after 4 years of dreaming, i'm finally doing it... quitting my stable corporate job, and hitting the road on a solo climbing trip. from the countdown to the big move out west... here we go!

Friday, December 30, 2005

december 30

damian took a rest day so there are a lot of pictures from today's session. warm weather again, thank god.

there are almost 60 pictures so i don't think i'm going to do any picture-sequences this time...

on mulletino:















josh cuttin' loose on stretch armstrong:

kim on an unnamed problem:



















scared on an arete....











never trust a mustache:
sort of a sequence of my send of lea's problem - i found a crimpy traverse at hp40!
and was very pumped after finishing it, top out and all:




happy new year everyone!

Thursday, December 29, 2005

dec 29

lots of pictures to post. today was unrealistically cold in the morning. i was grumpy, cranky, and sad all at the same time. then i found out that i can fit into my outdoor climbing shoes with wool socks on, and we had a good session. there was the cold morning session, the afternoon cranking, and then the night session that was brought on by a whole lotta wine.

pictures! i am glad to announce that i went back to send the problem that i posted a pic of a few posts ago. here it is:

uniball:

sit start from block to undercling... which eric called an "underpress" since it's got no cling.

hand heel match on the opening hold and work your way up right facing slopers and rails:

big stretch up to a very rewarding jug:
move your heel up the rail and then top out around the corner on the left:

here's damian on a problem i believe was called green lantern:

sit start that i couldn't figure out... fire to sloper... eric did it as a campus sit start if that makes sense:

left hand out to jug, right hand up to slopey rail

bump that hand desperately up the slopey rail until you find a positive spot:


keep working up the water groove into the slopey mantle:

the pictures from the night session didn't turn out since it was... well... dark. and perhaps the photographer had a bit too much to drink... perhaps...

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

it's 18C, why aren't you here?

yesterday was a great day of climbing! we met up with eric (used to climb at oasis, switched to rockheads and then moved away) who's down for a week on his own. he pitched his tent nearby to help us amalgamate all the ontarians into one place.... also taking over some really great real estate. we've got a great spot - i believe i'm camping on page 18 of the dr.topo guide for hp40, we can climb within sight of the tent.

starting on the 26th, the place really filled up. we woke up yesterday to be surrounded by people. we have new jerseyans on one side, quebecois on the other and a few cute little sharma-wannabe children across the road.

it was my best climbing day so far, i sent the problem that was my project last year on the first try, and then also sent something that i tried last year but couldn't get. i'm pretty sore and my tips are shot though, hence the rest day. since it was so sunny and warm yesterday, the friction on the rock was great. though it's warm out today, i don't think the friction will be the best since it was overcast and foggy this morning. the sandstone really holds the moisture.

the pics of my send are on eric's camera and he won't let me have them. here's a pic of my celebration instead:

mmm, i love that cheap dirtbag wine.

today's pictorial sequence is eric on the Lowdown - the lowest low-balley lowball that horsepens has to offer:

keep your ass off the ground:

continue to keep your ass off the ground:
hump the rock, don't drag your ass on the ground:
go for a tough topout while trying not to drag your feet on the ground:

the forecast continues to look good, and we hope to be back on the rock either tonight (night session!) or tomorrow. looking forward to paul & jo's arrival on saturday, and then jay the following week.

Monday, December 26, 2005

when the tent's a rockin, don't come a knockin

so damian's here now!
he quickly declared that i had lost weight already, and he took me grocery shopping. mmmm junk food!

here he is on one of our warmups today:

sit start with reach...

match hands, change feet:
fire to sloper (i'll be saying that alot when in hp40)

reach high for an undercling, feet up and fire for the top of the boulder to encounter a freaky slopey top out...


here i am on something that i look forward to trying when i'm not so burnt... it's a tough sit start into an undercling, match it up and continue out the roof on so-so shallow holds. hopefully i'll be posting pictures from the send of this one later this week :)

Saturday, December 24, 2005

a river ran through it

so it's raining. still. it's been pouring all day and i wish i was exaggerating. lesson learned number 2: if there are patches of gravel on your campsite, these are not pads for tents, they are to fill the washout from the last torrential downpour and to provide drainage for the next torrential downpour. i found that out today as i found a small creek forming very close to my tent. thankfully i have a good quality four season MEC tent and the base of it is still waterproof.

after spending as much time in the washroom (restroom) as possible to charge my laptop battery, i ventured back to pouring rain tent land. i cozyed into my tent and was instantly bored. this is my first camping in a storm on my own sort of thing, and i remembered that when it's rained and there have been other people around (damian) that they (he) have always (obsessively) been checking on the tent... repegging the fly and so on.

adventure! this is what i wanted from this trip, right? (besides climbing, but hey i'm still bitter about it raining on my Ubah-Cranking Day, so enough about that.) where was i? oh right, adventure! i sprang back out of the tent to "check on things". i found my trusty tent-peg-hitting rock and got to work. it was at this point that i discovered that there was a small creek forming behind and under the tent. this would explain the puddles i could see inside.

i got to digging trenches around the tent, and this was the most fun i've had in a while. depending on how well you know me, you may have heard me stress about spending too much on a patagonia waterproof rain jacket before going away on this trip. it's certainly come in handy and i don't regret the purchase at all. i had fun old school style, first digging trenches by kicking at the dirt with my feet... then gouging them out with my tent-peg-hitting rock... and then to the point of digging with my hands. FUN! this is the sort of adventure i guess i was looking for.



i don't have a picture of the rain, so here's a pretty waterfall close to looking glass in NC.

not quite rain and totally the wrong state, but a lot of people just visit to look at pictures and don't read what i write, so this is for you.

perhaps my last few blog entries have sounded a bit down. i always have these great and creative ideas for my blog entries, but it's so annoying to try to steal, er, find free wireless, that i'm totally uninspired by the time i end up completing the entry, what with sitting in a parking lot and trying to answer emails at the same time (speaking of which, please feel free to email, i do appreciate them.)

you see, in my best efforts to be a dirtbag, i had cut alcohol out of my expenses. bad idea! no wonder so many homeless people are alcoholics. the stuff is/can be cheap, and really makes the time fly when you're on your own. i went back to wal-mart to pick out a bottle of wine. damian is showing up tomorrow night so i figured i should get a nice bottle for us to drink when he gets here, and nice bottle for me to drink tonight. better idea! a Really Big Bottle of Cheap Wine. I found three litres for 8.97. bonus! i think i'm hooked. this stuff will probably stain my teeth, and my liver. good stuff!

here is the wine i'm drinking next to the puddle under the tent:

lesson learned

if you are on a roadtrip and it's sunny and warm, go climbing.

do not take a rest day, even if every muscle in your body hurts. you can always hurt a bit more.

save rest days for days of inclement weather.

yesterday was about 15C, the warmest day i've had so far on this trip. i took a rest day since the last time i looked at the forecast, it was supposed to be warm until sunday.

things change.

this morning was overcast with a cold wind. i wandered around the boulders (so excited to climb alone again) and finally found some motivation to climb. there really is a lot of climbing there. in a 9 day visit last year, there were areas i didn't even see.

wandered into the boulders, met some nice locals and worked a few problems with them. found out that the forecast changed to 80% chance of showers and about 30 minutes later, it began to pour.

so here i am, IN mcdonalds for free wireless. IN mcdonalds. for the first time in many years. there is free wireless and it's a lot warmer than the tent. i should probably get out of here before i start ordering anything other than coffee!

merry freakin christmas!

Friday, December 23, 2005

one is the loneliest number...

okay so it's not that bad, but i'm seriously surprised at how busy horsepens 40 isn't. last year the place was packed when we showed up on boxing day. there were alot of "regulars" living there. this time, i am on one of the three occupied campsites. the other boulderers are all teenagers out on school holiday. it was cute when a kind 14 year old sent my problem, and gave me beta suitable for six foot tall teenagers. thanks... no, really...

bouldering by yourself is seriously overrated, as far as i'm concerned. i bouldered yesterday but am limited to problems that i don't need a spotter or the pad moved/ an additional pad. on the other hand, i'm committed to finishing slopey top-outs since falling is NOT an option (see above comment about needing people to move the pad over for me in case i fall).

i do have a few projects on the go, which is a sure sign that i set my sights a bit too high for my first day climbing in a new area. the first project is a big move from a sit start to a sloper (of course). i've worked it from the standing-up-pretending-i-got-the-move point and was able to pull through to the finish. time will tell if that sit start is within my reach. i found the other problem/projects at the end of the day and could actually pull the sit start, just not any other move.

i only bouldered for a few hours, but am so incredibly sore. i feel like i just started climbing! my legs hurt, my back and arms hurt, and my fingertips are RAW. today has been a rest day. i ran out of things to do at my campsite and got sick of people looking at me ("what's that girl doing by herself??"). no pictures to post just yet for the following reasons: a) there is no one to take pictures; b) it's weird if i take pictures of other people and given their ages i think it's probably illegal too; and c) i did take a couple pictures of the sunset but didn't bring the cable to upload them from my camera.

this entire trip is still highly surreal. i'm sitting in a cafe in gadsden, alabama. by myself, of course. i have quit my job and am living from my savings. i am sort of on my way to move to BC, but maybe i'm just on my way up to the red river gorge for the spring. it's a very strange sensation to go from knowing what you're going to do every day of every week, to being surprised how today turned out. am i really on a trip just to climb? how is this possible? i'm getting some good dirtbag techniques, like spending lots of time in the heated washrooms in horsepens... i can charge the laptop while i'm there and warm up. i am moving so slowly these days since i'm not in a rush to get anywhere. the more time i can kill, the better. this is a huge difference from having a few people to hang out with at night. sitting around by yourself... the time really drags.

i have found a great antidote to feeling poor - go to the dollar store! these people are really and truly poor. seeing the kids playing with the one and two dollar toys... and this is their reality for christmas. so i'm doing okay.

happy birthday to betsy! she rolled over to 140,000 km two days ago! she got a full tank of supreme gasoline and her semi-annual car wash to celebrate.

damian flies in on sunday - needless to say i'm quite excited to see him again. i'm really looking forward to seeing all the people that are going to meet up with me on my trip! i will have lots of problems to show you. i have met someone down here who is embarking on a similar roadtrip on jan 10, and we may meet up for a roadtrip in january sometime. if anyone is thinking about travelling south in the next few months, please drop me an email and we'll see if it's feasible to meet up.

that's it for a few days - it's a 30 minute drive from horsepens to get a wireless connection.
merry christmas, happy holidays, and a thrilling xmas to all.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

grrr hiss, y'all

i lived in toronto for over 7 years and i just experienced the worst traffic of my life.

there is no straightforward direct way from brevard to hp40. i set off west on a windy road through the mountains. as it turned out, the road was so windy that it dropped the speed limit down to 30mph in a lot of places. then it dropped to 15 mph, which is slower than the standard through most residential neighbourhoods.

i cut south and enjoyed the sunny drive down the mountains into south carolina. life was good.

then i got to georgia. the interstate was heavy, but what i'm used to driving in on the dvp. then i got to atlanta and got to sit in rush hour traffic while the sun set, making it impossible to read any road signs.

it got worse. the highway i had picked out on the map to follow to alabama has been built up quite a bit. it now cuts through a few super centre parking lots. as it turned out, i should have cut north and taking the 401 across!

then i got to experience te displeasure of having someone sit behind me with their headlights on high. my optic nerves throbbed. i got an instant frontal lobe headache.

nine hours on the road today and i'm about to get onto the I59 interstate south to hp40.


wow was that exhausting! i am completely beat. i went to the wal-mar super centre to shop with the poor people and pick up food for a while.

i need to remember what this trip is all about, so i'm going to post the pictures from rumbling bald climbing yesterday.

pete shows us a problem he's working on:


with a freaky top-out between two boulders:



i gave it a try...


anne put up her own variation:


hope to see some familiar faces at hp40! the drive was horrendous enough that i'm good with staying put there for a while. i'll be in horse pens until jan 10 at least.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

bouldering in the sun

today was an amazing day of bouldering. we went back up to rumbling bald - anne wasn't exagerrating when she told me how warm it gets up there.... the place is south facing, we were wandering around in our barefeet and climbing in t-shirts when the problems were in the sun, which they mostly were.
i'm in a cafe for free wireless right now and they're closing soon. today's post will be a photo journal where i share my project which i got in a few tries today... it's my favourite so far.

start with a crimper and a sloper....
out onto the slopey rail:

cross over to more slopey rail and no feet:

continue with cross over stance and move feet over to smear:


launch for a shallow sloper close to the top of the boulder:

peddle your feet up on the smear action and get ready to lanch for the top:


i fell off the first few times since i don't "launch" so well. i ended up throwing a heel hook up on the slopey rail and hitting the top static.

have to get out of this cafe! on my way to horsepens 40 tomorrow. yay, another five hours of driving!

Monday, December 19, 2005

southern hospitality

one week of dirtbagging and i still haven't camped. anne and troy have really made me feel comfortable and have been wonderfully hospitable during my stay.

today we went to looking glass - a large granite dome here in brevard, NC. it's mostly known for it's slabbity-slab-slab run out trad multi pitch, but we top roped a wall that could be nice bolted sport routes if they did that sort of thing there.

here's a pic of troy demonstrating the angle of the rock:looking glass was great. so slabby - i was doing lots of hand-facing-down sloper moves. freaky! but the friction is great so i was really able to get a feel for the rock on top rope. the hike is about 45 minutes uphill, which was a great warm up.

back to rumbling bald tomorrow....

Sunday, December 18, 2005

at home in the mountains

my first day of climbing on the road.

Saturday we went to rumbling bald, a boulderfield in the mountains that is the best winter climbing destination in the area. i hear that on a sunny day in january, you can boulder in a t-shirt since it's a south facing sheltered crag. on a cloudy day, it felt like an average fall day in ontario. 12C or so?

here are a couple problems that i have pictures of.

i was reintroduced to southern top-outs... so slopey. and it's beyond the "beached whale" approach to topping out... just friction and a lot of trust.



this problem here followed a line up the middle of the boulder - crimpy sit start with crappy feet leads to a deadpoint on sharp crystals. match it up...














and then it's right hand out left to a slimper where you feel like you're going to fall backwards off the rock. balance your feet up and then it's shimying over the top. that's a lot for your first day bouldering in over a month let alone first time outdoor bouldering in a while. i'm not ashamed to say that i shyed away from the top out. i hope that within a month i'll be doing high-ball heel hook top outs with tonnes of trust. but for now, i swore creatively and jumped off.












here's anne on another problem we did... dime-edge (literally) feet with a crystal that i used as a one finger crimper to a balancey cross over to a jug - easier top out.








also, this town is known for it's white squirrels. we went white squirrel hunting yesterday to no avail. today anne was a bit more stubborn in her search and we found three of them hanging out in the sunshine.



This one practically posed for the picture and also gave me a great opportunity to try out the zoom on my camera. imagine that, a white squirrel!






tomorrow we're heading to looking glass for some trad.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

chlorine before climbing


fun!

i have discovered that starbucks t-mobile wi-fi hotspots are not free. i was very dissapointed in starbucks and no longer have an excuse to go there.

four hours of driving yesterday brought me to morgantown, west virginia. i dropped in on my friends ben & kate, and that's where i found out about the storm moving in. they invited me to stay the night and get an early start in the morning, and i graciously accepted their hospitality! it gets better though, and it gets beer related.
a few years ago i went to pies n pints, a restaurant in fayetteville (new river gorge). it was there that i first tried appalachian ale - and loved this micro brew. i went back to that restaurant on a later trip to get that beer, the first visit it was closed, and the next year we went and they weren't serving it anymore. darn.
so back to ben & kate. we went out for dinner to a brew pub downtown. i love "microbreweries!" i said. "have you ever heard of appalachian ale?" well lo and behold it turns out that they're going to THE pub that brews THE beer that i have been looking for for over two years.

so scratch that off the list.

set out in the morning at 6am to get ahead of the storm. every time i am in west virginia it rains, and not even some sort of noah's ark friendly style rain, oh no, it's much worse. i did another four hours of driving today and covered a lot less distance. the driving was getting more and more intense, and i knew that if this were in canada, i would not be driving. then i got to thinking about the consequences of having a car accident in america. for starters, i would be so *bleep*ed by their health care (or lack thereof) that i would have to turn around and drive my gimpy body back across the border to be put back together. secondly, i don't think that any insurance company would forgive you for driving in a snowstorm in west virginia (fer cryin out loud!). they only get two storms here a year, and it's your fault if you chose to drive in one of them.

so i got a hotel.

i'm really good at this dirtbag thing. it's been fun, an entire night to myself, one more night to take as long as i want to in the shower since a) i'm not a houseguest, b) there's no one waiting, and c) i'm not being timed.
i'm ready for this trip. i haven't climbed in almost a week now, and my last few sessions at the gym really and truly sucked. starting tomorrow, i have climbing partners lined up until almost the end of january. february is being booked now! i am so ready for this trip..

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

over the border


that was easy.

3.5 hours of driving the first day - not a problem! the customs agent asked a lot of questions, but i answered as sincerely and honestly as possible that i'm only going to be here for three weeks, until i have to go back to my corporate job when my vacation is over. i was allowed over the border and continued the drive through the flattest part of New York State, the sun very low in the sky. betsy is really behaving and driving very smoothly - just below the speed limit. don't rush me, i've got no where to be.
on a whim tonight, i did a search for wireless networks. found free wifi .... maybe all the rumours i've heard about the states being connected are true...

tomorrow's goal is to make it to the new river gorge in west virginia. should be about six hours of driving. it will be cold camping though.

Very gracious to eryn for the hospitality tonight. we're about to eat cake. eryn's been a baking machine.

i'm eating cake now. can't seem to post this fast enough. the cake is amazing. eryn is cool.