Saturday, July 13, 2013 Jambo Day 2 Thank you all for taking the time to read my notes, and thank you for your encouraging comments! Today was awesome. We began our hike to Boulder Cove at 7:00, after breakfast and a stop by the commissary for a sack lunch to take on the trail. There were 36 of us heading to the secondary climbing/rappelling area today, and by 7:03 a.m., all 36 of us realized that NOBODY had ever been to where we were going. Several of the staff management personnel had been to the Cove, but no one had ever hiked to it from our Echo Base Camp. We had one shitty map between the 36 of us, so we stumbled around the West Virginia hills for about 45 minutes before we figured out where we were going. It was a gorgeous early morning hike through the quiet hills, and the fog rolling over the mountaintops was certainly a pleasant surprise. It’s been years since I’ve had the pleasure of hiking through a deciduous forest, watching the fog cling to the tops of that carpet forest. It’s so soft and gentle, so clean and welcoming. As much as I love Wyoming, I can still appreciate a soft and misty Appalachian morning. We arrived on site, and it was a construction site. The venue had been turned over to the BSA on Saturday morning, but there was still a lot left undone. We got busy cleaning things up, organizing some tables and tents, and began the slow process of setting up our new home. There are 24 climbing “lanes”, and 12 rappelling stations. There are also several very clever boulders, which can accommodate another 20 or 30 scouts. The plan is to have 72 scouts in the queue at one time. 36 scouts climbing, with another 36 getting rigged up. Boulder Cove is open to the general public, a first for a National Jamboree. The big climbing/rappelling area, the Rocks, is open only to “participants”. Those are the scouts who are there for the whole Jamboree. That’s where they can learn more about climbing and rappelling, and the walls are bigger and it’s generally more intense. Boulder Cove is near the Summit Center, so the public can visit and actually go climbing and rappelling. Everybody gets 20 minutes to climb and rappel as much as they can. It doesn’t sound like much time, but 20 minutes gives you enough time to climb 3 or 4 routes, and take a couple of runs off the rappelling tower. We spent the day working logistical challenges in our area. With 40,000 people in one small area, you can imagine the challenges. There are turf battles, and construction errors, and tents that were put up in the wrong place, and water problems, and outhouse problems, and walkway problems, and traffic flow problems, and all other sorts of things that we are generally powerless to mediate. So the bulk of the staffers, the 18-year-olds, spent most of the day staring at their cell phones, napping, and generally appearing disinterested in the entire goings-on. Yes, I know I sound like a grumpy old man. The afternoon was spent establishing the rappelling protocols, and learning the processes. There is really a LOT going on during the Jamboree. There will be thousands of people at our location, every day. One of our most significant challenges is the use of the Auto-belay systems on the all of the climbing and rappelling routes. In an effort to minimize the potential of human error (for the staffers), and in order to improve safety for everyone, we no longer use manual belays. We use a “TrueBlue”, which is an automatic lowering system. For instance, when climbing a rock wall, we used to belay the climber with a rope, so if the climber were to fall, the belayer would be able to arrest their fall. The auto-belay eliminates that need by automatically slowing the fall, if and when a fall occurs. Same goes for the rappelling. We used to belay from the top, and be there for backup in case a scout got scared, or was going down too fast, or any other variety of problems. Now, it’s all done automatically. I’ll let you decide how you feel about that. Frankly, I’m not sure how I feel about it just yet. We’ll just have to see what happens tomorrow when we start getting some traffic on the walls. We worked for 12 hours, and hiked back for a nice dinner and a welcome break. Immediately afterward, we had our staff meeting, which lasted 45 minutes. There are 130 people at our climbing/rappelling staff meetings, and they should last 10 minutes, if at all. But that’s a complaint for another day. I was finally able to take a shower. I can’t really believe that I just typed that sentence. I know that my showering habits are generally not newsworthy, but let me tell ya…………my last shower was in Wyoming……….on Wednesday………………..and yes, it’s Saturday night. Arlo Guthrie once described the first time he listened to Steve Goodman sing “City of New Orleans”, as “one of the finest beers I’ve ever had”. Well, that shower I just had was one of the finest showers I’ve ever had…..and it was even “ambient”. Some idiot put his solar shower in the shade for most of the day, so the water never really got warm. Okay, well I’ve got to get going. But, before I leave, I’ve got to share one remarkable story that happened to me today. I was working the climbing wall, and had gone over to discuss something with another staffer. The staffer was talking to several people from the Jamboree Visitors team that were getting information about the venue. I was patiently waiting for their discussion to end, when I looked down at the name tag on one of the visitors. I recognized the name, but it’s not a particularly uncommon name; Mike Whitney. I said to myself, “I used to know a Mike Whitney”, and as I began to study his face, lo and behold, that was him. I guess the only significance of that, is that Mike and I were partners at work. For Frontier Airlines. At Stapleton in Denver. In 1984. Haven’t seen or heard from each other in nearly 30 years. Now what kind of forces must come together to produce that event? I said, “Hey, are you the Mike Whitney that used to work for Frontier in Denver?” He said yes, and I mentioned my name, and he just broke out laughing, and we shook hands, and hugged and laughed, and just stared at each other in amazement at what a wild world this can be sometimes. It was one of the coolest things to happen to me in a long time. Mike and I had dinner together tonight, and caught up on the last 29 years. He reminded me that he was the one who tied my fishing flies for when Ronnie and I walked across Wyoming. How about that. Life can be very interesting. That’s all for now. Tomorrow is another prep day on the walls and towers, practicing and getting ready. The kids get here Monday. I hope to get a chance to drop a line tomorrow night. Oh, and I saw some fireflies tonight. Haven’t been able to say that in many years. Wyoming doesn’t do lightning bugs
Posted on: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 03:00:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015