Oregon Adventures

About seven weeks ago, I left Boston for a nine day adventure in Oregon. At the time that I had booked the trip, I just wanted to run away. I had vacation days to burn, nothing keeping me in Boston & a strong need to recharge myself spiritually. Smith Rock was on my mind. I had seen pictures of this magical place floating around the Internet and knew that I had to go. In mentioning this to my climbing partner Deb one night at the gym, we just decided to book it. The main purpose of the trip was to do some rock climbing in Smith Rock State Park, but we managed to get in some other fun stuff too:

Day One

My alarm went off at 4:20am. I had two flights and a three hour car drive ahead of me. I had booked a shared car service to the airport & luckily at this hour, I was the only passenger. Our long day of travel went without incident & we stopped at a Whole Foods on our way to the house rental to grab some necessities. For me, this meant a bottle of Pinot Noir. The highlight of my day was sitting on the back deck of the house enjoying the sunset over the high desert with the flames of the gas fireplace dancing while I enjoyed my glass of wine.

Day Two

The forecast was rain. All day. It was a little deflating as I had been psyching myself up for all of the climbs that I wanted to do, but it actually worked out well. We woke up a little tired from our long day of travel & I made us a nice breakfast of eggs, potatoes & fruit. We took our time getting ready & then headed to the nearby city of Bend. We walked around in our rain jackets just taking in the city and shopping at the little boutiques that lined the main streets. We also walked through a famer's market, which was so colorful and cheery. I couldn't help taking pictures of the veggies & flowers! We ended the day with a pasta dinner that I cooked at the house while we planned a hiking day.

Day Three

We started the morning with homemade buttermilk cinnamon pancakes and a fresh fruit salad. Most. Delicious. Pancakes. Ever. Of course, I had to take a picture. The forecast for the day had a significant chance of rain, so we decided to head to Smith Rock to hike the Misery Ridge Trail. In talking with some locals the day before, everyone we spoke with recommended this trail. I'm so glad that we did it. Smith Rock is an amazing place and you definitely get a different perspective of the landscape from this trail. 

Day Four

First climb day! Woo hoo! After having walked all around the park the day before, we knew exactly where we wanted to go. One of the most popular climbs in the park is called Five Gallon Buckets (5.8), so we headed there first to get our turn on this classic. As much as I wanted to jump right on lead, I decided to TR this one. I had been training on lead at the gym for several weeks before the trip and had worked myself up to some 5.9's in the gym, but we were both unsure of the grading at Smith Rock & I didn't want to freak myself out on my first climb.

Next, we moved on to the Dihedrals area and I onsited a couple of mellow climbs: Night Flight (5.5) and Easy Reader (5.6). The start to Easy Reader was super bouldery and on the crux move before the first clip (Deb thought this move was 5.8ish & we weren't able to stick clip it) I let out what I thought was a grunt on the crux, but Deb thought it was more like a whimper. Haha... if it was a whimper, it was a bad ass whimper!  It was a fun first day & the sun was strong. We ended up a little tired by the end of this third climb, so we decided to call it a day. We headed back to the house & cooked up a massive stir-fry dinner.

Day Five

More rock climbing? Yes, please! We decided to head to the Monument Base Area to check out some fun, juggy routes we had heard about there. This area was not part of the Misery Ridge Trail, so we had not explored it yet. As we were walking down the trail, a climber with his harness still on came running towards and then past us. I could sense the urgency in his step & thought it was a little weird, but he didn't say anything and we just moved on. When we arrived at the base of the climbing area, we realized what was going on. A climber had taken a serious lead fall where he had not only experienced a ground fall, but a boulder had come loose off of the wall and hit him in the head on his way down. The rest of the climbing parties that were there cleared out, but Deb and I decided to stay. Sandstone can be fragile after rain & if pulled on too forcefully, like with all of the weight of a 225 pound male, why yes... it will break. Apparently this was the victim's first time lead climbing outside. As we found out later, he was lucky to get away with just a broken leg. He was carried off in a basket attached to a mountain bike wheel, complete with it's own braking system. At first, I was hesitant to take a picture, but the victim was insisting that his friends document the event with photos and video, so I decided to snap a couple pics as he was being carried out. We offered to help retrieve the gear left on the wall by the victim and the rest of his climbing party, but two guys in their party managed to get it down.

