An unfortunate part of moving back home means a lack of skiing areas (actually a rather severe shortage of snow). So a goal of mine and my friend Brians' was to embark on a ski excursion before we left wild and wonderful WV. A close inspection into the forecast yielded expectations for snow first, then sleet and then freezing rain- all in a matter of hours. We knew we had to act fast in order to fully take advantage of the weather. Typically we might consider going south to higher elevation resorts, but this time around we concured the best snow is north, in PA.
What started as flurries when we arrived turned slowly into a full blown winter storm, dumping an astonishing 4 inches of pow in 2-3 hours (wow-wee!). We stepped inside for a relaxing lunch, followed by a french vanilla coffee with Manner wafers to watch the flakes get bigger as they fell outside. Brian and I kind of knew this would happen and absolutely love surprises (albeit expected)- especially powdery ones! We cranked out as many runs as possible on this little mountain only to be halted by sleet for no more than 15 minutes that turned into a freezing rain and ruining the pow beneath our skis as we tele-smacked our way down the mountain. At this point we both agreed it would be wise to stop while we were ahead and make moves for Morgantown.
Upon returning to the car, we were greeted with a nice, thick glaze on everything:
A quick brush-off, a step to the gas-pedal and a couple breaths later we stopped in Uniontown at a bomb-diggity shnittle-bang family Italian restaurant for a Yueng-Ling and cheese covered pasta followed by a rich desert accompanied by a coffee. Some days life can be so good you can taste it in your mouth by the end, staying stoked with good vibes and good company, those are the days full of pleasant surprises.
So the other morning we woke up to quite a lovely surprise, a delicious frosting covering everything outside! As I had finished my finals just the day before, I thought it well suited to enjoy a mellow ski tour up to my favorite local forest, Coopers Rock.
The snow was a soft velvety powder that provided for excellent glide characteristics, I reckoned there was about 4 inches and in the open meadows, drifts up to 6 inches. I was all alone on the trails on this day, just me, the subtle ripple of the wind and nature's sugar. The trail was quite a meandering one, taking me up and down and all around- but maintaining a nice high altitude above 2,000 feet. I hope this will not be my last ski tour in WV for a while!
The tranquility of the landscape took me for a dream!
It was really nice to get out after such a tough week a slave to my course work, there is nothing better to reward oneself than with a laid-back ski tour (-:
P.S. If you are wondering where the pole is for my left hand, it is supporting the camera for this candid shot.
Technique is more necessary in mountaineering than most other sports, a small mistake can easily cost you your life. A regular neighborhood game of soccer rarely carries such risks. The climbing itself is not the difficult part, maintaining a sense of clarity in the face of danger is the most daunting task. While climbing requires strength, agility and endurance- these qualities are of no use to an individual who lacks good reasoning skills.
Using your head helps you to develop physical qualities that shine brightly when climbing. Technique offsets danger, keeping climbing as an obscure sport that does not flirt between life and death, but relishes in the connection of you with nature and the elements. Many situations are out of your hands, a rock breaks loose, a storm approaches, these experiences shape one's ability to assess risks. That is what mountain climbing is, a constant and deliberate assessing of risks. By knowing one's own ability or even one's self (among the toughest self-examining traits), one can stay within their limit. For that is the greatest thrill of climbing, the simplicity of; yourself, the rock, and the challenges that lay ahead. The imminent challenges of climbing reflect to life itself, applying technique, taking a risk, and seeing where it takes you.
Thanksgiving break for students is traditionally marked by relaxing, sleeping, eating lots of turkey and for some- dreaming about climbing (-; After exercising patience all week, sitting around and eating everything there is to eat, I made some phone calls and made moves for Carter Rocks, Maryland. Carter Rocks sits along the Potomac river just across from Virginia. A mere 60 feet tall at its highest point and perhaps a quarter mile in length, Carter Rocks is nothing to brag about.
