My Weekend Was Better Than Yours

Sooo...I hate to rub it in your face, but weekend was easily way better than yours! I'm referring to last weekend when Aaron, Alex, Katie, and I went to the North Cascades and did the South Arete route on South Early Winter Spire. Yeah, that's right, we only had a 4 hour drive to paradise. Oh, I should mention that if you're looking for paradise, don't be searching white sand beaches, a fruity drink, sun-tanned skin, and a beach towel. All you need is a little climbing and camping gear, mountains and rocks, and some chill people. Wahla! Shazam! Boomdadabing! Paradise Found.

See. Paradise.

Friday after work, Aaron and I picked Katie and Alex up from the local REI, navigated to I-5, hopped in the carpool lane and zoomed until we hit traffic. Fill up the car, grab some groceries, jam and cram into the car (sorry Alex and Katie), and zip on up towards Mazama. We set up camp, had a drink, and went to sleep. Just in case you are wondering - which I know you are - NO I DID NOT HAVE A SLEEPING BAG. It didn't fit in my bag and wasn't planning on freezing my hiney off. (Little did I know that Alex had an extra sleeping bag but when I learned that it was too late to turn around and get it). Anyways, thankfully Aaron stores all sorts of stuff in his car and his puffy was in there. He was a gentleman and let me wear it :)  Well, sleeping was a different story. I shoved my feet in the bottom of his sleeping bag - and unknowingly kicked his feet out - and curled up under his puffy the best I could. Y'all know how good I am at stealing covers right? Well I think Aaron learned very quickly to pin part of the sleeping bag under him so I couldn't steal the whole sleeping bag. Anyways, it was a cold long night and neither of us slept very well. No worries, the morning brought sunshine and warmer temperatures.

mmm....this view

Okay, okay! I'll stop rambling on about how cold it was and get to the fun stuff. We hiked the Blue Lake Trail for roughly a mile and a half, followed the climbers trail and scrambled up to the base of the route. I found a lot of goat poop on the way up just so you know. Oh, and allergies made it feel like I ran a marathon after smoking 25 packs of cigarettes. So, we gained some good elevation by then. Aaron racked up, we tied into each other, I put food and water in my pack, and off we went. Since the first "pitch" was the hardest (5.5), I threw him on a belay. He belayed me up and Alex started leading for Katie to follow. After that Aaron and I start to simul-climb. Mom, Dad, don't worry we were just being extra safe :)  Anyways, Aaron started to climb, placed pieces when necessary and when the rope got close to being tight, I started to follow him. You can climb very quickly that way! There were a few times when Aaron was going faster than me or times when I was cruising when he wasn't but we worked out a rhythm quickly and cruised up to the top. We untied and free climbed up to the summit. There was only one time where the exposure got to me which was when we were towards the top and there were only peaks and air in the near vicinity. But I wouldn't have traded it for anything else. Aaron and I had lunch at the summit (my first time ever reaching a summit by the way!!!) and then started the down climb. We picked up our discarded gear and down climbed until we reached the first rappel station. Down climb some more, one last rappel and bam! we reached the bottom. As we were packing our stuff up we noticed some goat friends just chilling nearby. Then another goat came over, stared at Aaron and stomped its foot. That's when the other group started the climb and we left. Here's some fancy words (at least I hope they are the right words!) that describe what we did: alpine trad mountaineering, simul-climbing, free climbing. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong!

See. Mountain goats.

I climbed that.

After we all made it back to the car, we grabbed some food at a store in Mazama and then went rock climbing. And by we, I mean Aaron and Alex did a climb or two. I'll be the first to admit I was blasted tired and couldn't get psyched to climb. Then they went swimming in some ice cold water (I think I was the only smart one). Anyways, we went to the campground, made vegetarian chili, played countdown, had some beers, and slept through a much less cold night. On Sunday, we went climbing at a nearby crag. I on-sited a 10b and fell only once on a 10c. So I was super happy about that :) Around lunch-time we left for Seattle. The view on the drive out was beautiful. Damn I wish I was there again...

Beauty everywhere.

Monday, was back to work for Aaron and back to practicing my presentation. I grabbed coffee at some random place and just did the usual. We went to SBP after a good dinner at Annapurna. By the way, that is my most favorite restaurant ever. So if you want a happy Megan, take her there. Tuesday - my last day in Seattle - I walked Aaron to work like usual and then read my book for most of the day. I packed my bags (THE SECOND WORST PART), the cleaning lady came in, I continued reading my book, I paced around downtown, found a nice little bench by the Amazon building and practiced my speech some more. Aaron got something notarized and we went out for our last dinner. We hung out in his room until I had to get going to the Link. I HATE GOODBYES. THEY ARE STUPID AND DUMB AND I HATE THEM. Actually, I'm just tired of saying goodbye to my loved ones. I just want to be there or them here. Simple solution, right? Nope. But it's all good. We are all doing what we want to do.

Look me in the eyes and tell me this isn't beautiful.

After two plane rides with barely any sleep thanks to the creepy guy using me as a pillow, I made it back to Raleigh, Then I had to go to the field with fellow Purdue researchers to film me talking about my project. It went surprisingly well. Then the next day was Field Day. Megan and I nailed our talks and survived our first field day. I have little corn magnets too as proof! Then it was a lot of cleaning, trying to sleep normal Raleigh hours which I have been unsuccessful at, and climbing until my arms fall off. Classes start in 4 days. Woo. Hoo. Yay. 

I'll move here now. Thanks.