Well it's been a pretty bummer month. But, can't fly high 12 months out of the year I suppose. Regardless, I'm still healthy and happy generally and always have a lot to be grateful for. I have spent half of this month in a Wilderness First Responder course, a 9 day course that I first did in 2017. I unfortunately let my certification lapse, so I had to spend a lot of money and precious time to complete this entire course once again. If you peek into the blog archives from June 2017, you can see my writeup from the first time I did this course. It was a great review, I'm thankful for continued education and have been making a conscious effort to not complain too much about something that was entirely my fault. After the WFR course, I returned to Table Rock base camp and worked a short 5 day course as the Course Director. This is a relatively new role for me, and certainly a role with a lot of responsibility and impact. As Course Director, I am the administrative point person for a course, as well as a mentor to instructors, supporter of logistics, and on-call person on base. Course Directors wear a lot of hats, but the one hat that I particularly enjoy is the logistical one, as this is a strength of mine. I have enjoyed the Course Directing very much. The first course went well, and I'm currently in planning days for one more short course. After this one, I won't CD again until July when I CD a 22 day! Other than the WFR course and CD'ing, my April has consisted of chilling on the porch with my friends, as well as some very casual climbing. It is nice to finally be stable and building routines. Well, some months I'm soaring above the clouds and some months I feel more mortal than ever. April has been hard hitting in a number of ways, and that's probably a good thing for my personal development as an adult. Year 6 at Outward Bound is feeling good. I appreciate my role in the community and the opportunities that I have to contribute to impactful programming and living for students and staff alike. Thankful for my friends and cardiovascular capacity. That's the update for April!
I missed March by a few days, it has been a very busy spring season! Where we last left off, I had landed in the USA, and was in Salt Lake City for a very short transitional ski season. I had about a week and a half of activities... I skied a bunch, climbed in the gym, and hung out with my friends. Photos... After my short time in Salt Lake, I drove east very quickly and landed back home at Table Rock Basecamp in North Carolina. It has been very nice to be back the past month. I have had a casual amount of climbing work, and other than that I've been doing a lot of personal climbing. Here are some photos... So yes in other news I just celebrated my birthday, turned 27 a few days ago. This spring is moving along nicely. I know it's a simple blog compared to the last few, and that is an accurate reflection of my life right now. It is a welcome reprieve, but yet of course still busy.
I spent my final month in Argentina working another semester course phase for Outward Bound. This semester phase was the first of 3 and had 9 students who were mostly 18-19. I got to work with one of my best friends, Max, which was so fun and a great extended hang out. The course was challenging, as OB courses always are. But our expedition was pretty sweet, a week long alpine trek over some huge mountains high up in the national park, called the 5 Lakes Traverse. I hadn't yet done this route, since I've only worked the November semester, when there's too much snow to go up high. In addition to a stellar backpacking route, we had a great glacier block, including a glacier traverse of the whole mountain which I had also never done, due to border control issues with the November phase. It was overall, fine. I was more engaged as an instructor on this phase than the November phase from this year, probably because as a phase 1 I was involved in more teaching, coaching, and support. Plus the route demanded more management from me than the November course. The students challenged me... I remember being 18 and wanting freedom and power once... but that's perhaps a reflection to be shared in person so if you're curious for more, ask me sometime! So that's the spark notes, the photos and captions will tell more of the story. So, that's that. It was a positive life experience. Wrapping up 3.5 months in Argentina was a great feeling. I am proud that I lived beyond my comfort zone so consistently for that long. I am grateful that my body held up alright and that I was able to experience a slew of amazing things. I am writing this post from Salt Lake City, Utah, where I have landed until the first week in March, when I will drive back to NC for another OB season. Thanks for following along my 2023-2024 Patagonia adventure! That's a wrap.
