Towards Wyoming, please...

“OH Marky Mark...I was not offering it insultingly. Granted I do not have the same "subserviant" attitude you do towards women (LOL)...No I was offering the advice from hundreds of hours of flying everywhere from South East Asia to Europe and on.

Euro one of the great ways I get out of the "cigar tube mentality" is take off your shoes and practice flexing your toes...for some reason it helps.”

“oh dear, oh dear,... I am totaly out of my mind. I just went to store my work laptop in the office save. I opened the save and stared blankly into it, wondering what was wrong here... It took my a couple of seconds to figure out that I was staring into the fridge!

I go home. I am done. This was the last message from me for a long while now. Bye.”

“:-)
Have FUN!”

“At least she'll be elevation-acclimated.

The Winds barely reach 13,000 feet, and she would have already exceeded 30,000.

"Fly high, camp low"”

“Back from the Wind River Range

Hello all. I am back from my NOLS trip to the Wind River Range.
I have been flying from Zürich to Denver. I stayed with a friend for a couple of days and even managed to meet RoamAround at he local REI on Friday. Flew to Riverton on Saturday and on Sunday, after having met all the other group members, we were driven into the wilderness and started our two week journey through the Wind River Range. I loved every bit of the trip. I enjoyed the group, the friendship, the adventure and the laughter and fun we shared. We learned a lot of valuable outdoor skills, tricks and techniques. I got a chance to try rock climbing and fly fishing. I even caught some trout. We hiked up a few mountains and enjoyed the view. I will never forget waking up hearing Coyotes howling, nor the low, rumbling growl, out of the depth of the savage darkness, that interrupted me from doing a little business and send me streaking back to the tent, my long johns and pants barely covering my bare back side.
The weather was perfect and while we were out there late summer turned into autumn. The days were mild and sunny, the nights pretty crisp and frosty. When we camped high up on 11 000 ft, near Pain In The Arse Pass, we even got some snowfall over night. The aspen started turning their leaves into bright yellow colours. Other shrubs and weeds would add hues of red to the landscape.
At the beginning we only hiked 2-3 miles a day. We had to get adjusted to the altitude and carrying packs weighing 40 lb and more per individual. The first few days I wasn’t doing well, had a persistent headache, couldn’t sleep during the night and even felt nauseas. It took me three or four days before I was getting better.
We gradually increased our daily mileage and at the end we hiked 7 miles a day.

I wouldn’t want to miss this experience. For me it was the first true wilderness trip ever. And this trip left me with an undying hunger for MORE.”

“Cool. I was waiting to hear about the trip. Pictures?”

“Yes............pictures of streaking?”

“unfortunately I am still not able to post pictures on TT
:-(”

“how was the NOLS program? im looking into one of those schools. I want to find out from people who actually went there what the deal is.”

“mmmm...what exactly to you mean? The NOLS program, meaning what courses and trips they are offering in 2007 or 2008? I guess you can look that up on their website. Or do you mean this particulare course and what we did during our trip?”

“Report?
Details. We Americans demand details!
:)”

“
equipment check at the NOLS centre


map and compass, planning the route


campsite below Midsummer Dome”

“


going fishing at Reid Creek. I have never been flyfishing befor and yes, I caught some trout :-)


campsite in the wood”

“
our last night in the wilderness


dawn


back in Landers!”

“Nice!

Thanks, Euro!

What about the skinny dip pictures?”

“so I finally figured out how to post a couple of photos
:-)”

“...skinny dip pictures?
I killed the eyewitness and ate his camera!”

“Ooooooh, the lucky bastard!”

“nice pics!!!!

The Winds are very nice!”

“I want to go baaack!!!
I hate this life. This endless treadmill.
I want to hear the coyotes howling, not my coleagues #&%!$ing!”

“:-)”

“wait a minute...........

Euro was in the U.S. ?

when was this?!”

“dang Pamela, this thread is at least three months old! where you been girl!

pay attention!

;)”

“guess i missed that

:(”

“yea more what you did on your course, and also how the whole program is run. A young hiker died a while back in an Outward Bound program in utah. Im not worried about that happening cuz the person who died had almost no outdoor experience, but i just want to find the right school to attend. One that promotes self reliance while also promoting a group and such.”

“I signed up for a NOLS course because I have no wilderness experience. I am doing a lot of hiking in many different places, including high alpine hikes here in Switzerland, but I was looking for an opportunity to learn all the tricks and trades of wilderness backpacking.
All the participants on this trip had various experience with hiking, but I think no one had been on a real backcountry trip for longer than a day, weekend or hunting trip. The course was designed to give us the opportunity to learn all the backpacking and backcountry skills necessary to be able to plan and do our own trips. The trip was a learning experience right from the beginning and our group had lots of questions: how much cloth do really I need for two weeks, is my backpack large enough, my sleeping bag warm enough, how do I pack my backpack?
Almost everything we did was made into a teaching experience: choose a good spot for the tent to set up, watch out for widow makers, leave no trace, knots, setting up and repairing stoves and other equipment, how to treat water to make it safe for drinking, safety in bear country. Almost every day we would sit together as a group and our instructors would teach us navigation with map and compass, expedition behavior, leadership styles, backcountry etiquette. Most of the stuff was practical training as we were going along: fly fishing, rock climbing, bread baking.

I guess you can learn all this from the boy scouts, but if you want to do a ‘crash course’ with maximum learning impact, compressed into just two weeks, than NOLS is it!”

“Yes Pamela, I was in the US, just two weeks ago. I hope next time I manage to come around and visite your neck of the woods :-)”

“That's "widder makers"...:)

So how do the Winds compare to the Swiss Alps?”

“i can't believe i missed that Euro, becuase i would have begged you to visit here. i have a new job that gives me weekends off!

i'm working at the schools like i always wanted. i'm subbing so it's not a lot of money or hours, but i'm hoping it will build up, meanwhile i'm there for my son and we are both smiling big big =) i'm broke, but soooooo much happier!!!!!!!!!”

“...how the Winds compare to the Swiss Alps?

I think if I should shoot a movie, in the Winds, I would use long, horizontal camera movements to take in the landscape. In the Alps, I would use slow, vertical camera movements instead.

The Rockies are higher and bigger, but I also think of terms such as broad, wide and open. There are still so much wild and unspoiled places and the feeling of true wilderness never fails to impress me. The topography of the Rockies often fool me to belief the mountains are much lower than they actually are. I was also surprised how dry the landscape in the Winds was.

In the Alps the trails lead through dark, green forests and even above the tree line the alpine tundra is still greener. Although the Alps are smaller, the mountains look more threatening, darker, moodier, the valleys are deeper, steep sided. Along the main alpine ridge the mountains are covered in snow all year and big glaciers are streaming down into the valleys. Water is just about everywhere and small streams are rushing down from every side. The nature is beautiful, but it's also very much a cultural landscape.”