Professional development and a road trip? Yes please!

In my quest to become a real adult I have realized that the nomadic lifestyle can only last so long.  This spring I decided to work on continuing my professional development and get in a nomadic roadtrip at the same time.  In the future I am hoping to get a more full-time position as an outdoor educator and having an AMGA certification would certainly help out.  So off to J-Tree I went to take my Single Pitch Instructor course.  

J-Tree evening climbing

One of my main climbing buddies, Keith met me down there and took the course with me.  I've been climbing for over seven years now and this was my first actual professional development course.  I started climbing with Colgate University's outdoor education program, so learning within an institutional setting definitely taught me good some practices, but it has been a while since I was a staff member there!  The course was a incredibly beneficial and requires one to learn a lot of new techniques in just three days.  Luckily I was knowledgeable on the basics, and most of the skills were just putting a bunch of various tricks together to accomplish rescues or build various anchors.  This made the course run pretty smoothly for both Keith and I.  That's a good thing too, because though the AMGA recommends six months between the course and the assessment I was doing them only a week apart.  

Keith stoked on Ball Bearings, The Real Hidden Valley

After the course in J-Tree, Keith and I drove all over the west climbing (actually really just practicing for the assessment!), visiting friends, and getting denied from Vegas clubs.  We climbed a half day the Monday after our weekend SPI course and then headed to Vegas for the NCAA championship game.  Living in small towns all winter, Vegas was a huge change.  Keith and I got all dressed up and were ready to hit the town, we even had on fancy button down shirts!  My team won the game and off to the clubs we went.  Apparently dirtbags aren't allowed in Vegas clubs though… at least not while wearing approach shoes. Who knew that there was a dress code for clubs?  Not Keith and I! 

SPI practice in Red Rocks

With our Vegas experience not being what we expected, we climbed another short day at Red Rocks then got back behind the wheel and headed to Mammoth Lakes, CA to meet up with a friend from Alaska.  We were amazed by the beauty of the Sierras and definitely glad to be back in the wilderness instead of the big city.  We found a sweet little crag with a killer view of the Sierras and got in some more SPI assessment practice.  Then back to the road and a tour of the west with a long drive from California to Denver. 

Sierras from the Brenton Crags

Must return for the alpine rock!

One last practice day in Boulder Canyon and it was assessment time!  I took my SPI assessment with the Colorado Mountain School and spend the weekend showing my competence in the material I had just learned the weekend before.  My assessment leaders were surprised I had just taken my course and I could tell they were apprehensive about it, but the weekend went well.  In two weeks I flew out to J-Tree, took my course, drove 2500 miles through the west, completed the assessment and am now a certified AMGA Single Pitch Instructor!  Next step in the Rock Instructor… once I have the $2000+ it requires...  Keith and I finished up the roadtrip with a snowy drive back north to Montana.  Two busy days there we spent packing gear, mounting skis, seeing friends and then it was time to get back on the road.

Not psyched on fresh snow for the 10 hour drive

Keith was staying in Montana, so the next road trip would be a solo effort.  A long one too, as I was driving up to Alaska for the Mount Huntington trip and work for the summer.  The truck was packed with Christian's gear, basically everything I own and even some of the girlfriend's stuff, and then I was headed North to the Future.  Four days on the road through the snowy Canadian Rockies, past the massive ice flows of the Icefields Parkway melting in the sun, dodging moose and jack-knifed semis alike and I was back home in Seward.  A great way to finish up my winter season.  And now its all about gear and food preparation for the Mount Huntington expedition! 

Curtain Call still standing

The Shooting Gallery. Site of my coldest ice day ever.

Canadian Rockies, Round 2

Another long delayed blog post here for you guys.  Back in February Christian and I made a trip up to the Canadian Rockies.  We had done this same trip last year and it was some of the best ice climbing either of us had ever done.  So of course we had to return this year!  We both switched around some scheduling at work and were about to have almost a week of time off together.  We packed the truck and pointed it North.  

The first destination was the Ghost River Valley.  This was our first climbing spot last year as well, and we had a great time climbing long moderates and building bonfires.  This year we stepped it up a bit, both in the climbing and the bonfires.  If anyone has been into the Ghost, you know the road can be quite the adventure in itself.  Lucky for us there was not too much snow this year making the drifts easily passable, but there was one section of semi-frozen river that almost ate the truck.  We survived though and the come-along went unused.  I'm not sure it could have worked to the truck out anyway! At the end of the North Ghost road we found our campsite from last year and took advantage of the prime location again.  Our first day there we didn't arrive till after noon and were so beat from the 12 hour drive from Montana that we pitched the tent and immediately took naps.  Without enough time to climb we devoted our efforts into making a massive fire ring and collecting wood.   Over the next few days we reaped the benefits of our hard work and enjoyed not freezing our butts off while cooking dinner and eating.  

