Knot Party

Tonight a friend came over so that we could practice knots. There's water knots, square knots, slip knots, butterfly knots... I'm starting to feel like Bubba Gump ;) I've got about 20 to learn and master before the fundamentals field trip in about a week and a half.

What they said about the class is for real, it is a big time commitment not to mention $ commitment. As my friend put it, "I feel like I've spent more time shopping for equipment then I have anything else for this class". So true, thus far at least. Also, there's other requirements such as being MOFA (Mountaineering-Oriented First Aid) certified and volunteering for at least one field service or trail maintenance trip. To be MOFA certified you first need to be CPR certified and have taken a First Aid class, both of which I just signed up for. So this is how my schedule for next week looks outside of a busy work week:

Monday evening: CPR class
Tuesday evening: Climbing class
Wednesday evening: Co-rec soccer game
Thursday evening: First aid class

The good thing is, invest the time/$ now and it'll last a lifetime. Well, maybe the gear won't, but hopefully I won't be dropping so much money all at one time again. Just replacing what wears or what needs upgrading.

Tomorrow is the first part of the Rock Anchors and Belaying instruction and I still need to read the chapter.......

Women's Mountaineering Boots

So the past two days I've been doing my gear shopping and the one speedbump I've come across is that there isn't the greatest selection of Women's Mountaineering Boots in stores. Hmm, wonder why? ;) Sure, I could buy online, but I definitely want to try them on first and make sure they're the right fit. The REI near me had one, ONE, boot for women. They said the flagship store would have a better selection, so I went to Seattle. They only had three. The guy working that department mentioned that a lot of women end up buying boots from the men's department because they have a better selection, so I mosied on over there. Only problem, they don't stock the men's boots in my size (8 in women, 7 for men). But luckily I found a really nice and helpful sales rep that pointed me to other gear shops in the area.

While I definitely love REI and am a frequenter, the local shop where I ended up getting my boots from was Feathered Friends. The staff was very knowledgeable and friendly. Plus, my boots were on sale, so that was a bonus!

Basic Climbing Class... The Initial Weeks

Currently, I'm enrolled in a Basic Alpine Climbing Course with the Mountaineers. It's a 5 month course and will cover various aspects of rock climbing including anchoring, belaying, and rapelling, as well as things like snow camping, glacier travel, and crevasse rescue. Over the next few months, the majority of the posts will likely be related to what I've learned in class or experiences from our "field trips". Since it just started a couple weeks ago so here's a little synopsis of what's been going on:

Tues, Jan 27th. Presentation 1: Introduction & Overview, Equipment, 10 Essential System

Oooeeee, though I had just come from a long day at work and usually have a hard time staying awake during classes/meetings, for me sitting down usually means sleep, but I was sooo excited that staying up through this 2.5 hour class was no trouble at all. Most of the lecture was about gear and stuff for alpine climbing (backpacks, mountaineering shoes, crampons, layering clothes...) but I was actually really amped to hear about that stuff because I've been acquiring some nice hiking/climbing clothes recently. Largely due to to the fact that a few months back a friend turned me on to a couple "one deal at a time" sites that will feature awesome outdoor clothing and gear like steepandcheap.com and whiskeymilitia.com which I've become addicted to and have already spent way too much money on.
At the end of the session, they showed a video compiled from various climbs previous classes had done. As I was sitting there, with a huge smile on my face, I realized just how truly excited I was about this new adventure and wondering why I hadn't gotten into anything like this sooner. When I used to be a snowboard instructor, I would often hike up to an area where people weren't skiing/boarding and just lay there, look up at the blue sky and surrounding trees that looked that someone had sprinkled powdered sugar on them and simply enjoy the quiet of the outdoors. How come I didn't consider then just how much I enjoyed being in the mountains? Well at least here I am now, not too late.

