This weekend I helped to teach a Wilderness Pursuits skills clinic. The topic was Self Rescue techniques for rock climbers. We went over all sorts of fun, such as what to do when a rock falls on your partner, how to climb the rope, how to pull your partner up a cliff, and how to rappel with your unconscious partner. Check out the pictures from last years’ lesson: http://wiki.western.edu/wp/index.php/2008_WP_Self_Rescue
Despite our eagerness to learn, mother nature toyed with us in her usual Spring fashion. While setting up top ropes in Taylor Canyon, the flurries began, which turned into fat flakes that fell steadily with a breeze for the next hour- until we decided to call it quits. We headed back to school to dry off and warm up and then continued the lessons outside off of a large cottonwood tree in our backyard. But surprise! The snow came back and hit us hard again!  

This weekend I got to hang out with my buddy Josh at Waunita Hot Springs with all of the Partners from the valley. We had ourselves a great time swimming in the hot water, playing basketball and wrestling with giant floating lobsters! Of course, we did a few splash competitions and generally made good fools of ourselves.

Waunita is one cool place, only 30 minutes from town. They’ve got a great restaurant, rooms to stay in, a farm with big ol’ happy hens pecking around, and the most wonderful water for relaxing. Every year they let all the mentors and their kids come and play - nice guys. Go check it out sometime, cluck at the chickens, say hey to the fat cat on the porch. Relax and enjoy - or, bring a kid with you and have some fun!

Oho boy, nothing better than getting out of town for a week to do a little something different, let me tell you. I just went down to Powell Reservoir in Utah, previous home to beautiful Glenn Canyon - where we spent the week with Wilderness Pursuits sea kayaking around the canyons. What a time, my friends. WP puts on the best trips, for the best price.

We went down to Powell through snow in Colorado, but found warmish weather and clear skies in Utah, land of the red rock, blue mesas, domes, and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone (thanks Ed!). We explored side canyons, paddled through big waves and winds, through calm blue waters where we watched schools of fish swimming below, hiked up over steep sandstone tales of millions of years history, ate and ate and ate, felt the chill bite of the melted snow of the mountains of Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, and saw the full moon rise and set each night from my sleeping bag beneath the stars.

The trip was incredible, but the thing that made it the best was the people that I spent time with on this trip - the stories that they told, their jokes, their emotions, their thoughts; each night around the campfire and each mile that passed beneath our boats we learned the value of community, and began to know each other as humans in a way that is rarely discovered in our day to day existence. This is it, mates, this is life.  

Well folks, I think I’ll take the time this week to highlight a little something different about my life. The other day I went to church. Not just regular church, but to the Episcopal Church’s Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner. I took my wife and my junior Partner, Josh. Partners is a really cool organization here that matches up kids to adults for a mentoring relationship. Josh and I hang out for a few hours a week, just spending some time together having fun and learning a bit about life. It’s basically the Big Brothers/Sisters program, and it is the most rewarding thing. 

Josh is a cool kid, 13 years old, a little shy, but he’s got gusto and he’s got heart. We walked on down to the pancake dinner giddy at the thought of all that food. I knew it would be a good time – surrounded by good people – like the table of older ladies who had been skiing around here since they were kids – ladies who taught us some fun new dances – and the folks who did the cooking and serving and cleaning up – and the gentleman on the accordion who played us some fun songs. It was a good time of food and dancing, which also raised money for a local girl in need. It sure makes going to college a lot more exciting to be involved with the community, helping out, hanging out, meeting new people, eating good food. Come on out and join us! 

Have I mentioned that I love it here? Well, in case I haven’t given you enough reasons to come to Western, let me give you one more. Cross country skiing. We’ve got it. We’ve got it in abundance. The two feet of snow on the ground can be a bummer for some, a real bomb for others like me who find it fun to strap on two slippery sticks and slide across it. I admit, it is a bit silly, but you know, it keeps me sane, and well, silly. I like it that way.

The coolest thing about living in Gunnison and loving cross country skiing is that we’ve got groomed trails right in town, basically, out my back door. Only one block away from my house, the Van Tuyl trails weave around the meadows between the neighborhood and the river. They are nicely groomed, flat, and interesting, going through wide open fields with vacation views, through stands of cottonwood, behind houses, horses, and elk, down to the Gunnison River and back. This town has got it going on. Come out sometime, leave your car at home, and have some fun! 

