Lets catch up

Since I keep hearing from my friends and family ( ehm..Tina and Brooke) that they "never know what I am up to..." I thought it would be easy for me to start to journal about what I is I have actually been up to... Im not sure exactly if what I am up to is interesting to anyone but I do think it will be a good way for me to keep track of whats going on for at least me. I guess I will treat this like a journal of sorts except for instead of keeping it under my bed I just let it float around on the interweb... Hopefully you will enjoy my adventures as well as some of my rants as Im sure both will show up... enjoy

This Winter I spent most of my time working as much as possible while still finding time to get out and have fun. Since winter is not the best time to get out (expecially with our snowfall this winter...200ish inches!?), I thought it too be a good idea to spend as much time as I could working and learning some new stuff. This year I was very busy splitting my time between two jobs...if you can call them that. I started my 3rd year up at the Arizona Snowbowl working in the Terrain Park.
From the get go I was feeling somewhat excited to use my opportunity to learn some new things about working in the back-country and working on my skiing.
For some time now I had been interested in trying to test out Ski Patrol. With some convincing, I found myself being able to train with Patrol as well as continue my job over in the terrain park which worked with me.
I began my training in the beginning of February. For 10 days I spent my time learning about everything from medical certifications to snow mobile driving. It was a whole lot of fun and I got to learn from some of the best, some of which have worked in the Kachina Peaks Wilderness for over 25 years! So for the last few months I got to ski it up everyday and spend time working on the snow. Not such a bad gig in my opinion...


I also have now been working at Vertical Relief Climbing Center for over 3 years now. As you know... I like to rock climbing just a bit. Climbing has been my up most passion for the past 4 years now. Really I think it just a love/hate relationship!
Right now I am the head coach for the junior climbing team, I help teach an intermediate climbing class through the University and well...I am around to do about anything else my boss wants me to.
This winter has reminded me how much I enjoy working with in climbing industry. Its a really unique and rad opportunity to work with all types of people and work around climbing everyday. I have been working with the youth climbing teams since day one way back in 2007.
The team is a group of 15 kids ranging anywhere from 10 years old to 15. Talk about a challenge some days! Even though sometimes I want to hang them upside down by all of their toes overall it is really great to work with all the youngster climbers.











I also work with my co-worker Chris with the NAU climbing classes. Right now I work with intermediate climbing class with is 18 college students that want to slack off and climb for credit... sounds like me!
It really fun and a great way for me to learn tons of stuff. Chris is super knowledgeable and I feel like Im learning new stuff every class also. Its also a great way to practice my skills by teaching. I have realized that knowing something and being able to teach something is very different and pretty difficult at times.