RichMirandasEpicSummer

Squamish Climbing

Rich and I went to Squamish, BC for a week, our annual trip to one of our favorite climbing destinations in the world (convenient that it's only a 7 hour drive). For those of you who've been to Vancouver or Whistler, it's right between the two on Howe Sound.

Our first couple days were packed. We did the Grand Wall to Roman Chimneys- 12 pitches of 10+ climbing in 10 hours. This was a long, strenuous day with Rich leading everything and me pulling on bolts, gear and stepping on bolts all over the place! Not my proudest climb, but I did it and didn't slow us down. Rich did an awesome job leading and didn't even seem all that tired at the end, but I was out of commission for the next day.

We then had two days of rain:( We tried to make the best of it- Rich biked in the rain, we went to a yoga class, went to Whistler, saw movies and did a lot of sleeping and reading. I'm not quite sure how mountain biking counts as a rainy day activity for Rich...definitely not for me. The sun finally came out and we did a very wet multipitch 5.9. Scary when wet, but we were just happy to be back on the rock.

We didn't take a whole lot of pictures on this trip, these are the best.

Looking over Howe Sound from the Squaw wall. This was a great 5.10d multipitch.

Slabmaster Miranda- ha ha. We actually did 7 pitch climb of all slab- 10.c. We even had fun!

Rainy day hike to some waterfall on the way to Whistler.

Our new friends Beth and Kristen. We met them the first night and had a great time hanging out with them in the evenings and doing a little climbing together. Beth lives in the mid west and Kristen lives in San Fran. We hope to climb with them in the future.

There were a couple slacklines set up in camp, and Rich could not resist them. We had a lot of fun watching him.

This was a super hard and runout 5.11 slab at Shannon Falls (Local Boys Done Good)- 58 meters long. I fell multiple times trying to follow Rich to the first bolt, which was about 35 feet up- I don't know how he kept it together. He did this clean- a tick for any slabmaster.

Exploring Okanogan County

Omak Crack!

Omak lake after work- picnic dinner. This is Kathy, who kindly wore a matching shirt to my nailpolish.

Parker and Kathy coming on shore.

Just a quick paddle across the lake. We definitely spent more time eating and relaxing than paddling.

Kathy- love the hat!

Devil's Tower with Chris in May

Smith Rock/Bend, Oregon with Adam and Mara. May 9-12

Long pitch (2 rappels)

= Bored Belayer

Struggling with gear

Action ready Adam

Travelling in Adam's VW van.

Pancakes with whipped cream, peanut butter, mango, syrup and watermelon.

Adam's friend Cam kindly let us stay at his place even though he wasn't there.

Camping at Smith with awesome views.

A 'warm-up' 5.11+

Check out the Monkey Face tower.

Maggie like Smith too. This is before her summer haircut, check out Miranda's facebook for a post haircut pic.

Adam and Mara.

Frenchman's Coulee, WA

Miranda went climbing with new friends Kathy, Parker and Marissa last Saturday. We had an awesome time. Parker has a fancy camera, and more importantly, knows how to use it. Frenchman's Coulee is in the middle of WA, about 3 hours away. It actually rained lightly on us for about an hour, but you can't tell in the pics. Thankfully, the wall stayed dry.

I was so intent on the climb that I never noticed the skull grafiti until I saw the pictures.

5.8 warm-up

Marissa leading in a tight spot.

Fun 5.10B

Kathy and Marissa.

This climb was a little reachy and delicate- I'm pretty proud of this lead.

The sun finally came out at the end of the day!

Trip to Mt. Carlyle Lodge, BC

Late Winter Tours- Ali Baba Area

It was super hot skinning up- we all would've been more comfy in our skivvies!

After 2 hours of skinning, we reach the top of Ali Baba and can drop onto some north facing powder.

Rich boarding- this chute was steeper than it appears in the video.

Miranda

Snowy March Skiing and Signs of Spring

There are some signs of spring around Okanogan. Here are a few crocuses in the neighborhood, though ours have yet to appear. All the snow is melted down here in the valley and it's hitting 40 during the day, which is a breath of warm air. I'm so excited for spring, warm weather, lounging on our deck and planting the garden.

Snow bells at our place- always the first thing to pop up.

Look close- These are garlic shoots in our garlic patch. I planted a whole bunch last spring and several different kinds, though I don't remember what. It turns out garlic is easy to grow and very rewarding. You just push the cloves under the soil in the fall, mulch well, water in the spring and you're eating garlic tops by June and harvesting by July.

Up in the mountains spring has not arrived. We went skiing with Maggie for the first time this year on Sunday. We haven't brought her out yet this year because she is slowing down. Last year, she'd always be stiff and sore for a couple days after and outing. We hadn't planned on bringing her Sunday, but she jumped in the back of the car with all the gear and gave a look like "all I want to do is play with you and love you, why won't you let me?". We're suckers and couldn't bear to shoo her out of the car. Besides, we'd had a big, epic day on Saturday and weren't planning the same.

It snowed on us all day- take a look at our white dog. She kept up pretty well, a little slow on the last descent. We gave her an aspirin afterwords, and she never seemed stiff!

This is how the three of us get up in the mountains. Maggie is wedged between us, and I hold on for dear life to Rich. My arms were super sore the following day, because everything is pushing me backwards and my biceps do all the work to keep me and Maggie from tumbling off the back. Maggie didn't struggle too much and we made it the 3 or 4 miles up the trail without having to stop once.