Levi's Silly Blog - Outdoor Fun

10,000 days young

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:09:00 -0700

Yesterday was my 10,000'th day of life (approximately 27 1/3 years). I'd known about this milestone for a few years, and had been looking forward to it for some time. For nearly as long, I've had the idea in my head to climb Mt. Thielsen. So, I managed to talk my roommate and mountaineer extroadinaire, Logan, into coming along with me.

We left the hacienda around 7am, and made the 3+ hour drive to the trailhead near Crater Lake. The sky was a bit hazy, and as we started down the trail, the mosquitos were rather annoying considering our brisk pace. In spite of a stretch of downed pines that had probably fallen last winter, the trail was well maintained. We reached the summit in less than three hours.

Here's a sweet shot of us on the summit:

After an early morning, and a long walk, a nap was necessary:

Because the hike took less time than we'd thought, we had plenty of time in the afternoon to hang out on the side of the mountain, so explored a bit:

And made a bivy site:

After that we just hung out and appreciated the view for a while. We had pesto pasta for dinner and one of Logan's mead's for dessert. And I got to watch my ten-thousandth sunset:

The next morning I awoke to a magnificent a mountain shadow:

And given the clearer skies, I couldn't resist going back up to summit again. Here's me touching the top during summit v2.0:

It was a fantastic day and a half. : )

More images can be found here.

MLK Weekend Adventures

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:21:00 -0700

Well, the MLK weekend gave us with a three day weekend so Logan and I drove to Bend on Friday evening for some fun in the snow. We woke early and trekked (I snowshoed, others skied) into Paulina Falls where we were going to be doing some ice climbing. Having left in between groups, I arrived at the falls to watch the leaders of the group get set up to do some climbing. I started taking photos and got these pictures (roll your mouse over the photo without clicking... then roll it away again!):

That massive chunk of ice fell away as I was watching one of the climbers (Rob, he's in the post-collapse picture) get lowered. He stuck his axe out to the left to steady himself, and BOOM! The whole thing just went straight down into the pool of water below. Fortunately, he had both feet in the column of ice that stayed put, but man, what a rush! Afterward, he was blown away by these photos and how much ice had fallen. "I was too close to the ice to tell how much had gone; it was just like one moment I had ice next to me, and the next there was nothing." He'd said. At any rate, it was a pretty crazy thing to watch.

After that, we decided it probably wasn't a good idea to climb on that ice, so we moved to this piece:

This ice was much more stable (route indicated in dark red) and we each got a couple climbs in.

On my second ascent, I was climbing up as the sun was blasting through the ice, and one of the my fellow climbers got this photo:

After the initial scare of the collapsing water fall, it was a chill fun day in the snow and ice.

The next day, Logan, Forest and I headed to town to get some back-country gear. After a crappy morning of trying to figure out what gear to get, we finally picked out our stuff. I rented a back-country snowboard (a.k.a. splittey), and we trekked up Tumalo (across from Mt. Batchelor). We got a couple good runs in before we had to head in. Here's a descent picture of Logan and Forrest:

And here's one I took of myself as it was getting dark and stormy:

The next day, we headed back up Tumalo with a few more folks. There were some really good shots of the Sisters and Broken Top:

Oh, and of course I can't leave this photo of Logan out:

What a super weekend!

To-PhD-or-not-to-PhD, Alaska, Disco-Kegger

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:28:00 -0700

So I've been meaning to write this post for a while. Many exciting adventures have happened in my life lately. Most recently, I have just walked in the door from the 2nd night of my Cuban Salsa I (specifically Casino) class. What a blast!

