Father Decides to Board Flight on His Birthday. What he Did Next Will Surprise You!

Dad's birthday, he decides to tick off another item on the checklist.  This item begins 14,000 feet up, where the air is colder, and there's much less oxygen in it.  Where planes' doors roll up and there are just benches in the plane.

At 9 grande feet up, goggles are adorned and the broccoli fields start turning into patchwork blankets.  You begin to realize you will have the fastest landing of your life, making you henceforth rethink being impatient to land a plane.

Next time you feel scared, are you yelling?  Because that's what you do when you are so scared you wonder if you won't make it out of this Houdini predicament you put yourself in.  Someone just hit you in the gut - Mother Nature.

Being disoriented in all three x-, y-, and z-axis is the full confusion tour.

Once you right yourself, it's easy to bring back memories of being a dog in a car, waving your hands out the window in an ocean-wave-formation.

If you can't see where your going are you really going there?  For a moment I thought I was still crouching on the freezer in a game of hide-and-seek 19 years ago in a pond side cottage in the woods.

Practicing dance moves is more interesting with your feet off the ground.  With your feet about 6,000 feet off the ground.  After mountains, this view is no longer quite so intimidating.  In truth, it becomes inviting.  Most candles I blow out from now on, I think I'll ask to be a bird.  Or maybe a pet dog of a mountaineering, skydiving human who can't bare to leave me behind.

Though dad beat me down the sky this time, I'm still holding out for best of 3!

On the ground, the psyche and rush are still going strong.  Who knew it'd be as easy as scaring yourself for 3 seconds and just committing?  It all begins with an idea - unless you are Bertrand Russell, in which case it's all only ideas.  In any case, having the the strength to hold on to the inspiration of the original idea long enough to see it through truly pays off!

Happy Birthday, Dad!  Many happy returns to the sky!

Bugaboos, Banff, Roger's Pass: Avoiding Grizzly Bears and Crevasses

8/13/14

Flight from Maine to Seattle: 11 hours

Drive from Seattle-Tacoma Int'l Airport to Brisco: 11 hours

Time crossing border: 45 seconds

Parking lot to hut: 2:00 (3pm departure; minus 15 chatting with friends headed down)

To Appleby campground: 30 (2:15 total hiking time with 75 lb. pack!)

Camp setup and registering: 30

Jog and scramble up east post spire: 15

Jog down: 10

Thoughts: I'm really happy to be here. The mountains are beautiful with their mangled moraines, desultory cols and icy lagunas. The distance beckons me forth and I'm happy to respond, with the days light fading softly away.  Hiking up, somehow my pack was huge and heavy. Based on my experience with packs from 0-90 pounds for long, arduous hikes, and my frequent lifting of 50 pound packs for work, I think I carried 75 pounds up.  Made me feel out of shape, which is better locuted as the same shape only with greater volume and or density.  People are friendly here. Sam and Ryan from Alabama lent me their guidebook. Pat from Massachusetts gave me lots of good tips, tricks and general beta as it's changed over the last two weeks with the col's snow melting and dissipating the bergschrund to the extent that the upper portion is a 60 degree ice wall and warmth loosens awaiting rocks. Accordingly I plan to circumnavigate snow patch via the Kain Hut snow fields, talus and then gear up for Vowell Glacier approach to Pidgeon Spire's West Ridge.  

As an afternoon delight after arriving, Sam suggested I take a scramble up Eastpost Spire.  What a great recommendation!  Sam thought my jaunt up and down Eastpost Spire was quick (25 min), which is reassuring since I'm just getting back into pushing myself. With Friday and Saturdays forecast being such extreme rain, the pressure to have a great day tomorrow and head out before it gets awful is heightened  There exists the possibility of checking out Banff and or Lake Louise; perhaps the weather there is better. And also, Logan Jamison said his Uncle Paul Bell in Brisco was throwing a party Saturday night. That sounds nice, too.