I must admit that I'm a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of this blog post. Since I last posted, I've spent just over a month traveling around Patagonia, Argentina (and a moment of Chile) with my partner Daniel. We did a number of expeditions that I'm very excited to share about. I'm also anal about this blog so I can't stand to have it incomplete even if that means a bunch of work to make a post. So I'm glad to have 2 rest days here before I go back to work, because it will be enjoyable processing for me to churn out this post for my 3 loyal followers (shout out Mom, Aunt Jodi, and Aunt Debbie). El chalten Immedietly following course end in mid December, Daniel and I took a 29 hour bus (you read that right) down south via scenic route 40. We went south to visit El Chalten, a beautiful mountain town at the foothills of the Fitz Roy Massif and Cerro Torre group. Fitz Roy is the most famous and recognizable mountain in the area, most famous for its depiction in the Patagonia clothing brand logo. In Chalten, we did two epic expeditions and plenty of hanging out... backpacking: Huemul loop The Huemul loop is a 40 mile, 4 day trek that starts and ends in town. It offered exciting and strenuous terrain, meeting Daniel and I with an appropriate level of challenge. It was fun to backpack at our own level, and not at the level of an Outward Bound crew. It was also Daniel's first time backpacking for fun and not pay, which is interesting. The hike was fairly popular, aided by the fact that we started on day 1 of a nice weather window. By the 3rd and 4th days, we were seeing the same parties on trail and in camp each night. Pics and more words: This is Daniel on a tyrolean traverse on day 2 of the hike. These cable zip lines were installed for dangerous river crossings, and there were 2 of them on the route. This one was particularly cool because it was over a chasm and fast flowing glacier river. For the tyroleans, we had to carry our harnesses and a few caribiners. Technical backpacing! Epic! Meeeee with the Southern Patagonia Ice Fields behind me. MEGA!!! This glacier is the longest icefield in Patagonia, and second longest in the world. We were so blown away by this view, which we hiked along for two of the days on the route. It was the type of view, that when I saw it for the first time, my brain needed to recompute. I had never seen anything like it! After spending some time on a glacier during the OB course the previous month, this glacier experience ignited a blowtorch flame of curiosity within both me and Daniel. Look at those patterns! The glacier and the land around it tells a true story. What a natural majesty, an otherworldly entity, made in no part by the hands of man. Religious!! Pictured is Daniel's artsy backlit silhouette walking along the very end of a glacier. Different glacier than the one in the previous picture. The snowpack on top has long since melted off, so all crevasses are visible. No rope needed. Rubble that has collected over the decades made the surface rough and easy to walk on without crampons. The hour or so spent walking along this glacier was a hilight of the hike! Ok, after posting these photos and typing up those words I just got so excited again about this loop! I have done a lot of backpacking in the past 12 or so years, in a slew of different environments. This was the coolest backpacking that I have ever done! I would not recommend it to the off-the-couch backpacker, as the days were burly and day 3 had a very steep and loose (read: dangerous) descent that was scary at times. But I would recommend the loop to any experienced backpacker visiting Chalten. Mountaineering: Mojon Rojo After a few days of rest following the Huemul Loop, Daniel and I set off on an unpredictable adventure, to attempt to summit one of the peaks of the Fitz Roy Massif. 98% of the massif is beyond our technical skillset, involving some combination of glacier travel, snow climbing, ice climbing, mixed climbing, scary shit, etc etc. There were very limited options of routes that were within our wheelhouse, and we went up with the knowledge that the mission may not include a summit for any number of reasons. It was brave of us to even get to the high camp, the Swiss bivy. It was brave of us to be open to the idea that we may not complete a summit mission. To be honest, it was brave of us to even leave the comfort of our hostel and do something so challenging. There's a lot more to this story than what's in this blog, but here's a chunk of the story. The itinerary: Day 1- leave town around 11am, hike 6 miles to Campamento Poincenot, a forested and popular camp. Day 2- leave camp too late and hike 3 extremely difficult miles up the Swiss bivy (high camp). Day 3- leave camp at 6am for the summit of Mojon Rojo. Success! Back to Swiss bivy by noon. Down to Campamento Poincenot by 6pm. Day 4- hike back to town and go out for asado (traditional Argentine barbecue) dinner. More via pics and words... Daniel, my love, with the Fitz Roy Massif behind him. Iconic! Mojon Rojo is the small red peak on the left of the grey granite peaks. Fitz Roy is the big one, Poincenot is the skinny tall tower to the left, then Mojon Rojo is 4 more peaks to the left. The snow that you see at the base of all of the rocks is a glacier. That is what makes this mission so involved technically, because the approaches require glacier