AOS Adventures

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Prohibition

Well, the weather this weekend was prohibiting. Something like this:



I don't know about you, but I had all sorts of plans - all successively foiled by lack of sunshine. I sat in the office last Friday, observing the weather from City of Rocks, ID all the way to the coast, and back down to Yosemite - sobbing uncontrollably. NOAA gave me a mix of both 'it sucks' and 'we can't provide accurate weather data at this time'. This actually translated to 'it just sucks', but I held out hope for a longer time than was probably healthy.

However, adventures this weekend included several exciting indoor activities!

The first was, of course, sleep. I slept a lot. It was really nice. I always feel like sleep is an adventure anyways - you never know if you're going to get much of it, never know whether you're going to have crazy dreams or just hibernate like a piece of timber. Or, take for example the mornings where you wake up in a very curious location, or wake up in a completely different location. Imagine the invigorating suspense and sheer joy involved with such types of sleep. Adventurous sleeping is an art that should be respected and practiced regularly. I will refrain from informing you of where I slept, since that might be incriminating, but suffice it to say that it worked out okay.

The second exciting activity took place with help from our local Rogue Rock Gym - Joey, James, Kevin, and Jesse are all doing a fabulous job of keeping those little plastic knobbies organized in stimulating ways, and Claire and Mackenzie always have cheerful smiles to share! Though Smith, Yosemite, City of Rocks, and the like were all out of the question, climbing was still to be had!

In other news:
Frank Debaugh has some plans to trek to Bigfoot Cave in the Marble Mountain Wilderness this coming weekend. One of the deepest and coldest caves in North America, Bigfoot Cave is both extensive and insanely vertical. I asked Frank what he planned to wear, and he informed me that he'd be rockin' his 3m wetsuit. I haven't asked Frank what sort of food he's planning on bringing, but i'm sure it'll be delicious. If anyone wants to get their alpine caving in with Frank this weekend, i'm sure he'll take some additions to his adventure team. Inquire before Friday! We're open every day this week 10-6. Sort of like every week.

Also, a note: If you plan on attending Frank's mysterious cave-a-thon this weekend, make sure you bring extra socks and gear that you don't mind getting insanely dirty and/or gnarly. Also, make sure you watch out for this guy.


If the weather holds, I'll most likely be off catching up on some trad/sport climbing adventure on either Saturday or Sunday.

What are you doing with your memorial day weekend? Make it memorable! Way I see it, everyone only has a finite number of heartbeats left. Why waste any of them? Just because some of us here at the Ashland Outdoor Store are secretly terrified of inclement weather, doesn't mean that you've gotta be! If you've got the scoop on some awesome adventure this weekend, share it with us, by all means.

I'll leave you all with a small selection of 'inspiring photos', and a link to a truly inspiring video put on by Patagonia last Tin Shed season. If you missed it, check out Free South Africa. These guys are incredibly talented climbers, but they also apply full value to one of my favorite sayings: "There's no such thing as inclement weather - just a lack of adequate gear."

FREE SOUTH AFRICA!




Peace out, guys and gals. Enjoy your week!



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