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.