2010
5 day Wilderness Living Trips:
This year was provided as a year to learn and practice fundamental skills. On these trips we would head to the woods and practice camping skills, such as cooking, keeping clean, navigation, Leave no trace, and staying safe. During these informative trips I learned a lot about group dynamics, and how the leader of the trip has a lot of responsibility. They have responsibility to be in an optimistic mood every morning, as well as a mood that will allow for people to learn. Without a good mood the learning is more difficult because the students mimic the teachers energy level. On the backpacking trip to Pharoah lake we covered a lot of ground off trail. Being off trail for me is more exciting and it exposed me to a more lively almost risky experience. I felt more on the edge when off the trail because I had to be on top of navigation all the time. If I wasnt I was lost, and being lost did not sound appealing at the time. I also enjoyed bushwhacking because I felt like more things were to be seen off the trail. It always seems more magical when I feel separate from the normal way of doing things. On the Backpacking trip to Siamese ponds wilderness, I was able to explore one of New Yorks largest caves on top of Chimney mountain. The caves were beautiful and ominous. I felt trapped inside these large dark rooms, my eyes were opened to the fact that there is so much more to earth than meets the eye. On the canoe trip I learned basics in paddling, packing, portaging, and rescues. What was exciting about this trip, for me, was the amount of ground covered in a shorter amount of time. I had always heard that it was quicker to travel by water than by foot but it was not proven to me until this trip.
This year was provided as a year to learn and practice fundamental skills. On these trips we would head to the woods and practice camping skills, such as cooking, keeping clean, navigation, Leave no trace, and staying safe. During these informative trips I learned a lot about group dynamics, and how the leader of the trip has a lot of responsibility. They have responsibility to be in an optimistic mood every morning, as well as a mood that will allow for people to learn. Without a good mood the learning is more difficult because the students mimic the teachers energy level. On the backpacking trip to Pharoah lake we covered a lot of ground off trail. Being off trail for me is more exciting and it exposed me to a more lively almost risky experience. I felt more on the edge when off the trail because I had to be on top of navigation all the time. If I wasnt I was lost, and being lost did not sound appealing at the time. I also enjoyed bushwhacking because I felt like more things were to be seen off the trail. It always seems more magical when I feel separate from the normal way of doing things. On the Backpacking trip to Siamese ponds wilderness, I was able to explore one of New Yorks largest caves on top of Chimney mountain. The caves were beautiful and ominous. I felt trapped inside these large dark rooms, my eyes were opened to the fact that there is so much more to earth than meets the eye. On the canoe trip I learned basics in paddling, packing, portaging, and rescues. What was exciting about this trip, for me, was the amount of ground covered in a shorter amount of time. I had always heard that it was quicker to travel by water than by foot but it was not proven to me until this trip.
2011
This year was full of drastic change for me, transferring schools, getting outside, and motivating others were a major part of this year. During the winter of 2011 I had classes in eastern mountaineering, and Backcountry Skiing. These courses included avalanche terrain travel and awareness, winter camping, and backcountry skiing techniques.Both courses were held in the high peaks of the Adirondack State park. I was able to enjoy a bit of cold weather suffering as well as fun. These trips helped to build character and solidify the idea that the more I put into something the more I get out of it.
Over the summer of 2011 I was Leading a challenge course program for Upward bound. This program takes in high school students that had troubled lives and prepares them for college. This was a good program for me to gain facilitation, planning, as well as safety and time management practice. I was able to motivate the students to overcome fears, build trust, as well as create a sense of comradery and friendship amongst the group of 40 students.
In the Fall of 2011 I was leading a 5 day backcountry living trip as well as going on another backcountry paddling trip on the familiar long lake to Tupper lake. Leading people in the woods allows for ideas to solidify in the mind, I learn most effectively when I am teaching a topic. The questions and dangers that I had to be aware of on this trip allowed me to have a broader sense of my surroundings. I was forced to look at things from many angles and then decide what the best decision would be for the entire group.
I also was in my second year guiding and gaining more experience paddling. This year I kayaked paddled my first class 5 run called Otterslide rapid on the Indian River, and also guided the lower Hudson at flood stage assisting in the rescue of two flipped rafts.
Over the summer of 2011 I was Leading a challenge course program for Upward bound. This program takes in high school students that had troubled lives and prepares them for college. This was a good program for me to gain facilitation, planning, as well as safety and time management practice. I was able to motivate the students to overcome fears, build trust, as well as create a sense of comradery and friendship amongst the group of 40 students.
In the Fall of 2011 I was leading a 5 day backcountry living trip as well as going on another backcountry paddling trip on the familiar long lake to Tupper lake. Leading people in the woods allows for ideas to solidify in the mind, I learn most effectively when I am teaching a topic. The questions and dangers that I had to be aware of on this trip allowed me to have a broader sense of my surroundings. I was forced to look at things from many angles and then decide what the best decision would be for the entire group.
I also was in my second year guiding and gaining more experience paddling. This year I kayaked paddled my first class 5 run called Otterslide rapid on the Indian River, and also guided the lower Hudson at flood stage assisting in the rescue of two flipped rafts.
2012
It seems funny to me, because as I write this, I realize that every year, I was learning something, then testing it. The only difference year after year is the amount of skill required. It seems that it is not the goal, but the journey to the goal, that is the most important. During this year, I completed my sophmore expedition, I also Backcountry skied in the Wasatch mountains of Utah, I did multi pitch rock climbs in NY and UT. I sea kayaked in the outer hebredes of Scotland and climbed and paddled along the coast of Whales specifically Pembrokeshire. I lead Canoeing and kayaking trips through the Adirondacks, as well as Started planning my senior expedition.
Throughout all of these experiences my connection with the outdoors and the community it attracts expanded. I feel that this relationship is expanding exponentially and it makes me wonder where I may eventually end up. Will it ever stop expanding for me?
Sophomore Expedition The Sophomore expedition I took is described in the video on this page before this. To sum it up, I enjoyed the spirit of the universe on this trip. what I mean by this is that I feel like this was the first time in my life where I felt watched over, I felt like something else was guiding me and helping me push forward into the unknown. This feeling has stuck with me, and has allowed me to do the many things I previously felt uncomfortable doing. There were many signs that I was being guided and that comfort of being guided makes me want to be a guide for someone else.
Wallface Another standout point for me this year was the climb up wallface. I was a little intimidated by this climb. I had never climbed a large multi pitch like this, and the 2 other people I was with were not extremely experienced either. It was a long night after a 4 mile hike to the cliff. Carlos, Patrick, and I decided we would sleep out under the stars because it was dark and we were too lazy to set up the tarp. We ended up regretting that as we awoke in the murkiness of 3 in the morning wet and cold. It had rained on us. We assumed the rock would be wet so we went back to sleep to allow the rock to bake in the sun for a few hours. We got up at 9 and headed to the overlook to get a view of our climb. We walked through the jurassic park-esk jungle of trees and house sized boulders to the base of the climb. We were off by 12 and headed up for 8 pitches of grade 5.5-5.8+ climbing. I climbed the first scrambly pitch to the belay which was more like a conglomerate of shrubs and broken boulders. The sun was beaming now and I had forgotten all about the nights moist sleep. As I belayed up patrick and carlos I thought of the magic this place holds. One minute I can be suffering the next, basking in the glory. Things happen so quickly in the great outdoors. Patrick reached the belay and lead the next shrubby pitch which was less than desire able. I felt bad for him because after that I lead the rest of the climbs. He must not have felt confident with himself that day, or maybe I just was overly confident and excited to lead. Either way I scrambled my way up the diagonal to the beautiful bivy ledge directly below the final two pitches. By now it was about 6:30. The sun sets at 8:30, so I took a look at the guidebook and headed up for the hardest climbing of the day. I noticed in the book that I was supposed to split the pitch into 2 due to rope drag, but I figured to save time I would struggle through it. This was a mistake. As I climbed higher and higher the rope tugged at me with all its force. every step required me to tug back at the rope with all my force. The biggest challenge was that my mind was worried about the time. I got to the crux of the climb and had to pull about 10 feet of rope so that I would have enough to make it through the crux, I climbed through the crux but then did not have enough to get around the bulge. this was a pain. I had to down climb through the crux again and pull more rope, I was in for quite a ride if I fell here. This was one of those moments in my life where I shut my brain off and let my body and spirit do the working. I flowed through the moves effortlessly to the top and was exuberant at the sight of the setting sun! As I belayed the boys up I thought about the prior nights suffering, the prior pitches suffering, and then I realized that I was in for more suffering on the way down. Rappelling through Shrubberies is no easy work. and I had an incling that it may be another exhausting few hours. Luckily it wasnt as bad as I thought and we got down and scored a piece of booty, I found a nut and a sling on the way down and felt that if for no other reason the trip was now worth it. Carlos, Pat, and I slogged out the following 4 miles and got back home by 2 in the morning thinking about our wonderful adventure, as well as the fact that I had to wake up in 4 hours to guide a raft the next morning.
Red Rocks and Joshua Tree The trip to Nevada and California was another amazing trip for me. What was cool about this experience was the time I spent before and after the class climbing. Although the class was fun, I felt like I had the knowledge to lead multipitch climbs, not follow them. I enjoyed gaining the experience of climbing some classic routes where some of the worlds top climbers had also climbed. When I got to Las vegas I did not know what I was going to do, or how I was going to get to red rocks canyon to climb. I knew my climbing partner Mike Bowyer was coming out later that night and that we could split a ride out if we had to. I ended up meeting this nice couple on the plane who gave me a ride from the airport into las vagas and gave me some ideas as to what to do to kill some time. I ended up gambling away my 20 dollar budget in no time and was walking the streets of vegas like a local bum. I felt like a bum in this materialistic, plastic world of make believe and I couldnt wait to escape the city to get to the rocks. luckily I recieved a call from mike who had just landed and got in touch with our TA Greg Young We headed out to the rocks and MIke and I slept under the stars planning for an early rise. When we awoke, we started walking with our thumbs out looking for a ride into the canyon. The first car that past gave us a ride and the local man told us the beta for the routes he recomended. we ended up getting up some classic routes in the calico hills which you can see in my log book. That afternoon we went up to a beautiful crack called the fox, I fell on lead and let bowyer take over. While we were there we were talking with a local tr solo dude who was coming to get some laps in after work. We let him use our rope and he gave us a ride back to camp. What a nice bunch of people around here!!! The next day we climbed with Greg in Black velvet canyon, I wondered why I liked that name so much, then I remembered my early college years drinking black velvet whiskey on the gondola at gore. Greg lead a beautiful 5.10b and MIke and I followed, then we went to a 6 pitch 5.8 climb, both climbs that day were fantastic. I would love to go back to BVC just for the beauty and secludedness of that place (not to mention the name). After the Class which was 10 days long of some excellent climbing in Joshua tree and Red rocks (check Log book for details) Greg, Mike, Dustin, and I went on to climb the solar slab which was an 11 pitch thing of beauty. I loved every minute of this magnificent climb and would love to go back for more. What amazed me most about this trip was the anger of all the plants it was funny because the firey colors of the place reminded me of the root chakra which is red. The chakra is associated with survival, and I think that this place was very much correlated with survival. All the animals and plants are very defensive and mean. But the beauty of the landscape is unreal and the people here seem very grounded and friendly. all I have to say about the desert life is I wanna go back for more.
