Yosemite Valley

Well, this last month has definitely flown! It doesn’t seem like so long ago that I was sitting in Ben & Meghan’s living room typing out the last post, but a quick check of the calendar has revealed to me that it’s been….26 days. Yipes! And almost time to be leaving the Valley now. Sigh. Mike was telling me this morning that he feels like we didn’t do anything while we were here, so I’m going to have to make a list and prove to him that we haven’t just been sitting around!

A quick rundown and then some details:

We’ve climbed Stately Pleasure Dome, Lembert Dome, Fairview Dome, Cathedral Peak, bouldered for 2 days in Bishop, climbed the Nutcracker (and some single pitches nearby), Pillar of Frenzy (ditto single pitch stuff nearby), East Buttress of Middle Cathedral Rock, 2 days of bouldering in Yosemite, climbed Serenity Crack & Sons of Yesterday, sport climbed for a day, hiked/climbed Higher Cathedral Spire, Bircheff- Williams Route, Munginella, Werner’s Ant Trees/The Surprise, Commitment, Jam Crack and the East Buttress of El Capitan.

Eight of the above days involved 900 feet of climbing or more. So there!

With the exception of a cold first week we’ve been blessed with unbelievable weather. Gorgeous sunny days with temperatures in the 80s! We’ve actually had to postpone some of the routes we wanted to do because it was too hot to be on a south facing wall in the sun! Hard to believe it could be this nice in October. We’ve been staying at Camp 4 (of course); it’s the ‘official’ climbers’ campground here in the park, and the place where all those history making climbers of the ‘50s-‘70s stayed. Not the most glamorous of campgrounds but it’s definitely fun to be here and be at the heart of all the climbing action. We’ve seen climbers here from all around the world: Germany, Austria, Spain, France, Argentina, Japan, Canada, Denmark, Australia, Poland, Norway, England. And that’s just in the 5 or 6 campsites around ours! Pretty amazing.

We spent our first week here in Tuolomne; the northern section of the park. We met up with my friend Candy from back home and spent a few days climbing the granite domes. The highlight of the week was definitely our climb of Cathedral Peak. Our hike in was somewhat epic, since we missed the shorter trail. Oops! We added a few miles to the approach, but did get to see Cathedral Lakes so it wasn’t a complete loss. The long scramble up the slabs and slippery scree slope on the back of the peak was less than entertaining but we survived it! The three of us got to the base of the last section of the peak where we started the ‘real’ climbing. Harnesses and ropes on and up 900 more feet we went to an amazing picnic-table-sized peak! There was barely room for the three of us and the ropes. The descent was very tricky; lots of scrambling down steep sections of rock and slab with a little snow leftover from the weekend’s storm to make things even spicier! We made it safely down and hiked out the correct trail (phew!), getting to the car just a few minutes after dark. When Candy and I climb together we always seem to end up off trail, off route and adventuring, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it happened yet again!

The rest of our time here has been just as much fun. We spent 2 weekends bouldering with our friends Ben, Meghan, Dan and Andy…..and it took me several days after to recover! Bouldering is not exactly easy. Mike and I tackled lots of classic routes (most mentioned in the above list), and so far we’ve only had one after-dark epic rappel session. Quite the accomplishment! The crack climbing is amazingly fun and challenging; I’ve definitely gotten a lot more comfortable with this whole multi-pitch thing since our first days in January. The vistas from these climbs are just incredible, I love being that far above the valley floor and seeing the vast expanses of granite walls and domes all around. It’s easy to forget the hustle and bustle of the valley up there and just drink in the peace and gorgeous scenery. We’ve done two really long climbs: the East Buttresses of Middle Cathedral Rock and El Capitan. With 1200 and 1400 feet of climbing respectively they were definitely the most challenging days for me. The hike in, the climbing, the gear and rope management, the long descents on steep rock….it adds up to an extreme amount of exhaustion by the end of the day! But, it’s been great to test my limits and push myself to try something so hard and manage to get through it.

We still have a couple days left here and then it looks like we’re in for some rain, so we’ll be trying to pack in as much climbing as we can and after the weekend start meandering our way to Indian Creek in Utah for a few days. The trip is winding down, we’re planning to be home by November 15^th so we’ll just try to fill our time with as many new experiences as possible before heading back east.

Yosemite

What we did on our summer vacation….

Well….we spent the last 2 weeks of July in Squamish climbing as much as possible, leaving on the last weekend in July to travel back to New England for my family reunion and our friends’ wedding (hi Ben & Meghan! J) After many many hours in the car we got back to NH on a Wed afternoon and spent the next couple of days helping my parents get ready for the reunion. We had a great time visiting with family, barbecueing, setting off rockets, playing wiffleball…..the torrential downpours weren’t too fun, but we made the best of it!

The following weekend we traveled to Vermont for Ben & Meghan’s wedding. More torrential downpours! But, luckily the day of the wedding was beautiful; we visited with friends, partied (and slept) in a barn and Mike pulled off his groomsman duties flawlessly.

As for the rest of August, we did some climbing around home, visited family, took a little trip to Acadia in Maine, and just for fun bought a house! On Labor Day weekend, a few days before we were planning to leave for California, I went and saw a house on a whim. It’s in the neighborhood where my parents live and I’d gone by it all the time when I was out taking Loki for a walk, so I figured I’d just go take a look. Well, a look turned into a weekend of soul searching because I fell in love with the house and couldn’t decide what to do. We had planned to leave for California for the last leg of our trip, it wasn’t exactly the time to be buying a house! After not being able to put it out of my mind, Mike convinced me to at least try to put in an offer and see what happened. Tuesday morning I applied for a mortgage, Thursday evening I made an offer and on Friday night my offer was accepted!! I was just astounded. The next couple of weeks were filled with inspections, paperwork and getting ready to move. It was a complete whirlwhind! On September 21^st, 2 weeks and 3 days after my offer was accepted papers were signed and homeownership began. Yahoo! The house is great, but we have a lot of work ahead of us: painting, renovating kitchen and bathroom, and ripping down faux wood paneling just for starters. Still, I think it’ll be worth the effort, this house has the potential to be a very cosy little home! Our friends Ri and Sarah are going to be our housemates and we’re pretty excited to have built in climbing and adventuring partners! So, are we rolling up our sleeves and getting right to work? Not quite. We moved all our stuff in the day after the closing, spent a couple days cleaning and getting a little bit unpacked, then hit the road again last Friday! With stops to visit friends in New Haven and Boulder we arrived in California last Wed night. Whew! Time for one more stint of serious climbing before we settle in and get down to work at home.

We’ve stopped in Davis to visit with Ben & Meghan (and to avoid a bad storm in Yosemite), and we’ll be heading into Yosemite Valley on Sunday to climb on some big rocks, lie in the meadow and watch the clouds go by, hike some beautiful trails…. Can’t wait!

Hope this note finds everyone enjoying the fall!

Summer vacation

Squamish, BC: Climbing and weather paradise!

Well, having been in Squamish for just over 2 weeks now I can definitely recommend coming in July! We’ve had only one rainy day the entire time, and considering the lushness of the vegetation it must rain the other 11 months of the year! We’re about an hour north of Vancouver, camped in a beautiful little campground just at the base of the Chief—the 2300 foot tall granite cliff that looms up from the waters of Howe Sound. Climbing is one of the main draws to the area, and there are climbers here from all over the world. We’ve seen people from almost every state and province (though no one else from northern New England), as well as folks from England, Sweden, Mexico, Japan, New Zealand and I’m sure many other countries. It really is a climbing paradise! There’s enough rock within a 30 mile radius to keep you busy for several lifetimes. The one drawback is the construction going on right now. The main North-South highway is being widened in preparation for the 2010 Olympics here, and since the road is squashed in between the Chief and the water that means a lot of construction noise just 50 yards or so from where we’re camped. It’s not so bad, just somewhat annoying when they’re working overnight and backing up the trucks a lot….beep, beep, beep at 3 a.m.!

