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2-25-03
The length between entries here is directly related to how busy I am. The more things I do, the less time I have to write about them. Still, I enjoy grabbing a few minutes to tie a few sentences together. I roller bladed in the front door 5 minutes ago breathing hard from the frigid morning air. The heat of the house hit me like a furnace. This is the same house where, only 40 minutes ago I was sitting against a baseboard heater, enjoying the heat on my back.
Exercise is a funny thing; next to the thrill of leading the new climbs at Smith, my favorite part of the recent trip was the grueling hike out of the canyon every evening at the end of the days climbing. You'd think that the sensation of my heart pounding at full throttle as I humped 30 pounds of climbing gear up the steep trail would be a low point of the trip. Conversely, I loved it. Maybe it was just all the oxygen pumping through my body, but I felt like a well oiled machine...in the prime of life...or as close as you can get at 47.
Sue talked me into going skiing at Snoqualmie Summit Saturday. She felt left out since I'd been to Smith and Crystal without her, and we managed to scrape up enough cash to cover night skiing for Sue, Lisa and I. Lisa brought her friend A and the two of them had a great time skiing and watching all the young snow boarders. Sue and I explored the Thunderbird run which felt pretty tame after the double diamonds at Crystal. She loves to ski but ran out of energy by about nine o'clock. I'm not much of a night skier either now that my days of working swing are over. I was falling asleep on the drive home once we got to Bellevue and Sue had to take over the driving after watching me wander over the white line towards the shoulder.
I have posted some pictures from our climbing trip on a free server. These are full size images from my digital
camera. Don't click this link unless you are on broadband. I've kept the pictures large for saving to print. None of the pictures are of me or Dave, they are of people climbing around us. Click here for the pictures.
2-17-03
Had another great day of climbing today. I'm sleeping a lot better now that I've become accustomed to my sleeping bag and pad. Today I picked a brand new 5.9 route to warm up on. We'd never done it before so it was scary moving up the wall, never knowing where the next hard move was going to be. This was our third day of climbing and I was feeling marginally confident. The climb was built for comfort. At every clip there was a huge 'thank god' jug. Whenever it looked desperate, I simply stepped a little higher and reached for a jug.
As soon as we hit the road North we had our usual heated argument about which girl was going to win the "babe of Smith Rocks award". Climbers are extremely healthy people, and there was some very stiff competition. While it's often an easy choice with the gals showing up in shorts and bikini tops, this trip they were all bundled up in down parkas, with only a few breaking down and wearing spandex. The choices were based more on a pretty face and personality than a knockout body. We hashed it out for a hundred miles and settled on a very classy woman in her early 40's.
She was there with just her son, sitting comfortably on a large boulder in blue jeans as he climbed with some new friends. Dave, my eternally single climbing partner was having his usual animated conversation with any pretty single woman. I got involved simply by merit of being his climbing partner but ended up loosing my heart, at least temporarily, to her gentle charm and flawless bone structure. I wish Sue would join us on these trips. She could hold her own against many of these women. There's no competing with youth, but charm, class and experience count for a lot in the "babe of Smith rocks" contest.
2-16-03
The moon is a brilliant disk low in the sky off to the South East. I've forgotten how magnificent it can be. I've spent so much time staring at computers that I've forgotten the beauty of simple things like the moon in the desert sky at night. That brilliant spotlight hanging in the starry sky reminds me of how small my life is in the larger scheme of time. When I think about how that works...I mean, obviously the moon is off to the side of the Earth where the sun can still light it up. But how could a simple pile of rock be that bright? It looks like it's lit from within. With binoculars I can see the craters and fracture lines from all the asteroid impacts. It rocks me to think of how much bigger life is than our simple little planet full of arguing bipeds. The way we fight amongst each other for the right to stand on the top of the heap reminds be of a bunch of ants on an anthill.
Still, we have scientists to explain it now...make it all perfectly logical. Why, it's just physics, evolution and the big bang theory. I stare in wonder at the ball of light hanging there, lighting up the empty parking lot. My laptop with it's little screen of light seems very out of place. The frigid air doesn't seem to hurt the battery power, although I'm wearing every stitch of clothing I own. Dave and I finished cooking dinner an hour ago and he headed off to his tent, but I've booted up to finish a lesson plan. First though, I want to write about the adventures we've been having.
