Well, I thought "Arizona, that's pure like a desert, right? It'll be warm enough to climb". Now I'm thinking "Hey, I wonder if the half foot of snow that fell last night will make everything wet, or if the wind may have scoured some of the boulders - wait, no, it's snowing again".
Not sure what the plan is yet, but I'm fairly certain that hot cocoa and hand warmers will be involved. If push really comes to shove and I just gotta climb something, there's a gym in town, but to be really honest I didn't fly halfway round the world to climb indoors. Could meet some fun people, though.
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Saturday, 24 January 2009
Haggiz brings fine Scottish weather with him to Colorado and goes to Las Vegas!
So, I meant to post this a little while ago but never got around to going to the webternet cafe.
It's raining. It's not snowing then melting, or snowing with a bit of rain, it's fracking raining. In Colorado, in the mountains, in Ouray. The ice, it is wet, dripping and melting. Ver', ver' upsetting.
Also suck is the fact that the video uploader isn't working right now. I guess you'll have to wait for the video tour of our flat and such.
BIG NEWS! I put my camera through the f****ing washingmachine. It's trashed. I think best buy is going to replace it (I bought a thingy plan?) but I'm not sure. All my photos and videos are gone, and I just moved out of the flat (am on the road to las vegas as I type) and so I can't give the video tour or anything. It was all witty and stuff - I even laughed a little.
So here's a little update on what we've been up to in Ouray.
-Climbing in the ice park. Lower in on perfect ice route number four hundred and x, climb out. Rinse and repeat. Great fun.
On one occasion I decided to lower my new pal Dan (from flagstaff, and the dude that is driving with me to vegas right now) a WI5 (well, an "Ouray WI5"), saying if he snuck his way up it and avoided the steeper it would be easier, and he would pull it off. I was wrong.
Is nthis what Aceto dreamt of? A top-rope epic? The route was at the alcove, where there was no ledge at the bottom, and no walk off. So I lower him in just as the pipes start making the glugging noise that tells you you got 2 or 3 minutes before water starts coming out the bottom of the pipes, about 30 mins before the sprayers come on (and I don't mean angry or churningindawake).He lowered in and started to climb out.The whole climbing thing didn;t last all that long really, instead he decided to try his hand at prolonged extreme-hanging. What happened next confused me. There was lots of hanging, lots of swearing, lots of shoutings up of [resigned voice, with a hint of "high maintinance] "I caaan't dooo it!!" and such the like, but eventually he did top out, and what a site it was. He just looked at me, with one of the lenses of his glasses missing, one of my ice tools missing, and a small piece of his ear missing.
He had fallen off, leaving a tool behind, and the rope had knocked it out of the ice. The first time he caught it, the second time it happened he didn't, and it went straight into the rapids.
Niether of us are quite sure how he managed to know out his right lens and cut his left ear at the same time, but some how he did this and had the ice axe go behind him.
We also decided to go and climb the classic route "Stairway to Heaven" at Eurika. I'm almost certain that we picked t single worst day of the duration of my stay in ouray to do it. Tons of powder, some of the worst spindrift conditions I've ever had, and just general shiteness on the weather/conditions front. What took Pierce 4 or 5 hours earlier that week (before the snow fall) took us around 12+ hours, and to be perfectly honest the majority of that was walking. Well, maybe walking isn't the word... Flailing comes to mind.
The climbing was excellent, though, and I still had a great time. It's been a while since I grinned so hard for the duration of a lead that my jaw hurt a little, but the climbing was just plain and simple great fun, with that hint of mild terror that spices it up nicely. An interesting incedent occured when I was looking to set up a belay after leading pitch 3, which finishes on a long, loose snowslope (like 4/5 feet of powder with uneven rock along the bottom - I crushed the tip of one of my axes). I was literally 10 feet from the next pitch of ice, with a tempting and well protected little spot beckoning to me, when I ran out of rope. Hualing my fat ass's full momentum against the rope couldn't get me to the ice. Even when Even took me off belay to give me and extra foot or two, I fell just short, leaving me only one option - digging for gear. So I started digging, and by this time the wind was whipping the snow about so roughly that I probably had to dig a hole and a half from it being filled in. Luckily I hit some solid ice under the snow, and got a bomber screw in. I gave up f**king with the V-thread, though, since it was filling with spindrift faster then I could empty it.
Top route. I highly reccomend.
Every saturday night a chap Dannon Nicks would play a little gig at the silver nugget. He crushed
So I just arrived in Las Vegas, and I have to admit I'm impressed. I didn't think I would be, having seen all pictures and CSI and stuff, but seriously - the stuff here is huge. Unnaturally huge (and not just the casinos - I already ran into like 4 or 6 creepy cougars or waitresses who had clearly... invested serious amounts of money). Everything pure flashes lights and stuff at you telling you what to do and advertising with shameless trashiness. It's like the internet, but in real life - though I've yet to run into prince azkabar the 2nd, who needs my bank details so he can transfer THE SUM OF FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY FOUR THOUSAND US DOLLARS for a business deal to it.
It was actually a little depressing, walking throught the casino floor. I saw one lady who seemed remarkably close to tears pouring money into a slot machine. Her face lite up, once or twice, as the first few rollers matched, but then the last one or two would inevitably be out of sync and her face would contort back into the resigned and hopeless face of loss.
On another note, I saw the biggest douchebag I have EVER seen in my life. We were sitting in the car at a traffic light when we heard base so loud it hurt our ears (and we had been BLASTING xm liquid metal for around 7 hours). This dude was in a convertable two lanes over and the music he was playing seemed to just be a base line, I heard no lyrics, melody or rythm. would turn down the music and scream "oh yeah! Fuck yeah!" then blast it back up again. He looked 40 and really really assholish. When the lights changed he gunned it, got a slight wheel spin, then had to brake 10 feet later to turn left. Then he gunned it and spun a bit more and was gone. His sunglasses (it was afgter 1 AM) looked expensive.
I was kinda gutted to leave Ouray, and I'll miss Craig and Sarah from the nugget, and Pierce and Cory and Ela, but I'm also super stoked to see more places and meet more people.
rc.commers I met:
Corynauman, real name cory - super cool guy. I stayed with him, on his sofa bed or floor, for the duration of my time in Ouray (the whole month). He was dead on - a strong climber, a great banterer, and a fellow video game nerd. Definitely gunna climb with this guy again.
OriginalPmac, real name Pierce - Also worked at the nugget. Played guitar excellently, and climbed at just as high a level. He's also heavy into backcountry snowboarding. I think he's hanging in Ouray for the whole winter.
Well, I thought it was like 2, since it was still super busy downstairs in the casino, but I guess it's actually 4:30 so that all for this post but... so many people still feding the slots at 4 am?
It's raining. It's not snowing then melting, or snowing with a bit of rain, it's fracking raining. In Colorado, in the mountains, in Ouray. The ice, it is wet, dripping and melting. Ver', ver' upsetting.
Also suck is the fact that the video uploader isn't working right now. I guess you'll have to wait for the video tour of our flat and such.
BIG NEWS! I put my camera through the f****ing washingmachine. It's trashed. I think best buy is going to replace it (I bought a thingy plan?) but I'm not sure. All my photos and videos are gone, and I just moved out of the flat (am on the road to las vegas as I type) and so I can't give the video tour or anything. It was all witty and stuff - I even laughed a little.
So here's a little update on what we've been up to in Ouray.
