Back in Ol Wyomin

As usual, I'll begin this essential mass message with an apology for the long gap. My only excuse is that Rose and I are reading the latest Harry Potter, and things have been looking pretty desperate for our hero...

Anyhow, here is the latest. We have been back in Lander for the last couple weeks, and are oh-so-relieved not to be living out of a cramped Cavalier any more. We enjoyed a great visit with our friends Brian and Katie, who flew out from Vermont to visit and spend some time in the Wyoming mountains. We carried all our climbing gear into the Tetons for some bouldering (it was rainy). Then we spent a few days back in Lander, staying up at the cabin, climbing at Wild Iris, and playing music and bridge. Finally, we embarked on a five-day trip into the Cirque of the Towers. In spite of the continued rainy weather, we were able to climb Pingora, Wolfs Head, and Mitchell Peak, do some great bouldering, and catch some fish. Rose was especially successful in providing fish to supplement our meager, sugar-free diet of various dried foods. The Grouse Whortleberries were in full swing, as well as a few blueberries, but they seemed to take more calories to gather than they provided in sustenance. It was fabulous to spend some time with Katie and Brian, and sad to see them return to VT. Check out a few photos here:

Back in Old Wyoming

Last weekend Rose and I ducked up to Tensleep, WY and attended Nowoodstock VII, a great music festival at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains. Saw some good music, including Tensleep's own Jalan Crossland, the Dan Walker band, and a really tight Colorado bluegrass band called "Great Divide". We also got some climbing in up at the Mondo Beyondo in Tensleep Canyon.

That's all for now, the only other major news is that we are departing for Peru on October 2! Hasta luego.

Haida Gwaii

Well, the truth is, we've been hearing some disgruntled rumblings from our loyal readers about the general lack of essential messaging lately. And the only argument I can make in our defense is that being retired is not all about watching the clouds and wondering what to make for dinner. Especially not when you're visiting Barbara and Charlie Mack on Haida Gwaii (aka Queen Charlotte Islands) Ty and I just arrived in Lander, WY after spending 2 magical weeks with his folks in BC. Winnowing down the trip to a handful of highlights is a tall order, but here's an attempt:

After arriving we didn't waste much time in setting out for a 4-day kayaking trip that took us out to the untamed western side of Haida Gwaii to visit the site of an old Haida village. On the way, we paddled over miles of a colorful, watery universe including colonies of bat stars, sun stars, sea enenomies, moon jellies and muscles. Rock crab scuttled around in the eel grass, and we caught some tasty rock fish. At the village site we found two totem poles still standing in the abandoned woods amid giant ferns and moss-covered hemlock and sitka spruce. The paddle home was exciting for several reasons including the two orcas we saw and the fabulous blue tarp sail that Ty rigged up for our double Kayak, allowing us to sail most of the way home. On the paddle home we also stopped by an amazing little organic farm on Maude Island, to do a little weeding and learn about the challenges of organic farming at the end of the earth.

Our visit with Barbara and Charlie also included some fabulous bear viewing, salmon berry picking, music playing, halibut fishing and some wild hikes and runs through the mossy rainforest of Haida Gwaii. Certainly experiencing all the wildlife and the beautifully rugged landscape of the island was a great adventure, but perhaps my favorite moments of the whole trip happened at the dinner table where we all had a chance to tell stories, polish our political diatribes, laugh, and enjoy the colorful bounty of BC (inspiringly, the Macks are on the low-carbon 100-mile diet).

The entire trip up to Canada was a lot of fun, from being harassed by Canadian customs officers at the border crossing (you don't have jobs?!?!), to our last night in a funky little town-owned campground in Milk River (Ty's place of birth). In fact, our only disappointment in Canada was with the quality of the programming on BBC radio, which Canadians explained was normal since the entire "regular" BBC staff takes the whole summer off and the B-team is left to run the show. That and the tiny cups of coffee at Tim Hortons (Canada's answer to Dunkin Donuts) - I really felt like an American saying "You call that thimbleful a Large?"

Freeridden, or freeloading on Freerider

Success! Over the period of four days I was able to free climb El Capitan via the route Freerider, a three pitch variation to the Salathe Wall that skips the oh-so-impressive (and burly!) Salathe headwall.

I lucked out and met a fabulous partner Tom Moulin while I was up mini-traxioning (rehearsing alone with a self belay) the upper pitches on May 17. Tom was also hoping to free climb el cap, and had already stashed a bunch of food, water and bivy gear to support such an effort. So, after a weekend in the Bay Area and a recon trip from the ground (via some handy fixed ropes and a bunch of climbing) to the boulder problem pitch (the technical crux) with el cap veteran and great climber Nick Martino, we headed up the route, swapping leads, following free, and hauling only a light bag.

A marathon day one brought us to "The Alcove", a great ledge below El Cap Spire. A whole bunch of quality and pretty damn physical climbing including the fearsome monster offwidth pitches. We then took a rest day at the alcove, during which I finally knuckled down and finished Wuthering Heights - neither Tom, nor Cedar and Nick, who climbed the route a day later and shared the Alcove our second night and were resting the next day could be convinced to read more than a page, despite the fitting title and the fact that it was the only book at the bivy (only book on el cap?).

Day three took us up to "The Block" - only 5 pitches higher in a shady morning's climbing. I led the boulder problem pitch and fired first try, to the relief of my extremely thin tip skin. Tom fired the boulder problem on his second try and had the pleasure of leading The Sewer, the foulest pitch on the route, which was soaking and muddy as usual, uggghh. We rested all afternoon, ate most of the last of our food, obsessed about the coming pitches, and tried to ignore the overwhelming smell of urine that accompanies many el cap bivy ledges when it hasn't rained in a while.

Day four took us 8 more pitches to the top. I took my only fall of the climb following the first corner pitch above Soux le toit ledge in the morning, but lowered back to the belay and sent it next try. The second corner pitch, one of the toughest on the route, was nice and dry and I was relieved to fire it first try, but not without a pretty good fight. The traverse over to the "Knights of the Round Table" ledge (where the route leaves the Salathe) felt desperate, with the ricey footholds and exposed position, but I managed not to fall. The final four pitches, including the somewhat fearsome wide pitch went smoothly and we topped out around 3:30PM. We then rapped the route and cleaned off all our stashed gear and trash - this was the part that I dreaded but it went pretty darn smoothly and we were back on the valley floor well before dark and had plenty of time for a shower and pizza at camp curry.

I am eternally indebted to Tom, who was a great partner for the route and put in a lot work stashing all the gear that let us do the climb without hauling heavy bags. Tom came really close to a free ascent too, missing only the second monster (which he actually lowered down to on our rest day and laybacked!), the first corner, and the traverse pitch.

Anyhow, a huge relief to have finally achieved a long-term climbing goal. Now my friend Brian Lenz is out from Jackson for his first week ever in the valley, and he is helping keep me from resting too much, and distracting me from moping around and missing Rose, who is now home in Wisconsin, where I will be joining her in a week. West Face of el cap tomorrow so I gotta rest up...

Ty

Freerider

Friends, Faithful readers of our not-so-faithful Essential Mass Message,

I wish you could have seen what I just saw, the sight that moved me to do a number of things, including but not limited to, calling my parents (who sadly weren't home), contemplating calling everyone who ever knew about Ty's desire to free climb El Cap, and finally sending out an Essential Mass Message. This is really the perfect medium to communicate something that is so inspiring it's too big for the phone. Not to be seen from the ground with the naked eye, only visible through high powered binoculars, Ty Mack is now about 1800 feet off the ground on the face of North America's most majestic (and absolutely fucking huge!) monolith, El Capitan for the first of four days he'll spend on it. He and his partner Tom started at 4 this morning, and if you're familiar with the Freerider route, they're now on the monster off width just below El Cap spire. I felt a little strange peering at those two specks moving (with remarkable speed) up the wall, as I could see them, and they could not see me, but the absolute certainty and skill with which they moved made me resist pulling my eyes out of the binoculars. Ty might turn a becoming shade of red if he reads this, but watching him on that wall, practicing his art, made my heart swell.

Well friends, I hope you are practicing your art too. When I left for college, my dad gave me a short list of things he proposed one should always do; besides cleaning hair out of the shower, living lightly on the earth, and being in the company of folks who love you and whom you love , he advised that people should always be doing something that they love. I hope you are now, (I mean besides reading our blog).

Cheers,

Rose

Catch Up

Once again we have been too busy to blog, and are running out of excuses so I won't make any. Anyhow, here is what we have been up to since leaving Moab on the 26th of April.

First we drove across S. Utah stopping at Natural Bridges (where we bagged all the major bridges in well under the tourist average of 1.5 hours) and camping in Capital(ol?) Reef NP. Then on to Escalante where we took a gorgous run up Calf Creek to the amazing waterfall pictured at left. The only blemish on this perfect day was a brazen raven who stole our only LaraBar (the new Mole flavor too!) from our pack and then taunted us from the air for a half hour. This day ended in Zion, where we caught up with some old friends of mine in the local climbers ghetto. My hopes for a quick jaunt up Moonlight Buttress were thwarted by the 90+ degree head and the lack of psyched partners, but we were able to do some cragging and I ran up "The Organasm" which was super fun. Then off to Flagstaff where I smashed our mtn biking dreams by driving under a low hanging branch - but it can't be all downhill and daisies can it?

