Kay is known for many things. His truck, his Vietnam veteran status, his mustache, his storyteller's voice (think Sam Elliott in The Big Lebowski)...actually, if I didn't know better, I'd say Kay and Sam were the same person, or twins, or something. But one of the things Kay is known best for is a very special experience he is able to share with some NOLS courses.

Kay came a day early for our second re-ration, with a trailer full of not only food, but a large old oil drum, piles of wood, tarps, tent poles, and more. After doling out our much-anticipated rations, we began to set up with Kay, setting up the tent poles in a cross, laying the tarps one at a time over the poles, building a stone cradle inside, hauling the oil drum out and stacking wood for a fire...we were preparing for Kay to guide us in a traditional Native American sweat lodge.

The history of the sweat lodge or sweat bath is long and rich. The idea pervaded through many native cultures, including Eskimos and the Mayans, of a sweat bath, to cleanse not only the body, but the mind and spirit as well. Lodges were traditionally built (in North America) on the "hot rock" model, the same basic idea that went behind our lodge experience. Traveling tribes would build their lodge frames from willow branches, with three crossing in a dome shape, and two wrapped around to bind the structure together. The frame was then draped with blankets or skins, depending on the tribe and how much influence they had from the white man's trade. To heat the lodge, extrusive igneous rocks (or other highly durable rocks) were superheated in a large fire, which sometimes took all day to build and stoke, and carefully placed in a pit in the center of the lodge on forked sticks.

Though in our ceremony, everyone was welcome to take their own perspective and gifts from the ceremony, many native tribes saw the sweat as a chance to commune with the gods of the earth, to share the legends of the tribe, to cleanse themselves of evil, and even to precede the peyote rituals.

I cannot truly relate how wonderful and intense this experience was for me, but later, in the wee hours of a very late morning, as I sat by the barrel fire, I felt cleaner than I had in a long time. If you ever have the opportunity to do a sweat lodge, keeping in mind all the safety precautions, I suggest you take it.

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# posted by Nicholas J. Carroll @ 10:41 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Well folks, it's not April 18th yet, but here I am back in Lander, WY already.

Turns out that chest pain was caused by a condition called costocondritis, an inflammation of the bone, cartilage, or tissue between the sternum and lung. Relevant history often includes altitude changes (check), temperature changes (check), and a cold in the past month (check), but the cause is generally unknown (check!). The good news is that it is not serious and I am already cleared to rejoin the course when they return to town on the 18th.

If you've never been to the area of Utah which my father refers to as "Planet Utah", the deep canyons and high mesas in the southeast corner of the state, then consider taking a trip to check it out.
From the first step, I knew this section would be something very different. Not just from winter section, but from all other hiking, from all other places I'd been before. We must be careful where we walk. Every step, we are careful of the cryptobiotic soil. Its name means "hidden life", as it is a collection of "cyanobacteria, mosses, and lichen", as well as algae, that can easily be missed. The crypto is the cornerstone of all life out there. It gets into sand and clay and grows, drawing into the soil nitrogen, phosphorus, and a number of other nutrients, while at the same time cementing particles of soil together. The soil then resists erosion better and is able to sustain plant life. Plant life allows animal life to exist, providing food and cover. So we're careful to avoid the crypto, walking on rock and in waterways instead. When we can't avoid it, we minimize our impact by following in each others' footprints. And every step in that crypto, depending on how developed it is, could require anywhere from years to decades for the soil to recover.

One major highlight for me was the slot canyons. Our first was Cowboy Canyon, a side drainage to Gravel Canyon.
As if we were in a sandstone playground, we hiked from the top of the canyon down to the bottom, where it rejoined Gravel close to our camp. Hand lines, tight spaces, wall stems, pour offs, and beautifully sculpted stone were our companions as we explored this beautiful canyon.