-Climbing in the ice park. Lower in on perfect ice route number four hundred and x, climb out. Rinse and repeat. Great fun.
On one occasion I decided to lower my new pal Dan (from flagstaff, and the dude that is driving with me to vegas right now) a WI5 (well, an "Ouray WI5"), saying if he snuck his way up it and avoided the steeper it would be easier, and he would pull it off. I was wrong.
Is nthis what Aceto dreamt of? A top-rope epic? The route was at the alcove, where there was no ledge at the bottom, and no walk off. So I lower him in just as the pipes start making the glugging noise that tells you you got 2 or 3 minutes before water starts coming out the bottom of the pipes, about 30 mins before the sprayers come on (and I don't mean angry or churningindawake).He lowered in and started to climb out.The whole climbing thing didn;t last all that long really, instead he decided to try his hand at prolonged extreme-hanging. What happened next confused me. There was lots of hanging, lots of swearing, lots of shoutings up of [resigned voice, with a hint of "high maintinance] "I caaan't dooo it!!" and such the like, but eventually he did top out, and what a site it was. He just looked at me, with one of the lenses of his glasses missing, one of my ice tools missing, and a small piece of his ear missing.
He had fallen off, leaving a tool behind, and the rope had knocked it out of the ice. The first time he caught it, the second time it happened he didn't, and it went straight into the rapids.
Niether of us are quite sure how he managed to know out his right lens and cut his left ear at the same time, but some how he did this and had the ice axe go behind him.
We also decided to go and climb the classic route "Stairway to Heaven" at Eurika. I'm almost certain that we picked t single worst day of the duration of my stay in ouray to do it. Tons of powder, some of the worst spindrift conditions I've ever had, and just general shiteness on the weather/conditions front. What took Pierce 4 or 5 hours earlier that week (before the snow fall) took us around 12+ hours, and to be perfectly honest the majority of that was walking. Well, maybe walking isn't the word... Flailing comes to mind.
The climbing was excellent, though, and I still had a great time. It's been a while since I grinned so hard for the duration of a lead that my jaw hurt a little, but the climbing was just plain and simple great fun, with that hint of mild terror that spices it up nicely. An interesting incedent occured when I was looking to set up a belay after leading pitch 3, which finishes on a long, loose snowslope (like 4/5 feet of powder with uneven rock along the bottom - I crushed the tip of one of my axes). I was literally 10 feet from the next pitch of ice, with a tempting and well protected little spot beckoning to me, when I ran out of rope. Hualing my fat ass's full momentum against the rope couldn't get me to the ice. Even when Even took me off belay to give me and extra foot or two, I fell just short, leaving me only one option - digging for gear. So I started digging, and by this time the wind was whipping the snow about so roughly that I probably had to dig a hole and a half from it being filled in. Luckily I hit some solid ice under the snow, and got a bomber screw in. I gave up f**king with the V-thread, though, since it was filling with spindrift faster then I could empty it.
Top route. I highly reccomend.
Every saturday night a chap Dannon Nicks would play a little gig at the silver nugget. He crushed
So I just arrived in Las Vegas, and I have to admit I'm impressed. I didn't think I would be, having seen all pictures and CSI and stuff, but seriously - the stuff here is huge. Unnaturally huge (and not just the casinos - I already ran into like 4 or 6 creepy cougars or waitresses who had clearly... invested serious amounts of money). Everything pure flashes lights and stuff at you telling you what to do and advertising with shameless trashiness. It's like the internet, but in real life - though I've yet to run into prince azkabar the 2nd, who needs my bank details so he can transfer THE SUM OF FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY FOUR THOUSAND US DOLLARS for a business deal to it.
It was actually a little depressing, walking throught the casino floor. I saw one lady who seemed remarkably close to tears pouring money into a slot machine. Her face lite up, once or twice, as the first few rollers matched, but then the last one or two would inevitably be out of sync and her face would contort back into the resigned and hopeless face of loss.
On another note, I saw the biggest douchebag I have EVER seen in my life. We were sitting in the car at a traffic light when we heard base so loud it hurt our ears (and we had been BLASTING xm liquid metal for around 7 hours). This dude was in a convertable two lanes over and the music he was playing seemed to just be a base line, I heard no lyrics, melody or rythm. would turn down the music and scream "oh yeah! Fuck yeah!" then blast it back up again. He looked 40 and really really assholish. When the lights changed he gunned it, got a slight wheel spin, then had to brake 10 feet later to turn left. Then he gunned it and spun a bit more and was gone. His sunglasses (it was afgter 1 AM) looked expensive.
I was kinda gutted to leave Ouray, and I'll miss Craig and Sarah from the nugget, and Pierce and Cory and Ela, but I'm also super stoked to see more places and meet more people.
rc.commers I met:
Corynauman, real name cory - super cool guy. I stayed with him, on his sofa bed or floor, for the duration of my time in Ouray (the whole month). He was dead on - a strong climber, a great banterer, and a fellow video game nerd. Definitely gunna climb with this guy again.
OriginalPmac, real name Pierce - Also worked at the nugget. Played guitar excellently, and climbed at just as high a level. He's also heavy into backcountry snowboarding. I think he's hanging in Ouray for the whole winter.
Well, I thought it was like 2, since it was still super busy downstairs in the casino, but I guess it's actually 4:30 so that all for this post but... so many people still feding the slots at 4 am?
Monday, 19 January 2009
Ouray part 2.
Here's a few videos and some photos from the Ouray ice park.
I arranged to meet John (angry) at grand junction airport and drive down to Ouray on the 2nd, and while I was in Salt Lake City airport waiting for the grand junction flight a guy and a girl ran up to me and enquired if I was going to Ouray. At first I was kind of confused but then I realised I was wearing my ice boots, which they had noticed.
Turns out they needed a lift down but had a flat to crash in, so we made the swap. We all drove down with John, and instead of camping out or sleeping in John's truck we had a nice warm floor to sleep on. After a good nights sleep broken only by a few incidents of pillow to the face (I guess I was snoring a little - not a common occurance. Well, not overly common.) we all went out for a climb, and my first peak at the legendary Ouray ice park.
The climbing was GREAT! What ice! And there was so much of it - literally miles (okay, more then one mile) of steep 100 foot ice falls.
Here's a few pictures and videos to give you an idea of the banter we've had.
Inside the Silver nugget - probably the best cafe/semi bar in town. The owners are sound, and sometimes if you do a few jobs for them you can catch a free meal or 2.
I arranged to meet John (angry) at grand junction airport and drive down to Ouray on the 2nd, and while I was in Salt Lake City airport waiting for the grand junction flight a guy and a girl ran up to me and enquired if I was going to Ouray. At first I was kind of confused but then I realised I was wearing my ice boots, which they had noticed.
Turns out they needed a lift down but had a flat to crash in, so we made the swap. We all drove down with John, and instead of camping out or sleeping in John's truck we had a nice warm floor to sleep on. After a good nights sleep broken only by a few incidents of pillow to the face (I guess I was snoring a little - not a common occurance. Well, not overly common.) we all went out for a climb, and my first peak at the legendary Ouray ice park.
The climbing was GREAT! What ice! And there was so much of it - literally miles (okay, more then one mile) of steep 100 foot ice falls.
Here's a few pictures and videos to give you an idea of the banter we've had.
Inside the Silver nugget - probably the best cafe/semi bar in town. The owners are sound, and sometimes if you do a few jobs for them you can catch a free meal or 2.
