Broken Thumb (Couloir)

After my mom's maladies this past year, we decided to go out and get a "Broken Thumb". Okay, that's not really fair to my wonderful mother, but I thought it would be a fun play on words. the Broken Thumb we sought out is a couloir (steep, narrow gully) on the north side of a peak call 25-Short in Grand Teton National Park, so named because it is 25-ft short of 10,000 feet in elevation (9975-ft above sea level). I've had my eye on this line since the first time I heard about it: relatively easy access, not extremely committing (I suppose this is relative, but you have to admit that it is in the shadow of the South, Middle, and Grand Tetons...), and not extremely high in elevation. I saw it as a great warm-up to Teton ski mountaineering and since the snow isn't great anywhere and avalanche concerns are low, President's Day weekend was the time to give it a shot.


Alli and I, along with our friend Tom, struck out Monday morning from the Bradley-Taggart trailhead. After a short stint of loosing the skin track at the beginning, we reached the top in a little over 3 hours. It was beautiful outside. The sun was shining, it was warm, we were in high spirits. We geared up and set off for the couloir. I have to stop and admit here that it gives me a feeling of studly-ness when you put on a harness with gear on the top of a snowy mountain, amid many taller peaks, about to put skies on your feet. Go out and try it sometime!



The descent to the "squeeze" of the gully was really wonderful snow. The three of us leap-frogged down through the trees and into the throat of the gully. The section immediately above the "choke" or crux of the route, is a no-fall zone above a cliff, so our skiing slowed as we descended to the rappel anchor. We set up our rope (70 meters) and one by one walked back over into the unknown. Okay, it wasn't that dramatic, but it sure sounds good, eh?

Snow at the bottom of the rappel was steep and stiff, keeping us on our toes for another 500 feet or so until it opened up to an apron of softer snow. Then we rode the icy luge track out of the draw, across Taggart Lake and back to the car. What a fun line to grab under blue skies and sunshine in the middle of February. Happy Valentine's Day and Presidents Day all wrapped into one. Click on any of the pictures to see them larger.

Destination in Nepal

Well, hot off the trail of the College M in Bozeman, my team is gearing up for an incredible adventure bringing supplies to the people in the Gorkha district! Rumor has it that we have our work cut out for us with elevation gain and loss, as well as trekking at altitude. Not to mention 60-75 pound packs at the beginning of the start of the trip.

As mentioned in a previous post, we will fly into Kathmandu when first arriving to the country. Then we will take a bus west toward the Annapurna Area Conservation District (I think some maps will say "Refuge"). I don't know the exact details but we will hike a large loop through the region ultimately ending in Pokhara, the second largest city in Nepal. Then we will take a bus back to Kathmandu to rendezvous with the rest of our teams.

Exciting news: we plan to have a SPOT device with us to send back messages and our locations like I've done on this blog on previous trips. You'll be able to follow along on our progress here at home!

Please Pray: Pray that we might be physically fit and conditioned enough when we arrive to be able to carry out our mission.  Pray that our bodies and our heads will adjust to the altitude quickly and not suffer too badly from side effects (headaches, lack of appetite, etc.). Pray that God would open doors for us with the Gorkha people.

March Ice

What's cooler than being cool? ICE COLD! 

 -Outkast

I've been writing a lot about an upcoming trip to Nepal: preparations, fundraising, culture...but what's going on in the rest of my life? Back in March, right at the end of the ice climbing season, I had a flurry of days up in Hyalite Canyon. Great training and team building for Nepal (okay, I had to make it relate somehow).

The first of the two days I have pictures from I went out with a fellow Nepal team leader Jeff and his daughter. We had a stellar afternoon in the sunshine amidst some fresh snow. Jeff is shown above leading the first pitch of a climb called "Hangover."

One of the things I love about ice climbing is the feeling. There is just something about walking around with sharp things on your feet and sharp tools in your hands that makes any outing feel like an epic adventure! Here Jeff and Aime are walking around a rock outcrop on the way back to the truck. If I were able to crop out the tree, it could be a ridge somewhere in the Alaska Range or high in the Himalaya, right? Like I said, epic feeling. 

Another thing about ice climbing that adds to the "epic" feel is the weather you go out in. Sometimes it feels like an all-out blizzard. This picture is kind of deceptive though: it was probably 32 degrees while it was snowing. 

Here are my buddies from the next Friday after climbing with Jeff: (l to r) Chris, Brett, and Josh. Great group of studs just out for a morning jaunt on ice. 

And I love climbing! Swinging tools and working with ropes is an incredible experience. If you ever get the chance to get out and climb, please do so for me! Even for those of you less attracted to the vertical world: get into the fresh air of the mountains. Or at the very least watch some kind of climbing video or documentary.

