Updates

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Update: May 21, 2009: While Tauru was off on his crazy sailboat/big mountain adventure in Alaska, Christi hung out in the warm, sunny desert and went climbing with good friends up in Utah, in the Moab area. She first headed up with Mike and Joe and after a week, they returned to Phoenix to drop off Joe (and Manny) and turned around 24 hours later to head back up with Cody. Crazy!

Castleton Tower, a beacon of manliness in Castle Valley outside Moab. It begs to be climbed.

The shadow of the beast.

Christi coming up the last pitch of the North Chimney - dancing with excitement! (Excited because she can see sunshine after freeeezing in the chimney!)
The "ballet" is a tribute to Tauru's Kor Ingles ascent back in 2006. (see here)

Basking in the sun by the summit registry.

Mike finally gets a summit shot (the Rectory behind him). When he did this with Tauru in 2006, Tauru kind of, umm, missed? Check it out.

Christi and Mike straight out of an LL Bean catelogue, standing in front of a big window at Arches Nat'l Park.

Mike and Joe, enough said...

Round 2: we replaced Joe with Cody and decided to do some site-seeing before heading over to climb. Hanging out in Escalante, everything was off to a great start...

And then the van got high-centered on a dirt road... the adventure begins!
First attempt: tow from the front - broke the tow strap.
Mike investigates the situation.

Second attempt: tie tow strap to large carabiner - how many kilonewtons is a van stuck in the dirt?

A lot apparently! Cody, let's get a closer look at that....

Oh yeah, that thing didn't stand a chance! (You should see the nice dent it left in Cody's license plate!)
Back to the drawing board, what to do? What to do?

Not much left but to shovel the road out from under the van! Hoo boy, have fun Mike!

That afternoon we finally made it to Zion. It was cold and rainy, but still beautiful. Checking out the weeping rock.

Bryce Canyon. Feels like a Nat Geo special.

The rock in this area is sandstone, which is very porous. Water collects inside, and after about 4000 years, it makes it's way through and drips out the bottom. Because the rock is so cold and this cave so shady, this ice is here all year round, even though this is the desert. crazy!

The devil of Devil's Garden!! hee hee hee ...

Yes, that is a DINOSAUR footprint!

Ancient rock art that pre-dates the Anasazi, more than 2000 years old. Who said this country has no history?

Okay, down to business. We want to climb, but we aren't sure where it is! We check things out down the cliff.

Oh yeah, this is the climb - the boys are checking out the 150' squeeze chimney on the top pitch - insane!

Well, let's do this thing - over the edge for a 300' rappel, and there are 5 of us, and it's 3pm, and it's a 2 mile walk back to the truck and a hella 4x4 road outta here.... oh yeah!!

Christi and Brenda chillin' in a cove between rappels, great views!

On rappel - so committing! Pressure is ON!!
This climb is at Top of the World and it's called "Cooler than Jesus." In a state at religious as Utah, I thought that name was compelling...

Cool-as-a-cucumber Cody takes it all in, and waits to play "clean-up" for our massive group.

Christi fights, claws, and bleeds her way up that thing, must get there before dark!

Mike leading up behind Christi, Ed up high belaying.
Christi is realizing that perhaps Jesus isn't that cool...

Here comes Cody! We just might make it outta there!

The next day we found a climb where we could belay from the van... oh thank god!!

Update: May 26, 2009: Tauru's final update from St. Elias
Tauru and his team spent nearly a month on one of the most challenging mountains, encountering severe weather, horrible conditions, terrifying encounters and an all around excellent time. Though they didn't reach the summit, this trip will surely be one they remember forever.

May 20, 2009 - Final Update from St. Elias:

Thanks everyone for your comments and support. Our team did not reach the summit of St. Elias. We encountered a highly volatile snow-pack at 12,000 ft. That combined with pour weather for the following four days left us tent bound and low on food supplies. On the 13th of May we decided it best to start descending the mountain.

Taylor and Dave skied and snowboarded from 10,500 while Tauru and Steve downclimbed. The weight was tremendous and descent brought on troubles of its own. Dave lost his edge on a 55` slope with a heavy pack and took a scary ride down 200 ft of vertical but managed to regain control. Tauru and Steve were lost in a white out for 24 hours and had to bivy on the shale ridge while Dave and Taylor listened to desperate shouting from 2000 ft below. Tauru took a 40 ft fall on the shale ridge that re-invigorated his zeal for life. After that Tauru and Steve took a day of rest and recuperation while Dave and Taylor spend the day making turns around 4,000 ft.

Two more days of going up and down ridges brought us to the top the alder tree line. Finding our original route up to filled in we were forced to down climb a very steep creek running over low quality mudstone. Multiple rappels down water falls and slips into wet cold water left the team exhausted upon reaching sea level at the Taan Fjord.

Our pick up from the good folks at the icy bay lodge could not be completed because of thick ice pack in the bay. The team was forced to hike 12 miles of beach line dragging sleds and navigating through bear infested alder to reach a possible pick up spot. On the morning of the 20th a sat phone call was made to George and Jill and we saw the landing craft weaving through the ice hours later. Our friend on the radio and the water had reached us. We had about a day and a half of food remaining and were highly fatigued. Stepping onto the boat ended our time on the flanks of St. Elias; the feeling of relief was enormous.

We took the best showers of our lives at the Icy Bay Lodge and enjoyed food and drink with the amazingly helpful and friendly people that provided communication with us during our time on the mountain. Today we sail for Valdez excited for new adventures. Thanks to Colin, George, Jill, John, Les, Jody, Michelle and Sara and all the other people we met along the way that donated their help and information.

Resolute Team signing out

Update May 23: We made it through the 48-hr run through the Gulf of Alaska and are now in Valdez, AK where the team will go its separate ways and make it back home.

Steve gives Marky-Mark a run for his money as he crosses the stream on the approach.

Dave getting gnarly at 10,000-ft.

A camp on the approach with Mt. St. Elias looming in the background.

Taylor says, �Welcome to MY igloo.�

Tauru with the Wig while packing food for the upper mountain.

Finally at sea-level, the team is beaten from downclimbing alders, waterfalls, and cliffs.

May 25, 2009: Tauru decides to hitchhike from Valdez, AK all the way back down to Phoenix. His old wandering ways have returned; his ultimate quest to �find Tauru� has been fulfilled. This would make Dean Moriarty proud.

But would you pick up this guy off the side of the road???

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