Thursday, 15 January 2009
NC revisited - some people that deserve to be mentioned.
I had a great time in NC, even if I didn't climb as much as I should have.
Firstly Let's meet TJgosurf. I met him in passing at Pilot Mountain when I was climbing with Jeff and Nancy there. A few weeks later, when I was back from the red, I shot him a PM and we decided to meet up and do some climbing. He went through an effort and drove all the way up to my girlfriend's place in Chapel Hill since I couldn't work out a lift down to greensborogh.
He has a cool hair, it's kind of big but neat. One the first day we just nipped to the gym and screwed around for a couple of hours, including use [en masse] of fig. 4's on juggy roofs. More surprising is that it actually worked. After that we headed home for some movies and, of course, haggis:
Making Haggis at TJgosurf's house.
The next day was what I was looking foreward to - hitting the legendary land of slab Stone Mountain. After looking throught the guide on the way to the crag we decided the route to be clymbzed would be dixie crystals, a 5.9 with the generous protect (not joking - it is comparatively generous) of at least 2 bolts a pitch. Falling before clipping the first bolt was even more worying the usual, since the route actually started about 60 feet up a steep gully, so a fall would result in both the climber going for quite the tumble.
Anyways, TJ geared up for the lead and quickly set off in the rapid yet delicately cautious pace that is slab climbing.
TJgosurf on a 5.9 Stone Mountain padfest.
Now, personally, I thought the line of least resistance went up leftwards, then rightwards to the bolt. But the guidebook said bomb on straight up, so not wanting to go offroute TJ bombed straight up. Please note at this point that we were not on dixie chrystals, but rather some other route that did call for going left the right, to avoid a stopper move no more then 5 feet from the first bolt, about 45 feet off the deck. But, of course, we thought we were on dixie, so TJ hit the stopper move. With upward movement impossible, and the move was impossible (for us mere mortals, at least) he faced the terrfying prospect of DOWNCLIMBING 45 feet of friction slab!
He moved slowly at first, with a small hint of elvis in his leg but with confidnence in his movements. As he got lower (comparatively, still 30 feet off the deck) he turned around in his mild panic and started to descend facing away from the slope, under the conditions posibly not the best move, but at that point it was all about keeping cool, and not faffing. He finaly made it down to around 15 feet up, where he started to slide.
Seeing it coming I braced a foot in some roots and as he landed I shoved him hard into the slope, hoping to stop him from tumbling down the gully for the 15 feet of slack that was out. Luckily it worked and with nothing but a slight chuckle, a raised heartrate, and a bruised confidence we met up with his pal Steven (a skilled skier who was wearing a 500 dollar spyder jacker he had scored for free) and headed off to climb the classic 5.4 of the area...
The next day I met up with Limeydave again for some more Pilot Mountain fun. We even top-rope-hang-dogged an eliminant variation microroute .12a, we're THAT COOL. it was fun.
The next weekend I met up once again with RSmillburn (ScoTt), his wife Christina, and his friend MJwestla (Matt) for some more climbing. The aim was to hit rumbling bald on saturday, then camp somewhere, then climb at stone mountain on sunday. I went over on friday night and crashed out on their spare bed and we rocked the alpine start the next day for the long approach (in the car) to the crag.
The first route we jumped on was called Comatose, a arching layback crack that flaired to tummy height laybacks (know what I mean?) then had some funky moves over an overlap at half height, finishing with a runout to the anchors.
While Matt geared up for the lead we noticed these little geckos scurrying about everywhere, which I thought was pretty much the awesome.
Matt lead the route without too much problem, moving with solid confidence of one who is enjoying being near his limit on the sharp end and the heightened awareness that comes with it.
Whilst I was seconding the pitch, a young lady joined him at the belay. She told her climber not to climb until I was at the anchors, as she feared that we would shock load the anchor with a factor 4 should we both fall. Whilst I wasn't sure how true that was, it's all about comfort levels so we played ball and chilled at the anchor while she brought up her second, then we "rapped" down. Everytime someone says "let's rap" I think of hip hop or something, as opposed to abseiling, though "abbing off" sounds like a lycra workout.
The next route we did somehow took ages to happen, queues, banter and whatnot, but we climbed a thin crack up solid rock, to a short span of rotten and loose rock and ended up at the base of a deep thin chimney. It was all easy, but highly enjoyable. After P1 you actually climb into the chimney and stand on the bottom of it. It's about 3 or 4 feet wide (it varies) and 30 feet deep. Looking up it looked impossibly wild, but Matt cruised up it, saying you could see edges and cracks from above, and it wasn't blank like it seemed. Luckily, he was telling the truth, because to be perfectly honest I've not really climbed that many chimneys, and that was some seriously awkward stuff (much like the spelling of awkward - ever noticed that?).
Anyways, we rapped down, using the belay anchors (which had rap rings) for the rap stations.
I went first, and when I got to the bottom of the chimney I started threading the spare rope - to save time and all that (it was getting dark) but I didn't notice that I had threaded the rope through the sling I had clipped to the bolt with. I didn't notice until it was dark and we already had headtorches on, and Matt was on the ground. I decided to use some trickery so when I pulled the rope it would pull my sling, too. The only problem was that it would put a knot in the rope, risking getting caught in one of the few cracks on the route when we pulled it.
And, of course, it got stuck. By this time Scott and Christina had already went back to the car, and the rope was Scott's, so we weren't leaving it.
Now I wasn't sure if I had screwed up and we thought that the rope was either stuck, or tied to the sling which was possibly now girth-hitched over the bolts.
We decided to do our best to un-stick in if it was just caught on an edge or whatever by setting up a 3 to 1 pully with a grigri and a jumar. We cranked HARD on that thing (double bodyweight + pushing off rocks) and it didn't budge, so we decided it was probably stuck on the bolts, and I decided to jug the line. Not being a fool I most certainly did so tied in on the 2nd rp and placing gear as if on lead, and I'm glad I did. 15 feet from the belay the sling was hanging hanging in front of my nose, wedge right in the middle of the loose ground, as the rope had wedged behind pretty much the loosest block of them all. Now I was in the great situation of being halfway up a route on a line stuck behind a loose block unable to get any good pro in since all the rock around me was loose... in my approach shoes which, at the time, looked like this:
Wide eyed and a little shakey kneed I slotted 5 or 6 pieces (hoping that they would kinda hold the blocks in place) clipped to them, and trying my best not to weight them - there was a conviniently placed non-ledge- unstuck the rope and threw down a loop of slack, calling for Matt to tie my climbing shoes to it. After a shakey and balancy change of footwear I rocked up the rest of the pitch and, not getting any slings stuck this time, absieled back off.
By that time Scott was back at the crag, making sure we weren't dead or anything, and we had a nice fun million hour (it seemed) walk back to the car in the dark. I'm just glad it was winter, otherwise those bushes would have been brutal.
That night we camped out at some place somewhere and stuff, then in the morning we drove to Stone Mountain, for some slabtastic tradisfaction. Well, it was a long drive, and throw in the fact that, while traveling east (or whatever) we stopped by at a gas station and got back on the freeway heading westbound for about 40 minutes...
