Department of Commerce: NIST

So I recently started working for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST in Boulder, CO. It is a nice facility, right at the base of the flatirons, and an easy 2 mile bike ride from my house. In fact, I haven't driven here once. I figure that if I work at this location for a year, and ride my bike every day (or take the bus when it is snowing) then I can save $1800 in gas money simply by riding my bike. Thats a lot of money. Anyway, work is fun, and the best part is that I get to do multiple different tasks all day, and most of the time it is something different. That really keeps things interesting. Without change I get bored relatively quickly. I'm also going to be making enough money to continue skydiving throughout the next year, which is a definite benefit. I can't wait to jump again this weekend.

I guess the funny thing about NIST is that there really isn't any standardization whatsoever, despite the confidence building name. Yeah they do their part to control the clock with the atomic timekeeper they have here, and they are finding new ways to define the Boltzmann constant, but still, I had to use a typewriter today to fix a form that had to get scanned in and emailed... There's a serious clash of non-standardized technology right there. Oh well, at least I'm having a good time so far.

Slackline till you Flatline

So last week Andy flew in to Colorado here, and we slacklined really really hard for the better part of 7 days straight. I never knew so much slacklining was possible, but here is a glimpse into the fun that was had.

Andy showed up and we slacked for an afternoon, breaking some rules and throwing down some sick tricks and phat beats on the lines and guitars. I really love CU's campus because of the beautiful trees and great views. We had a fun time slacking and dealing with people trying to tell us why using the do not walk on the grass sign for tree protection was ironic. Whatever. We were slacking so much that we were rarely on the grass.


We headed to Moab the next morning and chilled with Terry, playing in his backyard. If anyone is ever headed through Fruita, CO totally stop by and say hi to Terry. He's the humble owner of the coolest backyard in the planet! With a 55' highline, a 105' highline under construction, a 100' chain, a 190' line that has to weigh at least 10lbs/ft and various other lowlines which fell victim to my slackline-breaking curse, this place kicks ass. We chilled here for the night after getting our slackline fill, then headed to Gemini Bridges in Moab the next morning.


At Gemini, we set up the Birthday Gap and fooled around for a while. At only 30' long, it is a relative easy line, and an extremely fun one! Complete with lots of intentional leash falls, backflips, tricky tricks, and the now-infamous naked freesolo, the day was filled with fun. Maybe I'll get to the level of freesolo one day, but I still have a ways to go. Mad props to Andy.


The next day we walked the B-day gap again, then set up the Dog Hole. Terry and Greg came out and met up with us and walked for a while. The Dog Hole is such a classic line, but the spectators are a little ridiculous. They were all so incredulous that we were about to walk the line that they didn't believe us until we got out and walked it. Andy got $10 from one dude on a bet. It was a fun day. We de-rigged and cruised out to the fruit bowl.



The next morning, we got up and walked the fruit bowl lines, crushed those but the more we walked the more we became quickly exhausted. Andy even free soloed the 55' Chickita line (increasing his height record 8fold over 2 days).. Walking highline after highline after highline, we got really close to just dropping dead. It would be a great way to die though, slackline till you flatline. I'd be happy with my life if I slacklined to death. Anyway, Greg finally crushed the Chickita line after almost making it 2 months ago. We were all really stoked for him.


We cruised back to Terry's place and walked his lines some more. Greg full manned the backyard line. Terry's line is really really beginner friendly and comes highly recommended. After Greg finally full-manned the line, we got to mess around for a while.



I got the chance to try juggling on the highline, and after that went down, Terry thought it would be a great idea to throw the balls at mine to see if he could get me to fall. Needless to say, I wasn't phased, and even pulled off the double back flip with the two birds attached to my fingers.



After that, we cruised back home and then slacked for another few days. I don't know about Andy, but this trip just about killed me, but in doing so, made me an incredibly better highliner. Can't wait for the next trip to Moab!

Fun Jumps with the new license

I finally got my next skydiving certification, the A license. I can now jump whenever I want, with whoever I want, wherever I want. So much freedom! My rig flies beautifully, and I am becomming increasingly proficient at packing it. Here are some pictures of me jumping!

Moving in

Cacophonous creaks and groans as window panes, glazed

over from sunny respite, shake with the nodes of vibration

from the bus station in my front yard. 5:00am and the sun

rises over the only tree I can see and with a smile I roll over

and seek solace in the dark comfort of my lofty bed.

Floor squeaks and moans as calloused feet pass sweet

to the porcelain crow-footed tub that wouldn't even fit in the door

so they brought it in through the wall. Hot and cold knobs,

shoulders throbbing with anticipation of the emancipation

from my sore tendon fetters.

In the closet is a kitchen, petit and powerful. Four burners of

natural production creating meals for kings and bourgeious.

Water damage and decorations that would make M Stewart cringe.

And in this binge of simplification and eradication the only thing that

separates me from direct reality is the conscious effort to rise

from the comfort of my bed and leave this simple place and walk into

this complicated world.

Beep, beep. Alarms mean nothing when deep slumber inundate all

rational feeling. But I rise and go about my new, exciting life.

A Slacker's Revenge

Friday Mary, Josh and I met up at The Spot to do a slackline demo for the Climbing Wall Association annual conference. It was really fun. We got to showcase our skills and tricks, and got some free stuff. I talked with Dan, the owner of The Spot, and we might start giving slackline classes/lessons if there is enough interest. Anyway, we met up with Damian Cooksey while we were there, and then rigged some lines with him today.


Last July Damian broke the world record for the longest slackline for the second time. He walked a 506' line in the pouring rain over in Europe somewhere. Pretty damn impressive. We were able to rig the 210' line without any of the anchors breaking (see previous posts) and got on it this afternoon. Damian cruised it without any trouble, did a bunch of tricks, etc. I had a lot of trouble on it but managed to get halfway. It has been a while since I've tried a long line!


We also rigged a short line with Damian's type A webbing from www.slackstar.net in Germany. It is really strong and really springy, but with a low stretch percentage. It was fun to jump around on, and everyone worked on the flips. It was really fortunate that we got to meet up with Damian. It isn't every day that you get to hang out with one of the best slackers in the world. Now it's on to finishing finals, and moving into my new place next weekend. I'm looking forward to practicing the longer lines again, and getting ready for the lost arrow spire. Still a lot of training to be done! I'm positive it will be amazing no matter what happens though.

Spring Fling

So a couple of Geese hook up one day. She gets pregnant, he has to drop out of school and pick up some extra hours to support the kids. Triplets! Oh great. Wrong time for a one night stand. He was soo close to graduating med school. Maybe after the chicks learn to fly he can take some night classes to finish things up. She always wanted children but never told him. Communication is key! Two more single geese off the grid, with kids and a nice cattail and reed doublewide by the creek. At least the babies are cute. Gotta love spring.

(the new residents of Kittredge Pond)

Zen Slackline

Slackline is such an incredibly liberating activity and that is one of the reasons I was so drawn to it when I started slacking almost 5 years ago. Stress, anxiety, disappointment, wavering uncertainty of the future; all these things are absorbed by the oscillations of that 1inch nylon line. Today we had a little slackline gathering in a beautiful cherry blossom garden outside of the physics building. 4 lines underneath the beautiful rosy-pink flowers and bonsai-shaped trees in the beautiful spring sun. It was bliss. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but it was by far the most scenic and beautiful slacklining I have ever done. I can't wait to go back to this truly sacred spot where life's troubles melt away and the peripheral thoughts of existence blur into a focused understanding of an ultimate reality. Life, Energy, and pure unadulterated Happiness.

Friday Mary and I are to give a slacklining demo for Trango Climbing Equipment and The Spot bouldering gym. Free gear shall ensue.

Long Lines Take Time, and Skin

Last weekend we attempted to rig a 200' slackline, but things didn't go so well. I forgot to back up the tree anchors, and one of them ended up breaking while we were tightening, sending 40 pounds of rope and pulleys rocketing towards our heads. We were lucky enough to have the pulleys fly over our heads, but the rope ended up whipping us around a bit, and Mary got some bad rope burn:



With 3rd degree burns on her hand, and terribly painful full-torso burns on her abdomen, this ended up being a pretty bad accident. Fortunately, there was no internal damage, and Mary was slacklining just 5 minutes after the incident. I definitely learned some valuable rigging lessons, and will be changing the way I set up longer lines in the future. You tend to underestimate the forces involved in a longer line when you're only 5 feet above the ground. In my opinion, a long line is scarier and more dangerous than a highline. We'll be refining our methods and trying again in the future, but this incident won't be taken lightly. Accidents are always scary, but also put things into perspective.

In addition to the slacklining adventures, it has been becoming exceedingly warmer outside, and I have been going back to the dropzone. Skydiving is more fun when you don't have to wear 6 layers of clothing. Its back to jumping in shorts and a t-shirt, and now that I've finally learned to pack my chute, it's going to be a fun-filled summer of jumping out of planes, climbing mountains, and slacklining across beautiful cliffs. We have plans for a potential line up on the north side of Longs Peak, 13,200ft in elevation, 2000ft above the ground, and 95' long. I can't wait to go up and rig this epic walk!

