'Twas a Great Day

So last week Adam Herman came to Squamish for a little visit. It was awesome. We went to BP and caught the Canuck's game (which we won) and then went back to our buddy Dan Dunkley's house for an amazing evening of swapping manly stories and all around slumber party festivities. We slept well and arose to eat a phenomenal breakfast of lime and black pepper hashbrowns, pancakes with an apple cinnamon topping and orange juice. Needless to say it went down very easily. So after cleaning up, the sun miraculously came out for the first and last time all week and dried out the Squamish granite so that we could have a day full of fun and excitement. We took Adam rock climbing and rappelling in the smoke bluffs and purely enjoyed the time spent with eachother. Here is the pictoral story of our day of climbing:

Here I am getting the preliminaries out of my system... I was a little nervous this being my first time taking anybody rock climbing without any supervision but I was confident in my knowledge and practise and guess what we were the safest climbers out there :)

Here's a terribly backlit... I mean beautiful silhouette shot of Adam rappelling down "burger's and fries".

Dan Dejong proving why he's the King of rope management... as he sports those sexy, stylish $4.00 sunglasses.

But I thought Adam didn't know how to rappel? Oh wait, he does now! Here Adam demonstrates his proficiency with a pressock as he calmly pauses his rappel to pose for this smashing picture.

Dan climbing a crack with that beautiful cyanotype style photograph.

Adam showing off his belay skills... which pale compared to his nunchuck skills... and computer hacking skills... no wonder he has a girlfriend!

Ahhh, the beauty of climbing squamish! (sephia style)

And again.

Herman showing us what it's all about...

Ohhh the vanity :)

Apparently Squamish granite turns to Cali sandstone with the sephia filter... interesting.

Adam wanted me to caption this picture, "hey mom, look what I can do!" so there you go pal.

Here is a an excellent shot of Adam's terrible flake climbing technique. C'mon buddy, straighten those arms and put the strain on the skeletal system! You can flex your huge arms later :)

Here's Dan "laying a log and meaning it!" (his words not mine) It's hard for a giant to hold good form on the flake so we won't hold it against him.

This is me getting "amped" as it were :)

Yay for climbing!

Here are two pals standing side by side. One is Dan and one is Adam. Cool eh?

You just always have to have the camera with you cause when you're climbing, beauty is everywhere around you.

So that ended our fun day of climbing in the week's alottment of sunshine. What a blessing friends are. I'm quite excited to see you all again come Christmas.

On Earth as it is in Heaven

Every pace further from the light,
Shadows lengthen,
Cold creeps through his fragile frame.
Gluttonous darkness consumes the grove,
He travels deeper into the silence.
Piercing their vaporous veil,
Milky rays slither through the trees.
The sudden illumination
Frames nearby hills in mysterious fog.
Disfigured shadows fall about him,
Chilling wind lashes at his skin,
But he walks on.
Pulsing blood floods his alert form,
His mind seared with the image of the cross,
My burden he will bear, later.
Stones bite into his knees,
Barely does he notice,
Sweat begins to drip.
My story heavy in his heart,
Strain of prayer pleading with Daddy.
Capillaries burst, blood flows,
Not for the last time
Father let your will be done

On Rock... Rock On

The last week that I was in school was spent doing something that I have never done before in the short existance of my life: Rock Climbing on real Squamish granite (actually it's granodiorite but no body really cares). We climbed for six days with a one day break in the middle and it was incredible.

When you Rock climb, you wear relatively minimal gear: a harness, a helmet (to protect from falling rocks), and rock shoes. These shoes are in essence very rubberized slippers with a suede top. With them your entire body can be easily supported on something like a single crystal of quartz, but ONLY if you commit to it. If you don't put all of your weight on your feet, then you won't have enough friction to stay on such small footing. It blows my mind every time I do it.
The neat thing about climbing is that it forces you to have trust in your classmates. You have to be confident in their focus and ability because in reality you are trusting them with your life. Not only do they hold the rope for if you fall, they are the ones who set up the very anchor that you are trusting with the weight of your fall. Of course, the anchors are double checked by our instructors but we were the engineers and that is a cool feeling.
There is nothing quite like the feeling of success that is reached when you get to the top of a climb, especially if you are pushing yourself! If you fall multiple times on one route and keep on plugging away at it and finally overcome that one hold or make an extraordinary reach for the key footing, you feel an amazing amount of self-betterment. You begin to be confident in yourself and can then challenge yourself even more on the next climb that you undertake.
On our third day of climbing I suffered a small injury. I had lowered myself from where our group was belaying, down onto a boulder in order to empty my bladder. I was about 10 feet off the ground at this point. When I turned to climb back up to our little platform, I fell backward about fifteen feet to the dirt (luckily) ground below. I managed to roll in the air so that my shoulder was first to hit the ground and not my back and God was there making sure that I wasn't badly hurt. After hitting the ground I was in shock for about fifteen minutes and my hand was numb and bleeding from hitting it on something. I was pretty white so I sat out for a bit but I did end up doing one climb still that day which turned out to be a bad move. I woke up the next morning (luckily it was our day off) with a very sore and stiff shoulder. I tried the reduce mobility tactic but the tissue swelling kept the pain more than alive. I finally had the presence of mind to buy some Ibuprofen and by the next day I was ready to climb again (maybe not but I did anyway). The shoulder still hurt but I could move it in every way that I needed and it didn't hurt more when I climbed with it so I continued and nothing happened. I'm sure it'll be sore for a bit still but I believe I'm fully on the mend. Moral of the story: when you pay $6500 for 20 weeks of instruction, don't hurt yourself!!!
I would really recommend climbing to anyone. Just make sure that you know what your doing or are with someone who does. The cost of a mistake is just too large to be careless or arrogant.
Here are some pictures from our week:

This is me.

