Boston Lead Certified

I recently completed my last lead certification for all of the Boston area gyms. There are 4 lead-worthy gyms in the area & it's taken me about a year to get certified in all of them. It finally happened last Thursday night. I didn't plan it... I was sort of guilted into doing it. A friend that I've been training with for the past few months had been really eager for me to test at the gym we train at together so that she could have a lead belay partner.  It was the last gym that I needed to test at & the leading in this gym is pretty intimidating to me with steep overhangs & technical moves. I showed up that night feeling pretty strong, so I decided to go for it. I top-roped my route twice on a loose rope, practicing my clipping as I went & then tested on it. Everything went well except for my fall. Why do I always hurt myself on lead falls? Ugh. It was a clean fall until I somehow bounced one of my legs off of the rope instead of the wall. No problems passing the test, but now I have a huge, nasty purple bruise the size of my hand on my calf. Tonight I went back to the gym to try their lead roof. I wasn't brave enough last week & pretty sore after the test. I made it about 3 clips from the end of a 5.10- route before falling off. Not bad for my first try. I managed to hurt myself on ths fall too, but not as badly. I pinched the back of my heel above my shoe on a heel hook & got a small bruise with some minor swelling. I'm hoping it will look better in the morning. Leaving for Red River Gorge this weekend & feeling ready to push my limits. I'm hoping to get on some more 5.9's and maybe lead my first 5.10. Also hoping to get on some trad routes this time!

Joshua Tree

About 10 weeks ago, my friend Maria sent me a random text message asking if I'd be interested in going to Joshua Tree. She didn't expect me to say yes, but she also didn't know that I had been unsuccessfully trying to make plans of my own to get out there. We decided to link it up with a few extra days in San Diego for some sight seeing and beach time. Maria doesn't trad climb, but I figured she could follow my lead & we'd find a way to set some top rope anchors to get on some harder routes. We flew into San Diego on a Wednesday night and spent two days in the city checking out the Zoo, Bolboa Park & the beaches. On Saturday, we headed up to Palm Springs and did some shopping, hiking & relaxing at a quaint B&B in the middle of the desert - complete with a hot tub under the stars and a gourmet breakfast. I can't remember if they were duck or goose eggs, but they were amazing and accompanied by smoked salmon, paprika potatoes & the most delicious homemade bread. We stuffed ourselves, as Maria reminded me "it's peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from here on out!"

We rolled into Joshua Tree on the Sunday morning of Presidents Day weekend. We had plans to camp in the park that night, but were greeted with a "camping full" sign. Apparently, the park waives it's visitor fees on this weekend and it was crazy. Huge let down, but we ended up finding a campsite about 10 minutes away from the park. After setting up camp there, we headed back to the park to check out Intersection Rock. I had read about a couple of moderate trad routes on this formation and wanted to check them out. Feeling pretty intimidated & uncertain of myself, I chose an unnamed area on the rock to scramble up and practice placing my trad gear. It was probably a 5.1 route, but I had fun just getting a feel for the rock and warming up.

Wanting to explore the park more, we decided to drive around a bit and check out one of the overlooks. The view here was incredible and so easily achieved with a car ride. Wanting a bit more of a challenge, we decided to hike up Ryan Mountain. We had just enough time to do this and make it back down to catch the sunset in the park. I ran around the base of the trailhead snapping pictures from all angles, trying to get the perfect shot. And when I say ran, I was literally leaping over plants. Maria thought I was crazy and just sat back on a rock soaking it all in. Being in the moment is great, and I definitely took a couple of minutes to soak it in myself, but I was determined to get the perfect shot. For an amateur with an iPhone camera, I'm pretty happy with what I was able to capture. We celebrated that night with pizza, beer & a campfire.

                                   

The next morning, we decided to pack up camp and try to get a spot in the park. Hidden Valley is the climbers campground and we were hoping to find a spot there. But, before heading into the park, we stopped at a small organic vegan coffee shop and had a great conversation with an older couple who were probably in their mid to late 50's. They were adorable. The husband recommended a trad route called The Eye, 5.4. He also gave us a good tip on an area where we could set a top rope - Thin Wall. We took both of his recommendations and set out to start our day. We headed straight to Hidden Valley and struck up a conversation with the first camper we saw. With the park still claiming to be full, we were hoping to share someone's campsite. The camper we spoke to suggested that we pitch our tent on his neighbor's lot & just leave them a note. This seemed pretty ballsy to me, but apparently he knew that they had obtained the lot by sharing it with the couple that had booked it before them. Without a writing instrument, we crafted a friendly note with eyeliner and placed it on a table outside their tent with a rock on it. I was skeptical that this scheme would work, but it was our only shot. We pitched our tent in a secluded corner of their lot and took off for the day.

We found The Eye fairly easily and started setting up for the climb. I only had a 60 meter rope & was a little concerned about running out of rope and rope drag. After checking it out, I decided to free solo the first portion of the route which lead to a nice flat belay area. My partner, not having much trad experience, was too uncomfortable belaying me from anywhere but the ground. Not having communicated this clearly prior to my ascent, she followed me up the first portion of the route with the rope and then I had to belay her back down to the ground. The tension between us was not ideal for my first real trad lead in Joshua Tree, but I kept focused and pushed through. It was an awesome climb. I had no idea what to expect, just a map of the rock face with a line showing where my route was supposed to go. I made it to the top of the climb in the eye of the rock and belayed Maria up. We hashed out our miscommunication one more time and then scrambled our way down the backside of the rock.

After the drama of this climb, we were ready for some straight forward top roping. We headed over to the Thin Wall and decided that Maria would be the one to scramble to the top to set the top rope while I organized my trad rack. It looked fairly easy from the ground and she grabbed a bunch of gear, leaving behind her climb shoes. Fairly close to the top, she realized that it was much more than a simple scramble and ended up doing a V1 bouldering problem in her Chacos with the rope tied to her back. I was confident in her climbing abilities, but she was pretty shaken up by this. Next, she had to create our top rope anchor for the 5.9 climb that we had selected called Count on Your Fingers. This took awhile and we were losing daylight quickly by this point, but she did it and successfully rapped down. After getting to the ground, I tried to pull one side of the rope and it was stuck. Luckily, the other side moved more freely, but clearly the anchor wasn't far enough over the edge. Maria decided to top rope it first and fixed the anchor when she got to the top. I top roped it second and cleaned the anchor, rapping from a set of rings a few feet away. We finished just as the sun was setting and stayed a few minutes to enjoy it before hiking back to the car in the dark.

When we arrived back at the campsite, there was a camper parked in the lot with a couple starting to prepare their dinner inside it. Maria greeted them with her best, overly friendly Ohio greeting and proceeded to beg them for the use of their site. At first, it didn't seem like they were willing to share it, but they eventually agreed & I thankfully gave them some money to make it worth their while. After the day we had, we decided to head back into town for some pizza. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches just weren't going to cut it for dinner. It wasn't the Joshua Tree experience that I had pictured in my head, but it was our experience. A real experience that I'll remember for a lifetime.

                      

Ice Climbing

I finally got the chance to ice climb for the first time last weekend! My friend Nate received a Groupon offer a few months ago and we had made plans to go in January, but were rained out by a freak storm.



The morning started early with a 6am alarm. Ugh, that was painful. It was the first time that I'd been out of bed before the sun in awhile. My body was not pleased with this. I was supposed to meet Nate at a drop off point near the Mass Pike so that we could carpool, but we both had trouble finding it and ended up following each other to the meeting point, a McDonald's in Auburn, MA. It wasn't hard to spot the other Grouponers, they were also dressed for a day of ice climbing.  We were a group of 10 with varied outdoor experiences. Nate and I were the only regular rock climbers. A few of the others had tried it once or twice before.  We quickly made friends and awaited the arrival of our instructor.



When Michael arrived, we took over the back corner of the McDonald's and tried on our rental boots and crampons while he gave us some tips for beginners. We were basically told to keep our heels down & don't hit ourselves in the face with the ice axes. All around solid advice. I assume Michael had a deal worked out with this McDonald's, as no one came over to ask us what the hell we were doing. The looks from the customers in the restaurant were priceless though.
 




