Brad's Blog

New Blog!

2008-09-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

Me and Jessie have a new blog! Go to bradandjessiegriffitts.blogspot.com

2008-07-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

So, lots has changed in the past few weeks. For starters, Jessie and I got our engagement pictures. We made a trip up to Coeur d'Alene last month. It was the perfect time to go. The spring term had just ended, so I had a little over half a week to relax and not worry about school. The Ironman was going on, and I just couldn't miss that. Mom and Dad signe Jessie and me up to volunteer with the rest of the family, which was awesome. We had so much fun. We all woke up bright and early to see the start of the race at seven in the morning. Although Jessie is not known for her abilities to wake up early, she did very well. :) We were downtown almost all day and had a great time.

One of the main reasons for the trip, however, and the reason we decided to go up in the first place was to have our engagement pictures taken. Brady Campbell did our engagement pictures, and to say that he did a good job would be an understatement. The pictures are incredible! I might be a bit biased, but I would say they are the best engagement pictures I have ever seen. He's done a lot of pictures for the family, including Meagan and Brent's wedding pictures. I really don't think Jessie and I will ever use anyone else for important pictures from here on out. You can go to his website at http://www.bradycampbell.net/ to see our pictures and a lot more of his work. To see our pictures enter the "new site", then click on clients down below. Our password is bgriffitts.

Of course, deep down, one of the reasons I was so interested in taking Jessie back home was for her to see how beautiful North Idaho is. She is from Georgia, as most of you probably already know, and is used to seeing a lot of green...nothing like Utah, which is all rock and dirt. Driving through Lookout Pass and Fourth of July Pass was simply beautiful. We arrived in the late evening, so the sun was setting in the West and all the colors were darker and bolder. Lake Coeur d'Alene was simply beautiful. I didn't even have to do any convincing when I asked her if we could someday move back when we got the chance. Without any hesitation she gave us the go ahead to settle down in the area when school was all done and over. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about it.

Another exciting bit of information is that Jessie and I are no longer homeless bums. Beginning August 2 or 3 we have a place to live! We have a home...apartment...to come home to when we get done with all the wonderful wedding things. Our new home is at the Lookout Pointe Apartments. We live on the second floor and we have a sliding door and balcony that overlooks the entire valley...we can see all the way into Utah Lake. It's simply beautiful. The complex is up on the mountain underneath the Y. We are the building highest up on the mountain, so looking behind the complex all you see is mountain. We love it. There were some other places that we were looking at, but when we checked them out, we just didn't feel good. It took energy out of us just looking at the outside of the apartment. The place is aweome and we simply love it...there's just one problem. The apartment is not furnished, and as of right now, the only pieces of furniture that we own are a kitchen table, and ugly chair, (at least I think it's ugly...Jessie loves it), and a desk. So, what that means is, we will be spending a lot of time on craigslist looking for cheap furniture. We're pretty excited about it.

So, other than all that, we're just trying to keep up with all the stuff that needs to get done in the next few weeks. I'm still going to school and trying to keep up. We're both still working...and in between it all, we're trying to find some time to have fun. Not all easy, but we're doing great. I love her so much and just loving every minute I get to spend with her. We are more than excited for the next month to finally come around.

I'm No Good at this Game

2008-06-26T22:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, so, it was inevitable...Mr. Anderson...sorry, I had to say it...but it was inevitable. With everyone else getting tagged, it was just a matter of time before I got hit...so here we go.

Attached or Single? Attached. STRONGLY attached to a beautiful young woman who will soon be my wife.

Best Friend? Um, can I have a few? First, Jessie...I mean seriously, she's a lot cuter than all of my friends, and a lot more mature, too. Mike DeMotte, Chris Goodwin, Dad, Mom, the whole family, and everyone else...did I leave anyone out?

Cake or Pie? Pie. That was easy...do these get harder?

Day of Choice? FEBTOBER!

Essential Items? my bike, flip-flops (not the Obama kind...the kind you wear on your feetsies), blankets, nail clippers, salty foods, mountains, trees

Favorite Color? Blue

Gummy Bears or Worms? Why do you need to know...? Sour gummy worms.

Home Town? Hayden Lake, Idaho. Always. Oh, and Jessie gave me official permission for us to move back there...that was the REAL reason that we traveled up there this past weekend...I'm sneaky.

