Let it Snow

Winter Time is here!

Last weekend my roommates and I went up to Lolo pass to check out the conditions. what we found was 14" of fresh snow and it was still coming down! Not quite enough to ripe through the trees for face shots, but enough to start the base of what seams to be the start of another epic season here in the Northern Rockies.

Not only will the back country skiing be endless this winter, the resort skiing is going to be worth while. To afford the ski bum status, I will be Volunteering with the Snowbowl Ski Patrol this winter. We had a day of lift evac training this saturday and already the runs are covered, and the groomers were out. after a chilly morning at Snowbowl (14 degrees), I came back to town with glowing thoughts of the winter ahead and picked up a new pair of

alpine boots! ( Salomon Instinct 100) I spent the afternoon tuning skis and adjusting bindings! Im ready for the snow!

Not only am i excited for the skiing this winter has to offer, I Will also be Traveling down to Arizona in January to run in the Arizona Rock 'n Roll Marathon with the hopes to qualify for Boston 2013!

After Completing the Spokane Marathon in October I was tired and sore for a few days, but as soon as I began running again I was looking for a new goal. With the Great Barrington Turkey trot 10K only days away Im looking for something bigger. With 8 weeks to go, The Rock 'n roll Marathon seams like a great opportunity to keep training, set a new goal and get to some warmth and sunshine during the heart of Winter.

Skiing will keep me strong, but I will have to keep running, and with Montana temps in the low teens to 20's its gonna be a cold couple of months!

A fall of first's

Being back in Missoula has been a whirlwind of exciting activities. I started running again, well continued to run on a training program. I completed my first 30K trail run and my first road marathon. I placed 3rd in my age group in the blue mountain 30K here in Missoula. It was a highlight of the fall. Then one week later i ran the Spokane marathon. The marathon was a great challenge, I really got to see what my body was made of with it. I have to say it was fun for the first 15 miles or so.. then at mile 22 not so much fun! but now 2 weeks later im back running daily again and training with crossfit to stay in shape and get ready for ski season.

I have now also tried my first cycle-cross race. (Think road bike frame and mountain bike tires). I raced at Missoula's biggest cross-race event; Rolling Thunder, last night. It is a dirt and grass course with hills, obstacles to jump over and technical corners. It was awesome! It was a big event and a few hundred people came out to watch! I think I may have found another expensive and gear heavy hobby!

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.