Ouray CO Ice Training

16 hours of driving three days of Ice Climbing, Two Days of skiing and two trips to the Hot Springs and Im back in Missoula. I just returned from a 6 days trip to Ouray Colorado, Located in Southwest Colorado in the heart ofthe San Juan Mountains. It was quite an adventure. It began with a 7.5 hour drive to Park City Utah where I meet up with a friend from high school and stayed on his floor for a night. Early the Nextmorning i packed up my sleeping bag and pad, poured a BIG cup of coffe and hit the road. I drive another 8 hours headed to Telluride CO.

I had some time before the friends I was staying with finished their work as Ski Patrollers at the resort so I explored town. I road the gondola and got a great view of town, just enjoyed being in this beautiful place. After two days of staying in a remote ski in cabin in the mountains, skiing at the resort I packed up and headed to the other side of these beautiful mountains to Ouray.

I arrived in town and immediately hit the hot springs to relax and take the first shower i had in too many days to admit. after many hours of soaking in the pools, I meet up with a fellow guide and proceeded to make myself at home at their condo.

Tuesday and wednesday were great days of Ice Climbing and Guiding training. We spent alot of time climbing, as well as talking about and learning new techniques and guide tricks.

It was a great vacation and sprit lifter. The next adventure begins on monday when I start classes. Wish me luck!

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N

I had a few days off last week and Josh and I went to the Olympic Peninsula, and Olympic National Park. Its a 3 hour drive or so on the the peninsula. It was beautiful! The weather continued to improve as we got further west. The first two night we camped at the Elwah river campsite. it was beautiful, in the rain forest by the mouth of the Elwah river. we did some short hiking and fly fishing the first day, it was great, exactly what we needed. We hiked into olympic hot spring, a 5 mile round trip, which are these undeveloped hot springs on the side of a creek in the middle of the forest! So beautiful! the third day we drove south through the park to the coast and a town called La Push on the water. We camped the night on the beach. the weather was beautiful yet again. In the morning we hiked out had a french toast and fresh fruit breakfast at the car and then drove the 2 hours back towards the north end and went to Sol Duc Hot Springs. we camped the night at the campground. the last day of our vacation was Josh's birthday so we went out to a nice dinner at the hot springs resort and e joyed a fire at the campsite. The next morning we had to get up and get moving back toward Ashford, we both had to work in the morning.

It was the prefect vacation, everything we needed and more. fly fishing, beach walking, hot springs, and camp fires.

I worked this past week on the Emmons route and got my 4th summit. we had a great trip. I was on the trip with two guides who have both climbed everest! Needless to say i didn't have to do much talking or storytelling.

Today Our boss and one of the owners of IMG, George Dunn, reached the summit of Rainier for his 500th time. The first person ever to do so! so we will be having a huge party here tonight for him. He climbed with his wife and one son along with his two best friends, long time mountaineers and parters of IMG Eric Simonson and Phil Ershler. What an accomplishment!

Oh and Yes, I booked a flight home with Josh in November. We fly out of seattle on Nov. 9th and into Charlett SC, leaving SC to fly home on the 19th and will stay through thanksgiving till the 30th. Thanks it for now!

Summit Photo

Well It finally happened. I was on top of Rainier log enough to actually take an official summit photo. So here I am at 6:30 am after a 6 hour climb from our high camp standing at the highest point columbia Crest at 14,410'! Summit Number 2! its about 25 degrees with winds around 30-35 Mph. but the sun was shining.
After this climb i had a few days off. I went for a 20 mile bike ride 2 out of my three days off and alot of climbing on our bouldering wall here at HQ. Its always nice to have a few days off but very rare so I savored every moment!

I will head back up tomorrow (Monday) for a three day climb. The weather looks nice, the route is in good condition maybe we'll make it again!

Summer Time in Ashford, WA

Its about time to start blogging again.

I am living in Ashford Washington, Just on the Southwest border on Mt rainier National Park. I work for International Mountain guides, check us out on the web! Im living at headquarters in the guide lounge, which is really just the space above the office with 4 bunk beds, a couple couches a kitchen and bathroom. Im only here when im not on the mountain so....not very often. Life in Ashford is like any small town, three restaurants, one bar, a general store post office and no cell phone service. So i apologize but keeping in touch isnt the easiest..

I have been very busy so far this season. I have been on eight climbs thus far. Our standard route is the Disappointment cleaver. this is a three day climb. I have also gone on the Emmons route on the North east side of the mountain.