Needless to say, my helmet did not come off of my head while we proceeded to climb at this wall. I managed to onsite a 5.7 called Bagpiping in the Buff, lead a 5.9 called Approaching the Twilight & then TR'd a 5.8 called Snow Bunny. It was quite an exciting day! We decided to end the day a bit early, grab some ice cream cones, head back to the house to shower and change & then went out for dinner at the Terrebonne Depot. It's close to Smith Rock and a popular hangout for climbers. We actually saw a few climbing parties there which we had talked to that day.

Day Six

We woke up to a family of deer roaming through the backyard of our house rental! It was so cool, they came right up to the back deck & appeared to be begging for food. I refused to feed them and they eventually got bored and moved on. We had planned to climb a five-pitch moderate sport route called First Kiss (5.7), however with only one 60M rope, we needed to buy either a second rope or a tag line in order to rappel down from the 5th pitch. The scramble off of the top of this climb seemed too sketchy to attempt without good beta. Neither one of us needed a new rope, so Deb decided to buy a 60M tag line. Ugh, tag lines... Just don't do it. We should have known what we were in for when the thing became a snarled mess in the store as the clerk was measuring it out.

We actually had to drive down to Bend, OR to buy the tag line, so we decided to just hike for the rest of the day & attempt First Kiss the following morning.  Deb had her heart set on summiting Tumalo Mountain & I wanted to see Tumalo Falls, so we did both. We started at the Falls, which was cool, but way too touristy. Then, we drove about 30 minutes to the base of the mountain. I'm so glad that we did the mountain. The views were amazing and the volcanic rock that covered the summit was something that I had never seen before. It was pretty cold and windy at the summit. No snow on the ground there, but the surrounding mountains had white caps from the weather system that had brought rain to Terrebonne earlier in the week.

Day Seven

Multi-pitch day! Oh yeah! We geared up and hiked in to the base of our climb. The plan was for me to take the first (5.7) and third (5.5) pitches. Since I was taking the first pitch, Deb wanted a 5.7 pitch as well, so she took the second (5.6), fourth (5.5) and fifth (5.7) pitches. This was my first multi-pitch climb where I legitimately exchanged leads with my partner. I think it was about 10am by the time we arrived at the base of the climb and geared up. I was super nervous, but really excited and ready for the challenge.

The first pitch was smooth until I got to this awkward ledge where I had to clip to the left of a bulge. From there, I could either make a sketchy high step move off the ledge with poor hands, or I could traverse my way right around the bulge (I actually chose to scoot under it) to continue up on a pocketed face.  I tried to gather myself a couple of times to make the sketchy high step, but just couldn't do it. I was happy to belay Deb up over that section and have her confirm the sketchiness of it as well. She also decided to traverse right on top rope.

My second lead was the third pitch of this route. In all of the beta that I gathered on this climb, this was by far the worst pitch. It was a super long traverse with massive rope drag and a sketchy start. There should have been a bolt on the sketchy start, but I think it fell out. So, I traversed off of a ledge onto a blocky section of wall with sloping holds where you could see straight down and then onto another ledge where I made my first clip. This ended up being one of my favorite pictures as you can see the long length of rope hanging in between me and Deb as we stood on our separate ledges. We could not hear each other for most of this pitch as I was leading us around a massive pillar of rock. I basically had to yank out enough rope for me to make each of my moves so as not to be pulled off of the rock.

We completed the first three pitches without incident, but then the weather started to change. I had brought my windbreaker with me, but gave it to Deb just before she started belaying me on the third pitch. As she began her lead on the fourth pitch, I let her keep my windbreaker on & immediately regretted it as it started to rain and the wind started kicking up as she was making her second clip. My teeth began chattering and I tried to hug into the rock as closely as I could to get out of the wind and rain. This belay seemed to last FOREVER. I don't blame her for taking her time to complete it, as I sure as hell wouldn't have wanted to be the leader at that point. I followed that pitch as quickly as I could not only to warm up, but to try to speed up our climb as the weather seemed to be getting worse by the minute.

