A little time off...

Hey Everyone!

All manner of goodness has occurred in the past week... As of the 5th of May I graduated from Prescott College! (Who thought that would ever happen?) Some of you may notice that I suffered the loss of my dear friend, the beard, due to a tragic trimming accident 20 minutes before graduation... A moment of silence if you will...

Thank you.

I will be starting work, leading trips at Outward Bound's Oregon branch, on the 14th of May. Seeing how California is (Kind of) between Arizona and Oregon, who in their right mind wouldn't stop for some climbing?

Kelly (who is also working for OB in Oregon), Chad (who flew out for a quick vacation before moving to Colorado) and I set off the day after graduation for Calaveras Dome and Yosemite Valley.

Calaveras Dome is in the Mokelumne River Valley just north of Yosemite. This little traveled destination offers some high quality granite domes without the heinous tourist environment of Yosemite Valley. Many of the routes here were amazingly classic and set back in the 1970's, (read: very little protection and quite difficult), so it didn't take us long to exhaust our route options. Despite the great climbing, cold swimming, free camping and welcome solitude, after three days we had to leave for Yosemite in search of more climbing.

Once again, if it were not for the people and development, I would stay in the Valley forever. I am in love with this granite. Cracks so beautiful it could make a grown man... ney... ANYONE cry...

Today our rest day, but tomorrow we will go out and hit the rock one last time before Kelly and I head up for Oregon to begin our staff training.

I hope this finds you all doing well and having fun. Enjoy the good weather and get outside!

Ryan