Kitenetic Energy

Infinity
and nothingness, a
juxtaposition of senses, thoughts
and emotion; up high where darkness
inundates all that is known, and the light penetrates
the wind tattered fabric faded in the sun; years of altitude
test the weakest of wires, yet still freedom flies;
fetters so full of life and death that they
become one and in a brief moment
of lofty endeavor, that which
is still becomes alive
Forever.

Lifting

Into

The

Wind

-sr 2008

We've got hops, and we're white?

There has been an exorbitant amount of wind in Boulder recently, and with a slower work load after spring break, I took full advantage of it. Yesterday, Steve, Seth, Chris and I headed for north boulder park and did some kite flying. We all got some good jumps and got banged around a bit. It was fun. Today, El Padre came up and flew the new 3 meter kite that he picked up, and definitely had a good time messing around with the varying wind speeds. Good times.

Moab Highline Adventure

If any of my adventures on this site have the properties befitting of the word "mild", this trip was probably the furthest. Leaving Boulder last friday (March 21st) and returning Wednesday March 26th, we were in Moab for quite some time. The trip was prepared meticulously, making certain that everyone who was going had accurate directions to the obscure destination, and that all the requisite gear would be there at the start of the trip. Mary and I drove out to Moab, meeting Joe, Dave, Josh, Jesse, Lindon, Nathan, Dylan, Greg, Josh, Kale, Deon, Terry, Larry, Chris, and a few others at the designated pulloff. Thats right, we had more than 16 people all setting up and crushing highlines at different times during the weekend/week.


The "Fruit Bowl" was discovered by Terry on Google Earth one day last year as he was dreaming of highline in the poor winter weather. A promising prospect, Terry went to scout out the area and discovered some great highlining potential. After bolting the area and establishing the anchor points over the weekend of the 15th-16th, three different lines were ready to walk, a 47' line, a 62' line, and an 88' line. On the 22nd we went and rigged the 47' line and the 88' line, and everyone had their fix of highlining fun. I cruised the 47' line several times, doing tricks and such, but it was a really hard line to learn on, and no first-timers were able to make it all the way across (although Mary got half way on many occasions).


During these two days, we bolted the 130' highline in the same spot, and prepared the bolting locations for the 92' line. Also, Dean Potter came and established a 110' line adjacent to the fruit bowl, and rigged that today. He will be base jumping off of that line in the coming weeks. For more information about Dean's basejumping escapades, see the following link:

BaseLining

We stayed till Monday, making the 1.5 mile pilgrimage back to the cars as infrequently as possible. Many people were able to walk the lines, and it was a really fun time.

On Tuesday we traveled to the Gemini Bridges area of Moab and set up two highlines: the 35 foot birthday gap, and the 80 foot dog hole gap, the former being about 200 feet above the ground and the latter being about 100 feet above the ground. I walked the birthday gap dozens of times, with my hands behind my back, while surfing, etc., but the doghole was a bigger challenge. The line was quite heavy, and heavy long lines are really hard to control. You would get halfway out onto the line, where the exposure was undoubtedly the greatest, and the line would start shaking. You try to keep your fear in check, but this usually means tensing up your body, and without being able to relax, your body amplifies these wobbles in the line until it starts to feel like you cant stand on it anymore. (Imagine walking across a log over a creek or something, and your friend decides that it would be fun to start moving the log back and forth while you are trying to walk across it; the chances that you fall are very high). Anyway, you really had to fight it to get across, and because I don't weigh much compared to the other highliners, it seemed harder for me. Anyway, I managed to make it across and was really excited. After that I focused on helping Mary to walk the birthday gap.


Mary had a really weird method of walking, which consisted of attempting to walk the whole line backward. Apparently it is easier to start walking the line while walking backward, as it doesn't feel exposed at all. I didn't think it was possible, but Mary pleasantly proved me wrong, crossing the line with grace and confidence. As this was her first successful highline, naturally she was ecstatic. We were all pleased too, because from what we can gather, less than 25 women in the entire world have ever walked a highline, and Mary just recently joined that elite rank. Awesome! Joe also managed to send the line right before sundown, marking his first highline as well. It was a successful trip for everyone!


After all the highlining festivities, Mary and I planned to go do some climbing as well. There are many many excellent desert towers in the area, and we wanted to climb some of them. Unfortunately, we didn't realize how tired we would be after highlining for 4 days straight, so we decided to come home instead and recover for a few days. We needed it too. I am definitely pleased with the trip as a whole, and can't wait to return. Terry, Larry and Dean have all established some permanent lines in the area and are leaving them up all spring. Dean's going to be base jumping off his, and Terry and Larry just wanted to get all three lines up to get some epic shots.