The moon is full again and I’ve been feeling that familiar itch. It starts with a strange tingling in my brain – it starts thinking in curves; I see snowflakes when I close my eyes, glittering under a soft warm glow, like Christmas lights sparkling on a tree. I start to lose focus when I walk – I find myself running into snow banks, stopping in the middle of the road to dance a little jig. Soon enough I’m howling at the night sky, and I know it is that time again – I call my support network, they come to my house after dark, when I’m at my maddest. I grab my skis and follow. 

We arrived at the Washington Gulch trailhead with the wind whistling and clouds running fast overhead. Skins on, we ventured out into the snow in search of our medicine. Up the mountain we raced, straining to gain traction in the deep snow, dodging low hanging branches. We sang songs and spoke of our visions, while the cold breeze nipped at our hopeful faces. Up the mountain we climbed, stars and moon lighting our path, the lonesome valley steadily receding below us, until at last we reached the peak and found the cure we’d been looking for – turn after turn of bottomless powder, grins on our faces and whoops from our lips, the itch had been scratched, the brain relaxed, and all was well with the world again. Until next month… 

Well folks, I’ve found a new passion in life. You might call it an addiction. I’ve been thinking about it, dreaming about it, doing it every day… I’m building an ice climbing wall - that’s right. It is a thing of great beauty and will one day be the talk of the town. It all started when my friend and roommate Jake built a snow cave in the front yard over Christmas break. The snow was two feet deep in the yard and was likely to be there until April, but with a bit of shoveling, we got rid of our snow problem, turning it into a fine little dwelling large enough to hang out inside with a few buddies.

Last Thursday I noticed that the warm days and sun were starting to melt out one side of the cave, so I started throwing more snow on it. After a while, I decided I’d pile up a ton of snow and then we could excavate the cave to make it huge. So I did. Next, I had the thought that we could most definitely build up a wall along the north side, spray it with water, let it freeze, and ice climb on it. So my work began. It is about seven feet tall now, with overhangs and gullies, quite impressive. We need to build it up another few feet and start spraying it steadily each night before it is truly climbable, but that should come soon.

Life is never dull around here. Stop by 612 N. 12th St. any time and lend us a hand.

This weekend I went down to Lake City with some friends for my first ice climbing of the season. Oh boy, what good times! This is my third year of ice climbing - my first started with a WP trip to the Black Canyon. The following year I started heading out to the Lake City ice park regularly, getting in some sweet climbing along the way at Chipeta Falls and Ouray. This weekend’s trip took me to an ice cliff I’ve never seen before, just above Lake San Cristobal. The coolest thing about it was that I got to lead my first ice climb. What a gas!

Coming down from a chandelier ice gully this weekend, my buddy says to me: “That was the absolute coolest thing I’ve ever done”. ‘Nuff said. If you are interested in ice climbing (hey, you’re not in Kansas anymore) then come down to WP and sign up for a trip. I’ll be leading one the first weekend of the new school year. And if you’d like to just see what it is all about, come by Ute Lounge at 7pm on Wednesday, January 14, where I’ll be showing a rocking good ice climbing movie. Check out this link for details: http://wiki.western.edu/wp/index.php/%22The_Ice_Game%22

Took a break from the usual weekend fun last week to go to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving break. It was also my second anniversary with my wife so we celebrated in style. The city is so close, only 9 hours away, that anyone who never bothers to go is just missing out on an incredible experience. We had lots of fun without spending lots of money too - we just walked and walked all over the city and throughout its casinos. So long as you never sit down you never spend money!

It was a cool time in a hot clime but I’m glad that I’m not living there! Back to Gunny town, I’m back in the swing of things with schoolwork and skiing. All is well!

You ever have one of those moments of total clarity, when your life’s path is laid out before you in your mind? This weekend it happened to me as I lay snug in my down sleeping bag, 5:45am, staring at the sky twinkling bright with a million stars. It was cold, freezing in fact, in the Utah desert somewhere west of the Green River and north of the Dirty Devil. Should I stay or should I go? Our plan was to wake before dawn and hike into an area reknowned for its incredibly eroded mud and sandstone hoodoos. Sunrise or sleep?

Well, the realization hit me, and I was up and packed in no time. Before I hit the hay that night I had walked for 16 hours, covering at least 24 amazing desert miles. We walked up and down mud, sand, and stone, through canyons and valleys, mesa tops, roads, trails, all of which were narrow, crooked, winding, and dangerous… and I loved every minute of it. So next time you hear a voice, trace its source - if it comes from the heart, follow it, walk your path, and love it.