I'll leave you today with a quote from John Muir:

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

Trip Itinerary

We have our tickets finalized for our travel to Nepal, so at least we know how we will be getting to Kathmandu, just not necessarily how we will feel when we get there.
Here's our (abbreviated) itinerary:

• Flight from Billings, MT to Seattle, WA on the morning of May 6th.
• Fly from Seattle to Tokyo, Japan (longest flight, tickets seem to say 26 hours...!)
• Tokyo to Bangkok, Thailand (long layover in the airport overnight)
• Bangkok to Kathmandu, Nepal Woo hoo! At our final destination at midday on the 8th of May, tired and flight-weary but pumped to be in Nepal. (at least that's the hope) 

On the way back, we retrace our steps and arrive in Billings on May 21st mid-afternoon. Then we drive back to Bozeman to crash in our own beds. Somehow I feel like that will be very nice...

Please Pray: 

• Pray that our travels will go smoothly
• Pray that we will arrive to Kathmandu with all our bags of supplies for the villagers
• Pray for our health on the planes and in airports that we might be strong and have energy to do the work we are going to accomplish. 

Summit the M for Nepal

 It's almost here! Our Summit the M event starts tomorrow at 10 am and goes until 3. Our team of Nepalers will be at the M hiking, running, and otherwise making our way up to the iconic M located at the foot of the Bridger Mountains just north of Bozeman. We're gunning for as many laps as we can get and hoping to raise funds in the process.

The M trail (at least the loop that I will be doing) has about 800 ft elevation gain and covers 2 miles. I'll be trying to do 10 laps. Please consider being a part of this effort. Sponsor me per lap for as little or as much as you like. What about 10 cents? What about 50 cents? Every little bit helps and I might need a little incentive to get that last lap or two tomorrow. I have a spreadsheet for sponsorship here. Thank you so much!

If you're in the Bozeman area come out and brave whatever weather happens tomorrow and hike the M yourself. Come and meet us and see what we're all about. If you're not in the Bozeman area...I'm really sorry. :) Please come and visit some time!

Sunset at the M, Fall 2011.

Year 2012 Wrap Up

Since I have basically failed to blog since June I'll try and catch you all up to my world over the past six months:

I went to the Young Life property Washington Family Ranch (affectionately referred to as WaFaRa) for a week in June with my high school buddies for summer camp. As advertised, it easily qualifies as one of the best weeks of my life.

The guys in my cabin at camp. They are awesome!

I asked my girlfriend to marry me while at the top of Bridger Bowl Ski Area, fulfilling a life-long goal to propose with a ring-pop.

I worked for 7 weeks of my summer in Lewistown, MT. My research work with Western Transportation Institute involved building a test road at an old B-52 landing strip. It was a frustratingly long process where the contractor underbid the job and took them much longer than expected.

The "Trench": an imitation of a weak road base that we strengthened with plastic meshes. 

We had a family reunion on the Oregon Coast. So good to see everyone and share Alli with my family!

School started again in August and I had a pretty full load trying to take 3 graduate classes, teach 2 sections of lab, and work part-time for WTI. I wound up telling my boss that I couldn't work any more of the semester in October.

The highlight of my hunting season was killing my first antelope opening day the beginning of October. I had a blast chasing elk through the woods, and was relatively successful finding them. However, I was still unable to close the deal on any opportunities. There's always hope for next year...

Hunting in Anaconda with Alli before Thanksgiving.

I married the love of my life on November 10, 2012. I never thought that this would be the first thing checked off my bucket list made almost 3 years ago.

We visited Mom and Dad for Thanksgiving in Kalispell, had a birthday celebration for Alli, and we both got our first tattoos! Although I won't admit to any tears, I will assure you that commitment like that hurts really bad.

Alli and I just recently found out that we received an honorable mention in an outdoor adventure checklist contest we entered. There was a list of 20 activities to be accomplished in the Bozeman area and we completed 14. We got a shout out as the love-bird couple who did the tasks together and got engaged along the way. No prize money, but there's always next year...

Alli and I on the top of Hyalite Peak the last weekend in September, one of the tasks for the Outside Bozeman Hitlist contest. 

The semester of school refused to die and I spent an inordinate amount of time in my office at school trying to finish several papers, projects, and reports. After I finished we left for a weekend trip to Kalispell, and then flew to Kansas City to visit Alli's parents and grandparents.

Our final adventure of the year is our Honeymoon! We leave on Monday for South America for some Feliz Navidades! We plan to see the sites, taking it all in as we backpack and flyfish in the area of Puerto Natales and El Calafate. More updates of our trip to follow.

Christmas Travels

So it's been a while since I've been blogging and hopefully this trip will encourage me to pick it up again. This should be your one stop shop for all the adventure stories of Colter and Alli; the first being our honeymoon trip to Patagonia. We hope to be able to blog throughout our time in South America.
This is the first test blogging with smartphone so likely it'll be short but hopefully fun. This should be an indication of how our blogging will be throughout the trip.
Well we are off and running on the first part of our journey to Kansas City. There's been a little hiccough in the weather but seems like we'll make it okay. The perk is we've been bumped to first class which is a new experience for me.