Seven Up

2011 Rolled Up

2012-02-15T13:16:00.000-08:00

Ah.......where to start? Well I've been neglecting to blog since I returned from Australia, and it's now 2012, but I'll just pick it up from where I left off. After returning from Australia in less than one piece, I had plenty of time on my hands as I wouldn't be working or playing due my fractured and casted leg. When I healed up enough to be somewhat mobile, but not well enough to work or do other enjoyable active things, I decided it was time to catch up on some much needed home improvement projects that may have been put off another decade had I not had a reason to be home for such a long time. Not exactly my favorite hobby in the world, in fact not even a hobby at all, but it was a good time to knock these projects out. So in a nutshell the majority of my spring involved the removal of kitchen, dining room, and living room floors, learning how to tile, laying new carpet, installing appliances etc... We had an INCREDIBLY rainy spring this year so I didn't feel like I missed out on too much. Amanda and I made a trip over to the Seattle area over the 4th of July for one of her friend Kristen's wedding. First stop was a visit to the Grandfolks in Edgewood. Amanda was excited to see the huge white house and all of my grandpas animal friends. We spent a day doing the usual tourist stuff in Seattle then made our way up to Mukilteo for the wedding. We spent the 4th holiday on a party boat that may as well be considered a yacht on Lake Union overlooking the city. I felt upper class for just part of a day, as many might call it, Big Pimpin. We took Highway 2 back home and stopped in Leavenworth for some mild hiking and climbing, I mean rehab. After we returned from Seattle it would only be a few days until my very good friends Pav and Dave from Australia would be showing up on a plane in where of all places but Spokane, WA! We've been friends since '06 when we met while traveling in Thailand. Since then I have visited them in Germany, England, and stayed with them while in Australia. It was my turn to gladly return the favor and show them the splendors of North Idaho. We did some wake boarding, floated the Coeur d' Alene River, and Marcus threw a BBQ that was one to be remembered.....or not remembered.

I started work again in mid July but it only lasted until the beginning of August when I had a few trades saved up to take my yearly traditional "Mountains and Microbrews" trip in the Oregon/Washington Cascades. Amanda and I loaded up my yet to be converted cargo van and had our first stop over in Hood River, where we met up with Marcus. We took the Mt. Hood Highway to Bend for a couple days of their microbrew festival, a John Butler Trio concert, floating the Deschutes River, mountain biking, and exploring the vibrant town of Bend. We spent a couple days camping and climbing at Smith Rock State Park. We ended the trip with a hike up the South Sister for a nice view of the Cascades.

In September I bought a Suzuki V-strom 650 dual sport motorcycle to add to my list of things to do/ways to get there. I've always kind of pondered the idea of having one when I was retired or something but I figured why wait. All it took was one ride home from the dealership and I was HOOKED. I put about 1500 miles on it between September and when it became time to stop riding regularly and start skiing. I can't wait until this summer when I can actually take some trips on it. I actually can't really complain though because I've been able to ride it every month of the year since I've gotten it, yep you heard that right, global warming I tell ya! Once I put the bike "somewhat" away we were in full swing of ski season and we made our first trip of the season up to Nelson, BC for some Whitewater backcountry skiing. I got a season pass at Schweitzer so most of my time this season was spent up there. Marcus, Jordan, Amanda, and I all made a trip up to Banff shortly after Christmas to ski some sweet Canadian Rocky Snow and sit in some hot springs. Only problem was there were more rocks than snow, but what snow we did find was nice. We also learned how to play curling, I mean what else do you do in Canada when your not skiing right?

For the most part things have been pretty routine around these parts with lots of trips to Spokane's climbing gym, a few film festivals, and a lot of skiing. I did sell my dearly beloved Toyota Tacoma that I've owned since it was new in '04 and picked up the new and improved '12 Tacoma. I also abandoned the camper van idea and sold it with plans of sticking to the plain and simple camper shell on the new truck for my "local" adventures. I'm about to hang up the skis for the year and pack my backpack for early March. I'll be going with Jordan to El Potrero Chico in Mexico for a couple weeks of limestone sport climbing and dodging Cartel bullets (kidding), then we'll be flying over to meet Amanda on the Baja Peninsula for her spring break where we will hang out with the Fam in Los Barriles. After I return from Baja I've got a week to recover and work a few shifts then I'm off again to cross the Pacific for 5 weeks of climbing in China. More to come as they come!

Kachoong Photo Sequence

2011-04-22T18:13:00.001-07:00

Almost over roof when foot becomes stuck
Trying to free R foot just before falling
.....and the ride down

Kachoong

2011-04-22T15:47:00.000-07:00

I am now back in the U.S. but a final Aussie blog to close out the chain of events from the rest of my trip. I met a solid group of people at Arapiles that I was climbing with every day for about 2 weeks. We all hit it off really well and consisted of a young Belgian climber by the name of Fabi, two Seattle firefighters Doug and Lukic, two traveling Aussies Al and Acey, a good friend of theirs from Melbourne Juzzy (short for Justin of course), and Dave an Aussie turned Texan after marrying his American wife. During our stay we did many of the notable climbs in Arapiles and still left a lifetime of classic climbs to do. We would usually have several ropes going at once in a particular area so we could get a lot of climbs in. The entire climbing area was almost 100% traditional climbing, which for the non climber means there are no bolts pre-placed in the rocks and you must put your own form of removable protection in as you ascend to prevent you from having a long fall. I particularly enjoyed this element of it because I got the opportunity to lead climb several climbs without having brought my own traditional climbing gear over and just borrowing my partners. It also tends to make what would be an easier bolted route a more complex and difficult climb. It's kind of like doing puzzles as you are climbing to find the right piece of protection to place in the right size cracks / pockets / abnormalities of the rock. Anyway, I bagged the trip down to Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road I had planned to have an extended stay at Arapiles, which in hind site didn't exactly turn out in my favor. On the day I was planning on leaving to drive back to Sydney all the guys were going to do a route called Kachoong early in the morning so they could be the first ones on it. Kachoong is probably the most notable / talked about / photographed / and fallen on climb in Arapiles and perhaps Australia. I wasn't about to miss a chance to do it so I figured I'd go do this last route in the morning and start my drive by early afternoon. The climb is named Kachoong because that's the noise they say the rope makes if you fall while going over the hardest part of it. Funny, because when I fell on it the only noise I heard was the loud crack of my lower leg breaking. What had happened was I had my foot turned sideways in a horizontal crack / flake in the rock while I was upside down in order to stay on the wall. As I moved past that part to get back up onto the vertical wall I stretched out and pulled but was unable to move up any higher because my foot had moved in the crack to become trapped. This left me with a few seconds left in the most difficult part of the climb to hang on and move back down to try and extricate my foot. Well time ran out and I couldn't free my foot so as I fell past it my leg became a fulcrum and was finally freed when the falling weight of my body broke my leg. I guess somethings gotta give. It was the better of two possible outcomes, the other being upside down with a broken leg and my foot still being caught. That would have been interesting. When I got down I wasn't sure if my leg was broken because there was no deformity or displacement but I was unable to stand on it. I was hoping it was just bruised but we all heard the pop and had a pretty good idea what it may have been from. I hobbled on one leg with a stick to the top of where we were climbing at and eventually was carried out to an access road on the back of a big hunky Seattle fireman, every woman's dream huh? When we got back to camp I just iced the leg and the guys helped me pack up what I had left in camp, then drove into Horsham which is about 25 miles away. Thought I'd try out Australia's health care system, which is free to Australians, but costs to anybody else unless your country has reciprocity, which we don't. After an X ray it showed a clean fracture of my fibula, which is probably the better of the two lower leg bones because it's more supportive than weight bearing. First fracture in 29 years of age, I guess that's not doing too bad considering I'm a pretty active person. They put a backslab with some bandages on which is basically just a fancy personalized splint. They wanted me to wait to see a physician in the U.S. before casting due to the swelling that may take place post injury and during the flight home. Surprisingly and fortunately, because you have to pay them upfront for your treatment, I was expecting a much bigger bill than what it was being in one the most expensive places I've ever traveled. I'm thinking if a beer is 8 dollars a pint in the bar I could only imagine what this little surprise is going to be. Any guesses? 230 dollars for an ER visit, X rays, and splint! Wow, seriously, I'll pay cash! After I left the hospital I had a bit of a dilemma on my hands. I had no crutches because they wouldn't let you take them unless you could return them and I needed to get to Sydney which was about 700 miles away. I had to get to Sydney because that's where I had to return the van, I could relax at Dave's house, and where my flight back home left from. So basically, I could sit around Horsham across from the hospital in my van with my leg up and have to try and go get food when needed etc.. and still have to figure out some way to get back to Sydney, or I could just suck it up and make a big push to Dave's where they could help me sort things out. I went with option B and did the first leg of the trip that night until about 1230 when I was getting tired and sore. Next morning I was up by 6 or 7 and back on the road for a straight shot to Sydney which I got to about 3:30 that afternoon. The only real difficult part was at gas stations, which were the only places I'd pull over to stop at, and I had to hop on one leg to go inside and pay. It was nice being back at Dave and Pav's as they were more than helpful with everything I had to do and I could relax with my leg elevated. I had to tell Dave the bad news that we wouldn't be having our climbing trip to the Blueys that weekend as I had promised him. After seeing me, having never climbed and was going to give it his first shot, he was probably more relieved than disappointed haha. We settled for a fun time in Sydney and I had scored a pair of crutches to aid my mobility. As you may imagine the rest of my time there, which was 5 days, was rather uneventful. Dave drove me to the airport and helped me get my bags sent off. Dave and Pav are coming to the U.S. this summer I can only hope to try and repay them the great favor and hospitality they gave me during my stay with them. The flight was needless to say pretty miserable, as it already is without a broken leg, but I will say going through customs, immigration, and getting to your next gate is quite a speedy process when you are escorted by an airport agent. All in all......landed on my 6th continent, covered over 2500 miles in my rental van, visited the better of two Australian states, caught up with some very good friends I've always wanted to visit in their country, did some world class climbing, hit the highest peak in Australia, failed again attempting to surf, made plenty of new friends, saw and ate a kangaroo, learned more funny Australian words and slang, broke one bone and most of my wallet, and had a pretty damn good time. Could never give enough thanks to Dave and Pav for making my stay what it was, you guys are AWESOME!

Kozy to Arapiles

2011-04-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

Well the fearful Mt. Kosciusko was a beast of a mountain, coming in at just over 7,000 ft towering over everything else in Australia. It is arguable whether or not the Mt. is considered one of the seven summits, as it's the highest in Australia but not on the Oceana continental plate, which is Carstenz Pyramid in Indonesia. All debate aside I thought it would be a fun thing to put on the to do list while here in Australia. It is located in the snowy mountain region of australia and I believe is part of the great dividing range. At the base of the Mt. there are several ski resorts. The actual hike itself to the summit of the mountain departs from the top of one of the Thredbo Resort chairlifts. It is recommended that it takes roughly 4-6 hours round trip from the top. The trail is actually a raised metal grate almost the entire way to keep people off the brittle alpine plant life. That being said there was no navigation required as you follow the yellow brick road to the top. I jogged most of it actually and made it to the summit in 49 minutes. Check that off the list I guess but wouldn't exactly consider it an accomplishment aside from actually coming to Australia to do it. The Kozy National Park was a beautiful mix of alpine mountains and Juniper bushes and I spent a few days in the area. If you haven't noticed Australians have a short name for just about everything not excluding the names of their National Parks. on the other side of the snowy mountain range I stayed in a small town having a weekend festival honoring the Man from Snowy River. I'm assuming the movie or book was based on this area? Anyway, it was a fun little redneck festival in a small farming town much like it would be in any similar town at home. I picture the Riggins Rodeo. I spent the entire next day driving across the state of Victoria to get to a place called Arapiles. It is a state park and an Internationally recognized climbing hot-spot, much like what Yosemite is like in the states. There is a base campground called the Pines which is similar to the reputation Camp 4 in Yosemite has attained. There are nothing but climbers here, some for a short time and some that have all but taken up a permanent residency in a tent. I love it here! My favorite part of Australia is oddly enough but definitely not the beach. The campground is a 2 dollar a night honesty system which fits well within the budget. The weather is awesome most of the time. It's nice being in one place for a while so I have time to cook and relax a bit. My typical day in Arapiles: Wake up to nice weather, cook breakfast, pack climbing bag for day, climb all day with thousands of routes to choose from within 5 minutes walking distance from camp, return to camp to cook dinner, search camp to find another partner for the next day and plan tomorrows routes, repeat. Awesome! The only thing better I could ask for is a solid partner, but there are plenty of climber here that are also in need of a partner so it works out well and it's a good way to meet new people. There are people here from all over the globe. Ironically enough the first two days of climbing here I paired up with a couple of firefighters from Seattle. Small world I guess. The closest tiny little town called Natimuk is about 5 miles down the road where you can pick up a few supplies and grab a shower every now and then at the paid campground. For anything major including gas and groceries you have to head into Horsham which is about 20 miles away. I may leave here with enough time to drive the Great Ocean Road which begins west of Melbourne and have a stop over in Melbourne for a night or two and see another friend of mine.......but then again.......I may just continue this sweet routine until I have to drive back to Sydney? So much climbing to do and so little time. I could easily spend several weeks here for sure.

Roos

2011-04-01T23:41:00.000-07:00

After climbing in the Blueys, which was a spectacular week of weather and climbing alike, I stayed the night in a small town called Bulahdelah to wait for my Sydney peeps the next morning. I mingled with a few of the laid back country folk and even had a chat with the local policewoman about where would be a good place to "illegally" camp in my van without paying the price of a caravan park. She referred to me as "mate" and told me an awesome spot to stay which was basically their fairgrounds equiped with warm showers and all. The next morning we all met up and spent the next four days at a place called Seal Rocks. It was a beautiful beach and in between rain sessions we spent the weekend attempting to surf, bodyboarding, hiking, tossing the football, and celebrating my 29th birthday. Dave and Pav delivered me a card that Amanda sent me from home along with a card of their own, a cake with candles, and some sweet shorts with Australian colors. I set up my slackline, hammock, and gymnastic rings at the campsite. Owen has titled me with the nickname of Action Man that may stick with me as long as I know them which was earned basically because I'm not a city slicker like most of them to make a long story short. While setting up Dave's monstrosity of a tent that could house an Omish family, a giant Iguana looking lizard that was the size of a small crocodile came casually strolling out of the bushes and walked right past us. Even the Aussies weren't quite sure what to do and were a bit scared but he seemed to be well practiced in chilling around campers and he just wondered right on through. During my stay here I had been mentioning to Dave that I would like to eat kangaroo as I've seen in in grocery stores and some restaurants. They all kind of looked at me funny because being Australian natives none of them have ever tasted it. To my delight they brought some kangaroo kebabs along camping that were mutually agreed upon delicious. They basically reminded me of a nice elk steak with no game flavor at all. Speaking of which I have actually seen a few living kangaroos, but most of them I've seen have been splattered on the roadways much like deer at home. We saw a lot of other wildlife as possoms routinely came to visit during the night hours and a school of dolphins we saw were literally surfing waves by the beach. After camping my intentions were to continue up to Byron Bay and possibly Brisbane, but after a long conversation with Dave and a reality check with how big Australia actually is and how much time I have left, I've decided to put that on next times to do list and head south. Basically there is no rock climbing or mountains, just nice beaches which are abundant anywhere you travel in Australia. I'm a bit torn because I would like to dive the great barrier reef and see a friend of mine that lives up there but you can't do everything at once I guess. Anyway I headed back to Sydney to regroup for a day and do some bouldering on the local beaches. I've decided to come to Kosciusko National Park which is where I am now to hike the continents highest peak. I took the long way down to Kozy along the coast on the Grand Coast Drive, which is similar to taking HWY 101 at home along the oregon coast. Lots of neat little towns and beautiful coastline but lots of driving.

