrong acreage for a few units. This was caught 3 days before work is even starting, thus isn't that big of a deal, but with all the other stress, they are both really pissed at the liddle mistake. I am hearing a lot of "there is no room for errors!" right now. Grrrrr. and I havent had a weekend in 2 weeks and probably wont get one for another two. 12 hr days are fun! Shoot me in the face !
And to really compound things, just as all this is coming to a head, the massive shit I took in my boss's bathroom an hour before (mind you his office is in the basement of his house) rockets out of the toilet when a coworker tries to flush and floods the bathroom. That was the final straw. Holy shit.

one year of UAP

2008-09-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

I have worked for UAP for one year now. It really doesnt feel like it has been that long, which is kinda strange. I guess though that is pretty good; I am not falling into a "tear-my-hair-out" mindless routine of a job. This work runs on an annual cycle and I am just now on the same New Mexico project, where I kicked things off shortly after starting last year.
This is where I state lessons learned and all that, but that is way too much thought for typing and watching TV at the same time. So on to more superficial, narrative things! We went kayaking.
Col and I and 3 others went sea kayaking up in the San Juans again for laborday weekend. This trip wasnt quite the same as last time though; there was whitewater. Yea, Whitewater. The tidal currents in the sound is incredibly powerful, and the area we were paddling in had some pretty serious water movement. One small island we were camped on the second day had 4 foot standing waves 50 ft off the tip, and 3 standing whirlpools that literally would swallow a kayak. Oh, and there was a channel we had to cross that had standing large whitewater chop moving at 5-8 knots 3 miles long and 3/4 of a mile long. Needless to say, Col and the rest were freaked out, but we finally came to a decision on a crossing point and pulled it off with much trepidation. This trip definitely had a little more spice to it. But less alchy. That was a bummer. We definitely burned though the wine too fast. And didnt bring enough whiskey. There, thats my "lessons learned" for this post. No photos, I forgot my camera for this trip.

Donorcycles are bad Mmm'kay?

2008-08-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

My boss got a motorcycle a few months back as a mid life crisis kind of thing. He has been riding it around like bikes are going out of style recently. He finally decided he was comfortable enough to ride it on a point to point ride, and we had a meeting in Burns, OR. Myself, and another coworker drove, and Greg never showed up. Then we got a call that he had been lifeflighted to the Dalles hospital. Some jackass in a truck didn't see him and took a turn tight in the wrong lane. We're not sure yet if it was a hit and run (we've only gotten two broken messages) or if the guy stuck around. My boss has 7 broken ribs, a punctured lung, spleen damage and a helluva concussion. He is very lucky to be alive.

Needless to say, I suddenly have my hands full for a few weeks keeping up with his projects. I have heard the term "trial by fire" several times during the last year (I have worked for UAP for a whole year now) and I am pretty sure that this is the real trial by fire.

On a lighter note, Col and I ran off for a quick weekend backpacking trip in the Three Sisters Wilderness. The goal; a 35 mile hike around North and Middle Sister. Aside from some really sore feet after the trip, we had a perfect trip.

"Ya Sunafabeech"

2008-07-13T08:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we had a day of down time in San Jose, so we walked around the city's largest park (similar to Golden Gate Park). At one point we were talking about how in both visits by Colleen, she hadn't had a single bad interaction with any Costa Ricans (with the exception of being whistled at by every third male in the vicinity) and neither had I. Then, cruising through the park, this guy runs after us saying "hey wait, hey wait" in pretty good english. We stopped and he immediately demanded "monies" from us with a palm out and a wild look in his eyes. We said no and kept walking. Soooo he decided to follow us for a short time yelling "Ju SAN oofa BITCH!" but in a much more hilarious accent than I can portray just by typing (woulda been perfect for a video blog). As we kept walking, we marveled at how educated even the crazy guys in the park are. He spoke fairly good english and knew how to curse us in a very appropriate way under the circumstances. I guess its not nearly as bad as some travel experiences I've heard of, but it was still pretty random.
Off to Monte Verde!

Costa Rica

2008-07-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

I know its been a while, but I have been rather busy with the whole wedding thing and all. Aside from a minor rain shower (in the desert of all places!) teh wedding went perfectly. She said I do, we had a really great bunch of folks there, and we were blessed with an incredible sunset before driving ioff into the night. There are pictures on Facebook if you care to look.
Since I am in Costa Rica right now, I'll tell you about that too. We are here for the honeymoon and I took all my yearly vacation and lumped it together for a 3 week long trip. This place is great! Below are the two update emails I sent out, so I'll let them do the telling.

7/6/08 We are nearing the end of the first portion of our honeymoon in CR and it has been exceedingly relaxing. We are in an americanized beachtown, Tamarindo, that is the surfing capital of CR. First off, thank god Colleen speaks spanish, because I would be so lost with out her translating. Col instructed me on the finer points of surfing, and I am now hooked on it. I got one perfect big wave and a few other pretty good ones and that was the end of it. I think I can understand a little of why people like surfing so much. I also went for two scuba dives yesterday at an island chain off the coast and swam with a bunch of sharks. Other than that, we have been doing a LOT of lazing on the beach and drinking coctails at the happy hour at Joe´s Bar (reccomended spot if you ever come to CR). We are heading off to the jungle for a 4 day raft trip on tuesday on a river typically rated in the top 5 rivers worldwide for rafting. Cant wait for that! Then it is off to La Fortuna for a few days of lounging in hotsprings, then hiking in Monte Verda, where monkeys, kinkajus, toucans, zillions of frogs and butterflies, and sloths live. That should be the highlight of the trip (if we dont get too sick before that). We will check in after the raft trip to see if you guys would like any souvenirs. Pura Vida -Ian and Col

7/11/08 We survived rafting quite well, and this morning ran my new favorite stretch to date. We did a 3 day on a short, mellow scenic river first, and then this morning spent one hour on a helluva run. In that hour we ran 12 class 4s and 4+s, traveled approximately 12 miles and didnt have a single swimmer. The river never slowed down, there was maybe 1 100 yd stretch where we werent paddling and got to take a break. The rest of it was constant class 2 and 3. The trip is supposed to take 2.5hrs, but the water level was ´good´ according to the guides, which means it was quite high. here is a kayak video from youtube of the run (we were in a raft)Day after tomorrow, we head off to Monte Verde Cloud forest to check out the rainforest and wildlife! Talk to you soon!
Sorry, no pictures to oupload yet. They'll be up eventually.