travel. Mojon Rojo offers a summit with the most simple glacier travel to its base. hanging out in townMy whole life is not epic expeditions, contrary to how the blog and instagram may portray. Most of my life is eating yummy foods and playing games with Daniel. Pictured is us at our favorite tea house, where we'd get hot drinks, apple crumble (not pictured/eaten already), and play games like this travel set of Catan. For me, one of the most exhausting parts of traveling with backcountry missions included is the amount of packing and transitioning that we do. Pictured is the bed spread of our packing push for Mojon Rojo. At least we had a nice hostel to base out of. Some day I'll operate out of a house, but for now its a backpack and a duffle bag. El Calafate The next stage of our travel involves a number of busses, a bout of food poisoning for Daniel, and some touristy stuff. It's not worth rehashing the booking or logistical challenges of visiting El Calafate or Torres del Paine. My brain did those mental gymnastics once to make it all happen, and I don't have the effort to explain it. If you're planning to travel to south Patagonia and want information hit me up. Basically, it's confusing. But there's some epic rocks and glaciers to see, so we made it happen... One of the 2 main reasons we went to El Calafate was to visit Torres del Paine National Park just over the border in Chile. Daniel was a trooper and came all the way to the park with me even with food poisoning, but couldn't survive the hike so he waited down at the visitor center. I did the 13 mile round trip hike by myself to get to the base of the towers, pictured here. The hike was beautiful, long, but I was rewarded with this view that I had been seeing on the internet every day leading up to the visit. It was an odd feeling- going through so much logistical effort to be here in person, to snap this photo. Other than the photo, this experience was not grounded in reality at all. It made me appreciate traveling with Daniel very much, because we had been able to share all of these other amazing experiences. This one was fine, glad I did it. If the previous photo is instagram, this photo is reality. The way down from the epic view had some small moments of scrambling, and I had to wait in line for some of them due to the amount of tourists. This hike is probably the most popular hike in this park, which is the most popular park in Patagonia. And it was New Year's Day. High season. If you do touristy things, this is the reality of Patagonia. Snapping that photo is a tourist trap, and I fell right into it. Interesting reflections on my solo hike back to Daniel at the visitor center. The day after Torres del Paine we bussed back to El Calafate and took a taxi to the Perito Moreno Glacier, pictured above. This was the other main reason we came to Calafate. This epic glacier flows down into Lago Argentina where it ends. The glacier poops off massive chunks of ice in what's called calving. When it calves, the ice fall is so loud and makes huge splashes. This part of the glacier is called the ablasion zone. I am a big fan of ablasion. Very cool to witness this alive thing creaking, breaking, moving. piedra parada We left south Patagonia and took the epic 29 hour bus back north to Bariloche, home base. From there we rented a car and drove 5.5 hours south again to a dope desertish climbing spot called Piedra Parada. We sport climbed for 2 days, in a radical canyon, and on the 3rd day we climbed the piedra parada (standing rock) itself. After so much backpacking and busses, it was nice to keep it simple and camp and climb again. I had missed climbing, being apart from it since my time in Yosemite ending in the beginning of November. It was nice to get my groove back a little bit. I surprised myself with my capabilities. Frey Final stop. If you're tired of reading this blog just think how tired I am of sleeping in a sleeping bag. Anyway. Once back in Bariloche, Daniel and I joined forces with best buddy, Max for 4 days of climbing at Frey. We climbed at Frey last year, and it was just as epic as we remembered. This trip was very windy, which limited us to relatively local climbing missions, no major summits attained. We did 1 day of single pitch climbing near camp, then 3 days of multi-pitch adventures. Max onsighting a 6c/ 5.11d crux of one of our multi-pitch climbs. For those that don't know anything about climbing just know that that is stupid hard and Max is unruly strong. It was really fun to try a bunch of harder pitches of climbing on top rope after max fired them on lead. Max is someone that I love to hang out with and also impresses me a lot. I hadn't seen him since climbing together in Yosemite back in October, so it is great to be reunited! Back to work! Ok so it's been a big month! I am tired, but not wrecked. I'm enjoying 2 days of rest before I begin working another semester phase for Outward Bound, this time with Max. Daniel flew home this morning. I am thankful to be healthy and feeling fit at this point in the season. Despite being tired of being uncomfortable, I am continually inspired by engaging with challenge in the outdoors. I'm refreshed after some amazing personal recreation and ready to facilitate an epic experience for a crew of semester students very soon. If you made it this far in the blog, that's quite the feat and thanks for reading.
The first 3-4 weeks of my time in Argentina were filled with working a phase of a semester course for NCOBS. This course was phase 3 of a 3 phased 72 day course, that began in the NC mountains in late September. They did a 20ish day phase in the Everglades of Florida, and the Patagonia phase would be the final stop of their epic adventure. The students were 18-21, motivated, and high functioning. The phase took place in Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi, and our glacier block took place specifically on Mt Tronador. This is about as good as instructing gets. I worked this phase last year, but last year I had also worked their phase 1 in the NC mountains. This year, Daniel worked their phase 1 while I was climbing out west. One of the challenges that I faced working this course was entering a very established dynamic. First that of the crew, obviously they were very close, but also they were very comfortable with Daniel. So I had to work hard in 1 on 1 settings especially in order to build rapport and feel that I was in a position instructionally to burn rapport, uphold standards, and impel challenge. Another challenge that I faced while working this course was that I am feeling myself burnt out with OB instructing, and sometimes it was hard to digest that I did not want to be there. So challenges remain, as in life, to be present and grateful, and to still uphold the quality of my work to my highest standards. I reported on the challenge first because that's what comes first for me in the process. It's through those challenges that I had a rich, full, emotionally thick, and high impact experience. But of course there was a lot in this work experience that I enjoyed very much. Here are some of those things. First and foremost, I really appreciated the crew of students. I am always nervous to meet a crew, but I love meeting semester crews, especially this one, because 90% of the time they are dope humans, at a formative moment in life, seeking challenge and adventure. Now that is something that I can relate to! I enjoyed getting to know them and learning from them. Second, I really loved working with Daniel. This was our second semester phase worked together, and we did a good job being intentional about our working relationship. We told the students on the first day that we were dating (because we suspected they knew, which they did) so that took off all of the pressure. We upheld professional boundaries and otherwise enjoyed each other' s 24/7 company. We are also both passionate nerds for this work, so it's special to talk about course design, philosophy, and ethics at a high level with practical application. Being in the field is easier if you're not missing your partner back home!! Finally, I really loved the course-end curriculum that we did with the students, namely two group activities designed to promote transference from course to home. Despite my burn out, hearing from students what they will be taking home and how they plan to use the experience really refreshed my belief and passion for the process. On most OB courses that I work, I just hope that I've planted a seed. On this one, the students will straight up say "this changed my life". I certainly feel, to a dramatic extent, that I am living my dreams. That is part of what makes it so challenging to find myself momentarily unhappy in such epic and beautiful situations like the one that I have just been a part of. Maintaining mental health, emotional regulation, self compassion, and gratitude are challenges that will always exist for everyone no matter how incredible their photos look. I will always appreciate my verbal processing in the form of my journal and this blog so that I have accurate, honest, and authentic words to go along with the pictures that tend to speak for me. So anyway, here are some incredible photos: Thanks for reading. That's all for now. I have a little over a month off until I begin working the Patagonia phase 1 for the spring semester course (it goes in the opposite order). Perhaps after that course I will truly retire from instructing. One can dream. Regardless, Daniel and I will spend the next month or so backpacking, climbing, travelling, and otherwise enjoying vacation. All is well.