Scotland and Wales:.
When I arrived in Dublin Ireland all I knew was the itinerary, knowing what I will be doing isnt enough, I had an idea what I would be learning in the field of guiding and traveling on the ocean, but I felt that I was going to learn something deeper than the waves and currents on the ocean surface. I felt I was going to learn about myself, and thats exactly what I did.
My itinerary entailed climbing for the first 4 days on 200ft ocean cliffs, then paddling along the cliffs I climbed on, then surfing world renowned tide races, then surfing waves, then riding currents around islands, navigating to islands, then traveling north, then Living out of my boat practicing the skills I learned the first week.
I went into this trip with a mindset that the ocean was boring, and came out with a mindset that the ocean is powerful, just as powerful as a mass of people focused on something. My attitude for the ocean changed as I got flipped over and over by crashing waves. or when I noticed my boat moving past the shore like a car would move past a stand of trees on an interstate. I think when I was spinning around in an eddy line at the bitches I realized that humans are like water- I guess humans are water- they travel from one place or another in a rush, they cause chaos along the way, and then they realize the whole point of the goal was flowing to the goal, in turn flowing back to where they came from and starting the process over again. I think there is one difference between humans and water though. that is that humans have brains and more consciousness when they allow it to enter. This difference allows humans the chance to not only flow to their goals, but to flow in a mindful and productive manner. We are all on this earth and are bound by the same logical laws of nature, but I think the difference is that humans have more of a chance to work with these laws of nature to express themselves in a variety of ways.
I have always forced my will upon my life, even when I didnt consciously know what my will was. But I realize now that I do not want to destroy anything along my way to my goal if I dont have to. I dont want to hurt others, or change their beliefs if they dont want to, I dont want to degrade the environment, and I dont want to hate anything. I want to be compassionate to everything and allow my love and the worlds love to flourish. The water makes me realize that my movement will cause other molecules movement to occur. This movement of molecules will cause change, and all I can do is move the molecules in a positive way.
The Sea kayaking expedition to Scotland and Wales changed my view of Sea Kayaking forever. Although I always thought of it as a nice sport, I never really realized how exciting it could be. "The water is always moving, its always alive with power" is what my teacher Steve Maynard said. I hold this true in my heart; I assimilate water with humans, we are always moving, alive with power. When I was out on the ocean I felt the power of all of those water molecules moving together and it changed me. It made me realize the power of a focused force. I want humanity to focus its force to create a beautiful life for all.
Maine Coast
I also was lucky enough to spend time in Maine in the fall of 2012. Playing in tide races as well as surfing some awesome swell on Popham beach were among my highlights from these 3 separate weekend trips. The trips entailed surfing and understanding the different types of waves, on the first weekend we got to experience dumping waves as well as spilling waves. Both were great to surf in for their own reason. It was excited to get thrown around in the dumpers, and it was also great to slide across the spilling wave just in front of the tube. The second week we were able to live out of the kayaks and travel to a couple different islands. We camped on these islands and got to practice living out of the boats once again. On the second weekend I was given the opportunity to paddle an extra distance to meet up with Rob Yates another BCU level 5 coach who was coming out to paddle with us. Me and Steve went to find him and bring him to our camp site on an island. We got to Rob in an hour after paddling about 4 nautical miles, After that we had to paddle back another six to camp. It was getting dark and halfway through the trip back it got dark. It was a clear night so the stars were bright in the sky, and the coolest part was that the stars were in the water as well. The only thing is that it was Bio luminesence not stars, the little critters were lighting up everytime I put my paddle in the water. It was like I had stars above me and below me, it honestly still feels like a dream! The ability to pack multiple weeks worth of food in the life supporting capsule is another bonus for me. My teacher opened my eyes up to the idea that we are traveling to an alien planet when we head to the ocean for multi day trips. Our kayaks and equipment packed (space shuttle) being the only thing supporting our life. Without man made equipment we would perish quickly and soon appreciate the power of the universe. The final week of class we went to a 4 star assessment for the BCU. As a class, we participated in the course and got to experience the conditions that the 4 star paddlers were supposed to be leading in. What most of us students recognized through this, was that we are all 4 star paddlers and trained by a strong coach and leader. Steve is a level 5 coach for the BCU and is a Coach trainer. It is comforting to know that he is the one presenting us with all of this important information. I have much respect for my teacher and am happy to be working with him and learning from him.
Leadership Opportunities
This year opened up even more leadership opportunities for me. I was given the chance to lead students on a multi day canoe and kayak trip through the Adirondack park. These lands were familiar to me as I have done many trips to these lakes in the past. This trip, however, created a new challenge for me to overcome. First, I had students that had never paddled out of their boats for multiple days, They were unfamiliar with navigation, and it was cold 40s. I had to manage the group maintaining safety and comfort while still trying to promote navigation practice and paddling technique. This was a good challenge for me because I was forced to work to keep myself comfortable as well as the group. On the third day a student cut his finger open with a pocket knife while closing his knife. The wound was deep and about 1 1/2 inches long. I had him apply pressure and administered a gauze wrap and tape after flushing it out with water. We then had to set up an evacuation effort. I luckily had one bar of service to contact the head of the paddling department to pick the student up. I told him where the nearest road was and where to meet us. After giving him directions I had the group pack the students boat and prepare for an evacuation with an assisted tow. We got the student into the boat and had him keep his hand up above his heart. the next lightest student braced against the injured students boat to keep him upright while me and the three other students rotated on the towing process. This went effectively and we were out of the backcountry within 2 hours. We set up a tarp and had lunch waiting in the rain for Steve to show up. Steve finally came with donuts and picked up our injured member.
I learned many things from this, one is the reiteration of the fact that knives are one of the most dangerous things in the woods. The second piece of information is that I can handle stressful situations calmly and effectively. I was very happy with the team and my performance in this whole ordeal and am somewhat happy that this experience happened the way it did.
Throughout all of these experiences my connection with the outdoors and the community it attracts expanded. I feel that this relationship is expanding exponentially and it makes me wonder where I may eventually end up. Will it ever stop expanding for me?
Sophomore Expedition The Sophomore expedition I took is described in the video on this page before this. To sum it up, I enjoyed the spirit of the universe on this trip. what I mean by this is that I feel like this was the first time in my life where I felt watched over, I felt like something else was guiding me and helping me push forward into the unknown. This feeling has stuck with me, and has allowed me to do the many things I previously felt uncomfortable doing. There were many signs that I was being guided and that comfort of being guided makes me want to be a guide for someone else.
Wallface Another standout point for me this year was the climb up wallface. I was a little intimidated by this climb. I had never climbed a large multi pitch like this, and the 2 other people I was with were not extremely experienced either. It was a long night after a 4 mile hike to the cliff. Carlos, Patrick, and I decided we would sleep out under the stars because it was dark and we were too lazy to set up the tarp. We ended up regretting that as we awoke in the murkiness of 3 in the morning wet and cold. It had rained on us. We assumed the rock would be wet so we went back to sleep to allow the rock to bake in the sun for a few hours. We got up at 9 and headed to the overlook to get a view of our climb. We walked through the jurassic park-esk jungle of trees and house sized boulders to the base of the climb. We were off by 12 and headed up for 8 pitches of grade 5.5-5.8+ climbing. I climbed the first scrambly pitch to the belay which was more like a conglomerate of shrubs and broken boulders. The sun was beaming now and I had forgotten all about the nights moist sleep. As I belayed up patrick and carlos I thought of the magic this place holds. One minute I can be suffering the next, basking in the glory. Things happen so quickly in the great outdoors. Patrick reached the belay and lead the next shrubby pitch which was less than desire able. I felt bad for him because after that I lead the rest of the climbs. He must not have felt confident with himself that day, or maybe I just was overly confident and excited to lead. Either way I scrambled my way up the diagonal to the beautiful bivy ledge directly below the final two pitches. By now it was about 6:30. The sun sets at 8:30, so I took a look at the guidebook and headed up for the hardest climbing of the day. I noticed in the book that I was supposed to split the pitch into 2 due to rope drag, but I figured to save time I would struggle through it. This was a mistake. As I climbed higher and higher the rope tugged at me with all its force. every step required me to tug back at the rope with all my force. The biggest challenge was that my mind was worried about the time. I got to the crux of the climb and had to pull about 10 feet of rope so that I would have enough to make it through the crux, I climbed through the crux but then did not have enough to get around the bulge. this was a pain. I had to down climb through the crux again and pull more rope, I was in for quite a ride if I fell here. This was one of those moments in my life where I shut my brain off and let my body and spirit do the working. I flowed through the moves effortlessly to the top and was exuberant at the sight of the setting sun! As I belayed the boys up I thought about the prior nights suffering, the prior pitches suffering, and then I realized that I was in for more suffering on the way down. Rappelling through Shrubberies is no easy work. and I had an incling that it may be another exhausting few hours. Luckily it wasnt as bad as I thought and we got down and scored a piece of booty, I found a nut and a sling on the way down and felt that if for no other reason the trip was now worth it. Carlos, Pat, and I slogged out the following 4 miles and got back home by 2 in the morning thinking about our wonderful adventure, as well as the fact that I had to wake up in 4 hours to guide a raft the next morning.
