Boot

I spent a good chunk of the fall as a cripple in a walking boot.  I was a terrible patient, a doctor's worse nightmare, and when they told me they were going to put a cast on my foot in three days, I figured that gave two and a half days to climb.  So I went to go do the NE col on Dragontail.  I was in such a world of hurt on the way in.  As we slogged up Asspounder Pass, I felt my ankle get weaker and weaker as it started to throb.  Not awesome.  Then I rolled a child sized block over my thigh, leaving a sweet goose-egg.  And then a storm blew in, with high enough winds that the spindrift from the top of D-tail that it was making a growling noise.  So we bailed.  But we didn't hike down right away.  Instead we played around on the uber lensed snow near the start of Hidden Col and Micah and Matt taught me how to place knifeblades.   And they scare the living daylights out of me.  Especially stacked shorty blades. Euggugug!!!!!! YUCK!  But it really opened my eyes to the potential protectability of micro cracks, and I'm psyched to practice aid this summer. Finally out of the boot, and on the mend too!!!!  Now I can focus on getting strong again!  Watch out!  I'm gonna rip it up this summer!  I'm trying to decide between getting a guiding job, or simply teaching a few weeks of rock climbing and enjoying a last few months of dirt-baggery before I have to head to school.  School will give me just shy of a whole week off every 2.5 weeks in addition to big winter, spring and summer vacations.  I'll still have plenty of time to go climbing.  But I'll just have to decide how much of my summer I want to spend working.  It really is a tough choice!  A guiding company is going to want my whole summer, but it pays fairly well, especially with a WEMT cert, but I'd get guides training and a whole bunch of experience.  On the flip side though, I could teach three 5 day classes from 6/22-7/10,  and spend the rest of the summer playing.  I'm kinda leaning towards the latter since I can always settle down, but can't always play.  I think I'll take the opportunity for personal climbing.  I've already got a pretty good tick list going: Bugaboos (take two), Monarch Ice Field (BC Coast Range), Pickets, Boston Basin, Ranier (an embarrasing gap in my resume), and of course oodles of cragging and picnicing in Squamish, North Bend, Washington Pass, Darrington, and the Worth.  Which kind of squeezes work to the sidelines, making guiding kinda hard. Oh well, we'll see.