8/14/14
8:45 depart camp
8:55 Kain hut
9:25 base of lower snow patch after talus detour
9:30 transition to axes and crampons
10:00 level with snow patch
10:30 base of Pidgeon
10:53 end of snow
11:00 transition back to climb and snack and hydrate
11:10 start up climb! 
11:40 up
11:45 done with photos; heading down!
12:00 would be down but dropped camera; took me 45 minutes to try getting it out of a tight fit then I had to scramble down, get my ice ax, and come back to reach it!
12:44 putting on pants and harness to traverse and descend to Snowpatch for the Snowpatch-Pidgeon raps; went with shoes only, to glissade faster
1:12 at rappels
1:15 rapping! 
1:30 after third rappel join two teams of two (Aaron and Steve father-son duo from CO and Mexican and Spaniard), which slowed me down but was nice socially.  If you can make them out, there are three people descending the glacier on the snow ridge line, south of Pidgeon Spire in the photo below. 
2:45 back at camp (6 hrs camp to camp); rain starting now.
5:50 dehydrated after awaking from nap; rain stopped; hydrating
6:45 listening to music.
7:08 weighing options. I know I'd like to return to climb Beckey-Chouinard, etc.  I don't know how much I'll accomplish alone (Read: this trip). Perhaps the Kain Route. With the col unstable, everything takes longer; with no partner and bad weather, not much else can be climbed. Better perhaps to check out Banff. I do want to climb Kain. That's still possible Monday after climbing back up Sunday. 

10:30 done socializing and sharing/pawning off carrots so I won't have to carry them down! Looks like mass exodus tomorrow. Bunch are headed to Golden for wifi and river house pub. There is a hot spring near the town I forget the name of now [Editor's Note: Radium], but I believe it begins with an r and has two words. Banff should be cool. Maybe I can swing through there.

Two great tricks for mountain speed: Tic Tacs keep you going until you really are at a transition to access water in your pack or at a stream by tricking your salivating self into thinking you are hydrated.  Mini Speed Stick helps keep any chaffing at bay so you can run in those crampons and jog up scrambles!

P.S. Dude who helped me left car at 9am and was back at Kain Hut at 1 pm. He wanted to do Mt. Robinson. Need to look that up.

Rain since I've been back at camp; it's 4:40 now. Followed tracks today that looked like Wolverine had been dragging his knuckles.  The system was good; I could've a) left rope behind and b) hiked around instead - would've been quicker anyhow and lighter to boot.  Still went pretty quickly. Tent bound on vacation!  Required rest! Still really happy that I started 5 hours after everyone and got back first. I guess that's the experience toll.

P.S. The entire trip thus far I've had "girl let me love you! And I will love you, until you learn...to love yourself [repeat]" playing in my head over and over!

8/16 & 8/17

Plans were scrapped for both the La Hing or Ha Ling climb and the Sir Donald group enchantment, which I was - and remain - very excited about.

Yesterday Ruari woke up late. We had watermelon and granola for breakfast, quickly followed by fruit and toast - his necessities as a kiwi. We then strike out for a 5.10c crack in Banff called Tourist Attraction right above a creek and along a tourist path. It was pumpy and awesome; and Ruari styled it.

Today, contrary to tidings of the forecasts we received, after a massive pasta dinner with ice cream and meat pie we drove 3 hours to weathery Rogers Pass, pulled off the highway and set up tent across from the enshrouded, invisible Mt. MacDonald. We woke up early at 3am and decided to delay our start so we could see upon arriving after the approach if indeed we were on the right track.  You see, there is no trail up the couloir we are going to take, and thanks to it being summer, in the place of a snowy couloir there are gnarly creek beds with occasional snow bridges waiting to collapse, and steep scree walls if you prefer the densely forested rib/ridgeline.  Needless to say, we made our way up the maze of different couloirs, escaping the dangerous and otherwise non-preferred parts of the creek, hooting and hollering in the fog so that the grizzly bears may hear us, take heed, and turn heel!  My two hopes for the day were that we saw no grizzlies and it didn't rain.  The fog did not lift. We carried on, still yelling like madmen in the woods.  We came across some grizzly poo a few days old.  Then about half an hour later and maybe 1000 feet higher, we came across the digging marks of a grizzly - and this was very recent, maybe within half an hour; the upturned dirt was bone dry whereas every little bit of vegetation we'd been grabbing to help take steps higher and every inch of ground everywhere else was as wet as could be. We had the shoes and pants to prove it. So, we continued calling our way up after sharing a look of concern.  The higher we went, the thicker the fog. There was a breeze for a while but that too subsided, leaving the fog hanging. As we arrived at what we believed to be the base of the route, we voted to take a rest to see if the weather would improve. We didn't want to bail yet and we didn't want to risk climbing if it'd rain on us and then we'd be bailing and leaving gear. So we waited, but nothing really changed. After half an hour of discussing our options and whereabouts, we decided we might as well go on up seeing as how it'd be rather slow going back whence we came owing to the paths severity, and about 400m (1300 feet) of the way up the climb was an escape ledge to a ridge to a crest to a trail down 1 kilometer (5/8 mile) from our car. So we started up. No sooner had we rounded a corner and Ruori found fresh grizzly excrement. Oh Pooh Bear poo. We didn't hesitate a bit, but to shake hands and turn down. Rather happy to be heading down we were, too. The couloir we had gone up had very little left of it between two ribs of rock, which to us suggested that if it wasn't already, the bear would soon feel - and be - trapped by us.  Secondly, the visibility was still very poor so we couldn't see a bear if it blindsided us.  Three and a half hours later we were driving an hour back to Golden and then off to grab a drink and burger at Riverside Pub before parting ways.

