Address

Here's my new address for the year.

Emily Adler
Box 622
Columbia Bible College
2940 Clearbrook Road
Abbotsford, BC V2T 2Z8
Canada

Back in Canada

So it's been a bit since I last updated this but I am still alive and well and back in the land of the metric system and Itchy-ban soup, what we all call Ramen back home.

I flew back out to school on the 6th and moved in with three other girls to a small apartment really close to campus. Its so nice to have our own place and the other girls are here more than I am so they've already made it feel nice and homey.

My summer was amazing! I worked as an expedition guide at Spruce Lake Wilderness Camp in PA all summer. I led trips for 11-18 year olds and we went all over north eastern PA and one week up to the White Mountains in NH for some backpacking. The kids were really fun and the staff at camp is great also. It was defiently the job for me for the summer!

Here is a link to view my collection of photos for the summer:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017446&id=170100479&l=b2d20b7e3c

This semester is a modular semester for me so I am on trip for most of the first two months I am here and then have some week long classes that I take one at a time for November and December. Two days after I was here, we took off for an eight day rock climbing course. It was so great! So much climbing in eight days and we got some great experience and practice with ropes and leading clients and groups on rock. The weather was amazing for us and we were camping the whole week also so it was really relaxed and fun.

I am in the Apline track for my program along with six other guys so its very relaxed and they're all easy to get along with.

Here are a few photos I took on this past trip.

On Sunday we're headed back up north near Whistler for another eight days of mountaineering, glacier travel and crevass rescue. Should be sweet!

Nail guns, Sunburns and Mennonites

Here are some pictures from my week in Texas over spring break. I went down with a group from school and we worked with Mennonite Disaster Services and reshingled two house roofs and sided a house. It was perfect weather down there for working and we all got nice and tan!

It was some good hard work and lots of fun. I didn't really know anyone else going down so that was cool. There were 9 of us that went down.

After being there for a couple days I could picture myself being a long term volunteer as a crew leader for something like that. So maybe next spring if nothing else comes up, I'll head south for a bit to do some more work.

Our group.

Ripping off the old remaining shingles.



Our professional shingling job.

The first house we finished.

The second house we roofed. We were only able to reshingle half of it while we were there because there were three layers of shingles on it that we had to scrape off and there were four valleys so they slowed down the shingling a bit.

You can't totally see the writing in this picture but we wrote:

"Reroofed the Canada way. With help from Kansas, Vermont and Germany."

And then we all signed our names.

One of our crew leaders was from Kansas and another long term volunteer was from Germany but the rest were from Canada. So as excited as I was to be escaping from the "eh's" and long "o's," all of the other volunteers were Canadian.

Avalanche Safety Training

Well, here I am. Back out west and back to the books. Well, mostly books. In my outdoor program, for the first month or so of school we are focused on avalanches and avalanche safety. We've been over all kinds of things about them including how to find people who are burried, how to predict avalanches, how to test the snowpak, judge the avalanche terrain and know what is the best route to travel in the backcountry to avoid starting a slide.

Its been really fun so far but a lot of work. There are lots of terms and systems that we have to remember. In order to be certified in AST, at the end of our unit we will have to be able to find two burried avalanche beacons within 100 square feet in under 5 minutes. We have worked on finding one so far and with the beacons it isn't too hard.

Last Friday we took a hike up to Needle Peak to look at some avalanche terrain and test the snowpak. It was a beautiful day to be out! It was so clear and the sun was really warm as we hiked up above treeline. Here are some shots from the day!

It was a long day out but really great! I was on touring skies which let the heal clip out so we can slide up hill and then there are skins that go on the bottom that make them not slide back. The snow was not very good for skiing though. There was a thin layer of crust on top so it was really hard to turn.

It was cool to be able to get out and see what we are learning about also. This was our second day out in the snow. This Thursday we are heading northeast where we're going to pack into a basin area, set up camp and do some day hikes from that camp to do some more avalanche training. Sadly, I will have to snowshoe this trip and won't get to ski because I sprained my ankle playing indoor soccer on Wednesday. I was on crutches for a day and can walk now but there is still some swelling and a bit of pain. It is fine though for just walking.