Ramblings from the field

2008-06-10T19:05:00.000-07:00

Heading out to a 1500 acre job in Fields, OR (at the SE end of the Steens Mtns.) I stopped off at Smiff for a long, easy climbing day with Keely (Keelia as she now has begun using her full name). We hiked out to the marsupials and managed to climb about 1300 vertical feet in 11 hrs of climbing (including the 2 hrs spent in a cave waiting out a lightning storm). My goal was 15 pitches in a day and we managed 16. We ran up the marsupials traverse, mini-halfdome, round river, and “birds of a feather,” 5.7, on the wombat (summit above Koala Rock). It was so much fun climbing at no harder than 5.8 for the whole day. No pictures though.

I got to spend a day and a half alone in the desert and had a blast. I had to hike into the work site to look at some things, so I made an evening of it and brought sushi, a camera and some beer up to a peak. This is what I wrote as I was sitting up there, and it is a little embarrasing to have such an emotional time, but it was kinda cool. So I will share it with you, unedited:

"Every now and again one has such an intense moment alone with nature that you can only laugh outloud in joy, and shed a tear simultaneously. Feeling the pureness of nature is a joy that is completely inexplicable; it can only be experienced.

To try and tell of the quality of the experience is pointless. A sunset, a flower, a mountain, the wind; it can only be understood in the context of what someone already knows.
To seek new, deeper experiences from nature is the only way to truly understand what she is capable of (a boundless perfection and utterly incomprehensible beauty).
As I cry joy right now, I can’t fully even get ten percent of what I am feeling inside. The tears are the only evidence of the beauty of the desert. I do nothing more than write feeling as this sunset passes, but I understand more of nature with every experience. I am a rich man!
To describe the feeling as spiritual does not do justice to the deepest enveloping joy I get from sitting on a windblown ridge, or on a dirt game trail while writing this. This place of reverence provides all that the soul could ever desire!"

Yea, so that is my little time in the desert. Oh, and Malheur Wildlife Preserve is fucking amazing! There is more biodiversity there than anywhere else on the west coast. The large majority of birds I saw there I have never seen before. I wish I could have spent more time there and had a big ass camera lense. I also got to check off Alvord Hotsprings from the "to sit in" list. It is a funky little concrete tub in the desert, but boy are the springs hot.

From work, we got snowed out, rained out, blown out, but luckily no mechanical problems. Heres the snow day in June and the helicopter doin its thing.
In a week and a half, I will be married. Whoa! We all new it was coming, but it does kinda sneak up on ya like that. I am really stoked to be marrying such a fine woman. We have a beautiful life together and I am glad it is now going to be permanent.

Malheur County

2008-05-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

"The entire population of the world - 5.4 billion people- could fit into Harney and Malheur counties alone with 103 square feet per person, a population density little greater than Hong Kong's. (Oregonian , July 25, 1993)"

And yet, those two Oregon counties are two of the largest and least populated in the lower 48. And that is where I am headed next week for work! The Steens Mountains are gorgeous high desert, but aside from that, there really isnt anything in southeast OR. I will be staying in Fields, OR. Heard of it? Probably not. The population is around 10 and it has 5 buildings, 3 of which are motel rooms. Yee Haw! I cant figure out if this is going to be more or less fun than working in New Mexico for a month. Nah, nothing can be worse than that.

Colleen and I also have gotten a lot done on the house recently. Since the weather was pretty much shit everywhere for Memorial Day, we stayed home and got hella shiz done on the climbing gym and back yard. We have spent near a grand on plants at Garlands (veggies, dogwoods, gardenia, seeds, dirt, blueberries!, roses, and rhodies) , I have spent near a grand I think on the climbing gym, and it is really great to see it all coming together.
If you havent seen the house yet, I've added some photos of the inside too now that we have gotten moved in.

At Night

2008-05-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

I have a slight sleepwalking problem. It manifests itself frequently when I am sleeping in unfamiliar places. With this job I travel a lot. Therefore sleeping in a lot of unfamiliar hotels. This morning, just past midnight I woke up, ...shaving. I haven't done that before. I finished shaving, looked at the clock, and went back to bed for a very difficult night of attempted sleep. When I got up, I figured I had already shaved, so I just got ready and went. It took me a little while, but I eventually realized that I hadn't finished shaving. There was a significant neck beard on one side of my face all today. Score!
I am a retard. (at least I didnt end up in my roommate's bed or anything!)

A bunch of us climbed Mt Hood last weekend. It was really wet. And cold. A front moved in a little quicker than we had hoped. This was the most unpleasant summit to date, but it was still done safely, just a little less than ideal. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, eh!

2008-05-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

granted, its a little old, but here is a gem from Jon Stewart.

And another

STEWART: Yes. I feel like, you know, I feel like the best thing to do is to convince the country that our God is the one true God and that others are less.
KING: American God, you mean?
STEWART: Yes. The one that blesses us for our manifestness.
KING: He doesn't bless England.

STEWART: No. No. He doesn't care for them. He feels that they're pasty.
KING: Pasty?
STEWART: Pasty and he doesn't care for the food.
KING: But Canada.
STEWART: Happy to have them in the attic, but not so crazy about them in general.
KING: He's a judgemental God.
STEWART: Very angry. Loves the Americans. Very big. Wants us to have bigger cars. Wants us to have bigger cars and as a little goof on us has only made a finite supply of oil. It's very -- he's very funny. He's a trickster. Here's another little joke he did. He promised three different religions they were the chosen ones, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and then, funny, follow me, he put their holiest sites all in the same place. And then he backed away and he just wants to see who wants it more. That's what this is about. This is God going, hey, show me something, people. ...

O is for...

2008-04-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Vote2008/story?id=4755949

...aaaand Obama is spot on, once again.

Just to follow up on the last post, this is from this weekend. Tombstone pass still has 4-6 ft of snow and the snow level reaches all the way to the Mt. Jefferson turn off on hwy 20. Mt hood Timberline is reporting a 238 inch base currently, with 10 inches in the past 24 hrs and a total snowfall of over 800 inches this season. Wow.

Winter hasnt left yet...

