sleddin & climbing

I finished my level 1 avalanche course on Saturday. Our instructor took us up to Tony Grove to look at the intricate terrain there. I thought that if rednecks ride snowmobiles then they must be easy to ride, but they aren't I had to man-handle my sled like wrestling a cow to keep it from getting stuck. Once stuck I would have to dig out around one side of the rear of the sled and the opposite side of the front and then lift and rotate the rear onto the side shovelled out, what a pain in the back. I hope to get the hang of it, but this job will be more difficult than I thought before. I'll either show up to Jamaica strong as an ox or bent over like a geriatric.

Yesterday my friend BJ and I drove to Ogden and met up with Jon, Tom and Colby to climb at school room. I usually can do the hike up with only one or two short stops, I stopped about five times yesterday and felt dizzy half way up the hike, I blame it on Saturday's sledding excitement, but it's really because I've ate too much ice cream and watched too many movies this winter.

The weather was great yesterday, high 50's and only a slight but cold breeze every so often. I ended up not leading a single climb, I TRed 4 climbs total, an easy 10 a 9 and two 12a's. Ogden 12a's are definitely a different level than Logan, mostly due to the formation of imperfections in Quartzite causing many side pulls that make okay hands and horrible feet. I hope to go back before it gets too warm, I need the exercise really bad.

After climbing we all went to the only good restaurant in Ogden; Roosters. I drank 22 or so glasses of iced tea, and everyone else had really delicious beer (I forgot my wallet in Logan, and I get 'tipsy' too easy). After eating a great burger we sat around chatting and were about to head back home when April called. April's friend Melanie's boyfriend was in Pittsburgh for the week at a ceramics meeting and needed a ride home. Some how his ride was sent towards texas and he was sent to Newark, his ride wouldn't arrive till some time today. So BJ and I relunctantly said we could go pick him up from SLC at 10:50pm, we had 2 1/2 hours to waste. We left Ogden and headed towards SLC, we thought it might be good to waste the time at the dollar theatre in Sugar house, but they didn't have any thing playing till after 10, so we went to my favorite gay hangout: The Coffee Garden on 9th and 9th. We drank coffee and waited for 10:50 to arrive by telling stories and making fun of the articles and advertisements in the City Weekly. When we did get to the airport we picked up a barely thankful Denny and headed back to Logan, I was completely exhausted, but BJ kept me awake with his crazy stories. I made it to bed around 1:30, the latest I've been up in this semmester, I didn't wake up for my 8:30 class, and now I'm a daze, which should be obvious by my incoherent ramblings above.