Final Wishes

Here's an interesting topic for rock climbers... Death by rock climbing.  Do you think about it?  I joke about it all time & wonder if my life insurance policy (paid for by my work) would cover such an accident?  Probably not.

As a single person without a will, I recently decided to make my final wishes known to my family "just in case" I died on my next rock climbing trip.  Of course my mom freaked the eff out and told me to be CAREFUL.  To which I responded: "Yes, yes... I'll be careful, but careful is a relative term based on what you're doing."  Probably not the best answer for a concerned parent who knows nothing about rock climbing. But, I've always been too honest for my own good.

The conversation with my family stemmed from a recent cancer diagnosis of a relative.  Very sad, but it got me thinking what my immediate family would do if I suddenly passed away.  Also, I'm still shocked by the passing of Steph Davis' husband from a base jumping accident last weekend.

I'm freaked out by traditional funeral customs.  I don't want to be embalmed.  I don't want a wake.  I don't want a church service.  I don't want to be buried.  I guess these things are really meant to be comforting for the living, but I don't care.  I'm dead.  Let me be selfish.  I want to be cremated and have all of my ashes spread on the top of Mount Washington.  Don't save any pieces of me in some stupid container that you put on your mantel. 

Also, at least one of my family members must hike to the top to accomplish this... there will be no cheating and driving me to the top!  (Since none of them are rock climbers, hiking is the next best thing)

A Pair of Leave Biners

"Adventure is when you're not sure what is going to happen." - Steph Davis

Yup, it's time for another adventure... In a couple of weeks I'll be jumping in a car with a girlfriend & heading to Slade, KY to check out the Red River Gorge.  It's been awhile since I've taken a week off & I'm pretty psyched for this trip.

It's a loooong car ride from Boston, but we're hoping to leave at 4am and arrive by dinner.  The loose plan is a couple of nights of camping followed by a few nights in a luxury rental (my surprise treat) & lots of climbing!

I've been scoping out the different crags and climbs on Mountainproject.com, but finally caved in and just bought the guide books.  They'll be useful when we're wandering around & I'll want to make notes in them about my climbs.

I'm pretty geared up from all of my adventures so far this year, but there is one thing that I plan to get: a pair of leave biners.  One for me & one for my girlfriend.  My goal for this trip is for each of us to push ourselves to the point of using our leave biners.

Training for Kilimanjaro (sort of)

A couple of weeks ago I learned that one the interns at my work was training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.  This took me by complete surprise & I instantly bonded with her.  Prior to this, I really hadn't made an effort to get to know any of the interns. Work has been pretty crazy lately & all of my energy has been focused on just staying afloat in the sea of deadlines.  It took an offsite meeting with a couple of glasses of wine for me to strike up a conversation with her.

I was so inspired by her story that I volunteered to help her train.  She was looking for a partner to climb Mount Wachusett with.  "No problem!" I said, "I'm free this weekend!". But, she didn't have any free weekends to train... She wanted a partner to climb with after work during the week.  Well, I wasn't going to pull back my offer to help, so I agreed.  But, Mount Wachusett isn't very big... it only has a 2006 foot summit.  Confused, I asked her how this was going to help her train? That's when she said we were going to summit it twice before the sunset.  Now that just sounded like crazy talk to me! I was going to work a full day, drive an hour in rush hour traffic to a mountain, summit it twice & then drive back home? I think she saw the look of horror on my face & asked me if I was still in? Yup. I was in. It sounded just crazy enough that I had to do it.  I've been struggling on my long approaches and really need to strengthen my overall cardio fitness.

Well, tonight was the night.  We left work at 4:45pm and arrived at the base around 6:00pm.  Halfway through the first summit, I announced that I didn't think I had a second summit in me.  But, somehow I caught my second wind & pushed through the second summit to be rewarded with a spectacular sunset.

I really pushed myself hard on this climb... running on the flatter surfaces and keeping a steady pace on the steep, rocky parts. I was motivated to keep up with my partner & we were both running against the daylight clock.  It was awesome!

    

Two Toes Up for Resoling

I currently own 4 pairs of climbing shoes. My first pair was the 5.10 Coyote, which were retired within my first 6 months of climbing after I tried the Scarpa Helix.  I wore my first pair of Scarpa's for a couple of weeks until I realized that they were too small for me -- I lost a couple of toenails enduring their tightness & telling myself "they're suppose to hurt".  But, I liked the fit and comfort so much, that I bought another pair one 1/2 size larger & fell madly in love with them.  I wore these until they started to get noticeably more sensitive in the toe box area with some peeling action starting to occur.  At this point, I bought another pair of the same size & started to break those in.  However, I've never enjoyed breaking in new shoes & decided to research getting my beloved pair resoled.  That's when I found Rock & Resole on the internet.  Tons of great reviews can't be wrong, so I packed up my shoes & sent them on a spa vacation to Colorado.

It took a few days longer than anticipated, but I finally opened the mailbox on a Monday afternoon to find my shoes inside... Joy!  They were pretty stinky when I first took them out of their plastic mailing pouch... they smelled like high strength glue capable of killing brain cells.  I quickly got over the smell once I tried them on & recognized their personally molded comfort, along with a surprisingly sticky outsole that grabbed the lint off of my living room carpet with a vengeance.  They actually felt "better than new".  Seriously, the rubber that they used to replace my worn out Scarpa rubber was actually of better quality (turns out they used La Sportiva XS Edge).  I lead several routes at the gym that night with them & had complete confidence in their ability to stay put on the holds.

Even though the process costs about 1/2 of what a whole new pair of shoes would cost (at full price), I think that I will do it again when one of my pairs wears through again.  I didn't experience a stretching of the shoe upper, which I've heard many complain of, so the great fit didn't change for me.  La Sportiva probably makes a better climbing shoe (or at least an outsole), but my feet like the last shape of the Scarpa better.  So, my "newest" shoes have the best of both worlds for me: broken-in Scarpa upper with a La Sportiva outsole.  Ahh... now I need to wear down the outsoles on my other Scarpas to have them resoled with La Sportiva rubber.  Climbing diva?  Someone has to be.

Lost In the Sun

This past weekend I had the chance to climb my longest multi-pitch route yet: Lost In the Sun (5.5) in Crawford Notch, NH.  It's a 7 pitch route, but with running water over the bolted section of the 6th pitch, my lead partner decided to rap after completing 5 pitches.  This was just fine with me.  Prior to this, the longest route I had climbed was Birdland at Red Rocks and I only completed 4 pitches on that route due to timing.  I had gone into this climb with the goal of climbing my longest multi-pitch (check!), but it ended up being so much more than that. 

Our day started with a 6:15am alarm to give us enough time to pack up our campsite from the night prior and eat a good breakfast before driving to the highway pull off.  I'm not a morning person, so I gave myself a big gold star for this one.  We probably left camp at about 7:30am & arrived at the pull off around 7:45am. The approach was intense.  Not quite as bad as Seneca Rocks, but so far this approach takes second place.  I knew this when I agreed to climb the route, so mentally I was somewhat prepared, but physically I was not prepared.  Right off the bat, I had to cross the Saco River barefoot.  My partner was able to cross by stepping/jumping from boulder to boulder, but I just knew that I would fall in and hurt myself if I attempted this.  So, I clipped my shoes to my pack, rolled up my pant legs and crossed the river barefoot.  My feet were almost numb by the time I reached the other side, but I was proud of my accomplishment.  Only yards from the car... and I was giving myself bonus points.

The online descriptions that I read for this climb estimated the total approach time to be 30-45 minutes. Mine was over an hour due to the slow pace that I kept (my partner could have made in 30 minutes flat!).  We stopped to rest a couple of times at my request. The heat wasn't awful, but I was sweating up a storm and wanted to make sure that I was staying hydrated & giving myself time to catch my breath.  We finally made it to the base of the climb sometime around 9am.

The climbing was fun and easy (although run out).  My favorite feature on the climb was the famous Snake Flake.  I had intentions of swapping lead with my partner, but after seeing how run out and wet most of the pitches were, I ended up just following him.  All went well until he reached the top of the 4th pitch & I took him off of belay.  I was preparing myself to go on belay, when he yelled down to me that I needed to take cover fast and get down low.  I was confused by this command until I heard a loud rumbling noise & realized that a rock fall was happening.  I had no visual on this before getting down low, so my heart was pounding thinking that the worst was about to happen. I stayed down low until the rumbling stopped.  Apparently, a large boulder had come loose from the top of the mountain.  My partner witnessed a cloud of debris at the top of the mountain as the boulder made it's way down and alerted me then.  Luckily, the boulder rolled down the gully that we had hiked up on our approach & not the slabs that we were climbing on.  The gully was just yards away from the route that we were on.  Crazy stuff.  Luckily, neither one of us was on lead when this happened!

We rapped down 5 times with our double ropes, took our time descending the steep, rocky trail & called it a day.  Our big reward for the day?  Dinner & ice cream frappes from a diner on our ride back to Boston.  And we live to climb again.

I'm No Longer a Virgin

Well, the Gunks trip was a success!  I'm no longer a virgin & was able to get in my first Gunks lead climb.  I climbed a total of 8 pitches between the 2 days.  It was a slower pace than I had expected, but I was happy with all of the routes that we did.  I was able to climb on a wide variety of features that included some crack climbing, off width, layback, slab, chimney stemming & roof pulling. It was an interesting mix & a good full body workout.

On my first day, I seconded the first two pitches of Beginners Delight (5.3) - the third pitch was too wet to climb - and both pitches of Son of Bitchy Virgin (5.6).  I could have lead the first pitch of Beginners Delight, but with it being my first climb at the Gunks & my first trad in a couple of months, I just didn't have my lead head to jump right in.

On my second day, I lead the first pitch of Betty (5.3) & loved it.  It was just scary enough to keep my attention.  I was pretty proud of myself until I started belaying my partner up & a guy who was free soloing climbed up to my belay ledge.  No helmet, no rope, no gear. Hell, he wasn't even wearing his climbing shoes - they were hanging from his belt loop. Jerk. After this climb, I seconded Belly Roll (5.4).  Lots of exposure on that second pitch!

I always seem to learn at least one new skill every time I climb. On this trip, I learned how to manage double ropes & how to properly coil my cordelette.  Oh, and I also got some much needed feedback on my poor belay anchoring.  Ugh, I need more practice at that!  I built a solid 3 point anchor, equalized it with a cordelette, but I built it so low and off to the side of where I was belaying from that the anchor wasn't weighted during the belay and I belayed my second from my harness.  It worked & I think it was safe, but definitely could have been better.  Hopefully I will have the chance to get back on lead soon & sharpen up this skill.

My first Gunks lead - start of Betty 5.3 PG

It's a Completely Different World

I'm in the middle of packing for my trip to the Gunks tomorrow & I can't help but feel nervous and panicked...  Do I have everything?  Am I ready to trad lead in the Gunks? I don't think I can fully explain it to someone who has never rock climbed before, but this nervousness and panicking is actually part of the allure of rock climbing. It's the build up before the main event...sort of like foreplay.

So many questions swirling through my head -- Do I remember how to build a belay anchor? What if I can't complete my lead? What if I get my period? (yes, I'm expecting my period this weekend. Ugh... guys have it easy!) Do I trust my partner(s) with my life? Literally. 

 

As my co-worker commented to me before I left the office today: "It's a completely different world."  We were discussing why I had taken tomorrow off from work & when I explained what my long weekend was going to entail, she literally shrugged her shoulders in horror.  Her big plans for the weekend include getting a manicure. Don't get me wrong, I used to enjoy a weekly manicure myself before I started getting serious about rock climbing (hence the name of my blog). But, with the polish lasting a mere few hours before getting jacked up from a climb, I only indulge in this now when I really need it or when I want to feel girly for something.  I didn't even bother getting a manicure for my last internet date & he noticed. He actually remarked on how "short & unpainted" my nails were. Oh, boys.

I'm bringing very few comforts with me. My iPhone will be my biggest comfort by far, complete with a new mophie juice pack air (+100% battery life) & an external battery charger to juice up both in the tent at night.  The mophie was a last minute purchase feeding into my fear of running out of battery life during this trip.  I'll be using my phone all weekend as my camera, watch, alarm clock, compass, GPS, radio, portal to my Facebook addiction & guidebook mid-climb (I'll be taking pictures of each climb description from the guidebook prior to each ascent & referring to them if needed).  If I run out of battery life during this trip, I think my world will promptly end.