Pine Ridge

So I am back from my first trip as an instructor this summer!  It was an awesome time and I had a blast!  The trip was with students from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.  We had six students in all if you include the group's leader.  Our trip started with a climbing section in Vedauwoo.  The student's struggled a bit the first day in a friction climbing area called the clamshell.  On day two however every single student topped out a climb in brown's landing, another area in vedauwoo.  I was so proud of our students! Considering none of them had previous climbing experience and one had a severe fear of heights.  It was awesome to see them push beyond what they thought they could do.  After day two we moved to the Snowy Range.  The Snowies sadly lack snow this year but it made travel easier for our young group who had a hard time with 5 days worth of gear and food in their bags as it was.  Day one and two in the snowies were travel days.  Each day had beautiful weather and impressive views.  Day three brought the real fun however.  We took our students up Medicine Bow peak which is the highest peak in the snowy range.  There was some struggling on the way up but the reward was worth it to them.  The view on top of Med-Bow is beautiful and the students were super proud of their accomplishments.  After our peak ascent we made our way back down camp by 1:30 and spent the afternoon chilin' a bit.  Some students used their time for taking naps.  I took a nice swim in one of the many lakes near our camp and then spent the rest of the afternoon fishing.  I caught 4 brookies in the unnamed lake we were camped near!  Two of them I landed at the same time ( I was using a dry fly as a strike indicator along with a sinking fly called a nimph, my dry got hit first and then my nimph as I was fighting the first fish!  Made for a really good fight)!  After fishing we made dinner for the last night and the next day packed up and hiked back out to the van.  After a total of six days out, the students seemed pretty fried, but all in all they all seemed to love the experience!  I know I enjoyed!  Since then I have been hangin with Angela.  On the fourth we hit a barbeque with some friends and friends of friends.  It's been super fun! Headed out to do some multi-pitch climbing in Vedauwoo in the morning!  Take a look at the pics below!  Love you all!
-Riley

                                                        Chilin' by North Twin Lakes

                                                    Getting ready to set up the Clamshell

                                                        Camp #1 in the Snowy Range

                                                     Brown's Landing face in Vedauwoo

                                                                         Marmot

                                                    View from Medicine Bow Peak

                                                              On Medicine Bow Peak

 The Brookies I caught at the same time!  Not very formidable individually but when they teamed up it was a fun fight.  I think I have found larger fish in a sardine can though.

                                                          Campsite #2 in the snowies

FYI:  would have loved to post some pictures of my group but as they are minors and this is my personal blog and not a SROM sanctioned site, I am pretty sure I can't do that so...sorry.