Indulgences? sour grapefruit gummies. These things are amazing...but they stopped selling them at the BYU bookstore...I'm sure they are getting sick of me constantly asking them when they will sell them again. Also, MSNBC.com. Oh, and jackets at Cabela's. It's almost impossible for me to go to Cabela's and leave without a new jacket.

January or July? Both. January for skiing, July for biking and camping.

Kids? not yet.

Like or Love? Like or Love what? I love Jessie. I like sleeping. I love food. I like going to bed early...

Marriage Date? August 9, 2008...almost here!

Number of Siblings? 3. Meagan, Tawni, and Tyler

Phobias/fears? Drowning while kayaking...serious. Of ANYTHING that I'm scared of, that's it. And it's really not too much of a fear. You know how people are always having dreams of other people shooting them, or stabbing them, or pushing them into a stampeding herd of elephants...I just dream of drowning in a kayak. Nothing big...

Quotes? -"What would you do if you knew you could never fail?"

Reason to Smile? I get the incredible opportunity to go to school. Seriously.

Season? All of them.

Tag Six...
Mike DeMotte, Danielle DeMotte, Heather, Riley, Uncle Steve, Darcy.

Unknown fact about me? I like the movie Moulin Rouge...and yes, I do have a pair...

Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals?
One acronym for you: PETA. People Eating Tasty Animals. Need I say more?

X-Rays or Ultrasounds? That's a creepy question...um, ultrasound. (you don't need a freaking lead flaq jacket to be around one...sounds like a good enough reason to pick it over X-Rays.)

Your Favorite Food? Sushi, Pot Stickers, Mom's Lasagna

Zodiac? Virgo...yes, the virgin...yeah, yeah, ironic, I know. Laugh it up.

And Then There Were TWO!

2008-05-12T16:51:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you all already know by now, but I figured I had better make it official here on the blog. Jessie and I are getting married! I proposed to her on Sunday, May 4th. And, lucky for me, she said yes...she didn't even think about it or hesitate! What a great deal!

If you are looking for details as to how it went, here's my point of view (remembering, of course, that it is a guy's point of view): She smiled, said yes, jumped on me, and then she kissed me. :) I was pretty happy about it. I love her so much and can't wait to spend eternity with her. Now, for all you guys out there, you can stop reading. You heard what you were looking for and I'm sure you aren't much interested in the details, although I must say I think I did a pretty good job of getting the proposal stuff all together and straightened out (with some help of Tiffany, one of our mutual friends). For all you ladies out there, the nitty-gritty details of everything that went down can be found on Jessie's blog. Her blog is http://thedaysofjessie.blogspot.com/. Now that you know it, please, add her. :) She'll officially be part of the family on August 9. We'll be getting married in the Salt Lake Temple.

Well, time is short, and sadly, Tiffany still has all of our pictures. But as soon as we get those, they'll be posted, too. Love you all, hope things are going well. Have a great week.

Playing Catch Up

2008-04-21T22:55:00.000-07:00

So, I guess it's been since February since I've posted anything, looking back at the past posts. I would imagine that that means it is time for a new post. In fact, it's the perfect time for a new post. Well, maybe not. It's midnight and I have a final at 7 in the morning. But here we go anyway.

Well, a lot has changed in the past couple of months. The most important involves a beautiful young woman I met in my religion class this semester. She quickly caught my eye in the beginning of the semester, only a couple of weeks into the class. There were many failed attempts at flirting and starting up a nice, friendly conversation...all of which were quickly shot down, leaving me with nothing but more curiosity as to who this girl was. Try as I might, she kept turning me down (don't stop reading just because you think this story is going to turn out bad. It gets better, I promise.) After weeks of trying, I finally got up the nerve to ask her to study for an upcoming exam. Surprisingly, she said yes...with some reluctance in her voice, I might add. Heck, that's all I needed. She said yes... :) We've been dating ever since. Her name, come to find out, is Jessie. (I found out a lot about her that first "study" date, including the reason for avoiding me for all those weeks, which was apparentally due to a certain "no boys this semester" attitude. :) Lucky enough for me, that didn't quite work out,.)

Anyway, Jessie is from Kennesaw, Georgia. She goes to school here at BYU is doing European Studies. She loves camping, soccer, outdoors, sushi, me...and the list goes on. :) She's beautiful, energetic, intelligent, funny, outgoing, understanding, and luckily, very forgiving. In all, things are going great between us. There have been "future" talks, but nothing is permanent...yet. Needless to say, Mom is pretty thrilled. Both Jessie and I will be staying here in Provo for the summer. I'll be going to school and working, and she'll be working, also. She was going to go to Salt Lake to work for the summer, but plans change...haha.

The semester is coming to a close, and I have never been so relieved to be done with a semester of school. This semester was brutal. Classes kicked my butt, I didn't get the internships I was shooting for (which, it seems, is what was supposed to happen) and I have missed out on a lot of sleep. But things are going well. I have decided that, as much as I love engineering, I would love to do medicine just a little bit more. So, I am taking a lot of my premed classes over the summer and going to prepare to take the MCAT within the next year or so. I plan on doing orthopedic surgery. I'm actually really excited about it. One of my engineering professors is really helping me with things, encouraging me and helping me out with research job over the summer to help me get some money but stay at school and get some good experience.

I'll be going home on Wednesday for about 5 days to relax and catch up a bit on things I haven't been able to do for the past 4 months, relax, sleep, and catch up on what the rest of the world has been doing while I've been stuck here absorbed in studying. Anyway, hope everyone is doing well. Summer is almost here...unless you live in Coeur d'Alene, in which case, enjoy the snow.

In Loving Memory...Continued

2008-02-05T21:28:00.001-08:00

Before the BYU-Utah Game. THE HOLY WAR! Are we fully invested or what!? Who won that game? GO COUGARS!

This was up on the mountain. Dad and Uncle Bobby.

In Loving Memory of...My Camera

2008-02-05T21:19:00.000-08:00

Over the break, Dad, Tyler and I went up to Schweitzer for some skiing on what is arguably one of the most incredible days of skiing ever. This is on the way up.

Over Christmas breadk, Brandon Astin, Mike Park, and I went snowshoeing. The snow was beautiful.

Snow anybody?

2008-01-31T13:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, so, I really wish I could add some sort of new picture or anything on the blog. My inability to do so comes down to this, sad, sad story. My camera committed digital suicide. Yes, it's true. I try to treat it good, as well as any digital camera could ask for. I took it up to Schweitzer over Christmas break on one of the most beautiful ski days I have ever experienced. It all happened while taking my camera out to take a picture of the deep, deep powder with a beautiful view of Lake Pend'Oreille in the background peaking through a break in the clouds. As I went to turn on my camera, the lense refused to come out, and I heard some grinding. Hum, great. An error then followed. After several attempts to open up the camera, I was able to get ONE picture, and the camera never worked again. I figure it had some sort of terminal camera disease and was just barely hanging on to life. After taking one of the most incredible pictures I have ever taken, the camera must have decided to go out while it had such an incredible picture engraved on its memory card, never to be forgotten...until I erased it off the card, of course. But that is how the story ends. My camera is now dead, and it has no predecessors. So, try to keep up with me from here on out as I feabily try to explain in great detail the adventures that I will be embarking on in the coming months. Until that point, I'm too poor to buy a new camera or even try to revive my other one.

So, ANYWAY, I really haven't been able to take pictures of anything, anyway, considering all I do is stay at school from dawn until well after the sun has gone down. I did go night skiing last week up at Brighton with a bunch of friends and roommates. While the snow was beautiful, it was cold. Up at the summit it was below zero. But, oh, I was skiing! We have been pounded by snow over the past week or so, as I know most of you have also, and I'm very anxious to go and do some good skiing over the weekend. I'm hoping to make it up to Alta this weekend, but we'll see if that happens between the first tests of the semester and hours of homework.

Yesterday there was also a very large Job Fair here at BYU. I was able to research a few companies beforehand and talked to many more while there. I got my resume out to a lot of them and a few possible internships are looking possible. The big three opportunities are:
STRYKER- Stryker is a company that specializes in processes and instruments used in minimally invasive orthopaedic surgery. They are based out of San Jose, California. This would be an excellent internship, especially considering I am still debating whether I will be going to grad school in Engineering or go to medical school to become an orthopaedic surgeon.
ATK- ATK is a company based out of Utah, just outside of Brigham City. I have been looking into the company for well over a year now, and would love to work for them. They specialize in ammunitions and rockets. They are responsible for the solid rocket boosters on the Space Shuttle.
Boeing- Well, it's Boeing, and they have a TON of internships available. Crossing my fingers.