Indian creek, utah After my time in Las Vegas, I drove to the desert of Utah, near Moab. Indian Creek is the land of splitter cracks, beautiful perfect cracks in striking red sandstone cliffs. The climbs there are tough, just a few pitches a day and I was pretty beat. Because of the difficulty, the vibe at Indian Creek is pretty chill, climbers don't start until 10 or 11 am, and by sunset everyone is in camp around a fire. There's also no phone service, so you connect with your friends via paper notes on a message board. There's a faith that it'll work out, and it totally does! I loved climbing there for 3 days and am thankful that I finally got to experience the magic of the creek. Here are some photos and captions... Yosemite Valley, California After the creek I drove to the motherland, Yosemite National Park. It was an incredible trip! I did lots of free climbing as well as aid climbing. Free climbing is what I normally do, using hands and feet to progress up a wall, while placing gear along the way in case I fall. With aid climbing, you use the gear to progress up the wall, by clipping ladders to the gear and climbing up them to place more gear. Aid climbing feels to me like a means to an end, a way to get up big walls. A way to get to the top when the free climbing is too hard. I'm not as inspired by the movement as I am by the places this technique can take me. On this trip to the valley, we used aid climbing to do our first few overnight trips on a wall. I did 3 free climbing missions and 2 aid climbing missions. It was awesome to climb with two close friends, Max and Borna, and to be challenged at our level. Since I have never done an overnight on a wall, this trip was a big progression for me, for all of us. More in pics and captions below... Starting prep for the big mish!! We planned to climb The Prow of Washington Column, a 1,100ft big wall with the aid difficulty grading of C2+. This wall would make a nice progression towards some day an El Cap mission or such and such (dare I say my dreams out loud). We spent half a day organizing gear and packing, as pictured here. We spent the afternoon hiking the heavy gear (cams, ropes, and water) up to the base of the climb. The next day we would leave camp for good and begin our climb. Finally got to live out my life dream of sleeping in the portaledge! A few folks have asked me if I was scared in that sleeping situation, and the answer is that I was not afraid of falling down. I was afraid of people above me dropping things on us. Which did happen. We also got peed on. Apparently that's part of big wall climbing and now I know that. One other comic tidbit is that we slept 3 people in a 2 person portaledge. I will never do that again, and I will also laugh whenever I remember our cozy nights. Jetting off... That's a wrap on my climbing season this fall in the US! It was an awesome one! I progressed a lot in a number of different ways. I grew as a guide in Las Vegas, I grew as a crack climber in Indian Creek, and I grew as an aid/ big wall climber in Yosemite. I feel myself expanding and actualizing. I am thankful to the climbing journey for all of its lessons, challenges, and triumphs.
Next up I fly to Argentina for 3 months. Woof. I will work a 25 day phase of an Outward Bound semester course with Daniel (!!), then we will have a month and a half off down there to travel and climb. Then he will leave and Max will arrive, and I'll work one more 25 day semester phase. International travel, big backcountry experiences, double long course season. It is going to be a huge winter! Stay tuned... The past month has included a big transition and plenty of climbing. Classic!! I left NC in the end of September, and spent 4 days driving out west to Las Vegas. The drive went great, I love driving across the country. I landed at the Red Rock Campground, and spent 10 days there climbing to prepare for my course. I took my Rock Guide Course with the AMGA over the past 8 days. It was a Women's Affinity course and it was sponsored by The North Face. This means that all participants (8) and instructors (4) were women, and in a male dominated, technical, old school industry that is a pretty wild thing!! There were tons of photos taken during the course, but unfortunately none by me. So as of the writing of this blog post, I don't have many photos to share. I will share a few from my prep time before the course, to lay the scene... Well I imagine that in the coming days/ weeks I will receive an influx of photos and be able to better share what my course actually looked like. For now, all I have is a 500 word essay that I just wrote as part of the contract that I signed for the scholarship from The North Face. If you're interested in my reflection on the course, here it is... Yesterday I completed my Rock Guide Course. It was the Women’s Affinity Course, sponsored by The North Face. This was many years in the making, and there was part of me that didn’t see myself at this level. There’s an imposter syndrome going on, which has affected me since the moment I began climbing. The Rock Guide Course was an empowering experience that taught me more than just 3 different ways to tie a munter hitch. It was perhaps a shedding of the imposter syndrome. To see myself performing well and asking high level questions was really invigorating. The community that we built and the culture that we upheld was essential to the supportive learning environment that allowed for this. I was able to fearlessly try new techniques and develop my skill set in