Red Rocks and Joshua Tree The trip to Nevada and California was another amazing trip for me. What was cool about this experience was the time I spent before and after the class climbing. Although the class was fun, I felt like I had the knowledge to lead multipitch climbs, not follow them. I enjoyed gaining the experience of climbing some classic routes where some of the worlds top climbers had also climbed. When I got to Las vegas I did not know what I was going to do, or how I was going to get to red rocks canyon to climb. I knew my climbing partner Mike Bowyer was coming out later that night and that we could split a ride out if we had to. I ended up meeting this nice couple on the plane who gave me a ride from the airport into las vagas and gave me some ideas as to what to do to kill some time. I ended up gambling away my 20 dollar budget in no time and was walking the streets of vegas like a local bum. I felt like a bum in this materialistic, plastic world of make believe and I couldnt wait to escape the city to get to the rocks. luckily I recieved a call from mike who had just landed and got in touch with our TA Greg Young We headed out to the rocks and MIke and I slept under the stars planning for an early rise. When we awoke, we started walking with our thumbs out looking for a ride into the canyon. The first car that past gave us a ride and the local man told us the beta for the routes he recomended. we ended up getting up some classic routes in the calico hills which you can see in my log book. That afternoon we went up to a beautiful crack called the fox, I fell on lead and let bowyer take over. While we were there we were talking with a local tr solo dude who was coming to get some laps in after work. We let him use our rope and he gave us a ride back to camp. What a nice bunch of people around here!!! The next day we climbed with Greg in Black velvet canyon, I wondered why I liked that name so much, then I remembered my early college years drinking black velvet whiskey on the gondola at gore. Greg lead a beautiful 5.10b and MIke and I followed, then we went to a 6 pitch 5.8 climb, both climbs that day were fantastic. I would love to go back to BVC just for the beauty and secludedness of that place (not to mention the name). After the Class which was 10 days long of some excellent climbing in Joshua tree and Red rocks (check Log book for details) Greg, Mike, Dustin, and I went on to climb the solar slab which was an 11 pitch thing of beauty. I loved every minute of this magnificent climb and would love to go back for more. What amazed me most about this trip was the anger of all the plants it was funny because the firey colors of the place reminded me of the root chakra which is red. The chakra is associated with survival, and I think that this place was very much correlated with survival. All the animals and plants are very defensive and mean. But the beauty of the landscape is unreal and the people here seem very grounded and friendly. all I have to say about the desert life is I wanna go back for more.
Scotland and Wales:.
When I arrived in Dublin Ireland all I knew was the itinerary, knowing what I will be doing isnt enough, I had an idea what I would be learning in the field of guiding and traveling on the ocean, but I felt that I was going to learn something deeper than the waves and currents on the ocean surface. I felt I was going to learn about myself, and thats exactly what I did.
My itinerary entailed climbing for the first 4 days on 200ft ocean cliffs, then paddling along the cliffs I climbed on, then surfing world renowned tide races, then surfing waves, then riding currents around islands, navigating to islands, then traveling north, then Living out of my boat practicing the skills I learned the first week.
I went into this trip with a mindset that the ocean was boring, and came out with a mindset that the ocean is powerful, just as powerful as a mass of people focused on something. My attitude for the ocean changed as I got flipped over and over by crashing waves. or when I noticed my boat moving past the shore like a car would move past a stand of trees on an interstate. I think when I was spinning around in an eddy line at the bitches I realized that humans are like water- I guess humans are water- they travel from one place or another in a rush, they cause chaos along the way, and then they realize the whole point of the goal was flowing to the goal, in turn flowing back to where they came from and starting the process over again. I think there is one difference between humans and water though. that is that humans have brains and more consciousness when they allow it to enter. This difference allows humans the chance to not only flow to their goals, but to flow in a mindful and productive manner. We are all on this earth and are bound by the same logical laws of nature, but I think the difference is that humans have more of a chance to work with these laws of nature to express themselves in a variety of ways.
I have always forced my will upon my life, even when I didnt consciously know what my will was. But I realize now that I do not want to destroy anything along my way to my goal if I dont have to. I dont want to hurt others, or change their beliefs if they dont want to, I dont want to degrade the environment, and I dont want to hate anything. I want to be compassionate to everything and allow my love and the worlds love to flourish. The water makes me realize that my movement will cause other molecules movement to occur. This movement of molecules will cause change, and all I can do is move the molecules in a positive way.
The Sea kayaking expedition to Scotland and Wales changed my view of Sea Kayaking forever. Although I always thought of it as a nice sport, I never really realized how exciting it could be. "The water is always moving, its always alive with power" is what my teacher Steve Maynard said. I hold this true in my heart; I assimilate water with humans, we are always moving, alive with power. When I was out on the ocean I felt the power of all of those water molecules moving together and it changed me. It made me realize the power of a focused force. I want humanity to focus its force to create a beautiful life for all.
Maine Coast
I also was lucky enough to spend time in Maine in the fall of 2012. Playing in tide races as well as surfing some awesome swell on Popham beach were among my highlights from these 3 separate weekend trips. The trips entailed surfing and understanding the different types of waves, on the first weekend we got to experience dumping waves as well as spilling waves. Both were great to surf in for their own reason. It was excited to get thrown around in the dumpers, and it was also great to slide across the spilling wave just in front of the tube. The second week we were able to live out of the kayaks and travel to a couple different islands. We camped on these islands and got to practice living out of the boats once again. On the second weekend I was given the opportunity to paddle an extra distance to meet up with Rob Yates another BCU level 5 coach who was coming out to paddle with us. Me and Steve went to find him and bring him to our camp site on an island. We got to Rob in an hour after paddling about 4 nautical miles, After that we had to paddle back another six to camp. It was getting dark and halfway through the trip back it got dark. It was a clear night so the stars were bright in the sky, and the coolest part was that the stars were in the water as well. The only thing is that it was Bio luminesence not stars, the little critters were lighting up everytime I put my paddle in the water. It was like I had stars above me and below me, it honestly still feels like a dream! The ability to pack multiple weeks worth of food in the life supporting capsule is another bonus for me. My teacher opened my eyes up to the idea that we are traveling to an alien planet when we head to the ocean for multi day trips. Our kayaks and equipment packed (space shuttle) being the only thing supporting our life. Without man made equipment we would perish quickly and soon appreciate the power of the universe. The final week of class we went to a 4 star assessment for the BCU. As a class, we participated in the course and got to experience the conditions that the 4 star paddlers were supposed to be leading in. What most of us students recognized through this, was that we are all 4 star paddlers and trained by a strong coach and leader. Steve is a level 5 coach for the BCU and is a Coach trainer. It is comforting to know that he is the one presenting us with all of this important information. I have much respect for my teacher and am happy to be working with him and learning from him.
Leadership Opportunities
This year opened up even more leadership opportunities for me. I was given the chance to lead students on a multi day canoe and kayak trip through the Adirondack park. These lands were familiar to me as I have done many trips to these lakes in the past. This trip, however, created a new challenge for me to overcome. First, I had students that had never paddled out of their boats for multiple days, They were unfamiliar with navigation, and it was cold 40s. I had to manage the group maintaining safety and comfort while still trying to promote navigation practice and paddling technique. This was a good challenge for me because I was forced to work to keep myself comfortable as well as the group. On the third day a student cut his finger open with a pocket knife while closing his knife. The wound was deep and about 1 1/2 inches long. I had him apply pressure and administered a gauze wrap and tape after flushing it out with water. We then had to set up an evacuation effort. I luckily had one bar of service to contact the head of the paddling department to pick the student up. I told him where the nearest road was and where to meet us. After giving him directions I had the group pack the students boat and prepare for an evacuation with an assisted tow. We got the student into the boat and had him keep his hand up above his heart. the next lightest student braced against the injured students boat to keep him upright while me and the three other students rotated on the towing process. This went effectively and we were out of the backcountry within 2 hours. We set up a tarp and had lunch waiting in the rain for Steve to show up. Steve finally came with donuts and picked up our injured member.
I learned many things from this, one is the reiteration of the fact that knives are one of the most dangerous things in the woods. The second piece of information is that I can handle stressful situations calmly and effectively. I was very happy with the team and my performance in this whole ordeal and am somewhat happy that this experience happened the way it did.
2013
The Bugaboos
Do people share their experiences with others to test peoples reactions to their story (consciously or subconsciously), in order to find suitable people to connect with.
Why do people share stories?
So that they can see the impact of their words, through peoples reactions to their experiences, therefore allowing them to decide whether to let them closer or not.
Why do people have walls?
Because we are trained to be resistant towards certain things, which is directly related to our culture.
People who share experiences share a unique connection, the more you have the more you may be connected.
I WANT TO FEEL THE POWER OF THE MOUNTAINS, AND PASS IT ON TO OTHERS TO FEEL THE POWER WITHIN THEMSELVES, SO THAT WE CAN EXCHANGE POWER AND EXPERIENCE WHENEVER WE WISH.
I will start with when I connected with Mike.
6/30- From the very first day of our trip together Mike and I were attacked with challenges. The first being organizing the food and gear, the second being getting across the border, and the third- questioning whether mikes injury would hold up for the expedition.
Mike and I crossed paths on the western half of the states in Idaho on the pack river road, at 5 oclock in the morning. I had driven in the night before and left a message letting them know which road I went up to camp. I didn’t see them in the morning at 5 so I figured I better drive out to get service to find out where they were. On my ride down the road I got service, on the second ring of Mikes phone, they passed me! This seemed to be foreshadowing for the rest of the trip; peculiar synchronicities, that I would rather not try and explain.
We drove to the parking lot that I slept in the night before. In the lot we unpacked both cars and organized all of the gear and food for the trip, then packed it into my van and headed for the border. We got to the border, and were told to pull to the side. Officer Humphrey didn’t like that we were going into Canada without travelers insurance for a trip full of risky activities. He didn’t want us to milk their healthcare system and run. He is a good Canadian citizen and employee and I admire him for his dedication to his country. We were forced to turn around and spend another night in the states after trying to get across at another border crossing. We had to wait till the next day so that we could get in touch with an insurance company. We also wanted to download pictures onto a memory stick and maybe solidify our plans for the expedition. That night -after finding a site on an old logging road- Mike decided to go for a run; this turned out to be a decision that would effect the rest of the trip. He ended up twisting his ankle, and possibly spraining it. We figured we would get ice on it in the morning and head to the library to take it easy and discuss our next move.
