Underhill Update Blog

Well here we are already into March and just when it seems like spring is starting to creep in, we are blanketed with a fresh round of snow.  To be honest I feel that this winter has gone by all too quickly and I am glad to see the snow again.  It means I still have some time to get in some skiing and that is what I am longing for right now. 

January and February were a blur of winter activities with the Explore students from Prairie Bible College and a group of students from Montreat College in North Carolina. We started in mid-January with a week long trip with the Montreat crew.  It snowed on us every day and fairly cold temperatures kept us moving.  They are involved in an immersion semester long program and we had the privilege of helping them kick of their semester with a ski touring trip.  For almost all of them, it was their first time camping in the snow.  They had great attitudes and we had a wonderful time with them. 

Explore showed up as they left and we started right into winter skills with them.  We have had an abundance of snowfall this winter which has created some difficulties in reaching our base camp at the top of Siegel pass (5,000’).  The theme of the winter skills time has been improvisation.  We ended up getting in all the training we had planned with many logistical changes along the way to accommodate the challenges from essentially being snowed out of our base camp.  I am definitely glad to be done shoveling out stuck army trucks!

Andrea taught backcountry Telemark skiing again this year to the Explore crew and I helped teach skiing as well, but as was mentioned earlier most of my time was spent trying to get all the necessary things in place for us to operate up there for 3 weeks. 

In the beginning of February in the midst of a trip on the mountain I received a call from my mother that my Grandfather who has been battling lung cancer for the last 6 months had taken a turn for the worst.  Andrea, Zach (my brother), and myself headed off the mountain and over to Spokane in time to say goodbye 4 hours before the Lord took him home.  While this came unexpectedly, I have been amazed to see God use my Grandfather’s home going to bring Glory to himself.  I am thankful for Grandpa’s influence in my life and the assurance that he was a friend of the King.

In the middle of February Andrea and I headed down to San Diego with Zach and Cori Vanderwall and Sean Odermatt to attend the National Conference on Outdoor Leadership.  The conference is put on by the Wilderness Education Association and we are looking at becoming an affiliate here in the future as we expand our educational focus with Christian colleges and universities.   We had a wonderful time down there and enjoyed some warm sun and good times on the beach and Sea World before and after the conference. 

Currently we are back in the office preparing for Explore’s final trip and the upcoming summer.  God has brought a new staff member to the program team.  His name is Caleb Sapp and he is a former Explore Student and Prairie Bible College Graduate.  I have known Caleb for quite some time as he is from Kennewick and is good friends with my brother Seth.  He is a welcome addition and brings a heart for the Lord and a background of working with at risk youth which we hope to utilize as we seek to partner and serve programs helping these children. 

I am heading out this weekend to McCall, Idaho for a four day Level 2 Avalanche course.  This should be valuable training as we continue to expand our winter programming and find ourselves exposed more to Avalanche terrain.  We pray and trust you are doing well and continuing to embrace the daily adventure of life God has blessed each of us with. 

Having returned from a wonderful trip to Canada for Christmas we were greated with a busy schedule upon our return.  Although it was a bit of a shock after relaxin’ for about 2 weeks the pace is welcomed.  It is exciting to have groups of people coming through again.  There are more things to do and more people to meet.

 Presently, Luke is out on a five day backcountry skiing trip.  A group of students from Montreat College in North Carolina flew in Monday and is now on that trip.  Some of them have never experienced this type of cold; and it has actually been quite cold here lately.  It is always neat to be able to take people out on one of their first time experiences.  It should be a good time for them of learning and getting to know each other. 

The rest of us have been here at camp preparing for another group of college students to come down.  The Explore students from Prairie Bible Colllege will be here tommorrow.  A week after they arrive we will be starting the winter skills portion of their time here.  We will be teaching backcountry skiing, mountaineering, and winter camping.  We have been looking forward to the upcoming skills time for a while.  The snow conditions up on Siegel Pass have been wonderful which means good skiing but a bad road.  We travel in 6×6 army trucks up a 12 mile logging road every morning during the skills time.  This trip can take anywhere from 2-4 hours.  Although we have been working on the road the large amounts of snow has put our travel times in the four hour range and the roads have attempted to claim our trucks.  There has been a lot of shoveling going on in attempts to get trucks unstuck and make the road better.  We are crossing our fingers and hoping that all goes well on our drives up with the students; but we shall see.  We might have to make shoveling a new winter skill :)  The ski conditions are great though and there is a lot of fun and learning to be had in the coming weeks!

