More climbing and a little kayaking

Tiff at Gallows Edge
Me climbing at Gallows Edge


Me belaying the leader at Gallows Edge

Tiff at Gallows Edge

2009 Climbing Class at Gallows Edge

This past week has had lots of adventurous activities. Friday April 24th started off the weekend of golfing with Jennifer, climbing class at Gallows Edge in White Rock and kayaking the "state park" section of the Rio Grande River, plus climbing back at Gallows on Monday.

Golf: First time out this season, company was good, golf game was typical first time out, not pretty.

Climbing: SAT we belayed the leader, climbed up second to take out the protection the leader used, clipped in with slings at the top, cleaned the protection and rappelled ourselves down. A little unnerving at the top but ok. Did easier climbs to practice technique, transferring weight and using smaller hand holds, finger holds, hand jams, etc. MON I worked with Kei to create an anchor at the top of the cliff so that I could lean down and prepare the top rope for us to climb on, it was a bit scary as the bolts were a ways down off the cliff edge. Did three climbs and then cleaned the equipment at the top of my last climb and rappelled down again. We made it out of the canyon just as it turned dark. I was pretty proud of myself, two weeks ago, I would have never made it to the top of my last climb.

Kayaking: We met Kelly (the instructor) at the State Park Sun morning, there were 7 others in our class. Once in the river, we practiced our paddling, ferrying across the river, and enter and exiting eddies. After lunch we headed down river and practiced on many features and faster moving water areas. We ended the day with a class II rapid, this is the one I lost my paddle on many, many years ago. My goal for the day was to not make the stupid mistakes I made the last time I did this, and I made it, in good form also, a great way to end the day. Michael was in a Jackson Fun kayak, which is small and a lot less stable then the kayak I was in. After one fall in the morning, he changed to a slightly bigger boat. He didn't feel as comfortable in this boat, and had a few more tips which was discouraging, but aside for getting cold, wet and out of his comfort zone, he had some great moves "text book perfect" I heard the instructor say. We had a nice drive back, with lots of sharing and laughing and a great dinner to end the day.

Up next, graduation climb at Tres Piedras and kayak roll clinic....

April - Climbing, kayaking and SKIING?

Skiing down Nuther Mother at Pajarito
Hiking up, just east of Chair 2

Me rappelling

Me, excited to rappel

Tiff on her rappel

Tiff getting prepared to rappel

Me in the pool session in Alb

Michael and I practicing in the pool

Michael practicing his paddle stroke

Spring in NM is a time of variety, as the weather could bring just about anything, and the last two weeks have proven this to be true again this year.

Easter weekend it snowed, and snowed and snowed. Climbing class was cancelled on Saturday so Sunday I went skiing (after church of course, it was Easter you know). Having only skinned up once before, during the MTR class I was thankful when I ran into Rachel Richard and her husband in the parking lot. We all skinned up Pussycat and then Rachel and I headed back down Nuther Mother, the snow was very heavy and turning was a challenge but it was nice and soft and deep when I fell. Rachel and I split up the second time and I went up and down Aspen (a little ipod action and the sun peaking out made it a really peaceful experience.

Friday April 17th it snowed like crazy again, we thought for sure climbing class (April 18th) was going to be cancelled again, and myself, Krista and Diana all have Plan B figured out to ski again. But as luck would have it, it cleared up and climbing class commenced. In fact it turned out to be a beautiful day. Class was extended until 3pm so that we could work on some of the things we missed the week before. We met at the Y climbing area this time. We had different stations set up to learn to Rappel, catch leader falls (with Ludwig, a 150 lb device that simulates the calling weight of a climber), placing and cleaning protection, and then just climbing. It was a lot of fun to try the different things out, and have a fuller experience in general. We ended the day with a beer and nachos with some of the instructors and other students.

Sunday, April 19th was a shift in directions. Michael Forster mentioned to me at one point that he would like to learn to kayak so that he could take advantage of the nice little play areas in the San Juan river near his house in Pagosa Springs. As you can probably guess you should never tell me you want to do something and expect me to just leave you alone about it (as Michael is finding out). So on Thursday I went to Alb and Michael and I went to a class on Intro to Kayaking, and met Kelly Gossett who recently brought his kayak instruction business to NM. I had found Kelly on the Internet and sent him an email with some questions, and he gave me a lot of great information. I think he will end up being an amazing resource. Sunday I met Michael in Alb again to do some pool instruction with Kelly. After nearly 3 1/2 hours we learned wet exits, and many useful paddling strokes. This class was to prepare us for the next class on the river (State Park on the Rio Grande), next week. Kelly has a wide variety of boats to try and more classes and trips to join. I am hoping that I can learn to roll, since that is this elusive skill that I was never able to conquer when Josh Smith was helping Tina and I learn to kayak so that we could go on our sea kayak adventure years and years ago.

Rock Climbing Class April 2009

Me on the first climb
Tiff trying to move to the left side of the cave

Tiff first climb

Our group setting up the anchor system

So after a few more weeks of skiing in March at Pajarito and Taos, we wrapped up the ski season, plus a few skin ups. In April Tiffany and I started a rock climbing class with friends Krista, Christina, and Diana. This class is put on by the Los Alamos Mountaineers, there are 25 students ranging from High School to 60 years old.

Every Monday night for six weeks we have classroom classes and then outdoor climbs on Saturday mornings. http://lamountaineers.org/zSCHOOL.html

Class 1 was all about gear, figure 8 and bowline knots, and general things to know. Krista and I took a Friday trip to REI so that I could buy gear for the class. Then had a great dinner at Jinja with some of my work friends.

Class 2 we talked about belaying, anchors and how to set up anchor systems, we checked out gear to get ready for our climbs. On Wednesday we practiced belaying and comands, etc at the YMCA. On Saturday it was really windy, but we went to Potrillo and set up our anchors and once we were down at the bottom of the cliffs it was not as windy but still cold. We climbed for about 3 hours, it was great to have the three dimensional aspect of the outdoor rocks which you could leverage against. My favorite quotes of the day were "Just put your foot up on that hold next to your left shoulder" (were they kidding) and as Tiff tried to move from one side of the cave to the other, a guy says "If it were me, I would try to swing across to the other side and pull myself up onto the left", Tiffany replies with "that's great, but what would you do if you were me". After A group of us went to lunch at Pyramid Cafe, it was a fun day.

Class 3 we learned two new knots, the fisherman and the water knot, we discussed rappelling, and climbing techniques. Krista, Tiffany and I went and became belay certified on Wednesday so that we could go to the gym and practice. Tiff and I stayed and did a few climbs. Saturdays climb and rappell were cancelled due to snow and thunderstorms, you don't see lighting with your snow everyday, that's spring in NM.

Mountain Travel and Rescue Class 3/5/09

Aaron and David in the snow trench
Campfire time!!
Building the snow trench

skinning and snowshoeing up our camp spot

The group ready to head up

The week after I got back from Canada, I participated in the Mountain Travel and Rescue (MTR) Class put on by the Pajarito ski patrol. We had two evenings of classroom work on winter gear, orienteering, avalanche awareness, shelters, and winter safety issues.

On Saturday we did an overnight camping experience. We left the Pajarito ski hill parking lot and either skinned or snowshoed up to the top of the ski hill, behind Pussycat we dug out snow shelters to sleep in for the night. Myself, Krista, Dave, and Aaron started a 4 person snow trench which had a few iterations since we determined after it was dug that we did not have enough tarps to cover the top and it was very windy. We made dinner had a few beers and smores around the fire and then settled in for the long windy night. The next day we did some orienteering exercises, cleaned up, skied down the mountain for lunch and a celebratory drink.

Everyone was great and it was a good time.

Feb 21-28 Canadian Trip

Giant Jenga at Hero Pub in Kicking Horse
The whole gang at Lake Louise

Our Lodging at Lake Louise

Mark on the Goat's Eye at Sunshine
Back bowls of Lake Louise


Lake Louise and Victoria glacier from the ski area


Gang at Fairmont Springs Hotel, Banff

Fairmont Springs, Banff

Views from Sunshine ski area

Me skiing the ridge fenceline at Sunshine

Me skiing the trees at Kicking Horse


skiholiday2009.blogspot.com

To end February I went to Canada for a week of amazing skiing and fun. Marc Oettinger planned this trip, there were 9 of us on it (2 from NM, 4 from Boston, others from CO, DC, and Ohio). We skied at Kicking Horse BC, Lake Louise and Sunshine, Alberta CA.

The first day at Kicking Horse I got back on my alpine skis after 15 ski days. It took me several runs to feel back to normal, alpine skiing was sort of boring compared to tele skiing, except that we decided to spend most of the day skiing steeps, trees, and chutes. I could not have done that on teles. It was a lot of fun and a beautiful day.

Day 2 several of us girls went snowshoeing on a trail up at the ski area. It was fun, we laughed a lot and started happy hour around 3pm, headed back to the Lodge for hot tubing and then the Pub for dinner, drinks and giant Jenga.

Day 3 back at Kicking Horse it had snowed over a foot. I took the tele skis out and spent the day on them. Some of the steep trees we skied were hard to make tele turns but there were some challenging blues (harder than ours) that I spent a good part of the day on.

Day 4 I had food poison and spent it in bed. It was -28 c and 44mph winds so no one skied. We stayed in Banff at a rented house within walking distance of some fun bars and shops.

Day 5 we went skiing at Lake Louise, it had the most amazing views, some great wide open steeps, some good mogul runs and a few fun bowls. It was a good day but I was a little weak from being sick so stuck to alpine skiing.

Day 6 we went to Sunshine. It is WAY up on top of a mountain, above tree line for the most part. It was a very COLD day, but there were some fun chutes, trees and big wide open spaces to explore. Since I didn't know what to expect I stuck to the alpine again.

Next year I hope to do more tele skiing on the ski holiday trip. It was so fun to watch the guys and Denise, it is much more interesting and I have a much fuller appreciation of how hard it is.

Last night in Calgary was WAY fun, with a drink down at the hotel bar, a great dinner out and some karaoke.

There is talk about Austria for next year.