New Tent!

Last summer we traded away our two tents... the old Trango (which I loved--but was heavy at 12 lbs) and the Beta Lite (which served its purpose well for desert camping, but had no real use outside screaming 100 degrees). So we have been tent-less... and, there has been several times, since last August, that having a tent would have made living the lives we do, much easier. (At least for me, this is where Jarod would probably disagree and say that we could just sleep outside) However, as much as I love my husband and his knack for the outdoors.. I must draw the line when it comes to outdoor sleeping. I need a tent! So, with part of our tax return money (whoop-whoop) we purchased a tent last nite.

At 8pm we drove to the Burbank/Glendale area (the northwest part of the Greater LA area) and met up with a man to check out his tent listing on Craig's list. TWO HOURS later, Bill (the tent seller) had told us of his adventures in Nepal, Asia, India, Alaska, ice climbing, summitting K2!!, and multiple, many month long, mountaineering trips. This guy was pretty amazing, but what struck me the most, was his modesty and hesitation to divulge these AWESOME accomplishments. I mean, we were talking with a man that has stood on top of K2.. that is pretty freakin' awesome. And, since I had read [plug for this AWESOME book] Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea, I could follow his trek through Skardu, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. Bill and Jarod have decided to stay in contact and connect for later exchanging of adventures together--Jarod with the rock climbing & Bill with mountaineering/ice climbing. So cool! Also, Bill's "real" job is a grip. What's a grip you ask, he's the one who is stabilizing the camera and building structures for the camera's cool angles. He has done multiple movies and is currentlly the grip for Desperate HouseWives. Haha. (It's still weird for me to live in this city).

Anyway, the tent is pretty bombproof and we are totally happy about it. We also purchased a Thermarest for me! YES! I am very excited about that :) And.. in two days, we will get to put our new toys to the test. However, I am pretty sure that since this tent has been to base camp of the Karakoram Range, our new tent can handle ANYTHING we put it through :)