Blog Archives

A few from Rupert

Posted on December 22, 2012
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It’s amazing how fast it is now to get back to Rupert. A short 2 hours seemed even shorter as we anticipated spending time with family and prepping for our trip to Red Rocks. Last night we hit the Rupert night life including some quality time spent at the Skyline where Susan has been tending bar as a second job for over 20 years. Ben, Robyn and I expanded our beer vocabulary to include “Idaho dark-beer”. You know… the “one in the dark brown bottle”.

Here are a few quick shots from our time so far.

Farm country.

Farm country.

Robyn pausing over an irrigation canal collecting tumbleweed in the off-season.

Robyn pausing over an irrigation canal collecting tumbleweed in the off-season.

Not sure why they were grouped here.

Not sure why they were grouped here.

Robyn and mom Susan on a walk around the block.

Robyn and mom Susan on a walk around the block.

Susan's Christmas Tree.

Susan’s Christmas Tree. 

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Folks visit the new digs, plus some bonus bouldering with Ben

Posted on December 19, 2012
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My parents came to town last Thursday through Sunday and we had an awesome time showing them around the area. We visited Sun Valley for a night at the Inn, cruised to Galena Summit on a clear and frosty day, walked around some shops in Ketchum, went to a live performance at the theatre in Hailey and of course had many a dark beer.

Also included in this photo set are some shots from Ben’s last visit including a couple bouldering shots from Dierkes. Even though it feels like the weekend just ended we are already gearing up for another big holiday adventure. Friday we head to Rupert to visit Susan, Nate and Zach for the weekend before loading Vincent up for another grand journey down to Red Rocks near Las Vegas. Meeting us there will be a host of great Alaskan friends amidst their own adventures, and none other then Ben and Cora as well! Christmas in Red Rocks? New Year in Vegas? Indoor skydiving (ask Cora)? In all we have 2 weeks of fun ahead of us before returning to the Big Wood which has lately likened itself to a freezer box. I won’t lie though.. getting up to see Galena Lodge has finally shaken loose the strangle hold rock climbing has had on my brain since last March. With new Deeluxe Sparks boots and a pair of new bibs, the backcountry awaits our return.

Happy holiday’s to you all and keep my grandma in your thoughts as she heads in for heart surgery on Friday, but in her words “I just want to get this thing over with so I can go on my next trip!” (at 80 years old she just returned from Africa)…

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Turkey Day 2012!

Posted on December 3, 2012
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There are hardly enough words to express how awesome Thanksgiving was. Perry, Carole and Micah hosted us at their recently remodeled place just north of Portland. The atmosphere was cozy, there were two (TWO!) fires, tons of great food, about 36 dogs, lots of family and plenty of loving faces. Thanks so much to everyone who came out and made our Thanksgiving a memorable one, we love you all!

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Warm & Bright

Posted on November 28, 2012
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Over the river and through the woods to auntie’s house we went this year, a beautiful Thanksgiving in a million different ways. Good food, great people, and so much love. It was awesome. Unfortunately, we’ve been so busy, we haven’t had time to post about it or anything else, for that matter. Soon, I hope. Soon.

While we gather our thoughts and find some free time, here are a few sneak peek photos of Thanksgiving and other random shots of our new town, Hailey. Enjoy.

Coffee at Zaneys – One of our favorite coffee spots in Hailey.

Cool Beans @ Zaneys.

Roasty toasty sittin’ by Carole and Perry’s fire!

Fresh tomatoes are the best.

Handsome and tasty!

Christmas sweater. Camera love. Yeah.

I made this crumbly peanut butter and chocolate chip bar. So good.

My favorite.

Four of many little birdies @ Hallett-Cabot place.

More stories and fun bits to come soon. Stay tuned.

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PUNXY PHIL

Posted on February 2, 2012
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4 Years ago we were there to see Punxy himself.  It was quite a spectacle, and dammit if we didn’t stand around in 10 F weather from 8 PM till 6 AM for a front row spot all the while listening to the local dance team P-H-I-L what’s the spell?!

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Stragglers

Posted on January 1, 2012
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Robyn and I arrived home last night at 11PM after 1.5 hours driving, 1 hour flying, 3.5 hours flying, and 6 more hours driving.  We landed in Anchorage and were reminded what 6 F feels like and then promptly what -20 F feels like. While we were gone Valdez was in the midst of breaking their all time december snowfall record.. but more on that in the next post after we get some pictures from town here in the next few days.

Here are some left over pictures from our great loooong break back home.  Somehow we managed to see most of our immediate family, a good handful of friends, go climbing, skiing, and ice skating spanning 3 states.

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Ice Skating

Posted on December 27, 2011
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We had a great day ice skating yesterday near North Powder.  With a big breakfast for fuel we inspected the ice and found it safe to skate near the edges but dared not venture out into the middle.

Robyn got new skates for her birthday

Robyn is a natural at ice skating.  Good thing too cuz I am not sure the ice could have sustained a fall!  There were cracks shooting this way and that, and you could hear the water beneath the ice reverberating sounds like star wars lasers.

Robyn slicing the ice

Fence leading into the ice

Jimmer kept trying to sit down for a pose but couldn’t get any traction to get his feet under his butt.  It was pretty freakin funny watching him spinning out his hind legs trying to sit.

Debut of our new skates! Fun!

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Idaho

Posted on December 18, 2011
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Sitting by the gas stove in the living room early this morning as Robyn naps on the couch, we are winding down the Idaho swing of our holiday and should be arriving in Oregon tomorrow afternoon.  An awesome day with Ben and Tasha on Wednesday led to more great friends and family to close out the week.  Friday we went for a drive to see Pomerelle, a cool mom & pop ski resort just a half hour from town, and yesterday Jerrod, Theo and girlfriend Melissa came over from Pocatello to go hiking and scrambling with us at Castle Rock.  Jon, Tiff, and Hayden are down from Kuna and the days have been filled with stories, boardgames, food and movies. Here are some pictures!

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Split pics and Rodes’

Posted on December 15, 2011
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We’re off!

Our holiday has begun! The travel was uneventful which is the best way to have it.  All our bags arrived, but we are now wondering whether it was worth it to drag our splitboards down in the first place.  Talking with Benny before we arrived we decided to bring our climbing gear as well and that proved to be an awesome idea!

Replacing the base material after placing the T-nuts.

Finishing touches with some P-tex and she was ready for action.

We searched online and Benny talked with a good friend to get beta on a nearby winter climbing spot.  The weather called for 36 F and partly sunny.  Totally manageable if the sun made an appearance.  We drove the short drive to Twin Falls, ID and Dierkes Lake to explore a new spot.  Ben and Tasha made the trip up from SLC and after a few cups of coffee and some breakfast burritos we found ourself wandering the edge of the lake with a grainy black and white photo of a cliff.  Without to much trouble we spotted some climbs and got to it.

Butthead 10a. Short but interesting.

Our first climb was Butthead 10a.  In the shade, this one got our hands a bit chilly and we decided to move around the corner to some sunshine.  It was surprisingly warm for 36 F and the wall was collecting the heat and feeling great.  Who would have thought we would be climbing on this trip?

Sanitary Landfill 10b

The rock was really interesting.  A bit sandy in spots but bomber and sculpted in others.  There were large broken huecos and featured pockets reminiscent of the Red River Gorge.  For our final climb of the day Ben and I got on Citation 11c a Dierkes Lake classic 7 bolt climb.  Cool steep features with a 20 foot pump section that included pockets on a blank face to some sloping pinches and rails. The walls were generally steep or overhung and offered great pumpy routes on featured basalt that surprised us all.  Perfect weather and interesting landscape and rock. I definitely recommend a trip here.

Tasha, Ben, Robyn, Ethan

After our climbs we headed down to Shoshone Falls to take a look.  As far as water falls go in the NW I was super impressed. Complex and large they were icing the steps on the way down to the overlook.  A beautiful view to end the day.  Off to Woody’s for a brew and back to Rupert we said farewell to our great friends.  The holiday’s couldn’t have started off better.

Tasha and Ben at Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls

Benny's ice grill.

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Just a snippet…

Posted on December 13, 2011
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Good Morning! E and I are sitting pretty cozy at the Anchorage Airport, sippin’ on tasty coffee, patiently waiting to board our flight around 6:50AM. So far, traveling has been pretty smooth for us and by saying this, I really hope I didn’t just jinx us. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the final legs of our trip will go just as smooth.

We arrived pretty early this morning (around 5:15AM), checked four bags for FREE, and managed to snag the best seats at our gate. Hopefully, we will make it to Boise with all of our bags, no delays, and no cancelled flights. Knowing that bright, shining, and smiling faces will greet us in Boise and in Pendleton makes our trip even better. In the meantime, here’s a holiday photo that reminds me of a place near Rupert that decorates every year with millions and millions of twinkle lights. It is wild and cool, but I bet their electric bill is outrageous!

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