February 17, 2006
January 16, 2006
Little Si Proj Hunt (dood)
Last weak, while sweating the usual travails of a-team at the climbing gym, a fellow suggested that without a project all this training will eventually feel hollow. He said, "Go up to 32, have a look around, pick something out, and keep going back." (PY2)
If he were younger he might have said, "brah, you need a sick proj." (PY3)
32 is Exit 32 which is the I-90 exit nearest Little Si, the little peak West of its big brother Mount Si. (PY4)
It's been raining for near record continuous days here in the pnw. The mountains have received a constant mix of snow and rain. Suburbs are a awash in a sea of trailer swallowing mud. But Sabrina and I needed some walkies, and I wanted to reconnoiter my proj (dood) so of we trotted yesterday, swaddled in our rain gear. Our dreary beginnings improved as the day wore on: (PY5)
It's a lovely walk to the top of Little Si. Not overly strenuous but not cake. It was very muddy. (PY7)
I'm not sure if I found a proj (bro). I took a look at the (very wet) crags and found them impossible to read. I'm spoiled by the near impossible friendliness of the rock of Red River Gorge. I'll have to return for more contemplation. (PY8)
All pics from our walk up little si. (PY9)
Today I reviewed some . Martin Luther King, Jr. history. (PYA)
September 07, 2005
Anasazi v Moccasyms
I've had occasion over the last several months to run a completely unscientific comparison of my climbing performance in my old favorites, Anasazi Velcro sized down to a pleasant pain, and a pair of Moccasyms that fit in all day comfort sort of way. (Five.Ten in their infinite wisdom make it impossible to link directly to shoes.) Nothing surprising but here are my thoughts: (PUQ)
On real rock, climbing routes, for a day out of moderate climbing in the Red River Gorge, Vantage and Exit 38 in Washington, and (unfortunately just two routes) in the valley at Yosemite the Moccasyms do a fine job. The smear so very nice. (PUR)
In the gym, bouldering on plastic, the Moccasyms start to show their weaknesses. That they fit comfortably means the heel cup is insufficiently secure on my sweaty feet to handle heel hooks and otherwise have the kind of precision required. The Anasazis, as you might expect, feel more precise. I've fallen off a problem a few times in the Moccasyms, switched to the Anasazis and walked up. (PUS)
Part of this is psychological. I have an affinity for the somewhat painful aspects of the Anasazi that boosts my confidence in some sick and twisted way. It's like tiger balm on the forehead to help with studying: I'm more aware of my feet. (PUT)
- Update*: In response to the comment, "how are the anasazis in cracks?" No good for me, because I wear them so tightly. My toe knuckles are very high compares to the meat of my foot, so when I jam it hurts. Moccasyms good in crack. (Q6Y)
May 31, 2005
Vantage Again
I spent the last two days out in Vantage. It was roasting hot but breezy and we found routes in the shade and fluffy pups. Made for some lovely climbing. (PO0)
May 08, 2005
Climbing at Exit 38
Good lord, two weekends in a row. More climbing, this time at Exit 38. It was a bit damp but fun. I should do a combined report on the red, vantage and now this. (PKG)
May 02, 2005
It's about time: Vantage
Finally made it outside in Washington, to Vantage (aka Frenchman's Coulee): (PJW)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdent/sets/295860/ (PJX)
Perhaps more later. (PJY)
September 27, 2004
Three Reasons For Sore Feet
As I can't seem to find the discipline to entertain myself and others with regular and creative updates, here's an irregular and boring update: (O7B)
new shoes (O7C)
I'm wearing (to see if they fit, or rather, don't fit in the correct way) my new pair of climbing shoes. With use they stretch and get soft, so for proper fit it is often necessary to size them down a bit and just go with the initial pain. It's been a while since I appreciated this, as the pair being replaced are so far gone as to have holes in the big toes and rips at the heels which relieve much of the pressure. No pressure is being relieved right now. It's sublime. (O7D)
consumption (O7E)
Wait, some pressure is being relieved. The oh so special pain of a brand new pair of climbing shoes brings a distance and clarity that relieves the clench of my jaw, still present from several hours in the confines of Ikea. Why does anyone yearn for an Ikea to come to their town? Oh yeah, there was lots to choose from, and sure some of it seems pretty cheap for what you get. But really, my time is worth way more than that and I'm fairly certain I'm not a sheep. And I'm not done yet: the big stuff doesn't arrive until Tuesday and who knows how long it will take to assemble. (O7F)
