Nov 6, 2009 Just got back from Moab, Utah where the AMGA just held their Annual Meeting. It was cool to be surrounded by so many bad-a guides from all over the country and to meet the people that keep the AMGA running.
My main mission was to take the Single Pitch Instructor Provider training course, which I completed so now I am in the provider training pool for the SPI courses. That means I can co-teach the SPI course along with another instructor for now until I pass my Rock Instructor Exam and get checked out as a full-blown provider. So stay tuned for course and exams offerings in 2010.
The Annual Meeting itself was well attended, I went to the BOD meeting where there was a lively discussion concerning the newly founded Certified Guide Federation, basically an organization started by the AMGA to provide permits and insurance to member guides working as independent contractors.
There were professional development clinics which I attended like crevasse rescue (for all those crevasses we have here on the East Coast), short roping, and my favorite off-width technique clinic in celebration of my mentor Craig Luebben. Craig was the man when it came to O-Dub's and it was awesome to thrash my way up the widness at Offwidth City and try and channel his spirit. He was an amazing person who made it look effortless.
I went to the guide olympics which happened to fall on Halloween, so everyone got dressed up in silly costumes and competed in various events like speed climbing, geo-caching, off-width anchor, pass the pumpkin, improvised canyon rappel, and short roping on a slack line. My team came in fifth, not too shabby considering it was my first showing.
That night I celebrated Halloween by going to see Sparkle Motion, Lisa Hathaway's awesome disco cover band. They sure can put on a good show. After the Annual Meeting was over I had an extra day to climb in the Moab area and had the opportunity to climb my first desert tower, which was super cool.
I climbed a route called "Ancient Arts" with Nate Bondi a fellow guide out of SoCal. It was a short 4 pitch route in the Fisher Towers area that has a crazy corkscrew summit offering sweet exposure. The "rock" was more like petrified mud, imagine a candy shell covering a sandy nugget underneath and there you have it. The route had some old manky hardware that protected some of the crux pitches 5.10-, A0 and took great gear as long as you didn't fall on it. I certainly didn't want to hang on any old star-drives or hardware store special of the week; luckily the belays had modern bolts and chains and I don't weigh a whole lot.
The route is super classic, one of the more popular routes in the area. So popular we got stuck behind a party of 3 who were already at the base when we arrived. Luckily it was a nice and sunny day and the route had extra large belay ledges to hang out on and work on my tan. I led the offwidth pitch which was super sweet, no way you're falling out of that thing which was good because the gear would have ripped right out of the aforementioned petrified mud.
Then I got to lead the summit pitch which has crazy cool exposure. You start by walking out across a diving board feature with no pro and a 400 foot drop on either side. Exciting but casual, then you pull on some slopers to get up a small overhang where you clip a lovely star-drive quarter incher and keep going to the next homemade quarter incher ring job. The most committing move is getting to the anchor where you have to high step over a drilled in piton and you're not sure if your feet are going to skate off. Then you get the summit experience which feels like you're standing on top of a Jenga stack, praying it doesn't topple. Too much fun, can't wait for the next desert summit experience!
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