Just another 10 days in the office....

My big block of work is now finished and I am sitting in a coffee shop in Eugene - the last 10 days at work has been a crazy time, the last ten days of a 50 day course with a run of one of the more remote rivers in the lower 48 states and a summit attempt on Mt Hood. I was joined on this section by Steve Baume and for a brief time by Meagan. This year will probably stick in my mind for a couple of reasons - smoothest run of the Owyhee ever with lots of chilling and hot springs and good campsites, an epic drive out of the Owyhee drainage where the trailer came off the hitch, it took steve over an hour to back down an epic couple of hundred yards of road (once we rehitched the trailer) and we blew out our chains on the second attempt to go upwards (though we did in fact make it) top this off with three days pretty much tent bound on Mt hood in a storm with one summit attempt where we left camp at 2am and were back by 53oam covered in ice with a bit of frostnip this will not be a 10days to be forgotten.....

Mountaineer, Rafter and Driver Extraordinary, Steve Baume - Sponsored by Red bull and other energy drinks - takes another shot on one of the long drives across oregon.

Rye grass hot springs for a lunch time stop.
Sometimes its hard, sometimes its easy but it still work - steve living it up on the gear boat.
Raft below "Pruitts Castle" on the Owyhee
Santiago puts in a bold pry on Dog leg rapid (class 3)
And gets it spot on!
Lizzie scouts Whistling Bird Rapid (Class 4)
Me in steve southards Kayak paddling towards Mongomery Rapid (Class 4) at the entrance to Green Dragon Canyon.
Steve stops trying to teach us new swear words and surveys the broken chains at the top of the nasty road.
530am - up since 1245am and turned around at 430am on our summit attempt of mt hood
Steve, Meagan and I going a little crazy with yet more time stuck in a tent as the wind blows and snow falls.
final night in the wilderness - the students cooking in the snow kitchen.

So now I have a couple of weeks off - If the weather improves I might be headed for Mt jefferson, if it doesnt then Smith Rock followed by a week with whitney, headed for the rogue river in Southern Oregon and maybe Castle crags for some climbing in Northern California... For now I plan to watch some movies and drink some coffee.

In the Mountains again

Again a slow internet connection leaves the photo quality a bit low along with my tiredness not making me want to type this could be a short post. Just back from the Sisters Wilderness where Mike Carney, Mandi and I pulled in a sled ressupply for the course I am working after which I stayed up there and helped with snowschool and the summit attempt. Bizzarely the summit "attempt" was successful, climbing the North Couliour of Broken top - we do occasionally use this route in the early season but it is much more normal to be turned around low on the NW ridge due to harsh conditions. After the summit I turned around with a sled full of WAG bags (yes thats right full of poo!!) and headed back to base to get ready for the Owyhee river in a couple of days in far eastern oregon.

The long walk back to camp after leaving at 4am - broken top is the peak in the back ground
Meagan (my co-instructor) summiting the final fixed line to the summit (it really wasnt that cold)
Neil (one of the students) coming through the steepest part (the cornice) on the fixed lineKevin (my other co-instructor) looking a bit cold my first night in the mountains
Mandi with the big sled crossing a snow bridge on a creek
Neil on the summit with the corniced ridge below
The bag of poo next to my sled when i hit the road - i promptly covered the bag with snow until the vehicle arrived............

Work or Play

So the Spring "Wilderness Educators Course" is in full swing but currently in the first aid section so I have had a weird mix of work and play recently. The internet is embarrassingly slow so hence the low resolution of the pictures. Sometimes work and play melds into one and below is a few photos from the last couple of weeks. Before course I was hanging out and climbing with whitney then climbing with students then more climbing and a recert of my First Aid.... then more kind of work and sort of climbing. Next up the mighty Deschutes river.

Play before work. Ryan at the base of a route we wanted to climb this morning. Unfortunately we had not realised that it was going to be around 25degreesF. we got one pitch off the ground and went for coffee before work - this was 615am
Play - the day before the WFR recert I got a couple of climbs in with whitney (not seen but belaying in this shot) and Emily
Play - Whitney climbing a very weird 5.8 on redwall at smith. (we went and got fries and pizza shortly after this as it was so cold)
Work (you can tell its work by the matching helmets) some of my students climbing at "the textbooks" in the gorge at Smithg.
Work - Santiago looking for the good hold on "thin air" at koala rock.
Work - another cold evening lesson at Smith rock.
Work? Pizza in the office with Kelly J and ryan before the students show up on day one
Play - the problem with packing you bag at 525am to go climbing is that you cant quite see what you are grabbing - this morning after a failed attempt to climb "heathens progress" at smith.

Thats all for now - my life looks a little like - week on the deschutes river, some time in the sisters mountains in the snow, 5 days on the owyhee and a final short trip to mt hood.......

The Gulf of Mexico

"Gulf of Mexico" - Makes it sound warm doesnt it? What about "Sea Kayaking in Alabama"? - Makes you want to look at a map and check if there is any coast in Alabama. I definitely came down here expecting it to be warm and got a bit of a shock. For the last 2 weeks I have been Kayaking on the Mississippi and Alabama coast with US Military Veterans. The photos will show a sunny place but the reality was a very cold first week which saw me cold in a sleeping bag rated to 0degrees F (thats -19C) and some tough mornings pulling on damp wetsuits. The area has grown on me with the highlights being some relatively remote beach campsites and some interesting meetings with locals (the bayou population redefines the word red neck for me). It was great to be back in a sea kayak and see a new part of the USA for me. One more day in Alabama and then headed back to Oregon..............

The start point at Bayou Cumbest (we were joined at this camp site by a drunk guy who I honestly could not understand his accent was so thick)
Teaching wet exits on day one of course - Thats me standing trying keep my hands out of the freezing water
Ice on the boats in the morning
One of my co-instructors, John and I's "bat cave" on the last night on coffee island.

Hanging out on the beach on the last afternoon
Pat and I demonstrating safe practice with our flare guns.....
Trying to make john finish the Hummus at lunch time.
Camp on Coffee island
This could almost be a scottish hebridean beach - (but its not - you just have to choose to look away from the oil refinery.

Another Loss

Another year starts and another amazing person is taken by the mountains. For friends who knew kellen here are some of my better pictures of him living out his passions in the outdoors. You should just be able to click on the photos to get a high quality version of the image and download it. The best I can do for now as I head out on course tommorrow. Kellen - I cant believe you are gone though hopefully your last turns were perfect and your family are coping. I will miss your great taste in bad shirts, dirty martinis and relaxed competence in all that you did.

As ever sporting great facial hair and a rad pair of sunglasses (deschutes 2008)
Odin falls staff training with friends (2008)

milking it for the camera

Cibellis pizza for breakfast before another day in the mountains (odin falls 2008)
Mt hood (2008)
Boxcar rapid, lower deschutes 2007
lower deschutes 2008
top of ciniman slad 2nd pitch (the variation) smith rock (summer 2008)
very happy and a little sunburnt
the true mountain man - hood 2008

deschutes 2008
kellen being kellen (at the rod and gun club on the deschutes 2008)

Oregon again

Back in Oregon (and a couple of other US states) for another year. Occasionally people ask me why I keep returning and as a picture tells a thousand words the below photos should go a long way to explaining. Tomorrow I have to hop on a plane to the other side of the country for some work (well sea kayaking anyway) but the below photos are all from my the third day back in the US where Whitney and I managed to climb and ski all in one day......

Rachel getting ready for the lead at the buckets wall (this was the 5.10) with whitney ready to belay.
Going for it. - this route is awesome except for the bouldery start.....
Me trying to fit in a burger as we drive up the pass towards the snow.
Whitney looking back at Three fingered Jack (thats a mountain not a person) as we skin up hoodoo.The sunset from the top of hoodoo.
On the summit of hoodoo before the ski back down.

So in truth this was indeed a perfect day but we had tried to do the same the day before...... Tried to go skiing but realised that Whitney hadnt fitted her skins to her skis then tried to go climbing and i forgot my left shoe making things a little more tricky. (we did manage one route where I had to stuff my left foot into the toe of whitneys left shoe). But the day was rescued heading to tony and kellys for "fry fest 2010" and some weird american game a bit like rugby. Hopefully the next photos should be of sea kayaking in alabama.....