Tues, Feb 3rd. Presentation 3: Knots and Prusiks

I had a really busy week at work and only skimmed the material for this week, if I would have read the whole thing like I should have I would have realized that I needed to bring a harness, prusiks, carabiners, and webbing. Maybe my mother was right when she asked me "aren't you overextending yourself a bit much?" because I have a pretty demanding schedule at the moment (swammped at work, on a co-ed soccer team, religious meetings, dog to care for, belong to an indoor rock climbing gym, mom just moved back to the area...) Well at least I brought my practice rope that night so I could try out all the 20+ knots they demonstrated that night. I should really work on mastering two of them a night and know how to do them with my eyes closed, no joke, so that I will have them down before the mid-term come March.

Sun, Feb 7th. Conditioning Field Trip to Mt. Si.

Good thing that a friend and I hiked Mt. Si. the Sunday prior so that we knew what we were in store for. It's a 4mile hike (one way) with a 3700' vertical elevation change. On this trip with the class though, we had to be there at 5:45am, eek, and hike it with a 37-40lb back on. It's a pretty steep hike and that weight made it a much more difficult climb then the previous week, not to mention I only had 3 hours of sleep, not so smart. I was a bit disappointed in myself in that about 1mi into the trip I unloaded about 3lbs of water, I was breathing pretty hard at the point already a bit exhausted and really didn't want to have to stop or not finish. Also, I had a new pack that I was using. My previous pack was one I bought for a 2month trip abroad during college. The pack by itself was 2lbs heavier then my new one and didn't fit me quite so well, I wasn't aware at the time that it wasn't one size fits all and appearantly neither was the guy at the sporting good store who helped me pick it out. Later I found out that it was sized for a Men's-Medium. Um, I'm a Female-Small. But I digress. The hike became a lot easier, after about 1.5 miles, when I relized that there were two tabs at the top of my new pack that drew it closer to my head, that stopped all the bouncing around and irritation to my shoulders. After that I was able to find my groove and make it to the top in under 2 hours which was my goal. (It was brough out by the instructors that a fairly fit person would do it in 2hours and average would be 2.5hours). It was a beautful day, albeit a cold one. The payoff at the top was a nice view of Mt. Rainier and the I-90 corridor, along with a break to grab some grub and chat with fellow class-mates.

Next class: Feb 17th. Rock Anchors and Belaying.

In the meantime, I've got some gear to buy. REI... here I come! :)

Why? (First Post)

Why is it that I feel I was much smarter in grade school? Ever feel that way? Well my goal is to think that way no more. One of my main pursuits in life is to continually feed my mind and body. I love to learn about new things and glean tidbits of information from people. I am also a very active person and love spending time outside, preferably doing something physical, like playing soccer, snowboarding, rollerblading with my dog, or hiking, etc...

I'm very analytical and have a tendency to look at most situations in life as a opportunity to learn. I was probably one of this kids that always asked "why? why? why?". Case in point: While I was in college I knew a few people that were ready to quit, because either they missed home, it wasn't quite what they expected, and/or someother reason. My attitude when I went across country for college was a bit different, besides the obvious learning that was going to be done in the classroom or studying, I though that whether this was to be the best time of my life or the worst time, it would be a time where I'd learn a lot about myself, about other people, and about life in general. That was one opportunity I surely did not want to miss and that in itself would make it one of the best times of my life, with many more to come, I hope.

Anyhow, there are a number of purposes for me starting this blog:

1. Document what I've done, seen, felt, and/or learned so that I have something concrete to reflect on
2. Hopefully it will act as a catalyst to get my butt in gear and stop being such a big procrastinator
3. Share with those that are interested (you) some of my experiences and potentially incite others (again, you) to comment so that I may gain another perspective on various things
4. Become a better writer (not saying that I'm even a good one right now, just one of the many things I'd like to work on)
5. Learn something new! While the above 4 points are my main objective, there's usually something thrown out there that you just didn't expect. To that I say, "bring it on!" ;)