Next down to Phoenix for a nice visit with Rose's grandfather and his wife, who kindly sold us their Chevrolet Cavalier - the ultimate incognito roadtrip vehicle. In it we are invisible to ornery park rangers and marauding bears, knock on wood...

Then on to J-Tree, after which Rose headed to Long Beach for a coffee conference which she enjoyed thoroughly, and I off to Yosemite and the upper pitches on the Salathe and Freerider on El Cap.

Reunited later at Lover's Leap in the glorious Sierras, we had a great visit with the Mack clan, and my folks (who I hadn't seen in almost 3 years!) in Reno.

Then back to Yosemite Valley with a quick detour to catch up with my friend Anne Stanley in Bishop (she is off to Pakistan now for a trek into K2!) - Tioga Pass opened early which helped cut the drive times down.

Then off for a glorious weekend with Rose's aunt Gwynne in Mill Valley - birthday partying, wining and dining, mtn biking, swimming in the icy pacific - what a place!

Now back in the Ditch again (yosemite valley), lurkin' (resting and killing time) and staying at Camp 4 (legendary international climbers ghetto).

More soon - we promise,

Ty

Better late...

Ty here, apologizing for the lack of essential mass messages lately. It turns out that the days are shorter out west, and there just isn't enough time to fit it all in - good thing we don't have any real time drains, like jobs

Anyhow, here is what we have been up to since our fabulous stay in Boulder with Adley and Galen (see first photo in the following photo album):

A quick jaunt to visit my friend Nick Meyer in Gunnison, CO. Nick and I got a day of climbing in the Black Canyon - did a route called "Trilogy". Super cool in a Black Canyon sort of way - intimidating, a bit loose and scary, but pretty damn fun overall. On our way out of town, Nick rode us into the ground at the legendary Hartman Rocks.

Then over to the Grand Junction area, where Rose and I climbed Independence Monument in Colorado National Monument (so many monuments...). We did a wild route called "Otto's Route" which follows a line of great two and three finger pockets (drilled by Otto) which once held lengths of pipe and allowed a ladder-like ascent of this lovely sandstone tower. The pipes are all gone now, leaving a really fun rock climb.

Indian Creek next, where we camped with friends from Wyoming (and Idaho) and climbed some lovely splitter cracks, listened to gobbling turkeys and chattering chukar, and did some mountain biking too.

Finally back up to Moab (in a rare rainstorm) for some reprovisioning and a trip in to watch a spectacular light show on Delicate Arch in Arches N.P., where we had the honor of sharing a bottle of port and fresh grapes (great combo - try it!) with some very enthusiastic Russian computer programmers/amatuer photographers/road warriors/bachelors for a week on a whirlwind photo tour of the desert southwest (without their wives and families who, apparently, just slow them down and want to visit the souvenir shops - Rose suggested that maybe they just picked the wrong wives - not to their faces of course).

And finally an ascent of Castleton Tower via the Kor-Ingalls route. Rose relished the physical wide crack climbing and the summit view was spectacular, with a new dusting of snow on the LaSalle Mountains.

Canyon Country

Good company in Colorado

Well, I must have brought winter west with me; I can't seem to escape it. After weeks of 60 and 70 degree weather, Boulder's white once again. Ty and I had a sunny day of climbing at Eldorado Canyon for Ty's birthday, before the ice and snow arrived. That one day of intense color was so welcome though, the red rock feeding lichen in every shade of green, the vanilla scented pondorosa pines, blue sky.

We've been staying with Adley and Gaelan in their sweet cabin, nestled up against the Flat Irons in Chautaqua Park. Miles of trails meander up through the mountains from their home. They share the park with fox, mule deer, bears, and the occasional mountain lion. We've encountered the former two on some trail runs. The fox are especially friendly...and suspiciously round and sleek looking.

Seeing Ty again and visiting Adley and Gaelan has felt like coming home. We've been playing music, telling stories, cooking. They taught us a killer card game, progressive rummy, a tradition with Gaelan's family. Adley and I tried to make Ty a birthday cake, but it didn't quite turn out as planned. Despite Moosewood's best intentions, nothing beats loads of butter and sugar; baking at elevation's also a little new to us Midwestern girls.
I send love to you all,

Rose