When we got to stone mountain Matt and I geared up and climbed No Alternitive, a great line ruined slightly by a loose and dead tree you have to negotiate at half height. We were using Matt's rack which contained a few master cams. Now I'm not saying these are great or not, or telling you whether or not to buy them, but my rack back home consists of HB quadcams and flexicams, which I am going to tell you not to buy. So I guess the master cams have a really small head width, which I never got the craze about, but when I jumped on to lead this route I forgot to bring any nuts except my 1-6 HB brassies, which left a lot to be desired as far as placements go. Those little heads on the cams really did let me sneak 'em in when I didn't think they would work, so I guess I see why the narrowness matters.
We ran out of time (what happened to all the time that weekend? super slow in the car and super fast on the rock) and didn't do pitches 2 or 3 so, which contained all of the actual slab climbing so I still really haven't gotten the full stone mountain experiance.
rc.commers I met:
TJgosurf - actual name TJ. Sound lad, let me crash on an inflatible matress on his floor and drove for a fair while to pick me up so we could go climbing. Had a cat who liked sleeping on me, but didn't like it when I rolled over, his reaction to which would be to lightly mual me. His room mate (name evades me) was super cool, as well.
Rsmillburn - Actual name Scott. Sound guy, likes a lot of old skool punk, which I thought was pretty neat. He and his wife Christina have the quietest and best behaved baby in the entire universe, for certain. Too bad he shootzed me in t3h Fayse!!!!!!11one1
Firstly Let's meet TJgosurf. I met him in passing at Pilot Mountain when I was climbing with Jeff and Nancy there. A few weeks later, when I was back from the red, I shot him a PM and we decided to meet up and do some climbing. He went through an effort and drove all the way up to my girlfriend's place in Chapel Hill since I couldn't work out a lift down to greensborogh.
He has a cool hair, it's kind of big but neat. One the first day we just nipped to the gym and screwed around for a couple of hours, including use [en masse] of fig. 4's on juggy roofs. More surprising is that it actually worked. After that we headed home for some movies and, of course, haggis:
Making Haggis at TJgosurf's house.
The next day was what I was looking foreward to - hitting the legendary land of slab Stone Mountain. After looking throught the guide on the way to the crag we decided the route to be clymbzed would be dixie crystals, a 5.9 with the generous protect (not joking - it is comparatively generous) of at least 2 bolts a pitch. Falling before clipping the first bolt was even more worying the usual, since the route actually started about 60 feet up a steep gully, so a fall would result in both the climber going for quite the tumble.
Anyways, TJ geared up for the lead and quickly set off in the rapid yet delicately cautious pace that is slab climbing.
TJgosurf on a 5.9 Stone Mountain padfest.
Now, personally, I thought the line of least resistance went up leftwards, then rightwards to the bolt. But the guidebook said bomb on straight up, so not wanting to go offroute TJ bombed straight up. Please note at this point that we were not on dixie chrystals, but rather some other route that did call for going left the right, to avoid a stopper move no more then 5 feet from the first bolt, about 45 feet off the deck. But, of course, we thought we were on dixie, so TJ hit the stopper move. With upward movement impossible, and the move was impossible (for us mere mortals, at least) he faced the terrfying prospect of DOWNCLIMBING 45 feet of friction slab!
He moved slowly at first, with a small hint of elvis in his leg but with confidnence in his movements. As he got lower (comparatively, still 30 feet off the deck) he turned around in his mild panic and started to descend facing away from the slope, under the conditions posibly not the best move, but at that point it was all about keeping cool, and not faffing. He finaly made it down to around 15 feet up, where he started to slide.
Seeing it coming I braced a foot in some roots and as he landed I shoved him hard into the slope, hoping to stop him from tumbling down the gully for the 15 feet of slack that was out. Luckily it worked and with nothing but a slight chuckle, a raised heartrate, and a bruised confidence we met up with his pal Steven (a skilled skier who was wearing a 500 dollar spyder jacker he had scored for free) and headed off to climb the classic 5.4 of the area...
The next day I met up with Limeydave again for some more Pilot Mountain fun. We even top-rope-hang-dogged an eliminant variation microroute .12a, we're THAT COOL. it was fun.
The next weekend I met up once again with RSmillburn (ScoTt), his wife Christina, and his friend MJwestla (Matt) for some more climbing. The aim was to hit rumbling bald on saturday, then camp somewhere, then climb at stone mountain on sunday. I went over on friday night and crashed out on their spare bed and we rocked the alpine start the next day for the long approach (in the car) to the crag.
The first route we jumped on was called Comatose, a arching layback crack that flaired to tummy height laybacks (know what I mean?) then had some funky moves over an overlap at half height, finishing with a runout to the anchors.
While Matt geared up for the lead we noticed these little geckos scurrying about everywhere, which I thought was pretty much the awesome.
Matt lead the route without too much problem, moving with solid confidence of one who is enjoying being near his limit on the sharp end and the heightened awareness that comes with it.
Whilst I was seconding the pitch, a young lady joined him at the belay. She told her climber not to climb until I was at the anchors, as she feared that we would shock load the anchor with a factor 4 should we both fall. Whilst I wasn't sure how true that was, it's all about comfort levels so we played ball and chilled at the anchor while she brought up her second, then we "rapped" down. Everytime someone says "let's rap" I think of hip hop or something, as opposed to abseiling, though "abbing off" sounds like a lycra workout.
The next route we did somehow took ages to happen, queues, banter and whatnot, but we climbed a thin crack up solid rock, to a short span of rotten and loose rock and ended up at the base of a deep thin chimney. It was all easy, but highly enjoyable. After P1 you actually climb into the chimney and stand on the bottom of it. It's about 3 or 4 feet wide (it varies) and 30 feet deep. Looking up it looked impossibly wild, but Matt cruised up it, saying you could see edges and cracks from above, and it wasn't blank like it seemed. Luckily, he was telling the truth, because to be perfectly honest I've not really climbed that many chimneys, and that was some seriously awkward stuff (much like the spelling of awkward - ever noticed that?).
Anyways, we rapped down, using the belay anchors (which had rap rings) for the rap stations.
I went first, and when I got to the bottom of the chimney I started threading the spare rope - to save time and all that (it was getting dark) but I didn't notice that I had threaded the rope through the sling I had clipped to the bolt with. I didn't notice until it was dark and we already had headtorches on, and Matt was on the ground. I decided to use some trickery so when I pulled the rope it would pull my sling, too. The only problem was that it would put a knot in the rope, risking getting caught in one of the few cracks on the route when we pulled it.
And, of course, it got stuck. By this time Scott and Christina had already went back to the car, and the rope was Scott's, so we weren't leaving it.
Now I wasn't sure if I had screwed up and we thought that the rope was either stuck, or tied to the sling which was possibly now girth-hitched over the bolts.
We decided to do our best to un-stick in if it was just caught on an edge or whatever by setting up a 3 to 1 pully with a grigri and a jumar. We cranked HARD on that thing (double bodyweight + pushing off rocks) and it didn't budge, so we decided it was probably stuck on the bolts, and I decided to jug the line. Not being a fool I most certainly did so tied in on the 2nd rp and placing gear as if on lead, and I'm glad I did. 15 feet from the belay the sling was hanging hanging in front of my nose, wedge right in the middle of the loose ground, as the rope had wedged behind pretty much the loosest block of them all. Now I was in the great situation of being halfway up a route on a line stuck behind a loose block unable to get any good pro in since all the rock around me was loose... in my approach shoes which, at the time, looked like this:
Wide eyed and a little shakey kneed I slotted 5 or 6 pieces (hoping that they would kinda hold the blocks in place) clipped to them, and trying my best not to weight them - there was a conviniently placed non-ledge- unstuck the rope and threw down a loop of slack, calling for Matt to tie my climbing shoes to it. After a shakey and balancy change of footwear I rocked up the rest of the pitch and, not getting any slings stuck this time, absieled back off.
