Beauty and Beatings – A Recall of the Adventures in the Andes – PART 6: The Realization

I awake, amazingly to no hangover, after a mere 4 hours of sleep, and prep for another day of skiing along with another forecast of bluebird skies and low wind.  Today is going to be a good day.  Upon gaining the ridge on the Otto lift, I’m finally able to look around and see the beautiful scenery under the clear skies.  There were peaks, ranges, and volcanoes stretching for miles, some with snow covered tops, some poking through clouds in the distance.   It was a sight to take in; one that makes you forget the music you're listening to and get lost in the beauty.

There was a little refresher of snow since Friday; some new, some blown in from other parts of the mountain.  All that mattered to me was that I was sliding on snow.  I find that I am most at peace and happy when I’m skiing.  Even in a year of low tide snow and a miserable winter, as had been the case with the previous winter in Utah and now in Chile, I still say skiing horrible snow is better than not skiing at all. 

The day blew by as we hit lap after lap of fast pow.  I spent most of the day skiing with Dave from Powder Quest and a new friend by way of another, Matt, a crazy Frenchman from the Pyrenees, that had a “dirty” habit, as he so eloquently put it, of straightlining any and everything he could.  He was fun to ski with and our styles meshed well; we both like skiing fast lines, and then scaring ourselves with tight technical lines and drops.  We would spend the long rides up the Otto lift sharing stories of wrecks, fun descents, and differences in our cultures and countries.  He told me that he usually comes to Las Trancas for a month each year and rents a cabana with a few friends.  He is able to do this as he gets an allotment of seven weeks of vacation each year at his job in France, compared to the “measly” five week standard of the rest of the country.  Immediate jealousy ensued. 

Being Saturday there was sure to be fun and shenanigans had tonight.  We heard that a Brit was going to be playing covers at Oliva’s, a local pub, after dinner, and then everyone was going to head to the disco right next to Oliva’s for mischievous times and dancing.  To protect the innocent, the details of the night shall remain untold.  However, it’s safe to assume there was plenty of dancing and drinks downed as we closed the disco and at the spry hour of 5 am.  This was easy to do as we had already made the decision to have a down day on Sunday, as the forecast was lousy, and the partying so primo.

I spent Sunday hiking up to the closest waterfall of the two in town.  As the weather was still warm down in the valley, the waterfall hadn’t yet frozen over.  The hike was through a jungle of trees and Chilean plumbing, as pipes, water catches, and more pipes encased the hillside below the waterfall.  It was good to get out of the hostel and see some of the local goods.  As I walked the couple miles back to the hostel, the rain picked up, and for the first time in years, I got to play in the rain and not care about being soaked.  That’s a rare occasion when one lives in the desert and also spends majority of their time inside behind a desk.  And it’s that latter part of the previous sentence that echoes loud inside of my mind, like a bad childhood nightmare, as I have long ago been diagnosed with Peter Pan syndrome; how can I be happy sitting still, living someone else’s dream, caged within pinstriped pants and button-up shirts, using ten times more intellect than physical skill in the completion of each day’s duty, playing the game of corporate jargon and status reports?  Is that me?  Is this what I envisioned for myself as a child?  This would be the recurring theme and question running through my mind while on this vacation.

The truth is I don’t think I ever truly envisioned what I would do as an adult as a kid.  Now I of course said I’d like to do this or that, maybe having titles of prestige like doctor or lawyer, or a title of adventure like special forces or helicopter pilot, but even as I continued through life, into college and into the “real” world, I never gave much time or thought to what I was to do next, just going with the flow of things.  I had an idea, but in this day of age where we’re surrounded by unlimited electronic distractions, habits of fighting boredom for a few seconds with a swipe or two on our smartphones, or constantly having music playing in our ears, the true dissection and subsequent decision of one’s life quest hadn’t really happened for me.  But I had an unexpected treat coming to me the next day which gave me an opportunity to be left to my thoughts.