7/1-At the library I was called by my mom who said she found insurance for me; I was grateful but not relieved because a minute later Mike called and found out that the insurance my mother got did not cover all of our activities and risks. I was upset with myself for not taking the initiative to find out the info for myself. We got that cleared up, then started talking plans. We originally had an idea to do alpine style cragging, however this idea didn’t resonate with Mike or myself. We wanted it to be an expedition, not a holiday. So as I was looking over the map on google earth and reading the guidebook simultaneously, I realized the potential trip we could engage with. There are six major groups within the Bugaboo provincial park, each group has a few to a dozen peaks within them.
My goal was to push myself into an uncomfortable situation that I couldn’t escape, then use my will power, skills, and common sense to get myself out. I thought that a trek throughout the provincial parks most remote areas would be a goal that would push our limits, and would also be reasonably safe if we used the knowledge we had acquired through school. We wanted to climb at least one peak from each group of peaks, and we also wanted it to be a continuous trip, which meant we needed to plan food chaches, as well as route plans for this remote and “adventurous” trip. We had 3 weeks of food which included produce for every day, all of our climbing gear which included 2 ropes, 2 full racks, and all the other necessities for camping. On top of this we had alpine gear- which included double boots, crampons, and mountaineering axes. We had to plan strategically, where we would put food, unneeded gear, gear that we needed for only parts of the trip, and what we could do without. Our plans were in the works by the time we got our insurance figured out and we were off to go visit Humphrey, this time getting the ok, we drove into Canada and up towards the Bugs.
The feelings of being only 30 miles from the base of our expedition was too enticing to resist driving into the woods at 5 when we arrived at the turn off. We drove in to see if I could scout the potential river for an expedition I was hoping to do later. We ended up driving along these unmarked logging roads at least 25km into the woods, following what we thought was the spillimicheen river which ended up being bugaboo creek. On the way into the river, I said to myself, if I see a bear I am not doing this kayaking trip alone. Well after I drove over a rock and bashed a hole in my oil pan Mike and I were stuck in bear country, and I had a funny feeling my spirit guides were about to give me a little insight into my decision making skills. We were stuck in the bush of BC with no car, bugs eating us alive, intense heat, and a hungry grunting bear circling our vehicle. I heard the noises first, thinking it was Mike I ask him what he was doing, he thought I was crazy, but then he heard the same grunting noise coming from the other side of a small nole. We kept listening, hearing snapping branches and grunts, I knew the only thing to do was let the animal know we were here for the night if it wouldn’t mind leaving us alone. So mike and I screamed in the sternest voices possible, “ get out of hear”! we kept screaming and heard the grunting and snapping walk off in the other direction. Lets just say we had a restless night in the back of the van on top of a pile of metal climbing gear, and Tupperwares full of food.
7/2-The next morning we were focused on getting out of the woods, we amazingly had a bar of service and called the tow company, the gps coordinates put us in the middle of the woods, and the tow truck driver had no idea where we were. So I took the bike for a ride to meet him. I ended up biking almost to the end of the road, on the way encountering a grizzly bear that darted across the road in front of me, telling me my kayak plans were a little unrealistic for someone like myself, when I came to a farm and asked to use their phone. I called mike who called the tow truck driver who called me and picked me up. Asking why I left my girlfriend at the car in bear country, mistaking mikes high pitch voice for a womans.
The driver Ivan owned the tow company for 28 years and had been back to the woods to pick up cars many times, this specific trip took him a total of 5 hours! Mike and I were sweating about the cost of this ride especially cuz he was screaming and cursing about the bumps and potholes along the way. But he was nice enough to let us camp outside his scrap yard and fix our car next to his auto repair shop in the morning . The most amazing part of the whole thing was that we racked up a bill of over 1000 dollars in tow costs and part, he ended up charging us 200 for the tow and 200 for the parts. It is amazing that he would do that for us, and I am still curious as to why he felt motivated to help us out in this way.
7/3- after a 12 hour stint of banging hammers for no reason we replaced the oil pan and got the car running again with a bunch of help from the local mechanic and kool country towing for letting us use their tools, knowledge, and space. Mike and I had realized by this point that this trip was not going to be easy by any means. I don’t think it really did either, probably just a little more exciting.
7/4- With the car fixed we decided to take it on a test drive to Banff because we realized we needed a few more specialized pieces of gear if we wanted to do this new expedition safely, more pitons, webbing, trekking poles, hammer, a map, and bear spra were on the list. We got everything but a better map, and we figured that it would be ok because I had a crummy one that would do. On the way back a black bear darted across the road.
After 3 days of challenges Mike and I had reached the Bugaboo Parking lot, we set up our tent and fell asleep planning to wake at six to start packing our bags and getting up to apple bee with the first round of supplies for the 3 weeks we planned on staying.
7/5- we awoke at 6 and started packing. We each had an 80 lb pack on our back, and I had a 25 lb pack on my front. We hiked the 3 miles in to Applebee campsite over steep and strenuous terrain. We were shocked at the scale of this place, and will probably rethink a similar expedition in the future due to the amount of work entailed. Everything takes longer than us east coasters think it will out here. We had the thought that we could do 2 trips in one day. We barely made it to applebee by dark, then awoke the next day at 5 to get the other 3 giant bags up to our first base camp. It took us all day to get these 3
7/6- giants up to camp. We started at 8 from our car, first trying to carry all 3 togather using various methods, then reverting to one person running back for the third pack. Mikes ankle was hurting bad today and he was moving slowly. Making the day even longer. My patience was tested when he scampered the last few hundred feet up to camp after I took extra loads all day. We got to camp at 9 making it a 16 hour push. This was a day filled with more physical struggle than I have ever endured. I wish I could describe the feelings of weakness I felt, and the amount of joy I felt when I finished the day. I learned that I had to take this one step at a time or I would be overwhelmed by such a massive goal and setting.
7/7- Today we figured out logistics, practiced crevasse rescue, got water, packed our food cache, talked to the care taker diane and recharged before we set the food cache and left for our expedition. Diane told us that we should talk to her friend for some local knowledge of the area, especially the Conrad icefield and the Vowells. We definitely considered it for the next day, however it would have postponed our departure time for the trip and diminished food for less of a safety window. It was a much needed rest day for the both of us and it was amazing to just soak in the beautifully powerful setting. Mike and I have disagreements from time to time, but I think we are both good at listening and sharing our thoughts that we are able to work them out eventually.
7/8- We awoke with the plan to cache our food, survey the land, and get back to camp today. We thought it was going to be an easy short day, we were ignorant for thinking that any part of this trip was going to be easy.
We first had to ascend Bugaboo Snowpatch Col which was steeper than it looks from far away. This went well, although mikes ankle was hurting, and we were disagreeing a bit on pace. We got to the top of the col and were astounded by the size of vowel glacier. And the mountains surrounding it. The rain was beating down on us, and the clouds were just above our heads at this point. We saw where we wanted to go and headed towards it. Hip belaying down sketchy icy sections, and staying roped up for the whole approach. This world was foreign to me at this time, so I was nervous and very cautious, by the end of the trip I was trudging past these small hairline cracks in the ice like there was nothing there. Its amazing how comfortable you can get in such a dangerous place, and it opens my eyes to the fact that death is always lurking, and conscious attention to detail is crucial for a long life in the mountains. We then got whited out. We both decided to sit and reconvein on our plans which turned out to be walk higher and we will come across something that will lead us to the pass we want…. Not the best idea in hindsight, we ended up going too high and walking ourselves into steep snow, Mike is not comfortable in steep snow, and he is not comfortable with an injured leg, and heavy uncomfortable haul bags on his back. So lets just say he had a bit of a breakdown, questioning whether he could do it. he did it after several hip belays from berchshrunds were executed to pass the steep snow. We reached the pass and placed our food, however we were still disoriented by the scale to map ratio and the whole layout of the land. We knew the big peaks but not the small ones, at least not until later that day. Our adventurous spirits got the best of us again when Mike suggested we take the back way home through crescent bugaboo col instead of bug snowpatch. This decision added a bunch of time for various reasons, but we made it work. We ascended a steep glacier after crossing vowel glacier, and saw into the depths of our first real crevasse. It was dark, erie, and full of death. We kept walking up the hill until we came to what we thought was the col. It turned out to be a 200 foot cliff with bugaboo spire on our right and crescent tower on our left, we figured the only way down was up, so we climbed crescent peak which was a class 4 scrambled up to the top, where we caught the first rays of sunlight all day. We then climbed down over to a steep snow gully that shot us out 500 meters from apple bee. We got into camp at 730 at night made dinner and went to bed exhausted. We were starting to think our spirit guides were out to kill us.
7/9 We cant stop, we awoke at 7 hoping to get out by 8, Mike moves too slowly for me, and I wonder if it is testing my patience or asking me to be a better teacher/ example. I felt I was always waiting around for mike to be ready. He has been complaining a lot which was not like him, and I think it is because of sandy making him so comfortable prior to this trip. He has lost touch with the skill of handling discomfort. I just wanted to adventure and it seems that mike is not into it sometimes. However, today he was willing to, I don’t know why he was willing to adventure into crescent towers when our plan was brenta and northpost spires, but he did and it was great. We were walking towards brenta and northpost when something about crescent towers called my name. I started up towards them and then just started climbing the first pitch of this easy 5.5 rock route, up what looked like the ridge. Mike followed until we got about 60 ft above the ground. I passed a piece of webbing to mike who tied the rope to it and I pulled it up to belay him through a cruxy move. We then simul climbed 5.6 until we came to a100 ft cracked and flaked headwall on the central tower. This 5.8+ route was full on and intense for me to lead. I was intimidated by the 1000 ft of air below me, and it was an amzing feeling to be this high in the world. Mike lead the next beautiful and adventurous pitch that went around a corner in the first 10 ft making the whole climb invisible to us until we were on it. after this beautiful pitch we got to an ugly rappel that leads us to the ridge that heads to brenta and northpost. I still had a hankering to keep going but mikes wisdom held me back, we decided towalk out onto the ridge and see how it feels when we got closer. It started to rain when we got a bit closer so we decided to bail. We met up with two climbers that were camping next to us at applebee who had just finished brenta. We tied up ropes with them and rapped down to the base of the cliffs, walked back to camp, and went to bed, again exhausted. We felt accomplished however as that was our second peak in the 4 days we were in the park.
