The Next Step

I have finally figured out what I plan to do with myself for the summer of 2009. I have accepted a backcountry ranger position with Wrangell-St Elias National Park. I will be based on the north side of the park in Slana. I should be spending most of my time in the backcountry instead of at a desk. There are possibilities for rafting patrols, backpacking patrols, and mountaineering as well.

Wrangell St Elias National Park is about 13.2 million acres making it the largest National Park in the US, by comparison the country of Switzerland is about 10.2 million acres. I have been out to Wrangell St Elias several times including one Search and Rescue assignment. I'm really excited about this new opportunity and I can't wait to get out there.

I've added a few pictures of the search I worked in Skolai Pass a couple of years ago.

Mexican Dreaming

I should be writing about what an incredible trip Angela and I had to Mexico but I can't. The airline gods once again conspired against me and foiled our plot to flee to warmer climates. A large winter storm shut down the Seattle airport the day that we were supposed to be flying and the airlines were not able to rebook us for at least a week. We decided to cancel our Mexico trip because we would not have had very much time down there, especially considering how much the tickets cost us. We still managed to get out to Virginia to see my folks and Angela's sister, so it wasn't a total loss, but Virginia is not Mexico.

The holidays were really nice in Anchorage. We took advantage of our time here and caught up with friends that I hadn't been able to see since I left for Nepal. The weather cooperated for a few days and we were both able to get out and do a little climbing and skiing. I even talked Angela into skiing up Eagle River to try an ice climb on a bitter cold day when the mercury never rose above zero. It's fair to say that Angela was a tad less psyched about our little outing than I was. She was A LOT less psyched when she broke through the ice. Luckily she did not go all the way in and just her feet got really wet. We made a mad dash for the car before she got too cold.

Thats pretty much what I've been up to lately. I'm living the wonderful life of the unemployed at the moment and trying to spend as much of my free time as possible outside.

Pictures from Nepal

The caption for each picture is below the image. I don't know why the spacing is messed up on some of them.

Kathmandu

The airport at Lukla, this is where we started trekking.

Namche and Kongde Ri.

This was our first view of Mt Everest and Lhotse, Ama Dablam is on the right.

Tengboche Monastery

Island Peak, the route we climbed is around the right side.

Lobuche East, the second peak we climbed.

Ama Dablam at sunrise.

Brian and I on the summit of Island Peak.

Island Peak basecamp, our tent is the only green one.

Everest, Nuptse and the Khumbu Glacier from the summit of Lobuche East.

Our porters descending on Lobuche East.

Brian making friends.

Prayer flags on the way to Thame.

Everest, Lhotse and Makalu from Renjo La.





Ama Dablam

When I asked a passing guide what kind of goat this was he told me a "high mountain goat." It's actually called a thar.

This porter carried all our gear from Namche to Lukla.

Boudhanath, Kathmandu

This is the river we went rafting on for two days.

Riot police tenderly holding hands before they kick the crap out of some protestors.

Kathmandu from Swayambhunath.

Patan Durbar Square

Island Peak Summit

This video is from the summit of Island Peak.

Frustration in Kathmandu

I'm still stuck in Kathmandu but there may be light at the end of the tunnel. I've spent the last several days standing in various lines at various different airline offices being told various different things. I was originally supposed to fly with Thai Airlines back to Bangkok, but because Bangkok is still a mess thats not going to happen. Instead I was told that Thai Airlines would pay for a new ticket for me to a different airline hub, I'm trying for Hong Kong. So I ran all over the place trying to find a flight to Hong Kong, I finally found one on Royal Nepal Airlines and was told to go back to Thai to have them endorse my ticket. I waited at Thai airlines for 4 or 5 hours before I made it up to a ticket agent. The agent takes one look at my ticket and says "I can't do anything with this." A rather loud and protracted shouting match ensued where I very diplomatically explained to the man that it was in his best interest to make the ticket for me, he declined and I loudly voiced my disagreement with his incompetence, to no avail. After this little encounter I walked into a different section of the office, sat down and handed a different agent my paperwork. He took care of my ticket right away, no shouting, cursing or threatening required.

So I have a ticket out to Hong Kong on the 4th of December and then flights on to Taipei and Anchorage on the 5th. So I'm hoping that all that will get worked out and I should be back in Alaska by Friday morning. I'm looking forward to getting back there, it sounds like the snow is already piling up which means I need to get out my skis.

Killing time in Kathmandu

Well for anybody that hasn't heard Bangkok is a mess and I'm supposed to be flying there today, right now in fact I should be seated on a Thai Airways flight winging my way towards the "land of smiles." Instead I'm sitting in Thamel doing a blogpost. A few days ago anti-government protestors stormed Bangkok's international airport and closed it down. It's still closed and will remain closed at least through tomorrow. I'm on a waiting list with the airlines for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, on Wednesday I have a confirmed reservation. So I have no idea when I might be getting home. Well at least Kathmandu is a really cheap town to be stuck in.

Yesterday I went to Durbar Square and to Swayambunath (the monkey temple). Durbar Square was interesting, it has some of the oldest building in Kathmandu and a lot of very intricate woodwork. I went up to Swayambunath just before sunset and walked around the stupa and a few of the other shrines. The view from Swayambunath looks out across all of Kathmandu, or at least all of it that can be seen through the smog. Its a beautiful place. The monkeys are pretty entertaining as well. I watched one monkey snatch a candy sucker out of a kids hand before he could even get it to his mouth.

I have no idea how much longer I'll be here, at least through tomorrow. I'm hoping to be back in Anchorage early in the week, but there's really no way to tell right now.

Whitewater Rafting on the Bhote Khosi

We just got back from a two day rafting trip on the Bhote Kosi river. We had a lot of fun. The river has class IV and V rapids on it. Because its late in the season for rafting the water was pretty low and there were a lot of rocks. We left Kathmandu on the first day and drove about three hours to the first put in. We floated down the river and through several class III rapids. The water was not as cold as rafting in Alaska, but it wasn't very much warmer either. We stopped for lunch along the river and shared our lunch spot with a group of curious cows.



After lunch things got more interesting. Coming into one of the bigger rapids on that secton of river our raft went into a rock, got pinned there and flipped over sideways dumping most of us into the water. The current sucked me under the boat and through the wrong side of the rapid. I popped out of the first rapid and floated on downstream through a few other waves. The other boat came floating by upside down. Apparently my boat was still stuck on the rock and the other boat had flipped on another rapid, so there were about a dozen of us floating down the river. The safety kayakers gathered up some folks and the rest of us climbed onto the over-turned boat and paddled it to shore. Eventually they got the boat I was in unstuck and we regrouped on the bank. No big deal, lets keep going. Some of the other folks were pretty shaken up and two dropped out for the following day. I managed to get thrown out of the boat once more that day but after the ride I'd taken earlier it wasn't a big deal.



We spent the night at the Borderlands Resort. It was a nice place right on the river with beautiful waterfalls coming down from high on the mountainsides. We put in on the upper Bhote Kosi aound 10:30 in the morning. The second day runs more challenging sections of the river. There were definitely some nervous faces in the group before we set off. We floated downstream through some pretty good rapids before stopping for lunch. After lunch we got our boat broadsided on a rock maybe 10 yards from the lunch spot. The boat got pinned against the rock and wrapped around it. Brian fell off the front of the boat and got to go down through a few nice waves before one of the kayakers got to him. The rest of us were stuck on the half of the raft that was out of the water, the left side of the raft was totally swamped. The other guides came back up the river bank to us and threw us a couple ropes. We secured the boat with one (although it was pretty secure against that rock) and used the other to get people off the raft. They would slide off the raft and into the water and then the rope would swing them with the current into shore. Everyone else got off the raft but the guide asked if I would stay and help him get the raft unstuck. We tried a few more useless things before breaking out a rope and a few pulleys to set up a hauling system on the bank. Once the guides rigged the ropes and started pulling they managed to tear three of the sewn D rings off the boat. We rerigged the system to try to flip the raft over. After a few tries we managed to flip the raft and the guide and I dove onto the inverted raft as it drifted by. The rope system swung us over to the shore. We packed up the gear and got back on the water. The rest of the trip down was pretty straight forward. Brian managed to get popped out again, we were both sitting up front where there isn't much to hook your feet under to keep you in the boat. The guides took the rafts through two class V rapids, but the clients all had to walk around. The rapids didn't look too bad but a swim in the middle would probably kill you. When the water is higher they can run those rapids because its less likely you would flip with the rocks deeper underwater. We finished off the day with a 3 hour bus ride back to Kathmandu and most of our boat went out to dinner together.



Just a few days left in Kathmandu. I'm trying to see some more of the sights before I leave. I've had a great time over here, but its just about time to be moving on.