July 28th, 2012: As we tried to slumber in our tents last night…. The sound of thudding feet worried my tentmates (not me… I mean seriously… bears don’t wear boots….). Jared’s voice came from the darkness and advised us that he had messed up the dates and we would climb, not hike tomorrow. This was exciting, as now we had time to make cinnamon bread for breakfast!!!! (It’s the little things in life..) Following breakfast, Jared gave us a lesson on climbing terms where we learned what words like mankey, red point, hangdog, mud falcon, and other words meant. It was fun!
For our climb, we returned a previous crag and built our anchors. I got to work with Kasey, which I won’t lie, I was a little nervous about. He had stated he didn’t fully care already, he was struggling with his knots, and frankly I was not in the mood to be the teacher and walk him through it if he wasn’t going to put forth a solid effort to learn. He struggled and I got irritated and finally decided to lay it down to him. I told him that he needed to start paying attention to details and to learn the knots and to work as a team. I informed him that others are starting to get mad that he takes forever to tie in and makes them wait to climb since they have to wait for him to figure it out, and it’s not fair. I was hoping he wasn’t going to get mad or really sad, and I was very impressed with how he took the information. He said he would try and I told him I would help him. I gave him some pointers on how to tie the knots and I began to see him practice. Gained some respect for him, most definitely.
I climbed a couple routes and then practice placing protection (we needed to place 10 active and 10 passive protection pieces perfectly so that we could then mock lead climb). Andrew then taught me how to build a multi pitch anchor which I practiced, and even got to attach myself to and literally “hang around” on. It was totally awesome and makes me want to keep learning more so that I can take this information and use it! We also got to practice lead belaying and catching people when they took a whipper. Andrew encouraged me to practice again, and of course I didn’t turn down the opportunity. The more hands-on practice I get, the better I will be. And Jared had said if we weren’t going to be good lead climbers, then we might as well be good lead belayers. Andrew went up and took a whipper and I belayed him perfectly. He then told me to jump when he yelled “falling” so I said sure why not, I trust him……. He climbed up, yelled “falling” and I jumped and ended up flying, seriously flying, into the rock wall, leading with my feet and ended up about 3 feet off the ground. WHAT AN AWESOME FEELING!!! I felt like Spiderman!! Andrews comment…”I love taking whippers on small girls.” Well I think I like taking them.
For dinner I cooked some macaroni with cheese, garlic, broccoli, peas and carrots. Might as well use up as much as we can before we hike with it tomorrow. Lighten the load a bit. We’re getting smart! Kasey then taught us and Rich went on the hot seat.
Thoughts: I have not showered or shaved in days, used pine as toilet paper, have been with the same people for over a week, have slept on the ground, have eaten food off the ground, have drank water from rivers/lakes, and I would not change this for anything in the world. It has been the best days of my life so far seeing beautiful landscapes, climbing rocks, learning new things, living simple, and loving life.
July 29th, 2012: Perky’s and peanut butter for breakfast, not much else to devour which is good. We packed up and set off on our hike. My hiking group today consisted of Lillie, Nate and Rich, and again….. Jared. We hiked over and through the pass in the valley called Temple Pass? The most amazing views from so high up. We gained a good amount in altitude and then went down in the valley only to go back up to get to our next base camp. This was the best hiking day ever! It was also one of the toughest. It was extremely steep, but the fact that we had beautiful views on all 4 sides of us totally helped us to not focus on the difficultly which was nice. Though we could not see what was on the other side of the pass, we just knew it was going to be the most amazing view we had seen thus far, so we were stoked to get up there.
The feeling of the accomplishment when we got to the top of the pass was invigorating. We were estatic and started to take tons of pictures! Jared took out his ukulele, Lillie played her harmonica….and I played the rocks…? I felt like I needed to join in. We danced and laughed and smiled. This is what life should be like every day.
We took the longest breaks, but at this point, I think Jared was having such a great time too that he didn’t care. We then had to hike down the other side of the steep pass which was extremely rough on my knees. I hiked in full squat trying to put the weight on my thighs and glutes and not my knees. It was quite the challenge and it hurt. I started to realize that I am now having right knee pain… hm…. But I got through it.
The valley was gorgeous. There were lakes with walls of rock with snow patches on them rising up from the sides, and down the way held a green patch of trees and more high summits. I don’t have enough words to describe the beauty and the pictures don’t do it justice. We were exhausted and hot. The lake with snow next to it looked so inviting, but never would Jared let us jump in, we had just stopped for a break a little while ago. Instead, we made dreamy comments about jumping in. We got down next to the lake and stopped to take it in. All of a sudden, there’s Jared, dropping his pack, losing his clothes down to his boxers and jumping in. WHAT!?!?!?! NO WAY! We all followed suit in pure excitement! We jumped in together and most of us jumped out just as fast. It was freezing!!! But it felt good to rinse off and cool down. The warm rock felt great after getting out. We dressed up and then undressed yet again to show off for the following group who came upon us. Screaming and jumping back into the lake, and again screaming and jumping back out of the lake. When Nate searches for fish in the lake I quickly exclaim “there’s fish in the water??!!! I swam with fish?!?!” Eliciting smiles and laughter from the group. What a great day so far.
We finally move on and get to camp which has spectacular views. We set up base camp and practiced knots. I took the knot test (tying multiple knots correctly within 5 minutes) and passed with a time of 3:49. This cleared me for a multi-pitch climb. Dream. I must be in a dream. After testing we watched Jared, Andrew and Adam demo a multi-pitch climb which was quite interesting and VERY overwhelming. Possible… but overwhelming.
For dinner I let/pushed Kasey into cooking. He reluctantly accepted and I sat a short distance away as I had wanted him to do it himself this time. I thought it was time for him to take the next step in growth and I may have come off as mean, but again, hopefully he’ll understand what I’m trying to do for him. He seemed a little mad, but when we talked later he told me that he was very happy and proud of himself that he cooked dinner all by himself. He was very happy it turned out well too. I told him he must return home and cook his mother dinner and he said she would be floored if he did that. I could tell he was excited to do that when he gets home.
Dalton went on the hot seat and shared some deep information with us. He then "spun" a stick (a.k.a. threw it right at me) to choose the next person. Made me feel happy to know that someone seemed interested to hear about me and my story.
Growth…… something that cannot be prevented, halted, stopped, turned around out here in the wilderness. Growth is inevitable out here.
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