Monday arrived with a bluebird setting and medium winds; another resort ski day.*   That asterisk is the caveat that winds may close down the lifts and you better have a Plan B in place. At this point in time you bet your last dollar I had a Plan B in place.  I had skins with me and planned on hiking up to the volcano due east of the resort, Volcan Neuvo.  On the second lap up while on the T-bar, as sure the sun rises in the east, the wind picked up just like the forecast said, and the lifts stopped spinning. Plan B is a go; midlayer off, skins on, and time to hike.  I gain the ridge and who do I run into?  My new roommate at the hostel Leon.  Mr. Leon is a funny German Italian, or is it Italian German, from a small village in Italy where he ran the business side of his family's winery.  He came out here to get out of Italy and to run the business side of a winery in Chile.  Anyhow back to the story, Leon had skinned up from the base with a group of 4 Frenchies.  After a quick chat about their agenda while battling the deafening 45 kph wind, I decided to hike with them.  This turned out to be quite the hike as the wind was head on blasting us with ice pellets, and gusting up to 60+ kph at this point.  Thank goodness for balaclavas.  It was so bad that I had to keep my helmet and goggles on.  A few hours into this brutal beating of an Andes adventure, we summited the volcano.  The crater was smaller than I expected but the view around was more than I could have asked for.  And the skiing was actually a treat on the south west aspect of the volcano considering how wind beaten the terrain had been on the hike up.

Now that we had skied down the second phase of the group's plan came out; they wanted to ski down to "Aguas Calientes" (the hot springs) in the valley to the south.  I really wanted to go and had only chatted with someone on where they were located without having them pointed out on a topographic map.  The Frenchies said they believed they were just down in the valley below us in the streams that were visible from our location.  I was told they were around the corner in the next valley lower.  At this point I was starting to reconsider making the trek as I didn't plan or prepare for such long day.  But really wanting to hit this spot while at this point not knowing if I was going to stay in Las Trancas, I gave into group think while knowing deep down the majority of the group's travel description didn't fit the description I'd gotten for a local guide with over 12 years experience.  After a long 20 minute skiing traverse we could see the "hot" springs.  I stayed high and waited for the sign that the water was actually hot, as we couldn't see any steam due to the wind.  After everyone went down, I finally dropped in only to find out that the water was indeed not hot at all.  Sucky monkey balls. (We'd find out later that we were only 200 meters away from the hot springs hidden around the corner.) If I would have stayed at my previous location, I was a mere 20-30 minute skin out to the top of the resort.  Now I'm a good 60-90 minutes out. 

The skin out was in an ice valley, and even though we were now heading north on this skin, east on the first skin, the winds changed and were now hitting us head on, but gusting even harder as it was the first notions of a new storm coming in.  By this point in the day around 5:00 pm, as my energy was depleted and I was borderline dehydrated not having planned or prepared for this long of a journery, I hit the wall and it hit me back hard.  Not only was I spent, my iPod had now run out of juice, leaving me to my thoughts and the complaining of my body for the next hour plus. At first the complaining was louder, but having grown up playing football and then moving onto the college ranks, I learned early in my youth how to put those things aside and just finish the task at hand, regardless of the struggle.  (Now here comes that unexpected treat I mentioned above.)  Towards the end of the skin to the top of the resort, my thoughts returned to the recurring theme and question running through my mind while on this vacation; am I satisfied with where I am in life?  As I thought deeply about this while pushing myself to the top of the skin, battling the pros and cons of my life, the good and bad, I came up with my answer as I caught a view of one of the most beautiful sunsets I'd seen in quite a long time.  The answer came as simply this; I'm satisfied with who I've become and the experiences I've gained at this point in my life.  The rest of the night including the ski down to the car, the delicious dinner and beers, and the chatting around the was sweet as I had accomplished another "epic" out in the backcountry and come to the decision that I was satisfied with me, yet still I was not satisfied with someone else's "dream" I was living back home in the states.........

Matt straightlining a shot


Me skiing some fast pow














Natacha, myself, and Nick being forced off the lift at midmountain















The "jungle" around the waterfall

Ouray Ice Climbing Trip

I made my goal of climbing Ouray. December 18th through the 21st was a good weekend of sharp steel and ice. Unfortunately I haven’t received any photos from the other group members yet so I don’t have any of me climbing. I went on the trip as a secondary leader/instructor as majority of the people on the trip were beginners. The first day was done in the Camp Bird Miners area. The next 3 days were spent in the ice park, which was very fun and safe. I got in some really good mileage. But the most interesting and exciting part of the trip happened on the first day. This is a long one, and sorry Mom, I’m not holding any details back, so you might want to consider not reading it. I don't want to get an earful.