Perhaps the most significant happenings in my life over the last month have had to do with my near miss with dropping out of graduate school. The short story is that: a) I got discouraged/depressed about school. b) took a while off to think about it why exactly I want to do this at all (including traveling home to Alaska... more on that in a moment). c) Eventually decided to actually do this thing. For those who have talked to me in the past, this may not sound much different than other thoughts that I've had to this effect. However, for those who have talked with me through this one, I think the differences are clear, and I feel pretty good about the decision that I've made. I'm now shooting for being finished with my PhD in a year. There, I said it. ;)

Alaska was fantastic. My Nana and Grandpa Mark were there as well, and it was wonderful to spend some time with them. August is growing up, and while it is fantastic to see him, it makes me miss all the moments that I don't even know I am missing. My favorite August story from this trip was when we were sitting down to breakfast at "The Cosmic Kitchen", and two police officers came in. When they sat at there table to wait, August sat up straight and said:
"Thank you for serving and protecting our city of Homer." You can imagine how much the officers appreciated this, and August proceeded to get up and sit at there table to discuss local current events.

I've had a few fun weekends since coming home from Alaska. The day after I arrived back in Corvallis, I headed straight back to Portland and joined Peter, Kara, James, Andy, Axel, Tim and Melissa for a "ring-in-the-new-year" at Mt. Hood Meadows. It was fun, except for the 20 minutes that I had to wait at the bottom of the lift while the fireworks went off (at 10:00, not midnight). The next weekend (Jan. 5), Emily came into town. It's been nice to have another friend around town to hang with.

On the 12th, we threw our "Saturday Night Fever", disco party that was inspired by the Disco music I won in a White Elephant gift exchange at my Mom's friend Shannon's place in Alaska. I don't know if this was the best party the Hacienda has ever hosted, but it was the best party I've ever hosted and the best party I've been to since... I dunno probably Junior year. For some reason, I can't imagine parties ever being as much fun as my sophomore year of college. It was all so new and exciting at the time. Anyway, highlights included Kenny - root beer in hand - heckling pool players for at least three hours. The dance floor was raging for at least 4 solid hours, and the kegs (ya, that's right there were two... though admittedly one was only 5 gallons) were tapped by midnight. Fortunately, I had encouraged people to bring back-up supplies, and the party was still going strong at 2. Logan lost his shirt, twice, and pretended like he couldn't find it again. Many impressive costumes surfaced, out of the >70 people. I even caught a bunch of crap for not telling everyone that it was a theme party. I can't really keep track of all of the debauchery, but I believe it was a success.

Cramp-Up

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Mon, 07 May 2007 10:21:04 -0700

I played in the Cram-Up tournament this weekend with a group of people from Portland and Eugene. It was a ton of fun. After a crazy night of partying (I've decided to not drink for a while and thus was only a spectator) until 4am saturday morning, we went 4-0 on saturday. I played well early, but feel like my play declined steadily over most of the weekend (got tired).

The party saturday night was fun. I danced almost the entire time. We finally headed home around midnight. We played $hack first thing and came out kinda flat going down 6-3. We then pulled ourselves together and went on a 4-0 run to take half 7-6. We ended up winning 13-9 ish. On the field next to us, the barely-legal kids (OSU men/women + a few) managed a very impressive upset of the Reno (Elle and Matt) team, so we played them in semi's. I think my favorite play of this game was when I juked Chris Stevens out of his shoes so that he made 4 steps out before he realized I had cut in. I played like kinda a jack-ass; heckling especially rudely on and off the field... hopefully they all knew I was doing it just for fun; and to teach them never to pay any attention to jack-ass hecklers... no matter who they are.

We ended up losing in finals (very dissapointing). We were down 8-3 at half, put on a strong comeback early in the second half to make it 8-6.. 9-7, but couldn't really finish the deal and ended up losing 15-9ish. I felt like I played better in this game than most of the rest of sunday, but still didn't feel too strong. Playing in tournaments like that just makes me want to get better.

Divas! Divas! Divas!

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 21:34:45 -0700

This weekend corvallis hosted the 2007 NW College Regional tournament. Having qualified for the tournament two weeks earlier (in the sectional tournament), the Divas played awesome all weekend long. As the coach, I felt that the weekend was an overwhelming success. The girls have been working so hard all season long and everyone has improved so much. This weekend I feel as though each player played as well or better than they ever have, and many took their games to a whole new level. They won every game that their experience, size and ability reasonably allowed them to. In addition, they played VERY hard and well against teams with far more experience and numbers. They never gave up.

