Sorting out my life

Deciding what you want to do with your life isn't easy. It's even harder to do it for that matter. However, I've un-officially applied to a Masters degree in New Zealand (still waiting for the email that says they got all the papers), I have one more form to fill out for that too, booked all my flights there to look at houses (and the flights home and back for xmas). Now I'm sitting around Hobart wondering what to do with myself. All I now need to do is file my tax return, find an illegal cash-paying job and enjoy life. Oh, and get accepted to Masters. Fingers crossed!

Latest updates

Since it's been two months or so, I figured it was time to update this blog again. Since we finished watching whales in North Stradbroke, I realized that plan A (which was me staying in Tassie and guiding for another season) would not be possible because of assorted visa issues. Naturally, the next best option was to fly to New Zealand and look into doing a Masters degree there. So, Mike and I flew to Christchurch and started a mini road trip that involved seeing the sights and climbing in between rushing back to Dunedin to meet with professors. Mike met up with a guy doing behavioral work on mosquito fish, and I with someone doing phylogeography (read genetics) of southern ocean kelps and seaweeds. We also got to spend 2 days at Castlehill, which was just a pathetic amount of time really. AMAZING place though and I'm super excited to be living just a few hours away!! Enough boulders there to keep several people busy for a lifetime, and you probably would never run into anyone else. Truly a magical place to be.

After that, we flew to Nadi, Fiji to do yet more whale stuff. This was very different to the work on Stradbroke, principally because there were very few whales. Mostly we sat on top of a mountain and stared at the ocean. (but we got free t-shirts!) Everyone there was just awesome though, so I made a whole bunch of Fijian friends and got my butt kicked almost daily in volley ball by the local village kids.

Now, we're back in Queensland, waiting patiently for Fed-ex to come and deliver my academic transcripts. Then I will officially apply to the Masters program at Otago University. :) very exciting stuff. Then tonight it's off to Frog to get our butts kicked by some crack lines. Then to Sydney and catching the boat on the 2nd. Back in Tassie on the 3rd!!

Hopefully I'll be able to update this a bit more frequently in the near future (maybe even with photos)! Stay tuned.

PS anyone have any cash-in-hand jobs for me??

Lately...

So it's been what, 7 months since I've updated you all on my life? Far to long I imagine. Sorry to keep you all in such suspense. Right at this very moment, I'm sitting in a house on North Stradbroke Island, which is off the coast of Brisbane (still in Australia, for those of you who don't know where I am). I've been here for about a month now, "working" for the University of Queensland on a study involving migrating humpback whales. This island sort of creates a bottleneck for the humpbacks as they migrate north from Antarctica, so about 95% of the population comes within 20 km of the shore, which means we can see them with binoculars. Yay!! The "job" involves sitting for 5 hours a day on a platform, with binoculars, a theodolite and a computer (with three or four other people, of course) and counting and tracking the humpbacks as they swim by. It's pretty thrilling work.

Actually, that's not true. Sometime's it's cold, windy, and the sea state is awful, which means you're miserable and you can't see anything. Other days, like yesterday, it was beautiful calm seas, and we sat on the platform in our bikini tops, drying off after a surf in the two hour break between shifts (it's a hard life)!

At the peak of the season, we were getting about 120/130 whales per day, which made for some pretty busy shifts. Suddenly, within the past two days, the peak has dropped off and we've had a decrease in daily numbers (like 60 or 70 animals). I won't dwell on that, because if you search on facebook for "straddie humpbacks" our page comes up. You should become our fan. All the cool kids are doing it.

When we're not watching whales, we're hanging out and eating, and talking shit. Lots of cool folks here from all over the world, doing really interesting jobs, all sort of bumming around and working odd jobs like this for food and accommodation. Might even be joining Saras over in Fiji after this, doing the same work for food and accommodation (again). It's a pretty sweet way to save money I must say.

SO technically, Mike and I are currently living out of a garage in Noosa, but that will change when we return to the mainland. Probably a bit of climbing at Frog is in order, then perhaps Fiji before heading to south Australia to do more mammal work in the middle of the desert. (Bilbies better watch themselves! I plan on catching many). The guiding work ended in May, so I spent a month (3 may to 3 june) in Flinders doing some bush regeneration work (AKA killing African Box thorn, the most vile plant EVER)! Then drove up to Straddie, collecting road tolls along the way.

