The Hazard Chronicles

Rachel is in Nashville right now, interpreting and doing classes with some of the best performance interpreters in the country. This is her third year with the group, and she has definitely become a part of the "family". Here was her text to me this morning: "Every day. I was not kidding when I said I started at 8 and got into bed at 2." She's been loving it though. During the day she does workshops, and then at night she is either prepping for performances, or else up on stage in front of thousands of people, interpreting for some of the biggest names around, and then debriefing and partying until the early hours- just to do it all again the next day. I'm sure she'll have lots of stories to tell next week.

In the meantime, I'll tell my story of the week. It was a tough one, and I am still wondering if I made the right decisions. On Saturday, Ev, Addy, Jack, and I went up to do Chimney rock. It would be the first real multi-pitch alpine climb for any of them, and spirits were high. But then, a series of events: A late start, a steeper-than-anticipated approach, more difficult-than-expected technical climbing, and a very stubborn Jackson. Given the increased stakes, judgement and a cool head are way more important in the alpine than at a local crag, and safety has to come first- especially in a group such as ours with minimal resources or experience. These are the things I was thinking at the time, and I think I still stand by that call. But the end result was that Jack didn't get to climb with us. Ev, Addy, and I topped out while he waited at the base of the technical section for almost 6 hours. I feel bad about that. He is frustrated that he made the difficult approach and didn't get a chance to climb. I am glad we are all home in one piece. It was a long day.

This is at the trailhead. The most obvious part of the picture to me is how high the sun is. Usually when I do climbs like this, we start hiking in the dark, around 4:30 in the morning. Here, it was around lunch time. The hike up would take up 4 hours!

It was really hot, and water was important on this trip. We pumped pretty much every chance we could.

There it is in the background. This is about halfway up the approach hike. In just a few hours we would be climbing on it.

Me and Ev at the first belay. There was much yelling up and down from this little perch.

This is a couple pitches higher up on the climb. The exposure was actually pretty real.

Evelyn's note in the summit register.

Here we are on the way down. Jack seemed to be in better spirits at this point, but was still a little upset about not getting to climb. I can understand his frustration. It is hard being both the trip-leader/guide and the dad. I hope that can one day be understandable.

Walking down. We didn't get to the car until well after dark.

Besides Nashville and Chimney rock, we found time to do a few other little things. Huckleberries are in season, and we've gone up a couple of times to collect what we could. Our freezer is now full of berries, with even more to come since they are only just becoming ripe at lower elevations. We also hung out a little bit at the annual Post Falls festival, our town's little celebration of itself, and my office had a little tent set up there. On Wednesday, kind of on a whim, Rach, Jack, and I invited Wendy and Marissa to go see a play with us. MJ, the musical, was about as expected- great music and choreography, and kind-of a loose storyline that seemed to be an overly curated and simplified version of his rise to fame. It was a fun night though.

As for extended family, I'm pretty sure everyone is gone now. Marissa and Wesley still have a lot of house projects to do, but are mostly settled into their new home. Summer days are mostly lazy for the kids, with friends and lake things and tennis and lots and lots of tv during the hottest hours of the day. 

Have a good week!