ken4ord

The canoe ride to the base of Moran sometimes the real adventure. One I was up with some friends to go climb Moran. We got a nice early start, and starting the day with a nice paddle up a river was great. We arrived at the portage and we noticed a bear up in a tree, it sounded sort of distressed and we sat for a bit hoping it would just leave. Eventually we decided to just go for it since the bear seemed to freaked to come down and leave. As soon as we got onto shore the bear cruised right down the tree followed by two cubs. We abandoned everything, and walked down the trail. She walked right up to the first canoe and without hesitation grabbed the top pack and brought it over to the cubs and started to tear it apart. After seeing that I decided to try and make a recovery effort for my pack while she was busy. In the whole incident we lost one pack and a day of climbing. We went back the next day and up and down soloed CMC.

Yo BP, Hopefully you poured a MM for your homie in R-country. Yeah I miss the Seattle area, but things have been really cool out here. Next weekend we are off to raft the Nile, 4 sets of class 5 water and crocidiles inbetween them on the flats. Shit is going to be wild. The following week I am stoked finally get out and do some climbing again, down in the Johanessburg area in South Africa.

Well I am glad to hear I am not the only one missing my issue.

Ok I am going to be down in Jo'burg from March 31 through April 5. I'll be free to climb 2nd-5th. If you know of anyone down there who is into climbing let me know, I need to get out and climb, before I forget how too.

Climb: Bushara Island, Uganda- Date of Climb: 3/12/2005 Trip Report: So last weekend we drove accross the border to Uganda and stayed a great place call Bushara Island Camp. It was awesome it cost us $60 per person for the whole weekend, that included transport to the island, guard for our cars, 2 nights lodging, all meals, beer and wine, sailing, birding tour. My only complaint was having to order your next meal in advance after you got done eating your current one. The boat we took to get to the island. A beautiful evening ride to the island. The tent we stayed in and the view from our porch. The dining hall. At nights we would just hang out by the fire and play games and drink beer. The shore where our trip began.

Another beautiful 10a in that area you should check out Gloden Face (? not sure if that is right). It is the route to the right of the Complete Exum. It looks quite beautiful. The two time I have been up to the Tetons in early July, once I needed crampons and the other time I didn't. The time that I did strap-ons crampons over sneaks worked just fine. If I was going to do Black Ice I would probably stepin with boots, but I am sure you could easily do it with strap-ons. Have fun.

Those bags from the box wines make great camp pillows.

If you are mountain biking yes it might be a little crowded and dusty because of them. Though you can definitely avoid them by riding trail they are not allowed on. As for climbing I don't it will be an issue, you just might get a lot of gapers.

The lab is starting to come along. We just got most of our lab equipment the other day. It came in 4 large crates on a flat bed truck. One of the smaller crates was a full size -80 freezer. All of the crates were off loaded by hand, 20 guys grouped around them including myself, everybody shouting at each other, it was a crazy scene. We had to take a saw and cut the gate to the back part of the lab to get the behemoth in. Later that afternoon they welded the gate back in place before I could tell them to leave it so that we can get the other equipment in. The other three crates were loaded into a carport under the garage. They almost took up the whole two car garage. The lab itself is getting painted right now. I will hopefully start placing some of the equipment in the lab next week. I am working on the budget for the electrical work, what a pain. Because of the electrical situation is so unreliable here, we need to setup our own power system to continuously have power to our freezers and incubator. Last week we had interviews going on. The last guy we had an interview with a guy who was so nervous, I felt bad for him. He was sitting there, and you see the sweat beading on his forehead, it eventually started to drip off his face. One of the nurses that has been part of the interview process got up. I thought she was going to take a call on her cell, but instead she came back with tissues for the guy, he was happy and we all laughed. I'll post some more pics soon. It has been quite a wild experience. Last weekend I went out for a 3.5 hour mountain bike ride, it was awesome (sorry left the camera behind). This weekend Uganda to Lake Bushara.

I don't know maybe your situation is different and I don't mean to scare you off of the idea, but my climbing honeymoon wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Here is the story. So I am getting married and at the time I had a trip planned with my buddy to head up to the Canadian Rockies. Originally I was planning on 3 weeks up there, but then with a wedding and honeymoon in the near future I was going to have to cut my trip short. So I planned on taking at least week too two weeks for our wedding and honeymoon. I was thinking along the lines of going to some tropical beach and chilling with my new wife, and just having fun. After bit of time my wife to be wanted to go on climbing trip as well, but could only take one vacation that year and she suggested that just the two of go to the Rockies for a climbing honeymoon. I wasn't to keen on the idea, I was really excited about doing nothing except for chilling on a beach, but she talked me into. Then I called my buddy and told that we were off because I am going to do the trip with my wife. I felt like a shmuck, oh well. A few weeks down the road my wife to be realizes that I am getting stoked for our climbing trip, since by that time I have 4 guidebooks that I going over and studying every day. She then realizes that maybe it was such a good idea and decided to reinvite my buddy. So in the end, I never got a cool honeymoon that I wanted with my new wife and I never got the climbing trip that I wanted. We climbed, but we could have done all the climbs we did in a single week. Hope your honeymoon turns out better than mine, congrats!

