Self Eval

I love the idea of phenelogy, but not like this. I've read Turner, House, Murie, Petzoldt, parts of Craighead's and others' versions of phenology. They were all observations over numerous years, compilations of extensive experience combined with personal ways of seeing. I feel like I could tick off the new snow fall at 10,000' every day and not really know anymore about what it's like to be there. That is why I focused on reading the accounts of others when I wasn't able to be there in person. The books of the gentlemen I read give character to data. From reading Teewinot I know what it's like to close down camp on the saddle in a blizzard, from Petzoldt what it was like with primitive gear, from House - a reminder of the dark side of humanity that pushes people to the edges of the world and themselves. I understand that there is something to doing all this on my own - it's happening in my mind, but like many of these authors, it doesn't comform to dates. My real phenology has been living here. Learning that the elk bugle and rut, then start down to the refuge. That moose leave their summer places in swamps and wetlands for sage flats and slightly higher ground. That antelope stayed in the sage flats longer then I thought they should have - then disappeared as soon as I thought they would be stuck here for the winter and become wolf bait. The way bison come and go betwen the usual spots, but never completely predictable. Fox follow mice and ground squirrels. Ravens and maybe wolves feast on gut piles, but the bears miss the bulk of hunting seasons remains - at least until spring. So to get on to the point, I feel like I've learned a new way to look - what phenology is. This is not an accurate representation of that. I think that it meets the basic requirements for the assignment, but does little to show the change I've noticed in myself since September. This came through somewhat in the entries along the way, but I don't feel like its as clear as it could have been because of time constraints or the fact that the focus of my proposal didn't match what I was looking at.

For the winter portion of this project I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. The difference will be that I'll try to document what I do and see rather than try to fit it into a box of "alpine" or to only look through the eyes of a climber. Then once I get a body of work started find a theme that ties it together. For this portion I had the opportunity to hear several well respected climbers talk about their experiences, during the winter I hope to meet and talk with Jack Turner and Reny Jackson.