Iced

That's right.  You just got iced, courtesy of the current 3D residents.  Leave a comment with your address, and Greggles will be happy to put one in the mail for you.

3D Wants Post Cards!

Send the house a real post card from your travels, we now have a sweet post card door.

I'll post for real soon, but thats all for now.

-Parker

In case you are confused, the mailing address for 3D is:

3D Residents

3 Dorrance Pl.

Hanover, NH 03755

The Parker Reed Brothel for Wayward Alumni

Since the summer term officially ended, a lot has happened at good ol' 3D, and I figured it is my duty as a new resident to report it. Though Lucas and I (Greg) had been spending quite a bit of time here all summer, we are now actual real-life residents, for at least a week or two. Titcomb Crew got kicked out of its apartment on the 31st, and even though the majority of the crew has gone its separate ways, Lucas and I are still around finishing the roof of the cabin at a more leisurely pace. You can see more of that on the Titcomb blog. Anyway, this past weekend has been quite busy. Here is a list of important events:

• Julie showed up, and I sat with her at the Lodj Croo rehearsal dinner. At dinner, she made some joke about taking someone to Poundtown, and it made me laugh. I missed Julie Carson jokes.
• Elar showed up. I called him from 3D asking where he was, and two minutes later he ran into the house really loudly, covered in sweat from dancing with '14s at the H-Croo dance party. An intimidating 24-ounce Smirnoff Ice was waiting for him.
  
  
• Emyen moved out of her room and Train moved in. Much to all of our surprise, Emyen successfully navigated her way to the Grant.
• I moved into Nancy's room for the week. In lieu of rent, I cleaned the tank of the turtle that belongs to Nancy and Mertens. That shit was gross. I'm probably going to let Elar set the turtle free.
• Elar played pong.
• We replaced the old keg of Bud Select (gross) with a new keg of PBR. This involved first emptying the Bud Select into the 3D parking lot.

Then, Elar and I had a keg race of sorts back to Stinson's with the two kegs to be returned. I won. Self call.

And then burgers were made with the new keg:

So that's about it for now, but there should be some good debauchery this week. Elar is here for a few more days, I'm here for at least another week or so, and Lucas and Parker are here indefinitely, as usual.

-Greggles

One Summer, One Subaru, Eight Thousand Miles, Five Ropes, 11 Pair of Shoes, One Golf Club, One Destiny, and a Continuing List of Blog Title Cliches..

Blogjack! Nice little gig you have, but the mercenaries from 20 school have infiltrated your deepest security measures (thanks Jake) to infect you with stories of our recent alpine bouldering and particularly difficult scrambling adventures in Wyoming and California. And in case you didn't hear or assume, we did NOT take the motorcycle out - it was either $1200 of funding or a summer-long type 2 adventure (hah).

Wanting to deviate a LITTLE from the reg DMC locales of the Tetons, Winds, and Sierras, we first checked out Mt. Rushmore and decided that Jefferson’s Mandible would indeed NOT go free. It looks like you can get some master cams in his pores but really we need a full rack of anticams (http://climbingnarc.com/2010/05/the-anti-cam/) to aid the incisor pitch. Funny that climbing at the South Dakota Needles wasn’t actually much different from this. Cool granite towers and hard sport, but lots of guidebook confusion and a noticeable lack of protection.

Devil’s Tower is CRAZY, you’ve never seen anything like this. The feature itself is surreal and so is the climbing experience. Out-of-breath tourists on a paved-flat walkway gawk as you lock and stem through the highest concentration of the most beautiful, sustained, clean, and well protected cracks and corners/dihedrals you’ve ever seen. 5.10 might be the best grade to climb at the tower but there’s really great stuff on either side of it, although I swear neither of us could figure out how to climb 5.9 or lower unawkwardly after finally getting comfortable on long hard cracks. Make a trip out of going to the Tower or at least stop by sometime. Be sure to bring a double rack of nuts and a golf club for the nine holes of golf at the top of the Tower (stupid tourists who don’t read signs will believe anything)!

Quick anecdote. We've been playing the license plate game (only Hawaii to go) and holy shit Vermont gets out and does cool stuff more than Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi combined. Not even per capita. Per fucking fact-ita.

Everyone knows about the Tetons by now, but everyone prolly don’t know that there can still be a LOT of snow there around August. We couldn’t do the Grand (or even Cathedral) Traverse and had to rent cast iron ice axes just to get up to the shoulder below Exum Ridge. Its a long hike up to the shoulder, a bit of a climb up Lower Exum Ridge, and then another simul/hike up proper Exum Ridge to the top of the biggest breast (..teton). This was another of our encounters of a Jack Durrance route of some sort - he has the FD down Exum Ridge as well as the FA on the most popular route up the Tower. The man did a lot of shit and is even mentioned in the Winds guidebooks and Freddie Wilkinson account of the 2008 K2 disaster, One Mountain Thousand Summits. I’m about half way through that right now and its really a spectacular read. He craftily weaves 8000m mountaineering history in with his research and analysis of the disaster, really covering the subject while not boring you. It probably makes a good case to never get into that shit and it feels good to have all of our light and fast alpinism horns blown a little.