SO, things are going well, but just keep getting busier, and I don't see any slowdown coming in the next, oh 60 years. It's exciting.

Still Alive

2008-01-11T16:28:00.000-08:00

So, I haven't written for a while, and just for anyone who wasn't sure, I am still alive. That state of being, however, might not last for long. I'm in for quite the semester. I'm signed up for 18 credits, 15 of which are hardcore engineering credits. While I'm looking forward to it all...I'm really not. So much for a social life and stress free weekends. Christmas was great. I'm still healthy. The Church is true. Hope you're all doing great.

Ouch, That Tag Hurt...Be Nice...

2007-11-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, So I got tagged a while back, but I pretended like I didn't see it...sorry Heather, I did see it, but I ignored it... :( But, now that I got tagged again, I guess I'll give in. Thanks Meagan, I really appreciate it. haha. And Heather, I still love you. Ok, so here I go...and I'm pretty sure I'm going to learn something new about myself, too.

1) I'm still single...wait...you all already know that...

1...again) I have a goal to accomplish the Coeur d'Alene Ironman in 2009. I know a lot of you already know that, but some don't. A friend and I are going to do it, and honestly, I'm pretty excited about it. The bike and the run won't be too bad, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to do everything but drown in the swim.

2) If I could move anywhere...other than back home, of course...I would move to Maine. I don't know why. I've never been to Maine, but I just have this peaceful, woodsy, homey picture in my mind of what Maine would be like. So, if it's not North Idaho or somewhere close by, it's Maine.

3) At times I still have the desire to be an orthopedic surgeon. Not enough of a desire to change majors or try to get into medical school, but I believe I would love working as a surgeon. But, I'm pretty sure I'm going to love working on jet engines. :)

4) My roommate is on the BYU football team. He's redshirting this year, but he still dresses with the team at home games. #57 Matt Putnam. GO MATT! SO....it's not about me, but people I know.

5) I love brunettes...enough said. Oh, and brunettes with blue eyes...sign me up!

6) Shoot, this last one is hard. Um, after graduating with my degree in Mechanical Engineering, I plan on going to graduate school to earn my Masters in either Mechanical Engineering or Aerospace Engineering, depending on where I go. I'm actually really looking forward to grad school. I'm loving my time in college.

Ok, so I KNOW that everyone else has already been tagged, so I'm not going to bother tagging anyone else. You many say that I"m not playing along, and if you are saying that, then, well, YOU ARE TAGGED, and most likely will have to do it again. haha. So, there are some things you might now know about me.

The Impossible Mountain

2007-10-13T16:52:00.000-07:00

Two weeks in a row, two attempts at climbing Mt. Timpanogos, and two miserable failures. I have never had this much bad luck in climbing a mountain...especially one climbed as frequently as Timp.

So, last week was the first attempt at climbing the mountain. We had known for about a week that a huge storm was heading in during the weekend, but plans had been made and, for those of you who know our stubborness, those plans were not going to change. Jarom Zimmerman came down from Boise and Jeremy Frint was coming down for the climb from Logan. The plan was to be on the trail at 2:00 early Saturday morning. By early afternoon Friday, the rain was coming down, ad only got worse as the evening went on. Luckily for us, as the time to hit the trail rolled around, the storm clouds rolled out and the stras even appeared for a while. We got to the trail head at about 4 in the morning to perfect temperatures for hiking (about 30 degrees) and a few inches of new snow on the ground. To make a long story short, we took the wrong trail, ended up at a waterfall where the trail ended...Jarom tried to find a new trail, he accidenatlly knocked a beachball sized rock off a wall which came a little too close to killing one of us down below, Jarom got lost, we waited around for him for an hour and a half, freezing in the now falling snow, and headed back home when we found out Jarom hitch-hiked his way back to my apartment. So, that was failed attempt number 1.

So, after that miserable failed attempt Brandon Astin, Mike Park, and our roommate Nick Wallace decided that this weekend would be the PERFECT week to try to climb Timp again. The weather said that it was supposed to be clear and decently warm...at least above freezing at night down here in the valley. So, we planned for below freezing weather, packed lots of layers, and got to the trailhead...the CORRECT trailhead this time...at about 4 in the morning once again. Once again, the weather was perfect...just above freezing and partly cloudy. On the way up we saw a moose, some elk, and a bunch of deer. As we kept climbing, we reached the snow line and the trail was, from then on out, packed snow or knee deep snow. It was about at this time that the snow started to fall...which we weren't expecting, but were luckily prepared for. It wasn't falling too hard, so we weren't worried about it and kept climbing.

