I have underestimated California

Wow, I had quite the evening in SF. I figured the night before I left for Idaho(ski vacation) I'd try to get out for one last night with old friends. Unfortunately everyone was busy. Everyone but Ali. We went to meet her uncle and his lady in the city for what I thought would be a fairly benign night. I was told to bring a santa hat, but couldn't get one so I went without it. I met them at a bar after driving the steep SF hills witha stick shift in confusion for a half hour.
I should have brought a santa hat. The bar was filled with people dressed up as santa and wearing santa hats. our bunch knew some folks in the santa bunch and proceded to bar hop with 40 or so santas by way of school bus(a guy rented it and a driver for the night) until 4 am. I vaguely remember a whole bar being lit on fire with 151, taking a santa hat fom a puking chick who got tossed off the bus, walking a really long way when the bus left us at the end of the night, and the topper was getting to my car at the end of the night (i was in no condition to drive, dont worry) and finding that the parking garage was locked up. I think I got 1.5 hrs of sleep that night. Then I was on a plane right that morning to ID.
Oh, and Idaho was way cool too. Calling the snow sparse is a pretty generous satement. There was maybe 6 inches on the lower mountain where snowmaking wasnt happening. Never the less, the day we got there they opened the upper bowls which had enough snow on the north slopes and I got to ride dry desert powder all day. SO Sweet! It was really nice to hang out with my two other brothers too. It's been a while since the three of us have seen each other and the usual shenanigans were in order.
Now I am off to Nevada and Utah for another adventure!

Christmas party

My bottle of Makers Mark died a noble death last night. I think that the apartment we were having the party at in SF could only have fit more people if you had started stacking them up. Thank god for the roof though, we were able to get up there and relax away from the crowd. Though, the roof was a slightly dangerous spot to be I guess. We were warned about the "Death Holes" and truly, if you fell into one you would have a nasty 5 story fall into the inbetween-apartments-space that has no ground exit (The only purpose I could see for the death holes was to have a window to vent the air in the bathrooms of each apartment). I guess you can also talk to your neighbor across the way when you are peeing or something.
Ahah, some more of the night just came back to me as I am writing this! One of the few places we were able to find seating was in the bathtub. It was a little damp we found out later but it did make for a place to sit. Man, I wonder what I dont remember.

Oh, and check this out, so I borrowed my dad's mercedes for the night (sweet!) and I go to pick up Kevin before the party. On the way, I encounter a stop sign. Upon accelerating the trunk of the car(unbeknownst to me) opens and dumps some of my dads stuff into the road. I realize the trunk is open several miles later, stop, close it, and go back to pick up anything that might have fallen out. It opens up again(found out later the latch was busted) and really dumps everything out all over the road this time, right in a blind corner on a very busy 45 mph road. In 5 minutes I managed to not get hit by traffic, slam my thumb in the car door, lose the car keys, and have one of the headlights go out. I was seriously pissed by the time I got everything sorted out. Helluva start to a night!

In California again

Guess where I am! Oh, yea, I already told you.

Just chilling out here trying to survive the nightmare that is my family. Well, Alec and Fritz are cool at least.

Phaedra (roomie) gave me a book that I am halfway through called Youth In Revolt. It is the diaries of a 14 year old who has a seriously disfunctional family and develops a slightly destructive alter ego named Francois (say it like a frenchie). I am having a slightly hard time relating to it being as I was 14 ten years ago, but it is still funny as hell to see the similarities between his life and mine (or every 14 year old male for that matter). There are definitely some serious dissimilarities as well (what was he thinking!). I'll tell you if it gets 0,1,or 2 thumbs up shortly. I am sure I will finish it in the next few days seeing as I am stuck at home without a car and 10 miles from the nearest anything )if you dont count the ritzy country club across the street [I'd fit in there just greeeat]).

I cant wait for thursday! Then the partying in SF starts and I can just sleep on random people's couches until sunday.

The plan

Colleen and I were driving back from P-town the other day and started discussing how whatever new thing we do as a couple, one person always has the advantage because they have done that activity before. Neither of us has really started something as a couple without having one person somewhat experience in the activity.
Example:
Climbing- I had a head start on skill because I had already done that before Colleen had.
Running- Colleen was already a runner before me so I was inherently at a disadvantage by starting late (of course this implies that there is an amount of competetition, that we all know that relationships have none of HAH!)

We realized that as a couple, we couldn't think of a single thing that we could start where neither of us would have some sort of a disadvantage when compared to the other. The only thing we could finally come up with that neither of us really had a disadvantage at was weight lifting (kinda random but whatever). I think the logic was that neither of us had ever really weightlifted to build any sort of muscle. Sure we both had done it to "stay in shape" but that is more just maintaining than building up muscle.