But there's a nice new ceiling lamp in the bedroom, and I'll replace my card table desk with a nice pine thingie that actually has some drawers when I can store stuff that somebody somewhere thinks I need to have but I'll never look at again. My clothes and books will have somewhere to go. New curtains will make it easier to walk around the house naked. (O7G)
recreation (O7H)
Two weekends in a row now: another trip to the mountains. This time to see Twin Falls. Another few weekends this will be a ritual, and thus sacrosanct and protected from unimportant things like cleaning and going to Ikea. (O7I)
Twin Falls are a series of waterfalls (two bigger, plus a few separating the upper and lower) on the south fork of the Snoqualmie River on state park land. A lovely trail takes you along the river to this, (O7J)
the lower falls. Continuing up the trail takes you to the upper falls. Beyond that the trail heads for the Iron Horse Trail (which goes across the Cascades to at least the Columbia River) where we saw a new bird: The Varied Thrush. (O7L)
Other pictures from the walk at TwinFallsTrailThumb. (O7M)
July 04, 2004
Climbing Still in the Air
MattLiggett and I had another fine trip to TheRed. (9DU)
This time of year it is very humid and often cloudy. More than once we commented that it could be 9:30 am or 3:30 pm, no telling. The combination of heat, humidity and weird hazy lighting made us a bit lazy, but we enjoyed ourselves, the climbing, and the scenery. (9DV)
Full collection of pics (40) at TheRedJuneMattThumb, with some highlights and lessons below. (9DW)
Day one was spent at PhanTasia where we decided to have a day of moderate sport. We got on anything that had bolts and was rated a 9 or a 10. I was pleased by the easy approach to the first climb: (9DX)
Lesson one: 5 liters of water per day, while officially plenty, is not enough. (9DZ)
We sweat. We left puddles and wet spots from our congress with rock. I climbed CreepShow? leaving dampness at the opportune seated rest. (9E1)
When I climbed it again, the dampness was still there. (9E3)
Day two we squelched off to FortressWall where we planned Matt's first trad lead (his first sport lead is documented elsewhere). (9E4)
Fortress is good for this sort of thing because the climbs are well travelled, well defined and have reasonable descents. (9E5)
Matt styled up AmericanCrack?: (9E6)
(If you look at the big version (click the ++) of that pic, you can barely see Matt's helmet next to the big boulder at the top.) (9E8)
At the base of the climb we had a large collection of thirsty bugs that might sting us if they cared about us: (9E9)
I then led Route48 (9EB)
following the if-you-don't-know-what-gear-you-need-take-it-all school of thought. (9ED)
Lesson two: Not so much a lesson as a thing to work on: Selecting the right gear and economizing. Gear is heavy. Heaviness bad. (9EF)
Finally, no trip to Fortress is complete without Matt making a cheese eating grin on top of BedtimeForBonzo. Compare: (9EG)
Trip two: (9EH)
Trip one: (9EJ)
Lesson three: Don't make a big huge mess of the rope when it is your only way down. (9EL)
It's beyond lovely at the top of the cliff. (9EN)
May 10, 2004
Tradding round the Maypole
In honor of the May Day honoring of the struggle for the eight hour workday, MattLiggett and I took off for three days of blissful climbing at TheRed. I from work and Matt in his gap between school semesters. (4NA)
Weather at the red river gorge is a tricky business. The forecast is not to be trusted. Other than an unfortunate late night knock on my tent with "my tent is all wet, give me the car keys" we had fine weather, fine climbing and, unusually, some fine food. (4NB)
We had some goals: (4NC)
- Get Matt doing some easy leads so he could hone his clipping and comfort. (4ND)
- Get me placing my huge pile of camalots, much too shiny and new, into some cracks. (4NE)
- Have fun. (4NF)
- Celebrate the impending collapse of the multi-national corporatist hegemony through the pursuit of leisure and the wearing of products from Patagonia and Chaco. (4NG)
I think we hit these pretty good but it cannot be said that we pulled down hard, bro. These were not those days. Some other days will be those days, and that will be good too. (4NH)
Thumbnails of the entire collection of photos can be found in TheWiki at TheRedMay2004Thumb. For each picture, clicking on the + or ++ will take you to medium and huge versions of the pictures. For many, if you are just looking at the thumbs you are missing out. (4NI)
Day One (4NJ)
We arrived late Sunday night, quickly set up tents, and waited for the morning. It arrived with a bit of a chill and a lack of coffee. Our destination: RoadsideCrag. (4NK)
RoadsideCrag is probably the most popular crag at TheRed. It has a little bit of everything--sport and trad, easy and hard--and a nice simple approach. Because of this it is often full of people on the weekends. (4NL)
