Giving back – Three Fingers Lookout & Other Adventures
Alpinism is an inherently selfish activity, it’s a nice feeling to give some time/money/attention to the community many so deeply care about.
I had the privilege of being on a Mountaineers stewardship activity benefiting the Friends of the Three Fingers Lookout. 7+ (and Samantha!!!) awesome individuals and one cheerleader helped carry up some much needed wood to keep maintaining the lookout for future generations.
53.5km, over 2000m↑ , and a few days later we arrive at this post.
It was really cool to discover mountains in different ways, every single person shared something super cool and was really nice to listen and learn. Was also cool to be able to share some (😅) stories the other way as well.
Not getting fired for testing positive for narcotics at work.
What a lede, even for me.
Disclaimer: I don’t do recreational drugs (outside of less than 2 drinks/week) but many do very successfully, and that’s awesome for them. you-do-you.
I regularly walk to work 3+ miles. I made the mistake of picking up what I thought was a 100$ bill. After a quick googling, I was terrified to see I had some sort of white substance on my fingertips. I managed to wash my hands within minutes of any potential exposure. One of the benefits of my work is we have an onsite medical clinic. After the medical tech listed the visit as paranoia, the doc wanted me to take a drug test at work. It came back positive for morphine within a few minutes.
A whole bunch of people really cared for me and made sure I was ok, including the entire medical staff. My favorite feedback on my story was “Sylvester you are clearly no higher than usual.” 😅🤣🥳.
I tried posting my story to r/Seattle but was downvoted to oblivion so I deleted the post. One awesome piece of feedback is that it’s rather easy to test positive for morphine after poppy seed ingestion. I did have an everything bagel about 2h before the test. I really hope that is all that was picked up. Morphine is not supposed to be transmissible through skin. I tried real hard not to touch my face after the red alert sirens internally went blaring.
I’d like to say never touch anything again but it’s a bit of a bummer because:
If anyone has any leads on whose they might be, I’d love to get them back to the owner.
Vantage Weekend
I was invited to an awesome climbing weekend cragging at Vantage (Frenchman Coulee) and had a great time. Couple regulars on the blog were on the trip.
I managed to climb 4 climbs. I made my mountain project meme a bit less :nervous-monkey-emoji: by onsighting a 10A on lead.
I followed that up with a few takes on a 10c toprope.
I climbed a super chossy 5.6 wide gear climb by sitting on 3 pieces. Thanks Cam for the extra wide gear.
I wrapped up the day with a 10A on toprope after watching a first time outdoor climber send it on toprope. They had only had a 5min lesson from me at the gym but never even climbed a crack indoors or outdoors before. WOW.
Such a great weekend. Przemek you better finish your MBA quick and get right back to the proper coast 😃.
A note on gear purchases.
There are many ways to get gear, hope you do the best thing for you.
First expedition planning
Currently trying to find partners for an unguided ascent of the West Buttress of Denali in 2023, if you are interested and are interested in helping plan and execute a safe trip, lmk.
Shoutout of thanks
https://shotsandsprockets.com/ was a huge part of getting my bike sorted out for the three fingers trip. I’ve worked with them a bunch of times and have been blown away. Not only with the quality of work, but their reaction when there is an issue. Mike runs an excellent shop if you are looking for bike service in Seattle.
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