The past few weeks

The summer must have started as I havn't had much time to do things outside of work. This is not neccesarily a bad thing, lots of time with great people in great places. I did promise myself that I would climb more this year but apart from a brief spurt where I promptly hurt my right shoulder (so now they both hurt) I have been on the river or back at base getting ready for the river. First up was "all staff" 44 staff on the deschutes in three different groups, learning, bonding and generally having a good time. Next up a week long program back on the Deschutes river for Military Veterans then the river again for the first week of a 15 day youth course. After getting off the river I did manage a quick dash (in the name of staff development) up to Three Finger Jack in the Mt Jefferson wilderness with some of our interns. Setting out at 8pm we got to the high camp at 11pm got up at 3am, summited at 620am and were back at the trailhead for 11am.

Mike Armstrong (and Mike Mourar in the background) takes the plunge from the newly renamed "Kellens Rock"
Justin, Doug and Mike Mourar (generational picture anyone?) watch the flip drills
Some of the staff at the Ed Rodgers flag hike on the Deschutes
The staff of the Vets course (Tony, Paul, Mike, Josaf, Rob, Levi, Me, Erin, Steve, Justin, Jeff and mike carney)
Sunset over the deschutes
Gear boat flip drills in the river at base (Whitney, Carl, Mike and Levi)
Buckskin Mary Rappel (yes thats an abseil)
The team at the start of the fixed line at around 5am (stu, Carl and Jeff)
The best reason for climbing mountains - the view to other mountains. the sisters and mt washington
Stu on the summit pinacle

For now I have a 15day course to finish and then straight onto a 22day youth course. And then............ some time off

Rogue bowling

This seems like a long time ago, but my time off was filled with climbing, a trip on the rogue river with whitney and finished with the odin falls staff bowling championships. I have now just got back this years "all staff" river trip but below are some photos from the period before that.

Me attempting to surf the top wave on devils staircase rapid on the rogue
Bobo the clown (jay miller) and jason luthy watching the bowling
Whitney and Kat molesting the bowling mascot
Ralph showing one of many techniques for those of us who cant bowl
Whitney above blossom bar rapid on the wild and scenic section of the rogue.
One of our camps on the rogue
Switching out kayaking and rowing
Whitney rowing with the kayaks stacked behind her on the day 3 of our 5 day trip
another camp
The adventure mobile getting unpacked next to the river.

soon - all staff river photos

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.