We discussed our options at the beginning of the fifth pitch & somehow decided to just go for it. This was Deb's 5.7 pitch and I don't think she wanted to give it up, even in the rain. I let her keep the windbreaker on & suffered through another miserable belay. My hands were so cold that I could barely feel my fingertips as I followed her on this pitch. We briefly celebrated our successful ascent and then began assembling our tag line rappel. This took way too long. The belay ledge at the top was small & uncomfortable. My fingers were frozen. And of course our tag line didn't uncoil neatly and we had to sort through a tangled mess of knotted rope as the rain and wind picked up and the sun began to set. Not my favorite climbing moment. Tag lines: Just say no.

After finally sorting all the rope out, Deb rappelled down first. I rappelled down second. And then, we tried to pull our rope using the tag line. Nothing. Pulled Harder. Nothing. Yanked the fucker as hard as we could. Nothing. I was not amused. The sun was setting and the wind and rain were not letting up. We still had a long hike back out of the park, so I decided that we should just bail off of the side of the climb and leave our gear. This was the first time that I've ever bailed on a climb and left gear overnight, which didn't feel great, but felt better than any other option. We put on our headlamps, scrambled down the side of the cliff onto a trail, retrieved our packs from the base of the climb and headed back to the car in the dark. What a day.

Day Eight (a.k.a. Operation Rescue 'Sven' Day)

We had other climbs in mind for our last day at Smith Rock, but due to the circumstances from Day Seven, we had to go back to First Kiss and rescue our gear instead. We had been using my rope, which I had named Sven when I bought him earlier this year for my Red River Gorge trip & I was not about to let Sven go. We stopped at the local climb shop on our way to Smith in the morning & I decided to buy a green 70M 10.2MM. I really wanted a lighter 70M, but they didn't have one. I decided that I would use it to rescue Sven and then have it cut in half to use as a gym rope & try to sell the second half. I decided at the store that her name would be Svetlana. New ropes are so pretty, so of course I had to pose for a picture with her! (Yes, the staff at the climb shop thought I was legit CRAZY).

However, I did learn something new. Most ropes come factory coiled, which you need to uncoil in a certain way to avoid kinks and curls later on. My salesman volunteered to help me uncoil my rope and then recoiled it for me, after we marked the center with a piece of tape. Operation rescue Sven was a success, and we later returned to the climb shop to have Svetlana cut into two: Svet & Lana. I'm still looking for a home for Svet... :(

Day Nine

Another long travel day, but I was ready to head back home after all of the adventures that I had on this trip!  We woke up around 7am, had a nice breakfast & then set off for the 3-hour ride to the airport around 8am. With plenty of time to spare, it was a relaxing ride & a beautiful day. Oregon is such a gem! I can't wait to go back out there again and share it with some of my friends.

Mount Washington! (aka #sufferfest)

Yesterday I successfully hiked to the summit of Mount Washington and back down again via the Tuckerman Ravine Trail. This goal had been over a year in the making & it felt so great to achieve!

The day started early with a 5am alarm, but I woke up feeling well rested and prepared for the day (my new mattress is so comfy! yay!) I spent the evening before laying out my gear, packing & fueling up with a big pasta dinner. Simone picked me up at 5:30am and we headed North towards the Pinkham Notch visitor center. Along the way we stopped at Starbucks to grab some iced lattes and breakfast sandwiches. Both were delicious and energized us for the long day ahead. I had bacon in mine & sorry that I'm not sorry.

We pulled into the visitor center at 8:30am and noticed other hikers walking through the parking lot with their hats & gloves on, which seemed odd to us until we stopped the car and actually stepped outside. It was chilly! The sun was hiding behind an approaching front & the wind was blowing through the open parking lot. We put on our hiking boots, some extra clothing layers, our hats & gloves and headed inside to the visitors center. I didn't print off a trail map, so we bought a map & an emergency ice pack. The lady at the checkout said it should take about 8-10 hours round trip. I asked her about the approaching front & she confirmed that there was a 30% chance of rain starting around 3pm.

