NOLS Southwest Instructor Course

5/20/06
After Carefree I headed for the Grand Canyon. I arrived just before sunset. Camped at Desert View and took in the view from the watchtower. Had some interesting folks camped next to me, I'll leave it at that.

5/21/06
I was packed and driving by 6am. Went to the backcountry office, not expecting to get a permit, and though I could have gotten one for tomorrow I decided to pass. I got ready for a day hike instead. I eventually made it to Hermit's Rest by shuttle. It was later than I wanted to start so I took a shorter hike. Went down Hermits trail to Santa Maria Springs. Man, it felt good to be hiking again. I liked seeing a different part of the canyon too. I went in about 2.5 miles then started up. Talked to lots of people along the way. That part was extremely enjoyable. There were some cool pouroffs and overhanging rocks. When I was almost back up to the top 3 people with a purse and .5L of water asked me how long it took to get to the river. Oh my God. It was 2:20pm. I tried to kindly explain that it would be dangerous to attempt. The guy pointed and said, but it's just right there. Yeah, that's another few thousand vertical feet my friend. I shouldn't be--but I was amazed. I made it back up in great time, about the same time it took me to get down. I did stop for some quality time spent chatting with 2 folks from Oregon. I made it back to my car and drove for awhile towards California. Spent a slightly miserable night in Lake Havasu.

5/22/06
Outta camp by 5am this morning. On my way I stopped at a scenic overlook and napped for awhile. I got to Joshua Tree in the early afternoon and got a campsite in Jumbo Rock campground. Beautiful and about 65. Hell yes! I got camp set up and had some lunch then took another fantastic nap. I spent a bunch of time getting my stuff organized again. After an early dinner I played around on some boulders near camp and watched the sunset. Such a beautiful time at J Tree. Then I went up on boulder to take some pictures. Shortly after I turned in for an early night. I slept for about 10 hours. Dee-lightful.

5/23/06
I slowly packed up and drove out via Cottonwood Springs. I stopped for a In&Out Burger on my way to CHOSS. Got to Camp Highland around 12:45 and everything was super quiet. Lunchtime. They should be done by now so I'm heading over to say hello.

5/20/06
I left Tucson and headed to the Tonto National Forest, where my AmeriCorps team built rock walls oh so many years ago. I actually found Seven Springs pretty easily, but it took longer to get there than I remembered. Maybe that's cuz Dave wasn't driving. Lots of unpaved road. The twists and turns all felt familiar though. A fire had gone through last year and it was still very obvious. The Seven Springs is a fee area, but I bypassed that part. The rock walls still looked good. One or two places had rocks that had come unattached from the top of the wall. The main wall we did had one shell and two spots were quarters were once mashed in. I love it. I drove out to camp too. I had to walk part of it cuz the gate was locked. They turned part of it into a helipad and the rest looks like it never sees human action. I saw the circle where we'd run and hte place we'd stand and eat in the morning waiting for the sun. Good stuff.

5/2/06
The climbing instructors are wonderful. So far they are just as focused on low-stress, learn-as-much-as-possible and have fun personal/group growth. I think NOLS has gotten cooler since my last experience with them. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that it’s one section down. It’s something I feel like I’ve been working towards for a long time and now I’m in it. Oh—we had a rattlesnake visit us in camp yesterday. Seemed like a nice fella. I’m jumping around here but, we’re in Cochise again at the same campsite as the seminar. We climbed at Council Rocks today. Sun setting at Cochise is a beautiful thing. We saw the pictographs at Council Rocks today too.

5/3/06
Started off this fine morning with eggs and hash browns. We split into groups after an excellent self-awareness talk by John. My group went to Lone Dome to build anchors and climb. It was a really fun day. I got in 3 climbs and felt pretty good on all of them. There was a roofy-bit, a cracky-bit, and a bulgy-bit to work on. I’m feeling comfortable on the rock and the gear I placed today was bomber for our anchor. This rock camp is freaking sweet. Oh my thermarest has a hole and I haven’t found it yet.

5/4/06
Well I think I found the hole in the therma-rest. I’ll see if the repair worked soon enough. Also today has been a good reflective day. I am starting to again feel the benefits of living a somewhat simple life. For example I’m going to bed with darkness and awaking at the first sign of light. I hear the same birds singing every night—the one I can easily identify is the poor will. Sometimes a Great Horned Owl will hoot. The stars are incredible and I’m learning new constellations. The temperature is just right for Carharts and a t-shirt. In the afternoon the sun can be brutal, but shade isn’t too far away. Today we did some rapelling and then we bouldered. I got on a fun problem involving a traverse with a heel hook the whole way. My fingertips are still bright red. I did laundry this afternoon and then made my first attempt on the slack line. I’m hooked. I’m not good—but progress is notable.

5/5/06
Today was a strange day for me. I was uninspired to climb. When I did get on climbs I had irrational fears holding me back. Today was a good day to begin mock leading—but not for me. The last climb I did today was fun. It had one hard part that I wouldn’t have liked to be leading. It was fun to top rope though. I’ve been getting on the slack line as much as possible lately too. I’m seeing tiny improvements which make me happy.

5/6/06
Today was awesome. I felt good this morning after a hearty breakfast. Wasn’t sure at first how it’d feel after my sad performance yesterday. We started off with building anchors—which was a bit challenging for me at first. There weren’t many obvious places right away—took some searching. Good stuff though. We busted out 4 anchors and came up with the crazy idea to rap down all together screaming “rap attack”. Rap attack refers to the fire fighting crew that Darcy had worked with. So nothing like our raps—but we pretended. We did it in two groups and I went second with Andrew and Darcy. It was hilarious and a great way to get everybody amped up for the day. Then the climbing began. I got on one climb and did it over and over again. I felt pretty good climbing it the second time. It was a crack with a little bulgy bit and a few pretty challenging jams. I got in some good mantles and crazy high foot/hand counter balance moves. Loved it. Then I did a mock lead. It went pretty well—not the smoothest one I’ve ever done though. It was nice to have the chance to climb the same route multiple times. Also nice to have encouragement from everybody around. I didn’t have many irrational fear moments today. Felt much more comfortable. Everything felt more laid back and fun. Tomorrow we get to sleep in a little and break from climbing. Good thing—my tips are super sore and my mucles could use a rest as well.

5/7/06
I just had my mid-section check-in. He said I’m well on my way to being ready for hire—no problem. He also mentioned that NOLS is gonna like me. Well hell, with that kinda feedback I’m feeling pretty solid. One of life’s goals is well within reach. My goal of lead climbing is also close at hand. We have 5 more days of climbing and one day will be multi-pitching. If I go to Low Dome two of those days then I’ll be good. Hopefully my next visit there will leave me less mentally wrecked.

5/8/06
Today was a girls day at the rock with John along. Fun day. I mock lead an easy crack and TR’ed a couple more challenging routes. Scott, the SW branch director, came to visit and brought ice cream!!

5/9/06
Today Jess and I went multi-pitching Scott. He’s soon to be one of the big dudes in the heirarchy of NOLS. He was fun and it was cool to spend the day with him. The climb itself was great. Some dihedral crack, some face, some chicken heads, and one vertical juggy part. Then we rappelled down again. I’m pretty worn out now.

5/10/06
I had another good day. Went back to Indian Rock and climbed a new route there. It’s perfect for my first lead. I feel totally solid on it, no way I expect to fall. I'll potentially lead it tomorrow. We also talked today about the financial challenges of working for NOLS. In reference to the low wages John made a good point—if you can fill the position with a qualified person then it’s not underpaid. Pay will not increase unless instructors refuse to work at current rates. The big survey found NOLS extremely high in job satisfaction and dead last in pay satisfaction. Well most of us knew the ballpark payscale before coming and we still shelled out thousands of dollars to take the course. Obviously there are other benefits to working at the school that even outsiders can see and appreciate. Hopefully the first few years I’ll balance NOLS, NYC and whatever else fills in the gaps and then go more full-time with NOLS until I get burnt out or my body can no longer handle it. Sounds like my first options will be to get into the caving and sea kayaking seminars to get some of the burden off my knees and back. Never stop planning. That also might help me work more international courses, in the future. Back to the present—just two more climbing days left. The sickness going around hasn’t hit me and I’m doing my best to keep it at bay until after the course.

5/11/06
I started off today with stressing over breakfast. We got out of rotation and didn’t know who was cooking. I started it and then Dane tagged in, and Eric finished it off. No need to stress after all. We had delicious eggs, chilis, cheese, and hashbrowns. And some for lunch too. The climbing day started with a mock lead of the easy right crack at Indian Rock. Went perfectly and Steven said I could lead it. I racked up and got ready for my first lead climb. Then I sent it totally comfortably and placing solid gear. I freakin rocked it. Steven checked everything and he said all my pieces were bomber. I took a little break and then started climbing again. I went up Peter Meter (on top rope) pretty well and then attempted the 5.10b crossover crack. Ha. That was fun, but I couldn’t make the first of several hard moves. So I went back and mock lead Peter Meter. It went well, not totally comfortable though. If I go back tomorrow that’ll be my goal. If not, that’s cool too. Overall it was an excellent day of climbing and I’m proud of myself. Now that we’re back to camp I’m experiencing a bit of food stress. We’re gonna run out. Lunch and dinner will be scarce. Gonna make our first town meal taste so good.

5/11/06-more
So I just thought of some cool stuff that I probably haven’t written about yet. First let me say that the moon is so bright now that no lights are needed for most things. In fact I can almost see well enough to write without headlamp—almost. Walking, on the other hand, is just perfect by moonlight. The wind is rustling the grass and leaves occasionally and the poor will is calling constantly. The moon rises to the east over the mountains beyond camp and we get a great view late afternoon from our kitchen. Looking out the mesh of our tent we stare directly at the North Star and most obviously the Big Dipper. Every time we have an evening meeting there are bunches of bats flying overhead. Recently there’s also been a skunk very interested in us and all of our stuff. He seems to make contact with all who dare to sleep out. I’ve been choosing to sleep in the tent so I can sleep with my bag totally open and not fear scorpions, kissing bugs, or skunks. Tonight there were a few clouds that made the sunset even more beautiful. The almost full moon was pretty spectacular through the thin layers of clouds as well. The sunset turns the rock all shades of red and orange and the golden grass becomes burnt orange in places and it all shifts as the breeze come through. During the day lizards crawl over everything. It’s comical to spend 20 minutes getting ready to climb and see a lizard walk up the wall sideways and then upside down. Makes ya think they must be laughing at us. Saw a red-tail perched in a tree today and one soaring overhead with nesting materials trailing behind this evening. The drives to Low Dome have produced sights of mule deer, coyote and countless birds. We saw an eagle at JB Wall. A massive cargo plane also flew very close by overhead today “shooting the gap” near Whale Dome. My headlamp is going spastic so this may end abruptly. This has been a strange trip in the sense of experiencing a sense of place. Obviously I have a bit, but I’ve been surrounded by people and artificial things so much. I haven’t taken my usual time away from it all to immerse myself in my surroundings completely. I just do it in little bits and pieces at a time. Sleeping in the tent is a major difference. Sometimes when I get up to pee in the middle of the night I stay out a little longer than necessary to try to absorb some of the world around me—mostly the stars. There’s a pretty amazing view of the Milky Way late at night here. Ok its 10:18—later than I’ve stayed up in a long time. We’ll see if it hits me tomorrow. For now—sleep well.

5/12/06
Today was a good last climbing day. My first climb was a TR of Peter Meter. It went perfectly. I was climbing smooth and efficiently. Then I took a long break in the shade and chatted with Jess for awhile. I got on another mock lead of Peter Meter and just completely flailed on it. I don’t know what was going on. I wasn’t nervous or anything like that—I just couldn’t place gear to save my life and I forgot how to climb. I laughed at myself most of the way up. I certainly wasn’t in the zone for that one. I got my mind right and tried it again. I was singing to myself and things were flowing much better. I was pretty happy with it overall.
Tonight we had a potluck dinner in the I-team kitchen while they were in Tombstone meeting about our evals. After food we had a game of Connect 4, a game of hearts and various makers of music. Sometimes just guitar and Rob singing, then just drums, then both. And in the midst of it all was a pretty spectacular moon rise. Full moon, bright as can be, with a few clouds to color the sky.

5/13/06
So a few things have come up that sound possibly interesting. First—tomorrow afternoon Steve will be offering contracts to as many people as possible for this summer. Looking good! Another thing is that the SW Branch is doing an almost full staff-turnover. The gear room and rations room positions are open. It could mean a higher likelihood of work next summer and even possibly an off-season field contract during the year of in-town work. I’ll have to do some more thinking about that and contact John later for more info.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s oppressively hot here. Oh my God. Most of the section wasn’t bad. The past 5 days or so have been brutal. It was 100 in Tucson yesterday—not sure about here, but it feels damn hot. The last 2 climbing days we didn’t even attempt to climb until shade started coming over the crag. Today is more of the same. It’s exhausting just to be in the sun.
It's gear clean and eval talk day. We’ve finished technical gear and the evals are just beginning. Well my eval talk has happened and it was good. My grades either stayed the same or went up. My favorite bit of feedback was - the best thing for my professional development is to work NOLS courses. Haha. I love it. I’ll do my best to take their advice.

5/14/06
We left Cochise early in the morning. As is our style we were ready early and rocked out work in record time. We stopped near Benson for gas. Almost everyone got Krispy Kremes and juice or coffee. It was sugar-y deliciousness. Then we got back to the branch and knocked out all the deissue and gear stuff quickly. I finally made some phone calls – got to talk to Mom, Dad, and Chris. Still have quite a few people to talk to though. We had our staffing talks and I got offered a Wind River Wilderness course in June. Perfect! Everybody who wanted a contract got one as far as I know. There was a little downtime in there and then the party started. Beer and a grill—doesn’t get much better. Oh wait, a pool. It was awesome. I played pool bball with Dane and Andrew. We started with a game of PIG and I destroyed them, then moved to a more challenging game of EARNEST, I was on fire to start—then things went downhill. Also the shots chosen by Dane and Andrew got more interesting. Lots of jumping from the pool deck, sometimes over the backboard. Oh jeez. Fun night all around and goodbyes took place throughout the next day.

4/23/06
Today was nice and beautiful again. The canyon (middle fork) was unbelievable. Cool rock, tons of river crossings, lots of vegetation. Saw a rattlesnake on the trail today. Not happy to be disturbed, but we gave him plenty of space. We just got back from a little trip to the hot springs—actually warm springs. Perfect way to spend the evening. Very relaxed.

4/24/06
We're on our small group hike now. Beautiful day! Fun times going up Jordan Canyon and a fairly easy hike once up on the mesa. Now we’re camped in a small flat area in the middle of drainage.

4/25/06
Travel on the mesa today. No water at our camp last night (well no water we wanted to drink) so we were very excited to reach the East Fork of the Gila. Later that afternoon we met up with the rest of the small groups and got back to our normal cook-groups.

4/26/06
Very short hike today to mouth of Tom Moore Canyon. Hot day, hike ended with a dip in the river.

4/27/06
Today was one of the most high mileage days so far. 12 or so, mostly losing elevation. Pretty walk—some canyon stuff, lots of flat and then dropping into another canyon. Great weather. Took about 7 hours with lots of break time. Two hiking days and 1 layover left. Feeling good bout how it’s going and it seems like the I-team is doing everything possible to make us feel prepared. An even longer day is coming tomorrow so…g’night.

4/28/06
Yesterday I got worked, whipped, and destroyed (ok, slightly over-dramatic). It was great, but the end sorta felt like I was on a death march. It was the hardest day yet. About 17 miles and up a 10,000’ peak. I hiked with the all female group today—Jess, Jaclyn, Rhiannon and Christine. I was not feeling very high energy most of the day, but then it kicked in later. We got into camp about 6:30 or so and the first group had hot drinks ready and waiting. Tea never tasted so good. Feet and knees aching, but smiles all around. Another interesting thing about today is that it snowed. Yup after weeks of gorgeous hot weather it took revenge. Started with just a few white specks falling and occasionally got a bit more full-on. No rain, and no problems keeping ourselves dry—just snow and wind as we climbed ridge after ridge up this peak. Once we got up there I laid on my pack and barely moved. The last two hours we just hiked in silence, no stopping. I was in front—otherwise I would have slowed down too much. We all rocked it pretty hard. I actually slept in the tent last night. Not a fan. I like having space and fresh air—seems logical when living outdoors. Ok gotta go get ready for our meeting.

4/29/06
Ahh. I have dirt caked in the crevasses of my hands and the calluses are coming back to my feet. Life is good. My legs are scratched up and I’m lying in the sun in a T-shirt and long underwear. I’ve go the words “tolerance for a & u” written on my stomach and “public message” written on my leg in dry erase marker as parts of previous Scott classes. The air smells of cedar because Rob is making his bow drill fire kit...and ginger because the next group over is doing some baking.

5/1/06
Our last days of backpacking were great. We had a nice layover with almost nothing to do all day while the I-team wrote our evals. Then we had a meeting about gender differences that was ok. The following morning we had our check-ins. Mine went well. The hike out on that day was the best I’ve felt for awhile. Hiking up hills with weight on the back became more enjoyable. We camped near a road that night and got picked up at 6am the next morning. We got a road bfast with OJ, cereal with real milk, bagels, and fruit. Hell yeah!! After piling our stinky selves into the van we drove a couple hours to showers and got through that pretty quickly. Thus ended our time with the backpacking instructors. Scott and Christine said their goodbyes, and Steven said see ya soon cuz he's coming back for the climbing section.

Some words from Robert Service:
“There’s a land where mountains are nameless. And the rivers all run God knows where; There are lives that are erring and aimless; And deaths that just hang by a hair; There are hardships that nobody reckons; There are valleys unpeopled and still. There’s a land – oh, it beckons and beckons, And I want to go back – and I will.”

Backpacking section general info: We lived in cook-groups of 3-4 people and hiked in groups of 5-6 people usually. Sometimes instructors hiked with us, sometimes they hiked in their own group. We all camped near each other every night, with the exception of 2 days of small group travel.

4/13/06
We got dropped off at the Holt-Apache trailhead around 2 something. The hike was on trail and fairly mellow. The downhill section woke up my legs a bit. We got into camp near Johnson Cabin early evening.

4/14/06
We were prepared to get wet today. And we did. We hiked up Big Dry Creek all day. Which isn't really all that big or dry. Some times we had dry rocks/gullies, but lots of the day our feet were in water. Occasionally we were in up to our waist. Once or twice we were swimming. Beautiful area. One time I full on took my pack off, laid it in the water, and used it as a raft. On my stomach—paddling across a pool. Good times. Thankfully the weather was nice. That made a huge difference. Slightly cloudy and maybe high 60’s. Potentially cold when wet all day, but ended up being fine.

4/15/06
Today was the longest day we've had yet. We gained about 4000ft in 5 miles, which worked me pretty good. It was on trail, but we were still hiking over lots of deadfall. Weathers getting warmer though.

4/16/06
Happy Easter. I could see my breath in the morning, but it warmed up nicely throughout the day. We summited Mogollon Baldy today, the highest peak in the Gila. Some of the hike took us through burned areas with skeleton trees and awesome views. We hiked a bit farther than expected today in search of water. The site we ended up at was beautiful.

4/17/06
Layover day. Perfect weather.

4/18/06
Easy hike. Camped near a swimming hole. Cold water, felt great!

4/19/06
I taught my class on land management today. Short hike with a few more classes in the afternoon. It’s sunny (yet again) and warm in the sun, slightly chilly in the shade. Perfect southwest weather. I’m watching the sunset across the river over some cliffs on the northwest side. Jaclyn is making chili and cornbread. Oh yeah. It’s a good life.

4/20/06
Today was a really fun day of hiking. We went up a drainage that ended up being slightly technical. Sweet travel. Lots of pack passing and some hip belaying. Beautiful canyons—sometimes slot canyon, sometimes wide open. Hot day with some seriously steep climbs after exiting the drainage and getting up the ridge. I sweat more today than any other I remember this trip. Instructors seem to have nothing but positive things to say about us and people all seem to be comfortable in the group. We’re hiking without instructors tomorrow, which always changes the dynamic a bit—but not so much this time as on my semester course. It’s nice to be confident in each and every member of the group.

4/21/06
Today was a fun and slightly different day. We all met at different times to start hiking. We started out with the idea that it would be a short, mellow day. We hiked up a cool canyon, saw lots of bones and even some elk legs laying around one part. There were several pack passes throughout the canyon and some ice to negotiate. We came upon a king snake and lots of lizards. There were two technical drops where the instructors met us and oversaw risk management and hand lines. Our group worked through those sections very well and efficiently. Took lots of pictures that day. We were the second group into camp and we were all spread out doing our own thing. That’s when the I-team came up with a scenario for us. Christine hurt her leg and Steven was missing. Things were decided and put into motion really quickly. Too quickly. I had no idea what was going on and was rushed out onto a search party. Eventually things calmed down and our 7 person search party made a good, well-thought-out and well-executed plan. Unfortunately some other group had already taken care of Christine, found and treated Steven, all before we made that plan. We didn’t find that out until much later. Fun times searching. Jaclyn and I were runners with info so at least we weren’t the last ones back to camp.

4/22/06
Re-ration day! Woohoo, more food!