It's been good to get to that bigger island Tasmanians are always talking about, but I have to say that I'm missing Tassie a bit (not the cold or the dark, but the people and climbing, naturally). It's looking like I may have to leave the country though, do to some visa issues. Apparently, I was reading forms for a Working Holiday visa (which I don't have) instead of the ones for the Work and holiday visa (which I do have) because they are two very different things. Ergo, I can't get another Work and holiday visa, which means if I say in Oz, I'll stay on a visitor visa, which I can't afford to do if I can't work. Make sense? Please explain it to me then. Of course, this is all that I could deduce from the immigration dept website (which is awful) and I'm still waiting for an email that will answer my questions, because they don't see fit to respond until they've kept you waiting for at least a week.

Anyways, that's all. Photos will follow.... maybe on Friday when I can go to the library.

What has been happening....

Apologies for my continually awful ability to keep in touch with anyone. I'm sorry, it's not you, it's me. At least I'm trying to rectify this situation, yes?

So for those of you who don't know, or care, I've been living in Australia, specifically in Hobart, Tasmania, for the past 3 months or so. It's been pretty sweet; mostly because it's warm here and cold in the states. What have I been doing with my time, you ask? I've got a pretty sweet job as a walking guide, which constitutes me being gone for 6 days at a time. I also work for some hippies and get paid in vegetables (and fruit). I was picking apricots till the season ended, which was extremely dull, but I got to eat unlimited apricots.

The company I work for is called Cradle Mountain huts, and we walk the famous Overland Track, which extends throughout the length of the Cradle Mountain - Lake St. Clair National Park in Tassie's World Heritage Area. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overland_Track
We're out for 6 days at a time - myself and another guide, with up to 10 guests. There are a few other guiding companies out there, but we are by far the fanciest. All other companies are tent-based operations, meaning that they stay in tents at the National Park huts along the way. We however, have private huts, hidden in the park, only for us to use. Now when I say 'huts', these include gas heaters & stoves, showers with hot water, beds, bedding, sleeping bags and gourmet food. Everything we need is helicoptered in twice a season- once in Sept before our season starts, and again in Feb to stock up on everything we might be out of, and to fly toilet waste, garbage and compost out.

Ergo, during the day I serve as a walking guide, making sure no one gets lost, taking photos of guests in front of mountains and mending blisters. We carry about 25 kilos of gear (just over 50 pounds) ranging from sleeping bags and all of our personal clothing and gear, sat phones, 1st aid kits, food (including 2 kilos of beef for night 2), veggies, maps, EPIRBS, tent, stove and a whole host of other crap. Guests carry their lunch, clothing for the trip and a sleeping sheet for the hut, usually totaling between 7 and 9 kilos (maybe 20 lbs).

Toward the end of the afternoon, one guide breaks off from the group to run ahead and get munchies ready for the guest (tea and coffee, muffins, scones and/or and antipasto platter). Once done, that guide starts dinner (a 3 course affair nightly) till the other guide safely leads the guests to said hut. Then both guides cook while guests shower and relax. In the morning, we do breakfast and a lunch spread, then clean the whole hut top to bottom (including toilets) for the group coming in after us, which is usually later that afternoon.

To say the least, it's a pretty full on job. I'm usually on my feet from 7 till about 10, which is usually when the guests pass out. It can be fun though, especially when you have good guests. If people help with they drying and washing of dishes, you can be done with everything by 9 and have time to relax, read, play scrabble or whatever.

Despite walking the track 6 times already this season, it's still neat to do it again. You get to work with some really cool guides, meet some really awesome guests, and just make fun of all the insanity that goes on. Since our tours are so luxurious, the guests are usually fairly wealthy (it costs $2500 for a 6 day trip) and tend to be interesting people. Most of the guides are really great to work with, and the more you're out there, the more you learn about the track. Important things, like getting to know all the rangers, the guides for the other companies, who owns what helicopters, who got evacuated, when and what happened, where the secret beer stashes are, the best places to see platypus and where to find glow-in-the-dark fungi. (yeah! glow in the dark fungi. It's awesome. Mike and I found some on a side track)

It sucks being gone for 6 days, away from friends, home, your own bed, being lazy, and the ability to say whatever you want to anyone. But you get to hike some amazing country and it gets you excited to check out the rest of Tassie. As a guide, the people who come out are completely relied on you to do everything. Most people come on our tour because they lack the fitness/ability/gear to do the walk on their own. Often this is the first big walk people have ever done, and it's amazing to see people struggle though and succeed. I've had people with knee replacements, one lung and a woman who wasn't even walking 4 months earlier complete the walk. It's wonderful to hear them express their gratitude and genuine appreciation for all that we do. There are the occasional wankers who come out, but I chose to ignore them.

