Trad first-timer

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!

Climbing ambitions

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 (-; ).

After graduation speculation...

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...

Canoeing on Cheat Lake

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!

Welcome to my blog!

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.

Enjoy!

Dolly Sods weekend excursion

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 (-: