Jason and jenn

Josh was leading pitch 11 and it was 3:30pm. We had been on the wall since 6am. We were not breaking any records. The melting snow patch just 50 feet above Josh and a little to his left was trickling water down the face. I was just out of water and it looked so inviting. I was staring at it when the snow patch shifted and half of it’s mass slid down the face. I yelled “Ice!” and then “Rock!” to alert Josh. It missed Josh but some larger pieces of ice exploded off a ledge and I got pelted in the face by a few shards. All was well. We shared a look of awe from 150 feet apart, and then Josh kept moving upward. We were 1500 feet up. There was no going down.

The night before it rained and hailed and generally blasted us in our tent at 11,000 feet. Our tent had no floor, so hail bounced in and over us. We spent the better part of half an hour sweeping the marble sized hail stones from our pads, bags, and ground sheets. We laughed. We were not afraid. There is no use being afraid when there’s nothing more you can do anyway.

This is the Wind River Range. Not Patagonia or the Northern Rockies. Our 15 mile approach was over rugged trail to the desolate and beautiful Indian Basin, home of Rock, Snow, Wind, and Sky. The North Arete of Ellingwood had been on both of our tick lists for years now, and we finally figured out some dates, got the time off, and got on it. The morning brought wet rock and slippery lichen. Josh led a 5.10 pitch to a small stance. I pulled on gear to get through the crux as my fingers warmed painfully in the cold. The next 10 pitches were all 5.6 and of high quality. Pitches 5-10 were some of the best moderate climbing i’ve ever done. We couldn’t decide on a best pitch. And once we got past the snow with a slippery traverse and a last 5th class romp, we finished with a couple 4th class pitches to the summit.

We made it to the summit at 13,052 feet in 11 hours. It was windy and cold all day. Though it was the middle of summer, we climbed in our puffy jackets the entire time. Mountains continue to amaze me with their disregard of weather forecasts. We enjoyed the summit briefly before starting the crux of the climb, the descent down the serrated, gendarmed, 4th class western ridge. After negotiating the climb down the ridge using both sides, we were back in camp by dark, 16 hours after starting.

We were the first names in the summit register for 2010. The Wind Rivers, with all their remoteness, create routes like this. If this route was in Colorado, or if there was a 5 mile approach instead of 16, Ellingwood would see daily assents in the summer and ski descents in the winter, there would be a detailed route description, pitch by pitch info and photos on the internet, and less a sense of the wild freedom we discovered there.

The climb was all I had hoped: not too easy nor too hard, a long day on rock in the mountains, lots of exposure, a great partner, required a solid commitment, and was a fun adventure.

In the end there was just us, a general idea of where to go, and a direction: up until you can go no further. I like that.

Well, the last indefinite about our hiking plans has been met. We got a call letting us know all our campsite requests and itinerary through Yellowstone has been approved. We will exit at Gardner on September 15th barring anything drastic happening to change things. Our hiking plan looks a bit like this:

August 13: Jenn’s last work day
August 15: Jason’s last day
August 15 - 17: Tidy up loose-ends in Pinedale, store most of our stuff with friends or give it away!
August 18th: Start Hiking at Sweetwater Trailhead or Big Sandy Trailhead
Hike through the Wind Rivers, following as close to the mountains as we can, but mostly staying on the west side.
August 27th: Hike over Union Pass and toward Togwotee pass and the Abasarokas
September 1st: Arrive at Brooks Lake Lodge - Heading into the Teton Wilderness
September 6th: Enter Yellowstone National Park at the Thorofare.
September 6 - 13: Hike from the south end of the park to the North, camping at Mammoth on the 13.
September 13-15: Hike into Gardiner, MT after nearly 300 miles total.

Yellowstone and the Teton Wilderness has grizzly bears. Lots of em. We have read that a party of 3 or more has never suffered a fatal grizzly bear attack. So, if you’re looking for a vacation, may we recommend hiking in Yellowstone in September!

We are stocking up on gear for the trip, including a new camera. I sold off my “big” digital camera and lenses and bought a more compact but high quality digital camera. It’s a Panasonic GF1. I’ll post some pictures/video from it as soon as it arrives. We’ve also bought new backpacks, and cozy sleeping pads. We have our maps, our bear spray, and are doing some menu planning.

We are inching closer.

“I ain’t seen the sunshine since i don’t know when” - Johnny Cash

While we haven’t been stuck in Folsom, we definitely have felt a bit trapped inside the first half of June. Once again we’ve had a rainy and cool month and that has kept us from getting out as much as we’d like. Still, there have been adventures.