Getting ready to hike in

Once everyone was geared up, we caravanned over to the parking lot that we were going to hike in from. I was a little nervous about the 30 minute hike in, not knowing what to expect. We started out with just our mountaineering boots on, but stopped to put on crampons before descending a wooded trail onto a mostly frozen river.  I've never used crampons before, so it was really cool to see how easily you can walk on ice with them. The river was only partially frozen, so we followed each other single file near the edge until we reached the Auburn Ice Canyon. It was an unseasonably warm day with temperatures rising into the upper 30's/low 40's, so there was some melting occurring in the sun.  Because of this, the climbs on the right side of the canyon were too dangerous to climb.





Descending the trail to the river

We dropped our packs on some solid ground in the middle of the canyon and began to get ready to climb. Michael lead the first climb to get to the top of the canyon, where he set a total of 3 top ropes for the group to climb on. After lead belaying Michael, Nate was the first to tie-in. He cleaned the route that Michael had lead. We had a bit of a scare on the start when he fell about 10-15 feet off the ground and gently landed on his feet. I was in awe, as I thought that I had him on a pretty tight belay with my GriGri. But, with a 60 foot climb there was a lot of rope stretch. He shook it off and got right back on. With the stretch taken out of the rope, the rest of the climb went much better & I lowered him down with a giant smile on his face.  He loved it!




Auburn Ice Canyon

Next, it was my turn. I was a little nervous trusting the tips of my crampons in the ice as foot holds. To solve for this, I tried to make some high step moves that just felt and looked awkward. After a few successful upward movements of trusting my feet, I began to relax a bit and started to get the hang of it. By the top of the climb, I was wishing there was more ice! It was beasty and my forearms felt the burn, but it was fun. Hard work, but very rewarding!

 

Nate and I switched off a couple more times and I ended up getting 3 climbs in - one lap on each of the top ropes. I was ready for more, but the weather wasn't cooperating at that point. It began to rain and the group decided to break down about an hour earlier than planned. I was lucky to have some willing photographers in the group to take pictures as I climbed. Looking back on the photos, I can really see the progress in my form. I can't wait to try it again, but I'll need to invest in some gear first.

 

Feeling comfortable on the ice

2014 Climbing Goals

I've been thinking about my climbing goals for 2014 for awhile now.  I didn't want to focus on chasing any grades, so I decided to keep them big, but very open:

1.) Lead 39 outdoor pitches.  I'll be turning 39 this year & decided this was a good goal to encourage me to lead more.  I wanted to specify trad leads, but with limited partners, didn't think this would be achievable.

2.) Climb Cannon Mountain. I've read and heard about the classic moderate routes & have seen the enormous rock face from the side of the road, but have been too intimidated... that tallus field looks brutal! 2014 will be my year to summit Cannon.

3.) Try ice climbing. This one is going to get checked off right away, so it's sort of a give me, but I had to add it to the list. I'm taking a lesson in January with a friend & can't wait to swing my first axe!

4.) Lead Funhouse (5.7 trad) @ Cathedral.  This was the very first trad route that I followed on & it should have been my first 5.7 trad lead, but the weather didn't cooperate.

5.) Hike Mount Washington.  This isn't quite a rock climbing goal, it's one of my personal goals, but since it will be an intense hike/climb, I'm going to count it as both.

I have some additional personal goals to round out the year, including my current 100 day no-alcohol challenge (23 days completed successfully so far!).  It should be a great year.  Happy New Year!

100 Days. No Alcohol. Seriously.

With the Fall climbing season over & Winter settling into New England, I've found myself devoting more of my free time to social events rather than rock climbing.  While initially this was a fun change of pace, lately I've had more hangovers than I care to admit. So, I've decided to take a 100 day break from alcohol.

This was on my list of personal goals for 2014, but I just decided "why wait?".  I don't need the calendar to change over to make a decision to be more healthy.  The upcoming holidays may be a little rough, especially New Years Eve, but I'm looking forward to no hangovers.

What will I do to distract myself over the next 100 days?  Seems like a good time to focus on my training again.  I have some big goals lined up for 2014 & they'll be a lot easier to achieve if I'm in top cardio & climbing shape.  It's not going to be easy, but I'm up for the challenge.

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!