“John Joline was right, he hit the nail on the head with that place,” said Jake, about the Winds, when we visited him in Madison (who seemed to be so happy there he was touting his own beer drinking capabilities over Wisconsin rock). We were supposed to meet John in his fabled East Fork Valley, but unrelated tooth and climbing partner problems delayed him a few weeks so we busted into the Cirque of the Towers and Deep Lake area for 10 days ourselves. In the Cirque you camp in a field of wildflowers with a waterfall in the middle, weather is irregular but short-lived when it comes in, and the granite is good to chossy. We did some really great classics and then tried the 20 mile, 5.8 Cirque Traverse in a day and punted HARD. After some ridicucool climbing and the most exposed fucking 5.8 move I’ve ever heard of in my life, we bailed at dark down what we thought would be a pretty standard bail highway, considering the couple hundred dollars of bail spectra, biners, and nuts we’d pulled off of other climbs. After leaving some gear and a 5.grassy traverse at 11,000 ft we rapped into a steep snow gully and spent the next few hours picking our way down slippery rocks where we could find them. We left like three anchors and STILL are coming out of that place with a net gain of bail gear, what a goat rodeo HAH.

Now we’ve spent the last couple days in Oakland eating everything in sight and gearing up for Temple Crag, the Incredible Hulk, and Yosemite big rock. Climb safe and send/text us a shout out if you’re going to be in California or want us to stop by on our way back east in September!

If you think you’re gonna plummet, youuu must gun it!
- A guy we met named Joe

Picasa Pics

M,D&L

We are so proud!

Julie brought this current Dartmouth homepage to my attention. Please note any number of things: the backwards cap, the "Averil Lavigne's boyfriend" duds, the way the photo makes it look like Ben is busy shopping for a road bike while his group models brightly colored... things... on their Thayer computers. Next time, stick to those cfs** charts for your in-lab procrastination - they look much more I'm an Engineer(!)

That said, it could have been worse. They could have caught him on MountainProject. Also, is that Charlie Brown or an axa pledge in the room?

In short, we miss Dartmouth.

Cheers,
Mark

**forgive me if that's not what the river-flow thingamajigs are called.

I think that's Sarah!

Unfortunately, no, that was not Sarah...but maybe if you squinted it would look like her. Since my last posting I've put on quite a few miles. Once my trip began and all the kiddies flew in to Anchorage, we went on a 10-day backpack in the Talkeetna mountains that are Northeast of Anchorage. We had some HARD days! But, as usual, a combination of beautiful scenery, incredible map reading skills, gentle cooperation from the weather gods, and a few rugged good-looks from the leader combined for a great trip. The mountains are amazing there. Big, rocky things with lots of green, soft tundra.
It's perfect for walking around. Not too many big river crossings, some beautiful lakes, a few caribou. I would definitely recommend that everyone visit, although there is not much Sport climbing...sorry.

At the end of our backpacking trip, we were supposed to raft the Chickaloon river, but a participant got sick and I flew out with him on the bushplane that our rafts and guides flew in on. It was pretty cool to see the river from above, unfortunately, no pics.

We then drove 8 hours to McCarthy, AK to go glacier trekking in Wrangell - St. Elias national park. It's hard in to write about what Alaska looks like, because it is generally awesome, rainy, and extremely beautiful. So here are some photos instead:


We also did a little ice climbing. Very fun to not be freezing cold in NH in February. I'm the one in green. They missed taking a picture of me doing sweet climbing moves I learned from watching Vertical Limit.
After some ice climbing fun, we headed to Prince William Sound to go sea kayaking. Well, so sea kayaking isn't exactly whitewater, but its fun. I guess. It helps when its a beautiful place with otters poking their heads up next to you, whales cruising by, and bald eagles catching fish right in front of you! (no joke, coolest thing I've ever seen. We were cruising by the coast and this huge Baldy comes flapping over and next thing I know, right in front he snags a fish and flies back to shore. They have huge legs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI&feature=related ). The cool part of Prince William Sound is definitely the glaciers. They calve (ice falls into the water) all the time and are really cool looking. Paddling through the icebergs is a little nerve-wracking, but also really fun.

We camped at the most amazing black sand beach. It was right next to a glacier that was calving constantly. Isn't it supposed to rain in Alaska?

It was hard to believe that our 35-day Alaskan adventure was over and that we'd have to return from the Last Frontier. I returned to Jackson, WY to clean and organize stuff for the boss-man and reunited with Noah, Tom, Max, Marika, and Richard (6 Dartmouth peeps?!) who were all leading trips for the same company. At the end of the wrap-up, we went out. Flaming Dr. Pepper's were led by Tom, Noah, and myself. We did good. Max dropped a beer on Marika's foot. Older people complained of head ache's the next day because of those "stupid flaming drinks". We did good.

I then got a ride to Salt Lake City where I met up with a friend from Chicago, Matt, who is now living in Park City and studying at Utah. We went mountain biking which is SUPER AWESOME, but hurts the grundle real bad. Once we couldn't mountain bike anymore (2 days), we went on a 3 day backpacking trip to the Uinta's Wilderness in Northeastern Utah. It is so beautiful everywhere, I love it. We climbed the highest peak in Utah, King's Peak. Tough, but very rewarding.

Red Castle:
King's Peak. Grrrr.
It was a great trip and an unforgettable summer. Soon I'll be headed back to Chicago to play some hoops with Obama and afterward I'll be going on tour starting in New York the last week of August.

Hey everyone!

This is Julie, finally back home after spending the summer leading trips in California. I must say, it is great to be back with the Internet IV once again. Not only have I finally renewed my license, but also I have caught up with all the new things going on in and around Caribou, Maine. First, the City (yes, it is technically the City of Caribou) is repaving part of Main Street, which has caused zero traffic disruption because there isn't enough traffic to make a difference. Second, this weekend is the Annual Ploye Festival. The highlight of this is that the "World's Largest Ploye" was baked last night. Since most people don't even know what ployes are (a countrified version of the French crepe, the elusive ploye is a spongy, buckwheat pancake), it strikes me as fairly easy to make the world's largest. Third... Hmm, third. Well, my parents bought new towels.

But, back to the more interesting topics. My summer was awesome, but incredibly taxing on my psyche and patience. Some of the issues 14-17- year olds come up with are nothing short of baffling. No one died, though, and everyone seemed to have a good time, so I consider that a success. Each trip convened in San Francisco, and after a night in a campsite near Oakland, we drove east over Sonora Pass to remote Bridgeport, CA. The rest of the trip was separated into a 2-day shakedown backcountry, an 8-day backcountry, a nice break with 2 days of white water rafting with ARTA (Sam Welch's family's company), and then a summit attempt on Mt. Shasta. We ended by driving back down the Central Valley to San Francisco for a night on Fisherman's Wharf. The Sierras are gorgeous! We were hiking north of Yosemite and, unfortunately, missed all of the Valley's sights, but it was still my favorite part of the trip.



My photos are probably more interesting: http://picasaweb.google.com/juliemcarson
Check them out if you are so inclined. There are definitely a lot. And a lot of kids you won't recognize.



Next up is a week-long vacation in Acadia. The last time I was there, I was visiting one of my friends on the Cranberry Isles and ended up sleeping next to a paved walking path atop Cadillac Mountain for lack of overnight accommodations. I anticipate that this will be much nicer. After that, Mark and I are moving in to our apartment in New Haven. Can't wait to buy my first can of pepper spray, huzzah! ...Just kidding. Kind of. But seriously, if anyone is in the area and wants to visit or needs a place to crash, you are absolutely welcome (and encouraged) to visit!

Adios!
Julie

Lily - oh god this is real life

So - yeah, I left Boulder. Went through a gauntlet of doctor's appointments back at home-home (I got new contacts...which I promptly dropped down the drain 3 days after I got them. yikes.)
Anyways...welcome to my life! I hang out with Ana a lot (she even slept over one night!) and I go to work for a reasonable number of hours every week. I'm going through training for 5 weeks, and we're nearing the halfway point very soon. Lots of studying, but also lots of goofing off with my friend Joy, haha. We are really fed up with trying to "meet everyone", and so we've been kind of antisocial. We ran (like literally sprinted) to Chinatown one day to get $4 noodles during our lunch break and had to get take-out to make it back in time. It was gross out and I was sweaty. I can't talk about anything else we did...maybe later when this job is over.

