A few days ago, I took my final board exam to become a Registered Nurse and I passed!! Yeah! I am now official :) You can call me Joy Schneiter, RN.
Mike and I are in Jackson staying at my parents' house for what will probably be the rest of our trip. It is truly wonderful to be here--peaceful, homey, the food's great, the company is even better, and I love the daily showers. My mom is on her way home from Prescott, AZ today. She has been there for the last 4 days supporting her mom and dad. My grandfather was just diagnosed with Stage IV lung, liver, and brain cancer and is spending his days relaxing at home with the help of my grandmother and some hospice nurses. He is 82 and has led a fantastic life, has been married 60 years, and has left a legacy of children, grandchildren, and (almost) great-grandchildren that all follow Christ. He and my grandmother traveled the world (and I mean traveled!!) together until very recently, he built and flew his own airplanes, and he made great efforts to involve the rest of his family (us) in his many worldly adventures. I have been trying to keep everything about his situation in perspective. While it is, of course, sad to be one left behind, we have to find comfort in the fact that he is just beginning. With someone like my grandfather, there must be a celebration of life (both his new life and the one he will leave behind) instead of lasting sorrow of death. So, thank you, Granddad, for the many ways you have taken part in my life.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
On the Road Again
Mike and I are on our annual summer road trip until August 8th. If you want to keep current on our adventures, go to our shared website, mikeandjoy.net.
I hope you all are well!
I hope you all are well!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Spring Training
My favorite running partner, Sari, has a 10 month old daughter, Juniper. Sari and her husband Ian, with hopes of Juniper following in her racing footsteps, have started Juniper early on her training. This video is a hilarious little snippet of that:
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Fun stuff!
So, I know I've been a slacker of a blogger lately, but here is finally an update of the past month or so, which has been very full of neat things. Check out mikeandjoy.net for photos and stories from Spring break. Upon returning from Spring break, I took my last finals and completed my last clinical hours for nursing school--I am officially DONE!! Yeah!! The day after my last clinical, Mike and I drove to Fruita for a trail marathon, the desert RATS race. Unfortunately, we did not take a single picture. It was a great time (I say that now...) and a beautiful sunny day. Another big piece of news: In the midst of all these things, I squeezed in an interview and accepted a new job at a local boarding school, CRMS. I will be the school nurse and will have a schedule basically identical to Mike's--none of the nights, weekends, holidays, or summers that I was dreading. Also, I will be forming relationships with 150 high school kids, participating in their outdoor education program, and even teaching a freshman seminar class. Needless to say, Mike and I are both very excited about this positive change.
Tuesday after the marathon, it was back to the desert for another Zion trip, this time with a girlfriend from Salt Lake City. Polly and I had been planning on climbing a big wall (a big wall is a climb too long for a single day that requires sleeping on the cliff face) for quite a while and this was our opportunity. She had done just one other wall, and hadn't led a single pitch. I had never done a wall without Mike there to take over if things got hard or scary. But, we really wanted try one on our own, so we perused many topos and decided on Prodigal Sun, Grade V, 5.8, C2. Here are some photos and a bit of our story:
This is the north face of Angel's Landing and our route pretty much follows the shadow line up the right side of the face. This photo was taken from Big Bend, where Mike and I were married 3 years ago (I actually spent our anniversary on the wall). There is a popular hiking trail along the ridge to the top of Angel's Landing.
Me in my "resting stance" carrying the haul bag to the base. In the haul bag goes water (4 gallons for 2 people, 2 days). food, sleeping bags, stove, extra gear, wag bags (for pooping on the wall)...you get the picture. It weighed about 80 pounds. Polly and I hiked our stuff to the base of the route the night before we started.
Racking up for the first pitch.
Me trying to clip the first bolt, which was about 8 feet off the ground. I stood on a pile of rocks for a boost and fashioned a "cheater stick" to improve my reach. A cheater stick is a 2 foot section of tent pole with a carabiner duct taped to it and a sling through the biner. It allows you to reach up and hook an out of reach bolt or piton, but is pretty insecure and only used if absolutely necessary.