By that time Scott was back at the crag, making sure we weren't dead or anything, and we had a nice fun million hour (it seemed) walk back to the car in the dark. I'm just glad it was winter, otherwise those bushes would have been brutal.
That night we camped out at some place somewhere and stuff, then in the morning we drove to Stone Mountain, for some slabtastic tradisfaction. Well, it was a long drive, and throw in the fact that, while traveling east (or whatever) we stopped by at a gas station and got back on the freeway heading westbound for about 40 minutes...
When we got to stone mountain Matt and I geared up and climbed No Alternitive, a great line ruined slightly by a loose and dead tree you have to negotiate at half height. We were using Matt's rack which contained a few master cams. Now I'm not saying these are great or not, or telling you whether or not to buy them, but my rack back home consists of HB quadcams and flexicams, which I am going to tell you not to buy. So I guess the master cams have a really small head width, which I never got the craze about, but when I jumped on to lead this route I forgot to bring any nuts except my 1-6 HB brassies, which left a lot to be desired as far as placements go. Those little heads on the cams really did let me sneak 'em in when I didn't think they would work, so I guess I see why the narrowness matters.
We ran out of time (what happened to all the time that weekend? super slow in the car and super fast on the rock) and didn't do pitches 2 or 3 so, which contained all of the actual slab climbing so I still really haven't gotten the full stone mountain experiance.
rc.commers I met:
TJgosurf - actual name TJ. Sound lad, let me crash on an inflatible matress on his floor and drove for a fair while to pick me up so we could go climbing. Had a cat who liked sleeping on me, but didn't like it when I rolled over, his reaction to which would be to lightly mual me. His room mate (name evades me) was super cool, as well.
Rsmillburn - Actual name Scott. Sound guy, likes a lot of old skool punk, which I thought was pretty neat. He and his wife Christina have the quietest and best behaved baby in the entire universe, for certain. Too bad he shootzed me in t3h Fayse!!!!!!11one1
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
The Ouray Ice festival and the art of breaking your teeth. pt 1.
My teeth hurt and my gums are bleeding slightly, but taking an adze to the teeth will do that to a guy. Maybe even to a girl (though during my stay in ouray I've seen countless guys with bleeding faces but no girls?). I keep forgetting how good the ice I'm climbing on is and that I don't need to swing my tool into the ice like it's the monkey from the old rockclimbing.com icon.
The Ouray ice park is a strange place indeed. You drive through the mountains, surrounding by inspiring peaks, then lower into a gorge from bolted anchors and toprope the finest ice all day long. Although the convinience takes something from the experiance it is damnz good fun and I've put more milage in in the last week and a bit then I did last season. You can easily climb a thousand feet of WI4+ ice in one day after a late start and be home in time for a late lunchoen.
Another strange pheonominon is the ice festival. The place was sleepy and quiet all week before the fest started, with the majority of lines in the park empty. Then comes the ouray ice fest, with cops handing out threats of arrest repeatidly in one night to several people for indecent exposure (erm, no one I know, of course), queues on most of the climbs, and little signs saying "Reserved for ice fest clinics" on all the others.
The only place where there were more climbers then the ice climbs was the gear stalls, where it seemed everyone except for me seemed to be scoring huge amounts of free shwag from just about every ice climbing company out there.
I did manage to snag a free timex digital compass watch, though, by sweet talking the dude at the stall. Handy since I left my old digi compass watch in the visitor centre near miguel's.
Unforunitly, as some people may have noticed, I don't have internet access readily avalible (not much posting lately) and have to yoink Cory's laptop and head down to the Silver Nugget (in my opinion the best pub in town) to get online.
Now how I met Cory is a lucky story. I was waiting in line at salt lake city airport for the grand junction flight (where I was going to meet Angry and get a lift down to Ouray, where we planned to camp or crash in the back of his truck, lacking anywhere solid to stay) when he and his girlfriend walk up to me, noticing the ice boots I wore to free up space in my luggage, and ask if I'm going to ouray. it was quickly realised that while he had a place to stay but lacked a ride down there, I had a ride down there but lakced a place to stay. A win win situation was had.
Expect part 2 soon, but the silver nugget is closing now.
RC.commers I met:
Reno - this dude is tall, and something about his build makes him seem even taller. I never met him while he was sober, but I guess I didn't make it on the sledding trips, either. Did I mention he was super tall? And had a chick on either side of him?
Redpointron - I narrowly missed him while I was stranded at the Red but managed to meet up with him at the ice park. We climbed one of the few naturally formed lines there.
Rheese_7 - I never climbed with her, but a good banter was had at the petzl/arcteryx party.
Thestatusquo - Again, I mostly just hung out at the petzl party and at the mexican bar the night before. Funny guy. We teamed up to start the well-recieved limbo compitition.
Geogoddess - Having bought myself a bright pink helmet to prove my manliness (or something like that) I commented on the fact that a nearby young lady had the same helmet. After a short convorsation I discovered that it was actually the geogoddess herself! We climbed a few lines nearby each other and had arranged to meet up at a later time but me running late made that fall through.
Mattb1921 - another cool guy, though I haven't been able to climb with him yet. Soon, though, since we're both around town.
The Ouray ice park is a strange place indeed. You drive through the mountains, surrounding by inspiring peaks, then lower into a gorge from bolted anchors and toprope the finest ice all day long. Although the convinience takes something from the experiance it is damnz good fun and I've put more milage in in the last week and a bit then I did last season. You can easily climb a thousand feet of WI4+ ice in one day after a late start and be home in time for a late lunchoen.
Another strange pheonominon is the ice festival. The place was sleepy and quiet all week before the fest started, with the majority of lines in the park empty. Then comes the ouray ice fest, with cops handing out threats of arrest repeatidly in one night to several people for indecent exposure (erm, no one I know, of course), queues on most of the climbs, and little signs saying "Reserved for ice fest clinics" on all the others.
The only place where there were more climbers then the ice climbs was the gear stalls, where it seemed everyone except for me seemed to be scoring huge amounts of free shwag from just about every ice climbing company out there.
I did manage to snag a free timex digital compass watch, though, by sweet talking the dude at the stall. Handy since I left my old digi compass watch in the visitor centre near miguel's.
Unforunitly, as some people may have noticed, I don't have internet access readily avalible (not much posting lately) and have to yoink Cory's laptop and head down to the Silver Nugget (in my opinion the best pub in town) to get online.
Now how I met Cory is a lucky story. I was waiting in line at salt lake city airport for the grand junction flight (where I was going to meet Angry and get a lift down to Ouray, where we planned to camp or crash in the back of his truck, lacking anywhere solid to stay) when he and his girlfriend walk up to me, noticing the ice boots I wore to free up space in my luggage, and ask if I'm going to ouray. it was quickly realised that while he had a place to stay but lacked a ride down there, I had a ride down there but lakced a place to stay. A win win situation was had.
Expect part 2 soon, but the silver nugget is closing now.
RC.commers I met:
Reno - this dude is tall, and something about his build makes him seem even taller. I never met him while he was sober, but I guess I didn't make it on the sledding trips, either. Did I mention he was super tall? And had a chick on either side of him?