I've also been going to the climbing gym in brooklyn regularly. I will have to accept that it will be my "home gym" from now on. I went the first night I moved in -- and guess who checked me in?! James Quadrino's ex-girlfriend, who I had met once when she came to visit him at Dartmouth. She was so nice and taught me everything I needed to know about Brooklyn Boulders. It's a little far from where I live/work (it once took me an hour to get home, usually 45 minutes), but because training right now is in a location that is extremely downtown, it only takes 20 minutes to get there after work. I usually go by myself which has been hard because not everyone I meet is so nice or interested in making new friends, but Joy has come with me once, and Bari Wien/Cathy went with me yesterday! On Friday night I met these 2 couples that were so nice. I have no idea how I'll ever run into them, but I'd like to climb with them again! So yeah, I mostly boulder.
Obviously I don't look like this guy. This is courtesy of the New York Times. Anyways, this is called The Beast. It's like 30 feet of way overhanging wall, with finishes usually up around the lip. They apparently had a light show when they unveiled it. Kind of stupid. The easiest thing on it is a V3, but all the moves are like V1. It's just crazy endurance-y. (I feel like a douchebag talking about grades too, btw. I'm just trying to describe it!) Come visit me to check it out!

Also, my first real home is awesome. I really like living with Cathy, we eat noodles all the time. I guess during my 4 years at Dartmouth I've really missed being asian. We also don't have to pay for utilities except internet, so it's SO nice coming to an AC-ed home after being in the nasty city atmosphere. Also then I can convince people to come hang out in my apartment instead of me having to go other places :-). I'm so antisocial.
But look at my room - it's huge! Come visit! You can sleep on my rug on my papasan cushion! I'm just happy my place doesn't smell like old cat lady anymore...

One day, I will get to climb outside again...

My Enzo needs a tail...

My mom made me get the magenta sheets...

This is where the magic happens...even better is that we have a dishwasher and counterspace on the other side!

My couch from home - we've had this couch since I was probably 5. It's weird having it in my first home too. The walls are pretty bare except for the Leonberger calendar I put up. Cathy is working on it.

I hope everyone else is doing well -- I want MORE UPDATES!

My Name is Yon Yonson. I come from Wisconsin.

Hey all,

Jake here, writing from Madison, WI believe it or not. Here's the scoop:

When I last saw many of you in NH in March, I decided to go to grad school at UW-Madison. Shortly after, I got offered a research job that would start early, during the summer. I didn't wanna pass it up, so I left Ecuador a month early, bought a car, and moved out to Madison. All's been going really good so far. My preconceptions of the midwest before coming out here were probably pretty similar to most of ya'lls - very flat, cold, and not particularly appetizing. Well it turns out Madison is a really cool town. It's small for a city, you can bike pretty much everywhere, its really pretty (there are 4 lakes within a 5 minute bike ride from my house - check it on google maps), good restaurants and bars aplenty (literally dozens of microbrews in the Madison area, you can get beer on tap at a coffeehouse), lots of young people (welcome change from a South American Andean stronghold), and there is even some climbing nearby! I'm living in a house with homebrewing roommates, a porch, and a backyard. So yeah, life is good. Work is really interesting - I'm working on a project called IceCube that is trying to detect neutrinos from outer space by drilling 6000 sensors in the ice at the South Pole, 2.5 km below the surface (icecube.wisc.edu). It's pretty exciting stuff, and I'm learning a lot of science and a lot about working in a big international collaboration (I have conference calls with Europe 2-3 times a week, nbd). Since I know you guys are all into the blog-savvy picture postage, figure I'll contribute a little:




Yeah, that just happened! Don't ask me what it means - in fact, those plots, which took me the last 6 weeks to make, are all wrong. All made with the wrong data. No worries though, the current plots have been churning on the computadora for the last 3 days and should be done soon. So it goes in science research...

I'm slowly making friends and settling in, have been hanging out a bunch with some other physics grad students (many of whom climb, strangely enough), people I met at the gym, and with my housemates a lot too. I've reverted to the respectable ranks of the gym rat (local climbing gym is pretty good), and have spent some solid time exploring the area and the town. Got out climbing twice, was quite fun (reminiscent of Ragged in CT), but midwesterners' idea of "terrain" is hilarious at best. I'd say comparing an Alaskan's idea of a mountain to a New Englander's idea of a mountain is about the same as comparing a New Englander's idea of a mountain to a Midwesterner's idea of a mountain, if that makes any sense.

Besides the day in-day out routine of going to work and hanging out at the terrace (read: collis porch, but ten times bigger, lakeside, and with 20 beers on tap), I had the pleasure of seeing Peter and Andrew during their speedy eastbound stop, and soon after of seeing Mike and Diana during their drive west. And, this past weekend I saw Flynn and Whitney tie the knot in California, among good company of 05s, 06s, 07s, and 08s that I hadnt seen for a while, as well as the one-and-only Andrew Palmer.

So come by and visit! I promise good cheese, good beer, and a couch to crash on. Madison is a fun town. Hope you all are doing great, and hopefully see ya around sometime? Also, I might have a few days off in mid-august if anyone's got some freedom and wanna try an adventure.