We clocked in at the start of the trail at 9am. I was eager to get moving so that we would warm up, but that didn't take too long to achieve. We were stripping off our gloves, hats and extra layers shortly after ascending into the treeline. In fact, I started to get so warm that I wished I had brought my tank top with me (which I ditched from my pack after I felt how cold it was in the parking lot). After some minor hesitation, I stripped down to my sports bra. I'm usually too self conscious to do this, but I did not want to sweat through my clothes. We stopped a few times to take pictures, eat snacks, dig out more tissues for our runny noses & add/remove layers of clothing as needed. It took us 2 hours to cover the 2.4 miles up to the Tuckerman Ravine shelter.

We stopped briefly at the shelter to use the toilets & then moved on. The next mile of hiking was more intense, but still manageable both physically and mentally. There were pretty waterfalls and gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains to cheer us on as we ascended into the clouds. We stopped when needed and chatted with a few people we met on the trail, which made the experience that much more enjoyable. An older gentlemen that we met was there from Montreal training for Mount Kilimanjaro. He happily took our picture & enjoyed hearing our story of training for Mount Washington. 

The last .8 mile push towards the summit was intense. At that point, we were above the clouds and well into in the Alpine zone with the wind blowing as we scrambled over rock after rock after rock. The trail is non existent at this altitude and you're just wandering over the piles of rocks in the general direction of the next cairn. This was physically and mentally exhausting, but at that point you have a visual of the summit and that helps to push you along.

We reached the summit and experienced some really strong winds. The long straps on my pack were whipping in the wind and my hiking poles felt like they were possessed, trying to blow away from me. We found the summit marker, waited in line a couple of minutes for our turn to get some pictures & then quickly took shelter inside. After a stop at the restroom, we found a couple of open spots at a table in the cafeteria & took turns watching the packs and getting food. The little break was great, but we were anxious to get back on the trail to try to beat the rain. After a quick check on my water supply (2 out of 3 liters left, no need to top it off) we packed up, layered up and retraced our steps back down the trail.

The first .8 miles I knew would be steep and extra rough with the wind against our faces. I was wearing every layer that I brought with me & was especially thankful for the second pair of gloves that I had packed, as my first pair had gotten wet while we had traversed our way through sections of running water on the ascent. Simone had remembered to bring her knee brace & we just took our time planning our foot placements and using our poles to brace ourselves. It was slow, but steady going.

Then the rain started. It started first as a light sprinkle, which we tried to ignore, but developed quickly into a light rain which required us to break out the rain gear around the .8 mile marker. I had been hoping that we would have made it to the treeline before dealing with the rain, but no such luck. The next 2 miles were pretty treacherous with the rain making the rocks slippery under our muddy, wet boots. I slipped and took a fall, but managed to catch myself with my pole just before hitting the ground. We both brought our headlamps, so we decided to just take our time and let the faster parties pass us. The descent took forever. The last hour was especially brutal and I preoccupied my mind with thoughts of a hot shower, warm meal & glass of red wine.

We finally made it off the mountain at 7pm, which clocked us in at the 10 hour mark round trip. I think we would have been a little faster on the descent without the rain, but I was generally happy with our time. We briefly celebrated our victory with a tap of the hiking poles and a high five before hopping in the car to find our hotel. I had booked us a room at the Attitash Grand Summit hotel & after checking in, we quickly showered and made our way to the bar. We toasted to our success with a yummy bottle of Pinot Noir & filled our bellies with turkey tips, mashed potatoes and green beans. They had a gas fireplace with leather sofas in the lobby area, so we settled in there to finish our wine and check in with our loved ones before heading to bed at 10:30pm.

It was an awesome weekend and even though my legs are too sore to even walk today, I'd love to do it again next year. Maybe to celebrate *my* 40th birthday!  Jesus. I'm not ready for 40 yet.

Training for Mount Washington - Part Two

Today was #doublesummitday in my (sadistic?) plan to train for Mount Washington. Simone and I had not seen or talked to each other since our last training session, so we had so much to catch up on! It was awesome. Even though we work for the same company, we work on different brands & rarely see each other these days. We both have 1/2 day Fridays during the Summer months, so we planned to leave work at 12:30pm and headed out to Mount Wachusett. The 50 minute drive to the mountain seemed to evaporate in no time as we caught each other up on recent work and personal events.

At a peak elevation of only 2,006 feet, I hesitate to call Wachusett a "mountain". What is the definition of a mountain, anyway? I just googled it... a mountain is "typically at least 2,000 feet elevation". Ok, so it's officially a mountain... but just barely. The plan was a double summit. Which, honestly, is more of a mental challenge than a physical challenge. Having completed this challenge last year, I knew that I could do it. Simone, however, was walking into this challenge blindly. This was her first double summit & it was *my* job to coach her through it mentally. We pushed through the challenge together & both felt stronger in the end.

After today, I officially feel ready for Mount Washington. Thank god! It's still going to be a #painfest for me, but I definitely feel much better about it.  I'm happy, healthy & ready to push myself mentally and physically to my limits. We've been blessed with gorgeous training days so far. I'm hoping for a bright, clear day for our planned ascent in 2 weeks. 

Training for Mount Washington - Part One

About a year ago, my co-worker Simone asked me if I would hike Mt Washington with her this year. She was turning 40 and wanted to do something big to commemorate it. I would definitely not advertise myself as a hiker, but Simone knew I was a rock climber. Mt Washington sounded like a badass challenge, so of course I was in.

We decided the best time of year would probably be at the end of the summer. So, a few weeks ago she stopped by my desk and we sat down to map out a training plan. Based on schedules, we were able to plan two sessions together to train for our challenge. Last weekend was our first training session!

My alarm went off Sunday morning at 7am.  I had tossed and turned for most of the night on an uncomfortable mattress, so I got up feeling pretty grumpy. I cranked some music and hopped into the shower, trying to shake it off and get myself psyched up for the day. That seemed to work & all of my prep the night before in packing and laying out my clothes got me out the door on time. Except, I forgot to put on my deodorant. Let's just say that I was pretty ripe by the end of the day.

I picked up Simone from her house in Concord at 8am with light rain falling. No worries I told her, it won't be raining in Jaffrey, NH. Shortly after we got on Rt 2 to head West, the rain stopped. After passing our exit on the highway because we were too engrossed in girl chat & then stopping for gas, we pulled into the Mt Monadnock parking lot around 9:45am. So did the rain. We decided to wait it out in the car, checking the weather radar on our cell phones. It passed in about 10 minutes & we jumped out of the car to start putting on our hiking boots and packs. After a quick stop at the toilets, we were on the trail by 10am.

I chose the white dot trail for our ascent. It was about 1700 feet in elevation gain & the cardio kicked my butt. Cardio is my nemesis. Of course, it didn't help that I hadn't eaten anything for breakfast. Who does that? Me. Mt Washington will be about 4200 feet of elevation gain. Can't wait. Sufferfest.

The hike was pretty cool, I remembered some of the views and details of the trail from my hike there 3 years ago. This was the first mountain that I've ever hiked or summited, so it holds a special place in my heart.

We reached the summit & found a spot to sit and eat some snacks. I brought blueberries & a granola bar. Normally blueberries make me very happy on a summit. However, their magical powers were just not working that day. There were a lot of stagnant water puddles on the summit, so it wasn't long before the bugs were ushering us back down the mountain.

To mix it up a bit, we took the white cross trail on our descent.  It was a little longer, but it was supposed to be less steep overall.  Still very hard on the body though. Simone started to feel it in her knees first. My knees are fairly strong, but after awhile I could feel it in my hips.

30-40 minutes into our descent, I felt something buzzing around my sweaty hair and swatted it away with my hand. I didn't get a complete visual on it, but I think it was a wasp & it sank its stinger into my hand near my first knuckle. I shook my hand violently to try to shake it off of me, but it just held on pumping its venom into me. I can't remember the last time I was stung. My hand hurt severely and immediately started swelling.

