tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33645801511056118582011-12-15T14:11:32.362-06:00The live blog of Team Sight Unseen! This blog will be constantly updated by all members of the team. Don't forget to check out our website for general information, lots of pictures, and more @ www.teamsightunseen.comBrad Jaffkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00944028664945776537noreply@blogger.comBlogger181100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-55029222570273209972011-12-15T14:11:00.001-06:002011-12-15T14:11:32.372-06:00

Slaying The RAMMThe RAMM. Shelf Road, Canyon City, Colorado.Wednesday, July 12, 2011I dangled from my daisychain, feet hanging in open space the wall just a few inches away. I was cleaning a 5.11C that BC had put up called Cactus Rose. My forearms were burning and it was hard to squeeze open the gate of a carabiner. Cleaning a route always made me nervous because there's always that fear of

Kyle Coonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05740869263880247175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-3315926072677544272011-12-15T14:08:00.001-06:002011-12-15T14:08:51.878-06:00

Montezuma's Tower:Garden of the GodsColorado Springs, ColoradoThroughout the summer I'd wanted to do a multipitch rock climb. But most multipitch climbs require trad gear and trad experience, neither of which I had. Brendan and I had been climbing together since late June and we'd become pretty darn good climbing partners. Brendan flipped through the Colorado guidebook I'd bought and came

Kyle Coonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05740869263880247175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-24692113779896261322011-09-03T18:18:00.000-05:002011-09-03T18:18:01.154-05:00

  Just here to report recent events in my life.  I still have one more year left at UW-Madison as I now am double majoring (adding on Computer Science).  This summer I interned with Liberty Mutual working in their IT department making internal websites for employees to use.  It was an absolutely amazing experience (they even flew us out to Boston at the end of it for a couple days).   During my

Brad Jaffkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00944028664945776537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-32854025581860384582011-08-31T06:36:00.000-05:002011-08-31T06:37:41.094-05:00

Here’s a semi-trip report that I concocted of a trip I had the privilege to help lead in late June/early July at the camp at which I worked over the summer. Please realize I can’t tell every little detail, but I’ve tried to reconstruct the trip as best I can. The Mt Ouray Trials: Elevation: 13971 ft I'd been in Colorado for almost a month and hadn't yet so much as sniffed a mountain trip, let

Kyle Coonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05740869263880247175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-53125885033473951192011-08-24T10:27:00.001-05:002011-08-24T11:02:27.245-05:00

Mt. Wheeler, the highest mountain in New Mexico, a commonly climbed peak, but challenging none the less… My girlfriend and I first struck up the idea to climb it late one evening while eating dinner together. To be honest, I wasn’t totally convinced we would make it a reality. She was eager to make her first summit attempt. I was a bit more reserved, id made summits and fallen short of them

Justin Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08696770592612736804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-86564984470700090782011-08-24T07:53:00.002-05:002011-08-24T07:57:50.447-05:00

Hey TSU followers. I realize I've been absent from the blog for a while. I felt like doing some deep thinking this morning so I typed up this short piece about rock climbing and what it means to me. I'll try to post some reports about the incredible summer I had in 2011 soon. For now enjoy this piece of rare deep thinking. Climb High, KCoon Out of Darkness As I half balanced, half clung with

Kyle Coonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05740869263880247175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-42020562443538371962011-06-22T21:24:00.003-05:002011-06-22T21:35:35.815-05:00

I'm not one to blog about my thoughts, but recently I've gotten sick of this whole "oh, the circumstances aren't right" thing. People can't do this or that...can't take advantage of things, won't go somewhere, won't do something for whatever reason. I recently ran into this quote:"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who

Brad Jaffkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00944028664945776537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-79653660157236162892011-04-20T00:49:00.003-05:002011-04-20T00:53:47.688-05:00

I was recently featured in Centric Magazine, a magazine produced by University of Central Florida Journalism students. The article focuses mainly on my wrestling career however briefly mentions Team Sight Unseen and one of the pictures show me wearing my Team Sight Unseen T-Shirt that Gore-Tex made for us for our trip to Gannet Peak.See the article here:http://centric.cos.ucf.edu/?p=161

Kyle Coonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05740869263880247175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-57895567590082810602010-12-10T16:37:00.002-06:002010-12-10T16:43:46.907-06:00

In one of my college classes I had the task of writing a paper on a Communication Theory and then applying that Theory to an Organization. Being a mountaineer I wanted to apply a Theory to Team Sight Unseen, however when I started researching I found that there weren't enough references telling about TSU for me to make an A worthy paper. Since this was my first big time college paper I wanted to

Kyle Coonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05740869263880247175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-80513076904300257052010-10-10T08:50:00.002-05:002010-10-10T09:01:51.982-05:00

There's been a lot going on. We're working on putting together our trip report of our climb of Gannett Peak back in August. We need to get that plus some pictures off to W.L Gore and Associates before we post it up on the website, blog or facebook. But I'd like to take some time to tell a little bit about a proposed trip that Peter Green and I have been cooking up.Pete and I are very much into

Kyle Coonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05740869263880247175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-74077978172951469412010-07-23T16:47:00.001-05:002010-07-23T16:48:59.816-05:00

We're leaving in less than three weeks for our climb of Gannett Peak! Everyone's getting super excited, and we all have high expectations for the trip. All six of us will be going out there, so it should be a great time, as well as allow us to build our skills in the mountains and learn to work with a team even more.The official team website has been down for the past two days (due to me not

Brad Jaffkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00944028664945776537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-40022435886349556802010-06-14T13:22:00.002-05:002010-06-14T13:38:20.636-05:00

Well...I figured I'd use this slow time at work today to let everyone know what I've been up to so far this summer. Working (because I'm poor), hanging out, and taking a couple trips. My girlfriend and I have now hiked two segments of the Ice Age Trail here in Wisconsin. The IAT is a trail that (hopefully) in the future will be a 1400+ mile trail that will hopefully go all around

Brad Jaffkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00944028664945776537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-42620299210312603542010-03-12T14:30:00.002-06:002010-03-12T14:49:14.160-06:00

It's been a while since we've used this Blog, but a lot has been going on and it's been tough to sit down and jot down some thoughts about it. But now i've got a spare moment or two to tell all our Blog Fans about what's been going on.In July 2009 Brad Jaffke, Justin Grant, Peter Green, Joseph Mayfield and Ben Meyer went to Washington to do some training climbs. They successfully climbed and

Kyle Coonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05740869263880247175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-25320502546149460512009-09-02T14:19:00.001-05:002009-09-02T14:34:22.349-05:00

I was sitting in my sociology class on Monday and my teacher posed a situation to the class. The class was split into groups of three and each group was a member of a group of ten peopl who were shipwrecked on a tropical island that had, fruits, vegetables, hardwood trees, limited freshwater, and birds and fish. The group of ten had a 25 foot rope, two life rafts, 1 large tarp, a can opener, 20

Kyle Coonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05740869263880247175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-89776952190963471272009-08-29T14:50:00.002-05:002009-08-29T16:49:38.573-05:00

Since I'm unable to get into the gym or out to a rock and climb I like to take little trips down what I call "Memory Lane." Don't we all?If you've read my bio on Team Sight Unseen's website then you know how Erik inspired me to go rock climbing and how I competed in climbing competitions and so on a so forth. But what about those climbing comps? And what about all the climbing trips that I

Kyle Coonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05740869263880247175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-18296464422345979772009-08-28T16:36:00.001-05:002009-08-28T16:59:35.471-05:00

Often I ponder over what peak to climb, what seems feasible and attainable. I run through the list of must climbs in my head, the ones everyone has heard of. Denali, Elbrus, kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, Vinson Massif, Kosciuszko, Everest etc. They've all ben climbed, and all by a blind guy no less (no disrespect meant to Erik weihenmayer who is a fantastic climber). But i do have to complain a

Kyle Coonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05740869263880247175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-75856222685671923772009-08-25T11:34:00.003-05:002009-08-25T11:57:45.222-05:00

Several team members have been featured in various media outlets.1) Justin Grant is the feature of a video put together by the Star-Telegram. See the video here: http://video.star-telegram.videos.vmixcore.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=56606132) Kyle Coon wrote an article for the Florida Council for the Blind. It is divided into two parts. The first is featured in their July-August newsletter

Brad Jaffkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00944028664945776537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364580151105611858.post-4690475061542114722009-08-24T15:45:00.000-05:002009-08-24T15:47:31.243-05:00

Welcome to the live blog of Team Sight Unseen. Here you will find thoughts, trip reports, experiences, etc. from all members of the team. Check back often for updates!!

Brad Jaffkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00944028664945776537noreply@blogger.com0