It was Monday. Weeks of intense planning and complicated math had led us to believe that a weekday would turn the place into our own personal palace of climbing pleasure. Hee! No. It wasn't full, but we did some waiting and while we did who comes trucking up the trail but some chums from home on a bachelor party climbing expedition. (4NM)
One end of RoadsideCrag, the right or East end, is filled up with supposedly safe and easy sport leads. Just what we wanted for goal #1. The easiest one, CSharpOrBFlat, was occupado, as was AlteredScale, so we went for AllCowsEatGrass. (4NN)
Like most of the other routes in the area, it's a medium length, mostly vertical but kind of slabby, jesus I would hate to fall on this kind of experience. (4NO)
Up I went. When I came down, Matt went up. This is different from what we would do later in the day and the days following. (4NQ)
Matt chose to top rope the route as he was a bit out of practice from all the educating he's been getting to prepare for the impending revolution. He goes to the top where he finds the anchor bolts from which I've just lowered are moving in the rock. (4NR)
For those of you unfamiliar with these sorts of things, this is double plus ungood. From my position down on the ground I can tell Matt's a little wigged out: he's telling me to move him very gently, he accidently drops a quickdraw (which happily slides down the rope and gently lands on the ground, rather than on my head where I've not yet put my brand new helmet), and he takes extra special long to clean up and descend. But he calmly refrains from telling me what's up until he's safely on the ground (otherwise we would have a clusterfuck of deciding what the right thing to do is). (4NS)
Oddly, when we tell our neighboring climbers of the sad state of the anchors on this climb not only do they say something that amounts to "oh yeah, most of them are messed up in some way" but then they go and climb on them. (4NT)
We climb CSharpOrBFlat and YouCanTuneAPianoButYouCantTunaFish and decide if we are going to be dealing with unreliable anchors, they may as well be ones we place ourselves. (4NU)
So we moved west to RoadsideAttraction. (4NV)
One hundred and forty feet of fun. RoadsideAttraction is very well known: it's pretty easy, easy to get to and very satisfying. I'm told that climbing it naked in the dark is something of a must do once you have the skillz. (4NW)
I found it a bit unnerving myself, first time and all, so I kept my clothes. Unlike the other routes we had done that day, when I got to the top, I sat down, set up an anchor and belayed Matt up to me. From our perch we looked out upon a lovely view and felt mighty good. (4NX)
Here I am, the conquering hero, after our descent: (4NY)
And then we were hungry. And cold. And tired. And lazy. So we went to the restaurant at the Natural Bridge Park lodge. It was yummy. We ate. We reminisced about those fun times back in the day when we climbed RoadsideAttraction. We decided we wanted more, tomorrow would be FortressWall. And to our tents we went, satisfied. (4O0)
Day Two (4O1)
Another fella from Bloomington, Andy, was at Miguels as part of a three week climbing extravaganza before returning to the world of employment and obligations. He (and his dog, ChiliDog) joined us for our adventures at FortressWall. (4O2)
Fortress has traditional climbs only. A whole mess of them, from super easy to somewhere on the hard side of moderate. All kinds of fine places to place gear of all sorts of sizes. (4O3)
The sun was shining into our lovely setting. It was dry and warm and we had the whole place to ourselves. Here's Matt, on CalypsoIi, saluting our good fortune (and the workers of the world): (4O4)
Next was SnaKe and WhereLizardsDare. Fortress has two levels. There are the climbs that start from the ground, like Snake, and those that start at the end of the first set, like WhereLizardsDare. If you make this picture (4O6)
extra big (hit the ++), near the middle of the frame you'll find my orange helmet. That's me belaying people up SnaKe (which is out of the frame to the left). Above me, at about 1 o'clock is WhereLizardsDare (where we saw no lizards, but we did see them on CalypsoIi). (4O8)
WhereLizardsDare is a fabulous climb: difficult off balance stemming with a teeny finger crack to help you out, all way up high in the sky. (4O9)
We were on a schedule, we had dinner plans, but there was no way we were going to miss BedtimeForBonzo. Last fall I had made it halfway up the second pitch of the climb before freaking out and downclimbing because I had no idea where I was supposed to go. Oh, and it was too dark to see. (4OA)
The view from the top is quite compelling: (4OB)
Having never been there before I wasn't sure it was going to be like that, but I had a hunch. And I was right. The pleasure of topping out on this climb and simply being there, (4OD)
on top of everything, (4OF)
was sublime. Here's a demonstration from Matt: (4OH)
Andy clued us in to a good thing to know: (4OJ)
You can walk off the second pitch of BedtimeForBonzo and return to the anchors of the first pitch, avoiding what might be a tricky rappel off the top. I wonder if a long rope would get us down from the top in a single go? (4OK)
Our original schedule had us back to Miguels at 6:00 to head into Lexington to meet Jeremy and Gail. It was about 5:50 when we hit the dirt below the climb, so we skipped Miguels, and scooted to Lexington where we changed shirts in the parking lot of the restaurant. There we ate an enormous pile of yummy fishy sushi things and had a rollicking good time. Jeremy and Gail are good like that. (4OL)
On the drive into Lexington, with the setting sun, came rain. It stayed around, off and on, for most of the night. (4OM)
Day Three (4ON)
I'm getting a bit tired by day three. Matt, who's been sleeping in the car because of the aforementioned rain in his tent, gives up on his first attempt to wake me up. He comes back later. I'm not up for anything too difficult and vote for the easy approach of PhanTasia. (4OO)
Leading easy to moderate trad climbs is not all that physically exhausting. Yes, you have to work hard, but the sheer number of calories on a day of easy trad doesn't compete with a day of harder sport. Much of it is the amount of time involved. Some of it is the much lower level of difficulty. Yet, at the end of a day of leading trad routes, I'm still at least as exhausted as a sport day. Exhausted by the degree of responsibility I'm putting on my own choices. (4OP)
So we went to PhanTasia, where we did the lovely AttackOfTheSandShark (4OQ)
and the imposing StAlfonsos (4OS)
I led the first and Andy got the second. After that we ran up LordOfTheFlies and CreatureFeature, enjoyed some fine Miguels pizza and headed home into the setting sun. (4OU)
The following two days I worked enough to not need to take any vacation. So much for the eight hour work day. Workers unite, anyway. (4OW)
Next week I go to New York for a conference, after that my uncle is over from Britain, sometime soon thereafter I hope to have some time with my bun in Seattle. Somewhere in there I'll get more climbing. (4OX)
April 21, 2004
Have Rack Will Travel (and get lost)
Signs of perfect weather, a (small) gap in the busy schedule, a buddy available (LiggettTheYounger) and my shiny new cams meant it was time for a quick trip to TheRed. Much poring over available route information pointed to GlobalVillage as the place to be for some easy trad and some easy to moderate sport routes, which was a good sampling of the overlap of what we both wanted to do. (45A)
But I forgot that about half the routes of the eight or so picked are not in the printed guidebook and thus far there's no wireless at the crags. (45B)
We had just Sunday available; drive down late Saturday, come back Sunday evening after pizza. We got underway earlier than expected; halted for two hours as Thunder Over Louisville let out; arrived very very late; woke up with the sun to meet someone who wasn't there; and stumbled around, washed out and vague from 3 or 4 hours of sleep, until the coffee kicked in. (45C)
GlobalVillage is a lovely place. For some reason it is not as popular as some of the other locations. I've heard and read various theories to explain this: the approach is long and tiresome or the routes don't feature the overhanging pocketed crimp festivals that brings people to TheRed. I don't know about either of those: I found the approach long but not steep. The climbs were interesting, high quality rock and it was just plain nice in the area. Plenty of napping rocks. (45D)
The far end of the cliff houses a nice waterfall amphitheater: (47U)
Here's the view from the top of KentuckyPinstripe, looking sort of westish: (45F)
KentuckyPinstripe, as we later discovered, is a 5.10a and not EureKa, the 5.6 we thought it was. We started there as a warmup and the moves at the start had me saying things like, "No way this is a 5.6" and "Maybe it's called Eureka because you find the magic 5.6 hold and suddenly it's easy." (45H)
I onsighted it anyway and went on to OnSight everything else that day (we only did 5 routes, seeing as we didn't know where several of them were). I've since decided that's no good. I should be climbing much harder and falling more often. (45I)
Here's the view from halfway up the same route: (45J)
Climbing will make your ass disappear: (45L)
More info on the crag and the climbs will show up soon in ClimbTheRed. The rest of the pictures from the trip can be viewed at TheRedCliggettThumb. To summarize: We had a good (but sleepy) time, nobody got hurt, we saw and did interesting and fun things. Nice beat, we danced to it. (45N)
April 11, 2004
TradDaddy Wannabe
Made a midweek trip to TheRed with Danny, one of the regulars at HoosierHeights. I had a very good time exhausting myself following Danny on some possible first ascents, doing some relatively easy trad leads for the first time, and getting on some brutally hard (especially after the other stuff) sport routes. (3X2)
Read the whole (lengthy) thing for the full story. Just want the pics? TheRedDannyThumb will get you that. (3X3)
(If you don't like route beta, here's your warning: spoilers ahead.) (3X7)
We arrived in the gorge around midnight. Danny prefers to camp out in the woods rather than Miguels to get the most quiet and comfort as possible. He picked an excellent campsite. Weather reports called for morning rain which would constrain our plans. (3X8)
We woke to a beautiful morning that turned into a gorgeous sunscreen-requiring day. No rain meant wide open opportunities so we went to FunkRockCity to visit some moderate, well-established trad routes and look at a sport route called Orange Juice. (3X9)
Funk Rock is one of the lower elevation crags. The long approach follows the river upstream along a gentle trail, crosses through the river (no problem in sandals) and heads uphill to a lengthy cliffline of mostly vertical walls with less of the pockety nature found in other areas. My guess is that the majority of the iron is higher in elevation. (3XA)
First order of business: Observe Chris following an easy crack climb to get a gauge on his ability. We chose a nice crack in a right facing dihedral called JoeCamel (3XB)
that has some fixed gear as anchors about 40ft up. It's 5.8 to there. (3XD)
Both Danny and I look up and see that the crack continues up above the anchors and with a bit of a traverse can be linked up to a right leaning narrow crack that goes to the top of the cliff. "That'll go", we both say. (3XE)
Danny racks up and starts off. (3XF)
Me: So, uh, you planning to put in any gear? (3XG)
The first 40ft go down without issue, then the next 20 or so. It's the 20 to 25 after that where things start to get hard. This was supposed to be our warmup. A straightforward finger crack turns into a series of bouldery moves, a few exciting catches, and a "please don't fall now, please don't fall now" top out including a dead tree of considerable proportions crashing into the valley behind me. (3XH)
Danny sets an anchor, puts me on belay and off I go. (3XI)
I try to remember all the things I'm supposed to remember: stemming is good, cracks are your friend, look for your feet. I get to the original anchors and up to just before the hard part where I find a knee bar that gives me a no hands rest. (3XJ)
It doesn't help. I pull into the hard section, fussing, whining, blowing and stop before the true crux. After flailing through several attempts Danny tells me to do a butterfly. I thought I knew what a butterfly was so I tried to do that. That was wrong. Then I did what a butterfly is and I was through, up to the top and into the anchors. Fabulous view, camera is 100 feet below. (3XK)
Exhausted, and that was just the first climb of the day. We reckon the top half could be somewhere in the 5.11s, maybe even 12s. (3XL)
Apparently I can follow a crack, so now it is time to lead one. Further down the crag is a lovely corner containing RiteOfPassage: (3XM)
Perfect hands up to near the top and then some tricky combination of fingers, laying back, smearing and wishful thinking. (3XO)
Me: Which gear should I take? (3XP)
Danny: It's your lead, you decide! (3XQ)
I fiddle. I fret. I pick and choose. (3XR)
Danny: I'll tell you if you haven't got what you need. (3XS)
I feel relief. (3XT)
I go up, I place gear, I reach the anchors, I rappel down, I clean. (3XU)
By the end of the day I will have a powerful sense of satisfaction, but at this point I'm still somewhat bewildered. (3XV)
Danny doesn't do RiteOfPassage. He's been thinking about OrangeJuice. (3XW)
Orange Juice is a combination of little pockets and tiny crimpers interspersed with out of reach pleasant flat ledges all on a beautifully orange, 95 foot long, overhung wall that goes at 5.12 c or d. (3XY)
It's all hard, but there are three definite cruxes: getting to the third bolt; the lower dyno; and the higher maybe it's a dyno from a one or two fingered pocket, maybe it's a layback on a teeny weeny little lip move. Danny, who's had three hours of sleep, makes a prodigious show with a miss of the dyno and then a few what the hell's at the upper crux and finishes it out. We leave the draws hung so I can come back to it later. I'm trying to maintain an I'll try anything attitude. (3XZ)
Next in line is my next trad lead, HeadstoneSurfer. (3Y0)
Headstone Surfer begins with an easy flake to a ledge followed by awkward thin stemming to another ledge, then pretty, happy stemming to the anchors. 10c in the printed guidebook, 10a in the online guide. (3Y2)
I head for the first ledge, loose my feet, scramble to stay on. (3Y3)
Danny: Now you'll place some gear. (3Y4)
So I do. Nice big fat cam. Seems like maybe I'm using one that's a bit too big, but I find a spot and move on. (3Y5)