I'm now in the Bugaboos parking lot with my attack bag packed for a big last day in the Bugaboos.

8/18

slept in! feeling rested after car sleep!
940 leave lot fast
1040 Kain hut don't stop
11:03 lace up crampons (Snowpatch) keep going; pass three montana folks from alaska now!  jogging with crampons is awesome!
1215 Pidgeon behind go
1245 base of bugaboo cram food bam
100 hydrated packed for ascent push legs
207 high point; crowd descending; don't want to climb past soloing. Nor do I want to rap behind. Turning back.
305 down at base of bugaboo water stream; crampons water and march!!! running on glacier
In the last picture, there should be three people descending the glacier roped up.

430 back at Kain hut; headed down to lot!!! Bye bugsie!!!! hooting and hollering!
504 down!!!!
510 on road - drive 50k of dirt: go!
618 off dirt road! Wowed!
715 have pizza from Radium and beginning drive to Seattle!  Rams think they're people in Radium and try to use to the crosswalk, much to the chagrin of citizens in cars.

5am pull into Seattle and sleep in car!

6am wake up, run for 6 miles in city!  legs feeling sunburnt but fresh!

Top 10 apps that either do not exist or cannot exist.

1. Real Angry Birds - finds and tracks birds near you that are angry or hungry. Looking for a duck to feed? Afraid of birds attacking you or your puppy? Enter in your location of interest before arriving or use GPS tracking to see any birds near you.

2. Spock - Get unemotional advice for any conundrum. Stuck in traffic? Spock finds your way out. Can't figure your way out of a maze? Upload a photo of the maze and get directions. Spock settles settling disputes, international affairs, legal standstills, and offers marriage counseling, couch not provided.

3. Opside - Request special ops' independent contract assistance for an array of untraceable tasks.  Contractors seek and bid on tasks from categories of Health Care, Technology & Data, and Research & Development.  Select your ops agent based on bid, time estimate, and previous history.

4. BabyFood - A diet plan for pregnant women.  Track calories by synchronizing with growth rate.  Receive recipes and food items containing the nutrients not yet consumed.

Also, for an upgrade, click on touch screen every time the baby kicks and BabyFood Plus will suggest songs with a correlating beat to harmonize and sooth you and your baby.

5. ButtBlocker - Block butt dials, butt texts, pocket instagrams, pocket stock trading, and butt app deleting with ButtBlocker. ButtBlocker will ask permission before carrying out any tasks you select if it senses a temperature and non-lateral pressure increase from being in your pocket and being sat on. Also available is BagBlocker, an app easily turned on and off when stowing your phone.

6. Appster - send and receive apps with other users.

7. DMVideo - Watch and share videos from Department of Motor Vehicles. Search by zip code, watch most watched videos, and check to see if there is a huge line at your local DMV or the latest freakout.

8. HatTrick - your hat sharing tool of choice.  Leave a hat and store the coordinates in HatTrick with a photo and/or description of the hat.  Anyone interested can hunt for the geo cache and keep the hat.  Users are rated up to five stars by quality of hats dropped, and also a plus/minus (e.g. +7/-1) for hats scored versus dropped.  Happy hat hunting!

9. OutletMe - find an outlet nearest you. A simple, quick, and easy way to find an outlet nearest you. OutletMe searches a user-submitted augmented database of outlets to find the easiest access for your needs.

10. GrowUp - Career decision tool for kids and young adults alike from elementary students to undecided majors.  Have you been Asked what you want to be when you grow up and not known how to answer?  Use GrowUp!  Simply fill out the easy questionnaire involving previous work history, hobbies, and education, and GrowUp provides you with your calculated careers ranked by probability.  GrowUp will also recommend alternatives based on what other users with similar careers got for answers.