Take it easy,
Jake

Life After Retail

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July 1st was my last day working at Eastern Mountain Sports. I pray that that I will not find myself reopening that chapter of my life, ever, but it has happened in the past. But for any of you all who weren’t aware, between last fall and last month I spent living at home and working at EMS. Retail is pretty miserable, but does give generous time off, and I was able to take time to head up to Katahdin last January with Dom Winski ’09 and spend a couple of weeks in Ecuador with Jake Feintzeig ‘09. In case you weren’t sure, mountaineering is miserable.

Anyway, with a couple of weeks between jobs, Peter Shellito ’09, Alice Bradley ’11 and I headed off from New England and drove out to Boulder. Because, well, apparently Boulder, CO is simply the place to be. We crashed with Clara Chew ’09, despite the fact that she has no furniture to speak of, because Clara is awesome. But really, she has no furniture. Her living room has a love seat she found by some dumpster and her kitchen has a microwave but no toaster and enough plates and silverware for four people to eat at once, as long as they don’t all need knives.

Boulder welcomed us with two days of rain, so we could spend time with Andrew Palmer ’10 in his natural habitat: the climbing gym. There were famous climbers there. And plastic holds. And free bagels. It was like heaven. But once the weather cleared up Peter, Alice and I had to do some real climbing and got on the first flat iron. And I just want to remind you all that run out 5.6 slab, is still run out slab. Even if someone is soloing the route next to you in running shoes.

Then we coerced Clara, against her better judgment, to join the three of us on an alpine route in Rocky Mountain National Park called the Shark’s Fin. The climb involved hiking in the night before (Saturday) to bivy near the base of the climb, so Sunday we could be off the climb before noon lightning storms, and hike out that afternoon.

Despite all odds, the trip was actually going pretty well. Tying emergency bivy sheets around Clara’s sleeping bag kept her from freezing all night and in the morning we managed to make it to the base of the climb by six, and we were rapping off shortly after noon. The climb itself was awesome, despite plenty of loose rock. Really what climbing is all about for me.

Anyway, upon returning to the base of the climb we discovered that marmots had taken one of Peter’s boots, and both of Clara’s sneakers. Then Peter spotted three shoe shaped objects lying in the snow field below the climb. Apparently the marmots, after finishing with their new prizes, tossed them off the cliff to the valley below. Sadly, one of the objects was actually a rock, and Clara walked four miles out with one shoe. And then it rained. After every trip, convincing Clara to go on another seems to become a little more difficult.

We hung around boulder for a couple more days before heading back east. We joined Palmer, Lily He ’10, Dan Egan ’10 and Ellen Ludlow ’10 for some decent sport climbing outside of town one day and then Peter, Alice and I did a really amazing line on the Bastille in Eldorado Canyon, maybe the best 5.7 climb I have ever done. Peter and I drove back to Massachusetts while Alice continued on to Alaska. The drive back was exactly what one would expect a drive cross country to be, long and dull. We stayed with Jake for a few hours in the midst of the trip. He seems to be doing really well, and I hope to get a chance to actually check out Madison next time I pass through.

After getting back home I had a day to unpack, get a government ID, and repack before flying out to Alaska early the next morning. For the last week I have been here in Anchorage living with Anson Moxness ’11 and family, working with Alice’s dad at the USGS. I just found a room to rent so I can move out at the end of the week, as I feel bad to be crashing with Anson’s parents, who have been really wonderful.

My time in Alaska is going well so far, although I haven’t seen the sun since landing. There is a really nice climbing gym I have been going to after work, and plenty of mountains right outside the city. So far I have been getting around by bike, so I will need to rely on bumming rides if I want to check out much of Alaska beyond the city limits.

-Andrew

Hola from Boulder!

What's up everyone? Sounds like everyone's having an awesome time this summer, and it's been a lot of fun keeping up. Even after more than a month from gradumacation I honestly don't have a ton to add, but here goes:

After graduating, I headed home to visit with mi familia and see the newest addition to it, my niece Rylan. She's pretty freaking adorable, and all she does is eat and sleep. Not a bad life. Unfortunately I don't know how to upload pictures from my phone, otherwise I'd post a picture. Just imagine a human version of those lolcats pictures and you'd be pretty close. Swooooooooon.

So after a week at home, I met Lily in the Denver airport and headed back to Steveo's and Kiff's apartment, which is plush to say the least. I sleep on some nice couches, which rules, especially since this floor is air conditioned.By comparison, Kiff sleeps on a bed of crashpads on the third floor, which is approximately 7 million degrees. So that's pretty freaking awesome, and I definitely can't complain. Otherwise, I've been climbing a ton, all over the place. As Lily said, we checked out Rifle on our first weekend here. I don't have any pictures of climbing, but here's a clichéd campfire picture:

Fun stuff. Otherwise, we've been doing a lot of alpine bouldering to get away from the heat. A couple of weeks ago we checked out Rocky Mountain National Park, and Steveo tried hard on this thing Gobot, a badass V11 that's kinda hidden in a cave. Hopefully he'll crush soon.

Ugly, right? We've also been bouldering a lot in this place near Mt. Evans called Lincoln Lake... it's a new area that's just now being developed by all the strong dudes of climbing. And now for my name-dropping section. Since we've been here, we've climbed, hung out with, or seen people like Dave Graham, Daniel Woods, Kevin Jorgensen, Jon Cardwell, Jamie Emmerson, Emily Harrington, and Alex Puccio. It's absurd... like a climber's version of Hollywood.

Anyway, yeah - been climbing a lot. That aside, got a job at Movement, one of the four climbing gyms in town, and I usually spend most of my time alphabetizing waivers, entering them into a computer, and doing whatever chores my bosses tell me to. Good thing for that ivy league degree. Still on the lookout for the real job though, so we'll see how that goes.

So I guess that's it - I sleep on a couch, climb a bunch, work at a climbing gym, and spend my free time hanging out and trying to find a job. Did get to hang out with McCauley, Peter, Alice, Dom, Ellen, and Egan though, and this weekend I'm heading down to San Francisco to see Flynn and Whitney get hitched. Wo0t! Bunch of older alumni will be there too, so that'll be fun.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing everyone's updates! Hope you're all doing well.

Palmer

Bonjour from Switzerland!

HI 3D! Long time reader, first time writer. im in trient, switzerland right now. today we hiked fromf rance to switzerland. im on my second trip now, which is already going better than the first one. were doing the haute route from chamonix to zermatt. last trip we had a girl go home with shin splints, a doctors vist for numb toes, a girl with hives in her throat and a kid who sprained his ankle and had to sit out the alst few days. i also went to a doctor with the kid with sprained ankle and i talked in french. apparently it doesnt go away even if you try not to use it for 5 years. i missed 8 days of hiking (out of 15). good times. the alps are incredibly beautifuol though. huge mountains, lots of hiking above treeline, lots of nutella and cheese and speculoos (its dutch. it tastes like if you turned teddy grahams into the consistency of peanut butter). in other news, im going to be working at lakes of the clouds hut on mount washington from august 18th until september 15th. so you should come visit me if you arent gallivanting around colorado. also, they let me handle large amoutns of cash for some reason, which is very exciting (they have 200 dollar bills in switzerland). the hiking is seriously cool, but im ona ghetto ass public computer so i cant show any pictures. you just have to believe me. OH! and joe kubert`s cousin is on my trip. he looks like a skinny version of joe with brown hair. good times.

-Tom

(posted courtesy of the biz)

CB, CO so far: Bikes, Hikes, and the Gnarkansas!

Greetings from Mount CB! Erin lied, she doesn't actually live in Crested Butte proper, and for that matter neither do I, but I do sit in an office there for a good portion of the day. I'm interning at a tiny engineering firm that does mechanical and structural engineering for buildings with a focus on efficiency. When I get to work on actual projects, which I guess is a fair amount given I'm an intern, it's pretty cool, but I also get to scan files every so often when things slow down. The best part about the office though is that as long as you get your work done by the deadlines, you can work whatever hours you want. People regularly leave early or come in late to go on rides, or even go during lunch and come back. Methinks this would be a pretty good gig come ski season too..

But on to the real adventures, since there have been several! My first was discovering immediately after unpacking my life into my new apartment that my car had a broken axle, but AAA and a guy named Earl got me through that one pretty quick, and for much less moolah than I'd anticipated. As Erin said, we've been doing a lot of biking, which is still new to me but my wrists are no longer sore from braking compulsively after every ride anymore (just the long ones...). Although the folks at RMBL initially struck me as rather chubber-esque (sorry Erin!), I realized the error of my judgement (or maybe found the exceptions?) and warmed up to them pretty fast. Since the majority of the 7 other people in my office are approaching or past 30, in serious relationships or married with small children, the RMBLites are still kinda the only friends I've made, and have a refreshing intellectual side that isn't as common in town, where the predominant inclinations are to have a lot of fun, never grow up (this includes a lot of flair, which I do appreciate), and drink impressive quantities of beer.

The 4th also featured the wonderful CB parade, in which all of the RMBLites wear veratrim (not skunk cabbage, but I don't know the difference) leaves and proceed to be first to get sprayed by the CB fire department in the town-wide water fight. Deciding that I'd rather be a fake biologist than a lonely wallflower, I donned some leaves myself and joined the masses of chanting scientists. Luckily, beer was provided:

This week featured three great rides with Erin, one of which the famous 401 again, and today we finally summited our first CO peak. At a modest 12805' it wasn't quite the 14er we'd hoped for last weekend, but we were pleased nonetheless and had a fun (and buggy...) little adventure coming down a slightly more creative route..who said there were actual trails out here anyway? We got great views all around, including our first glimpse of Snowmass (the big one behind me in this picture!).