Yesterday around noon Dave had just reached the top of a crack climb near Karate crack. I saw some people pointing off to my left toward Karate wall and looked over. There, waving in the breeze at the end of 70 feet of rope dangled a young climber. She had rappelled off the top of the cliff above Karate, but had neglected to bring a rope long enough to reach the ground. Now she dangled helplessly in space, fifty feet off the deck. This wouldn't have been a huge problem due to the bolts going up the face every 5 feet except for the unfortunate angle of the cliff.
The cliff overhung by 5 feet where she was slowly spinning in space. She was frantically kicking her legs, trying to get a swing going so she could close the 5 foot gap to the overhanging cliff face where there was a line of bolts. There was also a belay station inside a cave at the top of karate crack called the Peapod. We watched, horror struck, as she held on with one hand and tried to swing herself to safety. There was some kind of weird inertia problem going on and all she did was wriggle like a moth caught in a spiderweb. Fortunately her boyfriend had tied knots in the end of the rope before he sent her down or she could have easily rapped off the rope into space and died. As it was she was simply going to hang there until she was rescued by someone with an idea.
Dave was off belay at the top of his crack, and as soon as he looked over he realized I had to help. I was the only climber on the ground with the crack climbing skills to effect a rescue. I had a number of climbers to pick from as my partner and chose a woman my age who looked reliable. I would have preferred Dave, but he was arranging his rap and the girl needed help immediately.
I threw together a quick rack and began climbing up Cinnamon slab. Within 30 feet I was able to snag one of her rope ends and pull her closer to the cliff. It still wasn't close enough and I realized I would have to leave Cinnamon slab and climb the 5.9 moves into the Peapod where I could easily pull her to safety.
I was considering the moves when I heard a shout from above. Her boyfriend was now rappelling on the same line. He had stopped right below the edge a hundred feet above me. By coming over the edge to help, he was able to walk the rope across the cliff horizontally. This got his girlfriend, 70 feet below, swinging, and also moved her within reach of the Peapod. I watched with a huge sense of relief as she hooked a leg, then an arm, and finally her whole body around the lip of the Peapod cave. Soon she was in control and rapping down to the bottom of the Peapod where she safely anchored.
We've been climbing easy routes, but enjoying them immensely. Today I led the new bolted 5.6 route above Cinnamon slab. It's not every day you find a new easy route in such a hard man climbing area like Smith Rocks. On our way out I saw that '5 gallon buckets' was empty and jumped right on. This route has always been kind to me and today was no exception. It's a muscle bound route, but very fun.
I actually enjoyed the face routes we did more than 'five gallon'. I was totally plugged into the "inner climber" as I carefully moved from hold to hold. Yesterday I was too tired to climb well, but today, I was able to memorize the handholds as I climbed past them. My feet automatically found the former handholds and I lost myself in the rhythm of looking, reaching, pulling and stepping. The rock flowed under my hands over the 70 foot pitch...at the top I yodelled....couldn't help myself.
2-7-03
My Flash class is a lot of fun.
I was telling my students yesterday how much I appreciated
their dedication. This particular group of students is very
serious about learning. They are always asking me if I can
teach them some of the high end things they have seen on this
web site. In the past I've considered them too hard to teach,
but this group of students is simply outstanding in their
desire to be challenged. As a result of their enthusiasm I've
put together a couple new lessons in high end Actionscript.
On Wednesday I couldn't believe how quickly
they plowed through the lesson. Halfway through our 3 hour
class period, they had mastered the technique, and begun improving
on it with things I'd never even considered.
Fridays I don't have to be at school
until 12:30. I'm caught up on my lesson plans and, as a consequence
I can sleep in, start my day out slowly with a couple cups
of coffee and think about whatever crosses my mind. I'm planning
a climbing trip with my buddy Dave in the near future. Sue
wants to skinny ski or hike this weekend. I've been playing
my guitar twice a week, slowly building up my finger calluses
again. It looks dry outside, I think I'll go rollerblading
for some aerobic exercise.
My mom used to always tell me to count
my blessings. It's a simple concept that many people seem
unable to grasp. I've got my health...or at least enough of
it to still do whatever I want. I've got a creative job that
pays most of my day to day expenses (fingers crossed here).
My family is all healthy and moving forward with their lives.
On the down side; the news is scarier than usual with Bush
threatening Saddam, and the North Koreans threatening a pre-emptive
strike of their own. Those guys have nukes. What can an average
guy like me do? I have to believe that our government has
integrity.
Things have reached a point in world
politics where I've decided that our species may be stupid
enough to deserve what it gets. By that I mean that if North
Korea starts throwing nukes, or if Saddam kills 3000 of our
soldiers with nerve gas, things could very easily spiral up
out of control. So, again, count your blessings. I read a
quote many years back by Tony Curtis: "I try to live
my life each day to the fullest extent possible, that way,
if the grim reaper comes skulking to my door like a thief
in the night, there will be nothing left for him to steal."
2-4-03
Skied at Crystal
on Sunday with some new friends from the college. I felt bad
that the family couldn't go. There was room in the budget
for one $44 ticket, but four tickets were out of the question.
It was fun skiing in a group of eight people and reminded
me of my time in the Mountaineers when we would go on group
outings; the more the merrier. The group was a mix of intermediates
and advanced and spent the morning prowling around the intermediate
slopes on the upper mountain.
For lunch we skied into the "Snorting
Elk" bar for beer and chili, then spread out on the mountain,
each group going it's separate way. I hung out with the intermediate
group for a trip down Queens Run, then left them to explore
a double diamond chair called High Campbell that went up to
the top of a pretty mountain. When I skied up to the chair,
I passed 3 separate signs warning me that there was no intermediate
route off the chair. Every possible descent was Double Diamond
(dangerous) and I should NOT get on the chair unless I was
an advanced skier. I'm not an advanced skier by any means.
Still, I have a lot of experience in the backcountry and can
survive, one way or another anywhere. Besides, the people
ahead of me on the chair didn't look like anything special.
From the bottom, the slopes looked
steep, but soft, however the tip of the peak was in clouds,
and as the old two person chair soared up the steep face into
the cloud I had my fingers crossed. At the top, the chair
emerged into a sparkling clear day with a view of Mt Rainier
only fifteen miles away. The exit ramp was a very cramped
flat spot about 40 feet square perched on the knife edged
summit. There was barely room for the tower and the operator
booth. I stood there for a while and gaped at the phenomenal
views, working up my nerve to tackle the slope. Off to the
right, it appeared to be a sheer drop off...I was too nervous
to get close enough to look over the edge. Off to the left
there was a steep 60 foot chute filled with aggressive looking
moguls with no room for a blown turn. At the bottom of the
chute yellow 'out of bounds' warning ribbons fluttered in
the gentle breeze, indicating the vertical cliffs I'd seen
from below.
It looked beyond my turning abilities
so I sidestepped a few yards down to below the first mogul
until I had enough horizontal room to begin skiing before
a snap turn was required. After that I simply took the path
of least resistance and followed all the other chickens in
a long traverse along the ridge until it opened out in a steep,
but soft bowl above Queens Run. Later I wandered around the
mountain casually looking for the group but mostly just having
fun. After skiing High Campbell and Iceberg Gulch everything
else seemed easy and I began to remember how to ski.
Downhill skiing, like anything else,
requires practice, and my budget over the last 4 years hasn't
allowed me more than one or two trips a year. It was fun feeling
the skills returning, and before too long I felt myself entering
the "zone" where I ceased to think and simply skied,
effortlessly carving my way down the slopes in a blur of perfectly
timed parallel turns, my poles picking out the arcs with quick
little flicks of my wrist.
On the drive back I had some nice
discussions of the challenges of teaching and raising children
with one of the other teachers. We had a tremendous amount
in common and I learned a lot about his approach to inspiring
the students.
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