Reflection

Another night slips away. When you spend most of your nights alone, be they under star-filled skies surrounded by silhouetted mountains, or be they under pulsing lines of electricity on the second floor of a third-rate hotel in a first world country, I can't help but view my time with friends and family as increasingly precious. Some activity hobbyists consider themselves weekend warriors, working during the week days (as if Saturday and Sunday don't comprise two of the seven days of the week, which simple computation shows to be 28.5 percent) to perform physically on the weekends. The schedule to which I have conformed these last few years is an expanded view of this. What if, instead of holding out for weekends, you were to hold out for a season of 3 or 4 out of 12 months? How long can you hold your breathe while diving deeper into work? These prolonged dives from one extreme to the other are becoming harder to share, and harder to explain. Most importantly, they make it harder to relate to people and vice versa. This blog started as a way to share the experiences of a trip after college to South America. I'm posed to turn 30. Many of my childhood friends and sweethearts are married. This past year, two new friends of mine left this world, turned back into stardust, to rest on a shoulder as a butterfly or twinkle in the lonely night sky on some forlorn summit I work all year to gain. I thought by now I'd have it all figured out. Some theory proven. Some gal found. Some cause I could connect with that I'd have taken by the horns, therein fulfilling the college tagline, "Think one person can change the world? So do we." I was in such a rush. But all these explosive moments give me pause. What's the rush? Mortality. If you love someone, you should tell them. If someone makes you happy, you should tell them. The corollary is usually more sticky and I've found difficulty with it, even with all the training in dealing with conflict as a middle child. In my experience, it's easier to solve other people's problems or approach them with an an aire of objectivity. But I digress. I guess all I have to say is still a Frank Ocean quotation: Thinkin Bout you. I hope all my friends and family are safe out there and are finding the balance in life that they seek. Though our paths do oft diverge, they are not divergent.

-n8

A portrait of a slice of Maine.

Fashion in coordination doesn't stop at your front steps.

Truly opposing teams wear the same colors.

Our origin.

Print leaves the building.

A fence of flowers.

Baked silhouette, silhouette roll, silhouette stew, silhouette chowder, silhouette mac'n'cheese - all fine Maine delicacies.

For more photos, please visit http://www.tumblr.com/blog/twelvesquare ! Thanks & Check back for more to come!

Cultural Differences: U.S. versus Andes Mountains

Before even leaving Chile, English was thrust upon me thanks to my Caucasian complexion. This time I gave in and humored my language captors by responding in like terms. Oh to be back in the land of English.

And service. What struck me already, my first brunch back was the heightened status of service and low-wage jobs in North America. That is to say, the expectations of low-income workers are higher here, as are their benefits. We really have it pretty good. My water and coffee were refilled laboriously, practically while drinking! I'm even asked how I'm doing and at least one-way introductions are communicated. This much has been gained by crossing hemispheres.

But what has been lost? Nature, tranquility, and awareness. Nature seems like a distant land or something you may opt for as a reward during a brief recess. A lot of kids age 5 - 85 still choose to stay inside instead of frolic in nature during their break from obligations, paid or not. Whereas, just a few days ago in Argentina and Chile, it was a strange occasion to take a reprieve from the mountains for a resupply of "civilization" and its treats.

Tranquility, too, seems like a concept belonging in poems about serene and secluded lakes rather than, say, the most frequently uttered word in Argentina, "tranki". Back at my original home state of Maine, "Vacationland" as it were, I already see people rushing around. Boston's even worse. Taking the time to be late for things is absurdism condemnable as rude. You can be HAraNGuED for that. I already have been. I own no watch. And my mind is still in the mountains.

My awareness is altered, too. I admit regrettably that I have become a zombie. I was bitten by my cell phone and can't shake the horse-blinder hypnosis of checking apps every 3 seconds even while walking into things. Many others also suffer from this widely recognized disease. Rather than just going to events and living them, we are sharing and observing them through a non-corporeal device. I quite miss being without a phone and auto-updating device. Soaking in the morning dew and the view of the mountains and clouds. Waking up according to my will, or that of the dreams I'd had that night. I also wake up now thinking of what I have to do, wondering if I'm late or if I smell "good enough". This in contrast to thinking of what I'd love to do, wondering if anyone else I'm camping with is up yet, too, to share mate with.

But now, as I strap on my shoes to go for a run on a road on an island, I finish drinking my mate all alone (it is strong custom in Argentina & Chile to share mate) and reflect on some more differences. And how I shall either adapt to or rebel the newly proposed daily rituals.

More to come on running and events from this past season in Cochamó, Chile and Argentina.