I played a show with John at a remote camp in the Gros Ventre. We rode a UTV through swolen streams, rutted roads, and lots of mud to play music for some corporate types. The camp is right up against the mountains, and there are some cabins that date back to the late 1800s there. One was recently broken into by a grizzly, and the door has been repaired but still has claw marks where the bear got in. There is an old gold slough and the guests stay in cozy tepees. We played until midnight, then got to drive out the same crazy route in the dark. Some of the craziest off-roading i’ve ever experienced, and a lot of fun playing music.

Been doing more rock climbing development, but i’ve had to take it easy since i pulled a tendon in my ring finger. I’ve been trying to mostly crack climb, and Josh and I have been working a route that is probably 5.11c or so.

The weather has made a marked improvement in the last couple days and we’re loving it. First of all, it stays daylight until nearly 10pm, which is incredible. Secondly, there have been blue skies and lots of sunshine. Today we go see friends get married and I’m so glad they’ll get good weather. Better still is that the mosquitoes aren’t out in force yet. However, this just means they’ll come on later and stick around longer. So it’s a mixed blessing. We’ve slept in the van, enjoyed good morning coffee, a cold ale-8 cooled in the creek while we climbed, and our fourth wedding anniversary.

Yep, four easy and amazing years that we don’t regret a moment of. We are anxious to start our next adventure. We think we know what that is, and maybe even where we might go. But four years ago we would have never seen ourselves living the life we are now. So who knows what will be. I’m sure it will be just as great looking back in four more.

Musically, it’s a busy month.

The Science Rockets have been renamed the Tie Hacks, feeling that a more Wyoming appropriate name was needed and given a new drummer, bassist, and the addition of another singer/songwriter in Michelle Humber.

Tie Hacks were loggers in the forest around here who cut trees and then shaped them into railroad ties before they were shipped down the green river to help build the Union Pacific Railroad.

This past Saturday we played at the Grand Targhee Battle of the Bands. We were the headliner and though we did not win the competition, we sure did have a great deal of fun and got some great exposure. The venue for the gig was “the Spud” drive in theater between Victor and Driggs Idaho. Awesome little venue and a great crowd of about 400 folks dancing and having a great time to all the good music. We followed the gig with a trip into Victor to see Aaron Davis (a fellow Kentucky native) play music at the Timberline.

Now I have music booked for every weekend the rest of the month. This should be a fun time as this includes some campfire style duos with John, a wedding date for good folks, and a gig in the park for the Fine Arts Council. Should be fun, but i’m hoping to not be so busy musically in July. We’ll see.

The Tie Hacks on stage at The Spud

It’s June. It’s raining. Seems familiar. Last year it rained 25 days in June.  I hope it just goes ahead and rains today and get’s it out of it’s system. Still, we need the moisture. This is a desert after all.

Been really active toward the end of May. I tried hiking to Glimpse lake and ran into snow about 5 miles in at around 9500 feet. Saw bear tracks in the snow. There were 3 sets, one large and 2 small. This gave me pause and I made sure to make plenty of noise the rest of the day.

We’ve been developing a new climbing area in Pinedale that we’re calling the Ranch. It’s quite nice, with a lot of potential, but requiring a lot of work cleaning and brushing. We’ve put up 10 routes already, with at least that many more to come this summer, and maybe 50-60 routes possible in total. Very cool little domes of granite overlooking some summer homes and a lake.

New living arangements are going well.  Free rent for the summer more than makes up for any hardship of living with other folks.

Speaking of which. Our house in Kentucky is paid for. We paid the last of our little loan. It is surreal to think that we bought and paid off a home in less than a year.  Now we need to save money for home improvements this fall.

So now i’ll take a rest day from climbing. My fingers are sore and the backs of my hands are scabbed. I will enjoy the rain, knowing that it will bring Balsamroot and aspen leaves quickly, and it will give this high desert a much needed drink.

Yes. That’s a question. Spring comes to Wyoming, but not with the official change of seasons and not like it does back east. It comes in the form of branding, mud on our boots, and people switching from snow mobiles to 4 wheelers. Eventually we’ll have the color green. But for now it is spitting snow and the trees are just beginning to show signs of growth. Flowers will come to the low country soon, balsamroot will carpet the moraines.  The snow is melting in the mountains, but spring is still a month away up high.

We moved out of our duplex and are now living in a house with two aquatic center summer interns. We’ll be here for 3 months. Everyone knows we are planning to leave, even though we tell them it’s not set in stone. We love it here, even with the issues the place faces. Even with the backwards bumper stickers that say “welcome to wyoming… now go home” and “my wyoming has an east infection”. No matter, we feel at home here.

We’ve been fishing and hiking and climbing. We took a trip to southern Utah and visited Zion and friends down there. I went off to a conference in Boulder Colorado and Jenn has started her summer season with the BLM. We are one payment away from owning our home in Kentucky. All this to say we’ve been busy and i’ve neglected this blog in order to post 2 sentance updates on facebook. I hope to change that. Stories are meant to be told in more than a tweet or status update.