Our friends Jamie and Ellen were here for two weeks, we had a blast climbing and hanging out with them. We’ve done some hard sport climbing, some one-pitch trad climbing, some bouldering and several multi-pitch routes up part or all of the Chief. Really, we’re spoiled for choice here! Mike had an opportunity to climb the Grand Wall with a friend we met here; it was a long-term dream of his to do that route so I was thrilled he got the chance. We may try to climb it together before we leave, but we have so many things on the to-do list who knows how much we’ll actually get done! Although we’ve been having an amazing time it’s almost time for us to leave and head back home for a little bit…some family events and a friend’s wedding are calling us home for August. We’ve got a lot of climbing to pack in to the next 10 days, so wish us luck and hopefully we’ll get a chance to catch up with NH/Maine based folks soon!

Squamish 1

On the road again: Colorado to British Columbia

We left Colorado on June 17^th and traveled north and west to eventually land over the border in British Columbia. On our way we made a few stops to climb: at Vedauwoo in Wyoming (just to see, no climbing there), at Maple Canyon south of Salt Lake City in Utah, and at City of Rocks in southern Idaho. We also spent a day at Mt Rainier National Park in Washington. It was an amazing 10 days, we traveled through some gorgeous areas (and some flattish, boring areas too!), enjoyed some new climbing spots and I went through 3 states I’d never been in before!

Maple Canyon was just okay, the rock was very interesting, it’s called cobble and it’s made up of smooth river stones embedded in a natural concrete. Cool in theory, but not all that pretty to look at and just mediocre to climb on. Oh well, now we know what it’s like at least!

City of Rocks was phenomenal, so it more than made up for Maple! The formations there were great, a lot like what we saw in Joshua Tree but in high desert, so there were a lot more trees and shrubs. But it was still hot!! We really enjoyed the climbing there, and there’s an almost infinite amount of it, so we’ll definitely have to go back someday and spend some more time there.

After our 3 days we packed up again and moved on, this time through Oregon and into Washington to stop at Mt. Rainier. There was still an unbelievable amount of snow there! Banks over 8 feet high on the side of the road! We did a little walking around (the forest is just incredible! I’ve never seen trees so big!), Mike hiked a little ways up onto the mountain (in the snow, in his sneakers!) and then we headed out to make our way towards the border. We were planning to meet up with our friends Jamie and Ellen once we got up there, but oddly enough we just happened to be driving through Seattle at exactly the same time! We stopped to say hi and catch up a bit, then they continued driving up to Squamish (about 3 more hours) while we decided to stop for the night and take a break since it was after 8:00. The next day we got back in the car for the last leg of this particular journey, crossed the border into Canada and made our way slooowly up to Squamish (delayed several hours by an accident on the highway). And now we’re happily esconced in a campground at the base of a 2000 foot granite cliff with more rock in a 30 mile radius than can be climbed in a lifetime! But, more about that next time!

Northwest jaunt

Colorado: the grand tour

We’ve been in Colorado for the last three weeks and loved (almost) every minute of it! We stayed with our friend Colin in Boulder for two weeks and spent the middle week touring around the state. Except for the 2 ½ days of rain in Rifle (aaaugh!!) we had perfect weather….blue skies, warm and sunny. We managed to get a taste of 10 different climbing areas! Boulder Canyon, Flagstaff, Clear Creek Canyon, Rifle, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Shelf Road, Eldorado Canyon, Lumpy Ridge, N. Table Mountain, and the Flatirons. There’s an unbelievable amount of stuff just around Boulder, 6 of those spots are within half an hour of where we’ve been staying. Climbing paradise! We did several days of long multi-pitch routes, a good amount of sport climbing and a little bouldering as well….pretty well rounded jaunt overall! Boulder is a fantastic place; very easy to walk or bike just about anywhere you want to go, lots of parks and open spaces, good food, great farmer’s market, and the scenery is pretty darn fabulous! I love it here! Staying with Colin was a lot of fun; his friend Rudy was here for a week so that was great, we also got to hang out with Cristin (who we met in Kentucky and was on her way to California), my friend Becky (another interpreter), and visited my brother Roddy and Mike’s aunt, uncle and cousins from Denver. We also visited Great Sand Dunes National Park, and Rocky Mountain National Park and managed to throw in some hiking and exploring while we were at it. Kind of a whirlwind!