Here's Vanessa after successfully belaying me from the top of the cliff and me, after successfully climbing the cliff.

This is Aaron top-down belaying using a munter hitch.

This is Dan Dunkley reaching for his next hold

After Thanksgiving weekend is done I will be introduced to Downhill mountain-biking for the next 6 or 7 days. That is also something that I've never done before... should be good. I'll do my best to keep you updated.

On party... Party on!!! (just for you Gary :) )

Let Us Kneel Before The Lord our Maker

These pictures correspond with my post regarding my backpacking trip in the Cayoosh Mountains:

The upper of the two Twin Lakes lies above this beautiful waterfall and feeds into the lower of the two lakes.

We set up camp between the two lakes on whatever level ground we could find. I managed to find an amazing bed of moss down by the creek flowing into the lower lake. It was a little far from everyone else but well worth it. This was the view that I got walking down to the tent.

This was on the far side of the upper lake from where we were camped. We were up on an 8500ft ridge learning how to use a GPS unit. The picture looks back to the lip of the upper lake that we're camped under and the amazing ridge system in the background.

This is me at the very pinnacle of the Ridge. I'm facing towards The Lost Valley which is what the next picture is taken of.

This valley has never been logged, doesn't have a trail running through it, and has rarely seen human activity. The snow dusted mountain on the right hand side of the picture is called The Lost Mountain... very original :) This picture deserves a closer look.

Back at camp the sun began to set and lit up the ridges of the valley below beautifully. The red colour of the rock is caused by iron oxide (rust) in the mineral composition of the rock. It makes for a very aesthetically pleasing look. The group of mountains in the background is the Joffre Group...

The feature of this picture.

The moon came out late one night and flooded the entire lanscape in its milky glow. It was a sight to steal your breath away.

The moon also acts as a source of entertainment in the company of the right people... namely Dan Dejong. Speak of the devil...

The next morning at around 6:30 the sun came over the same ridge that I'd watched the moon breach the previous evening. Needless to say, it was spectacular.

The next day's ridge travel was taxing at times but well worth it in the end. This picture gives you a tiny segment of our travels.

This is my new friend Patrick

This is my good buddy Daniel

These glaciers are the end of the Coastal Mountains, after them the Interior plains take over the landscape.

This is my "skill group" or the people that I learn all of my skill sets with. Starting back left and moving clockwise: Dan Dejong, Aaron Richards, Sam, Kelly, Vanessa, ME, Chris (instructor), Pat, Dan Dunkley, Dong, Dave (instructor)

Here was a brief moment of clear sky hanging over the beautiful colours of the avalanche runs. This same ridge was covered in snow the next morning!

It got pretty cold during the evening... we had to resort to things like warming our toes over our stove :)

So this was the scene of the next morning with snow covering the ground and tent flies as stiff as boards. If you look closely you can see the moon as it falls from the sky.







I cannot do trips like this without reflecting back to scripture:

Psalm 95
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
3 For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker

Psalm 115:15 May you be blessed by the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
16 The highest heavens belong to the LORD,
but the earth he has given to man.
17 It is not the dead who praise the LORD,
those who go down to silence;
18 it is we who extol the LORD,
both now and forevermore.
Praise the LORD.

Psalm 121:1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;

Psalm 146:5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
6 the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the LORD, who remains faithful forever.

Jeremiah 10:12 But God made the earth by his power;
he founded the world by his wisdom
and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
13 When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar;
he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
14 Everyone is senseless and without knowledge;
every goldsmith is shamed by his idols.
His images are a fraud;
they have no breath in them.
15 They are worthless, the objects of mockery;
when their judgment comes, they will perish.
16 He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these,
for he is the Maker of all things,
including Israel, the tribe of his inheritance—
the LORD Almighty is his name.

Amen.

Optical Euphoria

Well, I realize that I haven't blogged for a long while and I also realize that I have not had the presence of mind/time to put pictures on my blog. However, it is Thanksgiving weekend and I'm very thankful for the time that I have. So here we go:

Just off the coast of Quadra Island was our first destination. The currents moving between this Island and the one right next to it made it seem like we were on a river not the ocean (note the movement in the water). The low lying cloud tended to give the trip this surreal/mystical feeling.

We bore full witness to one of, if not the most, biodiverse marine habitats in the world. This is an Ochre Sea Star in some Rock Weed (Rock weed can be popped to reveal an antiseptic gel in the interior or just popped for fun because it's nature's bubble wrap and it's soooo abundant :) )


This is a Sunflower Sea Star. I took the picture from above the water but it is just so absolutely clear that you can barely tell.


Here I was in the middle of a lecture... I just happened to have my camera out when the evening fog started to roll in to fill the air with an erie and majestic feel. I was at the back of the lecture hall so I don't think that Leim realized I wasn't paying attention. This was right after a porpoise put on an acrobat show in the same water seen here but of course I was far to intent on watching to get my camera out.

This is the progression of the sun as it set on Francisco Island.






I took this picture by stacking my binocular lens onto my camera lens and then holding really still :) It took about 20 tries but this one isn't half bad. The Bald Eagle was worth it. This is a CLASSIC bald eagle perching tree... great vantage point.

This is what that same Eagle looks like without a zoom of any kind. It's still a beautiful bird.

These pictures cover what I have already talked about in my Baidarka blog so if you haven't read that one, these pictures go along with it.
I love you all.