a tangible way. I’ve found that my imposter syndrome can either be reinforced or broken down, depending on the people around me. When I feel judged, ignored, or unprepared I tend to feel that I don’t belong, I’ve just been faking it this whole time, I’m not actually a rock star. But this course felt the opposite. There was lots of positive feedback, genuine conversations about life paths, and frankly, fun. I realized that I was truly doing the thing. I am walking away from the course with my head held high knowing that I am capable of things that I did not believe possible 5 years ago. The pursuit of climbing has been life changing for me personally. I’ve been pouring my heart into the sport and the journey, and I watch myself transform in real time. I grow strong, confident, and compassionate. Sometimes, one just needs an open arms space to see themselves actualize. I felt that space and opportunity on the Women’s Rock Guide Course. Self growth is not an end in itself. It is a means through which I hope to better impact the world around me. My goal is and always has been to share this incredibly meaningful journey with others. Now that I’m an Apprentice Rock Guide I am much better suited to be doing that. Normally, at work, I am the one giving technical instruction and I rarely receive training anymore. It was really satisfying to have such an incredible training opportunity with such impressive instructors. I am certain that I will be taking what I learned back to my job as a Climbing Specialist at the North Carolina Outward Bound School. I now feel better suited to train others, especially aspiring Climbing Specialists, just like I was 3 years ago. I am extremely grateful for the privilege to have spent 8 days in the desert with 11 other women, as we seized the space to develop ourselves as climbers, guides, and humans. I am inspired to continue the push to make climbing more accessible and inclusive. I am also inspired to continue my own personal push deeper into a male dominated industry. If I learned one thing from the past week, it is that I can, in fact, do it. That is all that I have for now. I'm doing great, my body is feeling healthy and ready to continue pushing deeper into climbing season. Today I leave Las Vegas for Indian Creek, Utah for just a few days. Then I head to Yosemite! Exciting times!
The past few weeks since the end of our summer season have been complete with a little bit of work and plenty of stellar time off. At the end of August, Daniel and I facilitated some training workshops for other staff. There were two workshops, each 3.5 hour sessions from the Outward Bound USA Professional Learning Lab. This facilitation was closing the loop on the trip we took in April to the OBUSA National Trainer's Conference, where we saw the workshops for the first time. They were titled "Creating a Supportive Learning Environment" and "Responding to Emotional Disregulation". I enjoyed both working with Daniel as well as seeing myself in a trainer role for other instructors. After Instructor training we broke up into smaller groups for the last 2 days. I was conducting training for two prospective climbing specialists in the form of rock rescue drill practice. We did one day under a porch because of pouring rain, and the second day in vertical terrain. It was productive for me to get so nerdy with this drill so close to my Rock Guide Course. And especially because the best way to learn something really well is to teach it to others. After the conclusion of the training block, I hung around for a day to go climbing with buddies Max and Borna on Looking Glass Rock. We attempted another aid climbing mission to practice skills we hope to use in Yosemite this October. It was a stellar day out on inspiring rock and it made me so excited for this big season of climbing that is about to overtake me. The next day Daniel and I immediately drove up to the New River Gorge in West Virginia to climb. We had a great trip, and really enjoyed the climbing. We did entirely single pitch climbing, stellar cragging really. Mostly trad with a sprinkle of sport. It was a good week of climbing to get my wheels spun up for this big fall that's about to ensue. I also especially enjoyed the car camping and being away from base camp for a bit. More details and pics below... Since returning from the New I have hosted two very important visitors in back to back visits. One was hometown bestie, Lea (gume) and the other was big sis Ronia (roon). It's been really fun to share basecamp, my home, with people that have known me for so long. It has also been great to take them both out climbing for their first times. So as the sun sets on this year of NCOBS for me, what's all this hype about a big climbing season? I leave North Carolina for the season on Sept 21 and begin my drive to Las Vegas. I will spend 3 weeks there including 9 days on my AMGA Rock Guide Course. Following Vegas, I spend a brief 5 days transitioning/ climbing in Indian Creek, then I head to Yosemite for 2 weeks. All of this leads me right to my flight to Argentina in early November. This winter once again I will work for NCOBS down in Patagonia. I will work one long course in Nov, and one in Jan, with 1.5 months in between the two to climb and adventure. So, cherished blog followers, buckle up. I'm excited to present to you some incredible content and reflections the next four months. As I begin to launch personally Outward Bound (out of my safe harbor of Cabin 1), here are a few overarching intentions for the fall...