Redpointron - I narrowly missed him while I was stranded at the Red but managed to meet up with him at the ice park. We climbed one of the few naturally formed lines there.
Rheese_7 - I never climbed with her, but a good banter was had at the petzl/arcteryx party.
Thestatusquo - Again, I mostly just hung out at the petzl party and at the mexican bar the night before. Funny guy. We teamed up to start the well-recieved limbo compitition.
Geogoddess - Having bought myself a bright pink helmet to prove my manliness (or something like that) I commented on the fact that a nearby young lady had the same helmet. After a short convorsation I discovered that it was actually the geogoddess herself! We climbed a few lines nearby each other and had arranged to meet up at a later time but me running late made that fall through.
Mattb1921 - another cool guy, though I haven't been able to climb with him yet. Soon, though, since we're both around town.
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Run in fear! Haggizdonny shootz a REAL GUN, with real live bullets of metal and stuff.
This was totally sweet. I pure shot a handgun in my girlfriend's back yard. Her dad was like "Wanna shoot a gun?" and I was like "sure!" so we grab some earmuff things and go outside, then he just whips out a bad-ass looking handgun. He just had it on him in a holster the whole time!
Then he told us how the safety worked, and said "see that pin at the back? that means it's loaded, cocked, and there's one in the chamber." I thought that was pretty much awesome.
Anyways, for some reason they let me shoot it, and they took two videos, here's my two tries at shooting a gun. Notice me startle in fear the first time I shoot it (video 1), and the big goofy grin when I shoot all fast and stuff (video 2).
Also, check out the angry/evil looking gingerbread man my girlfriend made.
Then he told us how the safety worked, and said "see that pin at the back? that means it's loaded, cocked, and there's one in the chamber." I thought that was pretty much awesome.
Anyways, for some reason they let me shoot it, and they took two videos, here's my two tries at shooting a gun. Notice me startle in fear the first time I shoot it (video 1), and the big goofy grin when I shoot all fast and stuff (video 2).
Also, check out the angry/evil looking gingerbread man my girlfriend made.
Monday, 1 December 2008
"just fecking write the blog already" THE RED.
I've tried to write this a bunch of times, but how can you cover such great climbing, ace banter, and fantastic people in a blog? Not to mention the I don't rite good. Plus you don't get pc++ from it, but nevermind that.
So here's the short version.
After a short delay in getting started (hint: it was me) I met up with Allan and a few of his friends to nab a lift down to winston-salem, where I was to meet up with Nancy, with whom I would then venture forth to the land of Kentucky.
Can I just take a moment and say if you are EVER going through Winston-Salem, swing by "Bell Brothers". It's a cafeteria style restaurant place and the food is AMAZING. They had the best fried chicken I've ever had, and the fried ochra [spelling?] was mega tasty. Everyone was nice, and it just had a positive feel to it.
Anywhoozlbees, this aint a food blog, let's get on with the climbing!
Unfortunately I don't remember every detail of the climbing, but I'll try and go over the points I do remember (no more putting of blogging).
So, after what started as a beautiful but eventually deteriorated into a wet windy and dark drive we arrived at what some would call the very center of north American spurt climbing - Miguel's Pizza.
Arriving at Miguel's Pizza
There was a crowd out front, so after swiftly throwing together my bivi tent in the goat field and sorting out my food and dumping it in Nancy's tent (MISTAKE! read on to find out the tragic end which the tent met, and why I had no cookies), I headed to he front of the shop with the aim to meet some characters. After several "Hey, I'm Magnus and I don't know anyone here, hows it going?" introductions I found myself emerged in convorsation. I quickly met my first rc.commer, Dew4theQ, or Johnny Q - a hilarious character who not only pulls of the leather cowboy hat but looks kinda strange without it...
The great banter I grew to love (then miss) was had, with Johnny Q and his friends (Zach, Dereik, and... shitz, I forgetz) enjoying several bottles of Gatoraid (read: yuengling) from the keg in the back of their truck. I was sure I had caught site of rc.com's very own Clausti, but couldn't be sure, and no contact was made (okay, she avoided me due to expecting me to be annoying. deep burn).
The next morning, buzzing and looking foreward to my first taste of RRG rock, I geared up quickly and waited by Nancy's jeep while she got one or two things together.
A busy car park and Vanland at Migeul's Pizza
Whilst I was waiting I heard a strange flute-like sound, which I realised was coming from some dude sitting by a nearby car. I headed over to meet the guy, who seemed a real character to be sure, and he introduced himself. "Hi there, Magnus, I'm Bab", "Bab, eh?" I replied.
"Nonono, not bAb, Bab, as in Robert" - bwhahah! What an accent! So his name was Bob.
Bab talking to Nancy
We talked a little, and finding that he was to be alone for the day I invited him along to climb with Nancy and myself.
Soon thereafter, after a quick swing by Koops for a sandwhich and Ale81 to save for lunch, we were loving the Jeep's heavy suspension and 4 wheel drive heading down the pendigras road to The Shire.
The Shire, while not the most inspiring crag I went to during my stay at the RRG, is a very nice crag. On arrival we were a bit disapointed but not put off to find a large group from Perdue university setting up several topropes (well, 2 people were setting up the top ropes and the rest were looking on with the usual first-timers awe).
So I jump on a route they're not using, ready for my first taste of this tasty sandstone.
I don't know the name of the route but it was fun, easy (felt harder then it should have) and had some funky grab-the-pocket-sideways reachy moves on it. The rock was great! Perhaps a little sandy in places, but the features are simply awesome.
Now I may not have explained this earlier, but one of the first things Bob talked to me about was his online group-thing through which he'll teach you about business and (I think) sustainability and the like. He gave me a business card. Let's get one thing straight, I'm not judging this dude based on this on fact, but I did find it EXTREMELY funny to watch him almost systematically work his way through the group from Perdue (paying particular attention to the ladies - note the 20 year age difference*) telling them about this group. I'm almost certain one or two of them got more then one round of it.
It was about this time when the man himself, Johnny Q, showed up. It was pretty lucky they ended up at the same crag (out of hundreds to choose from) as us. They jumped onto a nice looking route (a .10 something I think) which tackled a steep section of the wall on deep but sloping pockets.
Whilst we were doing this, the Perdue group were climbing the TR's on several nice lines (which we later did). Nancy and I went to do another route, meanwhile Bab took some photos, one of which was of a young lady tacking an overhang. He commented on how the silhouette looked great, and how the photo would rock, then [cringe] on how nice her breasts looked from that angle! He sure was a bold guy.
A short while later, after the Perdue group made a hasty retreat, I gave the route that Johnny Q put up a shot. Not surprisingly I was hopelessly pumped almost immediately, but *cough* I hung my way to the top. Then I climbed a slabby but powerful 10, then I hung all over (PUMPED) a steep but juggy 9, then I took photos of Johnny Q climbing this super attractive line:
Johnny Q enjoying this Astetic and eye catching line at the Shire.
I was tempted to give it a shot, but it was late, and I didn't want to back off only to have someone else climb it to get the draws. This is before I knew the grading system, so I though it was out of reach at 10d, but I reckon I would have had it (with a few hangs eheheheh) had I given it a bash.
Hmmm, that night... Well, I enjoyed a fair amount of *ahem* Gatoraid, and a semi-small amount of Jim Beam. I believe that this occurance was quickly followed by semi-loud and potentially (though I'm told I wasn't) obnoxious ranting about how I got my name, then shameless talk of how parties are more fun when you're nekked. I *believe* that I then invited myself to some girl's party in Michigan in march, and annouced it would be a designated naked party. The whole night was hilarious. I forgot the firl's name, and where the party was, but I think that's for the best...
And THAT was my first 24 hours at the red river gorge. Fuckin' awesome!
I can't remember the next week terribly well, though... I can tell you that at one point I found myself at the Hideout in muir valley climbing Boltergeist. What a line! There's something fantastic about it, not sure quite what it was. Veriety perhaps.
And, in true rc.com style, I had to take the PANCAKES option and make a quick ascent of "International Route of Pancakes" which I can honestly say is the WORST ROUTE I have EVER CLIMBED (including Ochill hill chosspile highballs and FA's). Who the F*** bolted that thing??
Magnus climbing "international chosspile of pancakes".
Worth it for the pancakes, though.
Hmmmm, what else happened that week? Lots of rock was climbed, lots (AND LOTS) off Ale81 drank (that stuff is fecking awesome) and a movie watched (the changling - good film, I strongly reccomend). And, of course, a visit to the Ale81 factory!
I believe after that we bailed for a few days and hung out in North Carolina for 4 or 5 days, on of which was spent at Pilot Mountain where I had a good time and met some more cool folks. It was also a good confidence boost since I managed to find myself on top of a couple 11s (I think).
The first one was Overhanging Hangover, which was mostly straightforeward except for 2 cruxes, a low one consisting of two small crimps and a long move with good feet, and the top one, pulling over a roof for a mediocure hold with a long move.
Magnus climbing the lower (top) and upper (bottom) cruxes on Overhanging Hangover.
After that I had a crack at Blind Prophet, which I almost flashed but was spit off by shoulder cramp (not enough water), then later I laughed myself off it when Nancy made some comment about my gut.
Now, the layout of blind prophet is hard to explain, but there is a small roof above which there is a very small ledge. If you use the ledge as a hold then foothold you climb by easily, but if you sit on it you are honestly fucked, facing away from the wall..
Alex told me to sit on it, and I did. I was STUCK for like 15 minutes before I (almost falling off) turned myself around and shakily got back onto the route. What a hilariously evil dickmove. At some point during the day I had a fleeting meeting with TJgosurf, who I would later spend a weekend climbing with. But that's a nother story.
And that summerizes week one at the RRG. Week 2 will be posted soon.
Holy crapdaddies! I forgot about Chossmonkey and Granite_Grrl. One morning, very much feeling like the morning after the night before, I was making my way back to my bivibag from the bog when I was confronted with what seemed to be a maniac's grin. I was still half asleep, and pretty much the only words I caught were "haggisdonny" but I already knew who it was. The man himself (at the time) PC king Chossmonkey, or "Nathan" as real life people seem to call him. We talked a little, and Granite_Grrl made and quick apperance, commenting on the use of "haggisdonny" while offline or something (I'm still asleep, here, and amn't feeling top notch) and some mention of climbing was made. After a quick breakfast of Straberry and cream porridge and some hot cocoa, I met Nate and Rebecca in the carpark and we headed off to Drive-By crag where several fine routes were climbed (or at least mostly climbed), including the classic covershot which I pussed off of on lead but TR'd fine. Who knows what was going through my head. Nate made a nice flash of it, and Rebecca one hung it (well, does a screamer/schreecher of a whipper count as a hang?) and Nate climbed a fine looking 12a. Then we headed over to Bob Marley wall where Nate quickly flashed the 11 at the far left. Holyshitdamn were those bolts rusty - I'm talking foot long + rust stains dripping down from the bolts. No way was I going near that thing. I guess I wasn't feeling brave that day. Then Nate did a 12a or b (or something) in the cave on the right- a sweet looking line going up an imposingly steep ground on deep and heavily pocketed rock (several "oh shitz! rong hold!" moments were had) and it was pretty much dark.
Did I mention how F*cking awesome everyone at Miguel's is? What a crowd. What a crowd.
RC.commers Meeted:
Dew4theQ - Cool guy from, I think, Maryland or Maine. Something like that. Likes to say "Do Battle" and wear a leather cowboy hat - and actually pulls it off.
TJgosurf - A cool fellow, more on him later.
RSmillburn - A nice guy who gave me a lift down from Raleigh to Pilot mountain where I was to meet Nancy to get back up to the red for round 2. Climbs with his wife, Christina, and has a cute baby (the quietest, and therefore awesomest, baby I've ever seen). Also more on him later.
Chossmonkey - While it's temping to lie and slander him and make him sound like an epic g33k, he was actually a genuinely nice guy who climbs hard and can have a good laugh.
Granite_Grrl - Chosmonkey's wife, and another fine climber. Has a good laugh, seems to keep nate in line and out of trouble, and pushes herself hard on the sharp end. More then I can say for myself.
So here's the short version.
After a short delay in getting started (hint: it was me) I met up with Allan and a few of his friends to nab a lift down to winston-salem, where I was to meet up with Nancy, with whom I would then venture forth to the land of Kentucky.
Can I just take a moment and say if you are EVER going through Winston-Salem, swing by "Bell Brothers". It's a cafeteria style restaurant place and the food is AMAZING. They had the best fried chicken I've ever had, and the fried ochra [spelling?] was mega tasty. Everyone was nice, and it just had a positive feel to it.
Anywhoozlbees, this aint a food blog, let's get on with the climbing!
Unfortunately I don't remember every detail of the climbing, but I'll try and go over the points I do remember (no more putting of blogging).
So, after what started as a beautiful but eventually deteriorated into a wet windy and dark drive we arrived at what some would call the very center of north American spurt climbing - Miguel's Pizza.
Arriving at Miguel's Pizza
There was a crowd out front, so after swiftly throwing together my bivi tent in the goat field and sorting out my food and dumping it in Nancy's tent (MISTAKE! read on to find out the tragic end which the tent met, and why I had no cookies), I headed to he front of the shop with the aim to meet some characters. After several "Hey, I'm Magnus and I don't know anyone here, hows it going?" introductions I found myself emerged in convorsation. I quickly met my first rc.commer, Dew4theQ, or Johnny Q - a hilarious character who not only pulls of the leather cowboy hat but looks kinda strange without it...
The great banter I grew to love (then miss) was had, with Johnny Q and his friends (Zach, Dereik, and... shitz, I forgetz) enjoying several bottles of Gatoraid (read: yuengling) from the keg in the back of their truck. I was sure I had caught site of rc.com's very own Clausti, but couldn't be sure, and no contact was made (okay, she avoided me due to expecting me to be annoying. deep burn).
The next morning, buzzing and looking foreward to my first taste of RRG rock, I geared up quickly and waited by Nancy's jeep while she got one or two things together.
A busy car park and Vanland at Migeul's Pizza
Whilst I was waiting I heard a strange flute-like sound, which I realised was coming from some dude sitting by a nearby car. I headed over to meet the guy, who seemed a real character to be sure, and he introduced himself. "Hi there, Magnus, I'm Bab", "Bab, eh?" I replied.
"Nonono, not bAb, Bab, as in Robert" - bwhahah! What an accent! So his name was Bob.
Bab talking to Nancy
We talked a little, and finding that he was to be alone for the day I invited him along to climb with Nancy and myself.