Long story short (because I have to go shooting in a little bit with Tyler) we went out and got weights, a bench, and are going to see who can increase(percentage increase) biceps, chest, thighs, and calves between January and May.
I gotta say, this makes Col and I sound a little weird now that I am rereading this
but we will see how it goes.

We also realized that this is kinda a newyears resolution kinda thing, BUT, we aren't calling it that, because that would be weird.

And, here is a pic from Greg that I found entertaining.

I broke my wrist, kinda.

I did the drive to california and was off on my predicted arrival time by 15 minutes (over a 10 hr drive, thats a pretty good estimate). I then went up to san francisco to chill with the homies, and chill we did! Drank a bunch at a friends house and then decided to go out into the street (SF is famous for its steep hills) and longboard said hills. My first run was awesome, I carved the shit outta that street! The second run, I was doing even better, ...and then I was sliding across the pavement. My skateboard trucks found a HUGE pothole that I drunkenly didn't see and I went flying, landing on my left side and getting roadrash like none other (I gotta say though, I have a lot of respect for arcteryx stuff now. There was skin on the inside of the jacket but not a single thread was torn or scuffed on the outside of my softshell.) I landed on my wrist and it immediately swelled up to the point that I could barely move it. I went to the doctor the next day and she looked at the xrays and said that my radius was fractured near the end. So I got it all splinted up and was planning on going in to get it put in a cast on monday. Then on sunday the same lady calls and says that the head radiologist took another look atthe xrays and decided that I had just sprained my wrist really badly. Hooray! now I can go on the RedRocks trip again! And then I found out that Bryan cancelled the trip when I got back to Oregon. Grrr...

Tons of fun

I had one (possibly the most) fun day at work on saturday. As they cut trees down for timber harvesting on the school forest the limbs and whatnot get piled into huge (10-20ft) piles. Then, after they have dried out all summer, they get burned to release nitrients back into the soil and also to make room for seedling planting. Well, being a pyromaniac, I was ecstatic when the guy incharg of burning asked me and a few others to come help. Our tools for the job were simple; gallon ziploc baggies filled with gelled gasoline (napalm grenades), a backpack sprayer filled with diesel (flamethrower), and a leafblower (to really get the fire hot!). Man, I have never had so much fun. Do you have any IDEA what a leafblower on high power does to a 20 foot tall bonfire!?! It is AWESOME! And there were nearly 100 piles to burn. Man, what a day.

Now I am off to Cali for a week to visit folks for thanksgiving, and hang out with buddies. Man I hate that drive!

Reading is good for the... the... Well, it sure kills time!

Colleen, being a language arts teacher, has gotten me back to reading books lately. I finished "A Walk In The Woods" by Bill Bryson recently. If you havent heard of it, it tells of his mission to hike the AT with a friend and their adventures along the way. I, along with the New York Times best sellers list, found this to be a very funny book. Col also went to the library and grabbed me "Adrenaline" from 2001. Its basically a collection of short stories(good for sufferers of ADD) that are generally connected by the theme of adventure. There is the first hand account of Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden's being taken hostage in Pakistan, a man who was a first responder to an Ebola outbreak in Congo, and several climbing stories. I found a brilliant quote which I think can apply to many climbers (well, males at least).

"Like, say, fighter pilots, surgeons, and hit men, climbers have a prizewinning talent for disassociating from emotion, a quality that is useful in the mountains. It is considerably less useful in relationships." -Jack Turner

Oh, and another thing. I recently joined Gmail and have a new email address. It is now roth.ian(at)gmail(dot)com

Lets see here. Now where is a good photo to add to the post? From a kayak trip on the Salmon R. :

Keep on keepin' on

I do still exist, but you wouldn't guess it by checking this blog. Whatever, me and my busy, busy life (Yea right!) have very little time to update this. There will be a fall party soon to celebrate the fact that through a group effort, we produced around 8 gallons of hard cider courtesy of Cody's apple press. A real theme for the party is still necessary and you can submit suggestions in the commments section at the end of the post.
I got a new job at the forest for the next 6 months or so. I will be working full time for 2 nice guys named Brent and Rich. We are going to be doing reforestation work at the various forests owned by the school. I get to supervise planting crews :P and measure seedling growth to make sure the clearcuts are growing up properly. Basically, it is me walking around in the forest, in the rain, in the mud, avoiding wild animals all day. Oh well. It pays.
In the last two months I have gone rafting climbing, hiking, fishing, scuba diving and biking. Colleen and I raced in the Flying "M" Ranch "adventure" style duathalon. She ran and I biked. Despite a 20 min detour on my part (I was mildly lost compared to some I found out later) we placed first in our team category (out of 3 teams total). I was just stoked to make it to the finish. I carried my bike at least 1 of the 11 miles due to the clay-like mud that liked to clog up tires.
Ok, I need to do some work, seeing as I am at work.
Peace out.

The internet for dummies(and everyone else too!)

OK, so, you like to blog. Sweet! But! there are things you must know which will help you in your blogging journey. Such as: spammers and web advertisers will be much less likely to bug your blog "comments" section if you require "word verification" on your little plot of internet. To ward off these Evil Doers (as The Shrub likes to call them) in "Dashboard" you can click on settings>comments> and then near the bottom is an option for "word verification," click YES so random internet uglies won't bother you anymore.

OK, You're welcome and I am off to Bomb's to watch Stairway Denied and then sleep so I can be rested for a day of first ascents with Mooner in the mountains of Orygon. I'll tell ya how it went!

OSHA; Your father was a hamster, and your mother smelt of elderberries!

The un-OSHA approved highlites of the summers work so far:
(and I didn't commit most of them)
blackberry fights.
swimming in Cronemiller lake in our underware in front of the "no swimming" sign as recreationists pass.
flipping a small tractor.
Almost losing the F-350 off the forest road embankment. Twice.
Getting the GMC 2500 stuck with no radio or tools.
Flying, attacking "mink-alopes" in the shop.
Antagonizing of hornet nests.
Sleeping.
The "pulaski throw" event.
Dismembering large roadkill.
Wheelies on the ATVs.
Riding powercarriers.
Monica.
Mason's Whaaamp!
The toxic wasteland that is in both the burn pile and the gas house.
Trying to cut a leg off with a chainsaw.
Pissing off wedding parties.

Rules of Funhole

Funhole; a person who is wacky, zany, fun, weird, atypical. A funhole is a person who is the opposite of an asshole.
The first rule of Funhole is; Do Not Talk About Funhole.
The second rule of Funhole is; Do Not Talk About Funhole!
Be careful about throwing this word out in random conversation, or wearing it proudly displayed on your T-shirt, for some unknowing person may misunderstand the term funhole to actually be a sexual reference. The term may not be self appointed either. To be a funhole, you must be approved by the committee of four (or was it five?). These are the rules.

http://www.cutegirlsdoasia.blogspot.com/ for more info.

Coming to terms with myself

I am going to finally admit that I have fallen off the blogger boat. Colleen just joined the pirate crew as I walked the plank. (her blog is now at http://www.colleenpal.blogspot.com/) I havent updated this in what, like, 3 months or something. Absurdity. I haven't forgotten about it either. I just look at it and don't want to take the time to update it. I want to write a new post but don't want tot take the time to. Things like eating, sleeping, and climbing are getting in the way of blogging. But if I were to stop doing these things in order to make time to blog, then I wouldnt have any thing to blog about. Damn you Catch-22!
Its not like I haven't been doing anything worth blogging about. Its just that when I get to the computer, I can't remember what I tried to remember to blog about earlier in the day. So I will fall back on the usual "here's what I have been up to since the last post. (a lot in this case) In reverse chronological order:
Colleen and I sea-kayaked the Canadian side of the San Juan Islands in B.C. this weekend. We saw tons of cute ocean animals and got to even play with a harbor seal who seemed to think our boat rudder was a large herrring. He played with us for about 20 minutes until we left him (he would have played for ever if we had stayed).

Isn't the little guy cute! We spent 2 nights and 3 days paddling inbetween islands and had an incredible time. The 2nd night was a little creepy though. we were camped on an island next to a seriously haunted island and on the beack where we pulled our boat up on there was a VERY freshly dead seal pup, a slightly more rotten dead seal pup, and evidence of at least 2 more dead seals (4 cochlea bones). This shit gave me the heebie-jeebies for the rest of the night!


Here are some more pics from the trip which aren't of dead baby seals.



I also managed to make it up both Mt. Washington and Three Finger Jack with Logan and Lowell. Washington was a blast since I got to lead all the pitches for the first time, but 3 Finger was a disappointment. The summit pitch was fun, but the ball-bearing like approach made the climb rather unpleasant and sketchy. Nevertheless, here are some weekend photos of the fun.
and the dots around logan are hundreds of butterflies all over 3FJ.

And, as a parting gift, I present: Jon Stewart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdD5Qt3El-k I love the part at 3:10.

Just getting to the blog page was exciting; I'm on Ariel's computer and all the menus are in espanol. Anyway, I graduated from College! Survived! Yesssss! Gpa want incredible, but whatever, I made it. I'll still be around for one more term so I can have a second minor, but that is only one class away. No worries. So lets see, now I have to find some sort of permanent job.(con) THAT SUCKS! Wait no, thats cool. No more asking for money from the parents.(pro!) But I have to pay my own bills.(con) But I get to have my own life.(pro!) I dont know what I'll do.
hehe! I'm done!

Things that go clunk

I pulled a rock out of my elbow today that made a clunk on the bathtub floor. I crashed in Mac Forest on a really long first ride of the season and ate shit where the trail ends and the road begins. stupid! I have to look into getting some health insurance because I am sure that should have had stitches. Bryan was able to get the head of a qtip into the cut no problem when he was cleaning it. Anyone know of good health insureance for someone like me?

South Sister board descent

Dev, myself and Leo climbed South Sister in a 2 day trip and got the sweetest back country run ever. The pics are on my webspace but here are a few.
Classy Pabst summit photo.
Yea, we bushwacked and had to do a few stream crossings. COLD!
The heavenly summit ramp.

Car Parts

I was so stoked that I had some money saved up from this month (my bank acct is usually hovering near zero at this point in the month), but then I realized that my brakes on my car were paper thin, so I had to drop 70$ to get those fixed along with a new fuel filter which hadn't been changed in ages. During the disassembley of the front brakes, Bryan realized why my car makes a strange whirring noise; the barings are shot! crap! and a seal was broken on a ball joint in the steering, and my rear axle might be a bit loose ...basically the list kept getting bigger and bigger. Damn. Stupid cars that we can't live without. Maybe I'll just lock myself in a room with 100$ worth of top ramen and play videogames for the rest of my life. (and believe me, 100$ of ramen will last me the rest of my life)

Colleen kicks ass

I just got a call from Colleen and she got a job in Albany(20 min away) teaching! This is so huge because Oregon is one of the hardest states to get a job in as a teacher. She already has her sights set on Corvallis or Bend school districts next year but those can wait. HUGE!

And while Col is accomplishing huge things like that, I am just plodding away toward graduation and a summer job. I'll be in Corvallis for a while longer still working for the forest this summer.

6th graders are nuts

I just finished my week volunteer teaching at the Philomath 6th grade outdoor school and I gotta say, the little buggers have way too much energy. And a LOT were on ritalin, but many more needed to be on it. In all reality though, it was a ton of fun and I encourage everyone I can to volunteer for outdoor school. By the end of camp, all the staff are delerious practically. The jokes we make are just retarded sounding to anyone who hasn't been surrounded by kids and swearing is completely foreign.
I managed to learn a lot about patience in that week, but not from the kids. In my spare time I had a lot of interesting experiences with the wildlife around camp. I managed to pet a little wren after observing it for a long time and creeping closer. I followed a hummingbird to it's nest and got to look at its two baby hummingbirds which were just hours out of the egg. Each was about the size of a lima bean. Sadly I didn't have my camera handy. One of the other interesting things my kids found was a Pacific Giant Salamander that was about 10 inches long(the grow a lot bigger). I guesss they are pretty rare to see at that size.
For a few days before ODS I was at Smith climbing (cheers to no class on fridays!) and got on my hardest trad climb to date. .10a in the gorge is no small feat but I managed to get up Cruel Sister with one fall. Stoke!
After outdoor school was over I came home, repacked and went on a Mountain Club rafting trip on the Rogue river for the weekend. I can't believe it all worked out, but 34 people in seven boats and 3 kayaks made it safely down the river. The only flipped boat was Bryan's when he tried unsuccessfully to run Rainey Falls. 34 people, 10 craft, 25 gallons of beer, 3 cars, 2 nights, 0 vomits, a lot of green, and no BUIs! Woohoo!
My obligation to OMC is almost at an end, and I gotta say, I was wrong in my lamentations which began this blog in October. OMC is functioning perfectly as a community group. Through several donations we have a new library beginning, and some equipment, and soon a first aid kit. Oh, and membership for the year is at 36 currently and trips are heading out every weekend for this whole term. OMC will survive!

I survived another birthday

Yea, I'm 23 now. And really I think last night rivaled my 21er! I even got a call from Keith and Mel in Korea :) I think my dad called but I didn't notice and he probably heard me hooting and hollering at Bombs Away. Oh well. Shots are fun too. Its been a while since I've done shots at a bar.

I guess I might as well post about break as well. Col and I drove to Palm Springs in her parents new Toyota Highlander, and managed to not get lost even once because it had a snazzy GPS nav system on it. Pretty handy.
We went to Joshua Tree NP for a few hikes and climbs but mostly just relaxed, enjoying the 2 weeks we had down south.
I eventually headed out to camp with Logan, Brenton, Tyler, Ariel and Aleta in the park.
We got to go and do some incredible cracks in those 4 days. Aleta on The Gem 5.8**
From climbing my first day, I was a little disappointed about the length of a lot of the Jtree climbs, but after hanging out at Hemmingway wall I realized that there are some nice long pitches to be had around there.
Just playing with my camera in the desert

I even got on my first offwidth lead on a 5.8* in Belle CG.