Canoeing

We spent the week out at a lake learning the basic canoe strokes to prepare for a whitewater paddle at the end of the week. Canoeing is a graceful sport that becomes meditative once you know how to make the canoe go where you want it to go. Reverse figure eights, sculling pry's and draw's, forward figure eights and pivoting turns were some of the techniques we worked on solo and tandem. Eventually I'd like to do solo whitewater canoeing like in this video I have posted. AWESOME!

"You are better off than cavemen"

I'm not sure what details I can release pertaining to our three day survival course other than it was exhausting. Day one we meet John a former SAS for the British Army with ridiculous stories about training in the African jungle. He tickles fish, has went through rigorous torture resistance training, and once went five days without sleep. Day two we watch a movie about extreme survival called "Through The Void" about a mountaineering trip gone terribly wrong. After lunch we are told we cannot eat for two days and so begins the survival exercise. One match fires, solo and group shelter building, navigation, survival "spooning", and vital decisions are tested as we spend 30 hours in the bushes without food or water. Day three we stumble out of the forest cold and tired. I survived 47 hours without food, 23 hours without water, and a night in my solo shelter with the temperature dropping to -5 Celsius. I did give in at three in the morning and found one single match to light a fire to pull me through the rest of the night (we were supposed to make sleeping bags out of cedar).

Climb On!

Flashback to standing on top of the climbing wall ledge attached to the local hockey rink. I am eight years old with tears streaming down my cheeks clamping on the metal bar that contains me high above the safety of solid ground. I do not want to drop off the edge of this wall. I do not want to rapell down relying on a single rope... This week I was in Stonehill, Montana "anchoring" and "cleaning" routes both involving rapelling from heights down rocky ledges. I kept thinking about how terrified I was at eight and how AMPED I was now using my ATC to descend rock faces. This week we learned movement techniques, climbed challenging 5.8-5.10d routes and solidified anchoring basics. In this short time of five days I have become fascinated with climbing and look forward to improving my technique and problem solving skills. Plus, my forearms are nicely toned and now I feel sort of legit hahaha. Maybe i'll take my Top Rope Instructors course in the spring time. That would be a challenge to work towards.

Mountaineering!

What could possibly be fun about climbing up huge bodies of ice? For starters you get to wear crampons which like moon boots make you feel invincible. What used to be a slippery slope is now an easy stroll up a 45 degree hill when your spiky friends are hugging your feet. When climbing a glacier you attach yourself to your group by a harness, carabiners, and a long climbing rope so that you can not fall to far. The crew practiced making ice anchors and crevasse rescue during our 5 day trip in the Columbia Icefields in Jasper National Park. "Falling" into a crevasse was very thrilling, exploring the differences in ice density (white to shades of dark blue) and going back in time day dreaming about when this ice was formed is mind blowing.