2008-04-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

Dang, I am getting so bad at this bloggy thing. Work and house being the usual excuse. Well, climbing as usual is in there as an excuse. The warmth crept up for a weekend recently and a really great crew of old OMC and some new was at smith for a 80 degree weekend. But now it is supposed to snow in Corvallis Sat, so winter clearly isnt gone yet. 2 weekends ago, Bryan, me and some other folks wend rafting and skiing for th weekend. I played hookey on Friday and enjoyed an incredible powder day at skibowl, with much hucking of cliffs and carving up an EMPTY ski hill. I have never actually ridden an empty ski resort all day and it is really fun when you ca look at the steepest face and know that around half the lines are yours. Then carrington and crew showed up, we rafted the white salmon in the morning, in the snow, and then went back to skibowl to finish off the night with some margaritas and another 7 hours of snowboarding. That, again was one of the best ski days I have had, just for the sheer amount of alcohol that was consumed. Bryans tab was $235 for the evening (4 guys drinking, I was DD. :P )and that included 5 rounds of double margaritas with everclear. I dont want to say that anyone was being unsafe, but gawd damn, watching everyone crater at the bottom of the cliff band after drinks was HILARIOUS. Especially Bryan, because he went off, hit a lower cliffband, and then bellyflopped from about 15 feet.

Yep, life is still rockin!
(Darrel on Round River at 9pm below, Rob on Buffalo Warrior above)

I am taking on a lot of "real" work for my job now. In Hood River yesterday we completed 4 herbicide application that I have been planning for the last 2 months. That was kinda nice to see things go off without a hitch. I think after a brief lull in the next 2 weeks, I may be off to Idaho to go bombing around the desert on ATVs for a survey job. sounds kinda fun huh. This summer has another 400,000+ ac fire survey/application that I might be running a crew of 10 or so college studeents on. That sounds entertaining as fuck. I hope we get that bid.

Been a long time...

2008-03-25T10:27:00.000-07:00

Hi! I'm back! From where, you ask? From the depths of new-housing! we've got 3 new big planter beds sunken into the back yard hillside, a halfway built climbing gym in the garage (hopefully finished by sunday), another ferret and a whole lot of house plants. ...Col and I have been busy. I tell ya though, I would really love to just run off and go to smith, or leavenworth, or redrocks. Thats where everyone else is right now and I wanna goooooooo! Damn spring breakers. At least I can consol myself with the knowledge that the weather is crap now so I might as well hide out in my man cave and build a home gym. (It is snowing in C-town now and it is 90 in palm springs, where Col is)
I am really stoked on this climbing wall. I havent been this excited in months!
Oh, and now there are two ferrets running amok in the house. Colleen's sister found one for us at a humane society last month and she nursed the little guy back to health for us. So we have Sid and Huey now.

Portland Iditerod

2008-03-03T15:30:00.001-08:00

If you havent heard of the real iditerod, it is a grueling dogsled race in AK. Portland does it's own version in true portland fashion. It is very similar to a hash. The humans are the sled dogs and one person is mushing a shopping cart decorated to some theme (my favorites were the Mormons, the cavemen[had a propane campfire in their cart] and the pope mobile cart) Col, her sister, myself, and 3 others created a team for this years Iditerod, and we got 3rd place out of 700+ people and were the front runners for most of the race (totally irrelevant because no one was keeping track of winner or loser). Being in front just ensured no waiting in long bathroom lines at each pitstop bar, getting served first at the bar, and getting a table between legs. One of the best times I have had in a long time. And definitely the most drunken exercise I have evre gotten. Those carts were heavy! Our theme was white trash, and we were hauling a singlewide trailer as our "sled". I had cutoff jean shorts that were a little too short after the second trimming. I think some folks got a helluva show when I was climbing a tree ;) We made the video 3 times, the first is right behind the ninja at the start and the second is near the people in the tree.

Urban Iditarod

Contact info

2008-02-22T12:04:00.000-08:00

Our new addreess is
3304 Nw Foxtail St.
Corvallis, OR 97330
My phone # is 509-539-8780
Col's phone # is 503-810-1931

Hopefully with this new address all the moving, new phones and other uncertainty in my life is over now. What a relief. To this point in my life I have had over 10 different phone numbers, just under 30 different addresses, 12 different jobs, and lived in (I think) six different states on both coasts. When I look back on it, wow, what a ride! Oh, and just a guess, but with all the camping I have done, I would guestimate I have lived in a tent for at least a year after adding up camping trips and working for the USFS/BLM. I should really keep a running tally on the blog of how many days to date I have slept outside. That would be an interesting lifetime figure to see.

Moving day

2008-02-15T11:57:00.000-08:00

Aside from a few small hiccups, the moving in process has been rather quick, and relatively painless. Colleen and I had a minor disagreement on what should be moved and what was “packrat junk” but after bashing her over the head with a good dose of logic talk and some large chunks of foam, I got the things over that were necessary. It seemed rather wasteful to throw away perfectly good things, but she insisted on getting rid of some! And then right when I am about to concede that I might have some things that can go to the trash, I find a bag of used bags that colleen had been packratting for the last several years. Yes, a trashbag full of neatly organized, yet tattered, Ziploc bags that god only knows what she was saving for. Sorry for the rant.
As with any new house, it takes a while to get used to the new surroundings; especially at night. I personally feel it was karma after all the heckling I got about keeping sentimental junk, but in the middle of the night I woke up just in time to hear Colleen walk headfirst into a wall while trying to find the bathroom. Hah! Another nighttime run in with an inanimate object! She blames it on poor vision but I think she has a drinking problem…

While moving into this house, "Big Pimpin'" has been stuck in my head all day. :)

Juvenile pranks

2008-02-05T15:29:00.000-08:00

Who the hell throws eggs anymore as a form of retribution?!? That seems a little highschool, dont ya think? This morning I went out to my car and there was egg shell next to my car (and fairly far away from it which leads me to think the tool is a horrible shot). And not only did my car get egged, Colleen's did too. Who the hell hates both of us enough to waste 30 cents on eggs? There are starving kids in Africa people! This only kinda pisses me off, but not really even at all, because it is really just inconsequential to my life. The rain mostly rinsed it off before I even saw it. Same with Colleen's car. Just lame.

icanhascheezburger.com

2008-02-04T09:51:00.000-08:00

...is one of the funniest sites I have seen in a long time. check it out

moar funny pictures

moar funny pictures

"HOLY SHIT! THE ROOM IS SPINNING!"

