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(OT) My Summer Project, and a Halloween reminder

Silent Singer

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Stratics Veteran
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Hey folks,

Back in the spring I took a break from Siege to start working on a summer project. Still played on prodo a little, but my evenings became very full because I was walking. A lot.

Around 2000 - 2001, within a few months of discovering UO, I made a goofy list of things to do before I died. This was before bucket list was common nomenclature, or at least I had never heard the term. It was all over the place, entries ranged from "Bake a cake with someone I love" to "Make my own paper" to "See a moose". One of those entries was "Walk up a mountain to at least 10,000 ft". That elevation was entirely arbitrary, I figured that it would be high enough to count as an actual mountain to me but also low enough that specialization would not be necessary. Like the rest of the list, it was an off-the-cuff entry meant to point me in a general direction more than become a concrete goal.

After the last couple of years having some ups and (much larger) downs, I found the old list. Surprisingly, I had done most of them. But there were some stragglers still out there. This was also the year I turned 40 (another arbitrary number given more precedence than it deserves). So I decided to knock a few out. Three seemed to dovetail nicely together;

1. Walk up a mountain to at least 10,000 ft
2. Travel out West (US Western States)
3. See a Moose

After a few weeks ( and a long and sordid tale I'll skip here ), a partner and I decided to climb Grand Teton in Wyoming. It is the classic American alpine climb. I thought I would be happy just hitting the 10k ft mark, but the more we looked the more interested we became in reaching the top, a whopping 13,770 ft high. I spent my summer afternoons hiking with increasingly loaded packs up a large hill loop nearby. On weekends I practiced rappelling and belaying and general skills with rope. Basic stuff, nothing really technical. But then..

( more long and sordid tale occurred )

...my climb partner backed out just weeks before we were to leave. I purchased airline tickets at the last minute (we were to have driven together), and tried to piece a plan together on my own. Two days before I was to fly out, an early polar front moved in and iced up the summit. I decided to just shoot for the lower saddle, a wide ridge connecting Grand Teton with Middle Teton. At 11,600 ft it would be well above my arbitrary mark, and I would not need any climbing gear (or a partner) except for a helmet. Rockfall is a serious problem (as I learned first hand once there). Here are a few pics:

garnet canyon to lower saddle-small.jpg
Above is Middle Teton (left, w/ black 'bar' running up its center), Garnet Canyon, Grand Teton (right) and the Grand Teton Glacier. The trailhead that leads to this canyon is off screen to the right.

I had originally planned to hike from the trailhead (roughly 6700 ft elevation) to the canyon entrance (9000 ft) and camp. But due to a number of issues (flight delayed 4 times and one connection missed, all from O'Hare weather) I only got 4 hours sleep and missed picking up my permit. So I (in an astonishingly irrational mindset) decided to forego camping and try to do the entire run in a day.
I was hiking alone in active bear country (dumb dumb!) and about as calm as a castle IDOC. The morning was FREEZING but the view from my parked rental car was beautiful;

trailhead-small.jpg
The Tetons are to the left and back from this pic. I managed to encounter only one bear, thankfully at a time when a second hiker had just passed me (damn 20 year olds! *shakes fist*) and he stopped me on the trail in time to work around Yogi and continue. Once I got into the canyon and starting scrambling through the boulder fields I knew I would not be making the lower saddle. I took a pic with my phone to later send to Garth and Talia, and only managed to get a little farther above the point posted below:

above spalding falls-small.jpg
That brownish flat spot in the center is a dirty snowpack in an alpine meadow. After this point I was out of gas, and literally leaning on my trekking poles with every step. It was my first experience being at elevation (I live at a mere 800 ft above sea level), and man did it kick my ass. I got dizzy, terrible headache, and just felt nauseous. I threw in the towel somewhere around 10,300 ft (which I only learned later, at the time I didn't give a damn WHAT the elevation was, I just wanted to get lower). I was very close to the lower saddle, here's the first image with a rough sketch of my route:

garnet canyon to lower saddle-label.jpg
By the time I reached the trailhead, I had hiked (with a pack) for over 12 miles and 8000 ft of elevation change. It took me 9 hours, and I was as exhausted as I've ever felt when I stopped at the car. I would have loved to have made it further, but I didn't have it in me. The next few days I spent recovering, visiting Yellowstone, enjoying the expanse of Wyoming (truly, the most beautiful country I've ever passed through), and I even saw a momma moose and a baby moose! So the trip wasn't a complete wash, even though I'm still pretty down about it.

With Halloween activites starting up soon on Siege I will, as always, be trying to collect a suit of bone armor from the new drops. Just as in previous years, I would appreciate anyone who gets a bone piece drop to set it back for me. If I have drops, I will trade two for one in your favor for the bone, and if I don't, I'll offer what I can from the store or items I possess.

Thanks for reading, have a great Halloween season!

- Calavera
 

Larisa

Publishing Manager, Stratics Leadership
Editor
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Editor
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Wiki Moderator
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Beautiful!!! Congrats on reaching that high! That's not easy to do...what a great story! Glad you got to cross a few more things off of your list! Moose are beautiful, aren't they?

Good to see someone enjoying life!
 

GarthGrey

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Well done my friend !! My wife wants to move to Wyoming too, we just finished 6 seasons of Longmire lol. And to think I was complaining this week because of 15 minutes of shoulder workouts with a personal trainer ...smh
 

Tanager

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Welcome back!

Looks like an amazing trip, and 3 things knocked off the list while you were at it! The altitude change is killer, so don't beat yourself up about it. You made your bucket list goal and got to see some truly stunning landscape in the process :) The photos are gorgeous.
 

Blind Otto

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Well done! Now THERE is a true adventurer!
(Just remember to wear your arrow-proof kneepads! Oops, wrong game!)
 

SpyderBite

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Good job.

BTW.. if you want to see a moose.. go to northern Canada.. the moose (meese?) here in the US are no bigger than mule deer. Where as the moose in Canada can walk over large automobiles and peer in to 2nd story windows.
 
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