My old friend Dan accompanied me and our climbing style for the day was traditional. I led the first route, brushing off the initial joy of anticipation. It was not so difficult, "for good technique combined with fitness is all that is needed to overcome the difficulties" (Gaston Rébuffat). We had only the time for two routes, so after Dan had conquered the climb, we moved on to a simulated multi-pitch route. It was excellent opportunity to practice setting gear, in a safe setting where one is not so tired as to make silly mistakes and time can allow for endless creativity. About 15 feet up, I set up an anchor, I was particularly fond of my nut placements, for the crack was bursting with tapers:
I belayed Dan up to my stance and then he belayed me to the top (another 15 feet). While it was a short route, it high lighted the important procedure to exchanging gear and switching belays quickly.
That is all for now, I am back in West Virginia, hopefully there will be opportunities to place more gear, even with finals looming on the horizon...
This weekend took me to sunny and beautiful Montrose, Colorado.Situated amongst the San Juan mountain range of southwest Colorado, it is in a perfect location for outdoor activities.An hour or so north of Ouray- the ice climbing mecca of North America, an hour from Telluride- an epic ski destination in itself and completely surrounded by public lands offering more to do than time can allow!Montrose really has a lot going for it, the only item missing is an extensive public transit system so one does not need a car so much!I have been staying with a wonderful couple whom I found on Couchsurfing, if you don’t know what this is check it out here: http://www.couchsurfing.com/
My first day here I had an awesome opportunity to see GrandMesaNational Forest.Located an hour north of Montrose, it is one of the largest flat top mountains in the world at over 50 square miles and at elevations ranging from 10 to 11,000 feet!It hosts quite a unique subalpine ecosystem up there, with spruce and fir trees as well several dozen small lakes.At this time of year it was completely frozen up there and we could walk out onto the lakes easily- albeit carefully (-;
I traveled with a fellow couchsurfer, Amanda Harrow who is touring Colorado and the west after spending some months working in Denver on an election campaign.She was kind enough to drive us up there, which turned out to be much longer than it looked on the map (this happens all the time to me here in Colorado- the distances are deceiving!)She accompanied me on a hike where we could not find the trail, so instead we bushwacked a bit and made our own trail through about 4 inches of snow.
The next day our wonderful hosts took Amanda and myself on an epic adventure that culminated in a nudie soak at Orvis hot springs.We had a late start from Montrose, after corresponding silly delays from all of us.Telluride easily made up for that though!What has to be one of the coolest Colorado resort towns I have seen, Telluride is surrounded on 3 sides by massive imposing mountains.
It is easy to see why Telluride is so famous the world throughout for its pop culture, the main street features great shopping, a free gondola takes you to mountain village (where the ski slopes begin), there are numerous festivals throughout the year and the food was absolutely outstanding (try the fish tacos from the stand- outta this world!).I could talk about how cool Telluride is and how much I want to live there all day, read about it for yourself here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telluride,_Colorado. We paused for a group photo of the couchsurfers, from left to right it is Robyn, Rob, Amanda and myself:
Next we embarked for Ouray, home of the infamous ice climbing festival held every year in January.Passing through town, we simply HAD to pause for a chocolate break.Anyone who has been to Ouray knows about Moose’s chocolate.I devoured chocolate in more forms in such a a short amount of time than I would care to admit (on here atleast (-; ), but fresh chocolate is clearly one of the finer things in life. Moose’s has a variety to suit any taste and I might recommend the scrap cookies- a surprise flavor in every bite!Also, an insider tip- wait for when they pull the cookies out of the mini-oven, ask for a glass of milk, devour slowly and deliberately, then walk on clouds as you exit (-;
Outside Ouray to the south we stopped to see box canyon, where the top ice climbing action is held and where a stretch of perhaps a quarter miles is “farmed”.A pipe runs along the top of the narrow canyon and water is dripped through a series of nozzles that makes for perfect ice conditions- including opportunities for dry-picking (mixed ice climbing on rock with ice tools).Just to stand there and see the world class material simply blew my mind, fully knowing the world’s best climbers would descend on Ouray in a little over a month, it was an inspiring moment.Just recently metal structures were built to better able people to view the climbers- that is me standing on the big one which is probably for the press.