2008-01-30T14:07:00.000-08:00

Yep, I am in Kentucky, waiting for my plane to arrive. I just spent the last few days at a Society for Rangeland Management conference pushing our companies services on anyone who would listen. During the day at least. Last night we had a "business" dinner with the sales reps from "Large Chemical Manufacturer X" with much of the "business" being how many drinks and how much heckling can you handle. Over dinner I watched how large corporate reps woo their customers and got stories of how they used to woo their customers. I heard tales of contracts being closed with gifts of hookers and new cars, and other much shadier promotions (this is no more however!). Throughout this meeting I was mostly quiet, retorting to their constant heckling with the occasional jab back, and I just watched and listened. With this job, there are two very different sides I am finding. One is an average, out-of-college job with menial work that is sometimes stimulating and fun. The other is a side of work I didnt expect to see for a very long time; its the large corporate good-ole-boys type of work where you dont really do anything except bullshit for an hour and then with 5 minutes left you say "ok, so we are good on the agreement to sell "product X" exclusively?" and the drunken ass who just drank $150 of the corporate wine says "Suuuure!" ...And another $400,00 deal is born, based on a few drinks and a pair of box seats at a Nascar event. I tell ya, not being a fan of Nascar, I am going to be a hard sell for these corporate reps, whenever I reach that level.
My favorite moment from possibly the whole time I have been at this job happened last night. After a few drinks at the bar, we were seated for dinner at a table in a room that was very slowly rotating on the 27th floor of the hotel(think space needle adjacent to a skyscraper). We all noticed the room was moving after several minutes as the windows and walls slowly changed orientation. Meanwhile Barry, who has the highest yearly sales(in millions) in the company every year (and is one of the good ole boys), is drinking merrily away. About an hour and a half into dinner(the room has done at least 1.5 rotations by now) Barry smacks the table and says, "I KNEW IT! The room IS spinning!" Everyone stared at him for 2 or 3 seconds in silence, and then there was laughter for the next 10 minutes of so. Secretly I had the same thought about 10 minutes into dinner when I realized the room was rotation, but I'll be damned if I was going to be the first to point out the room was spinning. It is good to know that I now have ammo on some of my superiors. I'll keep that on in my back pocket.

Now I am going to fly back to OR and enjoi the 400+ inches at Meadows. Schwing!

MLK Weekend

2008-01-20T17:31:00.000-08:00

This weekend was the first OMC Sunriver weekend in 2 years and it was a smashing success. It was great to see a hottub full of nekkid people in the snow once again. Sat morning we XC'd in to Paulina falls to look at the ice accumulation and hopefully be able to TR some of it. Greg and Rob started in an hour before the rest of the group and I heard him over the radio saying something about an ice fall and climbing on a thin, broken ice flow. When we got there, the magnitude of the ice fall was apparent. Greg had lowered off and climbed one ice curtain, and then let Rob have a go. Rob lowered and then half way kicked in on the same area that greg had been on, and the WHOLE thing went. The pictures below say it all.

This morning someone put a post-it on Rob's back that read "be nice to me, I almost died yesterday"

The rest of the climbing (on a much more stable climb) proved to be incredible.

2 gud 2 B tru

2008-01-11T22:24:00.001-08:00

The house was bunk. There were $35,000 hidden repairs the inspection report showed. Oh well, Colleen and Ben and I picked out 10 more to look at this weekend to look at. We'll find one.

Snow Day!

2008-01-07T18:52:00.002-08:00

Reading Keith's blog last week got me all amped up for boarding this season. Before I left for CA the snow just wasn't happening though. On the drive back however, I was in snow from the Oregon border north. At Siskiyou Pass, I talked myself out of sleeping in the truck and riding at Mt Ashland in the morning beacuse I had to study for an upcoming test for work. Talk about inner turmoil!. Then driving north the weather just got colder and snowier. I spent 2 hours between the Rogue River and Eugene flip-flopping between "Dude the powder is going to be EPIC!" and "No, you have a job and a house now Ian, you have to embrace responsibility and study for this test at some point before taking it." (at this point you get one guess as to what my choice was.) I finally broke down in Eugene, checked the snow phone and called around to see who would go to the mountain with me. Jesse finally gave in and we drove back to Eugene in the morning to catch the Willamette Pass ski bus.
WOW, WHAT A GOOD DECISION!
Everything about the day was perfect. We rode top to bottom all day, hit a ton of different runs, and managed to get knee deep freshies on just about every run. Just in the time we were there we got another 5 inches or so. We figgered ok, last run, lets go destroy ourselves on this little double black over here. I mashed the hill and look up and dont see Jesse anywhere. Looking... Looking... Then he comes shooting out of the trees with a delerious laugh of satisfaction and we ended up taking 3 more runs in the steepest, best, untracked secret run on the whole hill. We rounded out the day with a pitcher of Jubelale in the bar and promptly passed out on the bus ride home.
The 2008 season is upon us!

Oregon Trail

2008-01-04T22:59:00.001-08:00

As much as I hate the facebook apps and invites, one intreagued me recently. It was for Oregon Trail on facebook. I was really hoping it would rekindle those awesome memories of the old game, but it didnt. This version is lacking in its interactiveness. Mostly, it involved me pressing the "continue walking" button a bunch. It was a little more adult than the old version though. You can steal from other parties, Colleen got explosive diarrhea, Alyssa was desperately in need of water, Chubb wanted a cigar, and if you got sick of someone in your party, you could eat them! I like that part. The disturbing thing is that the leader on all of facebook currently has logged something like 50,000 miles on this game. Averaging 20 mph/day that is 2500 clicks on the "continue walking" button. Say it takes 5 seconds to load each time, that is 209 minutes playing the game. Then you factor in hunting and shopping at trailmart outposts and you have lost a lot of your life to another pointless facebook app. ...Just like me ranting about this on my blog.
After christmas my fam went to SoCal to meet Col's parents. For the first time. This is a moment we have both been dreading for a looooooong time. Fortunately it worked out very well. My dad and liddle bro Fritz became fast friends with Bob Pallari over a game of golf, while I showed them all how horrible I was at the game. I hit a glass door(miraculously didnt break) on a house near the course along with a number of other inanimate objects. Seriously, I need to stick to climbing. The only climbing highlight was getting to scramble the small rockpile below on top of San Jacinto Peak near Palm Springs.

