This has been a weird winter of weather across the country, but that hasn't kept our OWA people from staying busy and having fun................While out on the road the Keiths have seen all kinds of OWA friends and vets including Marc Anderson (in Athens, Ga now married and still racing bikes for Jittery Joes); Former Guide Greg Garman (married and living in the Reno area); Former Guide David Guillory (married with kids and praciticing law and rural living in Nacogdoches, TX); Guide Dave Galvin (riding hard and living in the Bay area and hoping to be back at camp this summer); Sr Guide Jeremy Braziel (managing a big construction project in CO Springs)..........and that list goes on and on....................
Did you know Ryan Sullivan and Katherine Verburg tied the knot in Vancouver back in the spring? Yes, they have made it official and Katherine is teaching middle school in Vancouver while Ryan has been doing some guiding for OWA through the winter.........................Dr Bob Cone and son Dr Patrick Cone are doing well in Corpus. Patrick is able to get out on the water whenever conditions merit it and we are hoping to get both back out on the trail with us sometime soon. They spent some time with the Appletons who were in Corpus for a swim meet-- yes Adair is a swimmer these days...............
Sr Guide Dr Chris Williams has moved his practice and family to Cheyenne Wells, Colorado-- we hope to get the group over to camp for a bit this summer................Rob McLendon is alive and well living in Atlanta and working in reinsurance, but maybe more importantly is training hard as a triathlete. We'll have to set up a 50 meter race in the freestyle between he and Adair if we can get him up to the Tarryall this summer.......................
Ricky Creel and Tony Baca both won Mexican National titles in cycling this past winter---- amazing, but not unexpected after riding with them last summer. Tony won the NORBA National 16/under Jr X at Snowmass by 10 minutes if you can imagine that.....................Zach Domingue is off to a good start in the Texas Spring series-- currently in 2nd overall in the 17/18 Sport category.......................
Various OWA folks were at the recent wedding of OWA Visiting Guide and friend Jeff Jackson and his new wife, Hannah Freed. They were married at their beautiful spot outside of Austin overlooking Flat Creek. The Keith's, Appletons, Josh/Allison Elmore and kids and Jamie/Joanne McNally (parents of Conor, Sean, Patrick and Colin and vets of an OWA Copper Canyon trip and various outings in both Colorado and Texas. Jeff and Hannah are on their way to Carbondale where Jeff is taking over as editor of Rock & Ice Magazine........................Ricky Creel (Chihuahua) recently placed 3rd in the Mexican Junior Olympic Nationals in Guadalajara in mountain biking. He also placed 7th in the road race and 10th in the time trial..................Congrats to longtime OWA vet Jef Fair (Kerrville/Ft Worth, TX) on his marriage in May. Jef spends a lot of time fly fishing and works in the fly fishing dept at Backwoods in Ft Worth while not working on finishing up his degree at TCU. His brother Scott (longtime vet and staff member from the 80's/early 90's) was obviously in attendance. Scott has two kids and lives/works in Kerrville............Kirk Scheel (Ingram, TX), Lin Cameron (Nashville) and Mark Beardsley (Fairplay) helped out with some recent groups in Colorado. The weather was "early spring-like", but refreshing.
Jerry Brown (Durango) is remapping the Colorado Trail this summer and we plan to see him around Base Camp a time or two..............
Speaking of Texas AM/Bryan College Station-- Randall Spradley (former OWA chef/work crew leader) is still in that area with a paying job managing construction and redevelopment of some downtown properties in Bryan......................Adam and Lisa Salladin (multi time Copper Canyon vets) are all moved into their new Hill Country Bicycle Works store in a new building in Kerrville, TX. They were assisted by all kinds of folks including owa vets Zach Domingue, Frank Floyd and Mike Busby....................The Appleton's headed up to Base Camp for Spring Break and were treated to the recent storm which made things very winterlike and made it possible to X Country ski around the lodge and skate on the river. Deb Baxter (from the Ute Trial River Ranch) was the skating instructor. Deb and Jim report that it has been a relatively quiet, but winterlike winter in the area and they are moving along on all of their projects in their cabins and main lodge.............................Zach Domingue (Hunt, TX) has been doing some racing in the TMBRA spring mountain bike series in Texas including his first 30K race out in Terlingua in February. David Appleton has done a couple of races as well including a full 100K at the Mas o Menos in Terlingua and the full IronGrind at the NORBA National in Boerne and Comfort. Q was at the national as well with an OWA booth and was assisted one day by Sho Sato and on another by nephew Quentin Jameson (Round Mountain, TX). Quentin J, by the way, has been mighty busy competing in several recent polocrosse tournaments in the Hill Country................. The Starkeys (Austin) have had all kinds of reasons why they haven't been able to race, but it sounds like they may make it to an upcoming race soon. Carson and Hayden did spend Spring Break skiing in Winter Park...............................
Brett Merlin (Chicago/Burlington/Alb) is still in Albuquerque working with Paul Johnson and enjoying the transition from a very snowy winter there in the Sandias-- their snow base there was actually double that of Breckenridge which is amazing considering that they have had no base for several years. Paul and wife Laura are moving into a new house out in Edgewood (east of Albuquerque. Word is Paul and Brett are heading to Bolivia for some climbing later this spring........................
