So in the past month I have eased myself back into the working life with a relaxing two weeks on, two weeks of schedule which I could certainly get used to! After the last post I was working and getting trained on the latest and greatest winter good for this season for what seemed to be 12 hours a day 14 days in a row, a slight exaggeration but still exhausting. So when I found out with a little shift swapping I could get nearly two weeks off that coincided with a group of friends going to Joshua Tree I was psyched.
So for the last couple weeks I have been enjoying the often balmy temperatures of southern California in tandem with the granitic pluton, friends and some good ol' rocks climbing. Basically I got spanked by 90% of the climbs there and did not get on anything particularly difficult, I did get plenty of mileage in soloing moderates and rallying up some awesome climbs with a handful of motivated individuals, needless to say it was awesome.
Thanksgiving was spent with many friends at a buddies' house; which was the coolest house I think I have ever been in. Thanksgiving day was spent pouring over dozens of books detailing the climbing history of CA, picture books of climbing around the world, guide books and climbing magazines, as well as chuckin' some hatchets (safely of course), cooking up a feast and marveling at Keanu Reeves acting mastery in Point Break (if you haven't seen it, it might be worth watching).
After thanksgiving we returned to the desert for a few short days of climbing and exploring the desert before returning to Durango and for me Aspen.
I'm now back in Aspen working away and trying to figure out how to stay comfortably warm and ski as much as possible. With a foot of snow on the ground and night time temperatures dropping to -16 F (as of last night) I'm getting back in to the swing of winter van living and taking notes for the next post on tips, tricks and the shortcomings of living in a van in the colder, darker months of the year.
About the photos...I kept telling myself to pull out the camera the whole trip to J-Tree and so I didn't take any pictures but here are a few some friends took. I'll see about getting some for the next post.
Thanksgiving card game (screw the dealer)
Photo by Taryn Pearce
Figures on a Landscape with Spence
Photo by Annie Edgecomb
Preparing for the zombie apocalypse
Photo by Jenna Pearce
Arete slapping
Photo by Jenna Pearce
I was scouting out a trail that I will be leading 10 or so students on next week and I wanted to check out a few out the mountain passes that we would be crossing that had no established trails and harbored large talus and snow fields even late in the summer. The first four miles of my trip were punctuated by these meadows, separated by dense pine stands along the valley sides. With each meadow that I crossed into I would pause, inhale deeply, snap a few shots and wonder if it was worth the bush whacking to get down to the river to fish for a little. Each time I continued on, promising just a little farther. As I passed into a meadow a couple miles long, where the trail came down to meet the river, which was punctuated but a dozen mini-bus size boulders within a few hundred yards I knew this was the first spot I got to bust out my fly rod. I'd just purchased my rod a month before and had only caught a few fish on it while, ironically on a week long fishing trip, and I was itching to try it out on new streams and lakes.
After three hours and 24 fish it was time to find a camp and put some miles under the soles of my boots. With a bit more bush whacking, route finding and patience I found a sweet spot tucked in to a few pines right at treeline on a small knoll within the upper reaches of the Fryingpan River valley. After re-hydrating dinner, reading and absorbing my surroundings I was lulled to sleep by a down valley breeze and a spectacular star show.