For the first day of climbing, we hiked up the canyon to climb some natural lines because the park hadn’t yet opened for the season. Due to availability of climbs, I ended up on a climb called Skylight. I didn’t have the guide book, so I didn’t have any beta. I eye-balled the route to be a solid WI4 rating and said let’s do it. The climb consists of two pitches. The first being about 20+ feet of thick to thin ice with a “V-shaped” crack to negotiate as you pull yourself over the lodged boulder. For my first pitch of the season and first climb of any sort in about 6 months, it was a good warm up. I belayed the other two up one at a time due to the narrowness of the climb. (This is what the first pitch looks like. That's not me, I pulled this from the internet just for a reference. There wasn't this much ice when I climbed it.)

We then walked up to the next pitch. (This picture is what the climb looks like from the trail. Half of the second pitch, minus the top section is visible. Once again there wasn't even half the ammount of ice present when I climbed it.) I call this the “Devil’s Butt Crack.” The ice formed on the left side of a very narrow slot, about 5 feet wide at the bottom, to 3 feet, to 10 feet in the middle, and then to 1 ½ feet at the top before you have to pull yourself through another “V-shaped” crack, with this one being even smaller and more narrow than the first pitch. I reracked my protection and looked up at my line. There wasn’t much ice on the route, so I had to go straight up the middle. I started up at a nice slow pace so to not pump myself out. The cool thing about the Devil’s Butt Crack is that you can just lean against the wall behind you to get a hands free rest. I definitely took advantage of this going up. But since it was the Devil’s Butt Crack, things didn’t pan out as great as they started. Deception was present.

When I got to the middle section I noticed that the wall behind me started to get further and further away, making it impossible to use it for a rest, or even reach out and touch it. At the same time as the wall furthered from me, the ice started to steepen from almost vertical to dead vertical, to slightly past vertical. I was now on WI5 ice for sure. I wasn’t able to notice these changes in the steepness and wall aspect from the ground, and had miscalculated the actual crux of the climb. I now refer to the crux as the Devil’s Deception. I started to get a little pumped, as what happens at cruxes, and worse yet, I started to lose my cool. I was about 10 meters above my last piece and still didn’t have a good spot to stop and place a screw. I started to talk to myself. The fear and actuality of a possible fall in a narrow slot high above my last piece that was in thin ice, had worked its way to the forefront of my thoughts. I started to lose it. I began to rush my swings and my feet placement, which just added to my current forearm pump that was going on. At one point I lost my footing as my front points popped out of the ice. What made this scary was that I only had one tool in the ice as I was mid swing with the other tool. That is called a “one armed bandit” because you are hanging from only one arm. It’s now the third one that I’ve had to experience that on a lead. I think this is where I strained my left latissimus dorsi muscle, but I wouldn’t notice till later that night. I was sweating like crazy, partly because I was working hard on the climb and partly because of nerves. My swings were becoming more and more desperate.

By now I had thought to myself twice that I was not going to be able to get my tools in the ice, or even hold on, eventually peeling of the ice and get seriously hurt. I did not bring any cord or a 22 cm ice screw to perform a V-thread and lower to the ground, nor was I in a good place to be able to safely perform the maneuver. Here, as I realized that the situation had turned from floating in calm seas to teetering on the edge of a rogue wave, ready to go down in rough seas, I said the second quickest pray in my life: “Oh Lord, help. It’s not my time.” I now chuckle as I write this for two reasons: Primarily, because that it’s the second time I’ve been faced with this situation, and secondly, to push the feelings of the fear and helplessness from the experience out of my mind.