From earlier in 2004.........................Mary Dain has had a good year at Berkeley and has secured a spot with a program that will send her to Africa (Uganda) this summer to work with HIV victims-- way to go Mary................Dave Galvin is getting a bit of studying done at the U of Virginia along with a whole lot of training and racing for the UVA Cycling Team. He recently won an ACC crit and has been riding well. He's already looking ahead to collegiate nationals coming up in May, as well as the X Rock Challenge which will pit he and Ryan Sullivan in a match race up the brutal climb through the Allen Ranch and up another 1000 or so feet. We haven't decided whether they will be allowed to acclimate before the event to be held early this summer................OWA vet and former guide Marc Anderson is taking a semester off from teaching at the U of Georgia to focus on racing his bike. He has signed on with a British Amateur team for the summer and will be racing in Italy-- too bad we can't get him to BC to join in the X Rock Challenge.......................We had an email from longtime vet Rob McLendon who is in Granada Spain for the spring studying Spanish. He's a junior at the U of Georgia and will finish up next year with a degree in Risk Management and Spanish. He's enjoying the mountains in the area and is even riding a mountain bike a bit between all that hard studying..............Greg "Salsa" Shaffran sent us an email as well and it's a bit ironic since Rob and he did some trips together. He's finished up his studies in Buenos Aires and is now off to El Salvador where he's going to be helping with their upcoming elections...............mountain bike race season continues in Texas and our OWA vets continue to do mighty well. The third race of the season was a NORBA National held in Waco in mid March. Ben Pifer made a great showing in the Junior X class finishing 4th overall against the best competition in the country. Wallis Spears continued her win streak (1st Women's 13/14) although she was finally pushed by a rider from Guatemala. Carson Starkey finished 2nd (Men's 13/14) and he continues to cut the gap between he and the first place rider. His brother, Hayden, finally got back into a race after a broken wrist and other conflicts and ended up on the Waco podium with a 5th place in the Mens 17/18 class. Dad Scott Starkey continued to do well placing a respectable 8th in the Single Speed. David Appleton won the 50+ mens marathon and was 16th overall and then returned on Sunday to finish 8th in the cross country. Congrats to everyone and the racing continues...........Ben, by the way, has been accepted and decided to join the cycling program at Ft Lewis in Durango next year-- yes he'll be going to class and studying as well. All the Texas racers are now preparing for a big weekend March 10-14 at Waco for the first NORBA National event ever to come to Texas.................... Congrats to Jeff Landman. He's had a busy competitive climbing season since last summer finishing 3rd in the British Nationals, 25th in the Worlds in Bulgaria and then topping it off by becoming the British National Bouldering Champ. Looks like he'll be back with OWA this summer.........................Q has been out on the road doing slide shows and seeing some of our vets...........he stopped by and visited with Trey Jones and his mom, Gail outside of Atlanta and did a slide show at Nate Parrish's in San Francisco..............The Keith's have, by the way now moved into their house and the new Texas office is up and running. A while back they hosted the first OWA slide show of the season with a great turnout of Austin families who missed out on some fun riding and biking (it was rainy), but did get to visit and see the new place............Dave Galvin helped out with manning the OWA booth at a couple of fairs in the Chicago area recently. He is training hard for the upcoming collegiate cycling season at the University of Virginia...................Jonny Dach has gotten an early acceptance into Yale..................Glenn Trainer and wife, Juliette just had their second child, Juliette, just before Christmas. They are living on the South Carolina coast and Glenn is driving a beach patrol boat while finishing up his paramedic..............Laura Nichols is teaching this year in Phoenix and planning to head back to Oregon come summer (and all the heat).................Mark Pita is back at Canyonlands National Park where he is now a permanent ranger and leader of their Search and Rescue. He has also gotten himself married during the past year. We're talking to him about spending some time with the staff during staff training looking at our climbing and emergency procedures................Ford Waterstrat (Work Crew/Dishboy a few years back) is finishing up his degree at Lindsey Wilson in Kentucky. He's still racing mountain bikes, but at bit more leisurely pace (he was the youngest US pro a couple of years back), has been working on some watershed/enviro ed projects with the Forest Service in Washington State, and just might be getting married one of these days..................Paul Johnson has been waiting for it to snow most of the winter in Santa Fe/Albuquerque and it finally happened and they've opened most of Sandia Mountain-- so he has some work. He came to Texas in mid January to help Q and David A with a school group at Camp Stewart. The group was treated to 3 days of drizzle-- but it wasn't enough to keep us from climbing, hiking, riding and fishing. Kirk Scheel helped out as well..........................
Tom Ward sent us a card from Guanajuato, Mexico where he's studying Spanish and soaking up the Mexican culture. He graduated from Berkeley last May with a degree in geography and literature and is contemplating horticulture as a profession. Tom was a longtime team member from Chicago...................Josh Elmore from another interesting trip into the mountains of Nepal working with Tebetan refugees................ Amy Barrow had a good first semester at the U of Northern Colorado in Greeley. She saw some OWA vets during the fall and remarked how small a world it is-- we just keep popping up everywhere..............Jessa Hutchins got a new bike for Christmas and with the dry weather in the Albuquerque mountains she is probably getting to ride it even now................Paul Johnson has had a slow ski season since he works for the Sandia Ski area (near Albuquerque)-- but it has to start snowing sometime.................Things are good enough for the ski areas in Colorado, not great, but certainly decent........................Wallis Spears has decided to start gearing up for a run at her third Texas State Mountain Bike Championship in '04--- set to start in just 6 weeks...................
The Appletons had a great couple of weeks of vacation and exploration in Chile back in October. They spent time on the coast, in Santiago and in the adventure paradise of Pucon. You just never know, there could be an OWA offering down there in the future...................Mark Beardsley and Lin Cameron made it back from their guiding/cooking stint on the Alaska Peninsula (100 miles from the nearest town). The saw some of the most amazing scenery, caught an amazing number of fish and learned to live up close with Grizzly Bears-- they'll have to tell you about that in person........................................Ryan Sullivan and Katherine Verburg recently raced the famous Cheakamus Challenge mt bike race up there-- Ryan had mechanical probs, but Katherine finished an impressive 10th overall among the women-- a tough field to be sure................Arturo Gutierrez did the 10oK Chupacabras mt bike race in Juarez a few weeks ago and came in 28th-- out of some 2000 racers.................Peter Merlin's cracked elbow healed just fine............Erika Graves is enjoying Pomona State in California and has hooked up with an active adventure group there. The tried to climb Mt Whitney a couple of weeks ago, but had all kinds of bad weather............................Chris Brown recently sold his house in Forney (Texas) and is gearing up to build a new one. He and his dad recently finished a major facility expansion of their Fence Supply Company business...................Jerry Brown and wife, DeeDee spent a weekend with us at BC in September and we headed over to Breckenridge for Dr Ken Adnan and Holly Gryczkowski's wedding event. Jenn Neumann was there as well and it was a mighty nice affair..................Greg Zimmerman is back at Colorado College and finding some time to climb.....................Friend Zach Harris stopped by BC for a night and ended up helping move and sort magazines. He helped out with some OWA stuff over 10 years ago and has recently begun working with his brother, Dan (an OWA vet from back about '84) in Ft Worth..............................Guide Madaleine Sorkin got a new bike from Team Telecycle in Woodland Park and claims she is going to really start riding-- much simpler to do on your own than climbing. She is back in school at Colorado College.................Amy Barrow is a freshman at Northern Colorado...........Ryan Plaisted is in Dekalb, IL for a while working with Amy Barrow's dad-- David Barrow...................Ryan Dorsey missed coming out to BC this summer and broke his arm. He is planning on joining the Bolivia team for 2004........................................Randall Spradley (Randall, former OWA chef/work crew boss) and Courtnay Randlemann (Courtney, Xtreme Lit vet) were married back in May and spent two weeks in Portugal for their honeymoon.............The Kelly Creek Classic mt bike race was held over Labor Day weekend in the Texas Hill Country and a bunch of OWA folks were there racing and helping out including Mike Busby, Hayden/Carson Starkey, Ben Pifer and Chris Ellington. The race did go on, but the conditions were wet and ugly. Most of our guys ended up dnf'ing or not starting at all after all the rain. Ben did finish out last spring as the Junior Expert champ in the Texas State Series and while with us at BC this summer had a couple of great races-- winning the expert at the Vail Grind and finishing 4th (3 pros beat him) at the Los Alamos Mt Bike Festival...................................
Quentin McCarthy, Silas Dickie and others must be having fun with the start of football season.......................the Keith family is back in Johnson City/Cypress Mill, Texas finishing up work on their new house and the new OWA Texas office..................Ryan Plaisted spent some extra time around BC at the end of the summer and is now in Dekalb, IL helping out David Barrow with some photo stuff.......................Peter Merlin has spent a bunch of the late summer at BC. He returned home for a few days and is now back-- one more check up regarding his elbow with the physician in Woodland Park and then it's back to Winnetka....................Katherine Verburg and Ryan Sullivan returned from their post camp vacation in Costa Rica (where they did plenty of beach time) and spent a few days at BC before heading back to school at the U of British Columbia. Ryan is the new proud owner of the White OWA Van and they certainly did manage to fill it with stuff for the drive back north...................
From earlier in 2003..............................Paul Johnson, Peter Merlin, Brett Merlin and Kaitlin Silbaugh are all down in Bolivia climbing-- last report had them heading to the Quimsa Cruz...............Mark Beardsley is heading down to Texas to help Q on his house (along with Ryan Sullivan) and then he and Ryan will be driving OWA vans back up to BC..................Katherine Verburg, Darcie Jensvold and Dave Galvin are rendeszvousing at BC in a couple of days and have a few days of recreation in the Vail area planned prior to the beginning of staff training........................Ben Pifer is on track to win the Junior Expert class (mountain biking) in the Texas State Championship Series just finishing up. Ben will be racing in the Junior road nationals later this summer and afterwards will be spending the rest of his summer on the OWA Work Crew.......................Wallis Spears is also on track to win the Womens 13/14 class-- her third championship in 3 years................Ryan Sullivan and Katherine Verburg have been at BC the past few days and getting in some riding around BC and climbing at Cro Magnon Dome............The new Keith estate in the Texas Hill Country continues to progress and several OWA people have been helping out including Jeremy Braziel who has been doing some tile work...................................Congrats to Laurie and Drew Duncan on the birth of their daughter, Emily, on February 13 in Austin. She's healthy and off to a good start...........Glenn Trainer and family are now living on the South Carolina coast near Bluffton....................Brett Merlin won second in the Advanced class in a climbing comp at Dartmouth back in the winter.................look for an article by Jeff Jackson about trail running in Copper Canyon and the Tarahumaras in the upcoming issue of Trailrunner. There is mention of OWA. Jeff is also now writing for Rock & Ice..............There is also supposed to be some mention/photos of the OWA ultimate adventure races in an upcoming issue of Adventure Sports..................
Madaleine Sorkin is now back in the states after spending the fall semester in Ecuador.................Jenn Neumann will be attending nursing school at the U of Colorado beginning this fall................Dr Chris Williams, OWA Sr Guide Emeritus, is busier than he had anticipated with his new Sierra Ridge Family Practice in Kerrville. The Appleton's are official patients of his. Chris and wife Briana (Briana joined us to help with Base Camp 4 or 5 years ago) now have two kids, Sierra and Ridge (note the connection)...................Wallis Spears is having a good basketball season. Her team is 6-2 and has a shot at winning their district..................Quentin McCarthy had a good football season at New Trier and has been lifting a lot of weights this off season...................Casey Dolen has found time to ride some this winter up in the mountains around Woodland Park. The dry winter has kept many of the trails open. He's also busy with debate. We hope he won't be using his debate skills to question his work duties this summer.....................Oldtimer Jeff Woodson (mid 80's with OWA) is living in San Antonio and will become a father for the first time in March......................Greg Zimmerman is now in school at Colorado College and already seems to be enjoying himself there................former Base Camp cooking phenom/work crew boss Randall Spradley is getting married finally. He and longtime girl friend Courtney Randelmann (a vet of Outpost NIU) will wed in North Carolina in mid May. David Appleton will be in the wedding and they are talking with Lin Cameron about doing the food....................Chris Brown (another oldtimer from the 80's and 90's) has just finished constructing a big new showroom for he and his dad's Fence Supply Company on the northeast side of Dallas...................The Keith's spent the holidays in Jamaica with Shelly's family. Their house construction is moving right along and they're determined to be all done prior to heading to Colorado for the summer..........Ryan Sullivan traveled to Montreal to spend some time with Katherine Verburg and her family during the holidays-- then they headed down to Austin. The two of them hooked up with Darcie Jensvold and Kendall Cole up in the small states...........Paul Johnson is still busy in Albuquerque waiting for the snow to fall on the Sandias................The Merlins headed off to Hawaii where they did a Backroads trip for the holidays......................The Starkeys spent the two weeks of vacation at their house in the Texas Hill Country getting in some riding on the trails that head right out their door-- and building more trail...................Mark Beardsley is now the avalanche forecaster at Breckeridge.................