OMFG!

2007-12-18T10:38:00.000-08:00

I am so happy right now.

Reason #1
The guy at work who was threatening to send me back to New Mexico for the whole month of January just lost the bid on this NM project so I dont have to go!!! Hooray!!!

Reason #2
Col and I put in a second bid at asking price last night on the house and this one should go through. In a few days we will have a house! On the agenda is a large house party once we get partially moved in, so stay in touch. Jan 31 is the move in date.

Nu Haus

2007-12-14T13:38:00.000-08:00

Col and I have been semi-joking about owning our own place for a while now. Every other month or so I will see a IE window open on Col's computer with house listings around here, as if to say "Look, I want a house. You should too. Here is what is available this month." So I pretend like I didnt see the price and say "that sounds like a great idea!"
Up until this month, that had been enough to stave off her "nest building" instincts. Then I caved and said "lets go look at this one!" So now we have an offer on a house. If you would like to see it, it is here. I am stoked on two things in particular. Ok, three things. One, is the monstrosity of a back yard; garden potential is endless! Two, Colleen ceded that the garage would be my man-cave and it will have a boulder wall, the likes of which the world has never seen. Three is the hot tub, 'nuff said. And one more addition is a riding lawnmower that we included in the bid that I can get wasted and ride around on. (Can they give DUI for lawnmower riding?)
Now I will tell you where it is, but you have to promise not to ridicule us. It is in NORTH Albany. Emphasis on "North." For those of you reading who dont know Oregon, Albany is a little trashy in places. There is a paper mill nearby that makes the whole town smell like farts when there is a South wind, and the people in Albany worship Walmart. North Albany is the nice side of town, on the more exclusive side of the river. We have a round-a-bout instead of a stoplight and we shop online instead of Walmart. You cant make fun of us for living there, nosiree! We'll see how the bid goes. It isn't ours yet...

Whoa and Awww

2007-12-04T19:30:00.000-08:00

I am in Arizona for a conference and couldn't come up with anything creative to blog about, so here is this.

How? I dont know.

Awww.

Ahhhh its great to be home >:(

2007-11-27T13:48:00.000-08:00

My mom asks me why I think she is insane. Now (as if this is a first) I have a concrete example that I can show her :)
First a little background: several years ago, my mom started getting really paranoid that someone was stalking her. Here is the evidence she had to support her theory; rocks in the front yard landscaping were being turned over in the middle of the night ( ooOH!), scratches in the furniture were appearing while she was out (I can remember putting one of those in as a child, but she wont listen), bolts holding things together in the house were being loosened (god forbid that should happen after 15 years of structural neglect!), a bike also disappeared out of the front yard (again obviously the stalker) and the list has gone on for the last 5 or so years.
In response to this threat she has this house wired up like Fort Fucking Knox!!!! There is a motion sensor in every room, all the doors are alarmed, there are video cameras everywhere (mission impossible style in the smoke alarms too), and for several months, she would sneak my brothers out of the house after dark so the evil doer wouldn't see, and a retired policeman/PI would come and sit in the house all night waiting for said evildoer to come and loosen more screws (there werent any left to loosen in my moms head though). All the while I am sitting back enjoying the show whenever I come to visit.
I woke up this morning to the house alarm. Yes all 50,000 watts of screaming highpitched siren. Apparently when my mom left this morning she forgot I was here and reset the alarm. Isnt that safe of her! When I rolled over in bed, that triggered the motion sensor. The security company calls but because I am not on the approved security list (she wont put me on because she isnt entirely convinced I am not the stalker) they cant deactivate the alarm. Apparently they were able to get ahold of her at the school eventually. She told them I was ok, and to reset the alarm. So they did. It stopped for 3 seconds, just enough time for me to take out my earplugs, and then started again! They reset it, but didnt turn it off. By this point the neighbors are coming by to see what is up; I just shake my head, they nod, and walk away. Mom wont give me her passowrd (remember I might still be the one turning over rocks in the night) and insists she is driving the 30 min home to deactivate it herself. Awesome. Earplugs in, knife in hand, I went about "deactivating" the alarms by cutting wires until I was either shocked or the thing shut up. All but the outside alarm are now "deactivated" as I sit and wait for psycho lady to get home.
Oh, whatddaya know! the alarm turned off again! Now I get to sit perfectly still while typing until she gets home so I dont trip the motion sensor again.
Welcome to my life!
I want to get back to Oregon.

Global Warming

I love Oregon

2007-11-20T12:13:00.000-08:00

I think Sid the ferret is the perfect pet for me. The similarities are uncanny. The little bugger likes to play in the dirt, so do I. He likes to sleep away the day, so do I. I like entertainment, and he is definitely entertainment. A dog sounds fun too though. :)

On the home front, my old guy roommate moved out. Good news right? Not when it means an older, creepier guy moves in. This guy is an inescapable talker! And he is one of those old guys who doesn't care what folks think of him so he just speaks his mind. Colleen was over the other night and he made several sexist/sexual comments at her and the women he was watching on TV at the time. Col finally started laying into him a bit when he would say shit like that and I had to seperate them. The good news about this is I talked to my boss and he is releasing me from my "training" which allows me to move down to Ctown. That'll probably happen some time later this winter. Depends on how soon this guy gets on my nerves.

It is also great to be back in Oregon with sane, mostly normal people. Mormonland and little mexico were too much. Colleen and I did enjoy ourselves in Zion though. WWe spent several days slot canyoning and hiking around before driving back. We rented wetsuits, she brought climbing gear and we did Pine Creek Canyon (right under the long tunnel) and Keyhole Canyon. Col and I climbed to the top of Angels Landing in under an hour (3-4 hrs round trip in book). Oh yea!