In the future we plan on having a bigger highline party at the Fruit Bowl, as it is now the highest concentration of highlines in one place, in the world. It was fun to be a part of the beginning phases of its establishment, and I'm excited to see where the sport goes in the future. All in all, it was another successful adventure!

Photos

Slackline Party

This last weekend I hosted a slackline party for Mary's birthday. It was fun. About 60 people showed up and walked the different slacklines we had set up. There was a 15' line, 30' line, 30' line, 40' line, 60' line, 80' line, 100' line, 120' line, and a 135' line. Plenty of fun for everyone. Our parties are starting to get quite big now. I'm thinking about starting a competition circuit here this next year. Should be fun.

Here are the pictures from the event:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2248365&l=4bbf7&id=10222940

We leave for Moab tomorrow (after I finish my dreadful tests this week). We'll be setting up about 6 highlines, (4 brand new ones) and will likely do some climbing in Indian Creek and Castleton Tower. Sweet

Breaking New Ground

Today was fairly nice, so Mary and I decided to go out and do a bit of trad climbing up in Boulder Canyon. I've climbed in many parts of the canyon, but one of my favorites in the winter is the Happy Hour Crag, mainly because it is south facing and gets sun all day. We got up there and got busy. To my delight, Mary wanted to learn how to lead climb with trad gear! I showed her a few tricks and let her loose on some easy 5.5 terrain. She performed remarkably, and wasn't phased at all by the height or the lack of top-rope protection. I was inexplicably pleased. After her first lead I decided to push my boundaries a little as well. I've never climbed with trad gear to any great extent, especially in my upper range of climbing ability. The fact is that it becomes much more difficult to lead when you have to fumble about with your cams, nuts and other metal bits and pieces as you climb, and finding placements is time consuming. On a difficult route this means you tire much quicker, and have a higher propensity for falling. While I have easily led routes in the lower 5.12 range with bolts, trad has continued to allude me. Today I decided to change that and break some new ground in my climbing ability.



After Mary's beautiful 5.5 leading, we went over to a classic happy hour route, "Grins". This is a 5.8+ with plenty of room for creativity. I geared up and flashed the sucker with little difficulty. I was quite pleased. Mary was soon to follow, and then we cleaned the route. Next, Mary led another difficult route in the 5.6 range, again with grace and ease. Her placements were much better this time around. I'm pretty excited to have such a fast-learning climbing partner. Finally I was convinced by some other climbers at the crag to try "Dementia" a cool 5.10 with a weird start finishing on a beautiful, slightly overhanging finger crack. I geared up and gave it a whirl. Now 5.10 normally isn't too bad, but when you have to hang there and place gear it gets tiring. I don't remember all the moves, but up in the cruxy finger crack area there was plenty of really good protection, and I was able to flash the route no problem. Sweet! Mary followed and cleaned and then we rapped from the top, calling it a day.


I guess a lot of trad climbing is just in your head. Fortunately with all the skydiving and highlining lately, my understanding of fear has become less than rational. I'm excited to try my luck on some difficult multipitch trad now. Eldo has my name all over it, then bigwall in Rocky Mountain National Park, and maybe even some climbing in Yosemite this summer. The possibilities are now endless!

Winter Highlining

Mary and I, and my friends Dylan and Ben went to the Amphitheater area in Gregory Canyon this weekend and set up a fun highline. It was about 70-75 feet long, and about 100 feet high, maybe more. Pretty enjoyable though. I walked it there and back on my first try. Mary had a little trouble, though. It was a lot longer than she is used to, and the mental fortitude required to walk such a long highline is incredible. I'm incredibly impressed at her determination, persistence, and attitude. She really kicked some ass! It was rather cold, but a fun time overall. Here are some pictures:

Dylan measuring the line distance with his laser inclinometer.

Me walking the line

Me walking back


Mary crushing

It is really windy outside...

So it is February, and nothing new has been happening lately... The weather has been bad and the work schedule has been worse. Mary and I have gotten plenty of climbing in during the last month, but all indoors. Hopefully the muck that has accumulated from the multitudes of snowstorms will disappear pretty soon, allowing us to go on some more adventures.

Today we are going to go scope out some new highline spots up near the flatirons, and hopefully that is a successful venture. With the coming spring, and our Lost Arrow Spire aspirations this summer, there is a lot of practice that needs to be done if Mary and I are going to rip it up in Yosemite this July. I'll definitely be taking a lot of pictures, and I'll definitely be having a lot of fun. More to come as this story develops.