The Fading of a Season

 To whom it may concern,

     It is that time of the year again. With each falling leaf my sentiment grows. As the fall season slowly fades, gasping in its final breaths, the impending winter stands poised, waiting patiently with sharpened fangs. It creeps in slowly, circling ever closer. The knowing summer sun, too weak to put up the fight any longer, lowers its head and submits. I sit, heavy hearted, and watch helplessly. Nature must take it course; there is nothing I can do. 

Panoramic view, climbing near Mt Rushmore

         
     Pictures become sentiments of brighter, warmer days. I reflect back and hope and wonder if the most had been made of my time. Could I have done more? Could I have done better? With each new day the frost grows thicker and serves as a reminder... It wont be long now. I beg and plead and barter for just a little more time; It wont be wasted, I promise...
     I rifle through the catalogue of memories. Like a drowning man desperate for something to grab, I seek out things to reassure me that my time had not been squandered. The more unique the experience, the more value it holds. A memory stands out...I recall hanging 160' above downtown Denver, painting an old dilapidated smokestack to look like a pencil.



















     I smile at the thought, indeed a unique experience, but it does little to console the sadness that still twinges at my heart. The days grow shorter and colder faster and my sense of urgency increases exponentially. Affirmations are left wanting. Give me the cure for what ails me. I roll up my sleeves and dig deeper into the bank of memories.
     I must try something different... Perhaps the solution is to invoke and relive such a memory. By doing this, I could take from the experience what I was too blind to notice before. I conjure up the best idea I can... I must return to the place most sacred and dear to my heart. 

Sawbill Lake B.W.C.A.

   
     It is in the stillness of this place that the sounds of my frantic mind are slowly muffled out. In the unchanging beauty and silence, a calmness slowly washes over and cleanses me. At peace (if even only for a short while), the acceptance of things to come calms my restless soul.





     Then comes a bittersweet revelation... It is only in these moments of realizing the finite nature of life that depth and value are truly added. The changing of the seasons is not just the ending of the known; it is also the beginning of a new unknown. I become steeped in gratefulness. Though too engulfed in the moment at the time, each memory becomes a blessing to have ever experienced at all. Suddenly I am aglow. Like a death-row inmate's final meal, I hardly even have to try to savor each moment.
     I warm my hands by the embers one last time and shed a grateful tear for the memories of a well written chapter. I take a final look around, so in love and so aware, extinguish the flames from fires of old and with one last deep breath, I brace for the cold and accept my fate; further down the river we go.

Where do reflections end and the real begin?

Truly, madly, deeply,

Daniel William Janssen

Work hard, play harder

Come one, come all.  It is time again for another entry from the diary of a madman.

It has been a little while since my last one of these. But as the temps warmed up, the jobs picked up. The first of which was painting the Purina logo on the side of the Purina factory in Denver. (In case you are having a hard time figuring out what is going on in this picture, this wannabe Picasso is hanging about 85' off the deck)

As the temps have risen out here in the Black Hills, so too have the number of "tourons" in the area (especially with the Sturgis rally just around the corner).  A solitary creature can hardly get from the car to the rocks without being bombarded by silly questions ("How do you get the ropes up there?") or statements of disbelief ("You're crazy!" says the Harley rider who just rolled in to town, sans helmet, moving into day 3 of a no-sleep meth binge)




But still, as you can see... this is a place of great beauty and even the worse of the two wheelin' neanderthals seem to have an appreciation for it.

After a short break, the work load came on heavy. I spent about a week working in Knoxville, TN, had a day off, and then headed to Greeley, CO to paint a water tower.

This is a structure that has been on my working to-do list for quite a while. The climbing ended up being a lot more technical than expected which is great. It keeps things engaging. In this photo, you can see me and my buddy Matt painting. The Greeley newspaper came out and did a story on us and put us on the front page, which reminds me... I need to fire my agent....


After another all-too-short break, I was back on the road. Destination: The exotic and foreign lands of Wisconsin.
For those amongst you who are long time readers, you may recall a tale from days gone by about working at the Brewers stadium; Miller Park. Well we returned again for another week of painting AND one of the most exciting experiences of my life... the pendulum!


