Back At It Again

Well, I am back down in beautiful Red Rocks Nevada, drying myself out after a long Cascade season in the Northwest before the snow starts to fall. Anna, Austin and I left the Pacific North"Wet" last week and have enjoyed some beautiful days here in the desert. We caught a little bit of a hot streak the first few days when we were in San Francisco visiting the Chapman family and it was 104* when we arrived in Vegas, but it has since cooled off and now it is perfect weather for climbing. This is Anna's first time rock climbing, and she is doing well. She is a little scared of the height factor, but she has powered through like a champ so far. Austin started his 2nd rock guide course on Saturday and he is nervous about how well he will do. I hope he does well, because if he doesn't pass he has to take the whole course over and spend another $2,000. When we first arrived, we realized that the campgrounds where we normally stay were closed for maintenance, and there is really no other camping in the area so we felt a little nervous about where we would stay. So I got on the phone to Courtney and she was able to find us a room at the Palace Station Casino for only $40 a night for all 3 of us, so that worked out really well. We stayed there 2 nights then the campgrounds were open so we are out there now. It worked out well because it was so hot here when we first arrived that it was really nice to have air conditioning and a pool! I will be down here in Vegas until around the 24th of this month, then I am off to Colorado for a week of guide training in Ouray. I was invited by the company I work for in Alaska to attend this training and I am really excited about it. It is a pretty select group and the instructors are world class so I should be challenged and learn a lot. Ski patrol training starts on November 3 and then I will just be waiting around for the snow to fall. It is suppose to be an epic snow year so anybody who wants to come out to visit is more than welcome! Hope all is well wherever you may be.

All the best!

Mid-Season Update

Well the snow in the Northwest has not been as good as the past couple of years, but we have been able to stay open 100% for the most part. There has been periods of high pressure lasting as long as 3 weeks with no snow, but I guess that is part of the ski resort industry. I feel lucky because they have started cutbacks at the resort, and there have already been 3 people laid off of ski patrol, but I talked with my boss and it sounds like my job is pretty safe. The only good thing about the layoffs is that now I will be able to have my own room in the patrol house which will be nice. I am not sure I will know what to do with all the extra space, but I am sure I will come up with something. Probably just throw all of my stuff on the floor to take up space! Since the skiing has not been that great, I have been venturing into Seattle on my days off, which is a nice change of pace from mountain life. I am really enjoying my new job, and I think that it could definitely be a good place for me to be, at least for awhile. There is really not very much else going on right now, my life is not as interesting as it sometimes is, which is a nice change. I will try to keep this updated if anything significant changes, but as you all know, I am not very good at it. Oh well, I do try my best :)