On days that I am not on the mountain guiding, I send down at HQ working in the shop. It is a tradition that first year guides "pay their due's" and work in town occasionally. we pack food and gear for outgoing trips, mow lawns, and other tasks that need to be taken care of. I have to say there are def some perks, packing food for instance...i always have good meals on my trips!

So far this season i have made it to the summit once. Weather has been a huge factor but also as a new guide i get the role of turning around with clients if they dont want to or can not continue up. I am heading back up the mountain Tuesday for another 3-day climb! more to come soon...

The New Staff are Here!!

Well its been a long few weeks working in the office planning our adventure programs and my teen leadership program. There have been eight of us at camp for the last few weeks workng hard getting everything ready for the rest of our cabin counselors to arrive. And now there here!! Yea, finally! its nice to have some new faces and personalities around camp. ALl our staff came in on Tuesday june 16th, and its been a great week so far. I can aldready tell its going to be a great summer, we have some great staff members but i think i might miss being in a cabin with kids! But hopefully with my teen leadership i will be able to build that bond with my group so i dont miss having that connection with kids too much!

The weekend before our staff came in I went to my first concert at Red Rocks amphitheater! I saw Levon Helm (former singer and percussionist from "The Band") and John Prine (accalimed singer song writer), that was one of the most amazing concerts i have been to. The atmospher, the people, the mucis just perfect. not to mention, it had been stormy and rainy all day, with tornado warnings all around denver, and just minutes before the show started they sky's parted and the sun came out for an hour before it ducted behind the mountains and it was a beautiful night!

We are goign to a rockies game tomorrow as a group and then we have sunday off. IM planning on kayakng a streach of the Arkansas river with a fellow adventre program staff member. Cant wait!!!

we will ahve one more week of staff training and team building! And then june 28th our first session of campers arrive! Cant wait

The BolderBoulder

The BolderBoulder 10K race.

50,000+ people ....in comparison the boston marathon has 20,000 finishers or the New York Marathon wth 38,000 finishers.

Memorial Day Weekend

Hope everyone had a great memorial day weekend. Mine started friday afternoon when our final Outdoor Ed group left. The last week of kids was wonderful! I relaly enjoyed working with them! We did a lot of leadership work which i love so we really all had alot of fun. Later that afternoon Andrew (the cam director) Arianne (andrew's wife and asst. Director) Tom, a returning staff member, and I went down to town to pick up our friend Nate at the airport who will be joing us for the summer. We spend the weekend cooking out, playing beer frisbee and enjoying the terrible rainy weather all weekend.

On monday Tom, Nate, Arianne and I ran the BolderBoulder 10K race! We def didnt do any training, but we live at almost 9,000' so running at 5,240' we figured we'd be ok. I def didnt run it to win but i did decient considering. I finished in 57:45. we then stayed around for the other 50,000+ people to finish the race and fill CU stadium for a Memorial day ceremony.

I now have the rest of the week off. I leave for Washington Tomorrow afternoon to visit some friend. I come back on monday the 1st for the start of our leadership staff training. This summer i will be working as adventure program cordinator / Teen leadership cordinator. This is a huge promotion for me. I found out about 2 weeks ago. I am super excited to run these programs.

The teen leadership program is for 15 and 16 year olds which used to be out CIT/ LIT program. I will be leading these kids in a 2 week program where we do a lot fo teamwork/ leadership course inculding a 7 day backpacking trip and then when we come back to camp they will work with Tom and I with a camp/ community leadership service leaning project. we are still in the process of developing the program but im super excited to be leading it.

So Im back in Colorado. We are about to start our second week of Outdoor Ed here at camp. we have groups of middle school kids come up for 2-5 days and we teach them, leadership, teambuilding, forect ecology, wetland ecology, mountaineering, native american and crafters. Our first week started a lil on the rough side, the the group was 7th graders, and they were "Too cool" for outdoor ed! Trust me, we put them in line with the teambuilding activities!





we have weekends off, as we work with schools. the two days off are nice, but i cant get too used to them as once summer gets into swing, its only one day a week! this weekend a few of us went into Boulder to hit REI for their big sale and then we hung out for a bit and then headed back up the mountain for the night.

there are 7 outdoor ed staff members, plus our diredtors and kitchen staff. I Have to say its fun, But i am excited for the rest of the summer staff to arrive after june 1st.

i also signed up for the BolderBoulder, a huge popular 10K race on mamorial day weekend! running 6.2 miles at 6,000 feet above sea leavel.. thats gonan one hell of a challange! Im doing it with two guys i work with at camp, so at least we'll have eachother. the day after the race I fly back up to Washington to visit friend and possibly climb Raineer. Three of my hjousemates are guides on the mountain for the summer so i will try to get on an expidition and make a summit attempt.

