(1) It's been a while since I last wrote so I will try and keep this relatively brief. Titcomb used to look like this:
and now it looks like this:
In my honest opinion, really really good. But if you don't trust me, check out in the next issue of Popular Mechanics. There are still a couple finishing touches to be completed, most noticeably the door and windows as well as the gable ends and the furniture.
(2) As soon as work on the cabin was over Ben and I took off for Colorado where we met up with (in this order): Answoon, Chelsea, Andrew Palmer, Alex Lee, Clara Chew, Ellen Ludlow (for 5 mins at a gas station outside Clear Creek Canyon), Max F, Claire Frazer, Alex Corey, Noah and Laura. We did some rocks climbing and some mountain biking and some pushing Swoon's truck around parking lots when it wouldn't start.
Here's Ben rapping of the Maiden, a climb in the Flatirons with a 5.5 pitch that was so run out it made me cry. It was a pretty epic rappel: most of a full 70m rope, most of it in free fall.
Anson, Ben and I met up with Noah and Laura to ride the Monarch Crest trail in SW Colorado, and then continued on to Moab where Anson's truck narrowly escaped death by giant spider:
I would post some cool pictures of the Whole Enchilada, Porcupine Rim, or the Slickrock trail but alas I do not have any. So, continuing on we stopped briefly in Jackson and saw Tom and Erin, then continued on to Montana and picked up Ben and Mariah. Then we went to Squamish. But, we heard rumours on the interwebs that Squamish was plagued with dens of ravenous thieves so we left all of our valuable possessions (very little at that point..) in a place called Paradise, WA with some friends. As it turns out, while we were in Squamish a SWAT team descended on said neighborhood in a helicopter in search of a runaway fugitive described as a "shirtless man with a handgun." They raided a house a couple blocks down and arrested a shirtless man with a handgun, but it turns out he was not THE shirtless man with a handgun, simply a man lacking a shirt carrying a handgun. But he was also carrying crack, so they arrested him anyways.
Squamish was really cool. There were an incredible number of ridiculously amazing cracks and the rock was like Cathedral before it became polished to a smooth soapy finish. Here's little Ben on a climb in the Smoke Bluffs which topped out in someone's backyard.
And other Ben on a 5.11
There were lots of log cabin building companies in the Pacific NW. These are for Greg, Lucas, Max, Kodiak:
If you look really, really closely you can see the next logs on sawhorses to the left of the cabin. They're doing the front and back two logs, but they've already cut the gaps for the window and door so they actually have four shorter logs ready to go. Also, check out all the logs floating in corrals in the sound.
(3) Then after a long drive back across almost literally the entire continent I went to Menorca, Spain for an archaeological field school (a.k.a: spy camp). On day two they had us digging up Roman tombs and bringing the bones back to the labs for cleaning and analysis
A femur and some skulls and many many other bones.
I also found a Roman coin. They have found about 500 Roman coins at this site since excavations started, but said that this was one of the better preserved ones that they've found this season.
It was a little absurdly beautiful and there was ocean everywhere. This photo was taken with an iPhone. Wtf.
Menorca is a very small island that has a much smaller tourist industry than it's larger neighbor, Mallorca. As far as I can tell, it's only industry is making these weird leather shoes that nobody wears.
It's a very small island (45km X 18 km) and there is not very much to do there besides go to the beach, read a book, stare pensively at the ocean, or drink sangria. There was a small amount of sport climbing though! It was about as well bolted as Rumney, if not better. This was a relief because all the holds were sharp limestone and seemed like they had a 50% chance of failure.
Oh - also! I went to Tunisia. My dad and I
stayed at this hotel, which kindly requested that you park your exploding cars elsewhere.
Up next: I'm heading to Utah after Thanksgiving to spend the winter in Alta. If you'll be in that area, or want to be in that area and ski with me, get in touch!
Kate
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