There are too many individual plays and performances to mention all of them. The play of Emily and Lora, the leaders and stars was simply inspiring... all weekend. Kate, the third graduating senior, was totally unmatched in the air. Beckie's game elevated about three notches with gazelle-speed deep cuts followed by equally fast in cuts. Emma was, as always totally solid and dependable. Morgan and Mari - the workhorses - never stopped running and were always open when they needed to be. July was super dependable as the multi-role player who got at least a few D's each game. Caitlin with her super-quick cuts scored repeatedly and was totally clutch late both days. Breanna used her speed to stretch the field, caught many goals and got open a number of times when we needed her to. Tiff and Liz played hard, got D's, and showed Angela-esque determination when cutting all weekend long. Then, of course, there's Celeste, whom had her break-out weekend; using her speed to beat her girl repeatedly and being one of the most vocal players on the field. She finally showed the confidence, fight and determination that I've always known she was capable of, and that was emblematic of the entire team all weekend long.

Due to seeding, the Divas had their two hardest games right off the bat on saturday morning with UW (Washington) followed by UBC (British Columbia). After dropping those two games, the ladies came out strong against Humboldt who has been a strong rival all season long. Due to a somewhat wacky format (13 teams), this put us into a "play-in" game against Davis. We matched up well with Davis early, but could not maintain enough consistency throughout the game to come out victorious. Having lost this game, sunday was a round-robin consolation bracket.

Our first game sunday was against another rival team that beat us in semi-finals at the PLU-BBQ: Western Washington. The Divas came out strong, battled for a couple, went down 3-5, then took half 8-5. The second half we traded points mostly and ended up winning 13-9 in a 'false' soft-cap that western tricked us into in very funny prank related to an incident in the PLU-BBQ game.

We played Stanford B next. The divas played hard all game and got the win, 15-4.

Our final game was against Whitman. In many ways, this game was the most impressive of the weekend. Everyone (on both sides) was so tired and women's finals (Berkeley defeated Stanford) was happening one field away. In spite of this, both teams played incredibly hard and the Divas managed to push through just enough more, just enough of the time to come out victorious. This included many amazing plays including: lay-out grabs, go-to D's, hucks, skies etc. The determination was inspiring. Going 3-0 on sunday at regionals was a wonderful way to finish the season.

I doubt I would have been prouder had they won every game.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Trouble in Vegas (2)

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 10:00:00 -0700

Our second day was not quite as action packed as the first. We woke late, found our way to the fields (this time the old guys were tardy), and cleated up. I had to run around a while to get my muscles moving. We lost our first game, stupidly, but won the second. We then hung out on the fields a while, playing botchey (sp?) and waiting for Dug to return with beer. Finally they showed and a couple Boat races ensued before we all headed back to the Hotels (Dug hung back organizing boat-races).

Back at the hotel, we located the Hot-Tub where the Dave, Joe and Brett were chillin'. When I arrived there were probably 30 guys and 5 girls in the tub. The girls didn't hang out long to make it officially the worst sausage fest I've ever been in the middle of. Strangely enough, two new girls showed up and boldly walked right into the hot tub. Initially they sat down at the far end of the pool from me, but when things started getting crazy (wrestling etc.) at that end, they made their way down and sat between Joe and I where Brett had just gotten up from to play water-basketball with James. After a while I struck up a conversation, but it wasn't long until Dug showed up back from the fields and made a b-line for the only girls in the tub. Basicly he "fell" on these girls under the auspices of wrestling with Dave, while claiming that he "couldn't swim". All I could do was sit there and introduce these two lovely ladies to their attacker. "This is Dug *****." Unsurprisingly, they'd heard the name, and so they had just had the (dis?)honor of an authentic Dug encounter.