More information can be found here: http://www.ourayicepark.com/The quality of the ice was a bit disappointing (lack of ice any ice actually), but the weather has not been contingent for snow or ice in this part of Colorado lately, sadly enough )-
Moving on from Ouray we continued south along the “million dollar highway”.At the start of the highway is a cool sign proclaiming:
The 23 mile highway was supposedly called this because it cost that much per mile to build, we worked it out in the car to be $9.47 per square foot.It was really an engineering marvel that I would venture to claim rivals the autbahns of alpine Austria.I wonder how much it cost to build the Großglockner-Hochalpenstraße? It is quite a famous alpine road snaking around the highest mountain of Austria. The photo below is of Bear Creek running under the road and flying off the mountain side- gives you an idea of how big the dropoff is and how difficult it was to build this road!
We drove for a while along the million dollar highway and managed to make it to the flat part, called Ironton, before turning around with nice thoughts of hot springs.At Orvis hot springs I had such a relaxing time, whew!The water felt great, wearing no clothes felt great and having a nice conversation with an older gentleman about the history of mountaineering in Colorado was nice.An hour and a half spent in varying pools of hotness, we had to put our clothes back on, kind of a sad moment after being free for so long. Sorry, no photos from Orvis (-;
Last night brought us here in northern West Virginia a lovely sugar coating of snow! In Morgantown I stepped out to the car to be greeted by 2 inches of snow and lots of ice to clear. I had some paperwork at the University, so I went to take care of that only to find no one in the office. With that I knew I had my chance to go big, Coops style (-: Skis, boots, poles, hot tea and Ipod shuffle loaded in the Volvo I headed up to Coopers Rock State Forest.
After a quick 20 minute drive I was pleasantly surprised by not a sugar coating, but full-fledged powder conditions! At about 2,200 ft (675 m), Coops is distinctly higher than Morgantown and as so gets blessed with much more snow. The average depth during my ski tour was perhaps about 4 inches, though in some places it was as shallow as 2 inches or as deep as 6 inches in drifts. There were no other skiers today either, a bit strange, but perhaps not because it is a Tuesday and most have to work. I took a moment to rig the camera on a stump to shoot this Kodak of me (in ankle pow!) on the trail:
I skied from the front gate near Intersate 68 to the overlook via the roadside trail. I am not sure how long it was, perhaps 6 or 8 miles all together- enough for a fun, mid-week, mid- morning ski tour (-; The view from the overlook was stunning. I arrived to find the clouds had cleared and to take this photo from the overlook block looking down the Cheat canyon:
After a rather agonizing tour back to the car (the inside of my heels were rubbed raw from the ski boots) I made quick time back to Morgantown in time for a brief meeting with my advisor at WVU. I had previously scheduled a meeting for the morning to discuss jobs in Colorado. I hope our area gets more snow and more ski tours come soon!
Hannes, my colleague and friend from Austria has a blog too! If you can read German and are interested he blogs about his experiences here in the states. Hannes and his girlfriend Doris are both exchange students from Austria studying at West Virginia University for this fall semester. His blog can be found here: http://hannes-in-america.blogspot.com/
If you cannot read the text, that is no problem! He is an outstanding photographer and has really done a nice job cataloging his trips with Doris all around the USA. This weekend they will go to see parts of New England and Canada.
Sitting around all day doing course work can really be a drag, thats why my friend Brian and myself love to make these quick trips to our favorite local crag, Coopers Rock. Let it be known that Coopers Rock is a gem of a climbing area for the east coast, the "gritstone" rock quality is topnotch!