Road Trippin'

Back to Colorado I go!!

I left washington on tuesday april 14th first thing in the morning. It was sad good buys to my housemates, loaded up and headed East. ( well I had to head West to Seattle before going East due to mountain pass's still being closed for the season). My housemates, how i have played house mother for for the past 6 months, wished me safe traves while also checking to makre sure my car had enough oil, correct tire pressure for highway driving, that i had gas, and food as well as a safe place to stay while driving to Colorado! WOW am i gonan miss them!!

I drove for about 13 hours that first day made it across washignton, through Oregon, and all the way across Idaho. I finally came ot a rest stop just over into the Utah boarder and spend the night in my car. Its great being and to move your whole life in your car and still be able to sleep in it!

I woke up first thing the next morning and headed south east down to Moab, UT to visit a friend and enjoy some R&R in the dessert! We went rafting on the colorado river, canyonering through the national park and just enjoyed hanging out around town! a great few days off!

after my quick but much needed vacation in the warm (70 + degrees) dessert, i headed back north to Colorado. I stoped by Leadville (the highest town in the country, 10,000 feet, to visit Ben, from camp last summer. it was nice to catch up, we went climbing and then to a STS9 free concert at Copper mountain for closing day! ps- i love vacation!

I am now here back at camp santa maria. We started staff training for outdoor ed on monday and are all ready for our first session of middle school kids to show up on monday! we have a great crew this year but i cant wait for all of the returners to come back from last year! its gonan be another great summer in colorful Colorado!

Spring.....???? Not quite Yet

BY Now its April in the Cascades and there is no sign of spring anywhere. during the month of March we received more then 10 feet of snow!!!!!! It just hasn't stoped snowing and its still dumping on us. The skiing is great, just Powder day after powder day, i will def be in shape for the summer, if my knees hold out!

Since my last post ( my birthday ) many exciting events have taken place. Jill came for a visit during her spring break. we had a great 5 days skiing, site-seeing in Seattle, and more skiing. i def think i whooped her butt, but i also know she enjoyed it in the end. Jill also helped me make a dress for our annual end of year fundraiser. We made the dress completely out of duct tape!! (a picture coming soon!!) The dress was awesome, Purple, Silver, and teal in a tube dress style, and straps added later for support. The event was just last week and it was a huge success! we had a great time drinking, dancing, all being in Costume! although the down side was that it was storming and we were out the door at 6am the next morning with 21 inches of new snow! Lets just say we were not in the best shape that morning...but hiking a bit, throwing a few explosives and skiing powder makes you feel better almost instantly.

I also participated in " Hope on the Slopes" the third ever ski for cancer. It is the downhill form of relay for life. This event is very new, as we were the third and final location for the 2008-2009 season. Crystal mountain had 62 participants, skiing a total of 523,998 vertical feet that day and raising over $16,000 for the American Cancer Society! WOW! im impressed and proud to have participated in such a strong event. thanks to all of you who donated to the cause, It was a great day! and yes you can still make a tax detectable donation as my personal page: http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/CommunityFundraisingPages/HOSNational?px=10059968&pg=personal&fr_id=19221

Even though the snow is not stopping any time soon, my season in coming to an end. My last day at Crystal Mountain is April 13th!! As much as I loved this season and all the skiing, events, people, housemates ect i am excited to see green grass, wear flip flops and have a change of pace and activity. I will be driving back to Colorado between the 14-16th ish. I am returning to Camp Santa Maria, the same camp i worked at last summer. We start our Outdoor ed program for middle schoolers staff training on the 20th and kids arrive a week later. Im def excited to be returning to a familiar place with familiar people. I will be at camp through the spring, summer and possibly fall. the summer will be similar to last year in that i am leading the adventure programs in rock climbing, backpacking, and kayaking. But i will also be leading a pre-camp teen leadership 18 day course. It will be a mini NOLS or Outward bound style course revolved around leadership, teamwork and outdoor living skills. IM super excited about this course. on top of that i will also be taking on a role as youth development program leader. working with out 14 and 15 year old campers and helping them take on more responsibilities, and leadership roles in and out of camp. as we make progress on this program i will keep you all posted!

well its about that time again, to start saying good byes to my ski patrolin family and say hello to my summer lovin family. not to mention the i hope to see you soon to my friend and family thousands of miles away.

Happy spring everyone!!