Playing outside

The last couple weekends have been amazing. 

I had a massive push at the office to get some reports out that resulted in a couple 60+ hour weeks. Which is a bit soul crushing when it's in the office. It's a totally different story if you're in the field, playing with dirt, being outside, and moving. Something about being at a desk when I could be outside kills me.

Anyways, I started compensating for my insane, 14-17 hour work days by playing hard on the weekends. Adam came down and we did an overnight hike to Rabbit Lake, which was windy as hell. Windy as in it collapsed Adam's tent a couple times until he relocated, blew me off a rock and into a stream, and generally was pretty wild. But it was absolutely stunning and we had the lake to ourselves, since everyone else who started out with the intent to camp decided to make good life choices and wait for a better weekend. It says a lot about the quality of our friends when strong winds, chilly temperatures, and no good camping spots don't put them off a night in a tent.

This was followed by another 60-something hour work week, and then another excellent Alaskan weekend. Weekend number 2 involved a magical hike in Hatcher Pass, climbing an easy multi-pitch (theoretically 3 pitches, but we linked the first 2), and meeting up with a good friend in Palmer for dinner. Then on Sunday we went for a wonderful 30 mile bike ride down the Coastal Trail and to the end of the Ship Creek trail. It was magical. 

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This weekend I flew Rach down from Fairbanks for some climbing/hiking adventures with her and her fiancé, Chase. We snagged my morning climbing buddy Nelson, stuffed Rach and Chase into the truck, and drove up to Hatcher Pass (seeing a trend yet?). 

We proceeded to hike up Reed Valley towards the lovely, yet solidly damp and misty climbing crags. After we missed the turn for our original destination (the cliff was in the clouds and we couldn't see it - probably a good clue that the rock was going to be too wet to climb), we headed up to a slab that looked like it had potential to dry out a bit. 

The mist started burning off and the rock dried out surprisingly fast.

We scouted around it a bit and decided, while parts of the rock were dripping water, there was a route that I was comfortable leading. 

As the day progressed, it got sunnier and hotter. 

We set up a top rope on a route and took turns on a lovely little 5.9+. It also happened to be one of those routes that's incredibly photogenic.

Unless you're Nelson. I have at leat 15 photos of Nelson and he has some variation of this face in every. Single. One. 

Eventually we moved down to a different section and did a nice little trad lead. We even got Chase to do his first outdoor climb. He crushed it. Some people are really good at crack climbing. I kinda hate them. 

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On Sunday we hiked Rainbow Ridge. It was one of those hikes that was pretty awesome going up and seemed waaaaaaay steeper going down. But, like most things you have to work for, it was totally worth it. 

I must confess, the my quads have been quite sore today. I blame the prolonged, steep downhill. 

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And that is the story of my life. And by 'life', I mean adventures. 

It's so nice being able to get outside and play. It's good for my sanity. And might result in a tan.

I'm lying. I don't tan.