My other adventure this week was on Tuesday when I hit the road and drove over Cottonwood Pass--also the continental divide-- to meet Ellen at the Arkansas river in Buena Vista (usually pronounced boona vesta, or some such silly variation) to do some paddling. Levels are getting pretty low at least by CO standards--as in, the Numbers were at around 700 cfs as opposed to over 2000--so after taking a look at the rapids on the way up, we decided to go for it and do the famous class IV run. We put on in high spirits, enjoying the clear water and sunshine. The first drop, supposedly the most technical, was kinda creeky and definitely required some attention. The first incident hit about halfway through when Ellen got caught by one of the squirrely holes and proceeded to attempt to roll up on top of a rock. Blame the loose outfitting, not boating in 3 weeks, or both--we had our first swim, but Ellen executed it with impressive grace, never more than 5 feet from her boat and making it very easy for me to help her self-rescue. After some roll practice we proceeded on to a series of awesome rapids, which seemed to be the perfect balance of difficulty and fun--we both agreed that this level was just fine for us. Near the middle of the run, I started having a little too much fun punching holes and found a real winner that gave me a thorough thrashing. Despite my best efforts to hang loose and flush out, every time I rolled up I found myself surfing straight back into the sucker via the oh-so-convenient eddy I flushed into. I pulled my skirt, floundered around, and managed to reclaim my paddle and start walking downstream. I'm still amazed at Ellen's boat wrangling skills--as I walked my sorry, hyperventilating self down the river she successfully got my boat into an eddy and was waiting peacefully for me when I caught up. I noticed on my (perfect SRT technique) whitewater swim across the river that the hole had gotten the better of my right shoulder, but it was at a very tolerable level of pain so after a little breather to calm down we pressed on again.

At this point I was quite leery of even the tiniest holes, following Ellen rather tentatively. As we approached a horizon line with some ominous spray coming up from the unseen rapid below, I think we both realized that we probably should have at least eddied out to try and boat scout, but as the thought crossed my mind I saw Ellen going for it, skirting a big hole before entering a melee of foam. As I dropped in I saw her get flipped and soon after got a little roll practice of my own. Coming up (bow pointing upstream, oy vey) I saw that the loose hips of the all-star had failed Ellen again and seeing that she was well on her way to a nice looking rock, I mustered what gumption I had to get after the little red boat. Unfortunately, my boat chasing experience up until then was pretty much limited to Fartlands, and the gnarkansas is, well, not fartlands in terms of difficulty or familiarity. With the friendly, armada-bolstered cushion of Ledyard now decidedly yanked out from under my ass, I kept up the chase for a while. My thoughts alternated between fiery determination--OOH THERE IT IS C'MON GIT IN THE EDDY--and verging on freaking out--SH@$MONKEYS HANG ON, FRICKINF@#K EDDY OUT, SCOUT THAT RAPID! I came close to getting it a couple times, but always relented when I realized I had to turn my attention to the upcoming whitewater. I passed a spot that looked suspiciously like our takeout (it later proved not to be), worried about going too much further. Still a little shaken up by my swim and my own brush with the series of holes that had gotten Ellen, I soon got to the point where I was uncomfortably far from my partner, alone and quickly approaching "really freaked out" on an unfamiliar and rather demanding river. With a sinking feeling of failure I eddied out and pulled my boat up on shore, thinking that the car was just up the road and that we'd hop in and catch up to Ellen's boat, which really wasn't moving very quickly. Sadly this was not the case, and we ended up walking for a good 20 minutes, Ellen barefoot and I carrying my boat (and down to one contact after the right one ripped in half...whoops!). Unfortunately the only people who drove by were some old people from Arizona and a van for a spa company. By the time we reached Ellen's car, further pursuit was out of the question. We kept our eyes peeled on our way back to the put in for my car, and back in BV talked to some folks in the play park, none of whom had seen it come through.

As we reviewed the day, we realized a few things--first and foremost, while Ledyard has unquestionably provided us with a great learning environment to boat in, it has also sheltered us from what boating in the real world is like. That is, we didn't have the numbers or experience of a full Ledyard trip, both of which we're accustomed to relying on and which would have been quite helpful. We also learned that even when you're having fun and slaying rapids, it's ALWAYS a good idea--rather, a necessary one--to slow down, eddy out, and assess what lies ahead, especially when you don't know what it is! Despite the saga that our day evolved into, we both felt like the level of difficulty was one that we were comfortable running, but agreed that we got into trouble when we started to get overconfident and disregard the challenge that it was. Given that, we humbly took the river gods' slap on the wrist--thankful it was just that and not more of a punch in the face--and did our best to make it up to them, ostensibly through the consumption of multiple booty beers but also by absorbing the lessons learned.