After Miller Park we headed to another place in WI called Fond du Lac. Here, it was our task to fix up a public viewing platform. The old platform was in rough shape with lots of rust and even more graffiti ("Ricky" if I ever find you, I swear...)


Here is the tower after we finished. It was actually a huge effort to paint this thing. Every piece of metal you can see, and every angle on every piece you cant, had to be painted. We were all quite exhausted and tired of this job, so the end of it came with great rejoicing. And after working so hard, it seemed a little vacation was in order... Yellowstone/Tetons, here we come!!!

I had been to Yellowstone once before as a younger man, though I was so engulfed in my headphones and teen angst that I hardly recall seeing this amazing place... funny how things work.

Anywho, Lindsey and I got out there late Friday night, poached a campsite and snuck off early the next morning to avoid having to pay the fee to camp in national forest (which is usually a free place to camp). We saw a few things like the lower falls of the "Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone, and stumbled into the backcountry permit office.

Lo and behold, we got a free backcountry campsite and despite the huge amount of crowds at all the major attractions, not a soul was to be seen out where we stayed. One of the highlights of the trip IMHO was getting to longboard a two mile long paved path that had geysers and hot springs all along the way. One may have needed a crowbar to pry the smile off of our faces.

For any who have not had the pleasure of seeing Yellowstone, the Grand Prismatic was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. The only other place that one might see such brilliant colors is in a Sherwin Williams store.


After getting our fill of bubbling and gurgling geysers and hot springs, we hit the road and headed onward.

It is hard to explain the excitement of being a climber and going to a new climbing area... especially when that area is the Tetons. These mountains are the youngest in the USA and because of this, the most dramatic. Rising suddenly from the rolling meadows, these titans command awe and respect.

This blog feels as though it has become long and there was far too much adventure to even begin to try and retell the whole tale. I will say though, we ended up getting another backcountry permit, camped in a beautiful forest oasis amongst the mountains (complete with the best water to have ever touched our lips, coming straight from the melting mountain snow), surrounded by the slumbering giants, Grand Teton, Middle Teton, and Teewinot. We had full moon nights, warm weather blue skies, and played harder than we have ever worked.





"There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar,
I love not man the less, but nature more."

-Lord Byron

American Thunder Down Under

G'day mates, sheilas, and roos alike,

     For those who don't know (or those who haven't figured it out from the cliches yet), yours truly has been spending time in Australia. Sadly, this is being typed up in the final hours before a long slog back home. It has been nearly a month since my feet last stood on American soil, and oh the things I have seen since... So as with all adventures, let's begin at the start.

     As the time drew near to depart for Australia, a blizzard rolled in and old man winter did his best to give me one last "F*** you". But despite numerous delays and having to sprint through two different airports, by the grace of god, I made my flight out of the US. Of course, not to be outdone by me, old man winter saw to it that my bags wouldn't show up for another 5 days.

     Our plane landed in Sydney and without consent our plane was decontaminated with a heavy dosing of some unknown aerosol. Despite making some bad noise about it, I have still not been informed as to what it was and the voices keep getting louder and this twitch keeps getting, this twitch keeps getting, this twitch keeps getting worse. The weather was warm in Sydney and I finally got to shed my wintertime long johns. We walked down to the harbor for lunch and it sunk in quickly just how expensive Australia was going to be. I'm talking $30 for a standard hamburger in Sydney.

     We got to stay in probably the nicest hotel I have ever been in. Due to a miscommunication I was upgraded to the "relaxation suite" where the booze and prawns were free, and the jacuzzi tub was huge. Here is the view from my tub...

     Upon seeing the room and the view, your humble narrator burst into an uncontrollable laughter, a little perplexed but oh so pleased to be in that situation. Our stay in Sydney was only a quick stopover. The next day we got up and flew out. Next stop... the outback.