While we had a base camp set up on a bench in Gravel Canyon, we each had the opportunity to do a "solo". This is a long-living tradition amongst those who love the outdoors. Outward Bound uses it as a direct, immersion teaching technique. NOLS offers it as a personal exploration and immersion in the environment. Others go hiking alone for solitude, creativity, meditation, fasting, fun, and a thousand other reasons. No matter the reasons why, the concept is basically the same: go outside, away from all other people, and spend some time entirely by yourself. Some like to even leave books and watches at home, just to be sure they get to spend real time by themselves.

Our solo lasted for two nights and one full day. I found a spot a few miles up Gravel Canyon, tucked into the south wall, a ledge about seven feet above the running creek bed. My ledge was five feet deep, giving plenty of flat space for my bedroll and belongings. I even had a second ledge in just the right place where I could set up the stove and put together some delicious meals. My tentmates had both decided to fast for their solos, so I had the happy task of eating a bunch of our ration to compensate.

I'm pictured here on my ledge the morning after my solo had ended, ready to hike out of Gravel Canyon. My solo was a chance to write to my family and a few close friends, and live through a simple day. Cook food, sit and think, write, cook food, sit and think, do laundry and bathe, sit and think, write, cook food, write, sit and think, and so on. One major thing I was able to do is write a letter to myself. My lead instructor, Marco, will take this letter from me, put it in an envelope, and mail it to me six months after our solos occurred. This rather challenging task inspired me to a new resolution: take regular solos. So rarely do any of us in the world allow ourselves to be truly alone...spending time with nothing and no one but ourself. So in six months, I will turn off the TV, put the book down, pack my stove, layers, journal, and sleeping bag, grab the sealed envelope, and go outside for a while. I hope then I'll write another letter to myself, to be read on my next solo six months later. We'll see how this resolution works out....

After we left Gravel Canyon, we turned up and into Long Canyon, a similar adventure land of rain-sculpted rock, slot sections, and beautiful campsites. Though Long was very similar to Gravel and Cowboy, we found ourselves traveling for a few days up canyon, a task that gets challenging when pour offs, slot sections, and water get in your way. But our team, no surprise, stepped right up to the task and had a great time wading, climbing hand lines, and scouting routes. To the right is a shot from the rim of the canyon, on the day we hit the top and had to find a route out where all walls had turned to cliffs. The rest of our course members can be seen down on the canyon floor. That night, as we settled into camp up on the mesa, it began to snow. Snow in the desert, though often a source of complaints for comfort, is a beautiful, beautiful thing. From our frozen camp, we could look out over the highlands and see the Jacob's Chair formation swaddled in fog, with many snow-capped junipers and rock in the middle-ground.

There very well may be nowhere as strangely beautiful as canyon country in Utah.

That's all for now, folks. Next time, I'll have a few more video clips for you and I'll talk about our very special opportunity to do a Native American sweat lodge ceremony.

Your Adventurer,
Nick

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# posted by Nicholas J. Carroll @ 10:35 PM 1 Comments Links to this post

Tomorrow morning, I will hop on the bus with my coursemates and make the day and a half drive down to southern Utah to begin our 30-day Canyon Section. We'll return on April 18th.

We spent all of yesterday in classes and meetings with many of NOLS' key departments and their leaders, including meeting with the Executive Director, Human Resources, Environmental Policy, Risk Management, NOLS Pro (professional development services), and a luncheon with many employees from both NOLS Rocky Mountain and the NOLS International Branch. As a result of all that, I met one of the interns working in the video department, and after sharing my love and passion for video and my desire to have a camera in the field, he arranged for NOLS to loan me one of their cameras for this section. Since it's a small digital media video camera, it can replace my still camera in my pack and won't even add much extra weight, but will allow me to get footage that NOLS and I can share. It also means the content from my canyon section here will be even richer than the photos I've already been able to get.

Today we packed up everything we need for the section in packs, including rations (and my extra food, thank goodness!). My pack, even with extra food and a few little extras I'll probably be able to eliminate, weighs in at 45 lbs, a respectably low weight for the section. Every day, it should get at least 2 lbs lighter, as well! Woohoo!