I get through the crux thinking: stem, stem, stem, the feet love friction. I start moving into the easier parts and I'm getting tired. I can't remember how long the route is. I can't see the anchors. Am I going to have enough gear? Are these placements any good? I seem to be running it out a long way. (3Y6)
Then the anchors show up and I'm greatly relieved. Danny's going to clean this one, so I'm lowered and he goes up. (3Y7)
That cam, the big one, it's stuck, so Danny leaves it behind to get it on the way back down. (3Y8)
I feel shame to have done such a thing to another man's cams, but he gets it eventually. (3YA)
Danny graciously provides commentary on my placements as he cleans. Exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to get. My main problem is a tendency to orient the cams too much in an outward direction rather than the down they need. (3YB)
Despite my stress Danny reports that I looked like a pro. I dealt with the stress the only way I knew how: concentrate on doing the right thing. An essentially meaningless phrase that seemed to work in this case. I've yet to fall on gear I've placed myself. I hope that inevitable happening does not harsh my mellow. (3YC)
My turn for OrangeJuice. Prior to this climb I had never touched anything in the 12s on lead outside, and only two 12as on top rope, neither of which I completed clean (but I did make it to the anchors). (3YD)
I get through to the third bolt and up just below the lower crux (5th or 6th boly maybe?). I'm looking around--looking, wondering. There's nothing there. I take. (3YE)
Danny gives me the beta which amounts to put your hands on some non-existent holds here and here, and your feet like so, suck in your butt and go boom into the dyno. Shnook, I popped my hand up to the hold and miraculously (it seemed to me) stuck it. (3YF)
Then came the upper crux. I'm not sure how many times I tried. The fall is lengthy. The jug back up exhausting. The moves all wrong: off balance, painful, position absolutely critical and requiring more power 80 feet up than I generally have on the ground. I finally gave up after an extra long fall positioned me for a landing that tweaked my ankle with an over extension. If I had pulled the move I would have made the next clip and then it was the anchors. (3YG)
Danny: That was the straw that broke off your penis. (3YH)
Me coming down meant the already tired Danny had to go back up to fetch the draws. Again with my shame, I was supposed to do that. But it is brief: Up at the high crux Danny susses out a new sequence that probably means success for him in the near future: observe the blood I left in the mono for your right hand; don't use the tiny layback flake thing; instead adjust the left-handed pocket below into an almost undercling and dyno for the ledge. (3YI)
After all this we head back in the direction of the approach trail saying we will stop at a couple of cracks we'd like to do. Auto pilot kicks in and soon we are back at the car, the cracks avoided by our bodies that know better. (3YJ)
Off to Miguels. I went for shrimp, broccoli, black olive, garlic and pineapple. The recent addition of seafood style protein to the menu (there's also imitation crab meat) is manna. (3YK)
Back to the campsite. I'm probably asleep by 10 local-to-me time. (3YL)
Friday we choose to visit MuirValley. (3YM)
MuirValley is a lovely place purchased by some retired and generous climbers with about 4 miles of undeveloped cliffline. The owners plan to offer it as a climbing and nature preserve. (3YN)
With permission from the owners, we went exploring. Our goal: aesthetic cracks beckoning climbers for first ascents. (3YO)
Note to self: next time take a guide who knows their way around. Yes we ascended a remarkable line. Yes we had a very good day. But, oi, did we ever do some bushwacking. (3YP)
Going up, down and around steep, leaf-covered hills covered with rhododendrons is work enough. Doing it with some several tens of pounds of unbalanced gear and water on your back where any misstep will send you careening down the hill and maybe over a cliff--that's an adventure in hard work. (3YQ)
But we found a lovely line. (3YR)
and had a lovely adventure. We have a name, I reckon it's a fabulous name, but protocol suggests that we save it for a free ascent. (3YT)
Other note to self: Buy a helmet. Wear it while belaying. Wear it while climbing. Especially if, most definitely if, doing first ascents. Oh, the things that rain down. (3YU)
The climb has a nice mix of moves. Definitely not a splitter crack dividing a clean face. After the do-whatever-you-can move to get to a ledge, move up into a sort of finger jam layback combo until you are tight up under a roof where there's a hand jam that lets you think about coming out from under the roof. (3YV)