After a few hours of climbing we finally reached a plateau below the summit where Emeral Lake was. It was still dark and so we didn't do any exploring, but we could see the peaks all around us and the excitement really set in. I couldn't wait for the sun to rise so I could take some pictures. As we continued to climb, the snow began to fall more steadily and the temperature began to drop fast. We came to a shelter that is normally occupied in the warmer months to assist climbers on their way up the mountain. This was the perfect place to take a break and grab something in our packs to eat. As we sat down the snow began to fall even harder. The peaks that we could see so clearly just a few moments ago were completely shrouded in clouds and falling snow. We packed on the layers and switched out of our wet clothes, but it didn't seem to help. Brandon and Mike stripped down to all but their skivvies to change out their wet clothes, and mentioned that they were feeling warmer. So, of course, the hypothermia jokes started coming out. That will have more meaning as we hiked back down towards the cars..Don't worry, we were fine, none of us had or got hypothermia, and we had a great time. WE WERE FINE...for you worried mothers. The four of us ended up huddling up to conserve body heat, in a scene that reminded me of the movie Without a Paddle...except that we were sitting down and had all our clothes on. What happens in the shelter, stays in the shelter...haha. Huddling together did warm us up and gave us a little extra courage to get going again, regardless of the increasing cold outside the shelter. The weather continued to deteriorate as we waited for the sun to rise, and even with the summit just lumming over our heads, obscured by clouds and snow, we decided it was a better idea for us to head back down the mountain, to the car, warm beds, and safety.

Despite the disappointment of not making the summit for a second time, we had a GREAT time coming back down the mountain. The snow offered spectacular opportunities to hone our "skiing" skills and technique. We got really wet, really, soaked to the bone head to foot, but we were heading back down to the car and were quite warm from our exertions. So the fact that snow was getting everywhere didn't effect us. As we continued to decend, the snow slowly became wetter, and the last half our of hiking it was raining, which didn't exactly add to our personal comfort, but again, we had planned ahead and were warm. On the way down we saw more elk, and two more moose, including a bull moose just 10 yards off the trail.

Just a few hundred yards from the parking lot we encountered a small group of men heading up the trail. Mind you, the rain is still falling and the hiking situation all-around is just not favorable. They stopped us and asked if we had made it up to Emerald Lake. We mentioned that we had, and that we stopped at the shelter, but because of the sketchy conditions decided to come back down. He said that search and rescue was heading up the mountain to Emerald Lake to pick up some guys that had come down with hypothermia and were needing help. GOOD THING WE PREPARED. See, Mom, we aren't so stupid...we know what we're doing. :) Hopefully things went well with the search.

So, to summarize, the weatherman still sucks at predicting the weather. I don't trust those guys...they're kinda sketchy. What was supposed to be an amazing night for hiking and climbing a mountain turned into a snowy, cold situation. Despite not being able to make it to the summit once again, we all agreed that the trip was well worth it. We all had a blast, and me personally, I would definitely do it again, even if I knew we weren't going to make it to the summit. Whether we end up climbing it again this year, or waiting until spring to get it done, I'm not sure. But you can be sure I WILL climb that dang mountain.

Another Mountain Added to the List!

2007-10-05T10:10:00.000-07:00

So, I was googling good mountains to climb yesterday, and i came across this one, and I could not for the life of me say no to climbing it. This is Mt. Robson in the Canadian Rockies, located in British Columbia. In my excitement I sent some pictures to Jarom Zimmerman and it took all of a few seconds to come to the conclusion that we will climb this mountain in the near future...after Mt. Rainier, of course. At about 12,500 feet, it's not an extremely tall mountain, being 2,000 feet smaller than Rainier, and only slightly taller than Mt. Adams, which I have climbed, but it is taller than any mountain I have climbed to this point. I am more excited than I can express to climb this mountain. We're not sure when we are going to climb it, exactly, but it is definitely on the list and will be climbed shortly...within a year, I hope. Anyone interested in joining us is more than welcome. I'm not sure quite yet exactly how difficult a climb it'll be, but I'm looking into it. So, CANADA, HERE WE COME!

Mt. Robson

Quick Update

2007-09-26T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hey all. Well, I haven't really posted anything lately, so I thought I'd give a little update. I'm at school right now. I've done all my homework and am just waiting for my next class to start up in 20 minutes. School is making me more and more tired every day, but hey, that's how it goes! I love it here! As for dating (admit it, you all care...haha...I was reminded at the family reunion that I was the OLDEST, NON-MARRIED COUSIN LEFT!...you'll all pay by hearing the torturous stories of my dating life...if there are any) I've been dating more this year, but as of yet, nothing steady. Just having fun. My apartment and an apartment of girls in our ward have been frantically trying to watch all three prior seasons of The Office in preparation for tomorrow's season premiere. I never was an Office fan, but after watching a few episodes, I'm hooked. Dang television. Wasting my time! A couple of my roommates and I are heading up to Yellowstone for the weekend. Brandon Astin and Jarom Zimmerman are going hunting, and the rest of us are just going to chill, go hiking, and enjoy the time away from Provo. So...that's a quick update.

Mt. Reynolds, Glacier National Park

2007-09-19T18:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, so before Mt. Hood, there was Mt. Reynolds in Glacier National Park. Again, like Mt. Hood, going to Glacier was something that Jarom and I have been planning for over a year. This time, though, it wasn't something that we actually had planned out. One day I got a call from Jarom telling me to get online and look up Mt. Reynolds and tell him what I thought. Of course, that meant that he was stoked, and of course I was going to be 100% down with climbing it, regardless of what mountain it was. Before I even saw the pictures online, we knew that the trip was set in stone. After looking at the pictures, we decided that we would climb Mt. Reynolds the following weekend, one week before Mt. Hood.

Mt. Reynolds isn't the tallest mountain we have climbed at only 9,125 feet, but it was by far the scariest and most technical mountain. Climbing routes are rated on a scale from I to V. We decided we would reallly make an adventure out of it and take the class IV route...a route that "highly recommends" ropes, harnasses, helmets, and other safety equipment. We went with boots and water. The peak sits on top of Logan Pass. At the top of the pass is the visitor's center. One of the few smart decisions we made that day was to register with the center. After entering the center we talked with a young female ranger from back East somewhere (yeah, young female ranger...). Of course, we had to act the part, so we asked how hard of a climb it was and if we would be ok having "never climbed before"...which was a total lie. She looked at us like she was already trying to figure out if she was going to need one helicopter or two to get the remains of our bodies from the base of the mountain. She told us that the visitors center closes around 5, and that if we weren't back by then to slip our portion of the register slip under the door, we could tell she was picking her words carefully as to not offend the "newbies to mountain climbing." With a quick, "wish us luck" we were off and on our way. It was about 10:30 in the morning.

The first part of the climb was not bad at all, and we actually had a well defined trail to follow. We went up a ridge to the West of the mountain that went to the back, or South side (the side not visible in the picture). After following the trail for a while we realized that it wasn't going exactly where we had wanted to go. The trail we wanted to conquer started on the West side of the North face and traversed East over what few could even consider a goat trail...I don't even think the goats would have considered it a goat trail. So, we scrambled up extremely loose shale rock, slipping down one foot for every two we went up, but did finally make it to the trail we were headed for. We rounded the corner of the mountain, looked down, and, I'm pretty sure it was immediately, realized that we were in a bad spot...BUT, we had found exactly what we had come for...a good climb. I didn't dare look down or let go of the rock wall as we shimmied across the trail. Holding onto the wall, however, really wouldn't have done any good, seeing as how the rock was anything but solid. Slowly but surely we both made our way across without evening loosing our footing slightly. As we got to the East corner of the mountain the trail began to go back down the mountain. After searching for about 15 minutes for the the trail to the summit, we came to the conclusion that there was none, and so decided to climb straight up the rock face...again, without ropes. Now granted, Jarom and I have done some pretty stupid things in our few short years of life, but was we were climbing up the face of the mountain, we bot agreed that this was, by far, the most stupid of dumb tricks we had ever decided to pull off. We decided to stagger our climbing about 30 feet apart for a couple of reasons: 1) if one of us fell, we wanted to have time to react in whatever way most beneficial to the both of us...whatever that's supposed to mean. And 2) as we climbed up, there were multiple times when one of us would get stuck on the route we decided to climb. The dialogue usually went something like this..."Hey, uh, how does your route look? I think I'm stuck" the other would respond "Looks pretty sketchy. I'm not sure I can find anything here. Sit tight, I'll climb up here and see if I can find anything." After about half an hour of leap-frogging past eachother we finally got up to the summit, again, somehow, in one piece. We took some pictures, cried inside a little (of course we didn't cry on the outside) for making it safely, and then our jaws dropped as we saw the well defined trail leading down the South side of the mountain. If we had known about the trail before hand, I still doubt, no, I KNOW we still would've taken the route we did. For heading down the mountain, though, we were more than happy to find a trail that didn't have a 1,500 foot fall accompanied with it. On the way down we harassed some mountain goats, and overheard some comments on the main trail about how we looked pretty manly and how parents wanted their sons to grow up to be like us...if they only knew.

We got back to the car at about 2:30 in the afternoon, sat on the asphalt and ate lunch. Four hours up and down the mountain. It was more than worth the trip just to climb this mountain, carved and sculpted by glaciers. Man, I should be a writer. Another mountain to add to the CONQUERED list.

Last Hoorah for Summer

2007-09-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back down in Provo, slaving away at the text books once again. So, what a way to get your mind off of the books before hand then to go and climb a mountain? Jarom Zimmerman and I planned last summer to go and climb Mt. Hood in Oregon, and we were able to accomplish that the weekend before school officially started. So, Jarom Zimmerman, Brandon Astin, and I started our adventure the early morning of Saturday, August 25, 2007. The picture to the right is at the parking lot to the ski resort at the base of the mountain at 2:30 in the morning. Brandon had said, "Make sure you smile now, because it's probably going to be the last time we'll be smiling today." Well, he was right, it was a tough hike, but awesome, hike. We had planned on getting up to the summit in time to see the sunrise. Things didn't go exactly as planned. It was freezing, the wind was blowing, and the skis and snowboards weren't exactly the best idea for hauling up the rock (especially considering I had to lug around ski boots as well). By the time the sun was rising, we still had at least another 1500 vertical feet of climbing to do. We didn't even come close to making it on time, but the view was still incredible. (See the picture below).

The best time of year to climb the mountain, we were told, is in the early summer...we went in the middle of August. The snow we were planning on, wasn't all there, and the snow left was pure ice. We had ice axes and crampons, without which the mountain would have been impossible to climb. By about 9 in the morning we reached Crater rock, which is essentially just a huge rock in the crater of the volcano. We had read about that part of the mountain, and quickly learned why it was called the Devil's Kitchen. Sulfur was visibly venting out of the ground all around us. As we climbed out of the crater and headed towards the upper rim the sulfur died away, but the glacier became incredibly steep. Digging in with our crampons and ice axes became very taxing as the rock hard ice and high altitude started getting to us. This was by far the hardest part of the whole hike. Every muscle in my arms and legs was burning and all I could think was, 'if I fall,

there is no way I'm going to be able to dig back in and stop myself from sliding all the way down the glacier to the crater.' The worst part was that this was not our originally intended route. The easier route passes through a passage in the rocks called the Pearly Gates. However, because of the late time of year, the glacier had started to pull away from the rest of the mountain, and had created a rift, called a Berschrund, that was impossible to get around...or at least a little more dangerous than even we were willing to deal with. So that's how we got ourself into the mess with the rock hard, 65 degree slope ice slope. (the picture to the left is the alternate route out of the crater). From the top, is was a relatively simple walk along a razor-sharp ridge to the summit. Around 10:30 in the morning we summitted the mountain, 11,245 feet about sea level. We didn't stay long and quickly headed back down to the cars. The climb up was very enjoyable, but the way down was torture. Let's just say we got down as fast as we could, safely, but tired. Taking the skis and snowboards up was a pain, but it was nice to ski down a good portion of the way. It definitely shaved off some time. We got back down the car in the parking lot, which by now was full of cars for peole who had been skiing all that morning (Mt. Hood has the only year-round ski resort in the lower 48). We opened the cars, got out more water and plenty of food, and laid out on the asphalt, rubbing our cramping feet and toes as people walked by. We got a few weird looks and a couple of 'are you guys ok?', but the climb was definitely worth it, especially when we saw the reactions of the people when we told them we had just climbed the mountain behind us. One more mountain down, MANY more to go! (The red line is the route we took up the mounatin. The summit is allong the ridge at top towards the right corner.)