Self Belief is Everything

All words and pictures copyright Alastair Rose 2011

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

As promised. Glaciers and stuff



The video was a fair bit of effort on my now old laptop but hopefuly is of some interest (or humor) to some. Really it is for an all staff day in a couple of weeks but is now complete. I left Australia I flew to Oregon, slept for 3 hours, got in a van and drove to mt hood (i think around 3300m+) got hammered by some scottish weather, left a lot of gear up there, retreated and then went back up for some more. Since then I have been on Lead instructor training which involved some educational stuff and also some amazing rivers including the Deschutes, the white salmon (Washington) and the Clackamas. It has rained so much here onto the epic snowpack (largest in ten years?) that all the rivers were much bigger than expected The river photos, while cold, do not really match the mountain photos but may well follow.



Apologies for the language in the movie, I only filmed when things were really going wrong................






okay so the video appears to have worked so here are the best of the photos


Ryan overcoming the cornice (the first good weather day)









Below - me trying not to look at where Eric want to take me. (I am probably watching an avalanche (or mt st helens) as the snow pack was pretty unstable that day) - taken by Mick.

Next one down - Drew prodding a crevasse on the Reid glacier with the rope teams silhoutted.

Next one down - Camp at Illumination saddle with Mt Jefferson beyond.

Friday, May 9, 2008

The last of Australia for a while

Everything is packed and now I am just left to procrastinate while I should be cleaning my room. Back to Oregon today for another season at OB wilderness then to ........... somewhere.

My last week at OB Australia has been great with lots of time spent hanging out with groups and sleeping in a cave to meet groups early morning for the "descent" (basically a massive abseiling/flying fox activity). This has been great and stopped me thinking about leaving too much as well as the early nights in the very cold cave allowing me to catch up on some sleep. So here are the photos, the next ones should be of glaciers

Clare (the bear) and peter perfect at the start of the descent, early morning with the rain clouds brewing behind


Clouds spill into the honeysuckle valley at dawn as we meet the first group of the course.


Bear coiling ropes at the end of another long day (in some very scottish conditions)



Pabi belaying bear as she abseils down the first level of the descent just after dawn.

Cave life, Ali and Bear







Bear making the strongest hot chocolates in the world just before getting in our sleeping bags (5pm!!)


Cooking dinner from my two sleeping bags.















Just before course started. One final climb at Booroomba rocks with Tipu and Caleb. Beers on the summit after climbing the beautiful "determinant" with the "termination" finish. My hands still bare the cuts from having to jam up the final crack with frozen hands.