FOMO - Fear of missing out.

FOMO, finally an acronem I can get behind. I admit it I got it. Everyday I cram from beginning to end with play, family and work all because of FOMO. Why do 1 thing when you could do 2 or 3. My wife thinks I'm crazy. Probably.
What if today was the last one I had? I think that would be OK.

Pheeww!!! Mountain snow means Moab Rafting.

Carl on a Class V powder day!!!

That was a quick month and a half. It's amazing how fast time goes by when it snows almost every day and the ice climbing is as good as it has been in a decade. It's been snowing like the old days. 14' of glorious, river swelling snow fell in the Wasatch range between December 20th and January 10th. Some locations in Colorado have already recieved more snow this year than all of last.

Most of the Riverpeople have been out in the white stuff taking advantage of the water in the mountians before it melts and makes our rapids.

Pray for snow!!!!!

Moab Weather and More!!!

Ah the weather. Ask me if I thought that I have to be a weather forecaster when I started Red River Adventures and my answer would have been a resounding NO.

That however is not the case. I am constantly asked about the weather.

From the "what's it like in (month your visiting Moab here) to will it rain tomorrow. Weather it turns out is a large part of what I talk about. I've got to admit that my weather geekness goes quite deep and back in fact to my childhood. I grew up on the east coast and surfed. Weather systems are what makes waves in the east so early on when not in the water I could be found watching the Weather Chanel and listening to the NOAA radio for the latest updates. Now that I ski, climb and raft weather plays a huge roll in what and when I do what I do.

So besides looking out the window here are some of the places I look at to figure out what is going to happen.

The first and best place for Moab weather and your local forecast is the National Weather Service. Simply type in your zip code and you'll get to everything you need from the "at a glance" forecast to radar to my personal favorite, satellite imagery.

The 4k infrared loop gives you a great idea of what's coming and how strong what's coming is. I'll often look at this and local radar to get a handle on rain and snow.

After looking at what's coming at me I will always read the forecast discussion. The discussion is the raw version of the forecast and it offers a great look into what the folks at the NWS are actually thinking. It's the regional head forecasters best guess at what happens, when and why. A forecast of the forecast type of thing. Timing of storms is often discussed as well as the forecasters opinion on whether what the weather models are showing is accurate in their opinion.

Lastly, if something important is on the calendar starting a week and a half out I will check the Weather.com 10 day forecast. Sometimes very accurate, sometimes not so much this should definitely be taken with a grain of salt.

Pray for snow!!!!!

A TV

I now have a TV.

The biggest TV I've ever owned. Not big by American standards but certainly big by riverpeople standards, 37 inches of HD Liquid Crystal clarity.

I like it

Utah rafting Guides storm Costa Rica!!!!

Billy dropping the 3rd falls on the Class V Poza Azul, Costa Rica.


I love/hate email. Today fell firmly in the love categorie. It was a bit like Christmas I got a TR from the boys of Red River and this photo. Good to see that everyone is stepping it up a bit. Billy's kayaking has certainly come a long way in a few short months.

Trips highlights so far included running the Class IV, Rio Torro and the Class III, Rio Balsa, working on speaking the language, hangin with the local riverpeople and rest days at the beach.

Knowing what I know about that crew the nights have been Class V as well.

After running rivers like these the local Moab rivers are going to be tame by comparison. Probably alright though, no need to worry about guests dropping 35'ers.

No TV

I currently have no TV.

It's not that I don't have cable or that I have a TV that is too small or one that I can only watch movies on. I don't have a working television. It may be the first time ever in my life that I don't have one at all.

I like it.

Utah Rock Climbers head to Red Rocks!!!!!

Just got back from our trip to Red Rocks. The plan was this, climb three of classic long routes in the reserve back to back to back. 5 days, 1000 miles to drive, 30+ pitches up to 11c, 15+ rappels and more miles of hiking than a Marathon would certainly test my training regiment, of not training, to the limit.

Day 1:
Levitation 29, 7 pitches 11c, one of the longest approaches in RR

Due to a lack of proper planning we don't leave SLC until 8 PM. Thanks to the time change we arrive RR by 1 AM. Snag the last camping spot and toss out the pad and the bag. The alarm gets set for 5:30 AM, I'm really looking forward to my 4 hours of sleep.

The alarm sounds and we're off. Coffee and oatmeal both about the same consistency get us going. We drive "the Loop" park, rack and start walking 6:30 on schedule.

There's always that point, I guess you call it the beginning, in the trip were everything is great. The sunrise is beautiful, the hiking pretty easy we're going climbing, yeah. Than the pain starts. Slowly at first. Rocks you were able to scramble over become larger requiring the use of hand holds and climbing skills. Route finding plays a roll because even this early on I realize I want to MINIMIZE the amount of wrong turns I make. Cairns sprout like cat us confusing us even more.

Then it happens the "short cut" rears it's ugly head. Cairns point the way to what looks like the route that Shaw saw on the web and copied, by hand, onto the back of some scrap paper. It's suppose to save 15 min. Up we go! Easy at first, then right about the time you reach the point of having covered to much ground to go back the scrambling begins to slowly morph into climbing. We stop in a flat spot with about 300' of slab below us. It's only 20' of 5.easy to what I hope with every cell in my body is the upper "easy" slabs. I can see the way clearly and I hope it's as easy as it looks and I go. Not too bad and now we're on the right track. After another 30 min. on what Shaw calls the evil StairMaster we top out next to the bottom of the route. 2 hours, not bad.

I'm relived to be roping up after soloing the approach slabs. The climbing begins right off the bat with the newly replaced bolt being just out of reach from the ledge that taller folks stand on to clip. The chopped stud mocks me as I can easily reach it. I make the first moves in the series that the bolt is there to protect, stop and clip and head up. The climbing is fun and the protection though small is good. My foot cuts out unexpectedly and I almost go for a ride. Resoles aren't working quite right yet but they come on strong as I go higher.

It's hot, 80, calm and not a cloud in the sky which would be great except that the climb faces directly south and we are cooking.

The next pitches go well. We swap leads and Shaw ends up leading the crux 5.11 pitches which is fine with me. The route gets steeper as we go up. We eat bars that go down like nails, suck some Gu and finish the water on about pitch 5. The 6th pitch seems hard. The topo says 10b but it's not going well for me. I can't grip to the only hold that I can find to clip off of and after whipping 3 times I am positive that what I've been gripping aint a 10b offering. I finally figure it out but by the time I make the belay there's no question about it, I'm tired.
Shaw leads pitch 7 and that's it Levitation 29 complete.

Except for the raps, reversing the slabs, the river bed and the hike across the desert all of which it turns out only takes 3 hours. This 3 hours included a very important stop at a pool of cold water that we treated and drank.
All and all it was a good day for the riverpeople though upon further reflection a little hot.
Oh yeah the new book rates pitch 6, 10d.

To be continued.......