When I'm not out on the track, I work Saturdays at Salamanca Market, selling veggies and fruit for an all organic distributor. It's pretty cool, I earn credit and then get all the veggies and fruit I need for the week. Mike is working for Mountain Designs now, which is motivating me to look for a second job. In the meantime, I climb, explore hobart and eat wallaby burgers. I miss everyone in the great state of Maryland the the U.S. as a whole, but it's good living out of the country for a while.

Hope someone made it to the end of this, sorry for being so long-winded! I'm about to get kicked off this computer by the librarian. Till next time!

So it's been a while

I realize this post is EXTREMELY outdated, but I have time to waste, ergo, it will be posted.

From Tucson we went to Indian Creek, which, naturally, was AMAZING. Splitter hand cracks galore! For two crack climbers though, it was a real learning curve. Matilda didn't enjoy it too much. She developed a bad noise after being forced off-road and into deep sand. Then her boot wouldn't shut despite our best attempts. After much poking, proding and bending, she finally relented. The boot shut, but the noise remained.

After making sure everything was still attached to the underside of the car, we went to Moab, Utah for an all you can eat pizza buffet. Then we got kicked out of arches national park. for trying to camp. in the campground. silliness.

Utah soon gave way to Colorado, where it was cold! REALLY cold at night anyways. A pleasant change though. We hung out in Boulder, seeing friends, climbing the flatirons and hanging in Boulder canyon, getting out all the booty gear we could carry. We also ventured to Fort Collins where we hung out with Jeremy and played our first ever game of disc golf. Which is an awesome sport, in case you're wondering. Then we went to Denver and saw Leah, and went to REI.

Then we started to drive. Across Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Tennesse and into North Carolina.

North Carolina brought rain, which meant no climbing. But, we got to hang out with Jake, Justine and Ryan. Played frisbee golf for the second time ever (in the pouring rain) and ate delicious pizza.

Then we drove to crowder mountain state park to go climbing, where we dried out our tent, towels, ate lunch and slept and read on the bouldering pad. That afternoon we drove to Charlotte and hung out with Grace, which was also pretty sweet.

Back to the Red we went!! Being the in June and sweating my ass off, I assumed that late september would be mild. It was awful. Humidity was 95% at 9 pm. It was like climbing in a sauna. You couldn't use chalk because your hands would turn it into toothpaste before your hand was back on the rock.

Miserable, we heading to Coopers, where it rained. So we hung out at Jsun's, who was nice enough to put us up for a night. Then we drove to Seneca Rocks, were camping was cheaper and it was less likely to rain on us. Seneca was spent climbing a 5.3 for speed in the dark and trying to remove, not 1, but 2 number 1 camalots from the route. (one was removed successfully)

Then we drove to Catonsville, said hi to Amy, julius and the dogs on Tuesday night. Wednesday we went out to Annapolis rocks, where it was windy as hell and covered in school children. Thursday we hiked out, back to Baltimore. Friday Mike packed and I saw Sarah, Amina, Maddie, Greg and Josh at Smoothie King and Bean Hollow.

Saturday Mike left, and I left for CT Sunday morning after stopping by ET and saying hi to Josh. I also managed to leave my pillows and sanuks in Baltimore, so by the time I got to New Jersey and remembered, I successfully convinced myself that they were not important.

Connecticut involved work, laudry, cleaning and organizing. Saw some folk and got very bored. Managed to pack everything (I think). So far all I forgot was my toothbrush and a gyro-ball thing I said I would bring down for Mike. Ooops. Packing Packing Packing.

Now i am off to Tassie!

Yosemite through Tucson

Due to the infrequency of my blog posts, much has occurred which has not yet been posted to the internet. Luckily, Mike updated his blog so I can glean all the information from that without actually thinking about what we did.

Last I updated, we were stuck in Yosemite still, planning on going to the Needles to hang out with Jed and Gary. So we drove to Mt Whitney, hung out at the campsite at the trailhead, and they never showed up. Saddened, we took the long way back to Yosemite and used Mike's remaining three days at Camp 4.

Since we can only register to camp for one week at a time, I was sitting in line at 5 am Friday morning to reserve another spot so we could leave our tent and food set up while we sent the Nose. I was about 5th in line, so I thought we would be okay (before I realized that the one guy in front of me was actually him and his girlfriend, plus 4 other parties of 2-4 people, which made me about 23rd?)

