Entries from Guide News

When I moved to Boulder, Colorado in the fall of 2017, Eldorado Canyon was a place that I treated with a high degree of respect. Known for its delicate route-finding, variable rock quality, and stiff, old-school grading, Eldo is a humbling place to climb. Rock guiding in Eldo has always struck me as particularly impressive—the variability of the terrain in the canyon necessitates a familiarity with a wide range of guiding techniques in order to stay safe with a group of newer climbers. This is one of the main reasons why I chose this venue for my Rock Guide Course.

My second mock lead on the course tackled an aesthetic, rambling three pitch climb on the Wind Tower. I had done the climb before, but had never been responsible for three other mock-climbers. I found myself doing nearly everything differently with my mock-climbers in tow—positioning my climbers out of the way of loose rock, breaking pitches up into shorter, up-and-down sections, and rigging lowers down exposed, short steps that I had always simply down-climbed. All told, a climb that had taken a mere hour and a half climbing independently took me three quite involved hours to guide.

To me, that is the part of guiding that I will always love the most—the challenge of using every trick in your toolbox to make a section of terrain as safe as you can for your climbers. My Rock Guide Course endowed me with plenty of tricks, from terrain belays to rigging rappels to rope management systems. The real excitement of the course, though, was getting experience applying these tricks in one of the most complex rock climbing areas in the country.

We call it mountain climbing not mountain summiting. Sometimes you travel long distances and spend many days preparing and you dont get to climb. We didnt get to climb anything on this trip. It turned into a high altitude cultural trek. But that is all ok. I know I have, and I’m sure the rest of the team, has learned some things. We will all remember this experience forever. We took many nationalities, languages, personalities, and experience levels onto this expedition. We got to experience rituals, sacrifices, festivals, home cooked meals and more. We saw and experienced the far west Nepal region in a way nobody gets to. I will remember all the people I have met along the way and shared delicious meals with. This will not be my last time in Nepal. I already look forward to coming back and drinking my weight in milk tea. Till next time Nepal. I look forward to climbing one of your beautiful mountains in the near future.

Namaste,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith

We ate cookies for breakfast in a smokey room with tea. Shortly after we said goodbye to Laxmi and started our walk back to where we left our duffles. The only communication in these parts in by a messenger, word of mouth. When we left our duffles, the plan was that some duffles would keep going to Chainpur and our trekking duffles would be left waiting for us. We also thought the rest of our team would be there waiting. But the plan has clearly changed with no message for there were no duffles where we left them and all the porters and team members gone. We aren’t sure exactly where they are or when we will see the rest of our team and duffles. But for now we are staying at another homestay. We will all sleep up in the attic and enjoy a home cooked meal of Dahl baht and chapati bread with black tea. From day one this journey has been fluid and unpredictable, so we will see what tomorrow brings.

Goodnight,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith

Dogs barking, goats baaing, cows mooing , and roosters crowing was our alarm clock today. We were greeted with tea and made our way up to Sangitas house for breakfast. The village was alive with children running around and chores being done. It appeared today was roof repair day. The old grayish brown hay was thrown down off the roof and new golden hay was tossed up. We enjoyed breakfast with the family, then soaked in the sun before enjoying some lunch too. It was the best Dahl we have had thus far and was delicious on top of the chapati bread. After filling our bellies we hiked back to Laxmis house. Clouds rolled in and we finished our hike in a bit of rain. The forest colors and smells popped with the freshness the rain brought. Experiencing the food and culture of these small villages has been amazing. It is an area everyone should come and see. Tomorrow we make our way back to where we had the medical camp on our way in. A handful of hours of walking should get us there. Hopefully the clouds will have dispersed and the weather is back to being sunny.

Adios,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith

Today the team walked to two of our team members’ villages. First we stopped at Laxmi’s village. It took us 1.5 hours and we were greeted by Laxmi’s daughter and family. They made us noodles, showed us a game that resembles pool and we were on our way. Next we stopped at Sangita’s village, which is four hours from Laxmi. She is the last village in the valley. Her father is the chairman of the village. They greeted us with tea and a feast for dinner. We started with fresh veggies and local apples. Next they made us French fries. The main course consisted of fried blue sheep, greens, yogurt, and millet bread with local honey. It was delicious. Custom to their culture is treating their guests as gods and we sure felt like one. It’s been a great day exploring more of far western Nepal. It is quite beautiful.

