Chipmunks can Climb 5.13

I've never seen a chipmunk climb a route before this weekend.  It's pretty awesome to watch.  They don't have any technical moves, just fast and fearless movement.  I was standing at the base of my first 5.7 trad lead trying to get my head together & convince myself that I could do it when a chipmunk approached. As if to show me that it wasn't a big deal, the chipmunk climbed my route right in front of me.  It was exactly what I needed at that moment.  I burst out in nervous laughter & that seemed to calm me down.

This lead has been a long time in the making.  One of the goals that I had set for myself this year was to lead a 5.7 trad pitch by the end of the summer.  Well, I achieved my goal!  It happened a couple of weeks late, but weather played a hand in that, as I was suppose to try my 5.7 lead a couple weeks prior, but got rained out.

My partner and I were at The North End of Cathedral & had just finished climbing an intense 5.9 crack route called They Died Laughing.  My crack climbing skills are pretty weak, but I managed to land some decent finger and hand jams following him.  After watching me on this route, my partner thought I should go for my 5.7 lead on a crack route called Kiddy Crack.  I walked over and checked it out.  It looked intimidating for a 5.7, but the crux was low & I knew that if I could get past the crux, the 5.7 lead would be mine.  I also pacified myself that I could bail at any time and pull on as much gear as I needed to.  The goal was to just do it.

Next climbing goal: lead a 5.7 trad pitch clean!

Red River Gorgeous

Red River Gorge was great!  It was a perfectly balanced trip of roughing it/pushing it and luxury/just having fun.  I climbed a total of 7 sport leads during the trip, including my first 5.9 onsite.  I also got a chance to TR a bunch of 5.10's.  Here's how it went down:  

Day One
The first day of our trip was a little rough.  We didn't hit the road until 6:30am and stopped several times on our way for gas, lunch, bathroom breaks & driver switches causing us to arrive at Miguel's just before 10pm.  It was a Saturday night, so the place was b-u-s-y.  Initially we thought we would hang out and socialize for awhile, but fatigue quickly settled in and we decided to just pitch the tent and call it a night.  Except, we didn't get much sleep.  It was pretty loud with people staying up until about 3am talking... Crazy climbers.

Day Two
I wasn't psyched to hear my alarm go off.  We met my partner's friend for breakfast around 8:30am & then headed to Muir Valley for the day.  It was great to climb with someone who had experience in the Red & could recommend the best walls to hit for our individual climbing levels.  My first climb/lead was a heady 5.7 & I had a mini meltdown on it.  It felt way harder than a 5.7 at the crux and I didn't have my lead head dialed in yet.  I took some time to pull it together & finished, but it was definitely not the best climb to start out on.  The rest of my climbs that day were all strong & enjoyable.  We also met a couple of guys from Baltimore who were leading 5.10 & made plans to join forces with them to climb at PMRP the next day, along with my partner's friend.

My tick list for the day, all at Muir Valley - Bruise Brothers Wall:

• Lead - Trundling Kentucky, 5.7
• Lead - Send Me On My Way, 5.9- **My favorite climb @ the Red!**
• TR - Workin' For the Weekend, 5.10c
• TR - Rat Stew, 5.10a
• Onsite - The Offering, 5.7

Day Three
We met up with the boys at Miguel's and caravaned to PMRP in 3 separate passenger cars due to everyone's different schedules that day.  FYI - you probably shouldn't go here if you don't have an off-road 4x4 vehicle, or if you care anything at all about your car.  You need to navigate crazy gravel unmaintained roads to get there.  I just grabbed onto the *oh shit* handle in the passenger seat and kept telling myself "thank god this isn't my car".  At one point, everyone had to get out of their cars and push one of them out of a ditch.  We didn't even make it to the legal parking area... that road just looked like a series of continuous ski moguls.  We all parked illegally on the side of the road and just hoped that we didn't get towed.

