Wowza.

Sweet baby Jesus. This is going to be an interesting week.

Life and Death and All That

"Nobody has so many friends that he can afford to lose one." - Cactus Ed

A close friend of mine took a nasty fall while rock climbing last week, and is extremely lucky to be alive. It is a miracle, in fact. Funny how you might not believe in miracles until something happens that is inexplicable except in uncertain terms. This is one of those cases.

The report said she fell 80 ft. In her words, it was a miscommunication. She thought she was on belay, and she wasn't. When she shifted her weight to the system, the system did not resist and she took a deep breath and hit the ground, sustaining incredible injuries.

I quit climbing several years ago after some scary experiences on the wall. I didn't feel like I had enough knowledge or the technical mastery to be safe. But my friend certainly did, and this is the scary part. It could have been my brother, or any one of my close friends who excel in climbing and pursue bold ascents confidently and safely. Even the best have momentary lapses, and in climbing this can be enough to ruin your day.

Keep climbing and doing whatever it is that you do out there in the world. But goddammit be careful.

Sweetwater

Pics from the Yellowstone Valley, MT - Sweetwater Travel guide school, and some extra curricular fishing on some Yellowstone River tributaries.



















Pics by Jeremy Christensen, Ritchy Hemmingway, Sean Hines and Charlie Robinton.

Westwater Canyon Dory Boats 3/8/08

River Log: 2008

Updated 1/16/09

Oh, the memories...

Colorado River, UT - March 8*
- Westwater Canyon; 17 miles, Class IV. 3500cfs

Colorado River, UT - March 15
- Moab Daily - Onion Ck. to Takeout Beach; Class II

Yampa River, CO/UT - May 25-29*
- Deerlodge Park, CO to Split Mountain takeout, UT; Class III-IV. 17000-9000 cfs.

Colorado River, AZ - June 7-27
-Lees Ferry to South Cove, Lake Meade; Class IV. ~10000-17000 cfs.

Salmon River, ID - October 19-23
- Daily floats: 4th of July Creek - Wagonhammer, Wagonhammer - Deadwater, 4th of July - Badger, and Tower - Badger; Class II.


*Dory

The Westwater Report

I had the great pleasure of spending the weekend on the Colorado River with some fellow dory builders that I met through Sandy's website. Lincoln Frye was nice enough to host us on his Westwater permit on Saturday the 8th. We had 4 distinctly different wood dories on the trip, including my 14.5’ Honky Dory, Dave Inskeep and his 16’ Tatman Grand Canyon dory, Lincoln and his "kayak with oars" personal 10’ whitewater dory, and his son Kyle with his one-off 12’ dory.

It was an exciting day for me. I managed to put three holes in my boat - one, a fairly significant chine hit at the scarf joint, occurred in the 2nd rapid, just above the several mile continuous class IV section. After a quick patch, and some anxiety suppression, we pushed off and tore down through the rest of the canyon. I had good runs through the meat, but managed an encounter with the "magnetic wall" in "Sock it to me."

The camera was rolling through most of the run, so once it’s downloaded and processed, I will be sure to post the results.

Thanks to Lincoln and his family for sharing the river with us. Lincoln has raised quite a family of boatmen/women. Kyle, Lincoln’s son, is one of the best boatmen I’ve ever shared the river with. That guy can move a dory like nothing else. I believe he’s off to OR to defend his title in the Clackmas driftboat races. Iris, Lincoln’s daughter is no slouch either - and is getting ready to build her own dory for a Grand Canyon trip next year. And Lincoln is one hell of a cool cat, and it shows where his progeny gets their boating skills. Iris told me that Lincoln has done a river trip every month for the last few years.

Pics and video to come...

Lightning Strikes Twice

I came home from happy hour on Friday to find a letter from the National Park Service - Dinosaur National Mounment. I picked it up and my first thought was "this is a pretty fat letter for them to tell me I didn't get a permit."

Yampa River - May 25th, 2008

Yeeee, and might I add, haaaawwww!