Down Under

2011-03-23T03:10:00.000-07:00

Well I've been in Australia for over a week now so I'll fill you in on the local haps. It was a pretty easy 14 hour flight over the Pacific because I slept most of the way and the seat next to me was empty which is pretty much like being in first class to me. Customs was no problem as they didn't even run my bags through the xray after questioning me if I was carrying any microwave popcorn or beef jerky in them. Seriously??? So anyway my buddy Dave picked me up as promised with a cold Aussie beer to greet me to his country. I met Dave and his (girlfriend at the time) but now wife Pavelina, Pav for short, 5 years ago when we were traveling in Thailand. Since then we have met up again in Germany and England while they were living there, and now Australia, so we have built quite a friendship. First impression of Oz.....clean, and very similair to being in the United States apart from the near language barrier of their Aussie English and driving on the left hand side. The first night we had a "barbie" at their house to welcome the "yank" to Australia. They live on the northern beaches of Sydney, which is about a 45 minute drive from downtown, in an apartment that sits literally across the street from the beach. I checked out Sydney and their neighborhood on my own the next few days while they were at work and enjoyed the beach. We went to a steakhouse with Dave's friend Owen and his girlfriend Sarah whom I also met in England for St Pattys Day. You got to choose, season, and grill your own steak, not exactly the most Irish thing to do but oh well. Over their weekend we went down to Sydney to see some live music that some of Dave's friends from New Zealand had scouted out. We ate at a nice Thai restaurant, which come a dime a dozen in Sydney. Prices however in Australia have nothing to do with dimes, it's more like fifties and hundos! Whatever the price is of anything at home you can expect to double it here. I find beer is a unique currency to judge the cost of living in an area, which you can get at the pub here for about 6 to 7 dollars in a glass that is smaller than a pint. That will keep a guy sober, but it doesn't seem to slow the Australians down at all. I pay about 20 dollars a meal every time I eat out, and gas is nearing 6 dollars a gallon. Even being a cheap ass is expensive here! Anyway, we checked out a professional rugby game when Dave's local team played another team down in Sydney. Fans are pretty into rugby to put it lightly. After the game we went down to the Rocks which is where the famous oprah house that you see when you think of Sydney is and did the tourist thing for a while. On monday I rode the bus with Pav to the city and caught a train to pick up the campervan I rented for the rest of the trip. Driving it back to Daves place through Sydney was an adventure to say the least, but I only got turned around a couple of times. Let me tell you navigating city traffic alone when you don't really know where the hell your going in the first place and you're driving on the "wrong" side of the road can be a challenging experience. I left Dave's headed for the Blue Mtns which is a popular climbing destination and national park about 2 hours from Sydney. It pissed the entire drive and all of that night which is Australian for pouring down rain. It has rained every day I've been here except the first day. Not exactly the most tropical vacation I had in mind but there's not much you can do about the weather. Today the sun actually broke through and I went hiking / climbing partner searching through the Mtns. I came across a New Zealand couple that were more than happy to share a rope with me. They were from Christchurch and just took a short 2 week climbing vacation to get away from all the disaster that's happened from the quake. When all else fails, go climbing, I like their philosophy. It felt great to be finally climbing outside in nice weather on some really steep sandstone cliffs. My arms didn't feel quite the same as they were reaping the repercussions of having such good time in Sydney for a week, but they pushed on through. Climbing on sandstone can be a bit rough on the fingertips that have been protected in winter gloves for the last few months. I'm sure they will either callus or scab over, hopefully the first of the two haha. The blue mtns are an amazing array of an almost jungle like dense vegetation and giant sandstone cliffs soaring out from everywhere. My first experience wondering through the trails I was always on the lookout for snakes and spiders and every other thing that's been built up to kill you in Australia. Just as I got comfortable a 2 foot long iguana / lizard looking thing jumped up on the trail to greet me and scare the shit out of me. We had a stare down, which I eventually won when he got tired of me taking pictures of him. The Kiwis and I have plans to climb together for the next 2 days in the Blue mountains before I head back towards the coast to meet Dave, Pav, and several of their mates for a 4 day camping trip on the coast north of Sydney.

In a Nutshell

2011-03-12T19:43:00.000-08:00

Well It's been since our trip to Africa that I have written anything on the blog, so I will briefly catch up. Post Africa we ate up what was left of the summer in the great Pacific Northwest. We kayaked and rafted the Salmon River on the stretch near Riggins, ID for our annual fire dept. float trip. No lives or equipment were sacrificed to the river so all in all a successful trip. Shortly after we made a trip to Lake Koocanusa near Libby, MT for some general camping and climbing at Stone Hill. Early September came and Amanda started back at school so our adventures were mostly limited to extended weekends and vacations. We went camping with Amanda's family at a place called Gospel's Hump in central Idaho and stayed at a historic ranger house that is now rented out for overnight stays. In late September I had my first experience of bidding for and buying a vehicle on Ebay. What was I thinking haha! It may not seem like it, but sittingaround a computer watching the clock expire on a vehicle you're bidding on that you may actually win and have to pay for can be a rather nerve racking experience! I think was in a bit of shock when I saw that I won. My first thought, "oh shit, I won, now what"? Well after getting a small loan squared away and a few phone calls I was soon on a plane to southern California to pick up my new ride with my friend Dylan who came along just forfun. I bought a 2008 Ford Econoline Cargo Van from a private security company that had purchased the van new with plans of making it a surveillance vehicle. They never put the vehicle into service and it just sat on their property collecting dust, and was basically a write off for them to get rid of it, which I gladly took off their hands with less than 3,000 miles on it! We took our time driving back and stayed a night in California, visited friends and stayed the night in Ashland, OR, stayed another night in Portland with more friends, visited my grandparents in Sumner, WA, went to the Octoberfest in Leavenworth WA, and ended at a Jack JohnsonConcert at the Gorge. The van you may ask I will be slowly converting into a custom campervan to support the life of a cheap outdoor enthusiast. Jordan and I made a climbing trip to Vantage Washington and Chimney Rock to close the season before he took off for Japan and Southeast Asia.
A lot of October was spent adding hardwood floors to my house, painting bedrooms, turning a bedroom into an adventure room, and giving the house a basic facelift. Late November marked the beginning of our ski season which has since kept me busy for most of the winter. All in all I got almost 20 days in on the season and made it to Canada, Montana, and Jackson WY for ski trips. The rest of the time was spent ritually driving back and forth to Spokane to go climbing at the gym to try and stay in climbing shape. As of this blog I have officially hung up my skis for the winter and my bags are packed to catch a plane Monday morning. I am headed to the Land Down Under for a sunny month and a half of climbing, attempting to surf, diving, and chilling with my "mates" that I've met from other travels. I am flying solo on this trip as Amanda and Cliff will be holding the fort down and educating our youth. My friend Dave is picking me up from the airport and I'll stay a while with he and his wife in the Sydney area before picking up the camper van I rented and heading off to the outback! Well, technically I won't really be going to the "outback" per-say, but off to explore what Australia has to offer. More to come once I cross the pond....

Pictures Above: Chimney Rock ID, Vantage WA, Big Mountain MT, Jackson Hole WY

Pole Pole

2010-08-08T01:27:00.001-07:00

From Nungwi we ventured along the east coast of Zanzibar from north to south. Our first stop was at a village known as Matemwe. The east side of Zanzibar has redeemed itself a bit to me and was a step up from a more populated west coast. There seemed to be minimal trash, the beaches were clean, the villages were peaceful, and most of all the everyday touts we've been escaping had all but vanished. We settled in at Keys Bungalows, ran by a quirky string of Rastafarians, of which the owner was also the owner of the motorcycle rental business we had used previously, and he agreed to a fair discount for return customers. We both felt truly relaxed on the beach at Matemwe, as the only noise around was the crashing of waves against the reef from afar and the wind blowing in a refreshing breeze through the open screens of our fort like upstairs bedroom of the bungalow. When you think of postcard beaches, this is it. The sand was as white and fine as flour, the beach stretched on for miles backed by palm trees, the water was an unreal shade of turquoise, dhows (medieval looking wooden watercrafts propelled by a sail and used by the fisherman) rested where the water meets the sand, little kids played, colorfully dressed women picked seaweed, and best of all there were almost no other people around. For a few short days at Matemwe we turned off our "traveling" mode and went into vacation mode, as funny and odd as that may sound to some. It was a good time to lie in the beachside hammocks and read or just contemplate life. Of course those that know me well know that I'm not really the sit around the beach for days on end kind of guy without some sort of activity to be entertained with, so Amanda and I booked a diving and snorkeling trip to the nearby private island of Mnemba, known for its stunning reef and array of sea life. It's also known for the private and only resort on the island that costs a mere 1500 dollars a night per person to stay. I didn't think we could negotiate them down to the 30 dollars a night we were paying at Matemwe, so we didn't bother setting foot on the island and just stuck to the playing in the waters offshore. I did two reef dives with a relatively strong current directing the direction of the dives. Amanda snorkeled in two different sites, and the animal lover she is was pretty excited about frolicking with her "underwater friends". She was a bit jealous though when I told her about the sea turtle that swam by us on our first dive. For those that know Amanda, you know how she likes her turtles. Next to our bungalow was a fish market that every afternoon came to life when the local fisherman brought in their "catch of the day". Locals gathered to make deals on the fresh catch and children assisted the fisherman by literally beating the shit out of the octopus they caught in the sand with a big stick to help tenderize it. The catch of the day was also served up every night at our bungalow. We rented a Vespa again while staying at Matemwe so we could get some supplies from a less remote village, and also travel the rest of the east coast down in order to scout out our next stop and reserve some accommodation. We took about four hours driving down the coast, stopping to check out new villages and beaches. We decided the town of Paje would be it. The ride home was two hours of straight driving, which combined is a long time to ride on most motorcycles, let alone riding double on a Vespa, but we had a good time! We stopped on the way home to catch a local football (soccer, but wouldn't dare call it that here) game. We both found it funny that out of a crowd of about 200 spectators, Amanda was the only woman there. After our ride, we speculated that it would cost us roughly 100 dollars total to take a taxi from the remote village we were staying to our new found home on the southern end of the island, or spend the better part of a day transferring from dalla dalla (local mini-bus type vehicle) to dalla dalla which would make for an exceptionally long journey. In the end an idea was born. The town that our motorcycle rental was from is Stonetown, and was located more than halfway to our destination of Paje, but on the other side of the island. Taxis however are plentiful there and it would be much cheaper to negotiate a deal from Stonetown to Paje, rather than from Matemwe to Paje. We had the option to either leave the Vespa at the bungalow in Matemwe or return it in Stonetown. Herein lies the idea and the problem at the same time. Could we manage to transport myself, Amanda, and all our luggage (two backpacks, a messenger bag, a smaller daypack, a gallon of water and a can of pringles) on a Vespa? Seemed like an option worth exploring. So, we managed to strap my pack on the very back fender, Amanda's pack on her back resting atop of my strapped pack, her messenger bag slung over the top of her pack, my backpack became a chestpack, and the rest of the goods we managed to stuff into the glove box. A site worth seeing as later pictures will reveal. After we got off the sand roads that stretched from our bungalow out to the main roads, things surprisingly went pretty smoothly and we were even making some good time. A few laughs from the locals never hurt my feelings. All was well and sunny for the first hour of our journey, until one of the biggest tropical rainstorms that I have ever witnessed took place within minutes. At first a little sprinkle, yeah I can deal with that, then a steady rain, okay I won't melt, then seriously, an all out torrential downpour from the gods and we were soon driving in a foot of chocolate milk looking water. Prior to this point, had we no where to be and no rental to return on time, pulling over and waiting out the storm for an hour or two may have been an option, but we were already soaked to the bone and uncomfortable so we figured we may as well just push on through. We cruised the chocolate river at a speed you could probably run faster than for a good half an hour until we finally made it into Stone town, hoping not to hit a sunken pothole and dodging the wakes of buses doing Mach 3 through the flooded streets with little regard for the poor, stupid tourists that decided to ride in this mess the whole way. In the end, well we made it without ruining any of our luggage, accessories, or ourselves, and surprisingly, while we were soaked thoroughly, most of the clothes and gear inside our packs actually stayed relatively dry! And..............the ride from Stone town to Page only cost us 25 dollars, worth every second of being drenched to a couple frugal backpackers! Page was a nice village with an even nicer beach with a good vibe. It seemed to be a mellow place and a hotspot for kite boarding. While not a kite boarder myself, I still found it plenty entertaining watching some very skilled riders catch 30 feet of air and novices crash hardily into the shallow waters. During our stay in Paje we caught a live band, mingled with the locals, and went for a few runs on the beach that stretched 3 towns long. Paje marked the beginning of the end of our African adventure. We now sit back in Stonetown waiting to catch a ferry in the morning to Dar es Salam. In Dar we will spend 2 nights before another long bus ride up to Moshi, where we will stay another 2 nights before flying home over a period of 2 pieced together days. Pole Pole are we on our way of course, as the Africans frequently say, which means slowly slowly.

Beached

2010-07-27T03:13:00.000-07:00

Amanda and I have made our way north on the island of Zanzibar to a beach village called Nungwe. We found some accommodation up here that is about 150' from the beach, not quite waterfront real estate but close enough. We made a deal with the owner when we drove up earlier on our scooter, because our room we think / hope is an unfinished work in progress that we were happy to settle with for the price he offered. For 25 dollars a night you can't really ask for much more unless you don't want to be anywhere near the beach, where the starting price we've found for most places is about 40 to 50 dollars a night. Our little place called home here is quite possibly one of the most spartan places I've ever stayed, which is all you really need when the beach is just out your doorstep. Those of you at home that have often teased me about some of the places I've stayed at in the past would have a real hay day with this one. It is literally a concrete box that contains; a bed in one area, and cordoned off by half a cement wall is a bathroom with a toilette, sink, and cold water shower. The rest is emptiness that we manage to decorate with our bags and clothes and such. No shelves, no tables, no chairs, no decorations, no bathroom shelves, no wastebasket, a partially covered cement floor is what you get, but we are both content because we are simple, cheap, and don't really spend much time here but to sleep. Now that I've about beat that subject to death I'll move on. The rest of our time earlier spent in Stonetown we did a few excursions and mostly just got lost in the cobblestone maze. I went on a diving trip out near one of the smaller islands that Amanda was planning on snorkeling during, but came down with a bit of the bug. We did two dives, one along a coral reef, and the other an old broken up shipwreck. Visibility wasn't great because there was a slight current, but none the less diving in the turquoise water of the warm Indian Ocean is always amazing. The highlight of the sea life under water was probably a huge octopus we found that took off and changed colors to blend into the sand. There is a lot of hype about spice tours on the island, so figured we better see what it was all about. It actually ended up being more interesting than I had originally made up my mind it would be. Our guide escorted us around a giant plantation in the middle of the island and showed us how they grow and process cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, nutmeg (which he said and I quote is "known here to make people horney"), peppercorns, lemongrass, curry, cocoa, coffee, and a handful of other fruits and spices, all of which we got to either taste, smell, or at least look at. We were followed around by these boys that made us rings, ties, baskets, and an assortment of other items out woven banana leaves, for a small tip of course. After the walk through of the plantation we had a traditional lunch that included many of the spices we had just seen. That was followed by a trip to a "slave cave", which is a naturally formed cave found just off the beach with a small entrance nearly a quarter mile from the water. The cave was once used to hide slaves that were to be exported after the prohibition of slavery. It was an eerie feeling kind of like I felt when visiting a concentration camp from the holocaust once I was down inside the cave, which was the size of one story commercial pole barn, to think that hundreds of slaves were piled in there and often died there. There was a tunnel that went all the way out to the beach so they could ship them out to sea. Stonetown is chalk full of history from that era, most of which I have just learned while being here, may have dozed off a few times during Mr. Jones' world history class back in high school, but I doubt it was covered. We rented a scooter to kill most of a day to do some exploring of our own and also check on some accommodation up north where we sit today. It's kind of a sad picture, Zanzibar is really. There are a few stretches along the coast of absolutely naturally beautiful beaches that are dotted with a few hotels, guesthouses, and tourist shops, but outside these small false worlds lie a place full of poverty, lack of education, pollution, and full of garbage almost as if it were one giant landfill. I guess if you are able to close your eyes from the time you depart the ferry and be privately transferred to your little getaway out of town on the beach somewhere and never set foot further, then Zanzibar is a paradise, otherwise it's a sad truth that's difficult to look away from. All you have to do is walk from where the sand of the beach meets the dirt of the land to see where this drastic line that separates this perfect little beach world from the realities of life in this country. That being said, I guess I'm not here on any save the planet or it's people kind of mission myself, but if nothing else I think it's good to have an understanding of the realities of the places you visit rather than just exploit the couple of hotspots and be on the way. In a perfect world in my made up mind the hotels and businesses where everybody spends their money here would be required to give a percentage to ensure the beautiful natural resources here are protected and kept clean. I personally would rather spend money that pays the wages of the people that could potentially clean up the area in the form of a fee or what have you than to some guy who collects commission by harassing me to buy knock off goods or go on a snorkeling trip in which a resort collects all the money from. There are plenty of jobs that could be utilized, plenty of people unemployed, and plenty of people including myself spending money here. If only it could be directed properly. I enjoy leaving the beach and wondering through the villages where you find a different kind of people than either the tourists on the beach or the locals that work there in that environment that tend to leave a bad taste in your mouth when they do nothing but harass you and pretend to have an interest in what you are doing in order to determine how they may take some of your money, and schematically most of the time too. It's difficult to think that this is not the way all the people are here, but a trip down the road to mingle helps with that. They are people that wave at you, tell you hello, help you find your way, and are mostly just as curious about you as you are them. Their prices on goods match the economic situation of the place and not that of modern America like the beach resort prices reflect and I'm glad to support their shops. I know this isn't the only place in the world with this type of situation, but it's very profound to me here. Moving on. The women here can be seen gather seaweed when the tide is out every morning. I've had a couple of really good meals of seafood here including red snapper, dorado, tuna, octopus, and prawns, all served in many different ways. Other than the seafood, I wouldn't be planning a culinary vacation to Tanzania or Zanzibar any time soon. As the Lonely Planet says and I quote, "the lively atmosphere and Tanzanian hospitality compensate for what can otherwise be known as a bland diet." When I was in town the other day I came across a bottle of gold, also known as Tabasco, a staple from home that has been a delightful treat to remedy some bland meals and the never ending national standard breakfasts of an egg, white toast, banana, and an orange. Sometimes I feel like I'm in the movie Groundhog Day when I go to breakfast in the morning, and it doesn't matter where you eat, that's breakfast. Amanda and I have both had short bursts of some kind of bug that we don't think it's related to the food, who knows really, but it seems to have subsided. We went to a full moon party the other night, which didn't quite mimic that of Thailand's notably world famous full moon party in Koh Phangen, but it was a nice beach. It too was a bit of a scam, but I won't get into the details. We've also just enjoyed some good ol fashion beach life of lounging around in the sand, reading some books (yes mom you'd be so proud), and swimming in the turquoise waters. I'm not much of a swimmer, I mean I sink like lead rather, but I gave it hell yesterday to try and get some form of cardio in. I definitely miss my regular exercise routine and solid meals from home when I'm traveling. Every night there has been some form of entertainment on the beach whether it be acrobats or just sitting around a beach bonfire. Tomorrow we are off to a beach town called Matemwe on the north east side of the island, which is supposed to be pretty remote.

Zanzibar so far

2010-07-19T03:36:00.001-07:00

The next step in our journey brings us to Zanzibar, which included a 9 1/2 hour bus ride from Moshi to Dar es Salam, a quick overnighter in Dar es Salam, a couple hour ferry ride to the island, and into Stone Town at last. We had one casualty along the way when we (I) lost the lonely planet somewhere between the chaos of customs in Zanzibar and the exit gate, which to the traveler is kind of like a holy man losing his only bible. Luckily and randomly the hotel we are staying at happened to have a copy in their give and take book shelf and we were back in business. Zanzibar is historically known as an island primarily involved in the slave trade and the spice business. Today it is mostly tourism and beautiful beaches, but still produces and imports a fair share of spices such as vanilla, cinnamon, lemon grass, and many others. Stone town has big colonial buildings and narrow cobblestone streets that are like a labyrinth through the town, and some are so narrow I can nearly reach my hand from one side of the street to the other and are obviously too narrow to drive anything but a motorcycle on. Many look like alleys you wouldn't consider walking if it were in any other city but they happen to be main drags here. It is a Muslim community and things are rather conservative. Zanzibar has an overwhelming number of touts known as papasi in Swahili which translates to ticks, rightfully so. They are pesky people that swarm you everywhere you go that want you to stay at a motel, go on a spice tour, take a trip to an island, get a taxi, sell you some sunglasses, etc, and they have a tendency to become rather annoying. They get a small cut of the price you pay if they lead you to a certain hotel, restaurant, or shop, so needless to say there are a lot of "extra-friendly" very persistent people around. That aside, tonight we went to one of the gardens, like a small town park, that was full of food vendors of all sorts offering nearly every kind of grilled sea food, bread, sugarcane juice, and much more, all Ala' cart style. For those at home it's Pig out in the park if you will that happens every night, and reasonably priced at that! I tried a small piece of grilled octopus tonight, something not usually found on the traditional menu. If I were to describe the food here in Africa in one word, it would be carbs. It's tough to find a meal that isn't made up of primarily carbohydrates, not always the healthiest ones either and often fried. Being a health nut and all, it's difficult to maintain a consistent balanced diet while traveling due to inconveniences and availability of most food, but I'd be a hungry fellow if I tried to eat in the same fashion I do at home. I will say I am ready for something other than eggs and white bread for breaky, and I'm starting to crave some of Ma's home cookin. Fruits and vegetables are plentiful here however, it's just preparation of the vegetables that becomes difficult, as we're not backpacking with a traveling kitchen. Okay enough on that tangent.

Lions and elephants and rhinos oh my!

2010-07-19T03:27:00.000-07:00

You may have guessed by the title that we are now on the safari part of our journey. We chose to do a 3 day safari of Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire Natianal parks. Some travelers we've talked with have done five day safaris, and I've heard a lot of complaining about the length, so we settled on 3 due to that and money. We also contemplated the Serengeti, but it takes a full days drive just to get there and heard the animals are more sparse due to how vast the area is and the fact it is the dry season. It is roughly 200 dollars a day on the lower end with a reputable company to do a safari in any one of the parks not including tips and drinks. You can find some vendors in town offering trips for somewhat less and others that put on exceptionally high end 5 star safari and lodging for prices that are off the books, but common we're teachers and firefighters here and happy to sleep in a tent. I'm currently writing on the end of day two and I can say I'm quite satisfied with our choice. I'm not burned out on it yet, and both yesterday and today have been incredibly full of exotic wildlife viewing, however once we finish up tomorrow I will be glad not to be sitting in the back seat of a dusty landcruiser any more. Every safari vehicle here is a Toyota landcruiser, complete with two spare tires, a snorkel, and a pop top roof for viewing animals. Yesterday in Lake Manyara, we saw a variety of baboons, monkeys, flamingos, hippos, giraffes, elephants, and impalas. I convinced our guide Decko to let me drive the landcruiser today which he surprisingly didn't have a problem with once we left the hotel. Driving a manual safari vehicle on the left hand side on African roads is an experience all in itself. The second day of the Safari we visited the Ngorongor Crater, which is a giant landmass inside of a volcanic crater, plum full of wild life in which we saw several lions, buffalo, wilder beasts, warthogs, hyenas, zebras, hippos, rhinos, serval cats, dic dics, gazelles, impalas, ostriches, baboons, and many more . The Maasai people lived on this land and it is not considered a National park, but a conservation area rather, because they still live there to this day surviving in the same primitive ways they used to. They raise and eat cows and goats, carry spears, and live in harmony with all the wildlife in the park. Our guide Decko is full of all kinds of facts about the parks and all the animals and well educated in the animal behaviors. As a safari guide during the high season, he spends more time than I could ever handle sitting in the driver seat of his landcruiser, and sometimes stops for short cigarette breaks, which I can hardly blame the guy as I'd probably take up smoking just as an excuse to get out from time to time if I were in his shoes. He offered for me to drive several times after he first let me take the wheel, which was kind of like a vacation for him, and a mutual pleasure for me. While it is the busy tourist season, it is the dry season in the parks and many animals have migrated north to Kenya. That being said, I couldn't even imagine the amount of wildlife in these parks during the wet season, it is overwelming in the dry season as is. We spent the night in a jungle safari lodge with our own private bungalow, complete with an Irish bar of all things, and a great dish of food served for dinner. Our last day we spent in Lake Manyara Park which is known as elephant paradise, rightfully so. Included in the park is an area known as Little Serengeti, and is a similar landscape to its larger counterpart, so we felt we were getting the best of both worlds. A safari is exactly what it sounds like, and probably much more exciting to partake in than read a blog about with no pictures, so I will end it at that. After a good few days and 1,000 some odd pictures later we headed back to Moshi, dozing off most the way.

Karibu Sauna Tanzania

2010-07-19T03:18:00.000-07:00

Now that we have been in Africa for a couple of weeks, granted one of them was spent on a mountain, where the culture doesn't quite equate to that of mainstream Africa, but I feel we have gotten a small taste of what Tanzania is about. The people here are a colorful mix of dress, style, language, religion, and tradition. It is a mix of what I imagine modern day America would be like if our Native Americans walked around town wearing head dresses, moccasins, and buckskin pants all while carrying a bow and arrow and talking on a cell phone as they delivered you a pizza. People here at any given place and time are either dressed in traditional tribal dress, a fine mix of the American 80's era with some awesome neon attire and Chicago Bulls shirts, or traditional business wear of slacks and a nice shirt. The cities are busy and loud and it's almost a strain on the eyes to try and capture what is going on around you at any given time. Colorful markets fill most empty spaces with fruit and vegetables of just about any sort, and avocados the size of a grapefruit (I'm not kidding)! Religious prayers can be heard at all times of the day (and unfortunately night) being blazed out of loudspeakers in cars, temples, or from personal messengers on foot. Earplugs have become a staple in my travel bag and having them here has been a luxury. The cities are very smoggy as there is little emphasis on emission control and fires burn freely just about anywhere for either cooking or trash disposal. The roadways are busy and it is common to see a broken down bus or vehicle anywhere alongside the road. Dalla dallas are a site to see let alone travel in, as they are a minivan type vehicle that pack so many people in them that several passengers must have half their torso's hanging out the window due to lack of space. The only nuisances thus far have been the typical hagglers and touts that post up around common tourist areas and try to sell you some sort of useless goods, convince you to book with certain companies, offer to show you around, sell you drugs, etc, and every place has there share of them in some way or form. Other than that, people here have been most helpful and kind. Children are most fascinated with travelers and full of curiosity as they stare, wave, high five, chase you, and play games with you. They are either in school uniforms of different sorts, tending to livestock, or playing around the neighborhood. I am told that only about 50% of children here can afford to go to school. There is a lot of Indian influence in many of the places we've been and it's been a nice treat to the pallet to supplement the African cuisine. Tanzanians and I'm assuming Africans in general are huge fans of our president. Obama signs can be seen all over town along with Obama graffiti on walls, Obama shirts, Obama comments to us Americans, and even Obama underwear is often sold in the streets. It is a common site to see the Maasai people herding their livestock with spears in hand outside of town, which I am told are the equivalent of money to their people, and a man with a lot of cows will be more likely to marry because he can offer the father of his bride some of his cows / wealth. I am often impressed by the things that people here, primarily women, are able to carry on their heads. Abstract loads of all shapes,sizes, and weights rest comfortably atop their heads as they go about their day to day business as if it were a hair-do.

Kilimanjaro!!!!!