I was able to get my tools in, breathe two deep breaths, collect my nerves, and hurry up the next 3 meters of ice to where I could kick my leg out behind me, establishing a stem which helped give me a good stance to place a screw, and give my arms a much needed break. The crux was now starting to disappear below me. I then pushed the previous doubt, fear, and anxiety out of my mind with the top out only 10 meters above me. I took my time resting and finally yelled down to my belayer, “Whew! That was a little hard.” I don’t think that they sensed how sarcastic I was at this point. I hadn’t allowed myself to tell them that I was in trouble during the crux so to not unnerve their minds, causing them to act nervously, which would have lead to an increase in my anxiety, allowing a complete loss of my nerves. I left it at a one man show because it was all I could do to not crumble.

As I climbed to the top, the slot narrowed to the point where I could swing my tool back no more than 5 inches from the ice, and forced me to position my body to the left of my line, practically laying my side on the rock. I navigated myself through the narrow crack, topping out expecting to have the tree anchor a few feet in front of me, only to meet another 20+ foot section of vertical ice. No problem right? Not exactly. Well I had used all seven of my ice screws on the main part of the climb. I didn’t even care anymore. I quickly soloed up this section of WI4 ice and clipped into the anchor setting up the belay.

Wow that was fun. I smiled as the trial was over. I called Daniel on the radio and told him that I was now at the top of my climb, that I had gotten on the hardest climb I ever led, which was a little over my head for the first climb of the season, that it was a really fun route, and the details of what went down. Haha. I had overcome that crazy challenge. As I sat there with my sweat drenched layers now freezing to me, waiting for the strong beginners to struggle up this climb, I knew that I completed the hardest lead I’ve ever attempted. Here, I told myself not to let it go to my head, it wasn’t a good performance on my part.

After we got down and back to the car, I viewed the guide book. Skylight is rated at WI4+ to WI5+. The description said that in the early season the route is WI5 due to the steepness and the thickness of the ice, along with the scarcity of good placements for protection. I then smiled because I have now led a WI5. Once again, I told myself not to let it go to my head, it wasn’t a good performance. I’ve noticed a few more gray hairs since this experience.

Polar Opposite: A Great Weekend With Some Cool Surprises

Ok so yes my last weekend wasn't the greatest. It seemed that the fun karma had become depleted in my life. In reality, I was having a lot of fun this summer, so I couldn't expect to have an awesome weekend every week, now could I. So enough pouting for me, time to quit being a baby.

Onto this weekend. Complete 180 from last week. It was crazy, busy, exciting, fun, and super involved. Let's take a closer look shall we (I'm such a nerd, this I know).

Friday: Work went by so quick. There wasn't anybody there, and of all the nothing I had to do, I got it all done. It was the first day that I really didn't care about having nothing going on because it went by so quickly. But after work, what time is it? Hockey time. Now this is how good my weekend was going, let me elaborate. So we only had 6 guys there to play hockey. For some reason no one was showing up. Well of course we knew that they'd cancel it and I'd be out of a good release once again. But the guy who had to stay and zamboni the ice agreed to let us play. Oh that was so awesome. We then played 3 on 3 for the next hour plus. I was super beat by the end of it all. Now once that was finished, I had to get home, hydrate, and get over to the soccer facility for a late night make up game. I was actually really out of it the whole time, for one thing, and then being in a boarded up field that looks similar to a hockey arena, made me think that I would just poke check the ball away with my stick (which didn't exist) while on defense, or just check the guy into the boards to stop him. Whoops. I got beat once or twice in the beginning and also got a foul or two called on me. All that said I did manage to score my first goal of the season. Now that's saying a lot for me because I never play up. Since nobody else on the team really gets back on defense, I decided to play sweeper, I'm the last man back. So I had an opportunity in which there was a good opening, I passed it up, he took a shot on goal, I got the rebound, and drilled it in. So it was a good night. Indoor soccer definitely is a completely different game from outdoor, which is why I am not too fond of it, but it is still fun to get out and run.

So on to Saturday. I took it easy and just did laundry during the day and waited for my night plans. So remember last week I happened to complain about a certain brunette that stood me up? Well I did get a hold of her, we planned a date for Saturday, and I totally stood her up. Oh man revenge is so nice. I mean I told her what restaurant to meet at, called her saying that I was a little late and to see if she was there already, and then once I confirmed she was there, I called the restaurant and had the hostess tell her that I couldn't make it because I was out with my girlfriend. Oh my gosh how good is that!!!! Payback.