With Christmas less than a week away Andrea and I are thankful to have all of our shopping done.  We are now 5 days into our Christmas Break and enjoying the time we have been able to spend with family.  We had my Zach and Nathan stay with us for two days last week on their way home from Prairie Bible College.  We headed over to Spokane with them on Saturday to spend the day with family and visit Seth who flew in from Wisconsin. 

On Sunday Andrea and I headed from Spokane North to Banff where we stayed with Andrea’s cousin Ally and her husband Jon.  We had a great visit with them and got in a day of Tele at Sunshine on Monday where Ally works as a patroller.  The last few days we have been staying with Andrea’s Grandmother (Betty) seeing the sights in and around Edmonton.  We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay with her.  Tomorrow we head to up to Andrea’s parents home for Christmas, where it looks like we are in store for a white Christmas this year.

Last week at camp, we headed up the hill to Siegel pass to clear the area of snow for our tent structure for winter skills.  We placed all the poles and it is now ready to be wrapped after the New Year.  It was a gorgeous winter day that was highlighted by seeing two bull moose who were very content to just stand and watch us watch them. 

We also had the Bighorn Christmas party last week which as always was a good time.  The kids filled the lodge with laughter and we enjoyed great food and a Texas Hold ‘em game that lasted until the early morning hours.  The following day we headed up to Lookout Pass for some great early season skiing together!   We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and wonderful time with family and friends as we together remember our savior’s birth!

Well, here we are in December already only 3 weeks away from Christmas.  We went into Missoula on Saturday to drop of the McPhee’s who had bought a new car and it was crazy how busy things were.  I am very glad that we have all our Christmas shopping done.  We went out on Saturday afternoon and cut down a Christmas tree.  We are going to be up in Edmonton for Christmas but decided we still would like to decorate our apartment for the time we are here this month.  We have to find a tree that isn’t all that big due to the small nature of our apartment.  We ended up staying up late cleaning and rearranging trying to get everything to fit right.  The only problem is now that our tree is up all the snow is gone as we are in the midst of a pretty strong winter storm that is bringing rain instead of snow.  This is dissappointing, but we are hopeful for more snow soon so we can get out and use our skis.  I worked as an EMT on a fire at the end of the summer and we used the money to buy some new telemark skis from Black Diamond this year.  We got them mounted last week and are excited to try them out here soon!  For those that care (Black Diamond Havoc 175cm, O1 Mid-Stiff Binding for me and Black Diamond Velvet 165cm, 01 Mid-Stiff Binding for Andrea).  Should be a good setup.  

Just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving.  It is a good reminder for me, as I step back and give some thought to how much we have to be thankful for.  Andrea and I feel truly blessed to be surrounded by such a great community of people.  We are amazed at the outflow of love, encouragement, and support that all of you constantly offer us.  It is such a joy to serve the Lord together with you.  Enjoy your turkey and God Bless!

It amazes me how quickly time flies by.  I was looking at my blog today and realized that it has been well over a month since I last wrote.  To catch you up… in the beginning of May, Andrea and I went up to Canada for the first time as a married couple.  While this might seem insignificant, it was actually a huge deal for us.  It signaled the end of a 14 month process of paperwork, money, and more paperwork as we moved towards obtaining status for Andrea as a permanent resident of the USA.  The whole process went very smoothly all in all and we are praising God for his provision in this matter.  We had a great time up North visiting family and enjoying some Alberta rain!  We recently acquired some bikes and we brought those up and had a good time biking some trails around Andrea’s parent’s place. 

We came back on May 7 and got running with things at camp again right away.  Currently we are working on finishing up the static ropes course that the Explore college students have been working on the last couple years.  We are installing a 330ft. zip line for the dismount from the course and hope to have things all operational for campers by the start of the summer.  We are also in the process of changing over some of our equipment.  We just ordered 16 new Jackson Fun kayaks.  I am really excited about this new fleet of boats that will allow us to outfit anyone from 60lbs up to 320lbs comfortably.  These boats are designed very well and should aid in the learning curve!  We also have some new ropes, harnesses, and helmets for our rock climbing and challenge course. 

and…. this just in!  I finally got a solid taste of class IV boating on Wednesday in the form of a Bighorn staff trip to the Lochsa river.  Thirteen of us were blessed with beautiful weather, a solid flow (7500 cfs), and almost no one else on the river besides us.  Six of us kayaked, while the other seven took a raft down.  This is definately the biggest water I have every boated in, big but fun! 