Lots of work happening for me the last month and a half or so. The biggest update is that I worked a 22 day youth course. Since then I've just been paddling, climbing, and doing a little bit of climbing work. Summer is my busy season, I've been working pretty consistently since my last blog post. My 22 day course was challenging, humbling, and overall a very positive experience. I was challenged by the student population, 14-16 year olds, many of whom with adhd. I was humbled by the students and the experience that exposed some major gaps in my instructing tool kit. This was good, though. I have not mastered the craft of instructing, and even when one thinks that they've mastered it, that's a mistake because they are closed to learning. This course reminded me that I am a lifelong learner, it's ok to be uncomfortable and have to work hard, and lastly that I can, in fact, do it. It was such a positive experience for me in large part because of my co-instructors. I worked in a trio with two crushers, Nick and Emma. We had so much fun together and I really valued the intention that we put into our working relationship. This course really proved to me that no matter what happens, if you have a good relationship with your co's then you can get through anything. We really got through it on this course, and I am proud of my effort as well as the effort of my co's and our students. Powerful, impactful few weeks in the field. I'm grateful for it. Here's some pics: Since the 22 day ended I had about a week off. I did a few days of paddling, which was nice to get out of my norm. I have of course also been climbing. Here's a few more pics. The past week or so I've been working a light amount to support our biggest course of the year. We had 12 crews out at once for a private school group. I was the climber on staff, organizing staff and gear, and then working climbing blocks for 4 of the 12 crews. It was my dream role to support this course, as someone who has instructed it previously. The course is chaotic, and logistically heavy. I really enjoyed being able to focus on my corner of the world and get out climbing during my days off! That's the update for now! I have one more month at Table Rock then I will head out west for a burly climbing season. Less work and more play coming up. Exciting times!
Well I completely missed the blog in the month of June... unusual. But I'm back now with some huge updates since the last post in the beginning of May. casual travelRonia's Wedding On June 4, 2023 my big sister, Ronia, got married to her husband, David. I spent a week at home for the occasion, and it was truly a lifetime high event. If you read this blog, you were likely there, so I don't need to go too in depth. This event was incredible for a number of reasons. First, and foremost, it brought me the most joy of my whole life to see my sister so happy with David, having arrived at such a momentous life event and for it all to go so well. Second, I got to see so many family members that I have not seen in a while. For some, it had been a healthy 2 years or so, and for others, a strong 15. I did a lot of explaining where I'm at in life, as well as introducing my partner Daniel to dozens and dozens of people. Third, this event was awesome because my whole friend group girl gang from high school was there, which is a special occasion in its own right. All in all, best weekend ever! Here's some Polaroid shots that we took on wedding day... Summer season at ncobs The month of June has consisted of one type of work... climbing work. It has been awesome, and I'm loving my new position this year as the Resident Climbing Specialist! I live on base, go out each day and see a crew and run their climbing day, then get to sleep in my bed at night. I've worked mostly at the Table Rock base camp, with a few days here and there in south Pisgah NF to work at the Cedar Rock base camp. Here are a few photos! Other fun stuffPictured here is Max bravely leading pitch 4 of our 4 pitch adventure on The Glass Menagerie on Looking Glass Rock. This was our first aid climb together, and only my second ever. Aid climbing is a style of climbing that utilizes pulling on gear, and hanging a ladder from gear to help get up a wall that is too hard to free climb. You can see in this photo, a black ladder hanging down at Max's feet. Dare I say my dreams, but we are trying to learn aid climbing so that we can get up some big walls in the near future. Dog days of summer continue... That's it for this update! In a few days, Daniel and I both start precourse for a 22 day course. This is my swan song of NC mountains instructing for this phase of my outdoor career. It will be epic!!
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