After reporting the missing boat, we sought out the local liquor store. I managed to find a single can of bud light and Ellen, trooper that she is, went all out and got a true 24-oz man can of PBR, which she proceeded to drink in just 3 bouts of booty-draining gusto (1.5 of which I accompanied her for). We stocked up on gas and snakes before parting ways and heading for home.

Lo and behold, the next morning Ellen heard from the Arkansas river rangers, who had found the stray boat which is now awaiting her return in BV. Moral of the story: be safe, be careful, and drink your booty beers!

Hope everyone's still having good summers, and for goodness' sake come to CB, it's obviously where all the fun is at, AND I have a couch for you to sleep on!

-Laura

Anson Goes to Rural Alaska

So I finally made my way home up to Alaska and was working an oh so interesting 9-5 job in an office killing trees by the reamful until I got shipped off to Kokhanok, AK (population: small) to work on a wind turbine project that my company was contracted for.

I was mainly working on setting up all the underground stuff, so foundation, wiring to the grid, that sort of stuff. All hard construction, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. My work involved a lot of shoveling, concrete mixing (we had a truck unlike those silly guys at titcomb who are doing it by hand), and jumping jacking (no not the exercise, instead using a compactor). When it wasn't windy the bugs came out like made, no skin could be exposed or else you were in trouble.

Here I am jumping jacking away...
Yeah not so much fun, though my forearms are much more ripped than before. Basically the thing bashes the ground at something like 13 times a second and I walk it around the dirt a couple times compacting it, then more dirt gets put on, then more compacting, it was pretty much an endless process. Luckily it wasn't as bad as our 17.5 hour day (we ended well after midnight) pouring concrete, all day, no lunch break. I barely had time to run to grab a snack out of my backpack. Luckily we only had two super long days like that.

Oh yeah did I mention it was beautiful?
Yeah seriously gorgeous. One day we got off early so I helped Paul (a local guy hired to help run the dump trucks and loaders and do general labor work) set his net out. There is basically very few ways for locals to make money, most rely on the PFD. You know that thing you make fun of Alice and I for, our free money. They get some food flown out (oh and gas is $7.25 a gallon, so you have to pay for that too). But a large portion of their food comes from subsistence fishing. So Paul and I set his net out and waited for the salmon to swim in...














I went to check the net the next day (another short day), but there were 4-6 foot seas off the lake so I risked losing the net all together. While we worked the next day, Paul's wife and son brought in 350 fish from just over a day and a half of fishing. Paul let me have as many as I wanted as it was more than enough for his family for the summer. He'll catch another 100 or so for the dogs.

I went over to his house to get some smoked fish before I took off to the big city. The first dry the fish for a few days outside (left), then throw it in a salt brine to preserve it and give it the taste they want, then finally put it in the smoker for at least two weeks (right).















After that the fish is good for the entire winter. Paul likes to go around when they are smoking and take tastes of the tips as they finish smoking. So I got a healthy dose of freshly smoked salmon.


So besides flying in food, you can get some food at the local Wal-Mart... well not so much a Wal-Mart. The general store was not exactly the place to look for low prices. It was $7.50 for my thing of Oreos, almost $9 for some peanut butter, and over $3 for a thing of salt that's normally around a buck. We also had a bustling post office. Open only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for about an hour after the mail plane arrives.















And since everyone seems to be posting photos of their great living arrangements here's mine. I lived in a one bedroom apartment with someone already in the bedroom. So I slept on a cot in the kitchen/dining/living room. We had zero counter space, a microwave, fridge, sink, and stovetop oven. We made a toaster out of old copper wire to hold bread above the electric stove... classy. Anyway no pictures of the inside, but here's the outside with my car I drove to work every morning. It got really cold sometimes (also note the batman sticker).

But after 3 weeks, I got to leave, but not after a short trip up to Lake Gibraltar for some great views. Oh right did I mention it was beautiful?

So now I'm back in Anchorage, probably won't go back to the office, might try to find a more fun job, though doubt I can this late for that short of time. McCauley just showed up tonight and is living at my house for a bit until he finds an apartment or something (He's working for Alice's Dad). I've seen Chelsea a few times (she's up in Sarah Palin country up north of me), but we're planning on driving down the Alaska Highway sometime in August. She seems to be doing well leading kayak trips around the Wasilla area. And Elar if you read this, call me when you get back to cell range and we'll have a beer when you get back to Anchorage.

if anyone else is headed up my way let me know. I will also probably be road tripping around out west with Tom C. at some point in September so I might see some of you guys then!

-answoon