The snow is my compass once again and it points West come December. After taking care of some unfinished work regarding my MS degree, I took off for the south. I made it to Knoxville, TN after the 1st day of driving. Pat was able to play host to me which I was real appreciative of. It was a short, but great visit. Next day I was bound for Starkville, MS. This is where Delores lives! I took her, and our friends Natalie and Emmet climbing over in Alabama. I think for all of them it was their first time climbing outdoors. They were super pumped! Here are some pictures of them climbing.
Since the snowfall has been a bit tardy showing up in the Wasatch, my starting date of work got pushed back until the 10th. That means I didn't have to rush out of the south and head for Utah. So, I spent a week down there getting to know the area more, which was a real treat.
Before I knew it I was on the road again, Utah bound. I had my first stop in Kansas City, and then Denver. I went up to Wyoming to bypass the roads in western Colorado. Up in Wyoming, it was -10F actual temperature. A big shock compared to climbing around in T-shirts and shorts just a few days ago in Alabama.
The weather forecast for the Wasatch is looking real good for skiers. It snowed a couple inches down in the valley last night (so more up in the mtns.), with 10 inches expected tomorrow and another system moving in next weekend. Looks like I didn't miss anything this past November out here!
More pics from the road trip are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Kyle.Walcott84/RoadTripDec09#
So counterintuitive. Inside reading about the outdoors. On the 20th I graduate and go to the school of mountains. This is exciting news. Lets see and in other news, I am doing a big candy cane drive of the country. I've never been south of Maryland so this will all be new to me and I couldn't be more grateful! I think I'm exactly where I'm suppose to be in life and I couldn't be more happier.
I'm also anticipatory about a couple of things. Less than 2 weeks from now I'll be seeing Natalie, a girl who I worked with this past summer and one of her good friends, Delores! The plan is to go caving, camping and climbing! In Mississippi!! Whoohoo for a new state! The other thing on my mind is skiing. I just love skiing. I am so excited about this season coming up! I got distracted by old footage I've had on my computer. I heard that a guy who I skied with is coming back to Utah this season. He's been living down in Bolivia, guiding some mountain biking tours on some pretty crazy shit. So this video is a tribute to him.
ok. time to be more present. Concentrate on reading about the outdoors...
Here is a video I made from the job I had up in northern vt. It was a pretty great job and I'm glad I got to spend so much time in the woods and working. New York for a couple of weeks, then back out to Utah.
I've been here in VT, working for the Green Mountain Club since August 8th. Things have been fantastic. I have a pretty laid back boss, I have excellent co-workers, and I live in a hut on top of Mt. Mansfield.
The work is sometimes less than exciting, but you have to make your own happiness. Happiness just doesn't go out an find you. I've been able to hike a few of the more exciting trails leading to the summit and have had some excellent conversations with people on the summit. One guy in particular was someone who I consider an "old salty dog" who use to be a Yosemite climbing bum who climbed Denali back in 87. This shocked me because 1987 was one of the worst season to climb the peak and it took true guts and grit to get to the top. In perspective 6 of every 7 people failed. This guy was in his late 60's, bagging the highest peaks in each state. He told me he clicked off 26 the last 3 weeks. He seemed like a kid in a candy store. Very happy and excited. It was inspiring to see.
So coasting along on a minimal budget with out a job is about to come to an end. Soon, starting August 8th, I will be coasting along on a minimal budget with a job! Whoohoo.
It's been since Mid-January. Times are tough in the job market. I would say that I learned more in the outdoors over that duration than I ever would anywhere else. I put myself in situations and taught myself some new tricks. Here's a tick list of what I've been up to. I think I packed a couple of lifetimes the last 7 months.
100+ Days of skiing in the Wasatch. Many over the collar, really freaking deep days of skiing. 2 new pairs of skis. A fair bit of climbing, hiking, & running in LCC & BCC. Mt. Rainier via Kautz route. Mt. Hood - skiing on some of the deepest days they had this season. Tetons - Hiking Zion, SW Utah, Gunks - Climbing up up up and away. -6 score in Wii Golf. Beat that Tiger.
The job is working with the Green Mountain Club. Here, I will be a caretaker for the summit hut on Mt. Mansfield. So you can find me there 5 days a week. The other two is my time off and I plan on seeing what VT. has to offer for climbing. This job runs into mid November. From there who knows where I'll be, but I hope to make my way back to Utah. The snow is my compass needle.
July 6th-7th Being unemployed with no obligations does have its benefits and being mobile is one of them. On July 4th I was celebrating my independence by packing up my life into my little Mazda and headed for the Cascades. 12 hours later I arrived at "The Farm", a house for the guides who work for RMI. While here, I met up with Mikey, a guide who I worked with when I was up in Alaska. He played host for me as we drank other peoples beer and shot off the potato gun. The next day, we were on the fence of what route to do on Rainier. He let me decide, and between Liberty Ridge and Kautz, I chose Kautz. Liberty had to many objective hazards for my liking and felt that it was to late in the season for the committing line. One of Mikes friends, Erik, came along with us. We had a bit of a late start (10am) for the first days hike up to high camp. The weather was looking grim, but we knew we would hike out of the cloud level.
We broke out of the cloud level around 8.5k and set up camp around 11k. It only took 6 hours to go from the parking lot to high camp! We were moving fast, or so I thought. I was pretty happy with that. Here's a pic of me and a pic of our high camp area.
The wind was incredible that night. I might have received a combine 30 minutes of sleep before the wake up call for the alpine start. We left by 2am. This was imperative because we retreat down the same way we go up and there is a tight section where rock and ice fall were a major concern for mid day hours. A view of the route from high camp & a pic of Mikey ice climbing around 2am! Whoohoo.
The top is within eye site, still 2k away & views all around:
Camera died at the summit (I do have video of it), but here are some pics on the return down. Rappelling a few hundred feet with a 50 meter rope was mentally draining. Rap 20 meters, drill a V-thread, rap 20, drill a v-thread. etc..
Once we hit our high camp, we took a 2 hour nap, and then proceeded to glissade down most of the mountain.
Rainier was such sweet mtn. to climb that I'd like to head back earlier in the season next year to get on Liberty Ridge.
Yesterday was another great day of climbing in Big Cottonwood Canyon. I went climbing with Brenton who will be climbing a few days with me up in the Tetons come July. Todays objective lied on the Mule Hollow Wall. Mule Hollow has a bit longer approach than other climbs. This means more seclusion from others. We didn't see a single sole around.
A view of the wall. It's at an angle that makes it look like a bunch of trees. In reality its a huge 500 foot slab.
The climbing was sweet. Great features on the quartzite. The first pitch was money. The next two were just long run outs/wondering off route type climbing.
A view of the bottom of the climb & a view of the first pitch.
We covered a lot of ground relatively fast. After the climb five rappels brought us down to the ground. Hiking out I managed to bang up my knee, directly on the knee cap! It's still really sore. Ice Ice Ice! Cause tomorrow there might be plans to go up to the Lone Peak Cirque.