2010-07-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

Amanda and I just finished our successful 7 day climbing trip of Mt. Kilimanjaro. My early appologies for a long blog with no pictures, but coming soon I hope. For those unfamiliar with the mountain, it is located in Tanzania and borders Kenya on the north side. It is the tallest point in Africa at 19,341 feet, making it the second mountain climbed in my quest to climb the tallest mountain on every continent, the seven summits. The mountain is unique in many ways, one being that there are really no technical routes climbed due to either lack of ice from the melting glaciers or sever rock fall. That being said, climbing Kilimanjaro is essentially a high altitude trek, not requiring the use of crampons, ice axes, or ropes. Needless to say my bags were much lighter than they normally would be for a self supported climbing expedition, which I will explain further. In order to climb Kilimanjaro, it is required by the park service that you use a local registered guide and their support crew. Even guide services from the United States or other countries that climb here must be in company with a local outfitter with registered guides. I have mixed feelings about this, because while it stimulates the local economy, which I am all in favor of supporting, it also causes a lot additional impact on the mountain and its environment. For example, in order for just the two of us to climb, it took a crew of 10 people made up of 3 porters per person, 1 guide, 1 assistant guide, 1 waiter/porter, and 1 cook. This number increases exponentially the more people that climb. Over all it makes for very crowded trails, additional trash, noisy camps, and extra human waste. It also takes away from the accomplishment of a self supported expedition, in which you carry your own gear, cook your own food, set your own pace, choose and set up your camp, route find, etc… On that same token, there is a lot less to think about and do other than hike with your day pack and enjoy the scenery, which isn’t such a bad thing since you have paid a respectable price for the services you are receiving.
Day 1: We left our hotel and headed for the Machame Gate, the starting point of our climb which is apx 45 minutes from Moshi. We had to stop at a market to get some fresh veggies and supplies and what not before arriving at the gate. The Machame Gate is somewhat of a chaotic place, as there are hundreds of porters waiting outside the gate to be chosen by guides for their services, and aren’t allowed inside the park until granted permission by a guide. We even witnessed somewhat of a lashing as several porters tried rushing through the gate and were abruptly stopped by park service employees with large sticks to quickly put a stop on things. We had to register with the park service at the gate, and periodically at each camp in order to keep some accountability of climbers and to assure you are not staying over the amount of permitted days you have paid for, which leads to steep fines. Our head guide, David, pronounced Da-veed in the local tongue, led the first stretch of trail which climbs 4,000 ft and begins in dense rain forest and runs into our first camp in an alpine forest. David is an exceptionally nice guy, that is very loud spoken, and has a profile that somewhat resembles that of a stereo typical first baseman. A bit surprising for that of a mountain guide, and his pace was something less to be desired by both Amanda and I at such a low elevation, as it felt like we were moving about as fast as pitch running down a tree. I mean really, it was such a pace that you have to actually concentrate to walk that slowly and made for a much longer day than what was expected. The trail was very well defined and something like following a road with jersey barriers. We were constantly moving aside to let porters pass as they make their way up to the first camp with impressive size loads of gear mostly carried on their heads, often times without using a hand to steady it. It was pretty cool walking through the rain forest listening to the sounds of hundreds of birds, bugs, and who knows what other creatures were out in such a dense canopy of trees and foliage. Amanda had high hopes of seeing a monkey but we had no such luck. The rain forest turns into alpine forest at about 9,000 ft, and it’s almost as if somebody drew a line and you walk out of the rain forest and into this new land of small alpine trees and shrubs. Kilimanjaro has 4 very distinct regions that you cross from the trailhead to the summit, being rainforest, alpine forest, alpine desert, and a world of rock and glaciers near the summit. When we got to our first camp our tent was already set up and we had our own little mess tent complete with chairs, a table, hot tea, popcorn, and cookies awaiting us. Seriously? Seems a little plush for mountain camp, but it nothing was left to do but enjoy it. The food served was incredibly diverse the whole time we were on the mountain and always included a soup of some sort, fresh vegetables and several other dishes of hearty food. I don’t think we once were able to finish an entire meal between the two of us as portion sizes were more than healthy. My hat goes off to our cook who prepared top notch food for the environment given and what he had to work with over a seven day period on a mountain.
Day 2: We were awoken by our waiter who had bowls of hot water for washing in the morning. Climbed from Mechame Camp to Shira Camp located on a large plateau at 12,500’. Camp didn’t have much wind shelter and was exceptionally dusty, coating almost everything we had with a nice layer of powder by the morning. Camp was rather condensed with hundreds of support staff of climbers and I often wondered if I was attending a world cup soccer game or actually in a camp on a mountain. Porters and guides shouted across camp at all hours of the day/night, radios are playing at 5:30 in the morning, and if you lay in your tent it feels like you are in the middle of a bees nest with all the chatter. I’m trying to keep an open mind and I’m not a big complainer, but it became very disturbing when this was the norm for every camp thereafter. Doesn’t make much for a serene mountain environment, or let alone help in getting much needed rest. It is already difficult to sleep at higher altitudes. Probably my least favorite impact the excessive amount of people on the mountain required to support these expeditions causes.
Day 3: Climbed up to a landmark known as Lava Tower at 15,190’ and dropped down to Barranco Camp at 13,000’, keeping the climb high sleep low theory in practice. We both noticed a little sunburn in a few spots from the day before. The sun here being so close to the equator and at high altitude is amazingly bright and powerful, and any uncovered area not caked in heavy sunscreen is quick to fry. I felt a bit like an Arabian all covered up even when it was hot, but had little choice. We had a hot lunch set up for us halfway alongside the trail. Almost felt a little awkward as we sat there in our chairs stuffing our faces with a four course meal as other climbers passed us by. On the way to Barranco Camp we pass several groups of trees, nearly the only form of life in this alpine dessert that resembles something that of what you would see on the Flinstones. Their palms close up into a big ball at night to keep the tree and the other creatures that live within it warm. Barranco Camp is a nice camp and at the base of the Barranco Wall, a 700’ wall that must be scrambled up on the way to the next camp.
Day 4: Climbed to Karanga Camp at 13,100’. This was probably the most enjoyable hiking day I’ve had yet on the mountain, as it involved some class 3 scrambling up the Barranco Wall, a nice change of pace. It is impressive to watch the porters take this same route with the loads on their heads and backs. At Karanga Camp there are several large boulders in camp that make for some nice high altitude bouldering to break up the monotony of hiking with a beautiful backdrop of Kilimanjaro. We went for a short acclimatization hike that evening with our waiter Girfred (sp?) to gain 800’ that turned to be quite eventful. Now those of you sensitive viewers may want to skip then next few lines. On our way back down we spotted a group of 3 girls, Australians we believe, that we passed on the way up as they were headed off the beaten path towards the crest of a canyon. Amanda’s sharp eye noticed they were all standing naked on a big rock, or at least bra-less and pant-less from what we could see at such a distance, as they posed for a self timed picture that I imagine would look something like a Victoria’s Secret Angel add with the clouds in the background haha. Who says nothing exciting ever happens up here. They posed for several pictures and were still up there when we got back to camp. Girfred noticed the action and had a bit of a bashful chuckle himself as he pretended to not pay too much attention. When he broke the news to the rest of the gang back at camp however, he stirred up quite the commotion, and we learned another Swahili word, “mazawa” for boobs. Quickly learning the fundamentals of the language.
Day 5: A short day of climbing to our final high camp, Barafu camp, at 15,331’. Nothing too pleasant about this high camp, as it’s rested in lots of big boulders on a steeper slope and full of people with altitude sickness from either just attempting to climb to the summit or climbing too quickly to this point. Amanda and I have both been acclimating well and only shown minimal symptoms of altitude sickness at this point with a mild headache at camp 3 quickly relieved by ibuprofen. We were off to bed by about 7 with the assistance of a few benadryls, with an 1130 pm wake up time planned to begin our summit attempt.
Day 6: Ate some cookies and hot chocolate before we headed out at 1240 for the summit. We were as rested as you could be for an uncomfortable camp and a few hours of sleep in a windy night. The wind was gusty that am, but the temps were plenty tolerable, especially when the wind died down. Summit day is a +4,000’ day to an altitude much higher than that of which we’ve acclimated to. Climbing went rather smoothly as we passed the majority of people climbing keeping a solid steady pace. There were a few times when we were unsheltered and the wind was rather brutal, dropping the temps substantially, which made for some cold fingers and toes, but nothing worth spoiling our party. We made it to the summit at 6am, with bitter cold temps at the top, and it was just breaking daylight. We opted to take our pictures by the summit sign with the flash rather than hanging out in the cold to wait for a better picture with more light. Minutes are a long time when you are exposed in cold winds. It was just warm enough to take off a glove for a picture, but needed to be quickly put back on. I felt a little shitty, pardon the language, a few hundred feet before the summit from the altitude, but it seemed to relieve itself at the top. Amanda climbed like a champ and went strong the whole way up! After a few quick poses we started descending. It felt good to get my second summit completed and to see Amanda accomplish a task she’s been training for and nervous about for several months. It became light as we passed some of the amazing glaciers that are held at the top of the crater. The glaciers here are believed to be gone by 2020, making it a very unique and beautiful sight to see. Amanda felt sick and was stricken with a little nausea about half way down, but was a trooper and went steady all the way to camp where her symptoms relieved themselves quickly with some rest and fluids. We passed a few climbers on the way down that were quite sick, stumbling all over being assisted down by porters or laying on the ground throwing up. While it is a relatively easy climb, there is not a great success rate on the mountain because of the type of climbers that attempt the non-technical peak, and the dynamics of the climb gaining such an altitude in such a short climb time, most being arranged in 6-7 days, and 4,000’ of them being the last day. After some lunch and a nap we felt like champs and descended the Mweka route another 5,000’ to Mweka camp, making a 9,000’ descent on the day. Most all of the climbs are descended via the Mweka route, which makes it nice not descending the same route you climbed. Our final camp was soggy and near the beginning of the rain forest. It was good to be nearly finished after such a long day. Our guide David treated and surprised us that night with a bottle of South African Red Wine. Neither Amanda nor I are huge wine drinkers, but it was a nice treat to enjoy with our last dinner on the mountain.
Day 7: We descended down an exceptionally muddy trail to the Mweka gate at 5,380’ to wrap up our successful climb. We were greeted by several different groups kids along the way that walk part way up the route to ask climbers for “chocolaties” or carabiners, not sure exactly what they want the carabiners for? The park service gives you a certificate if you summited upon checking out. We were happy to be back in civilization and headed to the Springlands Hotel for a long needed shower and a much deserved cold Kilimanjaro Beer!
We are now in Moshi as we spent our last night at the Springlands, and found a sweet motel for 30 dollars a night with a rooftop bar overlooking the city and Kilimanjaro. We are taking two days off to check out Moshi then we are off to do a 3 day safari. Stay tuned.

Moshi

2010-07-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

We arrived yesterday afternoon in Moshi. Internet at our computer is slow and inconsistent, but I thought I'd get a quick blog out before we take off for the mountain. Moshi, which means smokey in Swahili lives up to its name. It is a town densely populated small town at the base of Kilimanjaro. Today we toured the city by foot to become familiar with some of the culture, but other than that we have mostly been busy trying to catch up on lost sleep from the flight, and adjusting to the time change. We went to several local markets and experienced the local cuisine with a cooked banana dish that was somewhat like potatoes. We depart tomorrow a.m. to begin our climb of Kilimanjaro via the Machame route. The climb will take 7 days so I won't be blogging for a while. We had a briefing tonight in which we met our guides and laid out some logistics of the climb. As far as Africa itself, it is a very lively place, with a very different culture, and is almost difficult to describe unless you are here living it. Intense I guess would be a good word for someone not so used to the culture yet. As with everywhere else I've traveled and experienced culture shock, I'm sure a little time immersed in the culture will cure all. I will hopefully have more time and pictures when we return.

Africa

2010-06-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

Jambo! That's hello in Swahili, the local language spoken in our (Amanda and I) next destination, Tanzania. Amanda and I begin our journey to East Africa today after a very long succession of flights from Spokane, to Salt Lake, to overnight in Washington DC, to Rome, to Ethiopia, to Kenya, to Tanzania at last. I am hoping to do some blogging on the trip but it will definitely depend on internet accessibility. Our first stop will be in Moshi where we will begin our ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the world's tallest freestanding mountain, the tallest mountain on the continent of Africa, and hopefully the second of my seven summits quest. We are planning a safari after the climb and the rest of the trip we will be going wherever the wind carries us, backpacks on back. With nearly two days worth of flying in my future, my goal is to try and catch up on my blog from where I left off last summer and learn how to use my new camera. After pulling an all-nighter last night to pack and try and get an early start on the time change, I am officially off to the airport and will keep everybody posted.

Mountains & Microwbrews III

2009-07-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

So summer is here and it's been some time since I've been blogging because, well I should have better things to do in the summer, but here is a catch up of my travels so far. Picture postings will probably be delayed. After working a lot of trades in the late spring / early summer I have stockpiled enough to have a pretty entertaining summer. My truck basically will serve as a mobile recreation unit / hotel for my summer, equipped to carry 2 kayaks, two bikes, multiple rubbermaid tubs, and a canopy cover with a memory foam mattress. My first trip started off with a trip to the Bend, OR area, particularly Smith Rock State Park, a renowned rock climbing area. It was a last minute decision to go there, as I was originally planning on going to Banff, but due to bad weather forecasts decided to head south. None the less, Smith Rock has been on my list of places to go for quite some time now. I am traveling with Amanda, who will be my partner in crime for many of the trips this summer. We spent our first night in the town of Bend, a town strikingly similar to Coeur d' Alene. The rest of the time we spent camping and climbing at the State Park. It was pretty hot for climbing during mid day, but we had great weather the whole time. We also did some mountain biking. We of course sampled some of Oregon's finest and famous microwbrews, including a tour of the Deshutes Brewery.

Our next notable trip was a camping / climbing trip to Koocanusa Reservoir in Montana, a favorite childhood camping spot. The name may sound a little funny, as it was named after a combinatin of the Kootenai Indians, Canada, and USA, taking the first three letters of each to form the name. We went headed over with some friends from Coeur d' Alene, Dylan and Megan, and met up with Marcus and Lav at the campsite a day later. Being midweek, we basically had the entire camp we chose to stay at to ourselves. Dylan and Lav both brought their dogs that had a great time swimming in the lake and running around enjoying their freedom. Lav's dog Quinn even sprained his tail from swimming so much. We kayaked over to a giant sandy beach one of the evenings after rock climbing all day. We had a fire right on the beach. Marcus could only join us for an evening due to his 6-12 work schedule, but was a trooper and camped all night with us and headed off for work the next day. We had a couple days of great rock climbing on the cliffs that overlook the lake. I think I may have even made Lav poop in his pants a little bit, as one of the climbs feels like you are going to swing right into the lake resting 500 feet below the cliff when you let go. Amanda and Megan are both in summer school and had to run into the nearest town for a day to find some Wi-fi in order to post some information about their classes. Apparently life goes on outside of traveling and camping??? On our second to last day, a huge windstorm came through that blew sand just about everywhere you could imagine, and we had to chase a few camping items around the camp as well. All in all, weather was good and we all had a great time.

We chose to spend the 4th of July weekend hanging around Coeur d' Alene. We had a bbq at some friends house and watched the fireworks downtown on a buddy's boat. A nice relaxing four days off, as pretty much the rest of my summer while I'm not working will be spent on the go somewhere.

This brings me to my most recent trip, which I am currently on, as I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Canon Beach, Oregon. This annual trip I have named "Mountains and Microwbrews", as it's my third year in a row coming to the central cascades to climb mountains and sample microwbrews, among many other random things each year with no specific itinerary. We kicked it off by driving all the way to the base of Mt. Adams on our first night, after a brief burrito stop in Hood River, and a stop in Trout lake to obtain some climbing permits. We didn't get to the camp until 11pm that night and stayed the night in the truck. This is the first time Amanda has ever been on a climbing trip of the sort, and was full of excitement / anxiety. With weather looking good as forecasted, we headed up the next day to a high camp on the Crescent Glacier called The Lunch Counter. This part of the trip is a long, not overly exciting, slog up to the high camp with a pack loaded full of gear. Although becoming a bit tired and frustrated by the end of the day, Amanda made it up to our high camp like a champ. We did of course stop for many snack breaks along the way. At high camp the weather was good and we watched an awesome sunset while we prepared some dinner and gathered water for the next day. We set our tent up behind a protected rock shelter that was already built by previous climbers. After prepping the packs for the next days summit push we were off to sleep with the help of a few Benedryls to assure a good nights rest in a noisy wind blown tent. When morning came for us at 3:30 Am, we awoke to a perfectly clear night with no wind. We left camp about 4:30 after some breakfast and donning some crampons. The climb up the south spur route went really well, which is the standard route up the mountain. We kept a good pace and had great weather the whole time. Amanda was feeling top notch like the energizer bunny and I nearly had to chase her up the final stretch to the summit. With a clear view from the summit we had great shots of all the surrounding cascade volcanoes. We rested for a while on the roof of what's left of an old shack at the summit and then descended back to our base camp. The snow had softened up enough on the descent to allow for a lot of glissading (which for those unfamiliar with is sitting on your butt and sliding down the glacier in chutes that have already been slid down before by previous climbers, or creating your own route). Amanda got quite the kick out of this, as it's kind of like being on 2,000' long amusement park slide, and makes descending much quicker and more enjoyable than walking. After we packed up camp we descended all the way to the truck that same day. This makes for a really long day, which kind of made Amanda forget about all the prior fun she'd had and was basically ready to just kill me by the time we reached the truck. I'll leave some of the quotes out for those sensitive viewers out there, but you could imagine. None the less we were both happy to be back at the truck and she was quite proud of the accomplishment of summiting a 12,276 foot volcano. Fish and chips and an ice cold beer had never tasted so good as when we got into Hood River to relax for the night. We stayed at a local RV park for the night and messed around in Hood River watching wind surfers and kite boarders and resting our legs then next day. We were off to the backside of Mt. Hood the next day. We camped in the Timberline Lodge parking lot and made dinner on the back of the truck. Amanda was going to sit this one out and was happy to be in a warm sleeping bag when 3:00 rolled around and I had to get up to climb. I was planning on doing a ski descent of hood. I'd sworn to myself last year, while descending Mt. Hood down the Timberline ski resort watching skiers pass me doing 35 miles per hour as I wobbled down the run with crampons, that I would never climb the south side of Hood again without bringing skis. While packing skis and boots slowed me down a bit and added a lot of weight to a fast and light trip, it was well worth it. I left at 3:30 Am with clear skies and unusually warm weather, literally T-shirt and shorts weather. After an hour an a half of climbing I had reached the permanent snow line, and ditched the skis about 1,000 feet from the summit. This made the last stretch of the climb up the hogsback and the final pitch to the summit much faster. Once you reach top of the mountain you have to traverse a very narrow ledge with a lot of exposure on both sides in order to reach the true summit. I reached the summit at 7:30 (see picture) and spent a little time up there visiting with some climbers from Seattle. When I returned to where my skis were stached, the glacier was still icy on top and made for a slow ski decent to the top of the ski lift, but was much better than walking. Once I was on the groomed runs, it took me five minutes to ski down to the truck from the top of the lifts, what took me an hour and a half to walk up earlier this morning. It was a nice morale booster and I was feeling great! I got back to the truck at 9:30, making it an exact 6 hour round trip. We ate some bfast burritos at a tiny ski lodge at the bottom of the ski hill and went to hood river to meet my parents, who were coming over to the area for the weekend. We camped that night near the base of Hood, as my dad was looking for anywhere to get out of the blistering heat of Hood River. My mom was excited to try out a tent that she'd never used before. We made burgers and had a fire and a nice evening by the river. The next day we had booked a rafting trip down the White Salmon River with my parents. My mom was quite nervous about the whole event, as while she's probably read about it, has never been on such an adventure. I think my dad was just as nervous about having to wear a wetsuit, or as he refers to as a "one of those skin diving things". I think they both felt a little out of their element, but Amanda and I were much looking forward to the trip. After a big breakfast and much talk about how this may be my moms last meal just to help get rid of any pre-float butterflies, we were gearing up at the Wet Plantet headquarters who we'd booked with. We were floating in 6 man rafts plus a guide. We were joined by a mother / daughter party from Wisconsin. The river comes directly from some Mt. Adams Glacier run-off, so needless to say it's beautiful, milky, ice cold water. The stretch we were running was all class III to IV rapids, including a 12 foot (optional) waterfall drop of Husum Falls to top it off. Once we got the rafts in and had floated through our first few rapids, everyone was having a great time and all the nervous butterflies were gone. We rafted a beautiful stretch of river. When we got to Husum Falls, even my mom, who was timid to even set foot in the raft and was shaking so nervously she could hardly put her wetsuit on before the trip, was feeling stoked about running the falls. Our two guests opted to walk around the falls, which left my parents and Amanda to make the drop. We had a very comforting guide who went over a set of very clear instructions for dropping the falls. We set a perfect line and our drop went perfect! We were all pretty excited. So proud of ya ma! After the Falls was another set of rapids that is called Rodeo, noted for people sitting on the front of the raft trying to hang on while one hand is in the air as if to be riding a bull. My mom jumped up and was the first to volunteer to sit up on the bow to ride the bull. Who is this lady haha! We all had a great time rafting and had dinner at a brewery back in Hood River to celebrate. We camped in the same spot that night, but were all pretty tired, which made for a pretty uneventful night. Yesterday, after watching some skateboard championship racing down the streets of Hood River, and saying farewell to the folks, Amanda and I headed off towards Mt. St. Helens with a 2 o' clock Bungee Jumping trip planned. I had booked this when Amanda had made mention she's always wanted to bungee, and this was the closest place I found in the pacific northwest. She didn't want to talk about it all week until the day came, and I think she was ready to jump out of the truck at anytime on the way there. She went from exctited, to laughing, to nearly in tears before we even made it to the bridge. I'm sure it helped that I told her sometimes people lose all bodily functions on the way down : ) Nervous as could be, the time went quickly and before you know it she was standing on the platform, with no turning back, and was leaping into space. I was taking pictures so didn't watch most of the jump, but I knew she had gone because I heard a bloody murdurous scream for about 30 seconds. I'm pretty sure she was still screaming when the entire bungee had stopped bouncing at the bottom of the bridge. She came up quite proud and excited though! I jumped after Amanda, but being my second time going, didn't have quite the nervousness and had a really enjoyable jump. The high from the jump seemed to stick with Amanda the rest of the day, and she notified me every time we saw a bridge, .........or didn't see a bridge, that "I bungee jumped today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". It was awesome. We worked our way over to Canon Beach for the night on the coast. Today we are just relaxing and checking out the town with no schedule or itinerary in mind. More to come on Mtn's and Micros, stay tuned.

Baja Bliss

2009-04-05T23:29:00.000-07:00

Back to life in Baja. A few days ago my cousin Marty rallied up all of us boys to help him dig out and push back an old buggy that he and his friend Danny had scrounged from one of the neighbors. It's an older buggy that's gonna require a lot of TLC to come back to life, but will undoubtedly be back on the streets when Marty and Danny get finished with it. It was pretty hard to turn down for Marty, who's hobby is fixing up both his own and other people's buggys in town. The seats were pretty well rotted out and the motor hasn't run for 2 years. He looked at it and laughs and says "oh man this thing is f*&%#@g UGLY", but has many plans to give it some appeal. I attached one photo of the buggy, but will have to include the rest of the photos for the blog when I get home, because this photo was the last picture my camera of 5 years took before it quit working. There's been nothing but constant eating going on around here, and we're all eating like kings. It seem like most of the day is spent trying to get over being stuffed from one meal so we can eat another one. We've had intentions of going into town for some wild Los Barriles nightlife, well okay it's really not that wild, but haven't made it for 3 nights in a row we've been so full and unmotivated after dinner. My cousin Doreen, who we call Reeny, was generous enough to loan us her SUV so we had some wheels to get around on. We checked out a little more of Los Barriles now that we were mobile. We spent a little bit of time at the Palmas resort, and went to a local spot called Verdugos to watch the fishing boats come in for the day and see what's been caught. Before the big fish fry Reeny invited us all up to her new casa for Margaritas. Reeny's got a beautiful new house on a nice property just on the other side of the oroyal from Marty's place. We prepared ourselves for the feast with some of Reeny's home made salsa and guacomole, and margaritas of course. The fish fry was everything we expected and more. We had a crowd of about 15 people or more all chowing down on the fish served up in a breaded, veracruz, or garlic style including rice, beans, tortillas, and a salad. None of us could move afterwards. Jordan and Mark did manage to make it into town for some Karaoke that night, but were the only ones. The next morning, Isabel, one of the locals and friend of the family came over to make us some authentic mexican huevos rancheros. Again, another meal that was absolutely to die for and we all stuffed ourselves silly. We went on a long buggy ride that day up to Pescadero, an oceanfront resort located about 20 miles up the coast from Los Barriles. We took 3 buggies, all packed with 3 to 4 people. We made stops at all the scenic points to wet our whistles with Pacifico from all the dust you digest on a typical Baja road. The ride took up the better half of a day, and when we got done, Reeny invited us all over for some delicious chicken pablano pasta. We were all full again and spent the rest of the night telling stories around the campfire outside her house. Duey, my cousin Greg, Marty, and Sharon all joined us. Greg rode his motorcycle down here from the states and is taking off tomorrow for the return trip, but will be stopping for a week or two of camping along the way.

Today was a pretty windy day in Baja, which is actually what it's somewhat known for, and the windsurfers and kite boarders that camp here were all flocking to the Sea of Cortez to catch some wind and waves. We hit the beach to watch, as both of the sports are relatively expensive to try out, and difficult to master in a few hours. It was a pretty mellow day for the crew in Baja. We went into town for dinner at a little place that has some good shrimp dishes. Jordan ordered 3 different entres for himself, and the waitress had to clarify with him just to be sure she was understanding his English. The town gets pretty quiet on Sundays and not much of anything was going on anywhere. Marty had a campfire and hot dog roast and invited a few of their freinds over for dinner. We joined them for S'mores. Tomorrow we will make our way to the airport in San Hose del Cabo to fly out tomorrow evening. Reeny and Marty have to run into Cabo to make a Costco run so we're gonna hitch a ride from them. That about wraps up a short but fun trip in the Baja California Sur. It's a place where everybody knows your name, everybody is friendly, and everybody makes you feel welcome. Hospitality is top notch and I'm sure they will be seeing some of our faces again in BCS. Thank you to all the family and friends down here that make this such a great place to stay, and as always, stay tuned for more adventures to come.

"you boys like Mexico? woooooo!"

2009-04-03T00:53:00.000-07:00

The place...Baja California Sur of Mexico. The crowd.....myself, both my brothers Marcus and Jordan, and a friend of the family named Mark. We had actually been planning this trip for quite some time now, as the trip is Marcus and I's gift to Jordan for his high school graduation. We figured it's better than a card with some money it or something of the sort, and is a great way to put the travel bug in him and introduce him to some new culture. I flew down on friday with Jordan and Mark, and Marcus caught up with us last monday in Cabo San Lucas. I got to play dad for the weekend, or at least that's what it feels like when your a 27 year old chasing around two 18 year olds on their first trip to Mexico haha, with no pun intended. I was after all instructed by my mom to insure that all her children not only make it back home, but in one piece as well. It's actually been a pretty easy task, and if this is what you call babysitting then you can sign me up for it anyday. Our first day in Cabo, after clearing customs and the other red tape at the airport we caught a shuttle bus into town and got checked into the Hotel Mar de Cortez, a place I've stayed at every time I've been down. We went down to the bay our first night in town and found a nice place that makes sushi and fish tacos, and watched the rather disapointing Gonzaga vs UNC basketball game. Jordan learned the hard way that in Mexico you are supposed to negotiate for the price of, well almost everything, and got taken when he gladly paid 25 dollars to a vender for a straw cowboy hat that he probably could have gotten for less than 10. The city of Cabo was like a ghost town compared to its normal rowdy self. Ok, so maybe not a ghost town, but a noticable difference from many of the other times I have been down here. I would guess primarily due to the economic crunch and the recent troubles near the border that tends keep some people away.

Our second day in Cabo we went over to a beach know as The Office, which is basically a college spring break hangout. Jordan provided us with some entertainment when he got involved in a push up contest up on the main stage to show off the guns, but it turns out there were a few more people there with a few bigger guns. Particularly, the guy that won it, an ex Mexican Special Forces agent, that pulled out 50 more push ups after the last guy went down. That evening we checked out Cabo Wabo, a live music club that is owned by Sami Hagar.

The next day we decided to catch a water taxi out to Lover's Beach, which is where the famous rock arches are that everybody sees on postcards and advertisements. The beach is accessed primarly by water only, which makes it a little more secluded and relaxing than many of the other beaches around town. It's also got some incredible rock formations that I was drueling over, and really can't believe its not more of a developed area for rock climbing. I guess not everybody goes to the beach with rock climbing in mind huh? I brought out my climbing shoes and chalk, and did some very nice class 3 to 4 scrambling and some bouldering to kill most of a day while the boys got washed around in the surf.

Marcus came into town on Monday and we all went out and hit the best of Cabo's nightlife. Plenty of entertainment was to be had at the Giglin Marlin, a place that is famous for tying you up by your feet and hoisting you upside down like a fish as they give you a shot of tequilla and spin you around.

We rented a car on Tuesday and drove up the pacific coast to a beach I read about called Cerritos. It's supposed to be locals / hippie beach known for its good surfing and fish tacos. Once we got there we found out there had been some development since the information I read was posted, and it wasn't exactly a hippie hangout, as you will see by the picture of Jordan getting a massage on the beach, but it was still had a nice vibe and was nothing like cabo. Marcus and Jordan both rented surf boards and had their first go round at surfing. It proved to be quite challenging for both of them. We drove up to a little town called Todos Santos for dinner after spending most the day at Cerritos.

After some souvenier shopping and breakfast the next day we caught the bus up to Los Barriles from Cabo to stay with the family. The bus ride was kind of slow going because they had a lot of road construction going on and we were basically off-roading in a tour bus. Once we got into Los Barriles we hitched a ride out to my cousins' casa where we met up with most of the family and friends from down here. There has been a lot of developement since my last trip down here in 05' and there is even a little hotel accross from Marty and Sharon's place for those that are familiar with the area. We bbq'd some burgers and relaxed after the trip. We later went down to a place in town called Buzzards and played some pool with the locals.

My cousin Greg invited Jordan to go deep sea fishing with him as a graduation gift. At first I don't think he was too keen on the idea of waking up at 5 in the morning while on vacation to go fishing, but there were no regrets when the boat they went on came back in early because they had caught so many fish (1 big marlin and 9 dorados total). Jordan caught 3 of the dorados and got to test his arm strenght reeling em in. Tomorrow we are taking the fish to a place in town that cooks it up 3 different ways and serves it to you for 6 bucks a head. It's gonna be a feast! While Jordan was out catching tomorrow night's dinner, the rest of us went on a buggy ride through the baron baja land and down the beach to a little place that serves some of the best fish/shrimp/scallop tacos I've ever eaten. When we got back we all helped Sharon prepare some food for the enchillada dinner she was whipping up. To this day I've still never tasted a better enchillada, and I'm lucky enough that she makes them for me every time I come down. We had good intentions of going into town for some Karaoke tonight, which is the highlight of the nightlife in Los Barriles, but we were all so stuffed after dinner that we could hardly move. That's about all from Baja land so far....stay tuned.