After that, Dave and I headed downstairs where we ran into Andy and Jesse who were headed to the top of the stratosphere for some rides. Dave wanted to go, and I wanted to go again, so after a brief shower and change, we hit the rides up again. Super fun! Then it was off to dinner (Dave, Brett, Joe, Andy, Jesse and I) at the Italian place where the night before I'd made a reservation for 12. So when I walked up to make another reservation for 6 they gave me some shit, "aren't you the guy who made a reservation for 20 last night, then canceled?" (It was 12). Dinner was excellent. Joe knows a shitload about cooking/serving so he told us everything that was being done wrong and other cooking tips.

After that it was pretty much off to the airport. We reconnected with James, Jimmy, Pete and Dug. Apparently Dug had organized and won TWO dance competitions in the 50-s style diner where they had eaten. I dunno. That guy is unbelievable.

The airport sucked. First we were in a panic because we couln't get checked in because the computers weren't working. Then all of a sudden everyone was gone and it was easy, then when we got to the gate our flight was delayed an hour, so we sat around trying to figure out which was funnier: the photo of chad's massive #2 or "autistic Dug" riding the "Big Shot". Some thought one or the other - I couldn't decide - but we all agreed that both were pretty freaking hilarious.

Trouble in Vegas (1)

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0700

What an unreal day. We arrived in Vegas around 10pm and headed mostly straight for the Casino. In the hotel room, shotguns and whiskey shots were ubiquitous and we headed down stairs to loose some money. Most people hit up the BlackJack and PaiGow tables, while Chris Stevens and I played Hold'em (he made ~100, I lost that amount). After a while I caught up with Doug who was in the process of trying to convince a beatiful 20-something Georgia girl to marry him. There was talk of going to a club that never took because of Doug's distaste for the Florida players that were going that way. We drank and caused all sorts of trouble until around 4am.
The morning was difficult. Dave broke in at 8:30 sharp and dragged Timmy into the hallway in his underwear again while two girls walked by (this exact sequence of events had occured last year and apparently Dave felt it was a tradition worthy of upholding). We gather our crap and headed out. It took us probably 30 minutes to get out of the parking garage because I drove around the same floor for that long. in my defense, I was following signs, the exit wasn't labeled.

We arrived at the fields as games were starting and Dave expressed some frustration for the fact that "the old guys" were the ones that were on time. Perhaps needless to say, our first game was rather pathetic. No one was really with it. There were a few memorable plays of the game, but my "here I want you to have this callahan score" was among the most of the day. In round 2, we played better, were up at halftime, but lost to a team we really should have beaten. We won round three somewhat handily, but lost round four pathetically.

Back at the Casino, we pre-pre-partied in the room where Chad dropped a 10-lb duece, then ate dinner. We finally headed to the top of the stratosphere where Jimmy and I rode all three thrill rides. Holy crap, what fun! The X-scream is a tiny-roller coaster on a pivoting bar that slides you out over the edge of the pinnacle and stops you abruptly to look down 1000 feet at the concrete jungle below. The 'Insanity' swing was my personal favorite... a spinning swing that puts you out over the edge of the tower, then spins you around at 40mph so that you swing out and face down to look at the hotel swimming pool. We then talked Tim and Cameron into doing the Big-Shot with us (this was most people's favorite)... a very high acceleration launch that shoots you straight up to see nothing but the Vegas Skyline then stops you and pushes you back down just as fast. So that was pretty unbelievable.

Afterward, we headed down and over to the Rio where we were hoping to see bikini-clad BlackJack dealers, but apparently Vegas changes a lot in a year because they were nowhere to be found. We milled around there for a while before the group split up. Chad and company went to a strip club, that was apparently tons of fun, while Chris, Larson, myself and others went exploring for cheaper gambling. Chris made some money playing Hold'em at the Flamingo and I only lost a little. After a few hours of this, Jeff and Corey showed up and we all headed back to our hotel. They went to bed and Chris and I played a bit more hold'em. He made a little and I lost more, which with last years winnings makes me even with Vegas. Anyway, I finally headed to bed to find Chad's crew just arriving with many wild tales.