     The Red Center, The Never Never, it goes by many names. The biggest town for hours and hours is a place called Alice Springs. For those of you who cant quite picture the size and magnitude of Australia, it is pretty much the same size as the continental United States. Now picture the only decent sized town is in Kansas and every other city is coastal. Now picture a desert that fills most of the country. Hopefully that puts it into perspective for you. It feels like the wild wild west though and lives up to its reputation. It is a hot, dry, and unforgiving place. It is interesting to imagine the many who called such a place home long before Alice Springs was even a city.

     The parallels are quite interesting (and sad) between the plight of the Aborigines and the Native Americans. Those that choose not to just reside in their government allowed land/reservations seem to have a hard time in modern (let me rephrase that; white) society. There is a very distinct and harsh line drawn between the White's and the Aborigine's and the attitude seems to be one of mildly-annoyed tolerance, much like a house guest you would like to have leave. So sad that it was their house long before early Europeans kicked down the door.

     Surprisingly, for a place that is notoriously dry, it rained on us at least four days. It was nice as it caused the weather to be quite tolerable, although there were a number of days where it was 105 in the shade. The job in which I was out there to do went smoothly (I cant tell you anymore about it or your computer would self-destruct and I might have to kill you (but who really wants to hear about work anyways?)). Unfortunately there was only one car amongst the guys I was working with, so exploration was minimal. We did get one day where we kinda drove around to see the sights. Above is a watering hole which was a great place for a swim. If one were so bored, or so inclined as to try and watch sports on TV, you should be warned... they don't have golf, it's cricket. No (American) football, just rugby. Oh, you wanna watch some basketball?? Nope, you get netball... netball? Really? There was one sport that was quite fun to watch called Australian football. It's like rugby and soccer had a lovechild who's a violent drunk. 

     Anywho, the job finished up and it was time to leave Alice Springs. The guys I was out there working with all flew home, but I had other plans. {Here is where the story gets interesting} Leaving Alice Springs, we all flew back to Sydney. The following day I caught a train down to Melbourne (pronounced Mel Burn). After spending the night and the better part of the next day there, I caught a flight out to a place I have long dreamed of visiting... Tasmania! Let me tell ya folks, if there were a place handcrafted for a man of my nature, it is Tasmania; wild, rugged, and desolate. If one were so inclined, one could surf in the morning, mountain bike in the afternoon, and climb in the evening in total solitude and with minimal driving.

     I would like to take this moment to stress how amazing couchsurfing (https://www.couchsurfing.org/) is to anyone traveling. I stayed with two different hosts while in Tasmania and the amount of trust and generosity bestowed upon me by these gentlemen is almost hard to grasp. From airport transportation, to being fed and entertained, to being allowed to use a personal vehicle without any hesitation (they drive on the left side of the road mind you... now that's trust in a total stranger).

     One of the things I got to do was go to an animal rehabilitation site. This place, called Boonarong, takes in wallabies, kangaroos, koalas, wombats, and Tasmanian devils that have been injured. There must have been at least 70 kangaroos here and everyone of them was friendly, pending you had some tasty oats to feed them. Here is a little joey nibblin' some oats.

I had a few goals in mind for my time in Tassie. Jumping in the Southern Ocean was one of them. The next day there I drove down to the very southern tip of the island and had myself a quick dip.... very quick. Again, as you can see from this picture: solitude.
    
     The absolute highlight of my entire trip was something that has been at the top of my "bucket list" (I despise that term) for a long time. There are these very iconic rocks right off the coast of Tasmania in a place called Fortescue Bay. I have seen these pictures (and perhaps you have as well; do a google search on the Totem Pole) and dreamed of climbing them one day. Allow me to paint the scene on this one...

     My partner and I (a guide which I sadly had to pay a hefty fee for) began the hike in on this beach. Walking along the shore as the waves crashed in, the sun began to shine on this pristine white sand beach with no signs of civilization. We found the small trail and had an hour and a half hike in through old growth rain forest. The humidity and smell of fresh, healthy earth was so thick you could almost chew on it. After the pleasant hike in we came to the cliff. We dropped our backs and hiked down to the edge to where the rock was in view. The cliff was about 300 feet straight down to the ocean and my guide kept offering me the precautions similar to that a mother might have with a 4 year old near a cliff edge. We rounded the final corner and there it was... The Moai.

     Standing proudly like a sentinel guarding the cliffs, this thin pillar seemed to defy gravity and the great forces which sought to knock it down. It was truly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Even now, recalling that moment it nearly brings a tear to my eye. We geared up and made the rappel down to the base. There was one climb on it in particular that I wanted to lead (be the first to climb, placing gear along the way). The rock was perfectly dry and "the best conditions" the guide had ever seen it in. I began the climb which started on the side facing away from the photo. The climb spiraled up to the top, going directly over the water. It took your fearless leader a moment and a number of deep breaths to ignore the crashing waves below and keep climbing. The summit was reached and I shit you not, all around us in the ocean, a group of dolphins and a lone whale were jumping out of the water. There are truly no words that could express what I felt at that moment.

     We climbed one last route (a very hard route this guide had put up almost 20 years ago) and headed out. We made it home safely and I drank, ate, and slept deeply, feeling like I had truly accomplished one of the greatest goals in my life.

     Reaching the top of The Moai marked the climax of my trip and after that, it slowly began to sink in that the end of my trip was nearing. It has since been a slow progression to get home and I now sit in the Sydney airport waiting to get on with my 23 hour trip home.  There are a hundred other things which were worth mentioning about this trip, but sadly those must be kept to myself. It is not clear yet what the near future holds for me, but rest assured, I will be enjoying myself in the meantime. I hope you are too!

Truly, madly, deeply,
Dan

Old man winter is dying

Hello, hello,

So here we are again. It has been a solid three months since the last one of these was slopped together... seemed it might be time again. So onward we go.

Since returning from Guam back in December, work as been at a total stand still, but I have taken a number of small vacations. Now, I know what you are thinking...  "Just what he needs...", right? "Some vacations to help cope with his oh, so stressful life."

The first of these was a short trip back home to MN for the holidays. A few days after Christmas, my lady Lindsey and I flew to Arizona to soak up the sun (or so we had hoped). We some how planned our trip right in the middle of a cold snap in AZ. "Cold snap in Arizona?" you might be wondering, bemused. But in fact there were a number of days where it was warmer back home in Rapid City, SD than is was where we were. There was even one day when it was 13 degree's (Fahrenheit mind you) when we started our hike into a climb.


This picture here is from one day of climbing around Phoenix with my ol' buddy Colin (you can see Colin and Lindsey sitting back to back as I climb to the top).


We spent about 10 days in AZ in all, traveling from Phoenix up north to Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, Prescott, and Sedona and then back south to Tucson. Maynard James Keenan, front man of such bands as Tool and A Perfect Circle, has a winery in Jerome, AZ. We stopped in there and had a few AZ grown, rock star made wines.

The view seldom seen...a panorama shot from the top of a spire climb done in Sedona (you have to click on it to see the full picture). Another day of freezing winds, numb fingers, and yet amazing scenery and solitude.









Despite a few trips here and there and the occasional nice day for climbing, life can move a little slow when you have months to kill, days and days of bad weather, and not much to do. Assigning yourself little projects seems to help pass the time and one of the projects that has been occupying a lot of my life is making music (forgive the shameless self promotion here). If you find yourself bored please stop over here (https://soundcloud.com/dirtibirdi) and check out what I have been working on.

Another new venture yours truly has started dabbling in is putting up new climbing routes. Basically what this means is going out, searching for potential routes that no one has climbed yet, and trying to climb it. In doing this one is faced with a much greater adventure as you have no information ahead of time about what to expect or how difficult it might be.


Here is a picture of Lindsey getting ready to rappel off of a new route that we put up. The bolts in which we are entrusting our lives were placed by us, by hand. Being the gentleman, I let her go first...

So aside from these things, not a whole lot else has been going on. We recently returned from a trip to Colorado in which we did a bit of climbing, and saw some familiar faces.

Here is another panorama, this time taken in the Badlands of SD (again, you must click on the image to see the whole photo).

Allow me to wrap this up with my most exciting news yet... I will be leaving for the land of croc's and roo's this week, heading to Australia for some work in the dead center of the outback. Australia is a place I have dreamed of visiting. I have travel plans for when the job is over but you will have to tune in next time to hear about them. Hope all is well, all the time, everywhere.