Some of the highlight rapids for me were Grim Reaper (I led the line for this one… it was a technical right, left right move that if messed up could have some very unpleasant results, needless to say I was stoked after nailing it), House Wave, Bloody Mary, Pipleline, and the beast Lochsa Falls.  The falls packed a punch that pummeled myself and Jordan Stoner like ragdolls (we came out all right on the other side). 

(A cataraft in Lochsa Falls to give you an idea of the size)

I was fortunate enough to get two solid surfs in on the Pipeline (known in the Montana Boaters guide as the surf til’ you puke wave) with the wave being very picky as to who it would hold and who it would flush.  We ended the day with some ribs and fries at Famous Dave’s and I slept solid that night.  It has been a while since I have had butterflies like I did on Wednesday, what a day!!!

(Few pics of me surfing the Pipe!)

We have an open house at camp this weekend to give people not to familiar with Bighorn an idea of who we are and what we do.  So far it is going well.  I hope your week was good.  Enjoy the holiday weekend!  God Bless….

I know it has already been a week since Easter, but I haven’t had time to write an update over the last week. Andrea and I went down to Kennewick for the weekend to be with my family for Easter. Nathan was able to come over from Mt. Vernon and be there as well, so we were only missing Seth who was enjoying sub-freezing temperatures in Wisconsin instead.

On Saturday I worked with my Dad on removing old Arbor Vitae stumps in the yard. Nathan, Zach, & I spent quite a bit of time chopping up the rotting stumps, attempting to outdo each other. Andrea, Abbie, my Dad, & I went to the last bit of a Kennewick High boys soccer game which brought back some memories for me. On Sunday we went to church and came back to enjoy a great Easter brunch my Mom made. Andrea & I, left shortly after and came back to Montana that evening.

Andrea was sick most of last week, but is feeling much better now.  I have been very busy taking the wilderness EMT bridge upgrade with Wilderness Medical Associates. We finished the class on Sunday and I am know a WEMT-Basic. I have been a WFR for 5 years now and an EMT for 3 years. I am dissapointed that they make you take the WEMT upgrade when you have WFR and EMT already because they don’t present any further skills or knowledge than you already have. Apart from a 10 minute lecture on IV’s in the backcountry, everything was review. It did count towards my continuing education hours though which was nice.  (will post some pictures of the class soon.)
This week we are going through some meetings as a senior staff at camp to better understand how the individual parts make up the whole now that we have been in our positions for a year and a half. Andrea and I are excited about what the future holds but have lots of questions as well about how things will look as we move forward. This week will hopefully help to clarify some of that. We pray and trust that this day finds you all well, living and absorbing all that life has to offer.

Every year the Explore program finishes the year by taking a final trip that has come to be known as the ‘Team Trip’. It is planned out by the Junior Interns (1st year interns) and the program staff at Bighorn serve a supporting role. The past few years that has meant hiking out ahead of the students to pre-established check points. Upon arrival we wait for each team to check in and then give them some piece of info for the rest of the trip.

This year Andrea and I went out with Leanna Guinn (our staff member) and Zach Vanderwall (Training Support Director). This year’s trip took a route we have used many times in the past starting just up out of Plains. We head to the top of Mount Baldy which towers over the Plains valley and then continue on the other side back down into the town of Hot Springs, Montana. We finished the trip yesterday and had a great big pig roast in the town of Hot Springs to celebrate.

It is hard to believe that we are getting ready to say goodbye this Friday to another group of Explore students. I am now finishing up my 6th year working with the program. It is a privilige to be able to interact with and lead such quality young men and women every year. I love the opportunity we have at camp to impact college age students and see them grow and develop into Christian leaders. As we draw to a close on this year, I am reminded that this program is the reason why I am at camp in the first place. I never imagined I would be working at a camp anytime ever in my life and yet here I am coming up on my the completion of my fourth year as a full time staff member with Bighorn.

