from rookies to guides

Hey people!

David says he's got the picture side of things covered, so I'll take the words side of things and try to tell y'all something about the last couple weeks here in Colorado--subjectively, of course.

I met Olivia, Max, and Ryan at the Denver airport before getting picked up by Jenny. Olivia will be in charge of the teen program, so while she is an RMH guide she'll be dealing with the teens from family side every week (as I understand it). Max is from Ohio. Ryan goes to the Coast Guard Academy, and is only here for half the summer. Jenny is "logistics" for RMH, and she--in line with Sarah's testimony--is really cool. Sarah says "you can't be depressed around Jenny" and I think I agree. She's hilarious. I haven't said it out loud yet, but I've thought very loudly several times, "Jenny is like... the mom."

I don't remember much about the first couple days. My life had boiled down to trying to stay awake and do the next thing, and hang in there until I could sleep. We did meet everyone, though. Chris is "the boss-man" and he's really cool. He talks like a cultured (not kul-cherd) yout and has traction with the movie/music conversations that leave David and I in the dust. He's got a good sense of humor, but a stoic enough expression that I still don't always catch when he's joking and when he's not. Austin is the senior guide, so he and Chris are the "up there" officers. He and Jenny are dating, and are as chill about it as Daniel and Amanda were. They're both from Florida--and whenever it snows Jenny gets super excited and drowns out my inner complaining about the cold with cheering and jumping around and being all happy about it. Ben and Katie are the "vets" (my own personal term for them) because they were here last year. So they would sometimes teach us things, or check our work, and when we did team building stuff and the challenge course they weren't really part of it because it was old to them. Ben is an MK from Mongolia, and is always so encouraging. No matter what we were doing he'd be saying stuff like, "you've got it--it's like this, see? no problem. oh yeah, that one's hard no matter how many times you do it--I always remember it by this... you've got it! great job! you're crushing this!" etc. All the "officers" have been encouraging, but Ben stands out for it. Katie is really helpful and nice, and she's kind of our... well, Sarah said that last year the RMH people treated Katie like a little sister, and I can see that--she's kind of the token cute, competent little sister. 

I knew I ought to go over the people first, for those of you who always ask about the people... and it gives context. After a day or two us "rookies" (me David, Olivia, Max, and Ryan) got sent off to a two-day Wilderness First Aid course in another part of Colorado. We had to leave at like 0600, and the classes went from 0800-`700 that day and the following. It was really fun, actually, and the best part (for me) was that the second day i started to "feel alive again." I'd been sick, and woke up feeling better, and regained interest in life. I was surprised by how much more I saw and enjoyed after a couple good nights' sleep. It was great. So then I was high on being alive for the second day of WFA, and the ride back, and then on... we stopped at Punky's for chow on the way back. 

The next several days, I think, were when we did rock stuff. We were shown how to set up the climb and rappel sites, and then practices setting them up, and every morning for several days we met at 0630 and then went out to the rocks (which included a long uphill walk because of not having the key to a certain gate--our "horse-power-appreciation hike," Chris called it)... For the first week of guide training my "best moment" and "worst moment" both involved Climb site #1. The best moment for me was when I was setting up climb 1, without having seen it done before on the rocks, and had to really let the anchor I was attached to hold my weight while I set it up from the going-down side. Besides the "there's a cliff directly beneath me" feeling, it was very cold and windy, with snow blowing around in the wind. I was concerned that my cold fingers wouldn't work very well, or that I would forget something and do something wrong (I could see Austin's boots out of the corner of my eye--anything with the rocks was extremely well supervised, because there's no room for error). But it was super fun at the same time. Made my day.  My worst moment was a few days later, setting up the same place. I finished, and was told that I'd already failed (before any knots or carabiners were checked), because I forgot to tie the end of the rope to the bag before throwing it down, and that could cause me or someone else to die if we ran the end of the rope through while rappelling down. I had to fix it, of course, but I felt terrible--as if someone caught me about to give an infant a much too strong dose of some medication that might kill them, because I didn't read the directions. Chris talked to me about it later to make sure I understand what the issue was. Doing stuff on the rocks is so much fun, and I really enjoy it, but the safety thing is huge so it's also pretty stressful.

After doing rock stuff for several days we all passed the tests (I had to retake one and another I passed barely, but needed to go over it again on my own time). In the late afternoons somehow we often ended up sitting around in the sun totally chillaxing. Journaling, playing guitar, reading, whatever... A good life.

Then we had one day where we did the high ropes course in the morning (which was SUCH fun!) and "Land Nav" in the afternoon, which was really fun as well. During land nav Chris said that if anyone got a certain question right he'd buy that person a piece of pizza that night-- we were going out to eat, that was the plan. Ryan and I were working together and we got it right. I was so pumped. Another navigational problem, Chris said if we got that one right he'd buy our whole meal! We tried, but were off. It was such fun though. And we did win the slice of pizza each. Then we went and took showers and got cleaned up, and all went out to eat in BV. Then we went and got ice cream at K's. That night I was so happy, and I figured out that the reason that whole day felt like a holiday was that there was nothing really stressful, It was learning, but it wasn't "you mess up and someone could die." The next day (Sunday) many of us went to church with Chris and then out to eat, and it was a day off, so we hit the towns--BV and Salida... 

and now I need to go, because I'm going with David to Salida in a few minutes. We're at the Roastery right now. Have been here a while. I write slowly.

This past week we went on guide trek, which was great. I'll let David's pictures tell their tale. It was a backpacking trip. We fit all four girls into a two-man tent the last night. It was COLD, and WINDY, and WINDY, and COLD when we peaked Mt. Shaveno.

More later, hopefully. Tell each other hi for me.

Kate--I'm sorry I haven't written in forever. I love you, and I've been thinking of you.

Grandmother--I've been mentally composing an email for you. I don't know when I'll get to write it--but it's in the making. :)