Dan

Seasons Greetings!

Howdy folks,

Much time has passed since my last one of these and there is much to tell. So without further ado... I find myself residing in the lovely Black Hills these days. Most time when not away for work, I can be found... (you guessed it) climbing! This first photo is of your humble narrator climbing up a famous old climb called "Threading the Needle". The climb is right over a parking lot full of rubber neck tourists. It is quite common to be sweating it out, trembling and scared, delicately balancing between success and a ghastly fall only to have some goober in the parking lot yelling up "How did you get the rope up there?" or some such thing. But every once in a while, they pull through and take a nice photo and send it to you.

The next job to come after Norway was out to this island off of the coast of CA called San Nicolas Island. It is a military island which also serves as a nature reserve. Most of the beaches were covered with hundreds of seals, sea lion, or elephant seals.  This picture to the right is of a group of female elephant seals. They may be cute, but good gravy do they stink.

I was on the island for about 3 weeks which pales in comparison to the native girl who had lived on the island by herself for 18 years. There is a book about it called "Island of the Blue Dolphins". When it was too windy to work, me and couple of the guys from work were able to rent beach cruiser bikes. We formed a gang (which we called The Dugongs) and explored as much as we could. It was pretty much like having a national park all to ourselves. Here a sea lion soaks up some sun.

 The next place I ended up was drastically less appealing. I spent a week in a very small, northern town in MT called Glasgow. It was rather uneventful, so I wont give it much more mention than that. After making a quick stop back to MN to spend Thanksgiving with the family, I packed my bags for Guam. It is in Guam that I sit composing this blog. It is 4am Saturday morning here, though it is only Friday afternoon for most of you reading this. I have been out here for three weeks and had such an amazing experience.

Here is the view from my hotel. It is literally on one of the best beaches on Guam. The snorkeling was unreal. Most days consisted of going to work, coming back to the hotel and snorkeling. The temps here stayed a pretty steady high 80's and the water was about the same. When not snorkeling, I could usually be found rummaging through the palms tree and jungle looking for coconuts. Much was learned about coconuts in the trials and tribulations of trying to open them with only sticks and stones. But I am stubborn if nothing else, and many coconuts were thoroughly enjoyed. I had to stop and laugh at myself for a moment as a pretty woman went running by me and gave me a look that made me realize how much of a primitive mad man I must have looked like down on my hands and knees smashing coconuts with rocks on the beach. C'est la vie.

Here is a picture of one of the critters that was around in hoards. They were quite fun to catch and really interesting to watch.

In my free time I was lucky enough to get a chance to do some scuba diving. Comparing the diving in Guam to the only other diving experienced in central WI (in late October in a man made lake none the less) made for drastically different experiences. Even down at 100 feet, the water temp in Guam felt like lukewarm bathwater and there were tropical fish everywhere. The most notable sightings while diving were a couple of black tipped mako sharks, and a number of sea turtles. I got to do a total of five dives, two of which were the most sought after dives on Guam called "The Blue Hole", and "The Crevasse".

Here is another critter that was around in big numbers and there is actually a good reason for this. Recently there has been a real big problem on Guam due to a large emergence of an invasive species; the brown snake. Not so long ago, the island had become almost devoid of birds. The snakes arrived with no natural predators on the island, began eating all of the birds which were the biggest consumers of the spiders. Thus, the spiders began to boom. The problem is still being worked on, but getting better. The snakes are declining, the birds are increasing, and the spiders still seem largely present, though mostly harmless.


For the of the WWII history buffs in the crowd, you might understand the significance of a place like Guam. For those who don't know, the possession of Guam was one of the most important in the war in the Pacific. Without it, America would have had no place to stop for supplies, gas, rest, etc. There was some very gruesome fighting that took place on the island, and to stand on the invasion beaches where thousands of Americans lost their lives caused for a very surreal experience.

So all in all, once again life has been quite good to me. I am actually finishing up this blog post back home in the Black Hills after 26 hours of travel. Feels nice to be home. After the holidays I will be taking a week and a half long climbing trip back to my old stomping grounds in AZ. So until the next one of these... live life in abundance!

                 And have a Merry Christmas from Santa and Danta!

Norway sampler pack

 Hello, hello,

Much to tell and little time to hold your attention, so I will dive right in. I will mention that I spent three weeks in New Hampshire working, but compared to Norway, deserves only that amount of recalling. So allow me to begin...

Leaving NH, your humble narrator spent about two and a half days traveling to get up to Vardo, Norway. If you look on a map, Vardo is about as far northeast as you can go in Norway (you can see Russia from there). Vardo is a very small island nestled far up in the Arctic Circle. It is mostly inhabited by reindeer (pictured here), but there was a small population as well. Surprisingly though, Vardo has had a very interesting past. There are bunkers built into every hillside (used for resistance against Germany in WWII), a very old military fort, and a very ugly history involving the killing of many innocent pagans, aka, "witches".

This second picture is from the inside of the Witches Memorial. It is a long hallway with plaques containing the information of all those killed (over 100), what they confessed to, and how they were killed. Basically it was a horrible time to be a woman. Something as small as an argument with a neighbor could be enough to be accused. Once accused there were two paths that would lead to your imminent death. Option one was to be tortured until you confessed to anything. I suspect almost anyone would admit to "worshiping Satan" after two days under a knife. Once you confessed to witchcraft, you would be burned. Option two was called the Water Test. It was believed that Vardo was the epicenter of Satan's work in all of Europe. It was also believed that water was the element of god. The water test involved being stripped naked, having hands and feet bound, and being thrown into the water (arctic ocean mind you). If the accused sank, and drown, they had been "accepted" by god and were in heaven. If the accused floated, as all humans with air in their lungs would and did, you were a witch. At that point you might just be burned, or perhaps you would be tortured until confessing, and then burnt. Everyone's religious beliefs are wrong... except for yours of course.



While in Vardo, we worked 5 days a week. This allowed for a few shorter road trips in the far north on the weekends. This is a picture of me in a place called Nordkapp. It is as far north as you can go in Europe. The winds were blowing at like 70mph while we were there. It took us about 18 hours to do this road trip as most roads go along the fjords, and nothing is close together that far north.

The food took a bit of getting used to while being there. Standard breakfast in Norway involves fresh bread, deli meats, and fish. I did get to try some interesting and unusual foods though... whale, moose, reindeer, eel, and cloudberrys.

This was an image I was happy to not only experience, but also photograph. This was taken right out of my hotel window. Rainbows occurred on a daily basis, and sometimes more than once a day. My work up there involved working on a radome ("no photography" was strictly enforced). The best day I can recall of work went something like this...

Get up on top of the dome (about 150' tall). Rappel down the side, making repairs to the fabric. The sun's out and it was pretty warm, and a cool ocean breeze makes it feel like fall. In front of me the view is of the small island of Vardo, scattered with small pastel colored houses (though mostly red). To my back is the endless arctic ocean (a group of whales swims by with some frequency). On my right, fjords fade in the clouds. And on the left side, far across the water is Russia.

Once the job finished, your humble adventurer took the boat (pictured in the rainbow photo) called the Hurtigruten (pronounced Hoot ih rootin). I had a two day boat ride from Vardo to a place called Svolvaer. Between the women of Norway and the boat ride alone, I have never seen so much beauty in my life. Check out a picture of Troll Fjord if you would like to see what I mean. The boat ride went all along the coast and weaved through the islands and fjords. The only real downside of the Hurtigruten was that it was mostly occupied by old German couples. At one point there were so many grey and purple haired fogies in a line, I thought I might have found myself on the boat crossing the river Styx (bahahahhahahaha).

Once off the boat, this is the view I was greeted with in the Lofoten Islands. I spent a night in a place called Kabelvag where I was able to get my hands on a rowboat and cruise around a fjord until dark.


After spending the night in the Lofoten Islands, I caught a bus going to a place called Sortland. There is a website I would encourage anyone interested in such things called Couchsurfing.com. You can sign up to be a host or a surfer. You maintain a profile, people write reviews about their experience with you, and so on. Anywho, I had gotten in touch with a number of people before I got to Norway and they had welcomed me to stay with them. So I went to Sortland to stay with a guy named Svein. When I arrived he had four people from Israel staying with him. This photo below is of the lake he lived on (the tallest mountain in the background is a famous rock called Reka). Svein was a very worldly, kind host. He cooked me whale, let me take his canoe out, had a 21 year old cat, and his house reminded me of a cabin in the northwoods of WI. We had great conversations about culture and life, a jam sessions with the Israelis, and spent some time splitting firewood for him.


After spending a few days in Sortland, I caught a bus to a place called Fauske (pronounced Fas kah), and caught the train further south to Trondheim. Many of my travel days were day long ordeals, usually at least 14 hours, but it was a great way to really see the country. Many locals I met told me that I had seen more of Norway than most Norwegians, as most Norwegians choose to travel internationally instead.



This photo is of famous old Trondheim. I had the unfortunate timing in my travels as school was starting up again. All of the youth hostels in Norway are dorms, so once school begins, the hostels close and you are left only with hotels. Norway has the highest standard of living in the world, and two of the most expensive cities in the world... Oslo, and Trondheim. So my stay in Trondheim was unavoidably expensive. It is also a place of high fashion and shopping, so much time was spend walking around observing. To give you an idea of what prices were like... an average dinner, say a hamburger was about $35. A beer, not even a micro brew mind you, was about $12 per glass.


So I was very fortunate in my travels in the sense that the couchsurfing hosts I had were overly generous. Luckily for me, my host Siw (pronounced Seeve) picked me up from Trondheim and drove me to her house in Sunndalsora. Norway just continued to unravel more and more beautiful scenery. The town of Sunndalsora is the kind of place that most Norwegians haven't even heard of except salmon fisherman, and BASE jumpers. There is nothing going on there. The lady I stayed with though was so kind. She had 11 Icelandic horses that she used for therapy for recovering drug addicts. She took me riding one night. This photo was taken from her yard. Keep in mind that these mountains are probably at least 4000' tall. Siw even owned a piece of one of these mountains, including the waterfall, and mountain spring in it. We cooked each other traditional dinners, spoke of culture, family, and life in general. After spending a pleasant two days in the Sundal valley, I took another day long train ride to Bergen.


...Endless scenery...

In Bergen I met up with a friend of a friend, a kind and beautiful girl named Johanna (pronounced Yo-ha-nah). She showed me around Bergen, took me out hiking and swimming, and even brought me to a climbing gym. Something to note about Bergen is that it is much like Seattle... it rains almost everyday. Off and on, all day long.

Due to the rain I didn't get many good photos of Bergen, but here is a really neat, old part of town. There were many art studios, and shops tucked back in here. After a few days in Bergen I had but one more place to go... back to Oslo to catch my flight home. Unexpectedly the 12 hour bus ride from Bergen to Oslo was the most scenic traveling I had done in Norway, second only to the Hurtigruten. Norway is the land of countless waterfalls. I must have seen well over 100 waterfalls in my two weeks of traveling... unreal.

So anywho, that was the bare minimum I can portray from my trip. There are so many more stories I would love to share about the trip, but it would just be too much for this blog. I am back in the good ol' US of A. I find myself in MN right now, spending a little time with the family. I will head back to CO soon where I have off until the 17th. Then I head to CA for two weeks of work. What happens for October and the coming months remains unclear at this point. There is talk of Germany, England, and Australia coming up... so stay tuned. And remember... don't do anything I wouldn't do (but be sure to tell me all about it if you do).

My beautiful Norwegian troll girlfriend

Summertime and the livin's easy

 Greetings!

How's it going? It has been a little while so it seemed I should slop another one of these things together. Lots has been happening, so this should be interesting.

I have recently gained employment with a great company called Radome Services LLC. They had me out in VA for a little over a month working on this here radome. This is basically a giant, heavy duty Kevlar balloon that is used to protect radars and antennas from the elements.