Tonsai Climbing Finale

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0700

Yesterday, we woke late and Eivin wasn't feeling well so we ended up laying on the beach looking at girls and playing King's Corner. We also got massages... my first Thai Massage. It was excellent.

Last night I woke up feeling really sick to my stomach. After purging ;| for probably 15 minutes, I layed in bed for at least an hour trying not to make too much noise groaning while Eivin was trying to sleep. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep. So now we hadn't climbed the day before because Eivin had felt crappy, but I wasn't going to let my lack of sleep ruin my final day of climbing in Thailand. Once I started climbing I felt pretty good.

Today was amazing... again. We talked Alex and Victor into climbing Humanility with us so that we wouldn't have to haul a second rope - for the rappel - ourselves. Humanility is sorta the quintessential multi-pitch climb here on Tonsai. I had wanted to climb it since I got here, but hadn't gotten around to it until today:
Access Pitch:
More difficult than I was expecting for an access pitch.
Levi: Lead.
Eivin: Follow.
Pitch 1 6a
Fun, straight forward pitch out of cave.
Eivin: Lead.
Levi: Follow.
Pitch 2 6b
Very strenuous, slightly overhung, tricky feet, but with large holds. In my opinion, the most difficult pitch of the climb.
Levi: Lead.
Eivin: Follow.
Pitch 3 6b+
Oh my god, this pitch is unbelievable. You must stem out onto a stalagtite behind you, then transfer fully onto the stalagtite, climb up 2 meters, then transfer back onto wall. Clips are sorta below you, so as you're stemming between the wall and stalagtite and clipping down, you see nothing but air below you for 150'! Wow!
Eivin: Lead.
Levi: Follow.
Pitch 4 6b
Another nice slightly overhung, pumpy pitch with big holds.
Levi: takes a couple falls in a place that should have been easy, but I didn't use the finger slots that I thought were too small for my fat fingers. After a couple falls, I realize I can fit my fingers in there, and the climb is no problem. Argh! So close to on-siting the whole climb, and I blow it on the easier, last pitch! Damn.
Eivin: follow.

There is a fifth pitch, but it looks dirty, and the book says few people climb it. We elect not to because we need to rappel from the top of pitch 4 anyway. Once at the top, we wait for 40 minutes or so for Alex and Victor to get up. We take a few photos, then rappel uneventfully.

On the second - final - rappel, you get dropped right next to "Freedom Bar". As I'm the first to come down, I buy 4 beers and put a bar stool in place for my comrades to land on. Eivin comes first, but tries standing on the stool, "you're supposed to take a seat" I tell him, then he drops suddenly, nearly breaking the stool. Alex and Victor come down afterward, and Eivin takes some pretty sweet shots of me handing them beers just as their sitting on the stool. It doesn't take long for my upset stomach to reemerge. We all grab some food (I have salad), and are all pretty much way too tired to climb anything else. It was a really perfect finale to my time climbing in Tonsai.