Our canyon section will bring us to southern Utah Canyonland, exploring natural and human history in areas such as the Mancos Mesa, Gravel & Long Canyons, and the Dark Canyon area. I've included here some Google Maps snapshots to give you a peek at what the terrain in those areas is like, and so you can see the general progression of the course.

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View Larger Map
When I return on April 18th, after some time catching up on things, I'll be sure to get another section recap blog up before I head out to our climbing section at Split Rock and Sinks Canyon.

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Labels: adventure, canyonland, canyons, connections, creative process, equipment, film, filmmaking, NOLS, outdoor educator, outdoors, utah, wyoming, youtube

# posted by Nicholas J. Carroll @ 7:07 PM 1 Comments Links to this post

Below are many entries, almost all from the second ration period of my 20 day travels in the southern Wind River Mountains, some are highlights from my log, some are comments on the experience from now. Some pictures are here, but scroll to the bottom of this entry for a link to an album including more select shots from the section.

26 Feb 09 - Day "2" Winter

"'Normal people don't do this.' - Right Reverend Robby Ripcord, First Church of the Open Slopes

I'm currently huddled in my sleeping bag just before 7AM on the trail near Christina Lake [just inside the Wilderness Boundary]. Two hard days or cross country skiing and two of the most stressful nights of my life got me and our group here. Nothing of this journey is familiar.

Every step, every piece is a new skill I must learn to stay alive, warm, comfortable, active, and healthy. I'll even have to learn how to write better in the cold. Cooking gives me some comfort, I'm starting to get a hold of the system and can now start to get creative with meals. More entries later, wake-up time approaches...."

3 March 09 - Day 7 Winter - Weather: -At 7:30AM -4 deg C, overcast, winds from N and S, moderate gusting. -In saddle by Cony Mountain-

"These "tissue recovery days" are really nice. Not only can I get down to paper all these observations, but it's especially nice to stay in bed most of the day, even out here. I do hope we'll get one or two more of these to hep break up the remaining section days into emotionally (and physically!!!) manageable chunks. This section is undoubtedly the most challenging & overall uncomfortable thing I've ever done. I find it often difficult to believe I signed up for this voluntarily. It does help to have days like this. It also helps to know that the semester will go on to increasingly amicable camping situations. After the cold, hash, frustrating conditions in winter, we'll be in the warmer canyons, moving in tents [& sleeping under the stars]. After that, base camping in the climbing section, an idea that seems positively posh compared to now. Here's to looking forward to that!"

4 March 09 - Day 8 Winter - Weather: -At 6:45AM -5 deg C, overcast, winds from NW, SW, E, moderate gusting. By night, strong gusting from N & moderate gusting from...everywhere! -Ration cache retrieval day, back in saddle-

"Overall a good productive day today w/some challenging spots. Coyotes had found our cache and made a mess of ours & a four-person group's rations. The four-person team is missing a lot. Then there was the harsh weather [strong winds in clearings during travel to cache location] ...made it rough to climb the ~800 ft on ~4 miles of trail back to the saddle...The good news? New food! Griffen made a bangin' pasta & veggie dish w/a peanut sauce. Also: new tent group! Jill, Griffen, and I are a new three-person group, and things are already great...the positive attitudes of these two are happily infectious. More tomorrow..."

5 March 09 - Day 9 Winter - Weather: -At 7:00AM -12.5 deg C, overcast, winds from N-NW, blowing storm across the saddle to the SE. By night, snow had blown over and the skies began to clear, moon overhead a day or so past half-waxing. Should be at least mostly cloudy by tomorrow morning. -Still in saddle by Cony Mtn (woot!)-

"...some avalanche tranceiver practice & coaching [picture in album, in the saddle with Cony Mountain in the background] was a great thing....my [mid-course evaluation] talk with Clair was great, too, amazing to see all the things the instructor team had noticed about my progress....I'm reminded of what Rev. Robby said: 'Normal people don't do this.' Damn right."

