Joshua's Blog: Transitions

It's been a little bit since I last blogged, but there has been quite a bit going on. France and I moved out of Nelson, which has been a whirlwind of not so much fun since we both love the place. However, reality sometimes dictates life and the reality is that with no Canadian Work Visa and with France not being able to find helicopter work for the summer, it is, sadly, time to cast the net in other waters. So, we've plunked down in northern Alberta for the summer, an odd place for me, where France can make some money and we can get free rent. After that we'll be headed down to the States, probably Washington, so France can get her helicopter instructor's license. Meanwhile, she's saving for that program by working as a fire tower attendant in the boonies of AB (Alberta).

However, lets back track a little. Once I got everything in storage, moved out, and packed out in Nelson, I had to make a trip down to Washington state to get some warranty work done on my Honda. As I haven't really done any rock climbing outside since December when I was back visiting family in California, I thought it would be fun to get out and do some climbing in Washington. My friend Jen from Colorado, who is now studying in Vancouver, drove down to meet for two days of climbing. We climbed the first day at Frenchman's Coulee and then the next day in the rocktropolis of Leavenworth. Both places were great, but Leavenworth was incredible. There is so much rock it's crazy. However, because of the vast amount of rock, it's also a little challenging to find some of the routes and we ended spending most of our day in Leavenworth hiking around, trying to find routes, and then getting lost, oh, and then it started raining. Needless to say we didn't get a lot of climbing done in Leavenworth, but the climbs we did do were fantastic, especially Classic Crack. A fantastic splitter. Just what I wanted!

A view of perfect Mount Rainier from the road near Vantage, Washington.