Tonsai Climbing 3

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0700

Oh man, what an unbelievable day.
Eivin and I were still a bit tired this morning from all of yesterdays climbing so we got a bit of a late start. We'd told a couple guys that we'd meet them out by Escher wall to go through a cave system to Thaiwand wall. These two - Alex and Victor - needed us because niether of them had headlights. Anyway, we didn't want to take a long-tail boat to Escher because we are feeling poor and so we decide to hike to Thaiwand and go through the caves to get them, and then go back through with the two of them.
Anyway, we got to Thaiwand wall, climbed up into the cave and started exploring... and exploring... and exploring. After a while we found a totally sweet little cave that had a couple candles in the corner. We decided to have a quick safety meeting - just to make sure we didn't get lost or anything ;). As we were sitting there, a couple other guys came through. Eivin started making spooky noises, but the guys didn't seem to notice, and we both sorta figured they'd seen us, so Eivin said:
"Hello"
"Shit! You scared the crap out of me!"
Eivin and I chuckle.
"Hey guys, sorry." Eivin says.
"It's cool."
They continued on. After a while Eivin set his stereo up in there and we both put our climbing shoes on. We bounced all around this cave that was probably two or three times the size of a large house, exploring every nook and cranny for probably two hours. After a while we finally sut off the music and moved to the next cave. This one was probably 3 times as big as the previous, and was open to the light in a couple spots. We talked for a while how awesome it would be to make a house out of this place. The master bedroom was chiseled into the side of a column in the middle of the whole cave. There were all sorts of crazy rooms and cool views.
Finally, we found a totally cool looking little ledge to the outside, but it was behind a hole, about the size of a football, and we couldn't fit through. Fortunately, we found another passage to the cliff exactly below this ledge. At first we were like "no, we probably shouldn't", but then we sat and thought and said to ourselves "why they hell shouldn't we? It probably isn't that hard."
However, we needed more than just our one rope to pull it off, so we headed off to find Alex and Victor... who fortunately had actually just gotten to Escher Wall because they had tried climbing somewhere else for a while (while Eivin and I were exploring the caves). After about 10 minutes of trying to explain to these guys what we wanted to do, and them sorta looking at us like "are these guys crazy, or is this going to be really"... or both perhaps, we talked them into coming to check it out. It didn't take them long to realize how cool the idea was and we started setting it up.
We had thought about trying to lead it, but didn't see many places that we could protect on and the rock looked really dirty and shitty. So we all agreed that setting a toprope through the football-sized windows was the best idea. It took us a while to get the rope down, but we finally got it, and it hung right out in front of our lower ledge where I snagged it with a bamboo pole that Eivin rigged up. Though Eivin had found the ledge originally, he let me climb first (awesome bro). The rock was shitty and even though I was on top-rope I didn't want to fall because it would be difficult to get back on the wall because it was pretty over-hung. I got most of the way up but then pulled a rock about the size of a watermelon off. It plunged into the water below. After this I was pretty freaked about all the rock and ended up tiring myself out looking for a better hold. I fell and swung across the overhang-section and caught myself on the other side where I climbed up. I then belayed Eivin up, followed by Victor and finally Alex. We had made it! It was great. We all speculated whether this climb had ever been done before, and we all agreed that this was probably the first ascent. Eivin left a small plastic aligator he'd found earlier that day on the ledge so that people who looked through the window would be able to see that someone had made it onto the ledge.
We'd set up our ropes so that we could rappel down into the water and recover the rope by hiking back into the cave. The rappel was GREAT! Probably 40 meters right into the water. I was the last to come down and Eiving and Victor swung me around a bit. The we all took turns jumping from a nearby boulder while attached to the rope and swinging out across the water, then dropping in. It was so much fun. I can't even describe.
After a while we went back into the cave and recovered our gear, then hiked back through the cave to Thaiwand wall and back home.
It was a really great day.

Tonsai Climbing 2

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0700

Today was Great!
Eivin's tended to his scrapes last night and says they don't bother him too bad (nasty rope-burn on hand and gash in big toe).
We headed out to Cobra-Wall where there were lots of nice 6's.
Baby Snake 6c+
Difficult start, nice climb otherwise
Levi: Attempts start. Fails.
Eivin: On-site?
Levi: Follows.
Old Snake 6b
Nice climb.
Levi: Leads... probably hang-doggin... can't recall.
Eivin: re-lead. On-site?
Cobra Venom 6c+
Eivin: Leads... hang-dogs a bit.
Levi: Follows.

After this we headed over to Melting Wall:
Cockroach Beach 6c
Eivin: Tries leading, but doesn't have enough draws to finish. It looks like the anchor at the top of the first pitch is missing. He then downclimbs. :(
The Smoking Room 6b+
Really great, strenuous, fun climb.
Levi: Leads, hang-doggin.
Eivin: Follows clean.

Great day of climbing. By the time we get home, we are both totally pooped. ;)

Tonsai Climbing 1

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Never fear, we got Layton his bus ticket. Afterward, Eivin and I rented motor scooters and cruised into Krabi. It was pretty much my first time on a Bike on the road, so it took me a little bit to get used to, but Eivin is a good teacher... and he went slow for me. In Krabi, we got Eivin some new glasses and had some descent Burgers (good hamburgers are rare - as in hard to find - over here). The girls at the sunglass shop were flirting pretty heavily, but when we told them we were brothers and gestured to our faces and said "same same", they said "no, not same." They didn't think we looked alike! Which is kinda hard to believe considering how many times on this trip we've been asked if we were twins. Anyway, for some reason the girls at the glasses shop didn't think we looked like brothers. Perhaps they need to get their prescriptions checked.

Ok, so we finally climbed today! It was awesome.
We started by heading out to "Firewall" area:
The Groove Tube 6a
Super fun climb inside of a half-tube.
Levi: On-Site.
Eivin: follow.
Polish-Czech 6b
Second pitch of Groove Tube... not as cool, but fun none-the-less.
Eivin: On-Site.
Levi: Follow.
Fire Show 6c+
Fun climb!
Levi: Tries, can't get start.
Eivin: On-site.
Levi: Follow.
White Hot Hernias 6b+
Really fun, strenuos, difficult for a 6b+ I think.
Eivin: Puts up route.
Levi: Tries to lead. Takes 45' fall, stopping 6' from deck! Shit! Levi is fine, Eivin gets banged up in process of catching me. I get back on and finish the route... with much grunting and teeth clenching.
After this, we're both pretty tired, and Eivin is scraped up, so we decide to call it a day.

We were sitting grabbing a bite to eat when we realized that people were crowding the beach looking up at the cliff. Two guys were getting ready to base jump! It took the first guy a few minutes to work up the nerve, but finally he did it! I hadn't ever seen this in real life before. As I was standing there waiting for the guy to go I was getting totally pumped up! He landed safely. What a rush though! The second guy was obviously more experienced. He just stepped up, jumped, did a front flip, and pulled his shoot. Anyway, it was quite a thing to see.

Aaron's Thoughtful Diatribe

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0700

[This entry was originally written under the 6 0ctober entry, but was actually written on october 9th, and was therefore moved to that date.]

I am going to diverge from our daily activites to mention our moral. I think that [up until the 9th or so] it was a bit low. I really can't talk for Levi and so these words are from me only.

Causation:
1) As silly as it may sound the day that I spent with Julia only amplified the amount that I miss her. With the novelty of our climing trip wearing off, in some ways I feel as if I would rather be with her than down here.
2) Althought not annoyed with Levi, the stress of a long car ride, and sitting around for a day is evident. Climbing today has helped aleveate the need for each other to entertain one another. It is a bit funny, on the car ride down we talked about relationships (mostly girls) and how it is healthy to have your own time. Then, although a bit forced into it, we spend the next 72 hours right next to each other. I suppose that our talk of relationships is more encompassing then we mentioned in the car.
3) After being spit off 5.8 slap climbing [over the last few days] I am reminded of how I wanted to become a better climber. I had thought that 4 weeks on the road would help this. But after 2.5 weeks we haven't climbed enough to help much. I feel intimidated sitting in camp 4 with great climbers from all around the world. I guess that I feel intimidated what ever I am doing; climbing, frisbee, skiing.

Resolution:
There is no way for me to get over missing Julia. The feeling does wane, the longer we are apart, and for the most part I don't want to stop missing her. I also don't want my thoughts and feelings to distract me from my surroundings.

Not being couped up has taken all of the stress off Levi and my relationship. I knew that it would and it has been awesome to be on this trips with him. His joy and child like awe of the rocks around us and being out in nature is refreshing and inspiring. It will be interesting moving to Jackson after spending the last 4 weeks in such close quarters.
I know what it takes to be a good climber and suppose that I wasn't prepared to do what it would take this summer. As if it only takes one summer. Maybe someday? I will always be intimadated by other people. I need to learn to be less so, they are just people too. Blah, blah, blah, this is just silly mental shit that I could write about for hours but don't feel like writing about at all.
Anyway, it is much later in the week [filed correctly in this blog] than the day that I am writing under. My moral is much higher and I feel much more balanced.