So as spring looms in wyoming, I hope this blog comes out of it’s winter hibernation and gets much busier with more tales of adventure.

March, 2010:

Above the canyon there is nothing but rock. Evan and I scrambled up at sunset to catch the last light of day. The way up was an intricate puzzle. The path of least resistance. Now the landscape itself is puzzling. Domes of erosion and upheaval. Stacked layers of sand turned stone reveal layers and twists and time. There is no vegetation in sight. We are aliens here.

We are camped in the famous Coyote Gulch in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. We have hiked through stands of willow, tamarisk, and cottonwood, the flowing water creating a riparian area in the recess that is the canyon, cut deep by Coyote Creek. The now quiet ankle deep flow of the creek belies the power of water in this place. The huge walls and undercuts, the narrow meanders and arches, they all speak volumes on the nature of time, water, and the power of floods. You can almost imagine the history of this creek while standing in it.

But not up on the rim, where there is nothing but sky and rock. And now, here at sunset, sky and rock converge into the same color, and the canyon becomes a ribbon of black ink in a sea of rust. The landscape is impossible, especially since we have not climbed all the way to height of land. Were we to climb further, we would be able to look south to Fifty Mile Mountain, north and west to Boulder Mountain and the Aquarius Plateau, north and east to the Henry Mountains, covered in feet of snow and likely now glowing in the last light of day.

I am content to imagine the views while I ponder this stark otherworldly place we now stand. It is easy to imagine the land as cooked here, and not only for it’s color and it’s barrenness. It is not flat, but appears blistered, broken, cracked. It is beautiful and incomprehensible. My mind is scraped as bare as the stone around me. I look around. Evan is staring down into the canyon, listening to the echos of voices, the rest of our group below. They are filling their water bottles from the spring and stretching their legs after a dinner of too many noodles. We laugh, call down to them, and come out of the trance.

We scramble carefully back down the ridge by Jacob Hamblin arch, fill our water bottles, and head back to camp. Soon I will crawl into my sleeping bag and watch the stars spin overhead. I will sleep well.

Since our return from working on the house, we’ve been super busy. Jenn has been working without more than a day off every couple of weeks. We’ve been skiing some, I set a bunch of routes for a climbing competition, helped the Hattans build a bouldering wall in their storage unit, and just spent three days with Josh skiing Togwotee Pass and Grand Targhee which was great fun. Work is crazy, lots of programs and planning. Good times. Talked with EKU Grad school and everything seems to be on track for that to happen in 2011.

We’re cleaning up the apartment for a move thought it is some time away. I played a show at Wind River Brewing and have another next week in Big Piney. Then the Science Rockets have a two night stand at the Wort in Jackson. Jenn is going on a week long trip to San Diego with the girls, and I’ll be heading to Escalante for a meet-up with some friends from Oklahoma.

Then it’s work, a hopeful Easter trip, or maybe climbing, or winter camping and skiing. There’s jenn’s birthday, then a massive yard-sale, some late season skiing, house sitting for friends, and starting the process of wrapping up life in Pinedale. At least that’s the current plan. All subject to change without notice. Or with notice, seeing as I will probably post about it on this blog and the facebook machine.

It’s thawing out in Pinedale. Snow is melting, the rivers are opening up, and being outside doesn’t automatically put you in survival mode. That’s a good thing. We’re ready for spring. It’ll be here in a couple months.

Well, we are back from Kentucky. Jenn was there for nearly a month, I was there for a week. It felt like two days. We worked hard on our house and are excited about a future there. But that future is a ways away. I could make a list of all the work we got done, but suffice it to say I’m not making lists of done versus needs done, because that might be a bit daunting. Still, it’s a cute house, and it’s looking good, but it is surreal that Wyoming is home for now, and our house is in Berea, Kentucky. Jenn’s dad helped a lot, as did my good friend Robert. And well, my parents do far too much to help out as well. So here are some photos of before, during, and after.

Sometimes you blink and it’s next year. A new decade.

Jenn is in Kentucky, taking a Wilderness First Responder course and working on our house.
I am in Pinedale, working and playing and missing jenn.

I stay busy though. Played two shows over the New Year holiday, went ice climbing, skiing at Targhee, and am trying to shake this sinus infection that has been clogging up my brain for a couple weeks.

To get to the ice climbing, we skied across Fremont lake. It has thick enough ice and a light dusting of snow, so the skiing was perfect. It was only slightly unnerving, thinking that recently it was open water, and that it is 600 feet deep in spots.

I don’t do resolutions, but i do look forward to 2010. If all goes according to plan, it’s going to be a great year. But hey, they’re all great years.

skiing across fremont lake to go ice climbing