Here is Polly on the 3rd pitch. Usually, the leader places removable protection into the crack, and if there is no crack, there are bolts or pitons for protection. On this pitch, there was a missing bolt and Polly had to stand on a hook (very insecure!) while stretching to her absolute limits with the cheater stick to the next piton. It was a very exciting move for her, especially after she fell while stretching out and the hook held!
Polly ascending the ropes, or "jugging". This type of climbing is called aid climbing, which means you use artificial means of getting up the rock instead of just depending on your hands and feet to hold on. The leader stands in webbing ladders while going up and the second uses ascenders to follow. Aid climbing is used to climb aesthetic lines that would be too difficult to free climb. (To clarify a common term mixup: Free climbing is climbing that still uses ropes and protection, but the rock is ascended using only the body and no artificial help. Free soloing is climbing without ropes or protection of any kind.)
Polly on the portaledge (what most people like to call a "cot") where we slept. Our stove is hanging in the foreground.
Yummy! Spanish rice, italian sausage, red peppers, and cheese all topped off with hunger sauce.
Polly in the beautiful morning light.
Polly figures out her C2 section on the steep headwall.
A view of Zion Canyon. You can see Moonlight buttress, Spaceshot, and the Temple of Sinewava in the photo.
Happy proud girls!! We did it! We were incredibly excited and exhausted.
Hiking down. Our route ended on top of Angel's Landing, where there is a popular hiking trail. We topped out just as it got dark and hiked the 2.5 miles to the trailhead. We barely caught the last bus out of the canyon and (thank goodness!) there was still an open restaurant in town. What a great adventure!
Tuesday after the marathon, it was back to the desert for another Zion trip, this time with a girlfriend from Salt Lake City. Polly and I had been planning on climbing a big wall (a big wall is a climb too long for a single day that requires sleeping on the cliff face) for quite a while and this was our opportunity. She had done just one other wall, and hadn't led a single pitch. I had never done a wall without Mike there to take over if things got hard or scary. But, we really wanted try one on our own, so we perused many topos and decided on Prodigal Sun, Grade V, 5.8, C2. Here are some photos and a bit of our story:
This is the north face of Angel's Landing and our route pretty much follows the shadow line up the right side of the face. This photo was taken from Big Bend, where Mike and I were married 3 years ago (I actually spent our anniversary on the wall). There is a popular hiking trail along the ridge to the top of Angel's Landing.
Me in my "resting stance" carrying the haul bag to the base. In the haul bag goes water (4 gallons for 2 people, 2 days). food, sleeping bags, stove, extra gear, wag bags (for pooping on the wall)...you get the picture. It weighed about 80 pounds. Polly and I hiked our stuff to the base of the route the night before we started.
Racking up for the first pitch.
Me trying to clip the first bolt, which was about 8 feet off the ground. I stood on a pile of rocks for a boost and fashioned a "cheater stick" to improve my reach. A cheater stick is a 2 foot section of tent pole with a carabiner duct taped to it and a sling through the biner. It allows you to reach up and hook an out of reach bolt or piton, but is pretty insecure and only used if absolutely necessary.
Here is Polly on the 3rd pitch. Usually, the leader places removable protection into the crack, and if there is no crack, there are bolts or pitons for protection. On this pitch, there was a missing bolt and Polly had to stand on a hook (very insecure!) while stretching to her absolute limits with the cheater stick to the next piton. It was a very exciting move for her, especially after she fell while stretching out and the hook held!
Polly ascending the ropes, or "jugging". This type of climbing is called aid climbing, which means you use artificial means of getting up the rock instead of just depending on your hands and feet to hold on. The leader stands in webbing ladders while going up and the second uses ascenders to follow. Aid climbing is used to climb aesthetic lines that would be too difficult to free climb. (To clarify a common term mixup: Free climbing is climbing that still uses ropes and protection, but the rock is ascended using only the body and no artificial help. Free soloing is climbing without ropes or protection of any kind.)