A little background on the Valley - there are a number of campsites in and out of the Valley, and every one in the Valley proper can be reserved, with the exception of Camp 4. Somehow, a group of Native Americans managed to reserve 24 campsites (with six people to a site) so they had 2 spots available that morning. Chaos ensued. I stayed and packed camp while Mike made a brave and daring attempt to secure us another site. Regrettably, the last spot was lost to an RV driver in a "no-RV's" campsite. We were lost.

So what to do? Naturally, we went to the lodge to drink free coffee and use the internet. Jed and Gary had already gone North, so chances of catching up with them were slim. We managed to sneak into a campsite for the night, woke up, and decided to drive to Vegas via Death Valley.

The Nose, my first pitch of C2+ in Yosemite, Sunset in Death Valley

Now, Vegas is of course known for Red Rocks, which would have been AMAZING. However, the temperature was hovering at about 102 F, so we ate pancakes while we decided what to do. The guy in the gear store ended up recommending Mt Charleston, and the guide was only $10, so we figured some bolt clipping might do us good. He then compared the Nevada limestone to Yosemite, saying that they both had drilled pockets..... we didn't follow.

Free camping though, which was cool if not a bit sketchy. But, being at 8000 feet meant nice cool temps, no higher than about 85, and all the crags were shaded. That's where the positive aspects end. The place is trying, I'll give it that, but everything is bolted to shit! There are bolts everywhere! It was not uncommon to have a bolt at your feet, one at your waist, and one within arms reach at all times. Occasionally it was worse, with four bolts reachable from one stance. Not all the bolts are on the "same" climb, which is how this place is trying to boost it's shear number of climbs. Literally, some routes shared all but one bolt. Others were a 10d if you climbed 8 bolts, a 12a if you did 10 bolts, and 13b if you climbed 12 bolts. Very strange indeed.

Classy Mt Charleston - the permadraws in sillioute, and Mike on only one of the many bolts we could reach from the ground (if you jumped you could reach the second)

It was really hard to get motivated for a number of reasons.
1) There was usually one 5.6, which was not cleaned and was pretty much a gully; one 10a; one 11b; one 12b and the rest were 13+
2) The climbs were contrived as shit and it was too hard to know where to go (I climb this for 2 bolts, then the bolt on the left, then back right for 2 bolts..... etc)
3) It was WAY to easy to make fun of

So I think we spent a day or two there, then gave up and drove back to Yosemite again.

With much fucking around, we got our space in Camp 4, bought some food and gatorade, rigged clip in loops and said our prayers to the god of El Capitan. That night we went up and fixed the first two pitches of the Nose to give ourselves a head start the next day and get our food off the ground.

Getting ready to go! All of our gear for our Nose attempt

4am - up and ready to go! My stomach was in my throat on the approach, especially since it came down to me to start us off. There we were, climbing the Nose!! 5am and super tired.

By 11am had gone no higher and were trying to retreat. Ropes were tangled horribly, clusterfucks occurred, and numerous others were prevented. However, free climbing experience, although useful, does not mean that you can forsee problems on a big wall. Numerous reasons lead up to our first failure on a big wall. These include but are not limited to...
....inexperience, on both of our parts
....Mike got stung by a bee and his knee was the size of a small melon
....we spent time working on aid climbing and hauling, yet had never done a pendulum or lowered out haul bags
....it is SO hot in Yosemite in August- was over 95 when we started
....this meant hauling 33 kilos of water (72 lbs of water alone) they recommend 4+ L per day per person
....despite Mike's best efforts to fatten me up, I am still a relatively small person to be hauling 180+ lbs, even on a 3:1 system
....we brought up a extra gallon of water that first day (4 L), and had finished before we descended, which seemed like a bad sign for the heat of the rest of the trip
....started on the 13th...a bad omen?
....were just in way over our heads

Luckily, we have no shame. We tried it, and it kicked our butt. The Nose will always be there to try again, perhaps when we are more worthy (or it is cooler out)

Rapping down we met Erik, an Alaskan dude who worked in the Valley doing something. I was sitting on the anchor at the top of the first proper pitch when he jugged up his fixed line. He seemed a little peeved that he had to stop and wait for us to move so he could keep going up. I thought it was a bit strange that it was 1130 and he told me he had to be in the valley at 1 to work, thinking "what could someone need to do for only 1.5 hours that's worth jugging up four pitches?" but I kept my mouth shut. He let up rap down his fixed line, and we gave him a gallon of gatorade since he dropped his water.

Since I rapped first, it wasn't until Mike joined me at the base that I realized what this dude was up to. Apparently, his friend was solo aiding the Nose, fell about 10m above the anchors of the first pitch, fell below the belay ledge and knocked herself unconscious. Her friend Erik then decides that he is going to go up and chip out the cam placement that pulled on her. Anyone who has climbed in the Valley knows how finicky gear can be in pin scars, cams especially. However, this climb has been done for over 50 years, and it's been going all clean for a very long time. It's been free climbed for christsake. So Erik takes a cold chisel to a C1 pitch because his friend is an idiot. AND he dropped rocks on Mike's head.


Mike beefed up for our El Cap attempt; me rapping to the ground with gear; idiots in Camp 4 that got their door/window eaten by bears

Fed up with the valley, we leave after some uninspiring days of bouldering. We head south to Joshua tree, which is beautiful, but it was 107, so we decided climbing anything was probably out. Drove from there to San Diego, where we caught up with Mike's friend Jimmy, and saw the SanDiego zoo. After that, we drove to Tucson, where we have been showering, sleeping in a bed, living in air conditioning and driving up the mountain to climb in cool temperatures. Life is good.
A spot of bouldering before dinner in Joshua tree, sunset in J-tree, a giant flower in J-tree, and Hitchcock pinnacle, Mt Lemmon AZ

So it's been almost a month to the day since I've last updated on my life and going-ons. Since we left Idaho, we went through Glacier Nat'l park in Montana; through Calgary; to Banff; to Squamish; back to the U.S. for some reason; through Oregon, CA and have landed ourselves in Yosemite. I shall try to highlight the important points.

• Mike ate a giant sandwitch
• We successfully consumed 3 pounds of blueberries in a very short amount of time
• Drove the Road to the Sun through Glacier National Park, which is AMAZING
• Mike crawled through an ice cave while I sat on the side of the road, next to the 'Danger, this snow and ice might collapse at any moment' sign
• Went to Canada!
• Learned about buffalos jumping off cliffs
• Met up with Mike's friend in Calgary, and saw tons of gay cowboys
• Drove through Banff, saw Lake Louise/Lake Moraine and I fed a chipmunk a flower
• Went to Squamish. Need I say more?

From left to right - Mike eats a sandwich, glacier national park, and me interacting with nature


While in Squamish we.....

• ...sat in the rain for two days, proving that rain stops as soon as you build the best tarp set-up known to man
• ...sent 58 pitches of trad up to 10c, 2 pitches of sport up to 10a (which involved me leading the scariest slab traverse ever, then having Mike bail and forcing me to tension traverse over the crux to retrieve the draw), and something like 54 boulder problems (mostly sent by Mike, but I did a whole lot of spotting)
• ...ate delicous baked goods at the local bakery
• ...learned how to aid climb
• ...went to Vancouver to see Mike's Dad and sleep in a comfy hotel room bed with a shower!
• ...found some booty, including a draw, cordelette and sling from the 1980's
• ...desperately hoped to see hikers mauled by bears, to no avail
• ...took very few photos because we were lazy and it's annoying to photograph while belaying

from left to right - Mike frees Coogee Crack, 5.10 c; I fight with gear after aiding Coogee - A2; Mike sends Superfly, V4: I lead the final pitch of Calculus Crack, 5.8


For some silly reason, we then left Squamish. Things promptly went to shit. Highlights include...

• ...being woken up in Washington by a guy with no teeth looking for pot
• ....not sleeping well for a week
• ...not climbing in Smith Rock because it was 100+ degrees
• ...getting a flat tire
• ....getting said tire fixed for free!
• ...not finding Metolius in Bend, Oregon
• ...going to Tahoe for cooler weather and EXTREMELY crowded campsites
• ...finding some AWESOME bouldering in the Tahoe area, at Bliss and the Secrets
• ...fleeing the free camping at the secrets due to large animals nearby
• ...driving to another bouldering site in Nor Cal, only to be deterred from camping there due to the drunken, scary partying happening around us

Mike in Bliss; me in Bliss; Mike in the Secrets


Then we made it to Yosemite, where it is hot, and extremely crowded. So far we have....

• ...sweated
• ....swam in the river to avoid overheating
• ....successfully got into Camp 4
• ...collected booty at the base of the Nose
• ...bouldered a LOT
• ...did some single pitch stuff
• ...sweated
• ...practiced hauling - what a pain in the ass
• ...made plans to go hang out with Jed and Gary at the Needles (where it is LOADS cooler)

half dome, me on an off-fist boulder problem, mike on Bachar's Crachar V4

So that is the general update. Heading to the Needles tomorrow, then we'll be back to sort gear, rig clip-in loops, shit our pants, and send the Nose! (hopefully)