So you guys have any info for the Southwestern side of France. So far it has been some great info and I am sort of leaning for the Medeterrain side, especially after doing a little more readig on it. Thanks for the guide book suggestion, I'll have to look those up.

6 months is about standard recovery time, with proper PT and care. I had MCL, ACL and 3 meniscus tear, nothing was done with the MCL, I had two tears stitched up and one cut out, and patella tendon ACL replacement. With that said though I worked at it quite hard, I had a great team behind me. I had PT 3 days a week. I worked my upper body 2-3 days a week at the gym. I got all kind of look on that one showing up to the gym on crutches at first. I also smoked a ton of dope to decrease my motivation to anything beyond therapy and my work outs. I iced my knee, stayed off of it at home, and kept it elevated. I also spent a lot of time strecthing. I had my surgery in October and I was ice climbing in January. Going up was no problem it was the descents that were uncomfortable. If your doc is saying a year I would look at getting a second opinion, and make sure you are getting the best possible care. Good luck man.

Hey you paranoided liberal, don't you go any where else besides Static Point?????

Yeah keep it coming folks. Damn I for got about Verdon Gorge. I have always wanted to go there since I heard about it. The plan so far is to fly into Paris, then head down to Toulouse for a week on a barge tour, then spend a week in the Pyrenes somewhere making our way to Bayonne, then back to Paris to finish up our vacation. So the areas that we will be in for the Pyrenes will be from the middle to the west. Sobo, I would love to borrow your book, but it is probably easier for me to buy one, especially since I am in Rwanda right now.

Well keep me in mind if you are looking for someone else to add on. I really want to get up on the mountain and that might be a good time, if some of my girlfriends family doesn't make it. I am pretty much next door.

And don't forget the Organs, just east of the city. Yes yes, The Organ I always make that mistake of lumping them all together.

Hey Goatboy, from what I read on Mt Kenya you can climb it year round. The seasons really dictate what aspect of the mountain you climb on. There are some short rainy season on the mountain though that you should keep in mind, I can't remember when they are. The routes I would love to get on Diamond coluir, but that hardly comes in, the Diamond buttress looks awesome up to 5.8 climbing and supposedly has good quality rock on the route. The glacier routes are considered dangerous now-a-days due to climatic changes that have exposed a lot of rock. Even just trekking around in the park is suppose to be great. Park fees currently are at $25 a day that includes camping, lodging in the bunks house will run around $10-15 more a day. I can't remember how much porters cost, but you don't really need them, though it is nice to offer jobs to locals. You are not required to have a guide. When are you thinking of going? Currently I am living in Rwanda and want to get out there as well, just not sure when I will be able to make it, with work and other travel plans. These two sites in my opinion have the most useful online information. http://www.mck.or.ke/mck.html and http://www.mountkenya.org/

So it looks like that I will be in southern France in early October for a week or week and half, (keep that in mind TimL). So I am looking for suggestion on places that will still be good for climbing that time of year? Also let me know where there is some nice inns to stay at, will be travelling with my gf's parent so we are not dirt bagging it? And finally any suggestions on guide books that cover that area, like a select guide or something like that? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Shit I am pysched, but I probably won't get my copy for another month. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to get to me.

Longpause, if you are in the Las Cruces area there is quite a bit of climbing in the Dona Anas. The stuff I have seen looks pretty good, multi-pitch trad stuff. On the southern end of the range I guess there is a good bouldering area. Also if you are in that area you are only 45 minutes from Hueco Tanks bouldering. There was an early issue of Climbing that had a long article on the Dona Anas. Have fun.

Yep it is another world away. I didn't shoot any pictures from this weekend, but did you see my Rusumo Falls TR in the California and elsewhere section?

A chill weekend hanging on Lake Muhazi, drinking wine, grilling food, lying out in the sun. Life was rough.

That is a cool collection, have fun man.

Mark it definitely has changed a lot since you were here, but at the same time it hasn't changed much. Yes the massacares and just plain old butchering of people is not happening and the refuge camp at the border here is gone, but there is the belief through out the country that genocide could happen again and there are still camps in the eastern side of the country and fighting in the Congo. It is still hopeful that things will turn out alright, the tribunals are still working, there is a lot of nations investing into the country and its infastructure, in Burundi there is a vote today in splitting up the power structure between the Hutu's and Tutis and laying down of arms. In ten years things have improved, but it has a long ways to go.

And another one http://www.rockaddiction.co.za/