Chao South America

2009-02-21T07:47:00.000-08:00

The last few days I spent in the Vina del Mar area were somewhat uneventful, as my trip was winding down, and I was mentally preparing for the journey home. I visited the neighboring town of Valparaiso, which was quite the contrast to the somewhat modern Vina del Mar. Valparaiso is an old port town with colorful old Spanish buildings scattered throughout the city and hillsides. It seemed to be a little rough around the edges, but had a lot of character. I found a little bar there that offered 161 beers from around the world that drew my attention. I didn't have time to try all 161 of them sadly, but settled for a German beer on tap and a pizza. I was given a tour of the really old downtown fire station in Valparaiso by one of their firefighters that didn't speak any English. Not sure I understood everything that was explained to me, but I got the gist of it. Later that day there was a bunch of commotion along the road to the beach as some lady was screaming from the top of her lungs while running down the street chasing a man. Turned out he had snatched her purse back by the beach and was on the sprint with her in chase, but not exactly closing in. A few people caught on to what was going on and started in on the chase. He was headed towards a really busy street with a lot of pedestrian traffic as well, so although I'm not exactly sure how the chase turned out (although curious), I would imagine he'd end up being caught. My last day in Vina I just relaxed and enjoyed my time being in the sunshine and warm weather. Now I'm not much of a complainer, but I can say by the time my time was up in Chile, I was definitely tired of a few things: 1.) Car alarms.....everybody has them and they were always going off. 2.) Horns honking....as in impatient drivers stuck in any kind of traffic, not giving a warning honk, but laying on the horn in anger. 3.) Beggars....they were all over the place, and didn't even have anything creative to show. I mean common people, at least give me some kind of comical sign as to why you are so unfortunate, or show me a card trick, sell me a pack of chicklets, or give me some kind of reason that I should just hand over my money to you. 4.) Second hand smoke....everybody here smokes, which I don't have a problem with, but there was no getting away from it. You go to the beach, you're surrounded in smoke, a restaurant, internet cafes, hotels, sidewalks, you name it, it's smokey.

When I left Chile, I had to go back to Mendoza to get my luggage from my climbing expedition. It seemed almost like a waste because I had to take a bus from Chile to Mendoza, then get right back on a plane and fly from Mendoza back to Chile to go home. I took the night bus from Vina to Mendoza, which ended up taking about 8 1/2 hours, putting me in Mendoza at 6 am. Customs went much quicker leaving Chile than coming in. Just like that I was packing my stuff up at the hotel in Mendoza, taking a quick nap, and enjoying one last Argentine Steak dinner before I was again sitting at the airport. I had to sacrifice 3 of my MSR gas containers at the airport when they wouldn't let me check them as they were, because they had the smell of gas, and I couldn't fit them under the sinks in the bathroom to wash them out. All my flights went well. The view over Aconcagua (pic below) coming from Mendoza to Santiago was amazing, as we were flying just about level to the summit, and just to the south. I could identify all the landmarks that I'd recognized from the climb from the aerial view. The rest of the flight was, well as good as 26 hours worth of flying can be I guess. The final leg home was clear, and I could see all the cascade volcanoes (in picture below) really well. Throughout the trip I managed to successfully solo and summit Aconcagua, the first of the seven summits for me and tallest mountain in South America, visit 3 different countries on my 5th continent, leaving Africa and Antarctica yet to see, become familiar many more cultures and ways of life, and even make a few lifelong friends along the way. I'd have to chalk all that up to another exciting and complete travel adventure. I am now home and will be talking to many of you soon. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for many more.....Keith.

Viña del Mar

2009-02-16T16:50:00.000-08:00

I´ve managed to stay put in Viña del Mar and will finish out my trip here. It´s a nice town and I´ve found plenty of things to do here. The manager of the hotel also cut me a deal if I stayed with them for the rest of my stay, so I took her up on it and haven´t had to move, which has actually been really nice staying in the same place for more than a day or two. The other day I was chatting it up with one of the local firefighters who was happy to practice his English and give me the low down on their fire department. He informed me that every city in the country of Chile is manned by volunteer fire complanies. The problem they have is lack of fudnding, and explained to me the purpose behind the raffle they were doing. He said the city government provides part of the funding for operating costs, the national government a part of it, and the rest of the money required for training, equipment, fuel, uniforms, etc. must be raised by the firefighters themselves. They are out beating the streets to raise money for this raffle for two months of the year during their busy tourist season. When I asked what the raffle prize was, he told me it was a car, that was not donated, but also purchased by the firefighters to raffle off. Many of their equipment and apparatus is out-dated due to this lack of funding, however their numbers for manning remains strong. We chatted it up for about an hour and he showed me all their equipment and trucks.

I took a bus ride up the coast to scout out some of the smaller towns along the coast and made it to a town called Concon. It´s well known for it´s many Pescado (fish) restaurants along the coast. I opted to try out some empinadas, another commonly eaten food down here, that is sort of like a pastie that they fill with just about anything you could imagine. There´s plenty to do along the coast. The coast is steep and rocky and scattered with little secluded sandy beaches and small resort towns along the way. Today I rented a bike and rode about 20 miles up the coast all the way to Concon, where I went the day before. It was nice being able to stop at every little beach along the way and at least take a few pictures. I ran into what may be the coolest house I´ve ever come across (see pic), and will someday live in a place like this! The bike ride was pretty cool with amazing views, but wasn´t so cool when chain started coming off the rear sprocket of my awsome bicycle every two minutes on the way back into town. Made for an interesting / frustrating ride home. I found a place that rents sea kayaks, and I think that will be on tomorrows agenda. There is a big Chilean Navy Base here, so there are plenty of naval ships in the port and fellas running around the beach doing p.t. The Chilean people seem to be a little less friendly than others that I have associated with, and appear somewhat unhappy, but that may just be because I don´t completely understand their culture, so I can´t really judge them. Other than that I´m just living up my last few days in town before I depart.

It´s Chile here!

2009-02-13T14:52:00.000-08:00

Well not really chilly, like Idaho chilly, as you can tell by the pictures, but the country I have indeed made it to after one HELL of a bus ride! I left Cordoba at 10 pm and finally arrived in Santiago, Chile at 4 pm the next day. An 18 hour bus ride that included a flat tire on an inside dualy that had to be fixed, several stops in the middle of no-where for unknown reasons (I would assume a smoke break for the crew), several slow semi trucks on two lane mountain passes, and one hell of an inspection at the Chilean border. I´ve never been through customs that has taken such a long time. After standing in line for about an hour to go through Argentine migration, you then stood in line for another hour at chile customs, where there were two gentleman serving about 75 people. After that you went to the other side to take your bags out from under the bus and bring them inside for inspection while the bus itself was searched thoroughly. After the dog and the man with the rubber glove inspects you and your stuff, then the bus as a group can go back onto the bus. Tell you what, no slipping anything by those guys! What boggles me is that this is basically the only land crossing through the Andes between Mendoza and Santiago, two major cities, for miles. I can´t imagine it always being this slow. After the border, we then descended a pretty serious mountain pass into the Santiago Valley (see picture) that you ¨really¨wouldn´t want your breaks to go out on. The landscape around here in the valley much reminds me of the Los Angelas area...a smoggy valley from the big city with the backdrop of steep treeless mountains full of dry brush. Once we got into Santiago I decided to hotel it up for the night for a nice break from both hostels and buses. I found a nice little oasis for 15 dollars, nearly cheaper than hostels anyway, on a little cobblestone street that felt kind of like Europe. I hit the city by foot to get my bearings, check things out the rest of the day, and finally doing something active. I ate dinner at a Karaoke restaurant that was pretty entertaining watching Chilean folks rockin out to English music. The owner was real friendly, spoke excellent english, and referred me to a couple of places on the Chilean coast that may be nice to visit during my short stay. Like that I was out the next morning and on a two hour bus ride to Viña del Mar, my current location. I was lucky enough to sit next to the very large child that managed to spill soda all over himself and our seat on the trip. My time was pretty short lived in Santiago, but I am getting kind of burned out on the cities. I thought of treking up the little mountain in Santiago that has a big statue at the top of it, but the idea of getting out of the city and doing something active sounded much more appealing. I really like where I´m at, and I think I´ll be posting up here for the duration of my stay. From this town I can easily make day trips to a few other smaller towns up the coast that seem appealing. I can also catch a bus from here to Mendoza direct, avoiding having to go back into Santiago for a night. As for the town itself, it´s one of the poplular Chilean summer get aways. Plenty of high rise residential towers along the beach, but has a nice chilled out main street, and plenty of coast. There is a port town just south of here with old houses scattered all over the hillsides. I like the vibes of the place. There were a bunch of fireman (bomberos) on some of the street corners soliciting money via raffle tickets for some charrity or other cause I wasn´t really sure of (something like fill the boot I´m sure). Some things just don´t change no matter where you go, and I happily donated some of my money to the cause. I´ve been a little over budget today if you will, when somehow 30 dollars disappeared somewhere between the subway and a buying a muffin at a shop, and I mistakenly thought the attendant at the hotel said 18.00, as in U.S. dollars, but meant 18,000 Chilean Pesos, which is 30 USD. Still don´t really have anything to complain about, you can´t win them all. The currency can get a little tricky figuring out here in Chile, because 1 dollar is = to apx 600 Chilean Pesos. When you start adding them up the numbers can get pretty big for something that shouldn´t seem to cost so much. It´s weird spending 6,000 anything for a meal. The chilean culture definitely has a different feel to it than the other countries I´ve visited in S.A, and has some amazing food. Some of the people tend to show it here and look a little ¨less fit¨than the other countries as well haha. Speaking of cuisine, I´m off to indulge in it myself. Take care all....Keith.

Westward bound

2009-02-10T10:26:00.000-08:00

NO, I was not eaten by a shark on my surfing outing, for those that have been waiting in suspense. I do however have to wait to post any pictures of me surfing so I can copy and paste myself onto another picture of someone actually standing up on the board. Actually, it turned out to be better than I thought it would, and actually mangaged to ¨kind of¨ stand up on the board a few times. Last time I tried surfing in New Zealand I was using a long board. This time I tried a little shorter board and seemed to be able to control it better. That and my Aussie friends said you have to get a short board cause it just looks cooler in the pictures, and that´s what I´m all about. La Paloma has an east and a west beach, and they say if the surf isn´t good on one side you just move to the other side, so.....there´s always surf. Most my time spent at La Paloma was spent on the beach either attempting to surf, riding bikes, running, or actually just relaxing. We all rented bikes and must have put about 30 miles on one day. We added a few more Australians to the gang when a friend of mine from Punta del Este named Josh, and two lady friends that Damien and Gerard met in Buenos Aires met up with us. Could be the title of a movie or something ¨5 Aussies and a Yank¨. There were times I had a bit of trouble completely understanding the aussie slang and quick speech. There was a parade that came though town while we were there that was kind of a pre-Carnival celebration, that included a bunch of bands and samba dancers. One night we went out to a night club, that was a huge compound on the beach made up of palm trees like a giant fort, or something you´d see on Pirates of the Caribbean, and doesn´t even open the doors and get going until 3 am. The hours kept here are crazy, but I´m growing quite a liking to a big nap in the afternoon and dinner about 10 or 11 o´clock. There are 4 food groups here: steak, pasta, cheese, and ice cream. No shortage of saturated fats for sure, but my body is enjoying the hardiness of the food in my attempt to put some weight back on. After La Paloma, we all kind of went separate ways, as Josh and Gerard headed up the coast on wildlife day tour, Damien was off to Iguazu Falls with the girls in Argentina, and I was headed west. My somewhat semi-final destination will be Chile, with the exception of going back to Mendoza to fly home. The trip from La Paloma to Santiago, Chile is 33 hours by bus (thank god for ipods and books), so I´m breaking it up into a 3 day jaunt, because well I´m not in a hurry, and I didn´t think my ¨arse¨could handle such a trip. Yesterday, I left from La Paloma, spent a day in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay (pic above), and then caught a night bus to Cordoba, which is in the middle of Argentina (pic below). I´m going to spend the rest of today and tomorrow here in Cordoba, then catch another night bus into Chile. The night buses are the way to go here. Most of the seating options either fully recline like a bed or at least partially recline, and have a leg rest that pops down from the seat in front of you. They usually serve dinner and breakfast as well. This way I´m not wasting a nice day crammed up in a bus traveling, and you sleep most of the way there so you save the cost of a nights accomodation (I know I´m cheap, but think about it, you have to get there one way or another). Buses are everywhere in South America, and by far the easiest means of transportation. Anyway, Cordoba is a university city, hosting several of the country´s different universities. It´s also well know for it´s music talent so I´ll be checking out some local venues.

Beaches of Uruguay

2009-02-06T15:06:00.000-08:00

Howdy folks! It´s about time again that I fill you in on some updated travel info of my S.A. tour. I am currently in a little town called La Paloma on the Atlantic Coast in Uruguay. I last left off in Punta del Este. I spent a few days in PDE, which was really nice, however not really a backpackers destination, as it is rather resorty, and ¨relatively¨ spendy for the area. It is occupied primarily by wealthier locals and a few stray travelers. It was more of a Maui type vacation destination. During my time in PDE, however, I did meet a lot of interesting people that were looking to travel onwards. Some of us boys from the hostel headed down to the beach to play a game of ¨Aussie Rules¨, which is similair to rugby and played in Australia. The funny thing is that we had quite the mix of people including myself, who grew up playing American football, a couple of Australians, who grew up playing Aussie Rules, and a few local folk, who grew up playing soccer (football here). Made for quite the combination of kicks and throws, as I was the only person that could throw a spiral with the somewhat odd shaped ball, but had absolutely no idea how to accurately kick or ¨punch¨the ball to get it to its intended destination. None the less, a good time had by all. I met two guys that were staying at the hostel named Gerard and Damien from Australia. We seemed to get along pretty well after sharing a few stories and some cervecas, and had similair thoughts about our next destination. I am commonly referred to by them as ¨the Yank¨. I tagged up with the two of them and we left PDE on a three or four hour bus ride up the coast to a little place called Punta Diablo. From what we heard, this was a little surfing / fishing village with little to it but a beach and a few cabins or cabanyas as they are called here. There was a campground a few miles outside of town with cabins that we were planning on staying at, but after getting off the bus found there were no vacancies. We saddled up our backpacks and hit the hot dusty road in search of some accomodation. We found a place shortly down the road (see pic above) that seemed to work just fine with 3 beds, running water, a mini kitchen, and a bathroom.....werent really looking for much more and for 10 dollars a night we were convinced. Later that day we decided to make the trek into town, which turned out to be about a 2 plus mile jaunt that we must have walked 8 times during our stay there. Well we did manage to hitch a ride once but who´s counting. We found out once we got into town that we could have just as easily rode the bus all the way into town, and found a cabin basically on the beach for near the same price....you win some you lose some. We couldn´t lose though with a town like this. It was small, had a few great restaurants, an amazing beach (see pic), dirt roads, and super laid back. It´s what you really think of when you think of South America, or what I think of anyway. We were all thinking we should have skipped right over PDE and just headed for here. Turns out that it really wasn´t much of a fishing town but did carry the surf reputation. We spent most of the next day at the beach relaxing and doing some networking with a few other travelers. I introduced the aussies to some fish tacos (pic at table). Gerard, however, was a hero for the day when he saw a little kid getting sucked out by a riptide, and got the lifeguards attention to organize a rescue. We organized a barbeque (asado) for later that night at one of the cabins that a few other people were staying at with a big brick style barbeque. Putting a little ¨steak on the barbe¨if you will. We had a gathering of at least 5 or 6 different nationalities, and came complete with the local perro (dog) as the DJ (see picture). Quite the feast it was!. We all loved our time in Punta Diablo. Today we caught the bus to La Paloma, also a surf town, but a little bigger than Punta Diablo. We are staying at a hostel, as we didnt feel like putting to much time into looking for a cabin for the night. It´s a nice town with miles of beach, and pretty much one main drag that runs through town. It´s a little busier than Punta Diablo, but by no means is it big or crowded. I could easily spend the rest of my time right here, but there´s plenty of other things to see so I will try and keep my stay to the weekend. Tomorrow, surfing is on the agenda. For my aussie friends, that´s probably good news and a great time. For me, well that means it´s time to be thrown into the sand washing machine and tossed around all day, probably spending no more than a few seconds standing on the board, but a great time as well. See ya tomorrow!

Buenos Aires....and so on

2009-02-02T08:19:00.000-08:00

Still a day or two behind, but I'll catch you up from Buenos Aires. I took a night bus from Mendoza after staying a few days there, and much to my surprise, the long stinky bus ride that I anticipated was quite the contrary. While booking my seat from hostel I was staying at, I chose to go with a mid class seat....it's a bus, how fancy can it get. Much to my delight, for a few dollars more, I was cruising across the country in a Godfather type leather recliner style seat, secluded from the rest of the bus with about 10 other seats of that sort, kicking back watching a movie. Dinner and breakfast was served on the bus, and before I knew it I woke up from a 14 hour bus ride and was in Buenos Aires. Transportation, as I'm learning in South America, is nothing like what I'm used to in Asia and many other countries.

So Buenos Aires (first picture) is a big, fast paced, New York style city, electric if you will. I found it fascinating for a while, but like most big cities, I was tired of it after a few days and ready to see something a little more cultural and low key. You can only see so many cafes, shops, bars, and monuments until they all become the same, and the everyday grind of the city starts wearing on you. Funny enough, I'm sure some people could say the same of the mountains I guess (they're all the same etc...) depending on your upbringing. It's a city of steak and tango. I did watch a tango show done as a street performance. Wan't intrigued enough however to pay for an all night tango show. Anyway, I enjoyed some good food, and some nice sites while in the city. I have noticed a few trends since being here, as I will list. The food is not very spicy (all of Argentina and Uruguay really). You will find it difficult to find a place with spicy food or that even carries any kind of hot sauce or seasoning....sometimes pepper is hard to come by. Another being that these people are very affectionate towards each other. No lack of PDA here....love is in the air (public display of affection for the unknowing). Men and women greet each other and say goodbye by kissing on the cheek, and men will also kiss other men if they are close friends. YOU yield to vehicles, they do not yield to pedestrians! Most servers at restaurants, in fact all that I´ve encountered so far, are men. And last, but not least, EVERYBODY smokes.....yum!

After my stay in Buenos Aires, I took a ferry /bus combo that brought me to my current location in Punta Del Este, Uruguay (picture above). It's a beach resort area on the atlantic. It's much more laid back here than Buenos Aires, which is a nice break, and the weather is incredible. The town sits on a small peninsula that is only a couple of blocks wide, with breaking coast on both sides. I may have to give surfing another shot while I'm here. I met a pretty cool guy from Australia yesterday that may be able to show me the ropes on a surfboard. The area is a little resorty, but still manages to keep a laid back feeling to it. It´s kind of like Sherman Ave on a busy summer day, but with the coast on both sides. I am planing on being here for at least a couple of days. I´ve got a route planned out for running every day along the boardwalk, that includes a fitness area at the end of it, much like that of Coeur d´Alene Lake Drives, where a little crossfit action will be taking place....my desperate attempt to help gain some much needed weight back. I've got a hostel (view from window of in last picture) thats a block away from the beach....The end.

Take care at home....Keith

Aconcagua Summary

2009-02-02T07:29:00.000-08:00

Now that it's said and done, and I've had a little time to reflect on the primary purpose of this trip, I wanted to write a brief disclosing about the mountain. Aconcagua was one of the biggest challenges, both phyically and mentally I have met yet. The mountain itself is dominated by weather, as are most high altitude environments, but particularly Aconcagua. It catches a lot of weather being blown in off the coast due to it's proximity, that makes a bad combination with the altitude. Somewhat predictable storms came through almost everyday in a certain pattern. In the earlier part of my trip, the summit was clear every day until about 11 or noon, and then all hell seemed to be breaking loose up there, which would have made for a difficult descent for anybody up there at that time. Luckily this trend seemed to change a day before I was ready to summit, making for a crystal clear, yet exceptionally windy mind you, summit day. Wind. Wind. Wind. I have never been so happy as to be OUT of the wind. I'm not talking about that summer breeze that cools you off. I'm talking about the kind of wind that if you aren't prepared to adjust your balance when it shifts, will straight up lay you over. The kind that makes sleeping in a tent nearly torturous. The kind that blows sand in your face when there's sand, and snow when there's snow. The kind that is really annoying when it doesn't stop for 10 days straight. There's two temperatures on Aconcagua....hot....and really cold, with almost no in between. If the wind isn't blowing and the sun is out, it makes for a pleasant day, as long as you don't have to work in it, and have plenty of sunscreen on. However, Aconcagua is a big mountain, and this is the weather you can only expect while playing within it's boundaries, and part of what makes it fun and challenging. That said, you can be in great shape, have acclimated well, and be healthy, but the mountain is still king when it comes to deciding who summits and who doesn't. My last mild complaint would have to come from eating freeze dried meals. Barf.....if I have to eat another one of them anytime soon. Now don't get me wrong, Mountain House freeze dried meals are as tasty as they come for their sort, but when your apetite is minimal, and you are eating them everyday, they sometimes can be quite difficult to choke down.

The Aconcagua park is well run by the Argentine National Park Service. They have a climber accountability program, a waste management program, a minimal impact program, and a search and rescue program, all well run and implimented. I was very happy to pay the cost of the permit after seeing what the funds go towards. It's basically your insurance policy on the mountain. The park was very clean, with minimal garbage and human waste left around, particularly considering the amount of impact the park recieves, and the lack of places to hide it due to lack of glaciers, trees, etc...

I've grown a slight distaste for big group comercial expeditions after this trip. Several times I was camped next to them, and they seemed to be exceptionally loud at all hours of the day or night, with little regard for other climbers in the area. It was often times difficlt passing them on steep or narrow trails when their pace was much slower than other climbers, and they were sometimes hesitant to let you pass. They tended to carry an arrogance with them belonging to such a group, particularly the guides. After observing some of their tactics on the mountain and while climbing, I think I would have a difficult time being apart of such an event. I personally would prefer to keep it to a couple of friends or solo, however I do understand that for some people that may not be an option, so I´ll keep an open mind.

In closing, I would highly recommend Aconcagua to anybody looking for such a challenge. The training I did before hand had definitely paid off, and made being there a pleasurable experience. The final count on my weight loss when I got back down was slightly over 10 pounds. A pound a day.....not bad if you're seeking that sort of thing, which in my case I am definitely NOT! I had great timing with the weather and acclimating, making for an exceptionally quick round trip outing. Now I'm left with plenty of time to explore some of the depths of South America.

(The pictures from top to bottom: Exiting the Aconcagua Park, my tent at Camp Canada, Camp Nido Condores, Goodnight Camp Canada, and Hotel Refugio)

SUMMITED

2009-01-26T20:34:00.000-08:00

I have summited Aconcagua! On Sunday the 25th I managed to stand on what´s known as the Roof of the Americas. My summit bid started at 2:30 in the morning and took 9 hours to get there from Camp Nido Condores (camp 2) with a 3 hour return, making for a 12 hour day. I will further explain the event, but first I will catch up from where I last left off in the blog.

So.......Day 5 I believe is where I left you all in such suspense. This day I moved my camp from Plaza de Mulas Base Camp up to Camp Canada for my first night at a high camp. Before arriving at the camp I was caught in the middle of quite the snowstorm, which really made setting up my tent pleasurable (that´s sarcastic if you can´t tell). There are many different trails that have been made through the scree that all end up in Camp Canada, but with the storm and not being able to see all my options I think I mangaged to chose the steepest one with the most scree, and I think I lost about 3 feet for every foot I went forward getting there. By the time I got camp set up I was pretty tired, and not feeling exceptionally well, with a minor headache beginning to bother me. I didn´t have much of an appetite but managed to choke down some jerkey so I could take an Ibuprofin which cleared things up and I was feeling better shortly. While accending to higher altitudes headaches are a common symptom, however if they are not relieved with a mild pain killer and some water, it is recommended to decend to prevent what´s know as AMS (acute mountain sickness...aka altitude sickness). Anyway, I was feeling fine after a while and the only symptom I had was something known as HAGS or HAF. Now some of you may have heard of HAPE and HACE...which are the two common killers at high altitude being high altitdue pulmonary edema and high altitude cerebral edema. Well let me tell you HAGS or HAF are the real killers....being a common symptom know as high altitude gas syndrome....or high altitude flatulance. Yes this probably taking it a little too far for some of you, but I´m sure you wanted to know all the details. It was kind of funny, because on the flight down to Santiago I was speaking with a physician on the plane, and he warned me of such and event being quite serious, and says it can ruin and entire expedition laughing out loud. My first night at high camp I had a few a apneic episodes, which without getting into too much detail happens because your respiratory rate slows down while you are sleeping, and you are not hyperventilating like you normaly would be with the decreased oxygen, and you wake up suddenly out of breath in the middle of your sleep. A bit scary if you are not used to such an event haha! Gives me a true appreciation for patients that I´ve treated at work with breathing difficulty.

Day 6: Woke up feeling top notch this morning and I had regained my appetite. After a hardy freeze dried breakfast I carried another load of gear up to what would be my next high camp known as Nido Condores, meaning nest of the birds at 17,715 ft. What started out to be a beautiful morning turned into a snowstorm before I finished carrying the load to Camp Nido. I was starting to think somebody had it out for me with my timing and these storms. I felt great at Nido and stayed to acclimate for a while and stache my gear. When I returned back to Canada the weather had cleared up nicely. There was no sign of Mario the phantom climber when I got back, who I would have expected to be either setting up camp at camp 1, or at least bringing his first load up to stache. At this point he would be about 2 days behind me as far as acclimating.

Day 7: Another beautiful morning as I broke down camp, and left some gas and other unnecessary items at camp 1, and prepared to move camp to Nido. On the trip up I ran into a lady from Seattle, which made chatting with somebody in fluent English kind of nice. In typical fashion, another snowstorm was hitting about the time I was at Nido and preparing to set up camp. The winds were pretty strong and made for a real difficult time getting my tent set up this time. The one good thing about all the new snow was it made gathering water quite easy. After filling up a 55 gallon garbage sack full of snow I spent the rest of the afternoon melting snow and cooking dinner inside the luxury of my tent while listening to the wind trying to tear it apart. I even managed to get a few Sudoku puzzles done, which let me tell you the light and easy are not light and easy at this altitude.

Day 8: The wind was relentless all through the night and continued into the next day. It makes sleeping in a tent seem like you are posted up next to an Am-Track that is running all night. I even tried to cut some make-shift earplugs out of my foam therma-rest, which didn´t work out quite as well as I thought it would, but was entertaining. Wind aside, I decided to go for an acclimatization hike up to Camp Berlin and White rocks at about 19,300 ft give or take. Even with the wind, it was much better being out and active than confined in the noisy tent. I decided that day that I would not set up another hight camp past Nido. Now here is the pros / cons that had to be weighed out with the decision. If you move to the next high camp Berlin or White rocks, you A.) are closer to the summit making your summit day quicker, B.) don´t have to wake up as early in the morning to summit so you spend less time climing in the cold without the sun, but C.) have to spend another day moving gear and camp up higher, where you will likely not sleep as well, because the altitude is so high, and it is colder, making for a tired restless climber on summit day. I spent some time at that altitude to acclimate again and decended back to Nido. I was comfortable with the decision that I would be getting up earlier, be in the cold longer, and adding another 1600 ft to the summit climb in compromise for a good nights rest, and no more moving camps. I was already an hour or two ahead of most of the recommended times moving from camp to camp, and figured I´d have no problem with it being a longer summit day. Although not at the same elevation, I´d climbed the 5,000 ft in a single climb before that it would take to summit, so I had a decent understanding of what I was getting into by adding the extra 1600 ft and an hour or two. When I returned to Nido I gathered a hearsay forcast from one of the expeition teams that it would be just as windy tomorrow as it was today, but would still be clear. I decided to prepare for a summit bid and see what the conditions would be like in the morning. After I packed my summit pack and ate some dinner I was off to bed and out like a light at 7:30 with the help of two benadryls and slept like a champ.

Day 9: Summit Day! I woke up before my alarm went off at 2:30am feeling fully rested and ready to rock. There was amazingly enough, for the first time at this camp...silence...and no wind! I planned on leaving at 3 am and was out a litte sooner after eating a quick bfast and putting on my crampons. It was a crystal clear morning, which was colder but made for great visibility. I made it to White rocks in no time and had passed two or three expeditions that left from Berlin Camp. The wind managed to hold out until a place called Independencia Hut, where it really started to pick up. It was blowing the dry snow around, and made it difficult to see withouth goggles, which I wasn´t wearing due to the darkness, but had to put them on regardless. I made it to a point called Windy Ridge when it was just getting light, and met up with two other climbers that were ahead of me. Let me tell you, Windy Ridge didn´t get it´s name for no reason, and the wind was absolutely relentless. It was time to dawn the down jacket and full facial protection just to be on the ridge. From the ridge you must traverse a big scree field to get into a giant gulley that eventually leads to the summit. One of the climbers turned back just shortly after being on the ridge as he could not take any more of the wind. His partner was still ahead of me and was continuing ahead. He was having to break trail because the wind was blowing so hard that it was blowing dry snow all over and accumulating in large drift piles. Breaking trail through snow is not an easy task and is very tiring, especially at this altitude. About half way accross the traverse, he too was throwing in the towel, and returned back to where I was and said ¨too much snow, too tired¨ with a foreign accent. This left the rest of the trailbreaking up to me. The sun was beginning to rise, so it was light, but was not shining on the north face we were on yet making it exceptionally cold with the wind and blowing snow. This was one of the toughest parts of the climb, because it was really tempting to turn around get away from the beating that was being given to me by the weather, but are you kidding me haha, there´s no way! Needless to say I made it accross the traverse, and was much more protected from the weather on the other side. All I had left was this steep gully to climb and I was nearing the summit. At this point I was really feeling the altitude and was taking about a 5 or 10 second rest with every step forward. I think I must have spent 2 hours climbing the last part with a gain of only about 500 ft. It was by far the most difficult and physically tiring thing I have ever done, and seemed to drag on forever, while staring at the summit the whole time. It defininitely wasn´t just going to hand itself over to me and seemed to be laughing at me as I lay on the snow panting after each few steps. After 9 hours of climbing, however I finally took the last few steps that put me on the Summit of the Americas and what an amazing feeling and view. I was the first of the day to reach the summit and I could see down at two of the expedition teams behind me about an hour or two. The summit registry wasn´t around to sign, so I took a few pictures, and hung out for a few minutes. You could only take your gloves off long enough for one picture, then had to put your fingers back in to rewarm them. It´s exceptionally cold on the summit, and no place to hang out, as cool as it really is being there, so after about 10 minutes and a frozen cliff bar later I was on my way back down. The decent took 3 hours and I was back at the tent at 3 in the afternoon. Not bad considering the average time for a round trip summit from Camp Berlin above my camp is supposed to be 10-18 hours. I was thrilled with the accomplishment, and decided I had enough energy to pack up camp and head down to Basecamp, which made for an exceptionally long day hauling out all the gear in one load (see picture) down, that I´d brought up in two. I got to basecamp at about 7:30, organized my gear for the mules in the morning, ate an absolutely terrible pizza, and stayed the night at Hotel Refugio, as there was no way I was going to set up a tent again.

