Summer Re Cap Part 1

I waited a long time to recap the adventures that I went on this past summer, but as 2010 comes to a close and I think of the adventures that I would like to go on in 2011 its nice to have a record of this year.

I started off the summer climbing South Early Winter Spire with my brother, Nick. This was his first multi-pitch climbing experience so I chose a fairly straight forward route that I had previously climbed before. Our objective was the South West Rib (5.8). It was a great trip, the only downside was that we had run out of water and I became super dehydrated by the time we reached the summit. I learned that I may have a salt deficiency on this trip, and needed to change what I brought to keep hydrated, like electrolyte tablets.





Over the previous winter I had taken up skiing again after 9 years of snowboarding. I had a buddy hook me up with some used K2 tele skis and I was able to get out and ski a bit that winter. I didn't really like the feeling of a free heel when going down steep descents and did not want to put the effort into really learning the art of knee drop tele turns. I chose to buy a AT set up with BD kilowatts (95mm underfoot) and Marker Baron Bindings. My first tour on the new set up was Mt. Adams (12,276 ft). I teamed up with my buddy Pat, a great skier that has a ton of backcountry experience. Our objective was the South Spur route and hopefully ski off the summit. We slept in the parking lot and had a alpine start. The climb went amazing skinning the whole way up. It got a little tricky as we got close to the Lunch Counter, but it was overall pretty easy. The descent was hands down some of the most rad skiing I have ever done, corn is almost as good as fresh pow. The only downside to the climb was the end of the descent, I hadn't eaten much the whole day or let alone drank any water, and as soon as I tried to eat some beef jerky I through it up. I continued to dry heave the rest of the way back to the car and passed out as soon as we got to the auto. I might have learned my lesson on hydration on this climb...hopefully.

Study break

I am studying for a super hard final finals week, but last night I was kicking it with a friend and we watched this rad clip from this skater, Richie Jackson. Check it out!

Pirate Skateboarder

New Show on MTV

I just stumbled across this on the first ascent blog, apparently MTV has a show following celebrities as they climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro. At first I was laughing watching the actors, and musicians, as they experience climbing for the first time. But the underlying theme I think of this is to help the country of Ethiopia with clean water. I think that the celebrities deserve credit for doing something like this to get people not only interesting in the outdoors and the beauty of the mountains, but bringing global attention to pressing humanitarian needs.

More celebrities should do things of this nature since they are looked up to and are modeled after. They can be great ambassadors to the world to help get things brought to the attention of the world. And finally MTV has a show that is not about dating someones mom, or the real world BS. So keep it up!

here is the link to a trailer on the show which starts tomorrow night.

Summit on the Summit

Murder in the Snow (FREE TIBET!!)

Just a short post, since I am currently studying for my stats class. Today I had the opportunity to attend a talk by Luis Benitez a world renowned climbing guide who witnessed a horrible atrocity on the slopes of Cho Oyu, in Tibet. Refugees from Tibet were attempting to cross into Nepal to escape the clutches of communist China when the Chinese opened fire on them killing a 17 year old nun! In addition to this there are rumors that 7 more Tibetans were executed and thrown into a crevasse. The response to this by the climbers at base camp was to try and forget these events and move on. If it wasn't for the few who did speak out the first documented and filmed act of murder against the Tibetans wouldn't have been captured for the world to see. To find out more about what happened watch Murder in the Snow. If you want to learn more on how to help the Tibetans please click the link in the sidebar or visit these sites below:

Murder in the Snow

Save Tibet

I feel that it is our responsibility as climbers to do all we can for the people who live in the mountains that so many of us either aspire to climb or just admire the sheer beauty of the Himalayas.

Climbing Comp

So there are some sweet photos and videos made from the climbing comp. last Saturday and I posted one in this message. You can see me fail at the second dyno at 7:37 minutes into the video (haha). I am confused since yesterday at the gym I easily got the third dyno, yet I still can't get that second one. Oh well I guess it really plays into peoples different strenghts.
Lets see not much else going on, I am sure no one wants to hear how Stats, groundwater, and physics are going (just had to remember intergration by parts the other day...)
Oh one other thing about the climbing comp. was that our school paper covered the event and wrote an article about it and messed up. So they listed the top finishers from WWU in the article and said that this Andrew Peterson dude got 4th in intermediate, but that was totally me! Oh well I guess I won't get to clip my name out for my scrapbook some day hahaha

link to video

Dub Step

So last week a bunch of homies and I went down to Seattle and saw Rusko. He is a rad Dj who mixes dub step music. If you haven't heard it before then you are missing out for sure... My buddy levi shot a bit of the scene at Club Trinity


Also on Saturday I competed in a climbing comp. at WWU and got 4th in the intermediate divison, which blew me away since I was super nervous at the start. I had some reservations about signing up for the competition since I climb for the non-competitive nature that it has. I love climbing because it gets me outside to experience new things and challenge myself on many different levels. Climbing inside has one purpose: to make me a better climber outside, but Saturday I was stoked to kick it with some friends win some sweet prizes and climb some astetic lines (major props to the route setters!)

So this is my first post on my blog. I set this up in order to share trip reports that I have, also things that go on weekly in my life. I am really bad at keeping a journal so I hope that this blog might be an easier way of jotting down some of my thoughts, as well as a record of my travels. I hope that you enjoy the blog and check back in...