Journal Entry by Aaron Richards
Transcribed to web by L. Kilcher

Day 18

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Another slow morning, good weather, but waiting for the rock to dry a bit. Finally around 11 we head down to the Manure Pile. With next to no parking we decide that the climbs that interest us are probably crowded and change plans. This makes our first climbin Yosemite "The Grack", a 5.7 over on the Apron of Glacier POint. Our spirits are revived as we are finally climbing. We eat lunch on the top (400-500' up) enjoying the view and the sunshine.
Without a watch we decide to head up a seven pitch 5.9 next. Levi takes the odd pitches and on his second lead passes the anchors and heads off-route on a deteriorating crack. As the climbing gets hard he voices concern and I ask whether he can see the anchors. After looking around he realizes that theyare 20' below and that he has gone the wrong way. I lower him off his last piece and he belays me up. A good lesson on route reading/finding. My lead takes me a ways up, past unproctable slabs over a large drop off. I slowly work my way to the anchors, relieved to be off the sharp end of the rope. Levi heads out over similar terrain and I think is equally relieved to finish his lead.
Now the sun has been gone for a few hours and teh temperature has droped a bit. I head out on more frictiony slabby shit and feel as if my shoes have lost there grip. Levi mentions that the rock reached the dew point and be getting a bit wet. Regardless, I can't make the moves, which seem easier than before and so we bail off the 5th pitch.
Turns out to be a wise choice. By the last rappel we are completly in the dark. Luckily I had packed our head lamps and we make it safely to the bottom. Back on the ground, it starts to rain, and the 15min walk back to the car finds us soaked.
Not wanting to deal with cooking in the rain we head to Curry Village and eat pizza. This distroys both of our stomachs and puts us over our budget. We joke of how Mike would handle our crazed spending.

Journal Entry by Aaron Richards
Transcribed to web by L. Kilcher

Day 17

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Rain and snow it does. All day we spend in the Yosemite lodge cage. Avoiding rain seems all to common on our trip thus far. Reading, writing and talking dominate our day and by mid-afternoon it stops raining. The rock is still wet, but hope of climbing the next day is strongly on our minds. Sitting around all day also inspired us to create a home-made chess board. This is mostly Levi's doing, although I provided the idea of using pennies and then funding the 0.32$.
Two or three years ago I played Levi in chess. Winning, I swore never to play him again because of his boastful attitude and knowing that he wanted a rematch so badly. However, after countless hours of sitting in the cafeteria I finally agreed to a game.
The match was long and drawn out in my opinion. Levi taking nearly twice as long as I for each move. Once again the game down to the final pieces. I having percerviered in keeping a couple of more key players, once again won at the end. Ahh, 2-0 in chess against Levi. I now feel that I have nothing to prove in our mental chess games. The two years of worry about a loss tim has dissipated and I feel a bit like Gary Fischer.
Later that evening we managed to get kicked out of Curry Village's cafeteria before coming back to camp and going to bed.

Journal Entry by Aaron Richards
Transcribed to web by L. Kilcher

Day 16

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0700

We wake lateish, but pull out of camp before any rangers show up expecting us to pay for camping. Unfortunately however, we realize that we had forgotten to refill the propane canister and so we pretty much have to drive to the opposite side of the park to fill it up.
Anyway, we do so, and on the way we pass by El Capitan, and I am completely floored. I had no idea it was so fricking huge. It's amazing. Words can't describe.
After getting propane, we're both feeling a bit groggy from the long drive the day before so we get a campsite and spend most of the rest of the day getting other supplies that we were short on. In the evening we do a bit off bouldering in which Aaron is far more succesful than I (what's new?) We make dinner and meet Cate (Kate? - Caitlin/Kaitlin?) our british campsite neighbor and another british bloke whos name I can't recall. There is talk of rain/snow tomorrow. Disheartening.