Day 10: After I arranged all my gear with the mules and checked out my ¨sheet bag¨ with the rangers I was headed back to Puenta Del Inka, the 16 mile trek in one day that took two coming up. I didn´t care how long it took or how many blisters I had, I was excited to get down so I could eat a nice meal, sleep in a bed, have running water, etc... I was motivated! Listening to my Ipod and cruising mostly downhill I made the trek in 5 hours. I decided to take the bus back into town which took 4 long, hot, sweaty, stinky hours, but finally was back in Mendoza that night, where I could enjoy the luxury of a nice hotel with a swimming pool and a cerveca frio.

Well that about brings me to where I am now....still in Mendoza, but I believe I will be leaving tomorrow on another long, stinky, 15 hour bus ride over to Buenos Aires on the other coast. I´ve heard plenty of good things about the area, so I´m off to check it out. As for now I´m just relaxing, letting my legs and blisters heal, and pretty much loving life in the sun. Well minus the half of my nose that was outside my goggles and lips that got EXCEPTIONALLY sun-burned on the descent (see lovely picture), and look like a hard piece of bacon at the moment. Mendoza is a really nice city though, and the culture here is great. Until next time........Chao

Climbing in Progress

2009-01-20T12:31:00.000-08:00

Hello all, I know you´re probably wondering why you are hearing from me again...I will explain later. I thought it would be fun to write and catch up on the journey so far. I will start back with my morning at the hosteria, as they are called in Los Penitentes. I had b-fast with a Polish guy named Mario, who come to find out is also climbing Aconcagua on a solo / self supported quest much like myself. After chatting we are now doing a team effort / solo attempt of Aconcagua if such a thing exists. We were scheduled for starting that morning at different times, so we agreed to meet up at the first overnight stop. On the way to the trailhead we stopped by a giant natural stone bridge in Puente del Inca (see previous blog pic) that was quite amazing and a fun start to the morning. To start the trek you must first check in with the ranger station with your permit. From the trailhead (see first pic) looking towards Aconcagua you could see the top of it cloud covered in a nasty white cloud known here as Viento Blanco (white cloud), which indicates the jet stream dipping down and blowing over the summit. This obviously means nasty winds and weather, but only among the summit, because the rest of the area was beautiful and sunny. I made the expected 4-5 hour trek in only 2 hours, which really made for a short day. My first stop on this approach would be a camp named Confluencia. Once you arrive you must again check in with another ranger station, and be evaluated by a physician at the medical post. Included with your permit are these manditory medical evaluations as you gain altitude, which consist of a basic set of vitals including pulse oximetery, and a brief subjective exam. The permit also pays for you to be medical-evacuated by helicoptor or ambulance, and your rescue should an emergency happen, which is a pretty good deal really. That night it rained, which really kind of put a damper on moral, but what can you do. I was invited to particpate in a ¨ritual¨at the camp, that involves first pooring some wine into a big bowl, then dumping some of it onto the ground as to give back to the earth what it has given us (note that they were extra careful that the earth didn´t over indulge), then passing it around a big circle for all to drink while chanting some spanish phrases, that I have no idea to their meaning. It´s supposed to bring good luck.

The next morning starting off nice with great weather and Mario and I left camp at 10:00 with plans of reaching base camp. This and the summit day are supposed to be the two most difficult days of the whole climb. It is suggested the trek will take 8 hours minimum. I will describe this very long, somewhat miserable day in two parts. The first being the long walk up the Horcones Valley, which is a dry, hot, dusty valley that seems to go on for ever with no end in sight (see pic below). I may chalk this up as the most monotonous thing I have ever done. The second part would be where you begin to actually climb and gain some elevation, which was more difficult and much colder, but a nice change of pace so I´ll take it. While ascending the trail you have to be careful for mule trains that come rushing down the track at five times the speed of the yacks in Nepal, and can easly run you off the trail if you are caught off guard. Finally, I reached basecamp after 6 hours and 45 minutes...a bit ahead of schedule as opposed to the 8 hour schedule. All in all the approach to basecamp covered 16 miles with a 5,000 ft elevation gain, with a 50 lb pack. Basecamp is called Plaza de Mulas and sits at just over 14,000 ft. Needless to say I felt tired, but no signs of altitude sicknes, and overall feeling pretty well. I had to check in here with the rangers and recieve another medical eval, and also was registered my ¨bag for sheet¨or in other words fecal matter for camps higher than basecamp where there are no toilettes. Big fines are given if you don´t return the ¨sheet bag¨when you return from climbing. Basecamp is a very commercial gathering, that is also very overpriced, however you have access to just about any amenity you could think of (Internet, phones, meals, showers, beds, bars....yep you name it). Quite luxerious for being so isolated and only trail accessable. There were even bongo drums playing up until about midnight, which was a nice reminder that I forgot to bring earplugs...something I normally pack. Being so commercial, you are assigned a place to camp that is with your mule company, which also allows you use of their water, toilette, and mess tents. Mario decided to make camp half way between Confluentia and Base Camp, as we each kept our own pace on the approach, and I would meet up with him the next day.

My first full day in basecamp will be a rest day because of the altitude and long previous day. I walked over to a place called Hotel Refugio, which is a lodge style building with dorm rooms, a restaurant, and internet, which is where I´m writing you from. Kind of funny when you think about it, a hotel that you must walk 2-3 days in order to stay at. Makes you wonder if the employees walk to work. I took advantage of the showers they offer here for 10 dollars. Seems a little taboo for such an event, but it was much needed, and well deserved I thought. I havent slept well since being in Argentina due to time change, temperature (hot/cold), noise, elevation etc... but I´m not sore at all from yesterdays trek, and feel pretty energetic. I do have some bruising around the hips from my pack but muc to be expected. Mario showed up later today with some blisters bothering him. We have a few differing oppinions about the climbing plan, but time will tell as we come closer to a summit, and for now it´s nice to have some company and somebody to hold accountable, more importantly, as we get to higher camps. At basecamp, nobody begins to stir until at least 9 or 10 in the morning when the sun begins to heat up your tent. During the day it is sunny and would almost go as far as to say hot. It makes laying around acclimating quite nice...almost like I´m on vacation or something haha.

Today (day 3) I carried my first load of food and fuel etc... up to my first high camp (Camp Canada) at just over 16,000 ft. Made the haul in 2 hours and stayed there to acclimate for an hour or so. Still no headaches or any other signs of altitude sickness, other than moving a bit slower than normal. The Spot locator beacon I have been carrying has sent out 3 locations so far (camp confluentia, basecamp, and high camp 1) for those following. Ok, I really don´t think you will hear from me again until I´m finished climbing, even though I´ve said it before I know. Tomorrow will be my first night in high camp, as I will pack and move the rest of my gear up to stay. My climbing plan so far...to keep putting one foot in front of the other until I get to where I´m going....seems to be working. Take care all, and if this blog doesn´t make any sense at all (spelling, grammer, etc..), well I´ll blame it on the altitude, and the fact that I´m in a hurry because the internet is 20 dollars an hour here and I´m cheap!

Chao

Aconcagua Mañana

2009-01-16T17:27:00.000-08:00

I am currently in Los Penitentes (see pic), where I packed all my bags with the mule carriers, and will head out tomorrow for the trail head. With all my gear I decided to take a private vehicle here rather than the bus, which was a bit more pricey, but worth it after seeing how slow they go when we passed several of them (could have also been because I was riding with Argentine version of Dale Earnheart in a Honda as we made the expected 3 hour trip in an hour and a half). Transportation is always an adventure in other places. The landsape is much similair to the desert in parts of Arizona with Ginormous Alpine peaks coming out of the valleys. There isn´t a tree one that grows here and it´s hot and dry. It will take me two days to get to base camp where my gear will be taken to by the mule. The excitement of actually climbing has finally hit me and I´m finished with most of the little details that take up a lot of time and energy. I´m off to enjoy the last bit of luxury I´ll be having for a while with a meal and a nice bed. I´m guessing the expedition will take anywhere from 12 to 18 days depending on my health with the altitude, and the weather most importantly, which can have some brutal moments on Aconcagua as I understand. I will talk to you then.

Puenta del Inca natural stone bridge in pic above

Busy Work

2009-01-15T10:55:00.000-08:00

Independencia Plaza in front of hostel

Well I´ve been finalizing some of my plans here in Mendoza, and it´s actually been a rather productive day. My luggage finally arrived last night at about 1030 pm, as I´m learning that Argentine time is much similair to Mexican time, where 8 o clock means, well around 8, and maybe 9 or 10, or pretty much whenever they get around to it, which is okay by me as I´m in no hurry. The beauty of that is the traditional ciesta that takes place from 1 in the afternoon until about 5 where I´m not kidding you almost everything shuts down. Even better yet is the fact that dinner begins to kick off around seven or eight, but carries on to the early hours of the morning, which is right up my alley as anybody that knows me would agree. No prolem finding a midnight snack around here! The city is a clean city with side walk cafes spread throughout and designed as a grid system which makes finding your way very easy. The area is known for it´s wine, which I´m not really into unlike everybody else here, but I may have to try out the bike and winery tour when I get back, because it´s supposed to be some of the world´s finest. The people here have all been very friendly and helpful, even with my minimal spanish. Many of the men here sport a look as I´m calling a ¨mull-hawk¨, a mowhawk top that kind of grows into a mullet in the back....rad! As for the ladies, (you know I wouldn´t leave them out) well, they are in my opinion some of the most beautiful in the world, which is already well known, but I had to find out for myself. Could be that I´m partial to brunettes with dark skin, but seriously fellas (single ones of course) put this place on the itinerary. On another note, back to that whole productivity thing, I have arranged all my transportation to the Mtn, the mule, an overnight stay before hitting the trail, purchased some white gas to fuel my stove, and most importantly jumped through all the hoops of getting a permit for climbing, which is a story in itself. In order to obtain a climbing permit you must first visit the tourist office, where they give you a card that you must then take to a seperate business to pay for it, where they only take cash and a permit is nearly 500 dollars. Not a suprise, but the atm only allows 300 to be withdrawn in a day, and I had to find a currency exchange to convert some of the cash I brought. After paying for the permit, you then take the reciept back to the tourist office and fill out an application form for the permit and wait there while they process it. The only thing left on my ¨to do¨list is shopping for a few fresh items to pack with me so I´m not living on freeze dried meals alone for the next 2 to 3 weeks, and pick up some T.P., the most essential of items! I am planning on leaving tomorrow morning to a little village called Penetentes, where I´ll spend my last night in a bed at the only lodging there before I begin climbing. The elevation is also a little higher than here and will be a good start for acclimating. Rumor has it there´s internet there, but not sure when the next time I´ll be posting a blog...likely till the end of the climb. Once on the mountain I will be adopting the ¨cash and carry¨system for acclimating. It is a system in which you carry half of your load up to a higher camp to cache it, and then return to a lower camp to sleep at a lower elevation. The following day or two you will then move the rest of your camp up to the goods at the higher camp, and this pattern continues in steps throughout the climb. It allows you to move gear in managable loads to higher camps and uses the ¨climb high, sleep low¨theory for acclimating. For anybody interested, I will be carrying a Spot personal locator beacon, which allows for online tracking, and also emergency tracking if necessary. I will post the website to view on google maps below. It only marks the location when I activate the tracking and depends on a good signal much like a gps, so no guarantees on the amount of tracking. Until next time....I will be hoping for good weather and getting back to you with post climb info.

Take care

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0tlxHhzVFAnrAbaqhydrn3fMJJeiganPZ

Hola Mendoza

2009-01-14T09:14:00.000-08:00

Midnight in Mendoza....dinner time

So I have arrived safely in Mendoza after several long but very smooth flights. I had a whole row to myself on both flights from Seattle to Dallas and the overnighter to Santiago which made sleeping and relaxing very nice. I also caught an early flight from Santiago to Mendoza which was supposed to be an 8 hour layover and got here at 11 AM rather than late this evening. If all this sounds too good to be true, well that´s because it is hah. Both my checked luggage bags are still in Santiago as they didn´t get trasfered to my newer flight, so here I await their arrival at my hostel where they are ¨supposed¨to be delivered. The funny thing is I don´t think that this is a rare occurance by any means, because almost every person I went through customs with was also joining me at the lost luggage counter, so I guess misery loves company (not that I´m miserable). Anybody looking for future airline suggestions, a note that LAN Airlines does not come very highly recommended by myself. So all and all things are great here in Mendoza, weather is beautiful (sunny and 90 degrees) for all you folks burried in the snow at home. It seems that prices are very affordable and I´m staying at a great hostel for 10 bucks a night. I´m off to try out some local cuisine and perhaps a ciesta.

40 Days and 40 Nights

2009-01-07T10:02:00.000-08:00

Appropriately named after the amount of time I will be gone, I will be departing Jan 13th due South on a two day journey of airport hopping with a final destination of Mendoza, Argentina (South America). Once in Argentina I will be attempting to reach the summit of a 22,841 ft. mountain called Aconcagua, located in the Andes Mountain Range. It is the tallest mountain outside of Asia and the highest point in both the southern and western hemisphere. This will be my first attempt at one of the "Seven Summits" I have set out to climb. Not to make light of a very tall, cold, and steep mountain covered with rock scree, snow, and ice fields, but I will be attempting the Normal Route on the mountain, which is a non-technical route meaning; I will not need the support of a rope or other technical hardware used for climbing vertical rock pitches, steep ice slopes, and crevasses. I have chosen to take on the challenge of organizing the entire expedition myself, which entails pre-trip logistical planning, the learning of some rudimentary Spanish, the hiring of a mule in Mendoza for transporting some of my gear to basecamp, acquiring a climbing permit, arranging transportation to the Aconcagua National Park, carrying loads of equipment and food, establishing camps on the mountain, cooking, finding water, staying warm, acclimating, passing time, and most importantly summiting! I've spent a lot of time the last few months preparing for this trip both physically and mentally. My physical conditioning has consisted of mountain biking, skiing, working out, running, and a countless number of trips up the local Canfield Mt. so I'm excited to see how it all pays off. I've been eating like crazy trying to pack on a few extra lb's to make up for what will be lost from training and being at high altitude for an extended period of time, where your caloric expenditure from climbing and keeping warm far exceeds your intake. At altitude one of your body's adaptive responses is a decreased metabolism, which in turn creates a loss of appetite, making it very difficult to eat the amount of calories you are actually needing (perhaps a solution to America's weight loss problem ????). This I learned first hand after last year's expedition in Nepal when I came back looking like Starvin Marvin. I've also spent a lot of extra time at work as I usually do this time of year acquiring shift trades with other employees and doing trip research, so I'm definitely ready for what I'd like to call an active vacation, seeing as how the idea of sitting on a beach doing nothing doesn't really appeal to me as an exciting vacation. However, on that note, I will have a few weeks of downtime post my adventure on the mountain that will be spent exploring parts of Argentina and Chile, and just may happen to involve some beach combing and sampling of local drinks! Steak, wine, and tango as notably Argentina is known for....sounds OK to me. As for now it's back to organizing my gear, food, and plans before I depart, and finishing out the last few days of work. Until then please standby as I will try my best to keep the blog updated through out the trip...pending internet access of course.