7/10- Bugaboo spire has been overlooking us this whole time, it was only appropriate to start the expedition with this climb first. So we took the northeast ridge of Bugaboo spire up over and down the other side. When we awoke our minds were telling us yes but our bodies were screaming no!!! We wanted to get up at 6 but instead awoke at 730 getting to the base of bugaboo at 1000. We swapped leads along the way, what a fantastic climb this was!! Almost at the top of the climb the tension between mike and I could be felt. I finally asked mike why he was acting the way he was. He told me he feels like if he is as adventurous and free as me then we both may die from ignorance. But what he didn’t understand was that I was consciously making the decisions I made because they felt right in my heart, and because I have an adventurous spirit. I am calculated with my decisions and I am not completely whimsical like he assumed. The tension was broken and the rest of the climb was much more peaceful and enjoyable, we even glissaded the lower part of bugaboo snowpatch col. It was great to see mike smile again after a few days of tension inside of him. We were again exhausted and went to bed after a veggie feast.
7/11- Today we set off into the remote valley of Vowell glacier and began the desolate part of the 2 week adventure. We packed our bags still sore and somewhat delirious from the prior days activities, we were completely drained from the long and strenuous days, and were grudgingly packing our bags slowly because in the back of our heads we knew we were in for a lot of discomfort. I had a 70 pound pack on my back and a 15 lb bag on the front , mike had both his bags full on his back.. we had about 170 lbs of gear between the two of us for the next part of the adventure. We got out of applebee at 1 in the afternoon. There was a lot of discussion abuot which way to go to access the vowels. Mike wanted to go through BUG Snow col then trek across vowel glacier to the Wallace glacier and down, I wanted to go over crescent bug col and down vowel glacier to the head of vowel creek, cross and head into the vowels through tamarak glen. We went with mine because we knew that the crescent col was safer due to low 5th class climbing and less potential for rock fall. When we got to the base of the cliff we were a little humbled. I first tried setting up a haul system to get the bags up, but it was far too slow. We decided to toprope it and take two trips for the two packs. Mike lead up and built the first anchor, we got up and I lead the second pitch. We reached the top of the col, then had to descend the glacier on the other side. We didn’t feel comfortable walking this glacier with full packs because we hiked up it a few days earlier and knew there were some nasty crevasses. So I set an anchor and put mike on belay. We tied the bags in 15ft up with alpie butterflies and clipped them in.
This system worked well. The only issue was that I was free on the walk down so if I fell into a crevasse I would stretch the rope and probobally go pretty deep. We got down to a giant moraine slope and set up there overlooking the vowel group. Our next goal. We talked about how the mountains know which lessons we need to learn and they place them upon the adventurors.
July 12- today the mountains taught us some lessons. We started with only one pack in order to scout the route and find the best way around the ceraced glacier and over the river. It took us a very long time to get throught the boulder filled moraine. 20 ft boulders to sand were scattered throughout the valley which created a very difficult situation. Every way we went we were knocking rocks loose and boulders were flying everywhere. We made it to the bottom of the glacier by noon and still had to walk up for the second pack. We decided to go up a steeper slope which looked navigable. At first it was low angle sand and boulders, but after a short period of time we were climbing on a 60 degree pitch with sand and rock intermixed, barely held into the wall. Everything seemed loose and untrustworthy, but we were too high to down climb. We decided to move upward even though a fall would have killed us. We dug ourselves into a trap we could not escape. We were not aware of our surroundings and learned the hard way by coming close to a deadly fall. We realized we needed to become more aware if we wanted to continue, and would not allow ourselves to walk into anything without discussing the pros and cons first. We got to our second pack after stumbling over a little alpine oasis where we got water. We walked down the hill again, this time mike kicked a boulder out because it was in the way of a handhold. I was below him, and he wasn’t aware of his repurcussions as it sent into a small one, then a bigger rock, and a bigger rock, eachtime the rocks got nbigger and shifted towards my direction. I was standing on some huge boulders and I was worried that I was going to get sent over the edge of a nearby cliff, into the ceraced vowel glacier. I lept to a nearby rock and was able to avoid direct collision, the rocks only shifted near me and both mike and I let out a sigh of relief. We need to be more mindful in these dangerous situations. Mike was hurting, he was feeling defeated and was disappointed we chose to take the adventurous path. Mike ended up leading across the glacier and and I followed, we got to the other side and continued down the valley. We were surprised by the scale of this monstrous place. We continued down the side of the glaciel lake, this time, unroped. What we didn’t realize was there was ice under all the dirt, and rock Mike and I separated a little bit, because I couldn’t handle his complaining. On my way I slipt down a sleep slope and almost fell into a crevasse, I was gripping loos sand over ice and heard the water dripping into the hole. Knew it was shallow enough to throw my pack so I did and climbed up and away found a way in and got my pack. We made it a little farther before we decided to build camp and recharge after the long and stressful day. We vowed not to walk through morraines anymore.
July 13 –today was full of ups and downs. We started the hike up and around into the forest, which was a breath of fresh air. We hadn’t been in trees for a week and a half and they were amazingly refreshing, then once we got through the trees we got a great wview of the vowels. We decided to hike up and walked through a tamak glen then down to the glacier below, we did some rope work for the packs down the steep snow which ended up not working. But we got them down. We then walked up up Wallace glacier and decided to camp on the glacier on a flat knoll. We set up camp and ate and went to sleep. This was where I broke down and realized I may have been making some poor decisions if we wanted to have a successful trip, I decided I needed to slow down and have patience for mike and in turn we would work as a better unit. We went to bed after soaking in our surroundings. The next morning.. I told myself as I have before that I have unlimited potential and I don’t need to prove anything to myself to realize that. I am like a small rock in a scree field one movement can move the rest.I can tell my spirit guides are with me because I have put myself in situations that are full of opportunity, and have had near misses with disaster multiple times. To become a man I must learn like a man, I do not need suffering to find my manliness, I need finness and patience and an openness to any and all emotions I feel. The mountains are like the ocean, both destrucrive and life giving, they are so healing and powerful. I am amazed at the amount of peace I felt in such a powerful location. I am pushing to find something that is with me.
July 14_ We healed, we rested, we slept and we swam. This was a day of rest near Wallace lake. We hung out and soaked in the sun. Rejuvinating the life within us.
July 15- Today we woke to rain and snow. This was not what we were hoping for as we wanted to climb the archduke trio. We decided to go for it anyway we hiked up in the cold and and were impatient to get climbing. We found what I thought looked like the start and Mike went upward. It wasn’t the exact start, and just as I lowered mike off and we asked the spirit guides what we should do, just then the wind picked up and the precip started. We knew we had to go back to camp. So we walked down the steep slope and decided the best bet would be to pack our stuff and head to the top so that we could camp there and hit archduke in the morning before we had to push on to Conrad. We set up camp ater crossing the harriest crevasses yet. In a beautiful location we slept, and were ready for the next days push.
July 16- Archduke trio was an impressive climb with steep walls and low angle slabs, sharp ridges and scrambling, it really did have it all. However I was tired and broke down today, I just crumbled and let my lack of energy take me over, it ended up realeasing a bunch of my pent up frustration and I was able to relax internally for the rest of the day. We climbed down into archduke glacier then up archduke col which turned out to be a sketchy scramble up 2 pitches. Then walked the snowfield back up to camp.
July 17- Today Mike and I packed up camp and headed to our food cache for the first time. We hiked over Wallace col and down a moraine slope (which was much less difficult than the first one), We then followed a goat path (we knew it was a goat path cuz we saw a goat) around a glaciel lagoon to bills pass. At bills pass we dropped our large pack and just took our small packs so we could grab the food and bring it back without exerting too much energy. Our plan was to head to Malloy igloo today, but by the time we got to our food a thunderstorm had started and lightning was crackling around us. We thought of it as a sign that we were not supposed to leave our tent behind as we were planning on doing since we were going to stay in an igloo. So we walked back with our newly acquired food and tent and headed out through bills pass. As we went throught the pass the cloud cover dropped and we were suddenly amidst the clouds, lost and disoriented we decided to stop and wait out the storm. Where we stopped was located next to a beautiful camp spot, as we put our packs down and busted out the map the clouds cleared and we were looking over a beautiful valley with a great view of mt Conrad. We decided to walk to see if we could get a better view. On our way to a high point we stumbled across ian and john. Ian and John were helicoptered into this area to photograph the beauty. It was funny because Mike and I were both curious as to whether we thought helis should be aloud to drop people off. We wondered whether these people deserved to see this beauty. After meeting ian and John we decided that they should be aloud. This beauty should be open to anyone willing to work for it, whether it be through gaining money or pushing yourself in other ways.
July 18
We awoke to rainy skies and decided to spend the day in comfort, eating, and lounging all day. There are signs at every moment and this was a sign that we needed rest. And time for reflection. As well as time to write poems that don’t rhyme.
July 19
We climbed mt Conrad today in one solid push. There was some very difficult sections on this day, and some adventure as well. The first challenge was glissading down this 1000ft 50 degree slope then clmbing back up 800 ft around a cerraced area. Once on Conrad icefied we encountered large crevasses, and a bit of a navigational confusion that ended up working out. We then saw a route up mt Conrad that we thought was feasible until we got to the base and saw it was loose and crappy. We then took the normal route which was a bit more of a slog but much less of a dangerous situation. We climbed up the slope making sure to lock into a rhythm and trudge. I was surprised by Mike yet again as he did not seem very happy to be out there doing it. But I think he had the himilaya on his mind. After this we walked back. We did a lot more slogging and had a huge hill at the end which was tough except we just put our heads down and worked our way up in an hour. The whole day wiped us out because it was full of slogging. It was amazing to sit at the top of mt Conrad with the view of our entire route and the bugs in front of us. We could see the entire trip, and it felt like we had finished the hard part of the expedition.