We are going to build a snow cave and take turns sleeping in it while we are out also! It will be great! If I have room in my pack I am going to bring my big camera but I am not sure that will be possible because we need lots of gear and clothes to stay warm. I will write about that as soon as I get back....as long as my fingers have not had to be cut off from frost bite :)

Best and Hardest Exam Ever!

You may have heard pieces of this story already but here is the whole thing. Last weekend was our SAR (search and rescue) exam for OL and it was not like any other exam out there. It was real and fun and cold! I don't have many pictures just because there was not lots of chances to take pictures but it was for sure memorable.

This is our whole year together on the exam. We had a couple minutes while we were standing by for further instruction to snap a photo.

Friday, November 21, 2008

0400: Met at the Gear Shed on campus with our packs. We were told what mountain we were going to be on and that we were to pack as if we were guiding a day hike. So we all had a far amount of gear within our groups and we kind of new of the possibility of being out overnight so we packed a little extra warm clothes. Once we met, we were told to form up outside with our packs on. We were then instructed to do 60 jumping-jacks, 30 push-ups, 2 minutes of the plank position and then run two laps around campus, all while wearing our packs.

0445: We left campus in two seperate vans and each went in different directions. The van I was in drove to the base of the mountain and dropped us off on a side road in an open field a little ways from the road that went up the mountain. We were left by ourselves as the van took off. It was so quiet and the sky was completely clear so it was awesome to be out then. We got a call over our radios to go to a specific coordinate and then call in when we got there. The coordinate given was near the top of the mountain by a lake so we headed up the road to a trail that would take us there.

0950: We came to the lake. The second group has not arrived yet so we were instructed to find them and bring them to the lake. We were told the coordinates of where they were dropped off so we just had to find the trail closest to that and hike down calling them on the radio until we came into contact with them. At 1120 we had found them and brought them back to the lake. Then we were instructed to hike up to the summit and wait there for further instructions. Once the instructors arrived up there we got into our four groups and did a first aid senario so that each of us got an opportunity to be a guide. We had to find the injuried person, assess the situation, preform first aid, splint them if needed and create a plan for getting them out of the woods.

1900: We completed the first aid senarios, it was snowing then!, and were told to go a new spot to wait for next instructions. It wasn't until 2000 that they called us and told them to walk down the mountain road until we met them. When we did they basically told us we were finished and could return to the base of the mountain the way we came up.

2030: We had gotten back to the lake when we found a girl who was yelling names and appeared to be lost. A few guys were able to talk to her and found out that she had been hiking up here with two other friends and she could not find them. So we made a plan that each group would search a different trail based on the info she had given us of where their car was and what their experience was. My group headed back down the trail we came up and we would walk a short distance, yell there names and then listen for a few seconds.

2200: We found the two hikers! It was really cool that my group found them because we got to have the most action so it was really fun. The guy hiker, Dave, had fallen off the trail down a steep slope and injured his neck or upper back. Right from when we found them we had to hold his head real still. I did this most of the time while another guy preformed first aid, a girl called the other groups on the radio and two other guys set up a tarp above them and talked to the other girl to try to calm her down, let her know who we were and what we were going to do. We found out that Dave didn't have feelings in his legs and his fingers were kind of tingly. So we made a soft splint for his neck and then packed him with a sleeping bag and our extra clothes to keep him warm. We still had to hold his neck real still just to be sure he didn't move it, so we took turns doing that.

We radioed the other groups to let them know of his condition and injuries and then decided we would need a stretch and ropes to get him out. One group started walking out to find cell phone signal to get a rope team and the ambulance. Then we just had to wait and keep the patients warm and us warm as bet we could. It got really cold and it was hard to get warm again once we got chilled.

