Wow, it's been a while.
Now where did I leave off...yikes! A full year ago was the last time I wrote here. I've traveled all over the world, accomplished some big long term goals and just generally managed to keep living the "per diem dream" as I aptly called it last year...
A quick year in review, starting with the climbing portion of my trip to Spain. It-was-fabulous. Random run in with some old friends, plenty of new ones made and some great rock and a new highline rigged to boot!
Look hard to see me in a white shirt in the middle, climbing a beautiful route off of the Camino Del Rey (Walkway of the King) that wound through the narrow canyon.
Me on the highline we rigged in the same canyon!
Three days after returning from Spain and two nursing shifts at Stanford later, I again found myself at SFO boarding a flight, this time to Kharkov, Ukraine for a nursing mission with the International Children's Heart Foundation. It was a real challenge trying to nurse in a place where even the alphabet is unfamiliar and the general attitude of the nursing staff is very 'post-soviet' typical - a little gruff and not all that welcoming. (A big shock/change from the warm, Spanish speaking Dominican Republic!) It was also -25degrees F out! BBRRRRRrrr!!
Recognize these common meds? The front one says Glucose and that back right? Nurophen AKA Ibuprofen.
While the nursing staff wasn't the warmest, motherly love seems to be the same the world over.
Back from Ukraine, I felt I needed some more inclement weather and so I headed to Tahoe to try and get some backcountry snowboarding done...
Yea. That lasted a few hours before we turned around because just too much snow was falling and the avy (avalanche) risk was getting to high for comfort!
My last big trip before the SAR season started again was up to Idaho where Chantel (a girlfriend from SAR) was working as a highway avalanche forecaster. Another couple from my first season on SAR came along as well as they were just as new to backcountry skiing as I was and we spend a week learning, giggling and getting our butts kicked by the ever impressive Chantel!
Oh! And of course some serious hot springing!!
Next stop was moving to Yosemite for my 3rd season on YOSAR. But not before a day of 'ground launching' on a beach just south of Santa Cruz to practice control of my skydiving parachute!
After another massive staff turn over for the SAR site, I found myself as the senior member and 7 total newbies (out of 9!). They did amazing despite a very tough and traumatic year. We had the 2nd highest number of fatalities ever in the park and some very difficult recoveries. The coping joke became we weren't Yosemite Search and Rescue (YOSAR), we were Yosemite's Find and Recover Team (YOFART).
We did have some cool rescues though. Like the El Capitan SAR where I got to get lowered over the edge down to the partner of the victim we had extracted the day before!
Mom evem came and visited twice! The second time she brought her friend Ellie and we hiked through this high Sierra Canyon to the natural waterslides with Andrew! So fun!
The climbing this year was different, but great! I climbed the infamous "link-up" with a friend, combining El Capitan and Half Dome in less than 24hrs! And too think only a year ago I was soooo excited to have climbed the technically easy Lurking Fear on El Cap in 20 hrs! Now I was climbing a longer El Cap route, hiking 2 miles down hill, biking 5 miles, hiking 3 miles up 2K feet of elevation gain only to climb the face of Half Dome, then descend. We did it Valley Floor to Valley Floor (the hard way) in 23 hours and 47 minutes!!
Here is a pic of Yosemite with the Nose of El Cap in the foreground and Half Dome waaayyyy in the back. Climb up the center of El Cap, 3000ft. Hike down 2 miles and lose 3000ft. Bike ~5 miles over to the base of Half Dome. Hike up ~2500ft in ~2 miles. Climb up another 2000 feet. Descend just under 5000ft back to your bikes. Pedal home 3 miles at 4AM and fall into bed!
Here's a great picture of my favorite climbing partner from the season, YOSAR rookie and climbing badass, Niels all cozy on our porta-ledge bivy (hanging cot where we slept on a multi-day climb)
The biggest thing of the year for me though was completing the three year goal of breaking the woman's speed record on the Nose of El Capitan. Chantel and I banged it out 1st try, just 10 minutes behind the goal time of 10:30. What a feeling! Here is a pic of me taken by the only other climbers we passed that day...This is about 5 hours into the 10:40 climb.
As the SAR season ended and I was again cabin-less, I ended up on a cross country trip from SF to Boston to judge a slackline competition for Gibbon Slacklines!
Check out the video compilation that Gibbon put together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VswLiYEo1P0
Me, goofing off on the competition line!
32hrs of driving between Boston and the Gibbon office in Boulder CO!
Then off to SLC again to meet my car and go climb a wee bit in Utah, then Vegas for early Thanksgiving, down to San Diego for a day then back to the Bay to climb/skydive with friends......
Utah climbing...
And skydiving! Thats me on the horizon!
November sure was a spastic month! December was a little more stable with a 2 week trip to Ecuador again with the International Children's Heart Foundation. A pretty successful trip for the most part. 2 weeks, 24 surgeries, 2 deaths... This hospital of the 3 I've traveled to with ICHF, was the most advanced equipment wise. (Which isn't saying all that much!) One of the nurses brought down toy harmonicas for pulmonary toilet for the kids!
From the top of a knoll in the city of Guayaquil where we worked.
Last day in the hospital and everyone is ready to go home! Us in included. That's me, 3 patients form that week and Pavel a Belorussian doc that works for ICHF
Phewwww! 2011 was coming to a close. All I had to do was work a few more shifts (sadly over Christmas) at Stanford and then pack up the car again, this time for 3 weeks on the east side of the Sierra Mountain range to stay with bestie Sandra and her new house in Bishop, CA! (With a quick detour with Sandra to Vegas and San Diego..road trip within a road trip!)
Sandra has gotten so so so strong. She'll be a pro climber in no time! (seriously!)
After Bishop, it was off to Salt Lake City again to do more slackline work for the weekend with Gibbon Slacklines then returning to Bishop for a week to pick up gear and hang with the lovely Sandra a little bit more! A load of special and fun moments got missed in this write up of the last year. Hopefully I'll keep up a bit better with my 2012 updates! Next stop though...?? THAILAND!!
A quick year in review, starting with the climbing portion of my trip to Spain. It-was-fabulous. Random run in with some old friends, plenty of new ones made and some great rock and a new highline rigged to boot!
Look hard to see me in a white shirt in the middle, climbing a beautiful route off of the Camino Del Rey (Walkway of the King) that wound through the narrow canyon.
Me on the highline we rigged in the same canyon!
Three days after returning from Spain and two nursing shifts at Stanford later, I again found myself at SFO boarding a flight, this time to Kharkov, Ukraine for a nursing mission with the International Children's Heart Foundation. It was a real challenge trying to nurse in a place where even the alphabet is unfamiliar and the general attitude of the nursing staff is very 'post-soviet' typical - a little gruff and not all that welcoming. (A big shock/change from the warm, Spanish speaking Dominican Republic!) It was also -25degrees F out! BBRRRRRrrr!!
Recognize these common meds? The front one says Glucose and that back right? Nurophen AKA Ibuprofen.
While the nursing staff wasn't the warmest, motherly love seems to be the same the world over.
Back from Ukraine, I felt I needed some more inclement weather and so I headed to Tahoe to try and get some backcountry snowboarding done...
Yea. That lasted a few hours before we turned around because just too much snow was falling and the avy (avalanche) risk was getting to high for comfort!
My last big trip before the SAR season started again was up to Idaho where Chantel (a girlfriend from SAR) was working as a highway avalanche forecaster. Another couple from my first season on SAR came along as well as they were just as new to backcountry skiing as I was and we spend a week learning, giggling and getting our butts kicked by the ever impressive Chantel!
Oh! And of course some serious hot springing!!
Next stop was moving to Yosemite for my 3rd season on YOSAR. But not before a day of 'ground launching' on a beach just south of Santa Cruz to practice control of my skydiving parachute!
After another massive staff turn over for the SAR site, I found myself as the senior member and 7 total newbies (out of 9!). They did amazing despite a very tough and traumatic year. We had the 2nd highest number of fatalities ever in the park and some very difficult recoveries. The coping joke became we weren't Yosemite Search and Rescue (YOSAR), we were Yosemite's Find and Recover Team (YOFART).
We did have some cool rescues though. Like the El Capitan SAR where I got to get lowered over the edge down to the partner of the victim we had extracted the day before!
Mom evem came and visited twice! The second time she brought her friend Ellie and we hiked through this high Sierra Canyon to the natural waterslides with Andrew! So fun!
The climbing this year was different, but great! I climbed the infamous "link-up" with a friend, combining El Capitan and Half Dome in less than 24hrs! And too think only a year ago I was soooo excited to have climbed the technically easy Lurking Fear on El Cap in 20 hrs! Now I was climbing a longer El Cap route, hiking 2 miles down hill, biking 5 miles, hiking 3 miles up 2K feet of elevation gain only to climb the face of Half Dome, then descend. We did it Valley Floor to Valley Floor (the hard way) in 23 hours and 47 minutes!!
Here is a pic of Yosemite with the Nose of El Cap in the foreground and Half Dome waaayyyy in the back. Climb up the center of El Cap, 3000ft. Hike down 2 miles and lose 3000ft. Bike ~5 miles over to the base of Half Dome. Hike up ~2500ft in ~2 miles. Climb up another 2000 feet. Descend just under 5000ft back to your bikes. Pedal home 3 miles at 4AM and fall into bed!
Here's a great picture of my favorite climbing partner from the season, YOSAR rookie and climbing badass, Niels all cozy on our porta-ledge bivy (hanging cot where we slept on a multi-day climb)
The biggest thing of the year for me though was completing the three year goal of breaking the woman's speed record on the Nose of El Capitan. Chantel and I banged it out 1st try, just 10 minutes behind the goal time of 10:30. What a feeling! Here is a pic of me taken by the only other climbers we passed that day...This is about 5 hours into the 10:40 climb.
As the SAR season ended and I was again cabin-less, I ended up on a cross country trip from SF to Boston to judge a slackline competition for Gibbon Slacklines!
Check out the video compilation that Gibbon put together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VswLiYEo1P0
Me, goofing off on the competition line!
32hrs of driving between Boston and the Gibbon office in Boulder CO!
Then off to SLC again to meet my car and go climb a wee bit in Utah, then Vegas for early Thanksgiving, down to San Diego for a day then back to the Bay to climb/skydive with friends......
Utah climbing...
And skydiving! Thats me on the horizon!
November sure was a spastic month! December was a little more stable with a 2 week trip to Ecuador again with the International Children's Heart Foundation. A pretty successful trip for the most part. 2 weeks, 24 surgeries, 2 deaths... This hospital of the 3 I've traveled to with ICHF, was the most advanced equipment wise. (Which isn't saying all that much!) One of the nurses brought down toy harmonicas for pulmonary toilet for the kids!
From the top of a knoll in the city of Guayaquil where we worked.
Last day in the hospital and everyone is ready to go home! Us in included. That's me, 3 patients form that week and Pavel a Belorussian doc that works for ICHF
Phewwww! 2011 was coming to a close. All I had to do was work a few more shifts (sadly over Christmas) at Stanford and then pack up the car again, this time for 3 weeks on the east side of the Sierra Mountain range to stay with bestie Sandra and her new house in Bishop, CA! (With a quick detour with Sandra to Vegas and San Diego..road trip within a road trip!)
Sandra has gotten so so so strong. She'll be a pro climber in no time! (seriously!)
After Bishop, it was off to Salt Lake City again to do more slackline work for the weekend with Gibbon Slacklines then returning to Bishop for a week to pick up gear and hang with the lovely Sandra a little bit more! A load of special and fun moments got missed in this write up of the last year. Hopefully I'll keep up a bit better with my 2012 updates! Next stop though...?? THAILAND!!
