Nomadsnest - Christel and Peter

Christel's Birthday

By Christel, August 2006

The highlights for me were to swim in Panhandle Lake and to get a brownie with a match as a candle on it. Yes, I have made my wish. Take a look at the pictures.

Visit to Vancouver

By Christel, August 2006

Vancouver B.C. 1989-1991
Part of my becoming who I am took place here and I will always look back to those years as character building years. Looking after someone else’s children was probably the biggest responsibility that ever lay on my shoulders. In 1993 I went back to show Peter my former home and visited two of the families I worked for. Even though I have lost touch with former friends and the families I worked for, Peter and I went back to visit the city in 2005 and stayed in the Jericho Beach Youth Hostel.

Vancouver B.C. 2006
It is fun to return to the once so familiar places such as Granville Island Public Market, Stanley Park, Spanish Banks, Robson street. This time I we dined divinely at ‘East is East’ on Broadway.
It was only the second time I stayed in the Jericho Beach Youth Hostel, but I feel very comfortable there. This time we were a crew of seven. Inspired by the movie ‘Rolling family’, we took a road trip from Portland, Oregon to Vancouver. As always when traveling with the Aliens, a number of nationalities were present, all from German, American, Peruvian to Finish. The friendly U.S. immigration officer smiled when he heard the thick German accent explaining that we had just been visiting Vancouver B.C. Lucho took some great pictures.

Climbing Experience

By Christel, August 2006

Taking the Mazama ‘Basic’ mountaineering class as well as the ‘ICS’ (Intermediate Climbing School) as well as Mountaineering First Aid was an incredible growing experience. I remember rappelling for the first time and thinking ‘no way I am going to do this’ to it becoming something I can do and feel safe.
The highlights for me were to learn that I can keep pushing much further to reach my physical limits. I remember feeling tired at Smith Rock and thinking that I am done climbing for the day and then finding myself three hours later, still challenging myself and having fun. Despite the fact that I felt tired for three days afterwards, I know now, that I am stronger then I thought I would be.
Climbing is like problem solving and trusting mostly yourself. Yes, you need to have the abilities and equipment as well as a person that knows how to belay you, but most of the work is done by you.

Rainier Climb 2006

Author: Peter
Finally we got to climb the Big Mountain! Perfect conditions and the right team made it possible. Check out some pictures at Rainier Pictures and get ready for your own climb.
After the spagetti dinner at Dave's place White River Campground was just a short 3 hour drive from Portland. The hike up to glacier basin was easy, led us through flower meadows and provided first views of Mt. Rainier. Emmons glacier looked massive and made it hard to believe that our route would go up there. We didn't rope up for Inter Glacier which allowed us to move quickly up to the drop down on Emmons glacier. Time to rope up now. First open crevasses to the left of us which seemed pretty big at the time, but would seem really small on our way back. The snow travel up to camp Schurman was smooth - no room at the camp though. We camped out on Winthrop glacier directly next to camp Schurman. I had some trouble breathing through my nose that night - I guess oxygen is just not as available at 10000 feet. Had to sleep with open mouth and take deep breath, but was OK in the morning. We started out at 4am which turned out to be a little late (2am would have been better). After an hour in the dark we got the first light and I switched off my headlamp 30 min. later. What a view! A little higher up we had to cut over to Winthrop glacier for smoother travel - the crevasses on Emmons where just too wide open this late in the year. All in all it took us 7 hours to get up there with some jumping of crevasses and belaying across snow bridges, but nothing really technical. Fantastic climb and highly recommended!