Riley, Ben and Jake all wrestled at the Aztec Warrior last weekend and all performed pretty well. It was a VERY LONG day though. So glad that the tournaments are over.
Kenzie got a job! Hurray! Also she got a 31 on the ACT. It was her first try and she didn't even study. When she saw the scholarships she's eligible for, she decided to take it again to attempt to score higher with studying.
Riley and Ben got to go back country skiing with Dad this week. Burwell Peak was the objective. It is an esthetic line because it peaks out at 12500ft, drops 2700 vertical feet, and can be seen from NM where the boys ride dirtbikes in the desert. The actual climb was Riley'ss biggest climb to date at 3000ft from the sleds.
No picture, but a note worthy part of the experience was a fighter jet that buzzed them near the top and shot through a saddle between Gibbs and Burwell peaks. The boys said it all happened so fast and loud, it nearly knocked them over. All they saw was afterburners and the thundering sound of close up jets.
When they made the cliff band that blocked the last leg of the climb they found a skinny couloir of rock and ice that ran nearly straight up 400ft through the cliff band to access the top. Riley led the route mostly because Dad wanted to climb behind him to spot if he fell because they didn't bring a rope and ice screws. Ben followed and caught rocks and ice with his head. Would have been nice to have two ice axes each but they managed.
It got nearly vertical towards the top and was a little scary but riles was all smiles up and over the crux. Love the unique method for carrying extra ski pole! It is pointing at a large rock that ended up on Benny's head.
Babcock and Spiller can be seen in the distance here and are also future objectives. Maybe this year, maybe not. As the boys walk they have to skirt the edge of the rocks because that is the end of solid ground. Everything to the right is massive cornice over cliff and would be a fatal fall if the cornice collapsed. Riles got yelled at more than once for venturing to close to the edge.
There was a narrow notch in the cliff band that had continuous snow down into the slope. Ben was worried it was too steep because he is a wussy wa wa baby. Dad and Riles knew that snow doesn't even stick past 60 degrees, so even though it looks vertical it's not really. They did sit on the edge and think about it while working on PBJ sandwiches. Dad down climbed the slope to measure it and reported 43 degrees. Ben is dumb so he believed Dad but it was really 53 degrees after it settled out from the vertical portion of the cornice. It was also narrow and concave which made turns difficult.
Dad explained to Ben how to contact search and rescue helicopter on the phone and dropped in. It was actually kind of scary so Dad instructed everyone to side step down the first 50 ft until it opened up for cleaner turns. Dad made the first turn and cut loose 8 inches of storm slab that ran 1000ft down. So once the boys worked their way through the chute they all traversed over to the shadier side of the bowl where the snow was a little harder. Down, down down from there with only one little mishap where Riles went Better Off Dead for a while and Dad had to race down to catch a runaway ski.
Then Riley, Jake and Ben got to go dirtbiking with Dad. Jake gets to run more big boy loops these days and is super stoked to finally be included more with the group.
Biggest news of the week had to do with Jordan. He got his call to the Tacloban Phillipines mission. He will be leaving August 14. We are excited and scared at the same time. Two years is a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment