Back in business!!! :)

Hey guys!! Well... Merry Christmas! I can't believe it: we moved to Colorado a year ago! It feels like we just moved, and never went through summer!! But we did... and winter is back around. We have just had the first big dumps of the season and yesterday we got 15 inches over 24 hours... go Colorado powder! Sunlight needed it, and now the patrollers are happy: the whole mountain is opened, and covered ;) We have just put the flip pac back on the new truck today: it looks much better with the flip-pac on... and we are super psyched to have it again :) Minnie, my grandma, sent me some French cheese just in time for our holiday celebration, so Fondue tonight!!! The downside is I can't drink anything because I'm on call, but I'll eat all the cheese I can eat ;) Joyeux Noel!!! -Chloe

Coucou les poulets! Joyeux Noel!!! C'est dur a croire, mais ca fait deja un an qu'on a demenage!! On a l'impression que c'etait hier, et qu'on n'a pas encore eu d'ete... mais si... et c'est de nouveau l'hiver! On vient d'avoir les premieres tempetes de la saison, et il est tombe presque 40cm en 24h (38cm exactement!) ... vive la poudreuse :) On en avait besoin a Sunlight, maintenant les ski-patrols sont contents: toute la montagne est ouverte aux skieurs, et enfin couverte de neige :) On vient de mettre le flip-pac sur le nouveau camion cette apres-midi: il est beaucoup mieux avec le flip-pac dessus... et on est ravis d'avoir de nouveau notre petit camion :) Minnie, ma grand-mere, nous a fait un petit paquet de fetes plein de fromages, juste a temps pour pouvoir se faire un fondue pour Noel ce soir!!! Je suis de garde, et donc je ne peux pas boire de blanc avec, mais je vais me ratraper sur le fromage ;) Merry Christmas!!!!! -Chloe

Quick Update

Sorry, this is going to be another pictureless post. We'll get some on soon.
We found a replacement vehicle. Pretty much the same thing we had beefore, only newer and better. It was already the perfect truck before, so no reason to change too much. We are in the process of getting it suited up for roadtrip/living capability, like the last one.
We finally opened our local ski mountain last week, and were skiing a lot of rocks and grass, but thanks to some persistant snowing these last few days, conditions are dramatically better and the ski season is now officially on! Working as ski patrol for a small mountain like Sunlight is eternally entertaining. It seems that the mountain will be changing medical directors and we will be working towards acquiring some ALS (Advanced Life Support) equipment and having me operate as a paramedic on the hill, which will be fun. Meanwhile I'm pretty much just waiting for my official certifications to come in the mail, and will then begin orientation and working as a paramedic at the ambulance company (WECAD).
Until next time: happy holiday shopping ;)

Sad and so bummed...

Our pick up is dead. What a bummer... here is how the story goes: We had 5 days off together with Brendan, and headed over to Southern Utah (Ibex) to go bouldering. We got snowed out, even the cows looked cold under the snow! After a few brave attempts by Brendan to climb (I climbed too, but didn't take my mittens off!) we decided to change our destination if we wanted to go climbing. It seemed to be a gnarly strip of 3-4 days just about everywhere, so we decided to go home, and head the other way, towards Boulder. I was driving, hit some black ice on the road in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Utah, car to the left, car to the right, so far I am pretty much ok, and so is Brendan (who... haha, had just closed his eyes) and before I know it, I am looking through the windshield at where I come from... ok, this isn't going so well anymore... indeed, I finished planted in the center divide, and... the worst part is the center divide had little poles every 2ft or so, and it grabbed, and ripped, the front wheel. Voila, the pick up is done. We got towed out, slept in the flip pack on 3 wheels in the tow yard, and the insurance lady came out the next day in the middle of nowhere to evaluate our pick up, which is fairly old, and has a fair amount of miles on it, and... after a few hours of plugging in numbers and pictures in her laptop said it was to be totaled. Soooo bummed. I was absolutely heartbroken, and so was Brendan, to total our little pick up. Not only Brendan had worked his butt off to get it, but it is basically more our home than anywhere else, and it represents so much to us. This is what we do: go climb with the flip pac... so yeah, I felt pretty miserable, and Brendan was oh so the best with me, but pretty bummed too. We were really torn as far as attempting to fix it anyways, or leaving it with the insurance people to be salvaged. Since none of us knows anything about mechanics, we opted for the safest option, which was to take the bigger check, and leave the car. I was so mad at myself, and so sad to leave it. Yeah yeah, it is just a car, and all that, but we were still super sad. It took us a while to make a decision, but once it was done, we just wanted to go home, with the campershell. So we rented a moving truck... The insurance people gave us a ride with them to the nearest UHaul, and Uhaul it was... Stripped down the pick up of its flip pac, loaded the moving truck with all our crap, and hauled home! Like always, it could have been worse: no semi to run into, a center divide to stop the car instead of another car coming the other way, a decent check from the insurance, nobody hurt, all that good stuff, but we are still bitter about the whole deal. But here we are... truck shopping, because we won't be flip-pac-less very long ;) This whole thing sucked, but we'll redo our awesome set up, and it'll be good again, no doubt, it is just a hassle to deal with. Brendan said he would improve on the flip-pac bench properties when he builds the one in the new pick-up, andwill incorporate a hole in the bench to hold a bottle of wine!! No no, we're not completely depressed :P just really bummed. I'll put a few pics, and will keep you posted on our coming adventures... Cheers! -Chloe, the pick-up killer.

Climbing at the Fortress

OK, I might consider climbing outside this winter in this frigid colorado state, at the "Fortress of Solitude". We climbed there on Friday for the first time. It is a very cool crag, big amphitheater type of rock, pretty imposing, and south facing (hint hint, it gets some sun!!). It is an hour hike, uphill and in the snow, but it is good climbing up there. The hike is a little rough, but pretty :)) I am putting pictures, but I won't babble much, because we are heading over to Utah for 3 days, and we might celebrate Brendan's license again :P Cheers! -Chloe

Je vais peut-etre pouvoir concevoir grimper dehors cet hiver au Colorado, ca caille ici! On est a alle a la "Forteresse de la Solitude". C'est un amphitheatre de cailloux, et c'est oriente Sud!! Donc soleil... C'est une heure de marche d'approche, dans la neige, et ca monte! Mais ca vaut le coup une fois qu'on y est, et l'approche est jolie :)) Je ne vais pas ecrire beuacoup ce coup ci, parce qu'on se prepare a aller a Utah pour 3 jours, et on va peut-etre bien re-celebrer la license de Brendan :) Bises! Chloe-

And he is a paramedic!!!

Hey guys! Brendan has been on a little cloud for 24h, as he is now an official paramedic!!!!! I am so proud of Brendan for pulling thru... it was getting really hard to go to school instead of going climbing :)) But he did it, and passed with flying colors! He passed the written exam on Monday, and the practical just a few days ago on Saturday. We celebrated the written part, see the pictures ;) and we were so excited about the full deal last night we forgot to take pictures!!! We had some dulce de leche cheesecake for our celebration!!! Rock on Brendan!

Coucou! Ca y est, Brendan viens d'atterir sur terre, il est sur un petit nuage depuis 24h, parce que ca y est: il est officiellement paramedic!! Ca commencait a etre dur dur pour lui de se coller les fesses sur une chaise a l'ecole, plutot que d'aller grimper. Mais ca y est, il a passe l'ecrit lundi, et la pratique samedi! Il a pete les scores, et le v'la paramedic pour de bon!!!! On a celebre l'ecrit, je vous mets des photos, mais hier soir on etait tellement dechaines, qu'on a oublie de prendre des photos! On s'est paye un super dessert (un cheesecake au dulce de leche) pour celebrer! Genial Brendan!!!

Thanksgiving :)