We went to the Gallery Wall, which was mostly above my lead ability.  I ended up only TR'ing 3 routes here. They were longer, quality routes so I was OK with it & still a little sore from the previous day's routes.  My partner decided to project her first 5.11 here.  She couldn't pull through the end of the roof on lead & decided to TR it at the end of the day to figure out the moves.  I think this was the first rappel that she had to set-up on the trip & made a couple of critical errors.  She didn't tie a knot in the end of her rope & didn't lower her rope all the way to the ground.  Basically, she set herself up to rap off of her rope about 20' above the ground.

I had just finished cleaning a route of my own when I saw her getting ready to rappel at the other end of the crag & something told me to go over and give her a fireman's belay.  When I arrived at the base of her route and saw the situation she was in, I panicked.  Her friend had already left the crag & the Baltimore boys were off scouting out their next climb.  I told her stay put & stop rappelling so I could think through what we should do.  She freaked out and decided that she was just going to keep rappelling - still not sure about the logic here - but, she was weak and sore from working the 5.11 and didn't think that she had the strength to stay put.  As she continued rappelling, it looked like she was going to make it to a ledge, so I let her continue and bit my tongue.

Luckily, the boys appeared back just as she was arriving at the ledge and I yelled to one of them to help.  After running over and quickly assessing the situation, one of them free climbed to the ledge and helped her fix the rappel.  It was one of the scariest climbing situations that I've witnessed & I was so shaken by this that I almost burst into tears and my hands were shaking.  Something had told me to go over to my partner & I had initially brushed it off, telling myself "she'll be fine, you should change your shoes & get some water", but then a stronger feeling washed over me & I went.  Always listen to that voice in your head that tells you to do something -- especially if it speaks twice.  There's no doubt in my mind that she would have rappelled off of the end of her rope & sustained serious injuries had I not been there.  After this incident, we called it a day.  I had rented a luxury rental for us that night & we decided to leave early to check in.      

My tick list for the day, all at PMRP - The Gallery:

• TR - 27 Years of Climbing, 5.8
• TR - Murano, 5.10b
• TR - A Brief History of Climb, 5.10b

Day Four
We decided to take a full rest day.  We were both sore & still shaken up from the previous day, so we spent the morning lounging around the rental.  Miguel actually showed up to check our hot tub & gave us a tour of the larger rental on the property, which sleeps 14.  He was really interesting to talk to & has seen what he described as two generations of college kids over his years of running Miguel's.  Super nice guy.

In the afternoon, we decided to venture out and explore the Natural Bridge.  It was a beautiful day and we had fun taking pictures and enjoying each other's company.

Day Five
This was our last day in the Red.  We decided this was the day that we were going to hit it hard.  It was just the two of us, so there were no distractions.  We headed back to Muir Valley and started at the Land Before Time Wall.  This is where I onsited my first 5.9.  It was awesome!  My partner thought I was going to fall at the crux & ended up pulling me pretty tight, but I hung on.  We had the crag to ourselves, so I wasn't being shy about letting out some pretty serious grunts on the big moves & she mistook my grunt as a potential fall.  This wall is where my partner left her leave biner.  She had attempted an awkward 5.10 & ended up backing out rather than risking a fall.  I didn't blame her - it was pretty sketchy.  I didn't leave a biner on this trip, but this idea is still front of mind for me in pushing my limits.  After running out of dry climbs at this crag, we headed back to the Bruise Brothers Wall where we had started our trip.  Here we found a few more climbs & I ended my day and trip feeling pretty strong.   

My tick list for the day, all at Muir Valley:

• Lead - Prehistoric Ext, 5.8+
• Onsite - Ryanosaurus, 5.9
• TR - LittleVipor, 5.10b
• Onsite - CH4, 5.7
• Onsite - The Bee's Business, 5.7

Day Six
After packing up the car, we sadly drove away from our rental & headed to the Lexington, KY airport to drop me off.  I left most of my gear in my partner's car as she was continuing on to Ohio to visit family/friends for the weekend before driving back. It was a successful first trip to the Red & I'll definitely be back here climbing within the next year.  If only it wasn't such a long car ride away!

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.