6 March 09 - Day 10 Winter - Weather: -At 7:15AM -15 deg C, partly couldy, mostly clear, winds from N & NW, gusting, which made the -15 degree morning temp seem even colder. At 11AM near Roaring Fork Valley, temp had increased to -11 deg C. -Day tours to Silas Canyon or ridge above Roaring Fork-

"While one group made their way to the W towards Silas Canyon for some exploration & snowpack study, my group went NW to try to find a suitable new campground somewhere in in or near the Roaring Fork region. [We] broke trail along & over ridges in what turned out to be a fruitless search for passable trail past Boulder Lake. Even our eventual exit from the Wilderness will be a challenge, finding a way to minimize boulder hopping with sleds as we make our way. We'll see what the I-team decides, but I'll bet we spend a few days camped in Silas Canyon before heading toward exit on the 14th. For today, I'm glad we got some good views and exercise at a relaxed pace, and am enjoying some early rest & hot drink. More tomorrow!"

7 March 09 - Day 11 Winter - Weather: -At 6:30AM -15 deg C, clear. At 7:30AM -10 deg C, clear. Occasional mild gusting winds from N-NW -Ridge summit to W-

"Pit digging!

Test Pit Results [for those that understand them!]:
-Dug 1m20cm on 29 degree slope.
-Ski penetration 2 cm. Boot penetration 6 cm.
-@0-10cm, fist (F) hardness, .5mm flakes, round.
-@10-15cm, four finger (4F) hardness, .5mm flakes, round/groupel
-@15-25cm, F, 1 mm, round
-@25-40cm, 4F, .5mm, groupel?
-@40-50cm, F, .5mm, round, with shovel shear with high energy (STHQ1) @45cm and compression test breaking using strikes with whole arm and snow barely collapsing (CTHQ3) @50cm.
-@50-80cm, 4f, 1.5mm, facets, STMQ2 @75cm.
-@80-120cm(ground), one finger hardness (1F), 1.75mm, facets, shovel shear at base (STN@120cm), compression test at base (CTN@120cm)
-Rutschblock Test had no failures (RB7). [This meant Jill skiing out on a big, isolated section of snow, flexing her knees, jumping once, again, then three times in the middle of the block, all without the snowpack moving at all.
[Not the most interesting pit ever, but I know how to do one now!]

....Today=great. Wonderful weather. Couldn't ask for a better day for today's activities. The whole group went to the summit of the peak to the W, up ~920ft to 11,522 ft. Beautiful view; got 360 degree view photos, portraits, and group shots. Didn't join the group going out on the ridge--my right foot was very cold, so I joined the descent, found a sweet ski spot without skins down the last third. Also got a great opportunity to head back out w/Erin [an instructor] and Jill for a few hours to learn test pits. Moving to Silas Canyon camp tomorrow, more when I can.

Mon 9 March 09 - Day 13 Winter - Weather: -At 7:45AM -15 deg C, overcast. At 9:00AM -9 deg C, overcast. Mild to moderate gusting from S-SW, snow falling rapidly. Though skies had mostly cleared by bedtime last night, we woke this morning to ~25cm of new champagne snow on the ground. By now (@2:45PM) we have around 50cm of snow with maybe 35cm more to come today....-Big snowfall = scouting pass instead of heading out to Atlantic Canyon-

"Beautiful, snowy landscape today. Have some shots from low & high on our way to scout out the pass connecting Silas Canyon & Atlantic Canyon....I'm feeling tired & worn out. I feel as if the fact that I've been at a sustained effort for two weeks is finally hitting me. I also feel like I'm not getting enough food. I'll have to remember that two pounds per day is just not enough for me to feel fed & energetic. Note to self: BRING MORE CLIF BARS! They are GREAT."

Tues 10 March 09 - Day 14 Winter - Weather: -At 9:00AM -18.5 deg C, overcast. Moderate gusting from SW. By nightfall, winds from NE were moderate to strong gusts, clear skies. Total snowfall was between 55-65cm. Around 5cm fell today in larger, denser, sparser flakes. -Last day in Silas Canyon camp.-

"Another rest/choose your own adventure day. We woke to a COLD morning, and I was grateful to get right back to bed soon after the 9:30AM check-in. Jill went off with some others on an early departure ski tour towards some slopes near Tomahawk Lake, and Giffen, after some morning pit digging, came and joined me in the shelter, bringing Kelly along, and we all discussed [nature] observations & read books....We all have made extra warmth & dryness precautions for tonight, as it is probably going to be our coldest yet, around -25 deg C when we wake up, with clear skies. Beginning exit move tomorrow!"

Weds 11 March 09 - Day 15 Winter - Weather: -At 7:30AM -9.5 deg C, clear. Mild wind from W-SW in morning, otherwise still, except moderate winds in clearings during travel. -Moved from Silas Canyon camp to old Quigloos above Christina Lake.-

"[Starting tomorrow] we have three days to cover about 16 miles, meaning we'll cover a little over five miles each day, mostly rough flat-tracking, slowly sloping off in elevation. We'll make it to the roadhead by night on the 14th, and be picked up at 9AM the next morning."

Thurs 12 March 09 - Day 16 Winter - Weather: -At 7:30AM -20 deg C, clear. At 8:30AM -17 deg C, clear. No wind! -Moved from old Quigloos around 4.5 miles along snowmobile trail past Wilderness Boundary.-

"Simple travel day today, on our way out via the snowmobile trail. Really lovely day, set into camp early, around 2:15PM....Low on food, but we'll be good enough for these few days, I think...."

Fri 13 March 09 - Day 17 Winter - Weather: -At 7:15AM -10 deg C, clear. No wind. -Mom's birthday today! Moved ~4.5 miles along broken snowmobile trail to Greniere Meadow-

"Warm sunny day with broken trail meant a very quick travel day moving about 4.5 miles...from 11AM-1PM....many of us are now sitting out in the meadow in the sun, filling out evaluations, journaling, and chatting about the days ahead. We're definitely all looking forward to our soon return to Lander. Almost done with winter!"

Sat 14 March 09 & Sun March 09 - Day 18 & Exit

I woke on the morning of the 14th and had two unusual experiences. First, I got to poop in a toilet. Though this is not a novel thing to those of you living daily with restrooms, even the outdoor toilet near our campsite was a dear luxury. Secondly, I got to catch the sunrise, a lovely advantage to DST being in effect.

Our last day of travel, though our farthest exit travel day, was not too rough and we still arrived at our last camp fairly early. Low on food, each group pooled resources in a potluck dinner, with each cook serving every member of the expedition.

The last night of the winter section includes the Dachron Challenge, a voluntary challenge set by our lead instructor to spend the whole night without tent or sleeping bag. Though some of my coursemates built solo shelters, fires, or dug out group spots to layer in, I opted a solo trench away from all the other members of the group. Though I did make it through the night, completing the challenge, I did not sleep one moment. Plenty of time for me to commune with the almost-full waning moon...

We're back in Lander, WY now, getting some classes, meetings, fun time, and extremely comfortable bed rest before heading out Wednesday morning to southern Utah for our 30-day canyon section. I'm very, very excited, and feel like I'll really be able to excel. Some brief details on that tomorrow night, I hope, otherwise, I'll blog when I'm in town next, roughly April 19th...

Your Adventurer,

Nick

For entire gallery for this and other sections, CLICK HERE!

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Labels: adventure, Atlantic Canyon, Boulder Lake, canyons, Cony Mountain, NOLS, outdoor educator, outdoors, Rocky Mountains, Silas Canyon, utah, Wind River Mountains, winter, winter section, wyoming

# posted by Nicholas J. Carroll @ 2:08 AM 0 Comments Links to this post