Is there any snow yet?! No, not quite yet (or not enough at least), but maybe soon.
But it is Thanksgiving soon, and it looks as if we may get some snow then. And along with that, I can at least be thankful for coming to an end of a crazy year for Chloe and I and being almost done with school! Thank you to my mom and dad for their support and a little financial aid at just the right time through this year of craziness, as well as their patience with my unrelenting schedule. Thanks to Corine and Olivier for their support and in helping us acquire a computer at a critical time (essential to my schooling this year). Of course thanks to Chloe for being the most exceptional person I know, in helping me and still accomplishing amazing things on her own.
...But enough of the touchy feely thing: we went climbing last weekend!!
This posting is pictureless, which is kind of sad, but I apologize for forgetting the camera on our last little excursion this last weekend. We went climbing at Joe's Valley which is lost in the middle of Utah near a small town by the name of Orangeville. Not much there in the way of city life, but a kick ass place to climb indeed. The climbing here is bouldering (as opposed to routes). We were there all weekend and took advantage of some great climbing weather, as long as we were in the sun that is. With the clear blue skies of winter over us, the sun warms the rock nicely, and makes for perfect midday climbing conditions. Chloe sent a classic highball (meaning high) V6 called "Wills of Fire" and I did some some random stuff and got really close to a couple classic V10's called "Beyond Life" and "Trent's mom." I'll have to go back to finish those for sure. As the sun would lower in the sky, the shadows would reach accross the valley and blanket us as early as the mid-afternoon, in some places, and unleash upon us the frigidness of winter. Just as an idea as to how cold it would get, on our last day there, at the end of the day (about 5:30pm), I flashed (meaning did it first go) a fun V6 with a big dyno (jump) move near the top. I stuck the move and cruised to the topout of the boulder using the good final holds. By this time it is so cold that one's fingers freeze almost instantly, and one simply just gets used to the burning feeling in the finger tips as they rewarm right after the climb. It was after all my other digits had rewarmed, that I noticed my left middle finger was oozing with blood. As it turns out, when I stuck the dyno move, a sharp portion of the rock ripped out a nice little chunk out of my middle finger pad. In climbing, this is called a "flapper" when the piece of skin is still loosely attached. I rinced my finger with some water out of our water bottle and by the time I was done washing it (a couple minutes), the water that had fallen onto the crashpad and the ground was already frozen solid! Chloe braved the cold for couple final climbs and then we hike home (to our truck w/flip pac) with the final rays of light, and had ourself a good classic climbing dinner: pasta with chilli, cheese and wine. Oh, and lets not forget the Eclairs for dessert, or did we have some chocolate "rochers Suchards" that night? Well, we eventually had both anyways.
I'm currently finishing up my last few hours for my internship at WECAD, and then next week is my last week of class, and testing!! Wish me luck, and hopefully all goes well.
Oh, and Sunlight mountain (where we patrol) opens on Friday December 5th: let it snow!!
Happy Thanksgiving, or just happy days to all!!
-Brendan

t





I have to take a moment in this post to thank our faithful followers and for their always entertaining comments...although the mockery that ensues from a botched automatic translation is unacceptable. Don Pedro: we must exchange some serious words :-[
Anyways... ;) I got to visit Chloe's apartment in Grand Junction last weekend (see pics above). Yes, in case you weren't aware, we had an argument and she decided to move out and live among the meth heads and weirdness only known as Grand Junction. No..of course not...Chloe does have an apartment in Grand Junction though, that she uses for when she works three days in a row. It is a very nice place about a five minute walk from the hospital with two other lady roomates who are also nurses at St. Mary's, and one that actually works in the same unit as Chloe. Pretty nice set-up really.
We climbed on Monday, since it seems we haven't done that in so long ;), and then I started some work up on the mountain (Sunlight mountain), to make a little money and get ready for the ski season. Getting a mountain ready for a ski season is pretty varied in the duties necessary. I ran and drove up and down the moutain a whole lot putting on tower and post pads so that all those oh so skilled skiers (and boarders, lets not be decriminitory here) can run into everything in sight while they tumble down the mountain, and can't sue the mountain saying we didn't try to protect them from that enormous obvious black metal tower in the middle of the run that they didn't see. Transporting the pads up the hill can be quite a trip sometimes. Aside from a quad motorcycle, one of Sunlight's key workhorse "trucks" is a chevota (combination Chevy and Toyota), that must be left over from WWII (see pics above). Driving that thing is always an adventure. The driver's seat is only a frame and your ass actually falls into the seat as opposed to onto the seat, and forget about adjusting the forward/back position of the thing, so hopefully you can reach those nice smooth polished metal pedals. The thing is actually an automatic, but the dial to put it into drive and reverse fell off, so you just have to count the number of clicks as you move the handle to put it into drive, or whatever the hell else you end up in. Since this "vehicle" is quite old, going down hill requires a special aproach. When braking, the rear wheels do not stop turning, so as the front wheels lock up (back when this thing was made, I don't think anti-lock brakes we're even a twinkle in dady's eye yet), the back wheels keep turning like there's no tomorrow, and you quickly find yourself driving sideways down the ski run over snow ice and rocks headed for a grouping of apsen trees: interesting. So, you either you need to go downhill fast, or pop it into neutral (if you can find it of course) and hang on for the ride. Besides fourwheeling up and down the hill with a two wheeling antique relic, I spent time going through medical equipment, putting the patrol shack in order, and digging and installing new posts that didn't survive those skillful skiers (and boarders) from last year.
I do a shift at WECAD tomorrow and then we're off back out to Utah for some...climbing (you know, been a while) for the weekend.
Our mountain is ready for the snow to come, so lets see what happens: it's always a surprise. Until our next post: behave (and if you don't, at least post some incriminating pictures so that we may all laugh at you).
Cheers,
Brendan

Thursday I drove down to Denver, went climbing in Boulder, and then picked up Chloe at the airport...yeay. We went climbing in Rifle on Friday and braved the glacial wind that was blowing that day. It is pretty much winter over here, as long as it is nice and sunny, climbing is possible (in the sun), but if it's a little too cloudy or windy, the air and rock can freeze your fingers to a nice hard feelless state: makes it kind of hard to climb when you can't feel the rock, to say the least. So we climbed what we could despite the less than ideal conditions.
Saturday was training day for Sunlight Ski Patrol, where went over basic mountain operations and practiced lift evacuations (which is a good idea given the age and condition of our lifts ;). It was fun to reunite with all our patrol friends that we haven't seen since last season and start getting psyched on the rapidly approaching ski season.
Looks like we'll go climb some on Monday, and then I work most of next week on the mountain, getting it ready for the season and at WECAD (the ambulance company near where we live).
For me, it's time to study my ass off and get ready for my two major national registry exams for Paramedic in the beginning of December. I really don't want to fail those exams, so I'll try to do it right the first time. After that, I will finally be free from my year of sacrifice, and be free!!! I am very excited with the idea.
Cheers.
Brendan

Keeping busy

Well, these last couple weeks have been varied. Chloe left for a trip, leaving me all alone here while she visits family. Luckily she returns this Thursday! Otherwise, last Thursday was a first taste of winter coming in. We got a few inches of snow at our place, and I had lots of snow coming down on the road around around me while I was driving to Grand Junction to spend some time with the fire department there for my internship time. I worked a 24 hour shift there, then Thursday morning (when I got off) I drove out to Moab for a day of bouldering in the beautiful winter sun in the desert. I did the good ol' sun shower thing, drove back to Grand Junction, slept in the flip pac, and then fired off another shift with the fire department on Friday. Finally Saturday morning, I drove back home, met up with my good friend Jack (who is also a patroller at Sunlight mountain), and we went climbing in Rifle for the day. The day was a little chilly, but turned out to be a good climbing day. Jack has been doing a lot desert crack climbing lately, and reported that he felt like his forearms were going to explode after having climbed the day at Rifle. Rifle tends to have that effect on people not used to climbing there, because it is quite a powerful place to climb, and takes some getting used to. Anyways then it was back to GJFD for Sunday. That fire department has the most retarded schedule....but whatever. I had a tougher time dealing with the people who work there: lets just say that if Colorado consisted of only Grand Junction, Colorado would have been a red state...yikes!...but luckily Colorado is bigger than that, and yes, happily, I was here to help with the color of the this state :)
I only have 48 hours left to do for my intership time (two days). I will actually finish those final days doing some paramedic time at WECAD, the ambulance company where I work.
We're getting a little more snow outside right now: kind of exciting! We'll see how much we got in the morning!
I think this is going to be a good winter :)

Yes, that's right, more climbing! We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we are actually getting our life back! I'm finally done with my commuting down to Denver! The experience was awesome, and the crew I was working with were great, surprising me with an awesome dessert fruit tart for the final night, and wishing me luck for the end my Paramedic program. Working in Denver was busy enough that I was able to satisfy all of my skills requirements and all I need now is another 140 hours of internship hours, which I will be doing with the Grand Junction Fire Department.
Chloe opted to quit her job at Valley View Hospital (here in Glenwood Springs) in favor of more climbing and some Ski patrolling this winter. As it turns out, we decided that the experience and money she was getting from that hospital wasn't going to be worth the sacrifice of play time. So, in the words of the late great Bon Scott (from AC/DC): let there be ROCK!! (for climbing of course). Not to worry however, the bridges are not burned, VVH is very eager to rehire Chloe as soon as she is ready to take a job with them...aahhhhh, it's good to be bad ass ;)
Here are a few pictures of some local climbing from the last few days. We went climbing up on Independence pass (above Aspen) a few days ago, on some great granite boulders, right by a very heavenly little creek and a light dusting of snow: beautiful...but we forgot the camera, so you'll just have to imagine that one. The weather here continues to be amazing: clear blue skies, cool temps warming nicely in the midday sun, enough to go shirtless and work on that Vitamin D.
The pic of Chloe showering is part of how we accomplish a lot with a little. She was working that night, so we climbed all day, she took a warm sunshower, despite cool surrounding air, slipped into a clean pair of scrubbs, and voila: a nurse ready for some action! She then drives to work and hammers out a night in the unit. She now has a room available to her to sleep in in Grand Junction, eliminating a lot of commuting and maximizing sleep and additional play time. Allowing for a run, swim or short boulder session prior to going back to work the next day.
I wish you all the best, and a happy halloween :)

Week-end pics