Soon thereafter, after a quick swing by Koops for a sandwhich and Ale81 to save for lunch, we were loving the Jeep's heavy suspension and 4 wheel drive heading down the pendigras road to The Shire.
The Shire, while not the most inspiring crag I went to during my stay at the RRG, is a very nice crag. On arrival we were a bit disapointed but not put off to find a large group from Perdue university setting up several topropes (well, 2 people were setting up the top ropes and the rest were looking on with the usual first-timers awe).
So I jump on a route they're not using, ready for my first taste of this tasty sandstone.
I don't know the name of the route but it was fun, easy (felt harder then it should have) and had some funky grab-the-pocket-sideways reachy moves on it. The rock was great! Perhaps a little sandy in places, but the features are simply awesome.
Now I may not have explained this earlier, but one of the first things Bob talked to me about was his online group-thing through which he'll teach you about business and (I think) sustainability and the like. He gave me a business card. Let's get one thing straight, I'm not judging this dude based on this on fact, but I did find it EXTREMELY funny to watch him almost systematically work his way through the group from Perdue (paying particular attention to the ladies - note the 20 year age difference*) telling them about this group. I'm almost certain one or two of them got more then one round of it.
It was about this time when the man himself, Johnny Q, showed up. It was pretty lucky they ended up at the same crag (out of hundreds to choose from) as us. They jumped onto a nice looking route (a .10 something I think) which tackled a steep section of the wall on deep but sloping pockets.
Whilst we were doing this, the Perdue group were climbing the TR's on several nice lines (which we later did). Nancy and I went to do another route, meanwhile Bab took some photos, one of which was of a young lady tacking an overhang. He commented on how the silhouette looked great, and how the photo would rock, then [cringe] on how nice her breasts looked from that angle! He sure was a bold guy.
A short while later, after the Perdue group made a hasty retreat, I gave the route that Johnny Q put up a shot. Not surprisingly I was hopelessly pumped almost immediately, but *cough* I hung my way to the top. Then I climbed a slabby but powerful 10, then I hung all over (PUMPED) a steep but juggy 9, then I took photos of Johnny Q climbing this super attractive line:
Johnny Q enjoying this Astetic and eye catching line at the Shire.
I was tempted to give it a shot, but it was late, and I didn't want to back off only to have someone else climb it to get the draws. This is before I knew the grading system, so I though it was out of reach at 10d, but I reckon I would have had it (with a few hangs eheheheh) had I given it a bash.
Hmmm, that night... Well, I enjoyed a fair amount of *ahem* Gatoraid, and a semi-small amount of Jim Beam. I believe that this occurance was quickly followed by semi-loud and potentially (though I'm told I wasn't) obnoxious ranting about how I got my name, then shameless talk of how parties are more fun when you're nekked. I *believe* that I then invited myself to some girl's party in Michigan in march, and annouced it would be a designated naked party. The whole night was hilarious. I forgot the firl's name, and where the party was, but I think that's for the best...
And THAT was my first 24 hours at the red river gorge. Fuckin' awesome!
I can't remember the next week terribly well, though... I can tell you that at one point I found myself at the Hideout in muir valley climbing Boltergeist. What a line! There's something fantastic about it, not sure quite what it was. Veriety perhaps.
And, in true rc.com style, I had to take the PANCAKES option and make a quick ascent of "International Route of Pancakes" which I can honestly say is the WORST ROUTE I have EVER CLIMBED (including Ochill hill chosspile highballs and FA's). Who the F*** bolted that thing??
Magnus climbing "international chosspile of pancakes".
Worth it for the pancakes, though.
Hmmmm, what else happened that week? Lots of rock was climbed, lots (AND LOTS) off Ale81 drank (that stuff is fecking awesome) and a movie watched (the changling - good film, I strongly reccomend). And, of course, a visit to the Ale81 factory!
I believe after that we bailed for a few days and hung out in North Carolina for 4 or 5 days, on of which was spent at Pilot Mountain where I had a good time and met some more cool folks. It was also a good confidence boost since I managed to find myself on top of a couple 11s (I think).
The first one was Overhanging Hangover, which was mostly straightforeward except for 2 cruxes, a low one consisting of two small crimps and a long move with good feet, and the top one, pulling over a roof for a mediocure hold with a long move.
Magnus climbing the lower (top) and upper (bottom) cruxes on Overhanging Hangover.
After that I had a crack at Blind Prophet, which I almost flashed but was spit off by shoulder cramp (not enough water), then later I laughed myself off it when Nancy made some comment about my gut.
Now, the layout of blind prophet is hard to explain, but there is a small roof above which there is a very small ledge. If you use the ledge as a hold then foothold you climb by easily, but if you sit on it you are honestly fucked, facing away from the wall..
Alex told me to sit on it, and I did. I was STUCK for like 15 minutes before I (almost falling off) turned myself around and shakily got back onto the route. What a hilariously evil dickmove. At some point during the day I had a fleeting meeting with TJgosurf, who I would later spend a weekend climbing with. But that's a nother story.
And that summerizes week one at the RRG. Week 2 will be posted soon.
Holy crapdaddies! I forgot about Chossmonkey and Granite_Grrl. One morning, very much feeling like the morning after the night before, I was making my way back to my bivibag from the bog when I was confronted with what seemed to be a maniac's grin. I was still half asleep, and pretty much the only words I caught were "haggisdonny" but I already knew who it was. The man himself (at the time) PC king Chossmonkey, or "Nathan" as real life people seem to call him. We talked a little, and Granite_Grrl made and quick apperance, commenting on the use of "haggisdonny" while offline or something (I'm still asleep, here, and amn't feeling top notch) and some mention of climbing was made. After a quick breakfast of Straberry and cream porridge and some hot cocoa, I met Nate and Rebecca in the carpark and we headed off to Drive-By crag where several fine routes were climbed (or at least mostly climbed), including the classic covershot which I pussed off of on lead but TR'd fine. Who knows what was going through my head. Nate made a nice flash of it, and Rebecca one hung it (well, does a screamer/schreecher of a whipper count as a hang?) and Nate climbed a fine looking 12a. Then we headed over to Bob Marley wall where Nate quickly flashed the 11 at the far left. Holyshitdamn were those bolts rusty - I'm talking foot long + rust stains dripping down from the bolts. No way was I going near that thing. I guess I wasn't feeling brave that day. Then Nate did a 12a or b (or something) in the cave on the right- a sweet looking line going up an imposingly steep ground on deep and heavily pocketed rock (several "oh shitz! rong hold!" moments were had) and it was pretty much dark.
Did I mention how F*cking awesome everyone at Miguel's is? What a crowd. What a crowd.
RC.commers Meeted:
Dew4theQ - Cool guy from, I think, Maryland or Maine. Something like that. Likes to say "Do Battle" and wear a leather cowboy hat - and actually pulls it off.
TJgosurf - A cool fellow, more on him later.
RSmillburn - A nice guy who gave me a lift down from Raleigh to Pilot mountain where I was to meet Nancy to get back up to the red for round 2. Climbs with his wife, Christina, and has a cute baby (the quietest, and therefore awesomest, baby I've ever seen). Also more on him later.
Chossmonkey - While it's temping to lie and slander him and make him sound like an epic g33k, he was actually a genuinely nice guy who climbs hard and can have a good laugh.
Granite_Grrl - Chosmonkey's wife, and another fine climber. Has a good laugh, seems to keep nate in line and out of trouble, and pushes herself hard on the sharp end. More then I can say for myself.
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