End of Summer?

The last few weeks have been amazing, a short road trip up to the North of Washington (I almost ended up in Canada after not paying attention) Visiting folks along the way (those photos I will include with the rest of my road trip photos) then some work out of the beautiful OB base in the North Cascades. This was a 20 day section of a 50 day wilderness educators course with elements in Sea Kayaking, Wilderness First Aid, Mountaineering and a Practicum. We headed to the Entiat and Glacier Peak wilderness for the 16day mountain section with beautiful weather and autum colours to start with followed by some more wintery days. The final 3 days was a slog out in rapidly melting snow and heavy rain - just what future outdoor educators need.
Bouldering in the mountains with the Larch trees changing colour.
Betty moving along the fixed line on the way to the summit of Emerald Peak

Wyatt and Cara my Co-instructors on the summit of Emerald peak
Cara and Wyatt making dinner in camp (check out the 6 days of food behind Wyatt)Changing Larch trees lit up by the setting sun at Choral Lake
The Camp at Choral Lake (last of the evening sun at 530pm

Upper Ice Lake below Mt Maude. I got to chill out here for half a day after scouting the route on Mt Maude.
Not really what i wanted to find while alone. A very fresh Black Bear Track at Lower Ice Lake. (interestingly this is at 6900ft which seems a little high for a bear at this time of year)

Wyatt (in red) gives the solo/survival briefing under blue skies.
Peaking out of the tent as the snow begins to fall during soloIce in the creekA visit from steve the snowman - This is as the students came off solo - 6- 8 inches fell this night.

And now i am officially not working till the first of December (Unless you are a US Visa official and are reading this in which case I am doing a couple of days of work in November) Road tripping down through Washington, Idaho, (possibly Wyoming) Utah and Nevada for some adventures.................

River of No Return

Just back from a Staff/Personal Trip on the main and lower salmon river. The Salmon is the largest undammed river in the USA (maybe thats only in the lower 48 states - not sure) and flows through the "River of no Return" wilderness (biggest in the lower 48) in Idaho and on to where it joins the Snake river at the border with Oregon. Both the lower and the main section usually take a week on their own but we decided to float them both together. Somewhere in the mix we did not fully work out that these "normal" sections have quite a few miles between them as well as a town called Riggins.

We gathered in Boise, shopped then drove a long way on some windy roads (it took us a day and a bit) to the put in at corn creek. We rafted the full 2 sections (and the 58 miles inbetween) in 12 days with one layover day making a total of around 210-220 miles (havent quite got around to working it out). The weather was extremely kind to us and we ended up with blue skies, warm(ish) water, a great water level and white sand beaches to camp on every night.

I now have one more week off before I start work up in Washington.

The photos (are in a back to front order - you may want to scroll from the bottom up)
Flatwater rafting - rafted up on the snake with (front to back) mike m, steve s, ashley, Mike c and steve B
The last of the salmon - coming up to confluence with the snake in the early morning (the little dots on the river are boats)
The Steves row into China bar rapid on the Lower River
Looking a little confused in Riggins were we ressupplied some food and swapped lisa for ashley. We did here that 72 sorority girls were in town but we were a day too late.
Steve S scouts Vinegar Creek rapid while Mike M Kayaks
Yet another white sand beach to call home
In the "hot tub" hot springs on the second day on the main salmon - steve b and mike m are bottom of the photo, steve s smiling and mike C and lisa making lunch
Lisa Rows through Salmon falls on the main salmon
Planning session in Wallmarts parking lot