We arrived and Brian showed me a sort of new area I had not been to before near the overlook. The purpose of our visit was multi-facteted, Brian studying for an exam and me doing work on my laptop as well as a bit of bouldering (I most just bouldered (-; ).
We got on an overhanging problem that had some nice sort of slopey pockets and really committing topout, I might rate in the low Vs.
After many months of deliberation and silly excuses, the ladyfriend and myself made it down to Spruce Knob, WV. We actually killed a few birds with one stone by visiting Seneca Rocks as well- for it was Madison's first time to see it (amazingly enough!). We were absolutely thrilled by the fall colors exhibited down there right now, it was clear they would be in their peak within the week! I must apologize, unfortunately, at the start of the trip my camera ran out of batteries and put the kabash (sp?) on any Kodak moments. However, those in Morgantown can look to yesterdays (Monday, Oct. 6) Daily Atheneum for a sunset shot from up on top of Spruce Knob.
A few short facts about Spruce Knob; it is the tallest point in West Virginia and part of a unique high red spruce ecosystem. All of the high areas were logged and subsequently burned from the slash about 100 years ago, and it is clear the forest is still recovering. These days however, it is quite pleasant to look upon the vast expanse of nearly never-ending forest from Spruce Knob and wonder how it once looked as virgin forest and desolation after logging.
We backpacked in along the scenic Seneca Creek trail right below Spruce Knob and stayed one night. It was delightfully cold that night with temperatures nearing the mid-30's, almost a frost! Aside from running out of stove fuel (always bring full canisters!), we had a flawless campout.
Seneca Rocks was magnificent as ever, in a previous post I mentioned I am a beginner trad climber, we watched and climbers leaving for the day and I was pretty envious (but I know that will soon be me (-: ). The air was so clear we could see for many miles. It was most interesting to hike up the trail and see the subtle vegetation changes as we neared the top of the rocks. It was pretty windy up top and the sheer drop down was exciting, it reminded me of Yosemite I had seen in photos and videos. Well, I am back to paperwork, look forward to a post about my impending trip to the Red River Gorge of Kentucky for this weekend's Red River Ruckus!
Every now and again a professor sends out an email advertising a job here on campus. Typically they do not catch my attention too much, but a few weeks ago my Entomology professor, Dr. Park sent us a job posting for a Forest Service job (!). The work seemed interesting- identifying and tallying insects for a Hemlock wolly adelgid project. So I applied, got called for an interview and then just the other day I got a phone call that I had gotten the job!
Now, the only downside is that I am actually on the WVU payroll, and so consequently my pay is very low, but I think the experience far outweighs that! I hope to meet some Forest Service folks who have contacts out West (-: The work at first will be at the Forest Service office, which is kind of far to ride by bike, so I will have to drive (cost estimates are $1-1.5 return). However, later on, perhaps when I am more proficient at identification and such, I will be able to work in the Entomology lab on the Evansdale campus.
For the time being though, I am swimming in hiring paperwork!
One of the great aspects about rock climbing is the ability to advance, not only in strength, but ability. I usually find myself attracted to hobbies or sports that can be pushed further, I really have a lot of fun climbing and knowing that I am slowly improving. Part of what drives me is that natural progression. Last weekend I had an epic opportunity to try a whole new ball game, it is called "trad", short for traditional and essentially it means climbing from the ground up and placing your protection as you go, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_climbing. I find it to be the most pure form of climbing I have engaged in yet (-:
It is important to note that the protection devices placed by the leader (climber) are not permanent, they merely engage when placed in a crack, thereby being removable upon descent, or ascent if the belayer decides to follow the climb of the leader- multi pitch climbs. There is an amazing large amount of thought that goes into this style of climbing, in fact I would venture to say that my brain was tired upon finishing a climb! This is because placing protection is very precise, atleast for me learning as beginner. The "lobes" of the cams must sit in a certain way and I have to physically see this in action, perhaps later I can go by feel (-:
There I am placing my protection, trying to keep relaxed!
Sometimes it is important to add a sling to keep the rope drag down. I know I certainly have a lot more to learn about trad, I will keep you posted on my progress!
As a freshman here at WVU, I took up rock climbing as a hobby. Of course this was part of the reason why I came to West Virginia, there are rocks to be climbed all over the state! It is worth mentioning how fortunate we are to be living in Morgantown, so close to Coopers Rock- unoffically some of the best bouldering in the East!
Not everyday is one capable of climbing outside, so for those rainy and busy days I decided to build my own wall. Now it is nothing like real rock, in fact it is made of wood and has plastic grips all over the climbing surface. It does serve an essential purpose- and that is to train! Granted it does not improve my technique like climbing outside does, but it does increase my core strength! (http://www.climbing.com/print/techtips/ttsport236/) This gentleman Eric Horst has been climbing for many many years and as turned it into a science. Any good climber will tell you that there is no subsitute for climbing to train for climbing.
At my previous residence, the garage was situated perfect for a STEEP (60 degree) wall to climb on:
There was a steel beam stretching across the garage and the climbing wall could easily just sit on it. I had that wall for about a year and a half until I left for Austria in early February 2008. Now that I am back in Morgantown for my final semester, with lots of time on my hands, I thought it would only be approriate to build a new wall!
This wall took a bit more engineering and it is not near as high, wide or cool as my old wall, but it serves it's utilitarian purpose. If I could change anything though, it would be to make it steeper. It was actually difficult to put in my room due to it's size. However, it is fun to roll out of bed and onto the climbing wall or vice versa (-: Perhaps one day when I finally settle down, a new wall will grace my residence (perhaps not right in my bedroom (-; ).
They say it is always better to have choices in life rather than none at all, but what they don't tell you is how to make those decisions when you are faced with choices. Or choices that determine where your life is going. I have this feeling that what I decide to do after graduation will affect the rest of my life, and somehow I find it hard to accept that. Many questions are derived from this, such as; what if I made a big mistake? or Is this really my life passion? Perhaps I should embellish briefly into some ideas I have (in no particular order). It should be noted that I will be graduating with a Bachelors in Forest Resource Management from West Virginia University in December.
-Graduate school: University of Colorado at Boulder (requires faculty recommendation), BOKU- Mountain Risk Engineering (Austria), University of Helsinki, West Virginia University (for 1 semester)
-Topics I desire to write a thesis on: mountain risk management, alpine plant adaptations, afforestation at the timberline, services provided by a protective forest
-Colorado State Forest Service- Montrose Forester
-Au Pair/work experience/volunteering in mountainous regions of Switzerland, Austria, Italy or France
-Arborist work in Colorado
So, as you can see, I am quite overwhelmed with directions I can take my life. The overall goal is to relocate myself to an alpine region, ideally to pursue further studies on high elevation ecosystems. Perhaps I should wait to see what tomorrow brings and where my destiny takes me...
Labor Day weekend is always an excellent opportunity to get out and do some fun outdoor activities. Friday before the extended weekend came and I still did not know what I wanted to do. Then, an opportunity presented itself instigated by my friend Brian. He expressed an interest in boating that Friday evening and had to go to the rec center here on campus to get a dry bag.
So then it occured to us, what if we were to rent a canoe? Hannes and myself were able to rent this canoe for only $17.50 for 3 full days including PFDs, paddles and a dry bag- I don't care who or where you are, that is a deal! This was actually the price for a full day, but since we rented on Friday and Monday was a holiday, we had no choice but to keep the gear until Tuesday (-:
I was able to make it out 3 of the 4 days we had the canoe, mostly on Cheat Lake. After grabbing the canoe from the rec center and a quick pit stop at home to grab some food and beers, we joined up with Brian (he was in his own whitewater kayak). I took the back of the canoe because of my canoeing experience and Madison and Hannes took turns being in the middle or front. Sometimes the paddling was hard because motor boats would fly by and nearly tip us over! Eventually we came across a pretty serious logging operation, so naturally we stop to take a closer look. With 2 foresters, one wood technology scientist from Austria and a wildlife guy of course we were curious!
We had a nice mellow dinner there and then got back to the put-in just in time for dark, great timing! However, upon returning to the cars, a woman who apparently owns the property we were parked on stopped by in her Jeep. Some sharp/rude words were thrown at us as well as threat to tow the next time we park there, pretty mean woman I'd say!
Other than a moment of discontent (and perhaps excessive motor boat traffic), the float trip was an ultimate success and we looked forward to paddling more whilst we had the canoe!
Hello everyone! I thought I would start this blog as a continuation of a previous blog: http://fromabroad.blogs.wvu.edu/ that I was writing for West Virginia University. I just spent a life-changing semester in Austria, with nothing but great things to say about my lovely stay there. It is really a lot of fun writing these blogs and it seemed worthwhile as I am involved in lots of outdoor activities (-:
So, please feel free to comment as much as you like! I will try to periodically post something from the blog archives of my travels around Europe and Austria this past Spring of 2008.
Greetings! This was one of the last weekends my girlfriend, Madison and myself would have before the semester came underway. The unbearably hot and humid weather I live and worked in northern Virginia was really getting to me. So we decided to go someplace as high in elevation as possible, someplace I had never been to (even after living in West Virginia for 4 years!)
Dolly Sods Wilderness Area is quite unique in that it is a plateau that sits above Canaan Valley in West Virginia at an altitude of 1,219 meters (4,000 ft) and is a nice 21 C (70F). Having been told by others how keen this place was for backpacking, we went for that purpose. We parked amongst a surprisingly large number of other cars, but most seemed to be day-hikers. We started down the trail at around 4pm and not a few hundred meters from the road we ran into this deer, just relaxing and nibbling on some grasses on the trail.
We were able to get perhaps 10 meters away from this thing before it casually walked away. I am a firm believer in the proper gear for the proper sport and usually half the fun is getting the sweet gear (-: In the photo below, Madison is borrowing an old school rucksack of mine and we had to rig up this huge sleeping bag to it (not exactly ideal).
I recently bought this pack for Madison: http://www.deuterusa.com/products/productDetail.php?packID=Futura34SL&sub=hiking&tert=futura. The Deuter Future Pro 34 SL, it is perfect for her because not only is it a women's sized pack for her stature, but it is just large enough for weekend backpacking trips and just small enough to be the largest size one can take as a carry-on for the airplane. It also includes numerous small pockets for gear stowage and an active ventilation system for the back.
We hiked until we reached camp that evening and then went for a stroll up higher to try and catch a glimpse of the sunset, this was as far as we got and saw.
As you can see, Dolly Sods has a landscape more characteristic to further north. It is part of the eastern continental divide and the Allegheny Front which forms a border allowing storms to sort of stall in the area- giving it ample snow in the winter (more than 4 meters!).
Walking around we noticed this peculiar blue hue to all the vacinium herbaceous shrubs around, sure enough there were blueberries absolutely everywhere! The next morning we woke up and wandered around for a half hour to collect those wonderfully fresh berries shown below (-:
Although backpacking is fun, sometimes it is waiting for the water to boil, myself just chillin at our camp site.
We followed Red Creek for a while as it meandered amongst the young Red Spruce trees and shrubbery, it is quite a clean and clear stream!
In the photo below you can see the nicely silhouetted
The photo below is a nice representation of the bog-like conditions and dense vegetation coverage. Walking off the trail takes considerable effort due to both the blueberry bushes and the thick hummus layer.
It was a brief trip to Dolly Sods- I look forward to returning soon, especially when the snow has arrived (-:
