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

Birthday in Joe's Valley

I had an awesome birthday celebration in Joe's. Brendan and I had 4 (well-deserved!) days off together... which hasn't happened in a little while. We met up with Steve and the Mission Cliffs gang from SF, and bouldered for 4 days. We had my raspberry birthday cake around the campfire... and it was fun to catch up with city news :) It has been a crazy... month.. year... whatever you want to call it! But it finally looks like we're getting somewhere now. Brendan left this morning at 4am to go do his last ambulance rides in Denver, yay, we will be much better off schedule-wise once that's done. He loved it, and might try to work for these guys in the long run, we'll see what happens. I have just taken on a second job, and for now it's going well. I am still on my toes, but critical care is finally starting to feel like something I might be able to handle without a preceptor :))) I have been off orientation at St Mary's in Grand Junction for a little bit now, working nights, and so far so good. Working in Glenwood is a very different drill, even though it is the same kind of unit. The hospital in Glenwood feels more like a spa or a fancy hotel than a hospital... but people are still sick enough for them to have a critical care unit :P The vibe is very different, but same deal, so far so good!! I am putting up a few pictures from our nice little week-end in Utah. It was fun to go back to bouldering for a while, we have mainly been climbing routes since we moved to Colorado. Now we're back here at home in Glenwood, the elks are back, and today at work I saw the first snowflakes of the season out the window... I guess winter is here! Much love, and we'll keep posting :) -Chloe

J'ai passe un super week-end prolonge d'anniversaire a Joe's Valley, a Utah. On a enfin eu quelques jours libres synchro avec Brendan... 4 d'affilee... ca faisait un petit bout de temps que ca ne nous etait pas arrive! On a retrouve des copains de SF a Utah, et on a grimpe et campe pendant 4 jours. On a mange mon gateau d'anniversaire... la framboise etait encore meilleure autour du feu de camp ;) Ca a ete un peu la folie ces derniers... jours... mois... peut-etre meme annee tiens! Mais ca y est, on commence a en voir le bout, et Brendan est parti ce matin a 4h pour sa derniere serie de stages a Denver. Ce ne sera pas du luxe quand il aura termine, les allers-et venues Glenwood-Denver nous ont fait mener une vie un peu folle... Brendan va voir s'il decide de travailler pour les pompiers avec qui il etait en stage a Denver, on verra! De mon cote, j'ai commence mon 2e job a Glenwood, patr dessus mon job a Grand Junction. C'est le meme genre de service (ICU/CCU: Itensive Care Unit/Critical Care Unit) mais c'est tres different en fait. L'hopital a Glenwood a plus l'air d'un centre de thalasso ou d'un super hotel que d'un hopital.... Mais tout baigne pour le moment. Je commence enfin a me sentir plus a l'aise en soins intensifs. Je vous mets quelques photos de Joe's Valley. C'etait sympa de revoir nos collegues de SF, et de faire un peu de bouldering. Depuis notre demenagement on a surtout fait des voies, pas beaucoup de bouldering. Nous voila de retour a la maison a Glenwood, les elans sont deja de retour, et les premiers flocons sont tombes aujourd'hui dans l'apres-midi... l'hiver est la donc! Grosses Bises a nos super lecteurs :) -Chloe

Let's step it up!!!

Hello hello!! Yes it has been a little while since our last post, but we sure have been busy!! I'm most of the way through my paramedic internship time, and doing really well. I've been driving down to Denver to work with the West Metro Fire Department. Commuting down to Denver has been rough (about 3 hours one way), but so worth it for the experience. I've had the chance to treat a whole range of different people with all kinds of issues ranging from crazy psych patients, to unconscious sick people, to people involved in some nasty car accidents...and hey, i haven't officially killed anyone yet (I bet you're wondering about the "officially" part ;) . Along with that I've been working 48 hour shifts at my new job with WECAD (Western Eagle County Ambulance District) which has been going very well and where I get to treat some more unique medical issues that wouldn't really happen in Denver, like frostbite, and having to deal with unique transportation and access issues such as back country rescue, flying people out by helicopter, and long transport times (30 minutes instead of the classic 5-10 minutes of Denver).
Chloe is finally off of orientation and working on her own as a critical care nurse at St. Mary's, which is very exciting, and she just started a part time job in the ICU at Vally View Hospital right here in Glenwood Springs. It is quite fun now, because really sick patients that I pick up and drop off at Valley View, can sometimes end up as Chloe's patients in the ICU, how about that for some continuation of care.
As far as climbing is concerned, we had a rough couple of weeks trying to keep up with it all, but despite our ridiculous schedules for the last month or so, Chloe still managed to send another 5.13a, and I finally sent Zulu 5.14! The weather out here through the fall has been absolutely amazing! All the trees turning orange and yellow, bright blue skies, and very pleasant temperatures: perfect for climbing! This last week has gotten significantly cooler and we can start to feel winter just around the corner. It's kind of exciting actually. This weekend we're off the Joe's Valley in Utah to meet up with some friends, go bouldering and celebrate Chloe's birthday!! We've decided its time to get back to some bouldering action, since we both accomplished signicant goals in our route climbing this summer, despite our difficult schedules. Bouldering will be a good winter focus, and is easier to deal with in the cold.
We'll take some pictures in Joe's and post some when we get back.
Just remember: Work hard - Climb hard!!

Movin' on!!

Finally done with sitting in class! This last monday I took my final exam for my in-class portion of my paramedic program. Now, I just have to complete all my field internship time and take my National Registry exam in December. The most annoying part, at least, is over. Chloe's doing much better with her job in the CCU and will soon be transferred over to working nights for September, which should actually be pretty nice because she'll have a much better schedule, and get paid more! With both of our schedules changing for the better, and "prime" season approaching in Rifle, things should be improving.
Chloe's mom and sister came through and visited us for a few days and enjoyed some good and not so good (a couple days of rain) Colorado Summer weather. They camped, we hiked, swam in the river and even went climbing together. Good times.
On the climbing side of things: Chloe sent "The Beast" rated 5.13a a few weeks ago. This route is a very powerful route with some big moves, but Chloe crushed it! ...And for me I sent "Living in Fear" rated 5.13d and known to be one of the hardest 13d's in Rifle canyon (a place known for its hard 13's). This route is considered by many to be more like 5.14a than 13d. It's a long power endurance route quoted in the local guidebook as a "race against exploding forearms." Soon after I also sent "Huge" another Rifle 13d. Next for me is "Zulu" rated at 5.14a, very powerful and long (we'll see how that goes), and Chloe started working on "Vision Thing" at 5.13b which is long with three distinct powerful cruxes separated by a couple good rests.
Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!
P.S. Corine and Fefe had to do a little skirt and pants switcheroo for the climbing action (see picture above)! Brendan-

Brendan se lance dans le blog, mais il ne veut pas ecrire en francais!! En gros, il dit qu'il a fini l'ecole, et que tout va mieux depuis!! Il ne lui reste plus que des stages a faire entre maintenant et mi-decembre, et apres il peut passer son exam de paramedic. Je m'habitue a mon job en cardiologie/soins intensifs, et tout commence a peu pres a prendre forme... ca ne fait que s'arranger, pourvu que ca dure! Brendan a fini son projet, Living in fear 5.13d, et moi j'ai fini The beast 5.13a. Corine et Fefe on fait un petit voyage au Colorado, et sont passees par chez nous: sources chaudes, camping, balades et... escalade!! Voyez plutot :) Fefe etait en jupe et Corine a donc accepte de preter son pantalon et d'enfiler la jupette...! Grosses Bises, et a bientot!!!! Chloe-