The old domes were about 20 years old and needed to be replaced. We had a bunch of prep work to do but the really cool parts were lifting off the old domes and putting the new ones on. The lift days involved two cranes, one of which was a 50 ton crane (it needed another crane just to put it together), 50 day labors to work the tag lines, and then my crew. The crane would pick up the dome and pluck it right off.


(This picture above is what the dome was covering, but this is classified, so shhhhh)
*Note; Photo removed due to graphic nature....


Putting on the new dome was a bit more complicated. It was basically the same process in reverse but there were a lot more potential wind/snag hazards. I wished I could get a photo of the lift because the deflated dome looked like a giant jellyfish with all of the tag lines hanging off of it. 

 The work was cool and I got to do some pretty cool stuff on the weekends too. This is a picture of the Luray caverns. If you are confused about what you are looking at, there is a small pool of water reflecting what you are seeing on the ceiling. I also got to go to Washington DC and see my childhood friend Chris. The boy who got his head stuck in our deck railing and use to help me throw large clumps of dirt at passing cars is now a respectable young man, doing good things for this earth. I also snuck into a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. I stayed long enough to watch them play their popular songs but left pretty quickly... there is just something about watching guys "rock out" who look like they are dodging wheelchairs and depends.


Anywho, after such a long time of working and not climbing I needed a fix. Luckily my old Phoenix friend, Colin, was on his way out to visit me for a climbing trip. We climbed around Boulder for a few days and then headed to a place called South Platte. The climbing was pretty cool but this storm was one of the more memorable parts. We were at pretty high elevation and the lightning was right over us.

We then headed to my old stomping grounds... the Black Hills. The weather was a bit cold for most of it, but we were still able to make the most of it. If you have ever driven through the Needles, you might recall the Needles Eye. This is a picture of me on top of the Needles Eye after climbing a notoriously dangerous route, which I was unaware of (thanks for the warning, Colin).

When it was too cold for climbing we made the most out of the beautiful scenery. Here is a buffalo who seemed to care about our presence as much as a bear cares about a tick on its ass.

 The trip ended too quickly but I was able to get a nice climb in with Colin and my roommate, Franklin (the two hooligans in this photo) in the Rockies.

I was also surprised one day by a face from days gone by. My friend Angela, from my NV days, happened to be in the area and surprise, surprise... wanted to climb.

We decided to do a pretty big climb a bit deeper in RMNP, so a bit more was involved. We ended up getting back country "bivy" permits so we could camp near the route.

We hiked in one afternoon with our climbing gear, and a minimal amount of camping gear. It was a 6 mile hike in with a fair amount of elevation gain. There were reports of a half mile stretch of forest with severe wind damage and a horrific amount of downed trees. We were aware of the challenge and ready to face it, but lo and behold as we were hiking in, the chainsaw crew was hiking out. They had told us they had just finished clearing the entire trail (saving us a few hours of tree hell). "Our saviors!" I exclaimed. I didn't have much to give them but I shared my bag of skittles to show my gratitude. Lucky us.

We weren't allowed to bring a tent in to this back country area, but there were these big boulder caves that people had created. Stones had been assembled as walls underneath big roofs to block the wind. It was like a little hobbit hut.


This was the view out of our "patio". This is supposedly one of the most scenic areas in RMNP called Glacier Gorge. The next day we got up and did our climb and had awesome weather. The hike out was pretty grueling as we were so tired, but still thankful that the path of trees had been cleared.

So that should about catch you up. I am in the middle of paragliding lessons right now. I have flown twice, and it is pretty awesome. Perhaps another hobby to pursue.

I have a few more weeks off before my next job, and lord knows it will probably be filled with climbing. Once I go back to work in early July I will be heading to New Hampshire for three weeks (working on radomes). Here is the real kicker... right after NH I will be flying to Norway (for work) for a month. Hoping I will get to extend my stay and travel, and who knows... perhaps some paragliding on the fjords? Come on now... this sounds like a fictional adventure novel.

How did I get so lucky?

I hope all is well for anyone still reading these, and anyone who isn't.



Bugs and Fishes,

The Danimal