Basecamp in the North Ghost

The first day of climbing brought us to the classic moderate, This House of Sky.  It was also a Saturday… we reached the trailhead and there where already 4 trucks there so we took out time gearing up and then completed the very mild 10 minute approach.  We ended up climbing along side two guys from Colorado and together the four of us soloed up the lower WI3 pitches (lots and lots of them!) to the last pitch.  As the only WI4 pitch, it would be the day's crux.  Being that we soloed everything else, we decided to keep the streak alive.  Christian went first and had the good fortune of breaking a pick halfway up the pillar…  He was less than excited but managed to complete the pitch no problem.  One of the guys from Colorado was telling me how he had never broken a pitch before when this all was going down.  Apparently he jinxed himself because he then broke a pick leading the same pitch!  What luck.  After seemingly endless rappelling, we made it back down and home to our site for a bonfire and food.

Top pitches of Chilkoot Passage

Day two brought us to a new area of the Ghost, the Claw Creek Drainage.  Unfortunately our main objective, Fang and Fist, was already taken.  It was a Sunday so we shouldn't have been surprised.  Instead we got to go exploring.  It had been a long time since I had last ventured off just looking for something to climb.  That day we had no other choice.  Luckily there was plenty of ice to be found.  Just 15 minutes up stream from Fang and Fist we encountered a beautiful WI4 climb (Chilkoot Passage) that rambled up a drainage and ended with a beautiful pillar and plastic flow just below the ridge top.  A warm rest and snack in the sun and we were headed back home.  

Fang and Fist - beautiful but taken

The next day we were able to get on Fang and Fist.  This climb was a beautiful WI5 with three tiers of pillars.  The conditions were perfect for us… just the right temperature, good protection, sunshine at the top.  Definitely one of my favorite ice climbs all-time.  Probably one of the steepest and most technical as well.  The best part?  We had stashed our gear at the base after climbing Chilkoot Passage so had super light packs on the approach.  Sliding/skating down the frozen Claw Creek was a pretty awesome way to finish the day as well!

Our chance to get on Fang and Fist 

With the only two more climbing days we headed out of the Ghost River Valley and over to the Icefields Parkway area.  Since we had been in the woods for several days we had no idea what the weather forecast would hold for us.  Slipstream, a 900m WI4+ was on our wishlist, but we knew that perfect snow conditions were required.  The climb is threatened by both hanging seraces and a potentially more dangerous cornice.  Unfortunately a 60+ mph wind (according to the forecast, not our first hand experience!) was blowing up high and in the perfectly wrong direction.  With a massive cornice forming above the route, Slipstream would have to wait another year.

Looking down on the Icefields Parkway

  Instead we enjoyed the drive from Canmore up to the Icefields Center Visitor Center, where we found blowing snow and rather unpleasant weather.   We made camp and prepared for the next day's new objective, The Shooting Gallery.  This route is usually completed as a spring/fall alpine line, but we decided to see what we could find… We began with a nice alpine start followed by me getting us lost and then a long walk up to the glacier.  

The morning light on the glacier and the lower section of The Shooting Gallery

 We timed it perfectly though as it was just getting light out when we needed to be able to see our route through the crevasses.  The first section of the climb was pleasant snow climbing with surprisingly good snow conditions.  Once we began encountering rock we learned why everyone calls the Canadian Rockies a chosspile… just at the snow steepened and gained some questionable stability so disappeared any good pro placements.  We were treated to a fine pitch of ice and then turned a corner to find the crux WI4 pitch not really there.  It was Christian's lead and he decided why not try it anyway?  Two hours and several psychological pro pieces later he was at the top.  I'd call it WI4, M4 R.  It was the first real type 2 fun I had experienced the whole winter and I was belaying!  I rather imagine how Christian felt.  He did a great job though of fighting the conditions (and frozen shut eyes), lack of protection, and supremely chossy rock to make it up safely.  At that point it was time to head home.  Lots of rappels, some stuck ropes, anchor building/repairing, copious amounts of shivering and we were back to the glacier.  Then a several mile walk out in the dark and we were back to the truck.  At over 16 hours it was my longest day out ice climbing yet!  To finish up the trip we drove 12 hours straight back to Montana so Christian could go to work and I could make it home for Valentine's Day.  Can't wait to go back next February! 

   

Stoked to be heading down and out of the elements!