Summer is in the Air

Rope Solo time of year is here.

Just got back from Alaska, which has been dominating my mind for the past two months. Getting ready, getting in shape, all that good stuff.

I had a ton of fun, took the Alaska Mountaineering School 12 day Advanced Mountaineering Course, which because all 6 of us averaged more on the "rock jock" side of things, ended up focused on Rock Climbing, rescue, self-rescue, anchor building in an Alpine environment, etc. In addition to a great ascent of North Troll via the South Fork of the North Couloir. Steep snow, up to 75 degrees crappy, mixed with rock. Slush pits in the late morning/afternoon. Tons of fun. While they were doing rock rescue I experimented with some self-belay and self-lowering scenarios, which the one instructor totally dug.

Anyway, I get home and the first thing I want to do is go outside and climb rock but first I have to get all my stuff together. Getting ready for Alaska I did the whole "two pile" thing - one pile for Alaska, the other one huge leaver pile. So now I have to put the Alaska stuff away, and sort the horrible mess of the leaver pile. So I found my car in the garage to make room for the in-law's car while I was gone, which is cool, no biggie, but it made the perfect "shelf" to sort my gear on the hood. So I had biners and draws and slings and pro all over on it, then nice and neat into boxes and almost into the pack.

Heading to the gym tonight for a bit of a workout, but I'll try to get outside in Utah sometime this week. I'll probably be in Colorado for the big holiday weekend, so I may get to do some toprope solo at the Swan Mountain crag like last time. There are a few routes there, but I think they're all toprope, which is cool enough solo - just simple rope management.

I'll see which one I get done first and get back to this blog with some pics and news. TTYL