Archive for 2005

This is the most recent report from Geoff, who is spending his winter as the Station Manager of a science outpost in Greenland. Geoff guides for us on the Rogue River.

In case you haven’t heard, I have once again turned my back to common sense and returned to the North Pole just in time for winter. Brilliant! Some people get wiser as they get older and others…. they just get older.

Up until Saturday there were nine of us up here but five of them got smart, and left the four of us here to fend for ourselves. Shouldn’t be too bad. We have enough food for us to live like kings for about 5 years and enough fuel to have a bonfire big enough to melt the ice cap.

I have pulled through and found a recipe for making “prison wine” from rotten fruit, dirty socks, and a steel toilet. Since I am also camp medic I have decided against the dirty socks and the steel toilet in favor of something cleaner. I will report back on that experiment as well as the other important studies I plan on conducting such as, what happens to a pot of boiling water when thrown into -60C air?, or what happens to the human body when you jump out of the 200 degree sauna and make a mad dash to the house?, or the one that has been on everybody’s mind since they were 10 years old (and apparently still on mine)….can pee freeze before hitting the ground? Its probably a good thing that others are in charge of gathering the REAL science data this year.

I’ll make this short because my new job title means a lot of computer time (the productive kind, not funny emails and pictures). So many spreadsheets you’d think I was documenting every snowflake up here. Anyway, the weather is a chilly -64F with an 11 knot wind, which equates to about -124F windchill. A couple weeks ago they had a storm that hit 55 knot winds, which is about 63MPH. According to the chart in the office, whole trees will be uprooted by the wind. Since there are no trees on this island I am pushing for a better chart. Something that I can relate to like “at that speed Wiffle ball batting practice gets exciting or bad idea to try out kite-skiing today or really bad idea to try that last experiment on my list today.”

Adam Farmer, ECHO guide and Rogue River manager, is a very enterprising young man. Having broken up with his long-time girlfriend and waiting in Seattle for the rafting season to begin, Adam decided he would like some female company. So he logged onto Craigslist, went to the personals, and made contact with a woman who looked good and sounded fun. After a few email exchanges she asked him if he could send a photo. As a gypsy guide, Adam didn’t have any photos handy. But did that stop Adam? No way. He knew that his photo was among the photos of guides that ECHO has posted on our web site. He simply suggested that she go to the web site, click on the guides section and take a look. She did, she like what she saw, and they dated.

As it often happens, the river season began and Adam drove off into the sunset to instruct on ECHO’s guide school. So the relationship went nowhere, but it got Adam through some overcast days in Seattle.

Kelly Winton, who has been guiding for ECHO since 1983 and now teaches high school in Salmon, Idaho, has received a fellowship from the Japanese Fullbright Memorial Fund for Teachers. Kelly is one of 200 teachers (our of more than 2500 applicants) chosen to spend three weeks of intensive study of Japanese culture and education, and then to share her new knowledge with her community.

Jim Toney, Kelly’s husband and also long-time ECHO guide, will join Kelly after her stint. The two of them; will travel by train through China, Mongolia, Russia and Europe, making a round-the world trip on their way back to Salmon.

We expect them to share great stories of their adventure while guiding for us on the Middle Fork this summer.