Tomorrow we explore more,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith

Smoke dances from a fire under a lean two as a mother cooks breakfast for her children. The little boy wanders among the team curious about everything. He giggles as we make silly faces at him. Little huts and makeshift homes are scattered among the hillside and along the trail we are walking. The trail exist between the villages and where the silkworm hunters go. Today we walked four hours down valley along the river to a small establishment made up of three buildings. It is a tea house between villages. It is a crossroad for us with one direction leading back to Chaipur, where we will ultimately go and the other direction to the village of Sangita and Laxmi, two of the Nepali girls on our team. Tomorrow we will go see their villages and watch/learn as they celebrate brother and sister day. For tonight we are nestled in to what appears to be a cornfield/potato field.

RMI Guide Hannah Smith

We woke this morning to a gorgeous view. With the help of daylight, we found a water source and enjoyed a cup of coffee. Perched on a grassy valley hillside, you could see snow capped mountains across the way. We all pointed at the ones we would climb if we had time, but unfortunately we do not. The col we went up and over steepened to a degree we were not comfortable going down so we headed back uphill. We arrived back at our Base Camp, but this time nothing was there. Everything has been packed up and headed downhill. We said goodbye to our home for the last 18 days, and made our way to what we call our jungle camp. Tomorrow we keep heading down hill back towards civilization, but on our way we are going to make a couple pit stops at the villages of two of the girls. Our sleeping bags our calling us. It’s been a long day and last nights sleep wasn’t the most comfy.

Have a lovely day,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith

Sometimes you find yourself in a place you didn’t expect. One of those places is on the side of a grassy hill in Western Nepal squished in a tent with three other people sharing your snacks. We decided to leave Base Camp and try to go up over a col to another valley to attempt to climb a peak. It turns out our eyes for the mountains are bigger than the desire and fitness of the team. We started too late. We took too long to get to the pass. And we found ourselves entering steep grassy terrain with consequences on both sides as night time crept in. We were not going to get to the valley below. It’s been a long day. We decided to find the flattest spot, which is not flat at all, and put up the tents. The conditions aren’t ideal, with no water or snow to make water. But with all that has happened today, you find the fun and happiness in the little things, like sharing snacks with your friends and eating a hard boiled egg.

We will see what happens tomorrow,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith

After getting pushed back down to Base Camp by poor weather we said good bye to a few team members who are headed home today. Our team is getting smaller and smaller as we near the end of our time here. It’s been almost two weeks at Base Camp, and although we unfortunately did not get to climb our objective, it’s been a worth while experience. I believe everyone will be walking away from this expedition having learned something. Our journey in this valley is over but our journey in general isn’t. Tomorrow we will head to the valley to our east and try our hand at a peak over there. We are hopeful that we can find a smaller peak to teach more mountaineering skills to the Nepali girls and to be able to stand on top of peak.

Here’s to some lady luck,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith

Snow lightly pitter pattered against our tents. Every so often we tapped the sides of the tent to knock the snow down. We woke to a winter wonderland. As we boiled water for coffee you could hear sloughs of snow tumble down the mountain side. Mother nature had spoken. The mountain had spoken. We were not going to climb. Due to the amount of snow that had fallen and the terrain we were going to get on, we were concerned about the avalanche hazard. Today was not going to be our moment to climb. Instead we packed up our camp as the snow fell from the sky and more snow rumbled down the mountain. Our packs were heavy and the walking slippery with the new snow on slick grass and crumbly rock as we made our way back to Base Camp. Tomorrow we will enjoy our last day at our Base Camp. The following day we are looking at going up and over a col to a new valley for a few days before we begin our trek out. For now, we are all getting cozy in our sleeping bags, for there is a chilly crispness to the night air.

Sweet dreams,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith