Life is Good

Caught up with this relaxed reptile on the mountain the other day. The three legged amputee-tail skink sat soaking up some rays while we got a good look at him. Maybe he was so mellow because of the awe-inspiring views, or perhaps after a near death brush with the talons of a raven he learned to sit back and truly enjoy life. Then again, he was probably just slow.

Life in the mountains is good. You know it's the good life when the strong wind hits your back and you begin to lower off a hundred foot cliff. It makes you feel alive, and then you know you're alive. The wind changes directions, hitting you square in the face. You begin to hear the thunder across the valley. The electric sky has become nearly black. You're running, and you can see, hear, smell, and feel the tornado-spawning storm. You round the final, still dry corner of the trail. The ride pulls up, doors and sky open simultaneously, but before the drenching begins you're in.

Baby Steps

5 - 22 - 08

As with most hikes its not the grand vistas or tumbling waters that prove the most memorable, but rather the unexpected along the way.

After we watched the momma Doe lick this newborn clean we think it may have gotten a little confused. Not sure exactly where in the world it belonged the fawn wobble stepped towards our attentive eyes. Maybe realizing the mistake it hesitated nearly close enough for us to reach out and touch. Stumbling sideways and turning around the little guy realized momma was waiting in the other direction and the opening performance continued its unbalanced show on elsewhere in the woods.

After School

I don't know if this falls under Teamlink or Shenandoah Mountain Guides but I figure it's worth putting up the picture.  Every year at the end of the school year we try to do something special for the kids in the after school programs.  This year straight rock climbing didn't seem like enough so we added the cargo net.  So you're halfway up a vertical rock face and you have to leap to a free hanging cargo net; would you be having a ball?

Mountain Stewards

May 10 - 11, 08

The Old Rag Mountain Stewardship program kicked off this cold rainy weekend and we're looking ahead toward an exceptional program!

stew·ard·ship
: the conducting, supervising, or managing of something; especially : the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

The SMG staff have been honored and entrusted in working with the park service on the initiation of this program. We will do our best in the careful stewardship of this precious resource.

Between helping folks with directions, litter removal and several sweeps of the mountain we had to take a few moments to play around on some thin Old Rag slab climbs.
















When viewing these pictures you may want to make note of the lack of ropes, the shoes, and the direction of gravity pulling on shirts.

Attending to litter

(and other LNT topics)

May 4 - 9

While the rest of the SMG staff did real work last week, I (Chad) spent the time being trained in the ethics of Leave No Trace. My Master Educator course was held on the 17,000 acre BSA camp Powhatan in Southern Va. The three knowledgeable instructors included Co-founder of LNT Jeff Marion. The course was excellent. With this class I become the final SMG full time staff to be a LNT Master.

One of the many interesting things I learned over the week was that in one study held in Great Smoky Mountains National Park no Lady Slipper Orchids like these pictured above could be found within fifty feet of the trails due to user impact. Props to SNP users, the above were observed just off trail on Old Rag Mountain Saturday 5-10-08

Litter Attending

Had to put up this picture of SMG guide Matt hanging off the side of the cliff litter attending at the tech rescue training. Nice job Matt

High Angle Rescue

April 21 - 26, 2008

"Because gravity,

even more than the sea,

does not forgive."

This years NPS Eastern High Angle Rescue course was held at Buffalo National River, Arkansas. The Buffalo is a long drive from Shenandoah but three SMG staff were able and excited to make the trip. On the trip down, after driving all night, we were thrust into an appropriate rescue course warm up when flagged to the side of the road by a panicked woman next to a minivan. The 37 year old male in the back of the fully loaded van was having a medical emergence, trouble breathing and vomiting. Working through a language barrier Jeremy reported to EMS our exact location while Matt and I evaluated the patient. In ten minutes we turned over our SOAP notes to the local EMS and continued on through the cold Tennessee daybreak.

Once at the Buffalo it was five very full days of rescue training learning everything one needs to know in order to perform a rescue of someone stuck or broken on a cliff. Here's a couple pics from the week.

Jack, ascending a large overhang.


Mike performs a pick off in the Buffalo indoor facility.


Jo Practices ascending during a great day on the cliff.


A little sunset bouldering before the course began.

Tracy, a Buffalo River Rescuer on rappel.

High Angle Technical Rescue

Venture Climbing

4 - 12 - 08

Great weather and Camp Rock Enon rocks make for an unforgetable first climb for many venture crew members.

3 - 27 - 08

Enjoying a great spring break view of Lewis falls!

Adventure on Old Rag

March 22 08

The April 08 edition of National Geographic Adventure magazine states that "Old Rag Mountain" is not "a walk in Shenandoah National Park." The Instant Adventure article goes on to state that if your looking for a guide, we at SMG are your guys.

As for the climbing we did on Old Rag Saturday; with passing hail storms, standard Old Rag runouts, and loving on the slab nubbins, its always an adventure!

Back to Old Rag

3 - 21 - 08

First trip up the mountain for the season and what a day for it! Perfect temps and great granite views always leave you wanting more, just one reason we'll be climbing there tomorrow and many other days to come.

"Follow the dream...

... doesn't mean leave the love. Roam if you must, but come home when you've seen enough..."

Feb 29 - Mar 02

Guides and friends enjoying some east coast style thin ice before another meltdown.

"... with a smile and a hint of sarcasm he says, I beg your pardon but this is my secret garden. In the land of ice and snow." -Atmosphere

Fish Outa Water

2 - 26 - 08

The Big Fish himself running it to where the water ends and showing the High Angle Tech Rescue boys how to pull down. The conditions were ideal for a technical ice rescue with thin ice, wet rock and rain, who says training can't be fun?

Dreamsicles and Death Weather

I, Chad Heddleston am the guide who upkeeps this blog and I am currently on a two month road trip. The Big Fish was gracious enough to allow me the time during our slower winter months so I jumped at the chance. After six weeks on the road skiing and ice climbing I find myself in Utah's Zion National Park in search of ice. Why, one might ask did I choose one of America's hottest, driest climates to chase ice? "Because" in the words of George Leigh Mallory, "it's there."

Yesterday I tried to skin (backcountry ski) to the ice flow I came here to investigate but turned around early. The day was spectacular and even at 8,000 ft the temperature rose to just above freezing. With a very long approach and some concern of avalanche I bailed in favor of a safe run down on the skis. I am by myself this leg of the trip and choose to take no chances, but climbers are determined and I couldn't give up that easy.

Half the thrill of the kill is the chase and I am always on it. I crave fresh ice, whether it be some thing no one has climbed or just a line I personally have yet to experience. I know of what might be a possible flow on the West Rim Trail and set out early. The thermometer reads 22 degrees F and I hope that although I know it will reach well above freezing on the 4,000 ft canyon floor I hope it will be below the freeze point several thousand feet above.

A well packed snow trail leads to Scout Lookout and starts toward Angel's Landing. I continue on the packed trail, breaking for a time from the goal of the day. The tracks I'm following become fewer and fewer on the steep, narrow, snow covered trail as the many hikers before me found their respective limits and made the smart decision to turn around. I too find my ropeless limit and return to where the West Rim splits from the Angel's Landing trail. Looking up, the trail is unbroken and I set out as the snow begins to get heavy and the temperature creeps up.

Small snow slides begin high on a cliff somewhere and cascade down becoming air born then misting into nothing as they are engulfed in the vastness of air and glistening sunshine. Days like this I am so thankful; thankful to be here, thankful for the deer whose hoof prints brake trail on and off for more than a mile, thankful to the creator that such a wildly imaginative place even exists. Then I see it, my dreamsicle, it's easily 400ft and looks within my ability level. I break through the snow up to my knee most steps but am moving pretty fast. I'm thinking about how I'll ask my brother to jump a plane so we can climb it this weekend. "How fast can you get to Vegas?" "I can pick you up in three hours." Or maybe "you know the guidebook shows no established routes in southern Utah, want to establish one?" I start to break through to my thigh more often and realize that there is definitely a persistent weak layer where the snow must have thawed and refrozen for a while before Sunday's storm dropped the top 16 inches or so. It's something to look out for but I'm not in any avalanche danger. There is a little slope up there I'll be cautious with but it really looks very safe.

I head off the trail below the small slope to stay in the safest flatest zone. I do have a bad feeling and if you've been in the mountains you know you DO NOT ignore that feeling. Thhwwoouuummp, geerrraacaackk!!! I feel the entire area in a fifty foot radius of me drop as air rushes out from underneath and the cracks spread every which way in the ice underneath me. My heart races and I instinctively look up. I'm safe, in a flat zone and there's nothing coming from above, just settling below. A deep breath and I'm off, back down the mountain. I've seen enough and although I would like to get a closer view of the ice, next time I'm here I'll be with partners and beacons. I race back in my tracks and it's twenty minutes before I look back at the dreamsicle. What? A gigantic chunk is now gone from the base of the climb! I didn't even hear it come off. I am again thankful, this time it's that I was not climbing today!

Headed down the mountain I'm thinking about going south. Rock climbing's good down south this time of year! The trail becomes packed again and I relax as a large snowball slips silently from the cliffs high above. Phhhafwwappp, it narrowly misses my head and explodes on my pack sending cold snow to my neck and back.

Snowmelt waterfalls sparkle in the air, dampening rocks which rarely ever receive moisture. The world's largest sandcastles are being made too brittle to climb today and besides, I'm headed off the mountain.

Onward and Upward

Looking onward at the McCall, Idaho ice festival.

Feb 4th sunlight in Utah's Wasatch after the biggest snowfall Jan on record and a 24 inch in
24 hours storm.


Mountain goats overlooking Salt Lake City as seen from the top of the classic Little Cottonwood Canyon ice climb Scruffy.

Testing out the Avalung before a deep morning backcountry run in Utah's Wasatch mountains.

A morning ski sees morning light on the Wildcat Canyon trailhead in Zion National Park Feb 7th.

Cold Weather Living

Learning a thing or two about the cold in Co, Ut, Wy, Id, Mt, and Wa.

Fish and Swollen Knees

12 - 26 - 2007

SMG's founding guide is known as the Big Fish, and he has swollen knees. Years of abuse have seen the Big Fish nearly have an obliterated elbow amputated. The wrist and hands of the Fish have repeatedly known the loss of feeling and function. First long days are spent on the ice or more likely in the skis, then countless nights are spent with an ice pack elevated on a very swollen knee. On the Big Fish list of injuries blisters and sunburns need not apply. Right now his knees are swollen for the same reason they are always swollen, he has overstressed them, especially the one he just had surgery on.


You see the Big Fish has a problem we call dedication, and when something he's dedicated to requires standing, you'll see him stand, no matter how swollen the knee. The Big Fish shows dedication to SMG by hard work, and by leadership through example.


At SMG we are all dedicated to adventure and adventure sport education. Our dedication shows as our lives become filled with one adventure following another and we in turn pass those adventure enabling techniques to those around us. With the slow winter work schedule we guides now pursue our own adventures. The Big Fish rehabilitates his knees in anticipation of adventures in the ice and snow of the winters coldest months. The remaining guides seek our own sore knees. We hope to bring home some pictures, and some fish stories, to inspire you, as we have been inspired!

Fall Glory

These Wild Grapes were found Nov 6 not too far from Skyland lodge. These and a lot more like them are ripe for a trailside snack, provided the bears haven't found them.

Noticed this Red-backed salamander crossing a Tulip Poplar leaf near Rocky Branch trail.

A lightning strike this spring connected with this Oak just off the Skyline drive near mile 40. The splits' jagged path can be followed all the way up the tree. Check it out, it's cool.

Topping out a first ascent of the boulder problem now known as Haggis. It ascends the arete on a chunck of great Old Rag granite in SNP. Some serious fall color in the background. Nice problem Jonathan!

Not all the fall color is in the leaves, this rocks' bright patterns can be seen year round on the passamaquoddy trail.

Rocks and Walks

Oct 16 07
Rocking and walking through the fall in SNP. The incredible temperatures are trying to make up for a lack of color, and doing a pretty good job! Looks we'll wait a bit longer for the leaves to peak this year but, "the times they are a changing."

A Balanced Trip

9-18-07

A balanced trip takes the right distance, the right amount of time, the right trail, and does not walk under this tree at the wrong time!

Hanging Out

Noticed this flowering jewelweed plant hanging out next to some nettles, roots, moss and a small falls on 8-28-07. As for the SMG crew, in the last several weeks we might have been found hanging out at any of the following places:

in a rain storm with GWU students

guiding climbers in the GW National forest

guiding climbers in SNP

guiding climbers at the Frederick Co., VA Sheriff's Camp

guiding hiking on various trails in SNP

climbing personally at Franklin, WV, the Red, the New, and the most dirty, loose cliffs in WV

swimming in a multitude of swimming holes.

Living the good life!



Banded Tussock Moth caterpillar hanging out near the trail on a guided hike.

Before and After

8 - 10 - 2007

If a picture's worth a thousand words then zoom in on these faces. Sometimes it feels like we have to drag ourselves kicking and screaming to make that hike, rappel off that edge, or slide that slide, but in the end the face says it all. It's totally worth it!

Boys in the Wood

Aug 4 - Aug 10, 2007
When we leave our comfort zone we stand to learn a lot about life. For seven days the ten of us learned through paddling, climbing and living out of a pack. Although everyone under 25 started the week having never spent a night in the woods, much is learned through thunderstorms, struggles, and six summer nights.

Hot and Cool

8 - 6 - 07
A hot and fast hike up the mountain was followed by a very cool day of climbing. After a few great climbs at the Skyline wall it was the beauty of the evening light, victory, and a cool breeze for chilling on the Old Rag summit. We made it back late, tired, and smiling.

8 - 3 - 07