We had an interesting trip this past weekend that included climbing, lots of rain Saturday night, sunrise hikes, off trail exploring, Sitting Bear and lots of fun!
We had a fantastic afternoon of hard climbing at Gingercake Rock today, despite the rainy weather in town.
Thanks to Meadow and Noah for pre-rigging all the routes before the group arrived.
It was great to have TAASC graduates Noah Green and Heather Duffy helping today. They were both on the famous 2009 Sierra-Yosemite trip.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
• Climbing weekend – Youngers and Olders; October 19,20. Meet at 9:00 AM.
• Camp Raven Knob – Youngers and Olders; November 1-3. Meet at 6:00. Service project.
New members, Rocco and Asa James exploring a small cave, with Charlie behind them.
Rocco’s first rappel
Kristi Carriker, Rocco and Asa’s Mom on her first rappel.
A bit wonky, but functional.
We managed to squeeze in climbing days between the rainy spells. Highlights were bouldering, hiking, movies, New Years Eve, WalMart, Subway, sleeping, eating and just general fun.
He is the founder of TAASC and was recently recognized by Outward Bound for his life-long work developing young people and his pioneering contribution to experiential education and the adventure industry. The Kurt Hahn award is the highest honor given by Outward Bound. You can read the full story here http://www.ncobs.org/news/83/
Last night, we loaded up a large crew of kids and parents to retrieve the perfect stone for the Mary Hunter Daly Memorial Forest.
We had a good trip this weekend. Lots of hard climbing at Hawksbill then more doable routes on Sunday. It was a great warm-up to the Fall Climbing Season. Everyone’s climbing ability jumped up a notch!
We had a very productive day working on the Mary Hunter Daly Memorial Forest. Everyone worked hard and we accomplished a lot.
We had a blast at Lake James! Kayaking, kayak rolling, swimming, campfires, toasted marshmallows, eating, picking up trash service project, potluck, summer slide show, etc., all made for a fun time.
Kayak Rolling is at the Lenoir Aquatic Center, Monday nights in March. Meet at the gym at 6pm to load boats, leave at 6:20pm. Bring $5 cash per person, no credit or debit cards accepted!
We arrived at Fair Bluff, SC around 5:00 PM. Long drive. Locals told us of a fabulous, white sand beach about 1/4 mile upstream, so we paddled against the current and made camp early. The beach is beautiful. Apparently we will see lots of them because the river is low. Everyone is doing well. We head downstream tomorrow. More later.
We are all back home tonight.
Everyone had a great experience and learned a lot!
Everyone is doing great. Very cold up here. Probably zero wind chill. More photos to come!
Some folks are camping in the woods and some are out on the slab, guess who?
Recent Olders’ meeting practicing mountain rescue with a Horizontal Litter Lower system.
We set up camp in a beautiful forest, ate lunch, then hiked across the top of the mountain to the climbing and rappelling area.
Lots of parents and Olders on the trip. Should be a great one!
We helicoptered out of the eastern sanctuary of Mt. Nirvana by the skin of our teeth! The weather was challenging, cold drizzle interspersed with beautiful, sunny days and snow. The helicopter pilot got all nine of us out, with gear, in 4 trips as the clouds swirled in and out of the valleys, making flying tricky.
We had a magnificent trip exploring the nearby valleys and cirques and all agreed that this was one of the most spectacular places any of us had ever seen. The feeling of true wilderness, where no human has ever been, was a huge factor.
The highlight was TAASC graduates, Isaac Hoff, Joey Thomas and Bryan Haslam, making the 5th ascent of Mt. Nirvana, the highest peak in the Northwest Territories. They climbed the mountain in 44 hours round trip from basecamp. Conditions were tough with lots of wet, cold water running on the rock pitches. They reached the summit at 8:00 PM on August 29, and we were able to photograph them waving. They then proceeded to rappel down all night arriving at their bivy site in the morning.
We look forward to getting back to North Carolina and enjoying some warmer weather!