Josh Elmore recently spent some time in Nepal up in the mountains observing and studying the travails of Tibetan refugees who continue to flee their country. He has some amazing photos and amazing stories recounting his time spent with a group that were just able to slip out of the country via a rough and circuitous route that avoided a high pass..................... Congrats to Shana Casteel who recently received a full scholarship to attend Tarleton State in Texas on a volleyball scholarship next year. She had a great season this fall and is now in the midst of basketball season................Ryan Plaisted is having a good senior year in high school and has been getting out and riding plenty. He hopes to be on Work Crew this summer and return with OWA to Copper Canyon. He's pondering attending the Culinary Institute next year.............Fall Mt Bike Rock Camp attendees and visitors included current OWA people Carson and Hayden (who had his birthday over the weekend) Starkey who were joined by their folks, Scott and Julia for supper (Scott also rode with the group on the Texas Meat Grinder on Saturday); Will McDonald and Andrew Taylor from Austin; Michael Barosso who drove down from Dallas; Drs Bob and Patrick Cone who defied their respective old ages and proved themselves still capable of physical activity; David Appleton and Quentin Keith. Visitors included Scott Fair (Alaska Mt Hunter vet and now a tax man) who brought along wife Gayla and their kids Taylor and Hailey; George Anne, Teak and Shaylon Elmore from nearby Camp Waldemar; and Mike Busby-- who worked with our very first OWA groups and is still alive..............Does Darcie Jensvold work or what? Now she has been down to Virginia to see Dave Galvin who has been getting some schooling at UVA (and has also found time to race his bike-- both mountain bike and road with great results-- all top 5 finishes in the Collegiate A and NORBA Expert classes)...........Congrats to guides Paul Johnson and Allan Aiken on their recent ascent of El Cap-- via the West Route (20 pitches and 14 hours). They reached the top right at sunset and then had a nice hike down under a bright moonlit sky................Congrats to Kirk Scheel for completing the full Iron Man held earlier this fall in Madison, WI. He reports the blisters he sustained was the worst part of it all. Kirk joined David A, Q and Greg Zimmerman helping out with the St James (Corpus Christi) group in late October. The St James leader is Gail Jones (mom of Trey Jones from Base Camp). Another BC'er, Robert Cooper was part of the group. Because of a lot of rain, climbing was all on the newly covered Camp Stewart Climbing Wall.............Jody Miller is attending college at Samford U in Birmingharm and has found time for some good climbing in that area and up at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky..............also congrats to Michael Sproul who's junior team placed first in the Junior class at the 24 Hours of Moab.............. "Chef" Lin Cameron headed to Hunt for a long weekend to visit with the Appleton's and to attend a Shawn Colvin concert at nearby Camp Waldemar-- also attended by the Keith's. She's been busy in Nashville consulting with a new restaurant and helping them develop their menu and doing some catering.................Ryan Sullivan completed the grueling Cheakamus Challenge mountain bike race between Squamish and Whistler in British Columbia-- 71 K and 2200 meters of climbing. He took 5th in the expert in spite of some mechanical probs................We hear Silas-Alex Dickie had a recent injury while playing football for St Stephens in Austin, but is now all recovered. His cousin, Martha Todd is off to a good start of school at the prestigious Casterton School in England-- an interesting program that bridges her time between graduating from high school in Texas and beginning regular classes at Columbia next year................. Recent Base Camp visitor included Dr Jake Hersman (Luke Hersman's dad) who reports Luke is having a good football season playing for Argyle (Texas); David Granger/Kathy Brown and Steve/Beth Mayka-- friends and Copper Canyon vets from last February who came for two great fall days of Tarryall mountain biking and our Austin contingent of OWA families that included Martha Dickie/James Rader, Paul Williams/Celina Romero (Sarah and Claire's parents) and Joanne Summerhays/Jamie McNally (Patrick, Sean and Colin's folks)..............Mark Beardsley and Jeff Jackson put in some serious climbing time at the Allen Ranch and put up about 12 longer routes on the top section of Bradley Peak-- apparently some mighty nice faces and cracks up to about 100 feet...............Kyle Howard continued riding after his month of Copper Canyon and Bike Trip and has been working with a mountain bike coach back in the Marin County area.....................Mary Dain just sent some good photos from the Copper Canyon Project...............Carson Starkey took 2nd in the 11/12 yr old men's class at the X Bar Shootout mountain bike race in Eldorado, Texas. Wallis Spears continued her winning ways there taking another first in the 13/14 year old women.................... Jenn Neumann was wed to Michael Domnick-- at Base Camp on Sept 9. She and Michael headed off to Hawaii for their honeymoon and are now back in Breckenridge for the ski season................The Keith's-- Q, Shelley, Peachie, Willow and Piera are all down in Texas for the winter and their main task for the foreseeable future is completing their new house on the family ranch outside of Johnson City. Greg Zimmerman spent the fall with them helping out and learning the ways of ranch life in Texas. Darcie Jensvold was also down there in late September and helped out and enjoyed a particularly nice Texas fall until she had to get back to work in Vermont in mid October. Earlier in the fall, before leaving Vermont, she did do some riding with Brett Merlin and says the roots and mud up there are challenging, but fun..............
Tall Paul Scholten graduated from Cornell in June, spent the summer guiding with OWA, spent the fall backpacking the John Muir Trail and then returned to Breckenridge where he's been busy working at Mountain Wave...................Hayden and Carson Starkey along with their dad, Scott all raced at the Kelly Creek Classic mountain bike race in Kerrville, TX over Labor Day weekend. They did well in each of their respective classes as did Wallis Spears, who moved up to the 13/14 Womens class. The weather was actually mighty nice for the race.................David Appleton talked oldtime (but not old) OWA vet/guide Barry Hunt into trying his first mountain bike race in early September in Victor, Colorado and it might not have been the perfect first race. The "Battle of Bull Mountain" featured 17 miles of rough terrain with several thousand feet of climbing. Barry did finish and was far from last place.................David, Paul Magnuson (Team Telecycle), John George (Mountain Wave), Greg Frozley, Keith Hoffrider and Jeremy Braziel did a challenging 40 mile ride from Kenosha Pass to Base Camp via an assortment of single tracks and a bit of road and had a great time on trails that seldomly see bikes. The route took them to the top of the Nate Stoltz Trail near Topaz Mountain-- right through the burned area from the Topaz Fire, which was the first major fire in the area this season...................
We assume Lewis Stahl got himself officially hitched back in August-- more details when we find em out...................Paul Johnson is off in Europe climbing this September and he and wife, Laura plan to make it to Base Camp for a visit late in the month..................Jed Cohen (one of our first interns back in the late 80's) writes from NYC that he is busy working in theatre in the city. He sent along some neat old photos from back in the day...................Laurie and Drew Duncan purchased themselves a house in Vermont and spent most of the summer up there. They are heading back soon to Austin to spend their winter there. Drew is recovered from his broken wrist and is back getting ready to do some bike races this fall..............Matt Sitter had to have surgery on his good knee this summer and that limited his travels a bit...................Lee Perlow is off to Africa for the semester, Namibia to be exact where he is working on a research project with the Cheetah Conservation Fund-- ought to be a great experience. He'll be graduating from Middlebury College later this year..............Summer visitors to Base Camp included Matt Knolle (now in the insurance business in the Dallas area) and Scott Gleeson (now an almost starving artist in Boulder)..............Dave Galvin and his dad did a surfing trip to the Maldives after camp and he reports it was great. He's back at UVA and has been riding a lot and recently did his first Expert mtb race. He's going to be racing for UVA come spring time....................Chuck Streich, originally from Denver and a member of a variety of OWA teams and expeditions including Costa Rica and Alaska, has recently graduated from Tulane and now works for Loyola University in New Orleans....................Myra Moller had a busy summer after she left OWA that was topped off with her competing in the World Mountain Bike Championships held a few weeks ago in Europe. She raced in the Espoir (18-23 yr old) Women representing her native New Zealand and placed an impressive 18th.....................
OWA News includes several new OWA babies. "Uncle Charlie" Hardwick and wife Stephanie had a second daughter, Ginger, in April..........Congrats to Glenn Trainer (Albuquerque) and wife Juliette on the birth of their son, Tomas, on February 7................Congratulations to OWA veteran staff members Emily and Ian Handley on the birth of their daughter, Chloe in Denver...............Elliot White, Andrew Marsters, Sam Bacon and some other friends have finished up their spring semesters in college and headed to Washington state where they made a successful ascent of Mt Ranier. That'll be a good tune-up for Elliot who's on the Bolivia team..............A bunch of OWA people have been stopping by while spending a lot of pre-camp time enjoying the riding and climbing around Colorado. Dave Galvin joined PJ Sullivan, Katherine Verburg, and Darcie Jensvold at Camp Sullivan-- Ryan Sullivan's house in Durango. They got in some good climbing and riding and Dave competed in the Observed Trials at the Iron Horse-- taking 2nd in the Sport Class...................Myra Moller, from New Zealand (and planning to spend most of the summer with us at Base Camp-- training and helping out) did her first US race at the Iron Horse and was racing well in the Women's Pro class when she flatted. She was pleased to see that she can ride with the top women and will be sure to do well in some races later in the season...................Peter and Brett Merlin arrived early and got in some good riding and climbing around the Base Camp area and then headed down to Shelf Road and Penitente where they ran into Allan Aiken and Paul Johnson.........................Marc Anderson and Ford Waterstrat both raced in the National Collegiate Road Championships in Burlington, VT in early May and both turned in respectable showings .........................Our group of OWA and Texas mountain bike racers had a strong spring race series in Texas. Wallis Spears won her second straight State Championship (women 12 & under) even though she was unable to race the next to last race after her shock broke while warming up (and she crashed, cutting her chin). Ben Pifer ran away with the mens 15/16 class and will certainly be forced into racing Junior X next fall. Carter Stern has had an up and down season some wins, some crashes, and some "forgot to bring my size 14 shoe" situations. Nonetheless he ended up in 3rd in the Men 17/18 division. One of our original staff people-- Mike Busby (actually on the very first OWA program in 1979) has taken up racing-- now that he is "over 50" and has been progressing well. Senior Guide Emeritus, Drew Duncan got back into racing this spring after several year's absence and was gaining steam in his return to form (he races expert 3-39 and that is a fast class!) when he decided to go roller blading and ended up with a broken wrist. He'll be back at it just in time for the summer heat to gain full steam in Texas. His better half--Senior Guide Emeritus and sometimes active, Laurie Duncan has been riding herself back into racing form and has raced consistently all spring. Laurie has also been doing some writing and teaching a course at Austin Community College................We're not sure what our out of state riders have been doing, but we do know that Dave Galvin has been doing a lot of trials riding in between classes at UVA and that he suffered a bad crash at a trials competition back in early April. He experienced some potentially dangerous internal injuries, but got through it and is now well into his recovery and should be back full steam by June 1. Ryan Plaisted (Riner, VA) has had a busy winter that's included a lot of biking, some climbing, trail building and now soccer. He ought to be in good shape come summer..............Katie Mason (Dallas/Gunnison) has had an enjoyable first year at Western State in Gunnison. She survived the cold of the Gunnison Valley and got in a lot of snowboarding and climbing (before the cold set in). Returning to the relative warmth and humidity of Dallas for spring break was a change for sure.....................Michael Sproul (Durango) instigated and put together the Bolivia t-shirt for this summer and they will be available for purchase at Base Camp-- it's a great design and something everyone will want.........................Natty Dean (Dallas) is staying in good shape playing Lacrosse and is getting excited about the Bolivia Expedition. Her brother and longtime OWA vet, Crinny (or Christian) will also be on the team. He is a veteran of the 2000 Bolivia Expedition and summited Huayna Potosi that year. He currently attends Bates and is working on a grant to help defray some of the expedition expenses...............Congratulations to Arturo Gutierrez (Creel) for his recent 5th place finish in the Masters 30 at the Mexican National mountain bike race in Hermosillo........................Former OWA dish boy, Ford Waterstrat continues to race mountain bikes as a pro- at 20 years old he's one of the youngest on the circuit. He just signed on with a new team for the coming season-- Trinity Sports Group......................Roy Leggett has had a busy spring with plenty of climbing included. He recently completed an AMGAS Rock Guides course at Red Rocks. He'll be working with some OWA groups this summer as well as with the Colorado Mountain School and the climbing gym in Ft Collins-- sounds like he will be busy............
Erika Graves ('01/Nashville) stopped by to help out at the recent Nashville Camp Fair. She got a new Sugar 2 mountain bike for Christmas and is trying to get out and riding.............Pete LaPierre spent the day helping out David Barrow at the St Louis Camp Fair................We had a big crowd at the recent Austin slide show including OWA vets Martha Todd, Patrick and Sean McNally, Sarah and Claire Williams, Silas Alex Silas Dickie, Soichi Sato and John Romano, along with a bunch of their siblings and friends........................Emmie Hudnut ('99-'00/Ft Collins) is spending the year as a Rotary Exchange student in Argentina-- a wild place to be this year for sure. her brother, Peter ('98/Ft Collins) is attending Colorado College and has been racing mountain bikes a bunch-- ended up 4th in the Rocky Mountain region NORBA standings this year and also was on the winning Jr Expert team at the 24 Hours of Moab.................Congratulations to some of our vets are getting early acceptance into colleges for next year. That includes Pete LaPierre (GTP/'98-'01/St Louis) to Harvard and Martha Todd ('97-'01/Austin) to Columbia..........................congrats also to Shana Casteel (Ultimate 1-'01/Center Point) who was recently selected to play in the national club volleyball program-- the development program for high level volleyball in the US. Unfortunately though she suffered a recent ankle fracture which will slow her spring season. She does seem to be rehabing well................................Jon Young (Amherst, NH & Clarkson/'97-'01) is enjoying school at Clarkson in upstate New York.................. Elliot White ('96-'00/Denver and Paris) is back in the states attending college at Lewis & Clark and it appears he is going to be able to join our Bolivia Expedition team-- we hope so..................Matt Westbrook (Staff/Winnetka) will be back at school there this spring after a fall full of adventure in Africa...................There's good enough snow up in Colorado and all our OWA people are busy ski patrolling and dealing with medical stuff in Breck. Quentin Keith and Mark Beardsley (both patrollers) spent two weeks in Canada earlier in January getting some serious avalanche training.................Lou Bibeau (Guide/Breck) and Geoff Forcier (Sr Guide/Breck) have now finished their EMT class and are mighty happy to have some free time once again......................Peter Merlin (Guide/Winnetka), Brett Merlin (Staff/Winnetka), Too Tall Paul Scholten (Guide/Evanston), Niall McCarthy ('96-'00/Winnetka) and Chris Stearns ('98-'00/Winnetka) all got together for a day of indoor climbing in Bloomington right after Christmas.......................Jon Young (Intern/uncategorized/amherst, NH) is enjoying the break from school at Clarkson. He reports college life is good and that he has been supervising the climbing wall for the Outing Club.............Ryan Sullivan (Guide/Durango) and Katherine Verburg (Guide/Vancouver) stopped by in Hunt on their way to Austin before Christmas. David and Ryan got in a ride on the Hunt Puke Loop as well as at Flat Creek, just outside of Austin (Ryan did it on a single speed). Ryan later headed to Copper Canyon for a trek with his brother, PJ ('98-'99/Austin) and the report is that all went well. They did see Arturo, Audrey and Tomas while down there. Ryan found himself a single speed bike for $100 and has gone back to the basics as he tries to master shifting on something less complicated...................Congratulations to Connor O'Quinn ('01/Hunt, TX) and Charlie Fowler ('00-'01/Ingram, TX) on a fine soccer season just completed. As part of the Kerrville Renegades, they advanced into the regional semifinals in the 13U.....................Sr Guide Jeremy Braziel and wife, Mimi, are proud parents of a son--- Josh Everett Braziel. He was born in late October in Dallas and weighed in at a healthy 8 plus pounds. They're now back in Colorado Springs getting things up and running and getting Crestone Designs back in full swing (except that they were in Dallas over the holidays and had lunch with the Appletons)............................
Congratulations to Paul Johnson (Sr Guide, Albuquerque) and new wife Laura McNamara. They had a great wedding back in September in Albuquerque-- attended by numerous OWA dignitaries including Allan Aiken, Lou Bibeau, Geoff Forcier, Ryan Sullivan, Katherine Verburg, Peter Merlin, and Lori/David/Adair Appleton. Paul is now back working hard for the Santa Fe Ski Area and hoping for lots of snow................and the Keith's have a new baby GIRL-- yes there are now three girls in the family to keep Quentin and Shelly busy and entertained. One real benefit is that all of Peachie and Willow's clothing and toys will work for Piera (which means small stone in Italian). They have spent most of the month of November in Texas at the Keith ranch-- with the events topping off this last weekend of November with Q's brother's wedding...............Ryan Sullivan (Guide, Durango/Austin) stopped by Hunt on his way to Austin for the Thanksgiving holidays and got in a muddy ride with David A in Kerrville. He's enjoying school at Ft Lewis College. .....................Roy Leggett (Guide/Ft Collins) had his climbing around Yosemite cut short when a guy bouldering fell and landed on him-- hurting Roy's neck-- Roy is now back in Ft Collins for the winter and is recovered and back out climbing................................Peter Merlin (Guide/Winnetka) had an article published recently in Chicago Athelete........................Carter Stern ('99-'01, Houston) talked his way into the solo class at the 24 Hours of Rocky Hill (24 hour mountain bike race near Smithville, Texas) and made a great showing, completing 10 laps (105 miles) and finishing in 11th place. OWA friend Tom Music of Lake George came down and joined David Appleton in the same race. Tom ended up with 14 laps and 4th place and David with 16 laps and 3rd place--- not a bad showing for OWA.................Derek Harris ('98-'01/San Antonio) is looking for a new bike.....................Jenn Neumann (Guide, Breckenridge) travelled in Europe this fall and is now back in Breck getting busy with work at the Breckenridge Medical Center......................Brett Merlin (Guide Aspirant, Winnetka) headed to from the U of Vermont to the Gunks for some climbing last weekend and low and behold ran into Matt Morrow ('97-'98, Evanston) who was there climbing as well. Then, that night he ran into Dave Galvin (Guide Aspirant, Winnetka) who was in the area attending a climber's festival as well. Brett has also seen Sam Bacon ('97-'00, Denver), who is also attending UV, quite a bit.................... Christian Dean (Bolivia/Work Crew/Etc, Dallas) has been enjoying school at Bates (up in Maine) and has been active with the outing club doing some climbing, backpacking, etc. He says the weather has been nice and he's getting ready for some winter sports (we hope so, since it probably won't be above freezing again till May or June)..............Katherine Verburg (Staff, Montreal) is now in her dorm and in the midst of a tough schedule of classes at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She says Vancouver is a mighty big place. Don't loan her a bike if she contacts you. After getting her mountain bike stolen, she borrowed a road bike from her dad which she has now broken..........................Ryan Plaisted (Ult 1, Virginia), has done some mountain bike racing this fall and is looking forward to doing the Copper Canyon Project next summer....................Patrick and Sean McNally's (Adv Rock Trip/MBRC 2, Austin) parents, Joanne and Jamie, spent a recent weekend at BC. We all climbed Wally and the Beav and then Jamie spent a day climbing at 11 Mile with Q and Beardsley. They were joined by David A's cousins, Martha Dickie and James Rader...................
Congrats to Jonathan Frist (Alpine Skills, Washington DC) for summitting several big Ecuadorian Peaks this summer including Illiniza Sur (17,0000+), Cotopaxi (18,000+) and Chimborazo (20,000). He spent some of June with us at Alpine Skills Camp getting acclimated-- Great Job....................Congrats as well to Troy Dunton (Bike Trip, Houston) for his solid performance at the US Cycling Nationals including some top 5 finishes on the track and 10th in the Time Trial. He has been racing back in Texas this fall and recently won the state road race for 15/16 year olds with Ben Pifer (Bike Trip, Houston) placing 4th in the state after just getting into road racing. Ben helped convince Troy to race his mountain bike at the recent Kelly Creek Classic and the two of them have been doing all the races in the Fall Texas Series and finishing 1/2 in most. Ben has joined Barry Lee's (Austin) UYS team. He also finished 5th (2 man team) out of 37 teams at the Blazing Saddles 6 hour race in Texas.....................
Ben Hirsch-McShane ('97-'00, Denver) is settling into school at the U of Pennsylvania and is joining up for the 2002 OWA Bolivia Expedition....................Wallis Spears (MBRC 3, Kerrville) also raced at Kelly Creek and kept up her winning ways taking 1st in her class. She also took first a couple of weeks later at the X Bar Shootout in El Dorado and is off to Bryan for another race in mid October.................Silas Alex Dickie (MBRC 3, Kingston Jamaica) is now attending school in Austin for the year at St Stephen's where his Aunt teaches and his cousin, Martha Todd (Copper Canyon, Austin) is off to a busy senior year and hoping to work some around Base Camp this next summer.....................Claire Twark (Copper Canyon/MBRC 3, Denver) raced in an AMBC mountain bike event in Denver in late August and ended up having to race against a couple of boys-- who she beat............
Kendall Cole (Staff, Starkville, MS) is now attending college at Bentley College in Massachusetts.........................Mark Beardsley (Sr Guide, Fairplay) is busy building a garage this fall. He had a great few weeks in France after the French Rock Trip........................Jim McAshan (Copper Canyon, Kerrville) is busy with football and debate............................Darcie Jensvold (Guide, Vermont) is back in Vermont for the winter...........................Randall Spradley (uncategorized, Bryan, TX) is busy being a corporate guy and putting on the pounds.........................Marc Anderson (Guide/Athens,GA) is in grad school at the U of Georgia and has been doing a lot of road racing on his bike this summer-- 3 firsts in his first 3 Cat 5 races. He's moving up and hopes to be racing Cat 3 by the spring..........................We recently ate at the Columbine Cafe in Breck which is owned and operated by Robert Simonton (early 80's/Dallas)........................Scott Gleeson ('90-'94/Dallas) graduated from Colorado College a couple of years ago and is now living in Boulder. He's pursuing a career as an artist and we're anxious to see some of his work. Hopefully he'll get up to Base Camp to see all the changes that have occurred since the fire of Sept '98 (wow, has it already been that long ago?). His brother, Brent ('93-'94) just graduated from SEAL training and will be stationed in San Diego........................
It's here and gone-- the second most anticipated event of the spring (after the Survivor finale)-------The Jeremy Braziel and Mimi Dishman wedding! If you haven't heard.....YES it's true. He and Mimi got married May 5 in Dallas. They'll be spending the summer in Dallas and hope to move back up to Colorado Springs in the fall...................Sr Guide Emeritus Greg Garman was also just recently married. His big event took place at Big Sur on May 19 with numerous OWA guides in attendance including Q Keith, Mark Beardsley, and Lou Bibeau.................................Kendall Cole will be switching colleges this fall-- he's been accepted at Bentley. He's thinking it's close proximity to Boston will give him a more convenient hub to travel from on his monthly vacation jaunts...............Sr Guide Paul Johnson just returned from Bolivia where he did some climbing although some sickness kept him from doing all he had hoped to do....................We recently heard from Jamie Deutch who reports she has graduated from high school (as class president) and will be attending Dickinson College next fall. She is doing some lifeguarding in Evanston this summer. She reports that Zack Reilly has continued with his climbing and was a JCCA regional champ this year and will be competing in nationals later this summer.....................Speaking of Beardsley, he recently spent some serious climbing time in Zion National Park with renowned off-width climber, author and AMGA Guide Craig Luebben. They completed a first ascent-- (after 3 previous tries and 14 years) on an impressive wall that went free for 14 pitches and that they ultimately rated 5.11+ and named Chainsaw. The crux pitch took Craig some 3 hours to complete-- details to follow while sitting around the lodge..............We had a recent email from Caroline Sozzi (from Atlanta and then Columbia, SC). She'll be graduating from college in a few weeks and then plans to head to Jackson Hole for a while to work and play. She's planning to start law school in the next year or two back in S Carolina.........we also heard from her brother, John who is now in Charlotte working with Merrill Lynch--- a far cry from the way we last him. He hopes to get out here one of these days to check out the fishing on the Tarryall and the Allen Ranch just down the road....................Lot's of vets are making decisions about college for next fall including Christian Dean who has chosen Bates (even though he got a great tour of U of Vermont from Brett Merlin). Bryce Smith has decided on Texas A.M. Ben Hirsch-McShane will be attending the U of Pennsylvania. Matt Morrow will be attending Columbia...............Let us know your final choices out there. Christian, by the way is giving an address at his St Mark's (Dallas) graduation as the Class President..............David Aamidor is about to get out of high school and is planning a return trip with some friends to the Golden Lake area in the Winds this July...................Darcie Jensvold and Katherine Verburg drove down to Texas in mid April to help out with an OWA group and to see what Austin and the Texas Hill Country were all about. Darcie is now back in Vermont for a few weeks prior to summer and Katherine is visiting in Montreal and heading to Puerto Rico for a vacation with her family....................Casey Heideman has been back in Kerrville for the winter and has been helping out with a few groups in Texas and some office work. She'll be back in Colorado this summer and has decided to attend Southwestern U in Georgetown next fall........................Keith Dillon enjoyed his new school and change of scenery in Marin County. He reports the riding was great and the snowboarding nice-- but he's now back in N Carolina...............John Tilley recently placed 6th in his first mountain bike race-- at Comfort and part of the Texas Championship Series. John races in the 13/14 year old Junior Class...............David and Brian Barrow came to Base Camp with their scout troop during the Easter Break. They camped, did a bit of mountain biking, skied in Breck and got to experience a bit of a Base Camp snowstorm.....................Roy Leggett spent most of his spring break down at Hueco Tanks. He's staying mighty busy work at the climbing gym in Ft Collins, taking his EMT and we assume going to school. He's heading down to Arizona later this month for a bouldering competition.............. Barry Lee and Tanis Jones got married in Austin over the Easter Weekend....................Congrats to Dr Laurie Duncan! After some number of years of studying, writing and researching OWA Senior Guide Laurie Duncan has officially completed her PhD in Geophysics at the University of Texas. She and husband, Drew celebrated with a trip to the Bahamas. And the celebration will continue this summer when she finally makes it back to OWA for a few weeks in July to work with Bike Trip.............David Appleton slogged through some horrendous mud at the Warda Race (mountain bike) in early March and did manage to finish 14th in his class. He finished without brakes, a broken seat, a broken front cable housing, but rolling along nonetheless.................Mark Beardsley is heading to Yosemite come May to climb some big stuff. He just may run into Sr Guide Josh Elmore and Visiting Guide Jeff Jackson who are scheming a trip for May to do some big walls and other stuff as well................Paul Johnson recently returned from a Wilderness First Responder refresher course in California. He reports that the snow in Santa Fe and Albuquerque has been great this year and that he has been mighty busy. He's taking the AMGA Rock Guide certification exam in May..................
Peter Merlin is going to be spending a bit more time at Base Camp this summer-- he's gonna be taking on the chore of being our Base Camp manager for the upcoming summer.................Barry Lee placed 3rd in the Expert 30-39 at the opening race in the Texas mountain bike series in Smithville and then took 5th at Lajitas in an Expert field that numbered over 90...............Casey Heideman is back from a couple of months of windsurfing in Baja. She'll be in the Texas Hill Country through the spring and has been helping us with some groups and various things. In fact she already helped out with a recent group of Boy Scout mountain bikers in the Hill Country ( along with David Barrow). She's now contemplating Southwestern for college next fall unless she can figure out how to go to college in Baja. She'll be in touch with Kendall Cole who can probably help her figure out how to go to mix college in with a full time travelling schedule.............Jim McAshan is busy with offseason football training which ought to help him stay in good shape for biking in Copper Canyon this summer.............
Congrats to OWA vet and guide Lisa Seaman on her successful ascent to the top of the Western Hemisphere! Lisa is a diabetic and was part of the Idea2000 team made up of diabetic climbers and support people from around the world who undertook the project to show that diabetics are capable of anything and to bring awareness to diabetes in general. Ultimately 7 climbers summitted the Polish Glacier Route. For full details check out their web site at www.idea2000.org .................
Ryan Sullivan has started college-- at CMC in Breckenridge. He's taking 12 hours and still managing to work at Mountain Wave and get in plenty of time on the mountain...................Jon Deberry is busy playing in a band in Knoxville.......................Amy Barrow is learning to drive well in spite of the driving advice of her father...........................Roger Hanks injured his arm somehow-- we didn't get the details at the recent Austin slide show---- where we had a great turnout and got to see lots of OWA vets and friends including Laurie/Drew Duncan, Sarah Williams, Martha Todd, Reed Baker, Roger, Josh/Allison/Col Elmore, Jeff Jackson, Barry Lee, Jennifer Myers, Bill Bingham, Sally Sullivan and others that we have failed to list.............Darcie Jensvold and Katherine Verburg are planning a road trip to Texas, Copper Canyon and then west in early April. They'll help out with some OWA climbing and then hope to get in a bunch of their own...................We had a goodJanuary trip to Copper Canyon Mexico.&
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