July 20 Today we awoke and mikes ankle was bothering him. We were both moving slowly, because we were so tired from the day before. Out plan was to get all of our gear plus the cache to bug snowpatch col which was no more than 3 km. However we were moving slowly and got out of camp at 12, on top of walking slowly, we were exhausted and ended up stopping at the cache to allow mike to heal for a day so we could push the next day. We had a talk about how shot we were and how much we wanted out of this torment. I decided that I needed this to prove to myself that I have the will power to do anything I want to. I have had a problem where I felt like I didn’t always follow through with everything and I figured following through with this goal will make me feel confident with my ability. I did not feel like pushing through any more walls but I felt like I had to.
July 21st
Mike and I were ready to get out and once we get something on our mind it is hard to stop us. We started in the middle of Vowell glacier on a rock. The night before I couldn’t fall asleep because I had a terrible feeling that something had gone wrong at home and I needed to get out of the mountains. I had a vision that we needed to climb up and over the east peak in the pigeon feathers, then climb marmolata to bag the peaks from the last two groups we needed to, It all seemed like it would work out. I woke mike up and told him the idea, although he was resistant at first he opened up to it and we decided to start earlier than we originally planned. We were up at sunrise and packed by 700. We both dragged the haul bag while carrying our packs at first. This only worked reasonably well, we kept making improvements but nothing seemed to work great so we decided to grab it in two trips. We did the two slogs and were at the col with our gear by 10. I started packing the day packs right away while mike went off to use the rest room. I look up 5 minutes later and he’s there chatting, then 10 minutes and he is still chatting! I was getting frustrated because he tends to hold me up a lot and we were on a schedule! I packed his bag and when he got back I told him he was packed and it was time to go, he could sense my disappointment, but was upset cuz” he just needed a little time to relax” I was a little frustrated…. We moved out at 1030 and started up towards the Howsers and the first peak of the day, which was east peak. We approached after climbing down the glacier next to the Minerat, and the south howser tower. We had talked about climbing this but when we saw it we were glad we decided against it. We climbed a very steep snowfield to the base of east peak. When we got to the base of the proposed climb, we were a little overwhelmed by the technical difficulty of it. It was rated a 5.9+ but it looked more like a 5.10D, as we were looking at it, I looked to the left and noticed a flake system that worked its way up the cliff, we decided it was time to set the first ascent we were hoping for. There was a large flake of rock next to the start of the climb, I had to poop so I decided to sit wedge my body between the flake and the wall and drop my load I looked like a hanging Buddha according to mike. So, there was the name, I lead the first pitch which was a great section of 5.8+ climbing. I set an anchor and belayed mike flip flopping the 5 pitches to the top. As we went we wrote the beta down in the free pages in the guidebook. We reached the top after some classic climbing and adventuring, ready for the next one. We down climbed the steepest snow yet and decided on the next move, we decided to climb hounds tooth which was a 4th class scramble as well as the first sight of the bugaboos, we thought of the climb as appropriate to close the trip with. We then walked another few kilometers and got to the bug snow col at 10 oclock. Exhauseted and surrounded by lightning and thunder we decided to stay up top and wake up early to huck our stuff down the col. At 10 Mike and I were planning at first to just lower the stuff down and get to the bottom, that night, but it was pitch black and we had been pushing for a full day. I almost fell down the col and realized how easily someone could get screwed up when they are delirious. I was pissed, I wanted to get down, I was defeated, It was probobally the most annoyed I have ever been. It was almost a blur, I can barely comprehend how I could have gotten that upset but I was just cursing at myself and completely uncharacteristically down. I sat and thought for a while and after we set the tent up I realized this was the right decision. Pushing like an ox works sometimes but not when I am delirious.
July 22 We woke up at 5 and ended up having mike rappel down with the haul bag and his pack, I walked down, and helped him get the bag out of the bercshrund then headed to grab the bag at the bottom of the mountain. I started dragging it down the snow in robot mode focused toward the goal. We stopped to grab the gear we stashed at applebee, we grabbed the gear talked to some folks, packed our bags, and worked our way down from the mountains. We made the entire trip by 5. We had completed the expedition. We were done, except we needed a jump in the astro van. We got a jump and said goodbye to the bugs until next time.
The Bugaboos
Do people share their experiences with others to test peoples reactions to their story (consciously or subconsciously), in order to find suitable people to connect with.
Why do people share stories?
So that they can see the impact of their words, through peoples reactions to their experiences, therefore allowing them to decide whether to let them closer or not.
Why do people have walls?
Because we are trained to be resistant towards certain things, which is directly related to our culture.
People who share experiences share a unique connection, the more you have the more you may be connected.
I WANT TO FEEL THE POWER OF THE MOUNTAINS, AND PASS IT ON TO OTHERS TO FEEL THE POWER WITHIN THEMSELVES, SO THAT WE CAN EXCHANGE POWER AND EXPERIENCE WHENEVER WE WISH.
I will start with when I connected with Mike.
6/30- From the very first day of our trip together Mike and I were attacked with challenges. The first being organizing the food and gear, the second being getting across the border, and the third- questioning whether mikes injury would hold up for the expedition.
Mike and I crossed paths on the western half of the states in Idaho on the pack river road, at 5 oclock in the morning. I had driven in the night before and left a message letting them know which road I went up to camp. I didn’t see them in the morning at 5 so I figured I better drive out to get service to find out where they were. On my ride down the road I got service, on the second ring of Mikes phone, they passed me! This seemed to be foreshadowing for the rest of the trip; peculiar synchronicities, that I would rather not try and explain.
We drove to the parking lot that I slept in the night before. In the lot we unpacked both cars and organized all of the gear and food for the trip, then packed it into my van and headed for the border. We got to the border, and were told to pull to the side. Officer Humphrey didn’t like that we were going into Canada without travelers insurance for a trip full of risky activities. He didn’t want us to milk their healthcare system and run. He is a good Canadian citizen and employee and I admire him for his dedication to his country. We were forced to turn around and spend another night in the states after trying to get across at another border crossing. We had to wait till the next day so that we could get in touch with an insurance company. We also wanted to download pictures onto a memory stick and maybe solidify our plans for the expedition. That night -after finding a site on an old logging road- Mike decided to go for a run; this turned out to be a decision that would effect the rest of the trip. He ended up twisting his ankle, and possibly spraining it. We figured we would get ice on it in the morning and head to the library to take it easy and discuss our next move.
7/1-At the library I was called by my mom who said she found insurance for me; I was grateful but not relieved because a minute later Mike called and found out that the insurance my mother got did not cover all of our activities and risks. I was upset with myself for not taking the initiative to find out the info for myself. We got that cleared up, then started talking plans. We originally had an idea to do alpine style cragging, however this idea didn’t resonate with Mike or myself. We wanted it to be an expedition, not a holiday. So as I was looking over the map on google earth and reading the guidebook simultaneously, I realized the potential trip we could engage with. There are six major groups within the Bugaboo provincial park, each group has a few to a dozen peaks within them.
My goal was to push myself into an uncomfortable situation that I couldn’t escape, then use my will power, skills, and common sense to get myself out. I thought that a trek throughout the provincial parks most remote areas would be a goal that would push our limits, and would also be reasonably safe if we used the knowledge we had acquired through school. We wanted to climb at least one peak from each group of peaks, and we also wanted it to be a continuous trip, which meant we needed to plan food chaches, as well as route plans for this remote and “adventurous” trip. We had 3 weeks of food which included produce for every day, all of our climbing gear which included 2 ropes, 2 full racks, and all the other necessities for camping. On top of this we had alpine gear- which included double boots, crampons, and mountaineering axes. We had to plan strategically, where we would put food, unneeded gear, gear that we needed for only parts of the trip, and what we could do without. Our plans were in the works by the time we got our insurance figured out and we were off to go visit Humphrey, this time getting the ok, we drove into Canada and up towards the Bugs.
The feelings of being only 30 miles from the base of our expedition was too enticing to resist driving into the woods at 5 when we arrived at the turn off. We drove in to see if I could scout the potential river for an expedition I was hoping to do later. We ended up driving along these unmarked logging roads at least 25km into the woods, following what we thought was the spillimicheen river which ended up being bugaboo creek. On the way into the river, I said to myself, if I see a bear I am not doing this kayaking trip alone. Well after I drove over a rock and bashed a hole in my oil pan Mike and I were stuck in bear country, and I had a funny feeling my spirit guides were about to give me a little insight into my decision making skills. We were stuck in the bush of BC with no car, bugs eating us alive, intense heat, and a hungry grunting bear circling our vehicle. I heard the noises first, thinking it was Mike I ask him what he was doing, he thought I was crazy, but then he heard the same grunting noise coming from the other side of a small nole. We kept listening, hearing snapping branches and grunts, I knew the only thing to do was let the animal know we were here for the night if it wouldn’t mind leaving us alone. So mike and I screamed in the sternest voices possible, “ get out of hear”! we kept screaming and heard the grunting and snapping walk off in the other direction. Lets just say we had a restless night in the back of the van on top of a pile of metal climbing gear, and Tupperwares full of food.
7/2-The next morning we were focused on getting out of the woods, we amazingly had a bar of service and called the tow company, the gps coordinates put us in the middle of the woods, and the tow truck driver had no idea where we were. So I took the bike for a ride to meet him. I ended up biking almost to the end of the road, on the way encountering a grizzly bear that darted across the road in front of me, telling me my kayak plans were a little unrealistic for someone like myself, when I came to a farm and asked to use their phone. I called mike who called the tow truck driver who called me and picked me up. Asking why I left my girlfriend at the car in bear country, mistaking mikes high pitch voice for a womans.
The driver Ivan owned the tow company for 28 years and had been back to the woods to pick up cars many times, this specific trip took him a total of 5 hours! Mike and I were sweating about the cost of this ride especially cuz he was screaming and cursing about the bumps and potholes along the way. But he was nice enough to let us camp outside his scrap yard and fix our car next to his auto repair shop in the morning . The most amazing part of the whole thing was that we racked up a bill of over 1000 dollars in tow costs and part, he ended up charging us 200 for the tow and 200 for the parts. It is amazing that he would do that for us, and I am still curious as to why he felt motivated to help us out in this way.
7/3- after a 12 hour stint of banging hammers for no reason we replaced the oil pan and got the car running again with a bunch of help from the local mechanic and kool country towing for letting us use their tools, knowledge, and space. Mike and I had realized by this point that this trip was not going to be easy by any means. I don’t think it really did either, probably just a little more exciting.
7/4- With the car fixed we decided to take it on a test drive to Banff because we realized we needed a few more specialized pieces of gear if we wanted to do this new expedition safely, more pitons, webbing, trekking poles, hammer, a map, and bear spra were on the list. We got everything but a better map, and we figured that it would be ok because I had a crummy one that would do. On the way back a black bear darted across the road.
After 3 days of challenges Mike and I had reached the Bugaboo Parking lot, we set up our tent and fell asleep planning to wake at six to start packing our bags and getting up to apple bee with the first round of supplies for the 3 weeks we planned on staying.
7/5- we awoke at 6 and started packing. We each had an 80 lb pack on our back, and I had a 25 lb pack on my front. We hiked the 3 miles in to Applebee campsite over steep and strenuous terrain. We were shocked at the scale of this place, and will probably rethink a similar expedition in the future due to the amount of work entailed. Everything takes longer than us east coasters think it will out here. We had the thought that we could do 2 trips in one day. We barely made it to applebee by dark, then awoke the next day at 5 to get the other 3 giant bags up to our first base camp. It took us all day to get these 3
7/6- giants up to camp. We started at 8 from our car, first trying to carry all 3 togather using various methods, then reverting to one person running back for the third pack. Mikes ankle was hurting bad today and he was moving slowly. Making the day even longer. My patience was tested when he scampered the last few hundred feet up to camp after I took extra loads all day. We got to camp at 9 making it a 16 hour push. This was a day filled with more physical struggle than I have ever endured. I wish I could describe the feelings of weakness I felt, and the amount of joy I felt when I finished the day. I learned that I had to take this one step at a time or I would be overwhelmed by such a massive goal and setting.
7/7- Today we figured out logistics, practiced crevasse rescue, got water, packed our food cache, talked to the care taker diane and recharged before we set the food cache and left for our expedition. Diane told us that we should talk to her friend for some local knowledge of the area, especially the Conrad icefield and the Vowells. We definitely considered it for the next day, however it would have postponed our departure time for the trip and diminished food for less of a safety window. It was a much needed rest day for the both of us and it was amazing to just soak in the beautifully powerful setting. Mike and I have disagreements from time to time, but I think we are both good at listening and sharing our thoughts that we are able to work them out eventually.
7/8- We awoke with the plan to cache our food, survey the land, and get back to camp today. We thought it was going to be an easy short day, we were ignorant for thinking that any part of this trip was going to be easy.
We first had to ascend Bugaboo Snowpatch Col which was steeper than it looks from far away. This went well, although mikes ankle was hurting, and we were disagreeing a bit on pace. We got to the top of the col and were astounded by the size of vowel glacier. And the mountains surrounding it. The rain was beating down on us, and the clouds were just above our heads at this point. We saw where we wanted to go and headed towards it. Hip belaying down sketchy icy sections, and staying roped up for the whole approach. This world was foreign to me at this time, so I was nervous and very cautious, by the end of the trip I was trudging past these small hairline cracks in the ice like there was nothing there. Its amazing how comfortable you can get in such a dangerous place, and it opens my eyes to the fact that death is always lurking, and conscious attention to detail is crucial for a long life in the mountains. We then got whited out. We both decided to sit and reconvein on our plans which turned out to be walk higher and we will come across something that will lead us to the pass we want…. Not the best idea in hindsight, we ended up going too high and walking ourselves into steep snow, Mike is not comfortable in steep snow, and he is not comfortable with an injured leg, and heavy uncomfortable haul bags on his back. So lets just say he had a bit of a breakdown, questioning whether he could do it. he did it after several hip belays from berchshrunds were executed to pass the steep snow. We reached the pass and placed our food, however we were still disoriented by the scale to map ratio and the whole layout of the land. We knew the big peaks but not the small ones, at least not until later that day. Our adventurous spirits got the best of us again when Mike suggested we take the back way home through crescent bugaboo col instead of bug snowpatch. This decision added a bunch of time for various reasons, but we made it work. We ascended a steep glacier after crossing vowel glacier, and saw into the depths of our first real crevasse. It was dark, erie, and full of death. We kept walking up the hill until we came to what we thought was the col. It turned out to be a 200 foot cliff with bugaboo spire on our right and crescent tower on our left, we figured the only way down was up, so we climbed crescent peak which was a class 4 scrambled up to the top, where we caught the first rays of sunlight all day. We then climbed down over to a steep snow gully that shot us out 500 meters from apple bee. We got into camp at 730 at night made dinner and went to bed exhausted. We were starting to think our spirit guides were out to kill us.
7/9 We cant stop, we awoke at 7 hoping to get out by 8, Mike moves too slowly for me, and I wonder if it is testing my patience or asking me to be a better teacher/ example. I felt I was always waiting around for mike to be ready. He has been complaining a lot which was not like him, and I think it is because of sandy making him so comfortable prior to this trip. He has lost touch with the skill of handling discomfort. I just wanted to adventure and it seems that mike is not into it sometimes. However, today he was willing to, I don’t know why he was willing to adventure into crescent towers when our plan was brenta and northpost spires, but he did and it was great. We were walking towards brenta and northpost when something about crescent towers called my name. I started up towards them and then just started climbing the first pitch of this easy 5.5 rock route, up what looked like the ridge. Mike followed until we got about 60 ft above the ground. I passed a piece of webbing to mike who tied the rope to it and I pulled it up to belay him through a cruxy move. We then simul climbed 5.6 until we came to a100 ft cracked and flaked headwall on the central tower. This 5.8+ route was full on and intense for me to lead. I was intimidated by the 1000 ft of air below me, and it was an amzing feeling to be this high in the world. Mike lead the next beautiful and adventurous pitch that went around a corner in the first 10 ft making the whole climb invisible to us until we were on it. after this beautiful pitch we got to an ugly rappel that leads us to the ridge that heads to brenta and northpost. I still had a hankering to keep going but mikes wisdom held me back, we decided towalk out onto the ridge and see how it feels when we got closer. It started to rain when we got a bit closer so we decided to bail. We met up with two climbers that were camping next to us at applebee who had just finished brenta. We tied up ropes with them and rapped down to the base of the cliffs, walked back to camp, and went to bed, again exhausted. We felt accomplished however as that was our second peak in the 4 days we were in the park.
7/10- Bugaboo spire has been overlooking us this whole time, it was only appropriate to start the expedition with this climb first. So we took the northeast ridge of Bugaboo spire up over and down the other side. When we awoke our minds were telling us yes but our bodies were screaming no!!! We wanted to get up at 6 but instead awoke at 730 getting to the base of bugaboo at 1000. We swapped leads along the way, what a fantastic climb this was!! Almost at the top of the climb the tension between mike and I could be felt. I finally asked mike why he was acting the way he was. He told me he feels like if he is as adventurous and free as me then we both may die from ignorance. But what he didn’t understand was that I was consciously making the decisions I made because they felt right in my heart, and because I have an adventurous spirit. I am calculated with my decisions and I am not completely whimsical like he assumed. The tension was broken and the rest of the climb was much more peaceful and enjoyable, we even glissaded the lower part of bugaboo snowpatch col. It was great to see mike smile again after a few days of tension inside of him. We were again exhausted and went to bed after a veggie feast.
7/11- Today we set off into the remote valley of Vowell glacier and began the desolate part of the 2 week adventure. We packed our bags still sore and somewhat delirious from the prior days activities, we were completely drained from the long and strenuous days, and were grudgingly packing our bags slowly because in the back of our heads we knew we were in for a lot of discomfort. I had a 70 pound pack on my back and a 15 lb bag on the front , mike had both his bags full on his back.. we had about 170 lbs of gear between the two of us for the next part of the adventure. We got out of applebee at 1 in the afternoon. There was a lot of discussion abuot which way to go to access the vowels. Mike wanted to go through BUG Snow col then trek across vowel glacier to the Wallace glacier and down, I wanted to go over crescent bug col and down vowel glacier to the head of vowel creek, cross and head into the vowels through tamarak glen. We went with mine because we knew that the crescent col was safer due to low 5th class climbing and less potential for rock fall. When we got to the base of the cliff we were a little humbled. I first tried setting up a haul system to get the bags up, but it was far too slow. We decided to toprope it and take two trips for the two packs. Mike lead up and built the first anchor, we got up and I lead the second pitch. We reached the top of the col, then had to descend the glacier on the other side. We didn’t feel comfortable walking this glacier with full packs because we hiked up it a few days earlier and knew there were some nasty crevasses. So I set an anchor and put mike on belay. We tied the bags in 15ft up with alpie butterflies and clipped them in.
This system worked well. The only issue was that I was free on the walk down so if I fell into a crevasse I would stretch the rope and probobally go pretty deep. We got down to a giant moraine slope and set up there overlooking the vowel group. Our next goal. We talked about how the mountains know which lessons we need to learn and they place them upon the adventurors.
July 12- today the mountains taught us some lessons. We started with only one pack in order to scout the route and find the best way around the ceraced glacier and over the river. It took us a very long time to get throught the boulder filled moraine. 20 ft boulders to sand were scattered throughout the valley which created a very difficult situation. Every way we went we were knocking rocks loose and boulders were flying everywhere. We made it to the bottom of the glacier by noon and still had to walk up for the second pack. We decided to go up a steeper slope which looked navigable. At first it was low angle sand and boulders, but after a short period of time we were climbing on a 60 degree pitch with sand and rock intermixed, barely held into the wall. Everything seemed loose and untrustworthy, but we were too high to down climb. We decided to move upward even though a fall would have killed us. We dug ourselves into a trap we could not escape. We were not aware of our surroundings and learned the hard way by coming close to a deadly fall. We realized we needed to become more aware if we wanted to continue, and would not allow ourselves to walk into anything without discussing the pros and cons first. We got to our second pack after stumbling over a little alpine oasis where we got water. We walked down the hill again, this time mike kicked a boulder out because it was in the way of a handhold. I was below him, and he wasn’t aware of his repurcussions as it sent into a small one, then a bigger rock, and a bigger rock, eachtime the rocks got nbigger and shifted towards my direction. I was standing on some huge boulders and I was worried that I was going to get sent over the edge of a nearby cliff, into the ceraced vowel glacier. I lept to a nearby rock and was able to avoid direct collision, the rocks only shifted near me and both mike and I let out a sigh of relief. We need to be more mindful in these dangerous situations. Mike was hurting, he was feeling defeated and was disappointed we chose to take the adventurous path. Mike ended up leading across the glacier and and I followed, we got to the other side and continued down the valley. We were surprised by the scale of this monstrous place. We continued down the side of the glaciel lake, this time, unroped. What we didn’t realize was there was ice under all the dirt, and rock Mike and I separated a little bit, because I couldn’t handle his complaining. On my way I slipt down a sleep slope and almost fell into a crevasse, I was gripping loos sand over ice and heard the water dripping into the hole. Knew it was shallow enough to throw my pack so I did and climbed up and away found a way in and got my pack. We made it a little farther before we decided to build camp and recharge after the long and stressful day. We vowed not to walk through morraines anymore.
July 13 –today was full of ups and downs. We started the hike up and around into the forest, which was a breath of fresh air. We hadn’t been in trees for a week and a half and they were amazingly refreshing, then once we got through the trees we got a great wview of the vowels. We decided to hike up and walked through a tamak glen then down to the glacier below, we did some rope work for the packs down the steep snow which ended up not working. But we got them down. We then walked up up Wallace glacier and decided to camp on the glacier on a flat knoll. We set up camp and ate and went to sleep. This was where I broke down and realized I may have been making some poor decisions if we wanted to have a successful trip, I decided I needed to slow down and have patience for mike and in turn we would work as a better unit. We went to bed after soaking in our surroundings. The next morning.. I told myself as I have before that I have unlimited potential and I don’t need to prove anything to myself to realize that. I am like a small rock in a scree field one movement can move the rest.I can tell my spirit guides are with me because I have put myself in situations that are full of opportunity, and have had near misses with disaster multiple times. To become a man I must learn like a man, I do not need suffering to find my manliness, I need finness and patience and an openness to any and all emotions I feel. The mountains are like the ocean, both destrucrive and life giving, they are so healing and powerful. I am amazed at the amount of peace I felt in such a powerful location. I am pushing to find something that is with me.
July 14_ We healed, we rested, we slept and we swam. This was a day of rest near Wallace lake. We hung out and soaked in the sun. Rejuvinating the life within us.
July 15- Today we woke to rain and snow. This was not what we were hoping for as we wanted to climb the archduke trio. We decided to go for it anyway we hiked up in the cold and and were impatient to get climbing. We found what I thought looked like the start and Mike went upward. It wasn’t the exact start, and just as I lowered mike off and we asked the spirit guides what we should do, just then the wind picked up and the precip started. We knew we had to go back to camp. So we walked down the steep slope and decided the best bet would be to pack our stuff and head to the top so that we could camp there and hit archduke in the morning before we had to push on to Conrad. We set up camp ater crossing the harriest crevasses yet. In a beautiful location we slept, and were ready for the next days push.
July 16- Archduke trio was an impressive climb with steep walls and low angle slabs, sharp ridges and scrambling, it really did have it all. However I was tired and broke down today, I just crumbled and let my lack of energy take me over, it ended up realeasing a bunch of my pent up frustration and I was able to relax internally for the rest of the day. We climbed down into archduke glacier then up archduke col which turned out to be a sketchy scramble up 2 pitches. Then walked the snowfield back up to camp.
July 17- Today Mike and I packed up camp and headed to our food cache for the first time. We hiked over Wallace col and down a moraine slope (which was much less difficult than the first one), We then followed a goat path (we knew it was a goat path cuz we saw a goat) around a glaciel lagoon to bills pass. At bills pass we dropped our large pack and just took our small packs so we could grab the food and bring it back without exerting too much energy. Our plan was to head to Malloy igloo today, but by the time we got to our food a thunderstorm had started and lightning was crackling around us. We thought of it as a sign that we were not supposed to leave our tent behind as we were planning on doing since we were going to stay in an igloo. So we walked back with our newly acquired food and tent and headed out through bills pass. As we went throught the pass the cloud cover dropped and we were suddenly amidst the clouds, lost and disoriented we decided to stop and wait out the storm. Where we stopped was located next to a beautiful camp spot, as we put our packs down and busted out the map the clouds cleared and we were looking over a beautiful valley with a great view of mt Conrad. We decided to walk to see if we could get a better view. On our way to a high point we stumbled across ian and john. Ian and John were helicoptered into this area to photograph the beauty. It was funny because Mike and I were both curious as to whether we thought helis should be aloud to drop people off. We wondered whether these people deserved to see this beauty. After meeting ian and John we decided that they should be aloud. This beauty should be open to anyone willing to work for it, whether it be through gaining money or pushing yourself in other ways.
July 18
We awoke to rainy skies and decided to spend the day in comfort, eating, and lounging all day. There are signs at every moment and this was a sign that we needed rest. And time for reflection. As well as time to write poems that don’t rhyme.
July 19
We climbed mt Conrad today in one solid push. There was some very difficult sections on this day, and some adventure as well. The first challenge was glissading down this 1000ft 50 degree slope then clmbing back up 800 ft around a cerraced area. Once on Conrad icefied we encountered large crevasses, and a bit of a navigational confusion that ended up working out. We then saw a route up mt Conrad that we thought was feasible until we got to the base and saw it was loose and crappy. We then took the normal route which was a bit more of a slog but much less of a dangerous situation. We climbed up the slope making sure to lock into a rhythm and trudge. I was surprised by Mike yet again as he did not seem very happy to be out there doing it. But I think he had the himilaya on his mind. After this we walked back. We did a lot more slogging and had a huge hill at the end which was tough except we just put our heads down and worked our way up in an hour. The whole day wiped us out because it was full of slogging. It was amazing to sit at the top of mt Conrad with the view of our entire route and the bugs in front of us. We could see the entire trip, and it felt like we had finished the hard part of the expedition.
July 20 Today we awoke and mikes ankle was bothering him. We were both moving slowly, because we were so tired from the day before. Out plan was to get all of our gear plus the cache to bug snowpatch col which was no more than 3 km. However we were moving slowly and got out of camp at 12, on top of walking slowly, we were exhausted and ended up stopping at the cache to allow mike to heal for a day so we could push the next day. We had a talk about how shot we were and how much we wanted out of this torment. I decided that I needed this to prove to myself that I have the will power to do anything I want to. I have had a problem where I felt like I didn’t always follow through with everything and I figured following through with this goal will make me feel confident with my ability. I did not feel like pushing through any more walls but I felt like I had to.
July 21st
Mike and I were ready to get out and once we get something on our mind it is hard to stop us. We started in the middle of Vowell glacier on a rock. The night before I couldn’t fall asleep because I had a terrible feeling that something had gone wrong at home and I needed to get out of the mountains. I had a vision that we needed to climb up and over the east peak in the pigeon feathers, then climb marmolata to bag the peaks from the last two groups we needed to, It all seemed like it would work out. I woke mike up and told him the idea, although he was resistant at first he opened up to it and we decided to start earlier than we originally planned. We were up at sunrise and packed by 700. We both dragged the haul bag while carrying our packs at first. This only worked reasonably well, we kept making improvements but nothing seemed to work great so we decided to grab it in two trips. We did the two slogs and were at the col with our gear by 10. I started packing the day packs right away while mike went off to use the rest room. I look up 5 minutes later and he’s there chatting, then 10 minutes and he is still chatting! I was getting frustrated because he tends to hold me up a lot and we were on a schedule! I packed his bag and when he got back I told him he was packed and it was time to go, he could sense my disappointment, but was upset cuz” he just needed a little time to relax” I was a little frustrated…. We moved out at 1030 and started up towards the Howsers and the first peak of the day, which was east peak. We approached after climbing down the glacier next to the Minerat, and the south howser tower. We had talked about climbing this but when we saw it we were glad we decided against it. We climbed a very steep snowfield to the base of east peak. When we got to the base of the proposed climb, we were a little overwhelmed by the technical difficulty of it. It was rated a 5.9+ but it looked more like a 5.10D, as we were looking at it, I looked to the left and noticed a flake system that worked its way up the cliff, we decided it was time to set the first ascent we were hoping for. There was a large flake of rock next to the start of the climb, I had to poop so I decided to sit wedge my body between the flake and the wall and drop my load I looked like a hanging Buddha according to mike. So, there was the name, I lead the first pitch which was a great section of 5.8+ climbing. I set an anchor and belayed mike flip flopping the 5 pitches to the top. As we went we wrote the beta down in the free pages in the guidebook. We reached the top after some classic climbing and adventuring, ready for the next one. We down climbed the steepest snow yet and decided on the next move, we decided to climb hounds tooth which was a 4th class scramble as well as the first sight of the bugaboos, we thought of the climb as appropriate to close the trip with. We then walked another few kilometers and got to the bug snow col at 10 oclock. Exhauseted and surrounded by lightning and thunder we decided to stay up top and wake up early to huck our stuff down the col. At 10 Mike and I were planning at first to just lower the stuff down and get to the bottom, that night, but it was pitch black and we had been pushing for a full day. I almost fell down the col and realized how easily someone could get screwed up when they are delirious. I was pissed, I wanted to get down, I was defeated, It was probobally the most annoyed I have ever been. It was almost a blur, I can barely comprehend how I could have gotten that upset but I was just cursing at myself and completely uncharacteristically down. I sat and thought for a while and after we set the tent up I realized this was the right decision. Pushing like an ox works sometimes but not when I am delirious.
July 22 We woke up at 5 and ended up having mike rappel down with the haul bag and his pack, I walked down, and helped him get the bag out of the bercshrund then headed to grab the bag at the bottom of the mountain. I started dragging it down the snow in robot mode focused toward the goal. We stopped to grab the gear we stashed at applebee, we grabbed the gear talked to some folks, packed our bags, and worked our way down from the mountains. We made the entire trip by 5. We had completed the expedition. We were done, except we needed a jump in the astro van. We got a jump and said goodbye to the bugs until next time.