I know, I know.... I really know how to give it to someone. And right now as you're reading this thinking about how much of a jerk I was, how insensitive and immature I acted, wanting to punch me in the face feeling sorry for that poor woman, you're now going to have that feeling of being dooped by Alex once again.

Of course I didn't do that to her. Are you serious? I did go out with the "MaGirl" and we had a good time. She truly was sick the other day and didn't feel good enough to call. So now that I feel like an idiot for thinking that she stood me let's get on to the date. So after having to stop off at her sister's for a bit we headed back up to Salt Lake for dinner. It was an alright dinner for food, but it was really good for getting to know her. We seemed to talk a lot about work, personal goals, priorities (oh yeah, you know I said skiing), and just whatever else came up. She's really a sweet person. She's mature, my age (thank goodness), brunette (of course, you know me) a dancer (way fun), intelligent, and beautiful, especially her smile. It was just really easy for me to get along with her.

After dinner we met up with my buddy Mike, his girlfriend, and her friends to go out dancing. That of course was way fun, especially when you're with a good dancer. So after all the club fun was said and done, I got "MaGirl" back to her place around 3:15 am or so. I was not about to drive all the way back up to Ogden. I called Mike and met up with him to crash, but I never got tired now that I wasn't driving, so I stayed up and finally headed home to Ogden at 6 am. Now that sucked.

Since it's already Sunday let's talk about that. Yeah so church was hard. I was so beat. The new Bishopric spoke and yeah. Well the big surprise is finally getting to hang out with a good childhood buddy from Wisconsin. Ben Leonhardt moved out to Layton the other week, and we planned on hanging out Sunday night. It's good to see him. Man he still looks the same. Why couldn't I still have the same hairline? Why do I have to have the family hairline? Anyway, we chatted about everything: school, work, finding jobs, girls (and the ridiculous drama that is contained within their DNA), crappy student loan payments, skiing, possibly rooming together in Salt Lake City, and life. Way fun time. I'm so glad that he is out here. He's a good buddy to have around. I hope that he finds a job quickly.

To an absolutely fun, invigorating, and exhausting weekend: Adieu.

More Pictures from Last Week

Justin taking the pics (yes I finally got a pick of him)



Group Model Shot



Brooke Swinging



Crematorium



Ghost Check



Crematorium on top



Salt Lake at night

Friends, Food, Films, and Fun

So I meant for this to be posted earlier, but I didn't have the pics yet. We can all thank Justin for these fabulous pics.

Now that I have a lot of free time on my hands, I always seem to get to the weekend and have no idea of what I am going to do. The past couple of months I seemed to know exactly what I would be doing days before. So I am still getting used to all of this.

I did have plans for Saturday night, but I had no idea what I wanted to do during the day. Luckily Justin and I were on the same page. We both had things to do around the house, for the first part of the day, but needed to run some errands to the same places after that.

We had a blast going to a discount grocery store and getting some goodies. After that we drove down to Salt Lake for the night plans. Let me tell you that this day was absolutely gorgeous. Our plans were to meet up with Brooke and Camille, grab a bite to eat, and then go see Son of Rambo.

We drove down to a Chinese Gourmet and pigged out on Chinese and Mongolian BBQ. Now that was quality eating. Feeling all greasy and stuffed we headed back to downtown SLC for the movie. The theater, Broadway Theatre, shows mainly independent, Sundance Film festival movies, and stays away from the mainstream Hollywood crap. Our choice for the night was Son of Rambo.

Son of Rambo is the name of the home movie made by two little boys with a big video camera and even bigger ambitions. The movie is set on a long English summer in the early 80's. It is a comedy about friendship, faith and the tough business of growing up. The movie is seen through eleven or twelve year old Will, the eldest son of a fatherless Plymouth Brethren family. The Brethren regard themselves as God's 'chosen ones' and their strict moral code means that Will has never been allowed to mix with the other 'worldlies,' listen to music or watch TV, until he finds himself caught up in the extraordinary world of Lee Carter, the school terror and maker of bizarre home movies. Carter exposes Will to a pirate copy of Rambo: First Blood and from that moment Will's mind is blown wide open and he's easily convinced to be the stuntman in Lee Carters' diabolical home movie. Will's imaginative little brain is not only given chance to flourish in the world of film making, but is also very handy when it comes to dreaming up elaborate schemes to keep his partnership with Lee Carter a secret from the Brethren community. Will and Carter's complete disregard for consequences and innocent ambition means that the process of making their film is a glorious roller coaster that eventually leads to true friendship. They start to make a name for themselves at school as movie makers but when popularity descends on them in the form of the Pied Piper-esque French exchange student, Didier Revol, their unique friendship and their precious film are pushed, quite literally, to breaking point.