This morning we’re back on the road, our eventual destination is Squamish, in British Columbia, but we’ll be stopping along the way to do a little climbing in Utah, and Idaho and maybe Washington. July 1^st should see us camped out at the next great climbing mecca and ready for more exploring and adventuring!

I hope this finds everyone enjoying the beginnings of summer!

Colorado

Home and back again

I spent a bit over a week at home in early May, visiting family and friends and running around doing some errands. I got to have very belated Easter egg hunts with almost all my nieces and nephews, it was lots of fun to see them! It sure was strange to sleep in a bed under a roof though…..we’d been camping about 6 weeks and I’d gotten very used to having the birds wake me up in the morning! I really enjoyed being home, seeing my parents and having a little time to relax. I also picked up my dog, Loki, who will be joining us on our travels for the next few months. On the way back to Kentucky I had a nice visit with my cousin and her husband and their baby.

Since I got back we’ve been climbing climbing climbing! We both had some routes we wanted to complete, so we spent some time focusing on that. Mike sent his first 5.13! It was very exciting! (For non-climbers, 5.13 is a difficulty rating….it’s very hard!) I did a few more 5.12s, nothing too crazy, but fun for me to push myself and feel stronger day by day. We’ve had a lot of fun hanging out with friends here, the climbing is just amazing and there’s lots more to explore but we’re finally ready to move on. So….we’re planning to leave for Colorado on Tuesday! I’m looking forward to exploring new places, doing some hiking, and meeting up with friends. Colorado will be new for both of us, I’ve never climbed there and Mike’s only done a little bit, so it will be great to see and do as much as we can.

That’s about all the news from here, til next time!

RRG 3 and home

Red River Gorge, Kentucky: Climbing til our arms fall off

We’ve been here at the Red for nearly five weeks now; leaves and wildflowers are busting out everywhere, we had a week of sunny weather with temps in the 80’s (bliss!), and we just keep climbing on this crazy steep rock! Our days start off in a leisurely way, I roll out of bed around 9:00 (Mike is up early as always, usually inside chatting with Miguel), we have breakfast, and make the rounds of friends’ tables to see what the plans for the day look like and what everybody is in the mood for. It’s rare that we leave for climbing before 10:30, but since it stays light out til 8:30 or so a late start doesn’t really matter! There are hundreds of crags scattered throughout the region, with thousands of different climbs to do. With so much climbing available, the dilemma is how to keep ourselves off the rock when our bodies need rest! Most days we end up climbing with some permutation of the long-term crew who are here from all over : Bryce (Texas), Cristin (Penn.), Eric & Kyler (Alaska), Jenny (Wyoming), Chuck (Quebec), Malek & Steph (Ontario), Dave (Ohio, now lives here), and some assorted others. It’s a pretty fantastic life! Our worries are limited to whether we have any strength left to climb, and what the weather looks like!

This area of eastern Kentucky is in the heart of Appalachia; it’s a land full of steep hills and ‘hollers’, tiny churches that look like they might hold 40 people, and winding roads without guard rails that threaten to dump you into a ravine. Our favorite thing here is the ‘Tradio’. It’s a local radio show where people call in to sell or trade things. And boy, do they have a random assortment of stuff to get rid of! Lawnmower engines, goats, childrens’ clothes, car parts, old appliances, rabbits….we’ve seen the yards and can imagine folks just looking out the door and thinking “Hmm, maybe we should get rid of some of this stuff….let’s call the Tradio!” It’s a great piece of local color, fun to hear the accents! On Sundays that station plays bluegrass gospel music; good stuff! It’s certainly an interesting corner of the world, we really enjoy it.

We had initially planned to be leaving here around now and heading back West, but we’ve decided to stick around a while longer. Well, actually, I’m leaving on Friday for a week at home; I’ll visit friends and family, pick up my dog, then meet Mike back down here. And then…..we’ll see! We may stay in Kentucky til the heat chases us out, but we’re pretty sure we’ll be in Colorado for June. We’ll keep you posted!

Til next time!

RedRiver Gorge 2