30 days and 30 nights

Just got off my last stint for OB, a 30day rock, mountain, river course. The course was great, working with a new staff member Trevor and alongside Paul (another new staff member) and amber. The course is pretty relaxed to start with in the rock climbing section and then an all out push north through the cascades bagging as many peaks as possible then a more relaxed 5 days on the river to finish. I worked this course last year but it doesnt get any less beautiful and i did get to some different spots this time. So here are some photos.....Looking north up the cascades at sunset, we are eventually headed to the midde of the three peaks (from closest they are washington, three fingered jack and Jefferson)
Paul climbing the summit "chossy" pitch of three fingered jack - the rope is not actually tied to paul in this picture!
Crazy light over Broken top as a thunder storm moves over at dusk
Two students (haley and carl) watch the dawn mist over lower burley lake in the Jefferson wilderness. (day 20something)
Three fingered jack and lower burley lake a welcome oasis of swimming and relaxing after climbing the mountain
A Brocken spectre at dawn while fixing lines on three fingered jack
Paul watches a cold damp dawn on Three fingered jack
My group hikes through a field of lupin in the sisters wilderness
Me jumping for joy at our high bivy spot (prouty point) after summiting middle sister, photo taken by a student (Zack)Me with no eyelashes left on my left eye after rescuing a stove - frustrating as my eyelids kept sticking together in a velcro like fashion
Students hide from an epic hail storm just after getting off solo.
Hiking up the upper snow creek drainage, sisters wilderness

The longest day

Somehow (possibly due to my own inability to process dates) I have ended up with 36hours off between 25 days of work and 34 days of work. This unfortunately co-insided with Ryans plan to raft the 97miles of the lower deschutes faster than he and Kai did last year (19hrs and 1minute). My first half day off was well spent on facebook, hotmail and falling asleep to bad movies then we were off on the DIAD (deschutes in a day). The crew was the majority of the logistics department and myself. We drove to the river slept for a couple of hours, got on the river at 247am and set off. There was cold, swimming, rapids, near flips, water fights, beer, pizza, a change of shuttle driver (thank you kelly and martha) and a slight slowing in the middle of the day finished by a strong finish. We made it to Heritage landing (on the border with Washington 16hrs 30mins later) It was great to put into perspective a section of river that i know well but usually do in 5 - 7 days. I am now prepping a 30 day rock, river, mountain course as my last big course of the season. Looking forward to it.

These are totaly out of order but I am extremely tired so cant face changing it.

Ryan looking a little worked around hour 14.
The ladies, (from left to right) Molly, Kelly B and Karen putting int some time on the oars (and paddles) around hour 12
Possibly around hour 8 or 9. in front, mike and molly, kelly at the oars, karen sitting and ryan asleep.
A well fueled trip. The cooler with pizza and oreos.

The portage around Sherars falls (class 6)

Mike and martha swimming buckskin rapid early in the morning
Molly with her hand stuck in the cooler
A beer with first light, hour 3 on the river
Ryan on the oars around 4 am
The team setting off. (me on top of the trailer) then Mike, Ryan, Karan, Kelly, Molly and Martha.

Thats all for right now, the new camera is making it hard to upload photos but I will see what I can do

Poverty with a view.

Time to throw up some more photos. Life has been kind of hectic for the last couple of weeks supporting three groups on the river and in the mountains but it does mean that I get to spend some time doing my own thing (or taking students to the doctors and then hiking them back into their group). Bend was recently described as "poverty with a view", currently with one of the worst unemployment rates in the US. It would be a mistake for me to claim poverty having just spent more money on a new camera than I have ever spent on a vehicle but the title seems fairly fitting.

I am 28 and live in a tent, albeit a nice big white wall tent on a platform, and it does have a good view. I also feel luckier and luckier as I see more stores close in the town and still eat great food, have beer on tap in my living room and get paid to take people into beautiful places.

The new camera is a bit of a step up - so much so that I am slightly afraid of it right now.... below are the last few photos from the old camera and some of the test shots from the new one.
The nice big white wall tent (my home for at least half the year)
An incredibly badly stitched photo of the sisters at dawn (with the moon far left). About to fix lines and belays on the NW ridge of Broken top at about 6am (having been up since 3am.. AH the joys of work)
End of a long day - Martha surrounded by gear after a ressupply for 30 hungry people in the mountains.
Paul leading a rope team down the Hayden Glacier late in the afternoon
My usual bed. A sleeping bag and some grass, in this case surrounded by RV's at Deschutes State Park at the end of the Deschutes river.
Courtney rowing white horse rapid, behind her you can see two of the named rocks, "Can Opener" and "Oh shit"!
One of the first phots with the new camera, two of our pigs (Hope and Bachelor) who eat all our compost and then......... supply the meat for the end of season party.
Whitney strumming it out in front of a local beer (Bend has possibly the most micro breweries per capita of anywhere ever)

Paul and I reflected in Ciscos glasses on the summit of Broken Top.