I fell back to the ground reaching for the ledge. The ground, mind you, is a series up upthrust sharp stones coiled around with rhodo branches. So I went a little further up, fell on the rope. Did that again. Got a little higher and then fell on the ground, further than any time before, narrowly avoiding non-consensual relations with the stones. Huh? Dirt, air, air, dirt. Some gear further up had pulled, lengthening the rope. (3YW)
I start again and make it to the hand jam and contemplate getting around the first roof. (3YX)
To do this Danny pulled a fabulous move with his legs. One leg hooked around, the other pasted against the wall. My exhausted, over-bushwacked legs refused to stick to the lichen covered wall under the roof; I never made it around the edge. My fall left me swinging out in space, with no way back in to the wall so I chose to jug up past those moves to just below the second roof where I exhaustedly flailed around and pulled a rock (what appeared to be the crucial hold) down on my head. (3YY)
Yet another note to self: That which looks secure may not be. Tap, test, etc. before use. I know this already, but apparently not well enough. (3YZ)
And then I made it to the top through a series of heel hooks, full leg hook whoosits, a little chimney action, and some shuffling about. A fine route I reckon. (3Z0)
Not satisfied with our explorations of the valley we continued our treck. We had heard other folk would be in the neighborhood that day so we went looking. More bushwacking. No climbing (at least not the technical kind). No people. Many rhododendrons and slippery leaves. (3Z1)
So we left there. Leaving is no easy proposition. Up a very steep and muddy logging trail. I was used to the down at the end style approach. Up is hard at the end of the day. I should get that kind of exercise every day. (3Z2)
But we weren't done. One climb is just not enough. We went to TorrentFalls for the easy approach to two projects: BareMetalTeen? for Danny, and SeekTheTruth for me. (3Z3)
Neither of us had the strength to be good little redpointers. Our leg muscles were gone. Our fingertips were shredded. But we finished them and started the long trip home. (3Z4)
I had fun, I saw and did many neat things, learned a great deal, enjoyed the company and accomplished some things I'm proud of. Time well spent. (3Z5)
(Is a writing instructor going to come along and bitch at my lack of tense consistency?) (3Z6)
(Update April 11 to get PurpleNumbers in there.) (3Z7)
March 22, 2004
Seeing More Red
Matt's provided a nice report of the trip to TheRed he, his brother, and I made Friday and Saturday. (3P3)
Was a blast. My mac has produced a multimedia extravaganza recording the event for history. (3P4)
The pictures that made that movie are at MattFirstRedThumb. I've updated ClimbTheRed with info and pictures gathered from this trip. (3P5)
Notable events: (3P6)
- Matt's first trip to TheRed (3P7)
- Matt's first lead (MrBungle) (3P8)
- Matt's first whipper (on ToDefyTheLawsOfTradition) (3P9)
- Lot's of good pizza (3PA)
- Much sick talk between rad dudes, bro. Yo? (3PB)
- I make a promising attempt at SeekTheTruth (3PC)
Three times so far this year. At this rate might actually get there as much as I want. (3PD)
March 15, 2004
Red River Gorge Climbing
I returned last night from a quick trip to TheRed with Gary, a genial fellow I met at HoosierHeights. We went down Friday night, climbed on a sunny Saturday and a rainy Sunday and returned home. A good and successful time was had. (3JI)
I've gathered up some photographs at TheRedSpringBreakContents. Thumbnails can be found at TheRedSpringBreakThumb. I've used those, plus pictures from a few previous trips (EarlySpringRedContents, last summer) to start a ClimbTheRed section which holds info about climbs in the Red River Gorge that I'll find useful so someone else may as well. (3JK)
This recent trip was a blast despite 17 degree temperatures Friday night (the ultralite thermarest doesn't really cut it in those temps) that left morning frost and ice on my tent. The cold forced me up early for a long day spent at LeftFlank where we climbed ToDefyTheLawsOfTradition, FaceUpToThatCrack, MrBungle and much to my surprise and enjoyment, WildYetTasty. (3JL)
We went then for a dusk cold-fingered dash up CreatureFeature over at PhanTasia followed by the required pizza at Miguel's. That evening's choice was: shrimp, artichoke, banana peppers, garlic, onion, black olives, mushrooms, and broccoli. (3JM)
One's choice of toppings is an important part of the TheRed experience. (3JN)
I woke the next day to cold rain. We had planned to go to TorrentFalls anyway, but the rain cinched it. Gary led a 5.8 that's not in the guidebook (UnknownTorrentFalls), and top roped WadCutter, BandoLier and PoopieHead?. I went up the 5.8 and then decided, despite feeling wishy-washy to lead BandoLier. I was ashamed of myself only top-roping WildYetTasty the day before so gave myself a kick. (3JO)
Glad I did. Got it clean on the first go. Prior attempts on previous trips had me swinging through the air. (3JP)
After that went around and flashed the tricky PoopieHead?. (3JQ)
And that the rain told us we wanted more pizza, so we returned to Miguel's. This time I had: shrimp, jalapeno, pineapple, garlic, black olives. (3JR)
And then home. (3JS)
Our trip was greatly improved by running into GregMartin?, a long time excellent climber who gave us loads of advice and encouragement. (3JT)
February 28, 2004
Thursday in Muscatatuck
Matt and I took a Thursday journey down to North Vernon to do some bouldering in MuscataTuck. (3A0)
It was our first time there. The weather was a brisk high 40s but we were in the sun nearly the entire time. A pretty much perfect day. There was some easy climbing, some hard climbing, some shit "I'm too high off the ground", some bleeding and some pleasant satisfaction. (3A2)
More pictures: MuscatatuckLateWinterContents (3A5)
Eventually some climbing info: ClimbMuscatatuck. (3A6)
We're thinking about going often. (3A7)
February 21, 2004
So In Sand
A typically brief spurt of nicely mild weather gave Sabrina and I a chance to go walkies amongst some nice icy cliffs. (32E)
To the southwest of Bloomington the area's limestone karst gives way to sandstone hills. Near the town of Shoals the White River passes through these hills, creating the occasional cliff-line. (32G)
Several years ago Shoals was a fairly good place to do a little climbing. Nothing great, but given the lame offerings of Indiana, pretty good. Over time each of these regions fell out of favor. A visit to the most recently popular place, known as Hindostan, results in the occasional tire slash. (32H)
So people don't go there much anymore. (32I)
The Bluffs of Beaver Bend are on a parcel of Nature Conservancy land managed by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. We had spied it the previous Saturday during a Valentines Day drive. It's a lovely place, but I had ulterior motives: I wanted to know if there's any climbing there. (32J)
Climbing on DNR land is big unknown for me. Anyone know? (32L)
We took along the camera to get pictures of what was there, for later reference and because we missed having when we were there prior. The whole set is linked from Shoals200402Contents. (32M)
Access issues abound with climbing around Shoals. Some of that info, along with pictures pulled in from the above collection at ClimbShoals. (32N)
We also met ShoalsLlama and a thing we think is TheDeadFox. (32O)
August 12, 2003
Nice tidbit of gasoline wisdom
Advice from the gas station: (0001H6)
Smiling as I jump into my rig to meet my climbing partner, I think, yea, some days are like that. So when you are in between the lines, gassing up, I hope you are on the right side of the pump having a great day. (0001H7)
July 13, 2003
The Thunder and The Berries
I've recently returned from a brief climbing trip to the red river gorge. (0001D0)
Enjoy some pictures and commentary if you feel so inclined. (0001D1)
May 06, 2003
Pictures from the Red
Chris and Ding Go to The Red: April, 2003 (0000IL)
Follow the link to some pictures with descriptions of the trip Ding and I took to the red. (0000IM)
April 30, 2003
Mixed Results
Late, but as promised, here's the news from the climbing trip. The trip was somewhat mixed. The weather, by the time we finally arrived was fantastic. Not too hot, no rain for the sleeping. (0000I0)
Ding and I fulfilled our goal and made it to the top of Return of Chris Snyder. Unfortunately we did whine and flail and take our way to the top. I had two excuses: (0000I1)
- Tree pollen was at some astronomical level. My allergies had me hyperventialating for air as I struggled up the route. (0000I2)
- I was stopped for speeding on the way to the red. Now I have to go to court. It was that fast. (0000I3)
So, now I'm accepting advice on two fronts: Allergy cures, and Kentucky traffic law. (0000I4)
Pictures coming soon, as soon as I get my notebook back. (0000I5)
April 26, 2003
Unbound
Finally someone let me out of my cage. (0000HU)
I guess it was me. (0000HV)
Ding and I are finally making a long awaited trip down to the red do a little climbing. I've been yearning to do this all Spring and somehow convinced myself that other things were more important. So now, off we go, and it is good. Things like the forecasted rain will not deter. It's the red, there be overhangs there. (0000HW)
On the agenda is an overhanging sport route classic known as The Return of Chris Snyder (it's impossible to tell where up really is in the picture, draw a line from the lower right to the upper left and that approximates one aspect of vertical). (0000HX)
Last summer, on our first ever trip, I screamingly muscled myself up to just past the big overhang and then just plain failed, all out of juice. It's been a year, we figure we can get it this time around. We might whine and flail, but we'll go to the top. (0000HY)
News on Sunday. (0000HZ)