It was a good film, quite enjoyable. The night still felt young, even though 11:00 pm is late for me, so we looked for other ways to get into trouble. After getting some sundaes from McDonald’s we headed to a park in the Avenues with the camera. We just wanted to goof off and have proof of our childhood playground relapse. This is what we got.

Camille, Dino and me



Brooke



Slide Fun





How to REALLY make a woman happy (give them your credit card)



Pole Dancing



Jailhouse

After the playground we decided that we were going to hike up to one of the old crematoriums. High up on the bench behind the capital building, there is an old crematorium that has been gated up so that people won’t get hurt playing on it. It was about 1:00 am and we hiked up the path under an almost full moon. I wasn’t thinking about it or even caring about it, but the closer we got to the destined place, the creepier the feeling became. I definitely could tell that we were at a place of death. It was just weird. At one point, we all had those extremely small hairs on the back of your neck rise up. Creepy. I’ll tell you that much. I of course had fun on the way back and hid in the bush scaring the girls as they walked by. All in all it was a very fun night. And it’s been awhile since I have had one of those.

It was a really fun time.

Fun At Work: Introducing Lt. "Gas Can" Dan

So today had a good start to it. I was at my desk going at another wonderful spreadsheet when I got a call. GTACS's very own 2nd Lieutenant Dan Luczak called me in distress. Yes, we have a Lieutenant Dan, just like on Forest Gump. He stated very desperately that he needed my help and to not tell anyone. When I asked him what was going on he said that he's car is stuck on the side of the interstate, to leave and pick him in 5 minutes at the West Gate entrance, and to not tell anyone.

So I go pick him up and what was going on? Lt. Dan, who is a drag racer, from Detroit, lives, breathes, drinks, dreams, and talks cars, has just run out of gas a 1/4 mile outside of base. So to say the least, my buddy is a little pissed and embarrassed. Why wouldn't he be embarrassed? The man practically pisses high octane with how involved he is with cars. Why was he pissed off? Well more than 20 cars passed by as he was walking down the off-ramp to base and no one stopped to see if he needed a ride. "I get no respect I tell ya. Everyone sees that I'm just a 2nd Lieutenant and they just walk on by laughing," he bickers. For those of you that don't know, a 2nd lieutenant is the lowest of the commissioned rank (officers).

I, of course, was having a great time and laughing my butt off. So we go to his apartment, grab a 5 gallon gas can, return to his car, and get him with some fuel to drive the remaining mile to work. Of course, as his friend, I can't let this go unnoticed with the other cowokers. so what do I do? I took out my nifty little iPhone and take the following picture:

Anyone on base would first recognize that exit sign to be the off-ramp to get on base. Next if you look at the right side of the picture, you'll notice a couple of intercontinental ballistics missiles that mark the entrance. He was quite embarrassed to get that far and not make it in.

As we get back to our building, Dan places a gag order on me. As he goes to talk with a boss regarding an item to be brought up in his staff meeting, I email the picture to the guys in the cubicle and others in the building. They just happened to put it on their desktops to see how long it'd take Dan to notice. Well since someone unintentionally let him know that I did that, I had to make up for it. So I printed out a copy and gave it to his boss to pass it around in the staff meeting. I guess that was the funniest staff meeting that they've had in GTACS in a long time.

Now Dan was a little upset at my antics, but it was more to him feeling embarrassed, being a man with a high octane stature. We were joking about after their meeting and came up with a great call sign for him: Gas Can Dan. Yeah it's no Maverick or Goose, but it sure is funny.

Even after all the prodding I did, Dan still took me out to lunch to show his appreciation.