We left the wonderful world of Yosemite Valley this morning. The Valley spell definitely infected our crew, most everyone wanted to stay another 30 days. We climbed, ate, slept and did it all over again, day after day.
We are getting used to this climbing life. Everyone wants to stay here 
another month. Today we climbed routes at the base of El Cap. Great routes! Great fun!
Congratulations to the first TAASC team to ever climb Snake Dike on Half Dome, 8 pitches.
Jacob Cioffoletti, Davis Clark, Will Soper, Will Wilson.
We just received word via radio from the summit of Half Dome that our tired climbers made it! Everyone is in good shape. Now they descend the cable ladders and hike 8 miles back down to the Valley floor.
Here is the support team at Glacier Point watching their progress, Half Dome is in the background.
of the Sierras. Everyone in great shape. seventeen days 
of intense weather, forest fire smoke, heat, rain, the elation of reaching hard won summits, difficult elevation gains and losses, many nights living above 10,000 feet, trading food, 3 day solo without food, bivy on top of 12,300 foot Mt. Hooper, unbelievable scenery, mostly off trail hiking, forgetting the First Aid kit and Jacob, 
Emory and Soper backtracking 9 miles at night to retrieve it (our heroes), a few minor tensions, but most importantly of all… everyone came out of the Sierras as good friends with the feeling of accomplishing an amazing expedition together in good style!
We are now at the airport and are awaiting our flight to California.
No hurrying, everyone 
relaxed, yet so excited we had to issue Pampers ( get it? So excited, they are peeing in their pants! ). Just kidding:~.
It’s going to be an amazing trip!
Join us for our Open House Fundraiser
Friday, May 31st, 4pm – 6pm
Tour the climbing gym, see videos and photos of past trips, listen to members and graduates tell about their experiences.
Enjoy our Baked Goods and Lemonade sale and help “Bail Out” one of the Treehouse Prisoners
Wanna see more? Come join us for a fun evening.
Howdy! 
We had a great kayak trip down the lower Green River and we were joined by the Lackey family of 6!
The Green was running well with all the recent rain and everyone learned a lot, but we were reminded that we have a lot more teaching to do to raise everyone’s skill levels.
Unfortunately, I did not get any action photos, because we hurried down the river to avoid the afternoon storm, but here are the before and after shots.
Armed with a new guidebook, we climbed
two amazing areas this weekend. This area requires an hour long hike in through beautiful forests and offers tons of routes. We have just scratched the surface and everyone wants to return ASAP.
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We had a neat weekend of variety. Saturday we went to Inner Peaks Climbing Gym in Charlotte. Saturday night we met some scientists at the south end of Linville Gorge.
Then most of the kids slept in porta-ledges in our gym. Sunday morning Gennifer H brought us breakfast! Asheville TAASC joined us all weekend and all the kids had a blast!
The Banff Film Festival was incredible last night. Everyone absolutely loved it and can’t wait til tonite’s show. We set up camp around 11:00 PM and everyone was up early to climb today. Even though we had a steep 45 minute hike up the mountain to reach the Fate Osteen cliffs, we had a ton of climbs set up by the time Asheville TAASC arrived. We are now a group of 36! The weather is fantastic for climbing and the views are amazing! More later…
Thursday, Feb. 28th at 7:00 PM.
We will have a meeting of expedition members and their parents at the gym to talk about the upcoming Sierras and Yosemite trip. Interested others are invited as well. We hope to show you a virtual tour of the proposed route on the big screen with Google Earth. You will be amazed by the beautiful country that this 17 day route covers.
All TAASC families are encouraged to attend, especially parents of the Youngers to develop an appreciation of the progression of skills and experience needed to tackle the greater adventures.
Twenty- four parents and kids worked to near exhaustion, but we completed the service project by 3:00 PM. Everyone worked really, really hard. It was a very impressive display of perseverance and teamwork!
Congratulations and thanks to all who turned out in cold conditions!