We made it off the mountain about 20 minutes after my sting & I was able to pop some Advil and buy an ice pack. But, by this time, the venom had already worked its way into my knuckle. I drove us home one handed while icing my wound. 6 hours later, I was still icing the affected area. Throbbing, relentless joint pain.

When I'm on Mt Washington five weeks from now feeling like I can't go on, I want to remember the pain I felt from that wasp sting. I think summiting Mt Washington for me is going to be 50% physical & 50% mental. Physical is either there or it's not... this is what I'm training for. Mental is a whole different game. I think that wasp gave me the mental edge I'm going to need to push through to the summit.

Acadia the Beautiful

The past couple of months have been so crazy, I feel like I fell off the blog wagon & now need to catch up. I've been so sick with Strep throat over the past two and a half weeks that I haven't been able to climb or do much of anything but read and write. Let's rewind back to Memorial Day Weekend...

My friend and climbing partner Deb decided last minute that she wanted to do a climb trip for Memorial Weekend and asked me if I was interested. Sure! We decided on Acadia. Acadia was my very first climb trip two years ago. I had gone with a couple of close friends and did a 3-day intense rock climbing course. It was an awesome trip, but I didn't get to see a lot of the park besides the two major climbing areas (Precipice & Otter Cliffs). This time around, the plan was to spend one day each at Precipice & Otter Cliffs and then two days of exploring and hiking in the park. I was actually more excited about the hiking than the climbing!

Day One had a significant chance of showers in the afternoon, so we decided to do some hiking inland. We fueled up first with a nice breakfast of blueberry pancakes. The trails were mostly wooded and led us to rocky summits with 360 views of the park. We summited Mount Sargent and Mount Penobscot. I didn't think I had a second summit in me, but Deb is a great motivator.

Summit of Mount Penobscott

Day Two was mostly sunny and we decided to climb a 5.6 multi-pitch trad route in the Precipice called Story of O. Deb had led this route before and remembered each pitch having a heady crux, but she felt up to the challenge & I was happy to follow. This was hands down the hardest 5.6 I've ever climbed. Super fun, but I'm glad I didn't try to lead any of the 3 pitches. My calf muscles were also pretty stiff from all of the hiking that we did the day before.

Story of O (5.6)

Day Three was cold and mostly cloudy, but no rain in the forecast. It was 40 degrees when we woke up, but we decided to layer up and brave Otter Cliffs for the day. We made it to the cliffs around 9am and anchored 3 ropes. One of them was our escape route on an easy 5.7 called The Flake and the other two were hard 5.10's: Peak Performance (5.10) and A Dare by the Sea (5.10d). The last time I was at Otter Cliffs, we were belaying from the top of the cliff, but I liked this set-up better. We rapped down to the base of the cliff and belayed from there. I got the two 5.10's mixed up and started on the 5.10d first. It was super pumpy and technical, especially when you got to the 10' long finger crack section. I worked that section for awhile, but couldn't get through it and lowered down. I was a little discouraged, but determined to try it again. I worked the other 5.10 first, which had an awkward crux, but the rest of the climb was fun. Feeling a little more accomplished, I tried the 5.10d again and managed to pull through the finger crack section. It wasn't pretty, but I finished it and it felt great! I'd love to rework that route again someday with tape on my fingers.

3 Ropes set-up on Otter Cliff

Day Four was a little rainy in the morning, but it was supposed to clear up by afternoon. It was our last day in Acadia and we decided to head down to the most southern point of the island to check out the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse and do some exploring around that area. We did a couple of small trails near the lighthouse that lead to the ocean and by then the sun was out. Deb really wanted me to climb the Beehive on this trip & we managed to squeeze that it in right at the very end. With the sun out, the rock and iron rails were dry & we summited just before dinner time. For someone used to climbing with a rope, it actually felt pretty sketchy. One slip or stumble, and you could fall 500 feet to your death. After scrambling down the back trail, we grabbed one final meal before the long drive back to Boston. It was an action packed, exhausting, but fun 4-day adventure.

Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse

Climbing the Beehive