The Virgin R. Narrows

The Virgin R. NarrowsColleen horizontally chimneyed over hundreds of feet of the water because she didn't want to get wet!Gotta love the swims!After Keyhole canyon.Col on a freehanging rappel.Desert Gambel Oak.

some math

2007-11-04T18:48:00.000-08:00

October 4 = Last time I slept in my own bed,
28 = # of days I have worked in the last 31 days,
12 = aprox. average hours worked per work day(probably higher),
3167 = monthly salary,
28 X 12 = 336 hrs worked in a month,
$3167 / 336 = $9.42 per hr.
I made more than that per hr my sophmore year of highschool. I just hope that between having a good portion of time off during winter and not having to pay for gas I am averaging more than $9.42 per hour over the year.
And what has that $9.42 gotten me? Today I spent the day hiking and conversing with a Baptist Minister/Priest/Rabbi/Whatever from Texas. I got to learn about how the beautiful rock layers exposed in Zion are actually the product of one cataclysmic flood caused by God just several thousand years ago (the flood and sediment came from the mid atlantic ridge). Oh, and the slot canyons around the area are cracks where the biblical flood rushed up from under the continents. Yea, thats what I said. And just to really fit the stereotype, he started one story with "I really like little boys" (verbatim!) Oh, and apparently womens' best way to express their love to their husbands by doing dishes and taking care of kids because it is the man's responsibility to earn money, take care of finances... Again, you get the idea.
Another interesting thing about this hike is that there are 2-3 large felines in the immediate vicinity of our trail. One of us has been hiking into the burned area we are spraying every day to be a ground spotter for the helicopter. The "trail" is a sandy ridge that we bushwack into the boonies for 4.3 miles. Each day for the last several days new cougar tracks have been appearing, paralleling our footprints. There are 3 distinct tracks, one large and two smaller cats (one may be a large bobcat). So we have started hiking in pairs now. Isn't that sketchy?!?
So lets see what else... My boss choked me yesterday, I have made a name for myself with a rather Keeganesque comment yesterday that apparently is funny enough to tell EVERYONE currently residing within a 20 mile radius of the park, I now have a webcam, so I can talk to you on skype face to face, I wake up at 4:30 to get to work before the sun rises, and the glimmering light at the end of the tunnel is that Thursday is the tentative date for completion of this project. Colleen is coming out here to visit me and we are going to hike some slot canyons together.
And my profound though of the day is: Whenever I hear someone say "slot canyon" I secretly replace "slot" with "slut" and giggle to myself. Yup, welcome to the world of Ian

I climbed a mountain next to Checkerboard Mesa and got to watch sunrise near the top.

My truck is the little one off my right shoulder :)

In the park.

Holy crap!

2007-11-01T19:51:00.000-07:00

Apparently the canadians take huge shits. Well, when 10,000 people shit at the same time at least, this is what happens (instigated by a radio dj apparently)

Skype

2007-10-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

I am on skype now. Search my name or roth.ian and we can talk over the interweb like the techno geeks we are.

Big Pimpin in Mormon land

2007-10-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

How much do you like your boss? Would you live with him? And work with him? All in the same day? Basically, this is the next two weeks of my life; chillin with the boss man 24/7. I hope I don't go insane. But it is probably going to be hard to go insane living an a castle! UAP got us a house just outside Zion NP that is a palace really. I am watching TV in front of the biggest non-theater screen I have ever seen. My bed has 11 pillows for god sakes! If that isn't a sign of luxury, I dont know what is. I'll put more pictures up soon, because Colleen, I know this house is pretty much your dream house.

Oh, and if you haven't already, I highly recommend statcounter. It lets you see all sorts of cool stuff about who is looking at your blog. I got over 30 hits on Tuesday fyi, with a number of them coming from New Zealand (Jake's friends I assume). Just random little factoids like that. And it is easier to put onto your blog now that the template function in blogger has been streamlined.

Photos from Nowhere, NM

2007-10-21T14:42:00.001-07:00

Road Trippin

Apparently this is the place to be if you are a buzzard. There were a hundred or so.

Here is what I get to watch all day. Kinda fun! I turned down the chance to ride in the hopper on the plane though.

These guys just roamed free around the airport.

Old style windmills are still very commonly used across the landscape.

We had to use a county road as a landing strip for a few days.

Hot New Mexico Nights

2007-10-20T19:51:00.001-07:00

Dude, NM seriously sucks. I am going insane. There is no one to socialize with except for 8 smelly alcoholics who I work with on this project. Sorry guys, I really dont want to go to the secret society sausage fest that is the "Moose Lodge" (apparently some member only fraternal org). So, I sit here and bitch. I can't wait to get back to OR. First thing I am going to do is go on a several day climbing adventure (weather permitting) and hike in the oh so glorious trees. The weird thing about NM is that if there is a tree around, chances are it was planted by a human. Trees just dont grow here. How depressing for someone who majored in forestry. I just dont fit in here. 24 more hours and then at least I'll be in Zion NP where trees do grow.
Oh yea, last thing I have to do for this project is Monday I am meeting with a General in the US Army at white sands missile range. The pilots have to fly over the range for several of the BLM units and we have to go talk him into giving us permission. I dont think I have ever met a general before. How cool. NM still sucks. Maybe not Taos tho.

Espionage

2007-10-16T17:23:00.000-07:00

Today, Colleen bought her wedding dress. And I know that it is customary that the groom doesn’t see the bride in the gown until wedding day, but you know me. I gotta see it. I have been plotting for weeks on how to get a peek at the dress, and I have been very forthcoming to Colleen about my desires to glimpse the dress. But I hadn’t yet figured out a way. Tailing her to the dress fitting shops wouldn’t work because they certainly wouldn’t let a man in there even if I was able to successfully follow her and Alyssa to a place.

So she calls me today to tell me that she just ordered the dress, and that she sent pictures of it to her mom and sis. Well, what is the easiest way to send photographs these days? EMAIL! ...And I have her login info. This was too easy! She buys the dress and I get to see the same day. And better yet, she is wearing it! But as I am weighing the options, the thought occurs to me that this was way too easy. Hardly even sporting. I didn’t have to work to get the coveted prewedding glance at all. She practically spoon fed me the dress pics. (which was a flag in itself that she might be throwing me a red herring) So over the phone I informed her of my plan and had her believing for a short while that I had indeed seen her wearing it. To my surprise, she really didn’t even seem to mad about it. Just surprised that my supposed coup had occurred so quickly and flawlessly. I eventually let her know that I would indeed see it, but under far more sporting circumstances. This was just too easy and I felt bad not having to fight tooth and nail for a glimpse of it. I’ll see it. Just you wait. *shit eating grin*

Damn dogs

2007-10-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

I decided I would try running again because it is the easiest way to get out the energy that I have pent up which I cant get out at work. I ran down a street that we drive sometimes. Kinda rural, but it looked ok. Oh yea, and it was dark too. There were a few sets of scary dogs behind too short fences but just when I was coming back a dog found its way through a gate it's owner was trying to close and chased me. I got a nice little chomp on the calf by a PITBULL! I love dogs and all, but come on people!
Speaking of people, in Utah, Texas, and now New Mexico noone shops anywhere but WalMart. In all three states I have asked around patiently trying to find someone who knows of a non walmart grocery store, but no one does! "I think theres a walmart nearby" is all I got. Just being immersed in the culture of white trashiness down here makes me treasure the northwest so much. Even the trashy folks in Oregon are way cooler than trashy people down south. Oh, and the standard question when you order ANY food down here is "Do ya want da white gravy or da brown gavy?" I got asked if I wanted gravy for my halibut steak! WTF PEOPLE!

Roadtrip to no where

2007-10-07T20:57:00.001-07:00

I have officially decided that Utah is one of my new favorite places. On the trip south I spent a lot of time on less traveled highways and random roads. The high country of southern utah is just amazing and I have to go back to explore it. All the diversity in that state and some of Arizona made the drive on Friday far more pleasureable than most endurance drives I have been on.
Along the way I noticed a funny little phemomenon. So you have seen the movie Super Troopers right? Ok, in the beginning one guy has a dummy in his squad car parked o the highway shoulder. Well, several towns in UT actually employ this tactic. Is that a little weird? Once I saw it was a dummy, I had to turn around and get a picture. Then I saw 3 more in the subsequent small towns along the highway.
Oh yea, and another weird thing about UT is that it seems that the cool thing to do is put the first letter of your town (or any random letter) in 100 ft tall white lettering on a hillside nearby. I tried to spot the whole alphabet, but only saw about half the letters.

The weather out in UT was classic desert thunderstorms while I was there and it gave me quite a show at every viewpoint. The pic left is of a massive rain, wind and cloud front swallowing a 1500 ft tall cliff band.

I managed to make it out to Hueco Tanks, TX today for a few hours of bouldering at the agreed upon "best" bouldering area in the world. The features are similar to Smith actually, but the rock

quality is much more uniform and solid. I didnt have much time to take pics but I snagged on e on this V3 that I worked for a while. I got it after a while, but I missed the pad from a ways up on one fall and sketched myself a bit. When bouldering, spotters are good to have around. I found some eventually who were local and hung out with them for a bit on a fun cave problem.

A good idea

2007-09-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

I have started hording the little shampoo bottles from the hotels I stay in. This might sound a little weird at first, but I swear there is method to the madness. No it is not so I can accumulate a lifetime supply of free shampoo, it really has nothing to do with the shampoo. The little 1 oz. bottles are perfect for camping. Ever wanted to bring that meal that required oil or butter but didnt want to bring a jug of olive oil along? Well, now that I have 50,000 one oz. plastic bottles, I can bring along 50,000 oz. of whatever! They also make good light weight spice holders, can be refilled for travel shampoo holders, pill bottles, I mean, what cant you use them for really? They are so useful! I am a genious!

Work Stress

2007-09-25T18:00:00.000-07:00

I now know what work stress is all about. I went to sleep last night a little curious as to why my daily seeding records were a little wonky, but didnt think about it too much. When I got to the warehouse to pick the seed for the day, I found that there was 62 bags of seed left. I was expecting 38. 62-38= a surplus of 24. each bag of seed being several thousand dollars, that is an expensive fucking mistake! So I promptly began to freak out and try to figure out what went wrong. Now I am no math whiz, but I was fairly confidant in the basic addition and subtraction and multiplication that the job had required so far. After spending 2 hours recalulating EVERYTHING I had done on EVERY day the last week and a half, I couldnt find the error. I felt like I was taking crazy pills! So I started trying to figure out a way to explain this to my boss and the people who were paying for this all. In a really basic little calculation, I found the error I had been hunting for; and it wasn't even my fault! Hurrah!!! My boss had given us some wrong percentages on the first day in plan for the while project. It was his $30,000 mistake! Hah! So now I get to call my new boss nad let him know he FUCKED UP (though probably in slightly more diplomatic terms).
What a day. I need a drink. PBR, you mah only friend!

PS, Greg finally jumped on the bandwagon and got a blog.

What I find on shoulders

2007-09-21T18:39:00.001-07:00

I have been in Idaho this week (and will be next week too) working on a UAP roadside reseeding project. Unfortunately, the roadside is 4 lanes of 75+ mph traffic along I-84 east of Boise. Lovely. I have only had one near death experience so far, and am only half way through the 2 week project. I have found that truckers are generally the most considerate drivers on the road, while the general public can't follow construction signs at all. While working extensively on the shoulders I have found a porno, numerous soda bottles of urine (that pop when the seed drills run over them), some hand tools, but the most disturbing thing by far is the number of bolts, and other small yet important parts of the vehicles we drive every day. With the amount of fastening devices lost by the motoring public, it is a wonder engines don't just drop out of cars more frequently.
Living out of a hotel room all by oneself is quite lonely really. I am not in any one place long enough to find a groove that fits me, so I just hang out and try to not get fat by doing situps. I feel like I am in fight club, with all the single serving crap around me. Anyway, I'll be back for a while and then I am off to New Mexico for a month. Not quite sure where in NM but I'll let you know. Oh, and if you want to go climb Epinephrine in Red Rocks, I have to drop off a trailer in Vegas on the way down and am looking for a climbing partner around the 7th or 8th of october.

To

2007-09-11T23:51:00.000-07:00

Today I died a little inside. On my first day of work in Hood River I watched my boss report a grow operation we found in a persons front yard while going house to house. We were telling neighbors not to worry about the helicopter that would be flying around their houses next week and the first house we started at had several healthy plants growing in a nice little garden with other veggies. I had to play dumb and then laugh at the pothead jokes for the next hour. Granted I can understand why he hates pot farmers (he was shot at several years ago after stumbling on another larger grow) but was it really necessary to call this personal use stash in? I am at serious odds with my boss, but he doesn't know it yet... Other than that, I found out i am going to Idaho this saturday for 2 weeks, then to Zion for a week, then straight to New Mexico for 3 weeks. Hopefully tat will be all the travel until spring; then it starts up again. I am realizing this job is going to give me lots of $ but no time to spend it. Quite the little catch-22.

The best of the cascades

2007-08-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

For those of you who remember that hilarious moment in Sunriver several years ago; I found this recently in a Bend newspaper.
"QUIT STARING AT MY BACKFAT!"

So yea, responsibility just smacked me upside the head this week. I am engaged, deep in the throes of planning a wedding(no bridezilla yet!), got a real job that pays really well, stopped smoking herb, don't have internet or TV at home, and have a new pet ferret. My only fear about these changes is how it will affect my climbing schedule...Holy Hell!
Speaking of the wedding, the official date is June 21st 2008(summer solstice). It will be outside of Redmond (sounds like a weird place for a wedding, I know, but it is a nice place, Really!) Besides, if it is in Redmond, you can come to the wedding and then climb at Smith the next day! You should be stoked we are so considerate of our guests! For those who don't climb, we are going to have a bunch of other fun stuff to do for the day before and after. I feel like such a dork, wanting to tell everyone about wedding stuff, but then I have to remind myself that that is just chick stuff and no one really cared how easy it was to get the location or how great the event is going to be. That is all chick stuff anyway right? Ok, I will try to keep a lid on it, unless you ask. Don't tell anyone I am geeking out about a wedding, k?
My summer out here is drawing to a close and I figured that since I have seen some of the most incredible terrain that Oregon has to offer I should share it with the rest of you. Hikes to add to the "To Do List":

Spring:
Metolius River East and West; Two trails travel from where the river emerges out of the ground from under Black Butte through INCREDIBLE wildflowers from may to July.
Park Meadow; a long day emerges into a large perfect meadow with views of all the Sisters and Broken Top.
3 Finger Jack/PCT; See the B&B Fire rejuvenate itself and get excellent views in every direction as you climb the ridge to the base of 3FJ.

Summer:
Lava Camp Lake to Scott Pass; Hike a steep trail through massive old growth western hemlock and emerge amidst two alpine lakes nestled in the craters of several geologically recent lava flows. Overlooks EVERYTHING! (Mary's Peak to the Ochocos, Mt Jefferson to Mt. Thielsen)
Tam Macarthur Rim; Start at a large alpine lake and gradually hike up a rim trail that puts you atop a thousand feet wall directly above where you started. Continue on to the base of Broken Top's jagged peaks to add another 2 miles.
Green Lakes to Soda Creek Trail; If you can survive the crowds on Green Lakes trail, continue on 1/3 of the way around the base of Broken Top through alpine meadows and drop back down to the parking lot on Soda Creek Trail. This trail is unique for its flower diversity and longevity because numerous springs emerge along the trail allowing wildflowers which arent usually found in the area to grow in giant colorful fields. One of my absolute favorites!

Mountain Biking:
Deschutes River Trail: Offers easy riding in a gorgeous setting.
Mt. Bachelor to Lava Lake: Winding trails allow a lot of fast riding.
Mrazic Trail: The "best" according to the locals. 3,000ft + elev. loss
Bachelor To Bend: Some of the most varied riding I have ever done. 3,000ft elev. loss

Oh, and if you are cooped up in a big city, or weather has got you down, or are drunk want to get a workout, try "Table Traversing!" This was introduced to me by Logan and some friends of his. What you do is lay on top of the table and traverse over under and back over the long ways of the table without touching the ground. It is Intense! I highly recommend trying it at home.

It rained on Mt Rainier

2007-08-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

Well, snowed really at the higher elevations. Several of us tried to summit Sat night but got turned back by gnarly winds and several inches of snow. Greg and Kalin were the only ones sane enough to stay in their tents while we went out in the storm. We woke up at 11pm to start the climb from camp Muir, left at midnight and were back in bed by 4:30 am. My body has no clue what happened. Maybe it was all just a bad dream. Well, we did eat pretty well. We had 6 boxes of Annies andI think there was nearly 7 lbs of 4 different types of cheese for the 7 of us to mix into the various meals. Yum!

The hike up was pleasant.
The whiteout hit us just before camp muir.At camp gearing up the afternoon before the summit attempt.we consoled ourselves by climbing in crevasses on Sunday.I don't know if we could have timed the wildflowers any better.CMFs! (charismatic mega fauna)

Col survived

2007-08-20T10:19:00.001-07:00

yea, she is ok, as we all knew she would be. It is just relieving to hear it for sure. I will let her tell everyone about it when she gets home, TOMORROW! Woo hoo!
*Ian does a little dance around the computer*

major Peruvian earthquake

2007-08-15T22:37:00.000-07:00

Peru just experienced a 7.5 quake today(huge). It was centered off the coast of Lima and seems to have shaken that city pretty badly. I wanted to let folks reading this know that after doing some figuring, Colleen is probably out of harms way for now. She was six(?) hundred miles southeast near lake titicaca and I am hoping that that is far enough away from the epicenter. Keep your fingers crossed that we will hear from her soon.

2007-08-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

Holy Hell! I got a ferret. Is that really the pet that you imagined me getting as a first pet? No. But the little guy needed a home because his original owner decided ferrets weren't her thing. My roommate had Sid (I added "Vicious" for a last name) for a while but I saw what was going on there and that ferret was going to end up dead or lost by the end of the month if Vanessa kept him. So I took over the little bugger. I really like him. Yes, he likes to get in trouble ("Trouble" is his nickname). The first night I let him stay in my room out of the cage, he tipped over a full glass of water onto my head at about one in the morning. It was all I could do not to strangle him. And living up to the ferret reputation he likes to hide things. His favorite items seem to be my crocs, a baggie of change, the kitten's hemp mouse, and best of all, my dayplanner. I love the little guy though.

I am finally getting a little burnt out on hiking. I was wondering how long I would make it this summer. I still haven't started the new job. This hiring process is getting a little too drawn out. I have verbal confirmation that I am the guy, but havent signed anything yet. I met my new boss last night for dinner when he was passing through Bend and that was nice to connect up with him again at least. I am going to be busy this winter though; I have a 400 question test that I have to take to get my herbicide consultants license and the study materials came in a big box. I thought I left school so I could make fun of Colleen for having to do work at home. Now I am getting it. Although, I guess I am going to be working from home part of the time. *big smile*
(wow, I managed to start almost every sentence of that last paragraph with "I")

On Friday Logan, Dev, myself and some others are heading to WA to attempt Emmons Glacier route on Mt. Rainier. I'll let you know how that goes. Thats all for now. I have more pictures but cant post them from the work computer. They'll get up eventually, I just had to post something so you wouldn't think I was dead.