Times change and we are looking at new ways to connect with a constantly changing base of students that come every year from a variety of backgrounds. One thing remains the same though, the power of the truth to penetrate to the core of who we are and demand our response. What a joy and adventure!

Well on Monday Andrea & I got back from a nine day road trip that took us from Montana to Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and back. The purpose of the trip was to attend the spring Christian Adventure Association (CAA) conference held in Prescott, Arizona. The CAA is a community that exists to glorify Christ by encouraging, edifying, and equipping wilderness and adventure leaders. This was the third conference I was able to attend and Andrea’s first.

We were fortunate to have the opportunity to spend some time before the conference seeing some of the amazing beauty of the southwestern United States. I love going down there because the area is so different from anything we have here in Montana. We traveled down with Dave & Judy McPhee (guest service directors at camp), Leanna Guinn (program team member), and Jordan Stoner (camp intern). Stops on the way down included Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. In Zion we were able to hike to the top of Angel’s Landing. This hike takes you up a knife-edge ridge that rises out of the valley floor 1500 vertical feet. It is fairly exposed but offers incredible views to the south and north where you can see the Virgin river exiting out of the narrows. After hiking Angel’s landing we were able to go up to the narrows and wade up the virgin river for a bit. The water was very cold and our feet ached quite a bit! After wading in the narrows we went on a trail that affords a beautiful view of Zion Canyon. I am continually amazed at the beauty of God’s creation in Zion National Park. Personally, it is my favorite National Park and one that I hope we can get to again to do and extended backpacking trip.

After Zion we went to the Grand Canyon and spent the day hiking along the rim trail and stopping at many of the popular canyon overlook points. The size and scope of the Grand Canyon are hard to grasp and we were caught in a stupor trying to accept the immenseness of this beautiful place! From here we went to Arizona and spent some time in the Red Rock area around Sedona. We went to Slide Rock state park for an afternoon and then had to get on to Prescott.

The conference had about 40 people attending. Andrea & I established many great contacts and were blessed with encouraging conversations with others about the ministry God has us involved in here at Camp Bighorn. There was a lot of age & wisdom at the conference and we benefited from that for sure. The workshops were insightful and brought many thoughts as well as questions to mind. On Friday we had the opportunity to go to a canyon outside of Flagstaff, AZ that I went to three years ago called James Canyon. Andrea, myself, & 5 others did a half-day canyoneering trip down James Canyon in wonderful Arizona sunshine. The water was fresh snowmelt and was no warming the 1 or 2 degrees above freezing, so the sun was very appreciated.

Our trip back was pretty much a straight shot with an overnight stay in St. George Utah getting us back to Montana at 10:30pm on Monday night. We are getting back into the swing of things here at camp now and adjusting to the colder weather. We both feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to go down to Arizona and spend time developing relationships with those we work with and starting new relationships as well.

This is Andrea beginning a rappel down James Canyon. She is wearing a drysuit to help with the freezing cold temperatures of the water. At the bottom of this rope is about 10 feet of water and a narrow slot that you have to swim through. We were lucky to have a 5 foot wide and 4 inch thick slab of ice down the left of Andrea that we could stand on while we disconnected here. Normally you have to disconnect from the rope while wadding in the water (cold!!!).

Life seems to be a little simpler as a kid. I am reminded of this every summer as I interact with our campers who come out for junior camp. Between the ages of 9 - 12, these kids can get excited over the seemingly little things of life. One would think that sliding again and again down a piece of plastic would get boring. Not for these kids, they absolutely eat it up. It is very refreshing indeed to see the youth of our culture finding joy in the simple things. In our world of internet, video games, reality tv shows, and comfort at all costs mindset, this is indeed a breath of fresh air. I sometimes worry that we are loosing our ability to find joy in everyday life. With that there is a bigger and much more grave implication. Are we able to see God in the day to day? Has our bigger and better entertainment mindsight contributed to our struggle with seeing God in the here and now. We seem to more easily feel the presence of God in our lives when big things are happening, but God is in everything and over everything. His truth permeates every aspect of life. So I ask, where are you seeing God today? For me it is in the innocent joy and laughter of the kids that I am blessed to spend this week with.

Here is the amazing staff I get to work with this summer!