Polly on the portaledge (what most people like to call a "cot") where we slept. Our stove is hanging in the foreground.
Yummy! Spanish rice, italian sausage, red peppers, and cheese all topped off with hunger sauce.
Polly in the beautiful morning light.
Polly figures out her C2 section on the steep headwall.
A view of Zion Canyon. You can see Moonlight buttress, Spaceshot, and the Temple of Sinewava in the photo.
Happy proud girls!! We did it! We were incredibly excited and exhausted.
Hiking down. Our route ended on top of Angel's Landing, where there is a popular hiking trail. We topped out just as it got dark and hiked the 2.5 miles to the trailhead. We barely caught the last bus out of the canyon and (thank goodness!) there was still an open restaurant in town. What a great adventure!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
The latest
Check out Mike's updates of the last couple weeks at mikeandjoy.net.
We are now back in Zion for 10 days, taking advantage of our coinciding Spring breaks. Wes and Steph were here until this morning, at the tail end of their Spring break. It was great to hang with them for a day. We'll keep updates coming along this trip.
We are now back in Zion for 10 days, taking advantage of our coinciding Spring breaks. Wes and Steph were here until this morning, at the tail end of their Spring break. It was great to hang with them for a day. We'll keep updates coming along this trip.
Monday, March 17, 2008
The 24 Hours of Sunlight
So, finally an update on how the race went! It was definitely a learning experience, overall very positive, and something I hope to do again. A big thanks to BJ, Sari, Jen and Jes for dealing with my skins, my demands, and my exhaustion!
I started the day out pretty fast, probably too fast, (a common rookie mistake) and was actually in first place for the initial 4 laps. As the day lingered on, I found a steady rhythm and a more reasonable pace. Darkness settled around 6:00, and gnawing fatigue and a hacking cough forced some much needed rest. After a couple of hours, a few fellow racers relayed the news that my place standing was slipping, so I braved the cold for some more. The early morning hours were, in a word, tortuous. It was cold, I was getting tired, I battled frequent waves of nausea, and was having a very difficult time breathing. Sari has experience with 24 hour races and knew the 4-6am window would be the worst, so she drove up to ski a couple laps with me during that time. Soon after she left, the sun came up and the race energy rose with it. Slowly but surely, I continued to plod along for the final hours. Around 9:30 (the race ended at 11), I finished my 16th lap a few seconds behind another woman, Liz, also vying for third place. At the beginning of our lap, I proposed to her that we just agree to tie for third. We were solidly out of second and ahead of fourth, and neither of us felt like pushing the pace at that point in the race. So, we took our time, chatted the entire lap, and snowplowed across the finish line together. It was a very special ending to an amazing race! We completed 17 laps for a total of 25,500 feet of elevation gain and loss--the equivalent of skiing almost all the way up Everest from sea level in a day.
The inaugural "24 Hours" was two years ago, and Polly McLean was the only solo woman. Amazingly, she completed 20 laps with no competition pushing her. Last year, she returned to win again with just 11 laps, but was 4 months pregnant. There were 4 other women last year, none of whom did more than 10 laps. This year, the women came out in full force! There were 11 women--the winner broke a world record with 22 laps, Polly took second with 20, Liz and I tied with 17, fourth had 16, fifth and sixth had 15, and so on. I was absolutely spent after 17 laps and wanted to recognize how well each woman did out there.
Here are some photos:
This was the tent that each racer had to use to check in and out of each lap. My jacket is stuffed with my skins, which I rip off of my skis at the top and then ski down. I didn't carry a pack at all, but had a 6oz water bottle in my pocket.
Jen helping me at the start of a night lap.
High fives between me and Liz at the end of our last lap.
The podium. Molly Zurn in first, Polly in second, and Liz and I in third.
I started the day out pretty fast, probably too fast, (a common rookie mistake) and was actually in first place for the initial 4 laps. As the day lingered on, I found a steady rhythm and a more reasonable pace. Darkness settled around 6:00, and gnawing fatigue and a hacking cough forced some much needed rest. After a couple of hours, a few fellow racers relayed the news that my place standing was slipping, so I braved the cold for some more. The early morning hours were, in a word, tortuous. It was cold, I was getting tired, I battled frequent waves of nausea, and was having a very difficult time breathing. Sari has experience with 24 hour races and knew the 4-6am window would be the worst, so she drove up to ski a couple laps with me during that time. Soon after she left, the sun came up and the race energy rose with it. Slowly but surely, I continued to plod along for the final hours. Around 9:30 (the race ended at 11), I finished my 16th lap a few seconds behind another woman, Liz, also vying for third place. At the beginning of our lap, I proposed to her that we just agree to tie for third. We were solidly out of second and ahead of fourth, and neither of us felt like pushing the pace at that point in the race. So, we took our time, chatted the entire lap, and snowplowed across the finish line together. It was a very special ending to an amazing race! We completed 17 laps for a total of 25,500 feet of elevation gain and loss--the equivalent of skiing almost all the way up Everest from sea level in a day.
The inaugural "24 Hours" was two years ago, and Polly McLean was the only solo woman. Amazingly, she completed 20 laps with no competition pushing her. Last year, she returned to win again with just 11 laps, but was 4 months pregnant. There were 4 other women last year, none of whom did more than 10 laps. This year, the women came out in full force! There were 11 women--the winner broke a world record with 22 laps, Polly took second with 20, Liz and I tied with 17, fourth had 16, fifth and sixth had 15, and so on. I was absolutely spent after 17 laps and wanted to recognize how well each woman did out there.
Here are some photos:
This was the tent that each racer had to use to check in and out of each lap. My jacket is stuffed with my skins, which I rip off of my skis at the top and then ski down. I didn't carry a pack at all, but had a 6oz water bottle in my pocket.
Jen helping me at the start of a night lap.
High fives between me and Liz at the end of our last lap.
The podium. Molly Zurn in first, Polly in second, and Liz and I in third.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Some thoughts on living
My dear friend Reese sent me this link (Walk Slowly Live Wildly) this morning. Her friend of a friend of a friend, Sara, has a fantastic blog on faith, health, green living, etc. It was just what I needed to read today, so I thought I'd pass it on. Enjoy!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Training.
The 24 Hours of Sunlight is this weekend. For some crazy reason (which I have not figured out yet), I decided to solo it. I crewed for Mike last year, which means I should really know better than to go out and do it myself. But, what the heck. So, I've been training like a banshee trying to get strong and ready. The race consists of skiing in circles and that's pretty much it. You put your skins on, ski up the mountain, take your skins off, ski back down, and repeat as many times as you can in 24 hours. Sound like fun? I didn't think so! I've got all this anticipatory energy in my system and am forcing myself to relax for the next few days before the race. I just had to get out this weekend, though (it was 50 degrees and sunny!), and did a 16 mile run on Saturday and skinned 3 laps at Sunlight Sunday morning before work. All you positive thinkers, send 'em my way this weekend, please!
3rd Annual Glenwood Ice (and snow) Festival...
Last month, Mike and I hosted the 3rd Annual Glenwood Ice and Snow Festival. Great times were had by all! Don't be fooled by the name, it's actually just an excuse to invite all our friends out to climb and play in the snow. About 15 people came and stayed at our place--what fun!
Wes, Stef, Sam, and Mike enjoying breakfast at the homestead--raspberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, Yum! Our new friend Sam (from Breckenridge) was the breakfast master (he's cute and single, ladies!).
If a bunch of ladies ice climbing in bra tops isn't the sexiest thing ever, I just don't know what is!
Eric showing us how it's done.
The boys set up a killer lunch spot with brats, apple cider, and PBR of course. Here's Wes (the other Wes, there were two Wes's...and 2 BJ's, 2 Tracy's and a Lacy--lots of head turning went on) rocking out the guitar solo.
We did actually climb a little, but the fest is truly all about having fun with good friends.
Saturday night's party attracted about 50 people. Mike had the idea that everyone should dress up as their favorite climber. Somehow we missed taking a photo of his costume--he was Sly from Cliffhanger and looked hilarious! Polly wore the outfit she learned to climb in---two years ago (the blue spandex is for real!) I guess the Fest is getting sorta official--we had slide shows, a climbing movie (thanks to Mike), schwag, and . . . the shot ski!
This is the only picture I could find-sorry it's kinda blurry. The shot ski is an old ski with 4 shot glasses affixed to it. So, you and 3 of your friends line up, the glasses are filled, and the shots go down on 3. There is no hesitation with the shot ski! It provided lots of laughs and will definitely come out again next year!! This pic is of Lacy, Tracy, Polly, and Katie partaking.
Skinning up Williams Peak on Sunday--many of us were working Saturday night out of our systems... I guess you could say it was a "leisurely" pace.
I think the wind was blowing about 70mph on the summit, but we made it, dangit!
Hawaii for Christmas!
My sweet parents took Wes, Stef, Mike, and me to Hawaii for Christmas and New Year's. We had a blast!! We stayed on Maui in a town called Lahaina and had a great condo right on the beach. Here are some photos from the trip.
We hiked through a bamboo forest to get to this waterfall.
What a feast!! My dad is a professional BBQer.
We took a day trip to Molokini and did some snubaing. It's a combination of scuba and snorkeling, and you swim with a 20 foot hose connecting you to oxygen at the surface.
We saw lots of sea turtles and learned that they can dive more than a mile deep and can stay underwater for 40 minutes without coming up for air. Wow.
Awww, newlyweds. So cute.
Mike, what are you looking at?!
The fam.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Photos and such
So, for those of you that were following the prior posts about the adventure race, Sari and her team ended up in 2nd place. Though they would have been super psyched on first, they were happy to finish as well as they did. There was a little welcome home get together when she returned, and I of course forgot the camera. A picture of her poor feet would have been great! They were incredibly swollen, blistered, and bruised. But, she was back on her skis today and in regular shoes.
Anyway, here are some photos of our friends and home.
Our great friends, BJ and Tracy. Mike and BJ are "choss twins". We went out for pizza a couple nights ago.
And here we are across the table being goofy.
Tonight, I went to Carbondale for a little ladie's Christmas dinner. Above are Lindsay, Jess, and Sari.
Me, T, and Jen.
Look at my beautiful new earrings! Katie Menghini sent them to me and I am so happy!
Here are some pics of our condo (for you Monica and Reese!):
The kitchen and loft above.
My teeny kitchen with an eclectic mix of colors.
Our bedroom, in an unusual state of cleanliness.
Living room, with the great purple chair we found for free on the sidewalk.
The back of the living room, fireplace, and deck.
Anyway, here are some photos of our friends and home.
Our great friends, BJ and Tracy. Mike and BJ are "choss twins". We went out for pizza a couple nights ago.
And here we are across the table being goofy.
Tonight, I went to Carbondale for a little ladie's Christmas dinner. Above are Lindsay, Jess, and Sari.
Me, T, and Jen.
Look at my beautiful new earrings! Katie Menghini sent them to me and I am so happy!
Here are some pics of our condo (for you Monica and Reese!):
The kitchen and loft above.
My teeny kitchen with an eclectic mix of colors.
Our bedroom, in an unusual state of cleanliness.
Living room, with the great purple chair we found for free on the sidewalk.
The back of the living room, fireplace, and deck.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)