0520: Saturday morning: We heard over the radio that the stretcher team was at the lake and would be at us soon. It took about an hour to get Dave onto the stretcher and tied in. We then had to carry him a little ways along the bank, then bellay him up back onto the trail. Then we had to carry him about 1/3 of a mile which took an hour and 15 minutes. We took him back up to the lake because there was a spot there where a helicopter would have been able to get him with a cable.

0810: After we got him to the lake, our instructors told us we could untie him and we sorted all of our gear and packed everything away. We had to then hike back up part of the mountain a ways to the road. At 0900 then we had to sit down on our packs along the road and they handed out written exams to each of us, telling us we had one hour to complete it. It was so rough! It wasn't the hardest exam ever, it was lot of map stuff and basic seach and rescue stuff. It was snowing though as we were sitting there and we were all really cold. After the exam was up our instructors told it that it was finally over, for real this time. 30 1/2 hours later, with no sleep and not much food or water, we were done!

It was really fun to be out there in the woods and doing SAR for real! Everything about it was realistic and we really would have had to wait that long for the stretcher team to come. But then, just as we were headed back to the vans, our instructor goes, "Merry Christmas, these exams don't count!" Reffering to the written exams. They were just to see how much our minds could take after being awake all night.

We got back to campus around lunch time and we all took hot showers, ate a ton of lunch and then slept until it was time to go to church on Sunday.

That was the last of our trips for the semester so now all thats left is book work and time in the library, so I am ready to be home for break. We just have our timed run and swim left too. The run was on Wednesday but I have a pinched nerve in each of my feet so its pretty painful to run, and even walk. So I've been swimming a lot and have taken over 3 minutes off my time since the beginning of the semester which is sweet!

Now it is time to finish a 15 page paper, put together a trip plan and then move into the apartment that my room mate and I will be living in next semester. 12 more days until Vermont!

This is me and Lonnie, another girl in OL who I have become really good friends with. This was on the exam while we were waiting for more instructions.

A Rainy Day in the Woods

Yesterday was just what I needed after being on campus for three or four weeks. We haven't gone on any trips during that time so I have been getting pretty bored on campus and very anxious about going on more trips.

Even though we were only gone for part of the day and it rained pretty steady the entire time, it was really great to go rappelling yesterday with my group. It wasn't that far of a drive from school but we went out to a nice little rocky spot where we set up a few rappel systems and spent lots of time going down them to get really comfortable with it. Even covered in Gore-Tex, we were all pretty wet by one o'clock so we packed up and headed back to town. It was tons of fun even though the rocks were super slick and the ropes weighed a ton because they were soaked with water. Next week, as long as we don't get a ton of rain this week, we get to go do some river opperations which will be cool also.

Too Many Books, Not Enough Time on the Trail

Well, it's only October 20th and I've managed to have two Thanksgiving dinners already! Not a bad way to go. I've been thrown off a bit though because now I feel like I should be getting the Christmas decorations out and starting to listen to Christmas music, but not many other people seem to be in the same spirit as me. I'm a bit out of wack as far as holidays go up here in this foreign country.

We haven't been on any trips since the end of September and I am really starting to feel it. This hanging around campus, which is in the city, just going to class, reading and writing isn't really my thing so I am ready to get back out there, anywhere, sometime soon. Our next trip isn't until the 31st when we get to step up some rope systems and try them out.

I realized too that I did not put up any photos from our sea kayak trip in September so here they are. We were out for four days on the ocean and had the best weather. It was warm and sunny the entire time and the water was very calm. The inlet where we were camping could have been on a lake because the water was like glass. It was sweet!

My cook group. Sean, Adrian, Graeme, John and I.



Home sweet tent.

I also am feeling led to share, that I have already used up most of the money on my food card for the cafeteria. With a pretty regular workout system that we have to do, and overpriced food, I have found myself getting close to the last third of my money. So I just wanted to share that, just to get it out there, and maybe, in case you have a need to get rid of any old food in the pantry, or new food from the bakery... I know a good cause it could go to and someone who would be very thankful to recieve it!