SNOW!?

Having been raised in Columbia South Carolina is a most a bad joke. I think it snowed there four years ago... that was cool.

Since moving to NC I have been quietly steeping with anticipation of our first real snow up here. Five days ago it actually happened! SNOW! WHAT? I was in my dorm room on a friday afternoon, totally done with class when I saw the first of the many snow flakes to fall. Awesome! I had heard rumors of anything between 6 to 12 inches by the weekend's end, so when the light flurry turned into a guster of ice i was not surprised just very excited!

I had to get in on this action!

I decided to wait an hour or so to let it build up a bit. It didn't take long; within the first 60 mins there was already half an inch to an inch of snow built up.

I texted four of my friends with plans to hike up to the top of Look Out mountain. None of them seemed to have received my message so i decided to make the ascent anyways (solo adventure can be a very good thing). However on my way up I bumped in to Rodrigo and Javie, then outside of Howerton we found Lisa and Will! All the people who i texted just happened to have the same idea and we all went out at the exact same time!

We stopped at Javie's house to pick up a sled, and then walked all the way to the top of Look Out. Slipping and sliding the whole way up i would randomly throw myself into the snow covered trees agitating a sudden downpour of winter magic! One at the top we sat in a circle and admired the powerful gusts and swirls of snow being blown around the white sky.

After appreciating the flurries me and Rodrigo decided to blaze a trail back to the trail head. Look Out being a very steep mountain it didn't take much effort as we allowed gravity to drag us downhill through piles of built up snow.

Once at the trail head we reassembled and prepared to arrange our selves on the sled. For those of you who don't know look out road it is very steep and very long (this is what we had hiked up to get to the trail and this is what we were going to ride all the way back into campus). All five of us squeezed on to the sled and shoved off! Best sled ride of my life! We had to work together to steer it down, all leaning in the same direction at the same time to avoid parked cars. We rode for for what seemed forever (probably 10 mins) but thats a long time for a sled ride. The road took us straight through the center of campus where we hopped off and walked into the caff for dinner! Epic.

Later that night me and brandon took our boards out and attempted some urban campus rides/tricks. Every ledge, hill and stair case turned into a challenge waiting to be conquered by us.

Then the next day we woke up at seven to head off to Wolf Laurel slopes for a sweet day of snowboarding.

I love the snow.

Walk Your Own Line

The academics have kind of officially picked up now just finishing my second week of classes. My schedule has been pretty packed with that so its been harder to get out as much; also the weather has been kind of crappy with a lot of chilled rain. Days have been a little more standard than the first week of 0 responsibility, but we jumped at the first opportunity when classes were out and the weather cleared.

We went back to the same place where we set the first swing up but this time with bigger and bolder ideas.

We set out to build a high-line. For those who dont know what this is its basically a tight rope that is suspended off the ground (usually more than ten feet). In this case we went to set one out over a wide stream about twenty or so feet up. To do this safely we decided to set a safety rope up along side the line we were walking on. We would then clip our harnesses to that safety line. Set-up took way longer than i expected. It took close to two hours because we had to make sure that when we brought the ropes across the stream that they wouldn't get wet (it happened anyways). So anyways, we got everything set up and tightened the safety rope with a pair of ascenders. Go time.

I've set high-lines up before but had never successfully walked all the way across. Slacking on the ground and slacking 20ft up over rocks is a whole other story! I can consistently walk a line w/o falling and can even do a couple tricks but stepping out on this line felt like the very first time again! I nervously let go of the tree and took my first step out over the gully. My feet shook with nerves on end as i tried for step two. Success! When i reached the middle of the line I realized "oh dang! I can actually do this!" but as soon as i thought about how awesome it would be to finally complete a high-line I immediately thought about how terrible it would be if i fell. This thought spiked my nerves all over again! With both feet on the line my entire body swung dramatically to the left and then to the right. Desperately my feel clung to the narrow strip of webbing trying to regain control. To my dismay i managed to calm my nerves and slow the swinging. Cautiously I decided to try another step. Then another, and another. Before i knew it I had done it! Oh man what a great feeling, I was super stoked!!! I wish you could add these kinds of things to job resumes or something. Ah well these life experiences are way better than anything money could get me.

Swing, Swing, Skate, Skate

I mentioned before that I've entered this semester with great optimism and this last friday is one of hopefully many manifestations of these aspirations.

The day started cold and rainy but later in the afternoon the sun decided to come out. Looking to take advantage of this window of opportunity my friend Rodrigo came up to my room. "Dude, get your gear out, lets just look at it until we think of something awesome to do." We ended up taking everything with us: three ropes, two ascenders, one shunt, petzl trolly, two harnesses, figure eight, atc, and tons of webbing and beaners. We headed off into the woods after grabbing another buddy Robert, together we set off looking for anything "adventure." We quickly found a stream with steep banks and an overhanging tree, perfect for some "stupid human tricks." After contemplating wether we should make a zip line, a rappel, a swing, or a leap of faith (emprovised bungy jumping we settled on a big swing! I quickly shimmied out on the tree to set a webbing anchor and set the rope. Rigo elected to be the ginny pig and took the leap. Swinging out off the twenty foot drop off screaming he soared towards the opposite bank and back again! After him, robert and I took our turns with similar successfulness!

Many more stunts will be tired here.

After our swing we went strait over to a friend's house for some banana pancakes. Later that night we had college night at the skate ring, so what ever energy we had left.

Good first weekend back, I hope keep it up!

Back at the Treat

I relize that I am terrible at keeping up with a blog.

It seems to be too big of a responcibility, so naturally the best thing to do is to start another one and keep two blogs haha.

I just started a kind of outdoor log and decided to keep it online because it may or may not be useful to others. I am really not too experianced and any of the three topics I write about (climbing, paddling, or biking) but it is what it is so if your into that sort of thing maybe it'll help. The link is

http://bolteoutdoors.blogspot.com/.

In other news, simply for the purpose of having a more recent post than my last one I'll say it's good to be back at Montreat College. I had an amazing six weeks off from school and I've just started my second day of classes today. There are good vibes floating around the air with the

hopes of a great semester! We are all very excited! My friend Rodrigo and I conspire almost everyday about all the different potential adventures we will be having this year. I'll be sure to post more as these manifest themselves into being.

Yesterday my buddy Phil and I decided to add a little humor into the world. Have you ever been camping out in the middle of the woods to take the next turn in path to find things that just don't belong? I've encountered items such as bowling balls, couches, and toilets located deep, deep in the woods.

These things make me smile and i can't

help but wonder, "how? and why!?"

We decided to contribute. Phil had an old door/door frame which we decided needed to aspire to something great. So being the clever college boys that we are, we loaded it up into my truck, and drove it to a trail head. Once there, we unloaded the door, followed the trail all the while carrying the door until we found a suitable location. Once deep enough into the forest we

settled on a location between two trees. We then continued to nail the frame between the trees until it set nicely upright by its self. Behold the Magic Forest Door! Who knows maybe one day it will serve as a portal to allow some blessed child into the world of Narnia!