Guest Post: Mt. Olympus West Slabs

This blog suffers. It's not that I can't blog--I write at least a little bit on my training blog every day. But I have no theme here, and that makes it hard for me to be consistent. If you have any ideas, please let me know. In the meantime, here's a guest post from my brother, Sean.

After hearing about the West Slabs of Mount Olympus from Jared, I have been itching to climb them. Jared recently free-soloed the route, so I felt that was the best way to do it. The timing was finally right the day after my birthday, and having no one to come along with me, I made a go for it solo. I had never been anywhere near the route—I had just seen it from the U of U hospital in the distance—so I gathered whatever beta I could off the internet and from Jared, and then set out.



Originally, I had planned on taking a 30 meter line with me in case I got in over my head on either the ascent or descent. But, after loading my pack up with that equipment, I decided it was too heavy and I’d rather have a lighter load to move quicker. Having told several people, who worry about me, that I would have a rope in case of trouble, I second guessed the decision the whole time on the approach. How dumb would I feel if something happened that a rope could have prevented…but the light pack sure felt nice on my back.

The approach was really straight forward. I followed the trail from the parking area up, then picked up a nicely maintained trail to the east that ended in a dry river bed. I followed this up until I hit the snow field that led to the base of the slabs. I have very limited experience on this type of terrain so I was a bit hesitant at first. But, once I realized that my shoes would hold in the small steps I kicked out, I felt pretty secure.

Once I hit the top of the snow, I found a good boulder to sit on and strap on my climbing shoes. After letting a couple siblings know that I was starting the climb, I began my ascent of the West Slabs. From all the beta I gathered, the route basically goes wherever looks good. So I looked up, saw a good hand hold, and started going up. The second I started climbing, I found the zone. Every doubt and uncertainty if I should be there alone disappeared quickly. All that was on my mind was my dance with the stone. I stopped occasionally in ledges to look down at my progress, but the draw of the climb kept me going up. The first few hundred feet was the most fun. I wish that the route was that steep the whole way, but it mellowed out the higher I got and eventually became a 4th class scramble to the top.



Once on top, I nearly missed stepping on a rattlesnake poking his head out from a hole on the ridge, ate a cliff bar, took a couple pics, then began figuring out how I was going to get down. Jared had suggested that I traverse the ridge, eventually hitting the South Summit, and then descend via the main hiking trail. But the rattlesnake spooked me a bit and the last thing I wanted was to be alone on the ridge with a rattlesnake bite. So instead, I decided to go down the gully just west of the West Slab route.

There were several trees with rap slings, but the descent was easy enough that I was able to down climb the gulley back to the base of the climb. From there I descended the snow field I had gone up. This was the scariest part to me. Some snow spikes on my shoes would’ve been nice, but I made do with a flimsy stick as a trekking pole instead. One part of the snow field had collapsed during my time on the rock, and getting around it became quite a task. I had to descend a corner system on the side that rolled off under the snow into the river beneath it…and one slip half way down gave me a nice shot of adrenaline. But, it turned out well and I was able to finish the descent with no problems.



I got back to the car in about three and a half hours; no speed record by any means, but one site I looked at suggested the time from the car to the top would take 5-6 hours. So, 3.5 car to car was alright by me. Now that I know the route, I want to head back and do it under 2 hours. The descent took the most time, the snow field especially, so I think I could easily shave a lot of time.

The climb was a great way to celebrate my birthday. If anyone is looking to do an easy free solo with very limited risk, this is the place to do it. I’ve done a lot of climbing, and this rates among the best.

Filler Post

I've been slacking in the blogging department. So, until I come up with some new material, I give you demon baby:

Elliott Isabella

On Friday, Catherine walked past the employee health center in the Church Office Building and fatefully decided to check her blood pressure. It turned out to be 160/100, and because Catherine was 8.5 months pregnant, we had to take her to the hospital.



We got to the hospital at about 4:00 and within two hours the staff had diagnosed preeclampsia and decided to induce labor. So, rather than enjoying the date we had planned for the night, we made some calls, got a few changes of clothes, and settled in for the long haul.



At 6:28 on Sunday morning, Catherine gave birth to Elliott Isabella. At 5 pounds 6 ounces, she's tiny. But her height is right in the 50th percentile, so she's pretty lanky. We're not sure where she gets that from.



Catherine may want to share her story later, but for now I'll just say that things have been going well: Catherine is recovering quickly, Elliott is healthy, and we're thrilled to have her.

At Least My Knee Will Heal Itself

A week or two ago I realized that, thanks to my left knee, I haven't had a single solid week of running all year. And now half of the year is gone.

But I managed to run every day in the week leading up to the Grandeur Fun Run, and every day in the week after, too. And although I didn't run a lot (high 30s and low 40s), I did log plenty of vertical, and I started thinking my knee was finally coming around. But after my run on Monday I could feel trouble brewing. Things were a little worse on Tuesday. And yesterday I finally had to admit that I pushed past the limit and now I'm injured again.

Based on past experience, there's a good chance that this will pass quickly if I just stop running for a week or two. So maybe it's good that I'm actually injured rather than sitting on the cusp of an injury, because now I'll do what I should have done before and take some legitimate time off. And if I can get my knee back on track quickly, I may not have to defer my Speedgoat registration for another year.

Anyway, for better or for worse, since yesterday evening I've been cross training at the gym (specifically, logging time on the stair stepper) rather than running. Which leads me to what I was going to write about.

Earlier today Catherine and I took the Mazdarati to the car wash. So I was surprised when I stepped out of the gym tonight and walked over to the car and saw that it looked pretty dirty. I looked closer and saw this dent running from the rear quarter panel to the passenger door.



I thought, "you've got to be kidding." I went back into the gym and told the employee that someone had sideswiped my car. I filled out an incident report while he went out to have a look. He pointed out that it looked like blue paint on the car, and suggested that I take a look at the blue cars in the lot to see if any had white paint on their bumpers.

That sounded like a good idea, so I took a look around. There were a few cars of the right color, but none had white paint on their bumpers, so I headed back to the car, feeling justifiably angry.

I got back to the car, and something didn't seem quite right. Then it dawned on me: same model, same color, same trim, but not my car. I looked over a few spots and saw my car, as clean as I remembered it.

Anyway, I went back in and told the employee what happened. We both had a good laugh, he tossed the incident report, and I went home.

It's funny how a false alarm can make the status quo seem better than it did before. Right now, I'm just happy my car is okay. My knee is still injured, and that still sucks, but at least it will heal itself, and at no cost to me.

Grandeur Peak Fun Run

I ran my second Grandeur Fun Run on Saturday. It's a bit of a misnomer, because it hurts too much to really be fun, and much of the course is far too steep to run. But I had a great time this year just like I did last year, even if I was ten minutes slower. I miss my pre-law school fitness. Sigh.

Anyways, Jon carried a camera during the race, and his video is below. Look for me in the yellow shirt at the start. If you miss that, look for the bloody knee at the end. Because apparently I need training wheels.

It's Over. For Now.

This week was the law review write-on, and at the recommendation of several reliable sources, including my uncle, I decided to participate. Basically, the contest involved two parts: writing a 15-page article based on a series of sources provided by the law review committee, and performing a technical edit on the footnotes of a sample law review article. Both parts were difficult. Both parts were frustrating. And there wasn't really enough time, either (especially since I spent so much time this week taking care of other, more important things, like a death in the family and maternity appointments with Catherine).

But I got everything done by the 5:00 deadline on Friday. And after I read my article, I realized it wasn't awful, which is much better than I had expected as I was writing it.

The best part of the competition was the relief I felt when it was over. It was exactly what I hoped to feel (but didn't) after finals ended last week. Because now, at least for the rest of the summer, I have some breathing room. Sure, I'll be busy--I start my internship next week, and Baby is coming next month--but for the next few months I can leave my work at work. For the last two semesters, I've been living with this feeling that I should be always doing something. I think I did a good job of balancing school with the rest of my life, but I could never truly enjoy my time because there was always a paper that needed to be written, a class that needed to be outlined, a case that needed to be read, or notes that needed to be studied.

After turning in my law review materials, I locked up my carrel, picked up my Nook, walked over to a couch in the library and spent an hour or so reading a novel while I waited for Catherine to come pick me up. I don't think I've ever enjoyed the simple act of reading so much.

I'm Back ... Again

I can't remember how many times I've tried to keep this blog going over the years. But Catherine asked me to start it up again, so I promised I'd start this one again as soon as finals were over. And as of this morning, finals are over.

Technically, that makes me a 2L. And although I am relieved to be done with the testing, the relief really isn't as great as I would have hoped. Because now I have to wait and worry for two months for grades to come out, because apparently grades are everything in law school, and apparently last semester went well enough that I kind of dread (and expect) that I didn't do as well the second time around.

And besides, being done with finals doesn't really mean much. Tomorrow I have something like 5 hours worth of mandatory meetings. On Saturday, I'm taking the GMAT, cold (the story of why I'm taking the test now instead of two months ago would have made a great post by itself). All of next week belongs to the law review write-on. And the week after that I start my externship. And so on.

So anyways, that's school. As for running, I've been plagued by recurring knee injuries, of which there have been four or five in the past 10 months, depending on how you count. Despite the injuries, and the resulting gaps in my training, I managed to finish the Buffalo Run 50K a few weeks ago, and I even managed to do so only a few minutes slower than last year. But the result seems to be a new and exciting knee injury, which means my training continues to be less than it should. Which is troubling because I'm supposed to run the Squaw Peak 50 in six weeks or so.

Anyways, I'd say I'm starting to feel off topic now, but I don't think I was ever on topic to begin with. And that's pretty much why I've never managed to get this blog to stick--lack of direction. I don't want or need this to be a training blog (I already have one of those), and I don't want this to be a law school blog, because nobody wants to read about that. But this may wind up being a bit of both, or neither. I guess it depends on what I feel like writing on any given day. For now, I'll just say that I'm going to write something once a week. And we'll see where we go from there.

Also, Catherine and I are expecting a baby girl eight weeks from today. If you're reading this, you probably already knew that, but I thought I'd throw it out there, just in case.