TRIPS TO BE:

BACKPACKING
* Katie (kak49) and Adam will be going backpacking in the Catskills in the snow this weekend, returning early Monday afternoon.  Participant/s with car/s are especially welcome.  ;-)

ROPE / CLIMBING SKILLS SESSION
* Don (don@isc.astro.cornell.edu) will be running a practice/training session to learn crevasse rescue skills:  Thursday (12/1) evening at the Jesse Colangelo-Lillis Climbing Wall (i.e., Don's attic).  Two more spaces available; you will need to bring 25 feet of cord for prussiks.

PADDLING
* The rivers are coming UP with all this rain!  Brendan wants to paddle!  Class 3/4 ability and some cold-weather paddling experience necessary.


ANNOUNCEMENTS

* Gear night:  Thursday 5-6 with Ari.

* Winter came and went.  Greek Peak was open on Saturday for a one-day ski season (the shortest on record).  Okay, hopefully there will be more snow, yes?

* ... and with the expectation of a real winter ahead, there will be a post-meeting presentation next week (12/6) on basic ski tuning and waxing.  Stay tuned for details.

* ... and speaking of which, Matt (matt@clarityconnect.com), your intrepid education chair, always is looking for groovy post-meeting programs.  Don't make him send out his goons!  If you have interesting slides, skills, or ideas for good programs, let him know.

* As announced previously:  the club is offering a subsidy for Wilderness First Aid training.  Along with a special reduced fee offered to the club, this makes the valuable training very affordable.  Two trainings are scheduled, in March and April.  See Ari's email of 11/28 for more info.


TRIPS DAT WAS

*** Apologies to the first two trip-goer guys-- I didn't catch their names at the time of trip reports, and both snuck out after the slides before I had a chance to ask... ***

* [trip goer-guy # 1] went hiking and climbing in Tahoe.

* [trip goer-guy #2] had the multi-faceted Colorado trip:  backpacking in Great Sand Dunes NP, explored some canyons, went skiing for the first time, went snow shoeing.

* Jason, Adam, and JR went vertical caving at Benson's Cave... at the same time, Kara, Simeon, Leslie, and Jeff-from-Connecticut were continuing to work on a survey/map of Barber Cave.

* Don ran a rope skills session where 6 climbers learned how to escape a loaded belay (i.e., to rescue or go get help for an injured climbing partner).

* Kara hiked in the Adirondacks near Lake George and found some interesting little cavelettes... but she doesn't know if they are solution caves or not.

* Brendan and a whole bunch of rad paddlers surfed on the Black R.

-- AlanShieh - 10 Dec 2005