hellls yeah!! if i had pics, i'd post them! what to say? it was awesome to see the progress: high point every single time he got on it! and finally, third burn of the day.. PROJECT SENT! bumped into an entirely new grade! i'm so happy for him!! i almost cried when he lowered to the ground ;)
CONGRATULATIONS JASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
taking advice from friends: dont pass up on opportunities!
as we're driving on a highway through the Redwood Forest, we suddenly see a blinking construction sign that reads, "watch out for crowds." we're thinking, "what the heck? we're on a highway." and sure enough, we round the corner, and there are cars parked and people walking along this bridge. traffic has slowed to about 5mph. we cross the bridge and see a crowd of people on the left side, but we have no idea what they're doing.
keypoints of our discussion while driving across the bridge:
"what is going on?"
"why is everyone on the left side and no one is one the right side?"
"should we stop and check it out?"
"let's check it out."
we cross the bridge by now, but park anyway on the other side. there are tons of parked cars on this side too! we get out and start walking over. im really curious what is going on! i just want to see .. very fortunately, jason grabbed the camera. :)
our discussion while walking back over to the other side:
"what are they looking at?" (im peeking over the bridge to save the walk to the other side, but i cant see a thing)
"how come no one is saying anything?" no reactions either. (as they are walking back to their cars)
"its going to be a bunch of kayakers doing some training exercise."
"haha this is going to be something really stupid"
"oh wait, i see something .. there is something in the water!"
and guess what was in the water..
WE SAW A WHALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i kid you not, a whale!! it is one of the most amazing things ive ever seen! there we were crossing a bridge over the Klamath River.. and there is a whale making big circles underneath! it would swim deeper into the water, but every few minutes it would come up for air! what a sight!
now i was worried thinking there is a whale in a river and no one seemed worried about it.. how come there werent rescue teams taking the whale back out to the ocean? there was a police officer who drove back and forth across the bridge forcing cars to move, and patrolled general safety. as the whale swam from one side of the bridge to the other, the crowd would cross the busy street alongside with it! jason and i did it too. really funny! we also saw the River Coast Guard stop and talk to a boat of two photographers who were wayyyy too close to the whale. in fact, at one point they were right on top of it and it looked like the motor could cut the whale. very scary. so, government people know the whale is there .. yet no rescue teams? we looked at the Redwood National Park page later and it seems that this is a migration path for the gray whale .. and i guess this is normal for them to be in this river. CRAZY!
anyway, enjoy the pics!
.. i cant believe we saw a whale!!
"i think there is something in the water" (white line near the top of the photo)
coming up for air..
they are idiots.. literally chasing it around.. stupid boat is scaring the whale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
swimming under the bridge
sooooooo awesome!!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Goonies, Grease, Return of the Jedi
what do these movies have in common, you ask?
- well 1) duh, i love them all.
- but 2) scenes from these movies could have been shot in some of the areas that we saw on our coastal drive from sacramento to oregon!
we spent a week in sacramento with my mom. it was awesome! hanging out with my mom every day. eating her cooking every day - so good! hanging out with family! resting, resting resting. seriously, the first two days were spent watching all the Harry Potter movies. yes, ALL of them :) we were so tired and just needed to be lazy! definitely an awesome week. ;)
I LOVE YOU MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
from sacramento, we had to head up to oregon. we decided to take the very scenic Route 1 Coastal Highway drive, and stop along the way at beach bouldering spots! this route would take us about 3 days. we started by driving through Napa and Sonoma. if i drank wine, we could've stopped at some wineries. instead, we just looked at all the grapevines. pretty cool. then we hit the coast. talk about beautiful! the ocean continues forever!
our first stop was Fort Ross. this beach looked like Goonies! the huge rocks just off the beach could have easily fit in that coin that Mikey had when looking for One-Eyed Willie's Treasure! the bouldering was cool, i guess. i have ZERO power. i could barely send the warmups. ;) the fun part is climbing on the beach! however, jason was trying some cool stuff on some fun looking boulders :)
do you see the rocks just off the shore (on the left of the photo)? there were more.. and it totally looked like Goonies!
pulling moves on small bouldery crimps.. ow.
big pop for the next hold!
didnt make it ;) so hes resting before his next go.
where is the coin with the holes from Goonies? i know that peak fits..
our second stop was Moonstone Beach. it was Grease! the opening scenes where Sandy meets Danny - totally this beach! we couldnt really climb here. turns out, the sand level is about 2' higher than in the photos! weird! i guess the beach sand level changes? anyway, having the starts of the problems buried so deep really changed everything. you couldnt really climb. we just hung out a bit and people-watched, and then moved on.
our next stop was Redwood Forest. i know i was always looking around the corner for Wicket .. Ewoks from Return of the Jedi! this forest is truly amazing! the trees are ENORMOUS! they can live to be thousands of years old and reach heights of 300ft -- although it seemed like some of them were taller than that. ;)
cars will drive through this tree .. unfortunately, Nessa was just a little too tall.
look at the size of these trees! thats Nessa!
jason took this awesome photo. this is looking up at the treetop. see the size of the pieces of bark?
the absolute best part of this deserves its own post! stay tuned .. !!!
- well 1) duh, i love them all.
- but 2) scenes from these movies could have been shot in some of the areas that we saw on our coastal drive from sacramento to oregon!
we spent a week in sacramento with my mom. it was awesome! hanging out with my mom every day. eating her cooking every day - so good! hanging out with family! resting, resting resting. seriously, the first two days were spent watching all the Harry Potter movies. yes, ALL of them :) we were so tired and just needed to be lazy! definitely an awesome week. ;)
I LOVE YOU MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
from sacramento, we had to head up to oregon. we decided to take the very scenic Route 1 Coastal Highway drive, and stop along the way at beach bouldering spots! this route would take us about 3 days. we started by driving through Napa and Sonoma. if i drank wine, we could've stopped at some wineries. instead, we just looked at all the grapevines. pretty cool. then we hit the coast. talk about beautiful! the ocean continues forever!
our first stop was Fort Ross. this beach looked like Goonies! the huge rocks just off the beach could have easily fit in that coin that Mikey had when looking for One-Eyed Willie's Treasure! the bouldering was cool, i guess. i have ZERO power. i could barely send the warmups. ;) the fun part is climbing on the beach! however, jason was trying some cool stuff on some fun looking boulders :)
do you see the rocks just off the shore (on the left of the photo)? there were more.. and it totally looked like Goonies!
pulling moves on small bouldery crimps.. ow.
big pop for the next hold!
didnt make it ;) so hes resting before his next go.
where is the coin with the holes from Goonies? i know that peak fits..
our second stop was Moonstone Beach. it was Grease! the opening scenes where Sandy meets Danny - totally this beach! we couldnt really climb here. turns out, the sand level is about 2' higher than in the photos! weird! i guess the beach sand level changes? anyway, having the starts of the problems buried so deep really changed everything. you couldnt really climb. we just hung out a bit and people-watched, and then moved on.
our next stop was Redwood Forest. i know i was always looking around the corner for Wicket .. Ewoks from Return of the Jedi! this forest is truly amazing! the trees are ENORMOUS! they can live to be thousands of years old and reach heights of 300ft -- although it seemed like some of them were taller than that. ;)
cars will drive through this tree .. unfortunately, Nessa was just a little too tall.
look at the size of these trees! thats Nessa!
jason took this awesome photo. this is looking up at the treetop. see the size of the pieces of bark?
the absolute best part of this deserves its own post! stay tuned .. !!!
Lovers Leap
we spent one day at Lover's Leap in South Lake Tahoe on our way to Sacramento, CA. i have to admit, this day wasnt one of my finest. cranky, that was me. poor jason :( i was extremely tired from climbing 5 days in a row in Maple, then getting in the van the next day and driving 12 hours through Nevada which is terribly, terribly hot and boring, then getting up and climbing two 3-pitch climbs .. wahhh wahhh wahhh .. ahhhh! just suck it up! ok ok .. done. ;)
the first climb we did was Corrugation Corner, 5.7. super classic for the area. there was actually a line for it on a thursday! really good holds, cool rock formations, dihedrals, exposed, balancy traverse, spooky whale flop (no good feet!) onto a ledge at the top of pitch 2, chimney shimmy .. this climb has it all!
i'm the black speck in the middle of the photo in a dihedral. this is taken from the top of the climb. do you see the "heights" below me??
jason is breaking down the anchor .. be very careful ..
the second climb we did was Bear's Reach, 5.7. this was more face climbing on a flake. the best way to see this is Dan Osman speed climbing and soloing without a rope this exact same climb (also we didnt take any pics). it takes him 5 minutes. it took us a few hours ;) here is youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D0P9aPu51A
so ive learned a few things about myself regarding multipitch trad days:
- they wear me out more than any sport day ive ever had! is it all the hiking/approaching? am i mentally drained bc i'm so far off the ground? i'm still thinking on this.
- i want all the holds to be good, really really good, really bomber juggy good! all the multipitch trad climbs that ive done so far have had awesome holds. i just really want them to stay that way ;) i dont want shimmers of doubt in my head that the next hold could be small, or slopey .. i just want really good juggy holds!
- jason and i need to really learn how to "pack light." this is a work-in-progress. carrying a pack is a super big pain in the butt.
- YES i am still spooked by the heights! it FREEEEAKS me out! i try not to think about it too much but when i'm belaying and im sitting on the ledge and looking out with hundreds of feet below me .. i most definitely see those heights! whew, scary!
- thank you JK for letting me take the purple velcro shoes! they just fit so well for these long days of climbing.. thank you sooooo much! :)
the first climb we did was Corrugation Corner, 5.7. super classic for the area. there was actually a line for it on a thursday! really good holds, cool rock formations, dihedrals, exposed, balancy traverse, spooky whale flop (no good feet!) onto a ledge at the top of pitch 2, chimney shimmy .. this climb has it all!
i'm the black speck in the middle of the photo in a dihedral. this is taken from the top of the climb. do you see the "heights" below me??
jason is breaking down the anchor .. be very careful ..
of course, the summit photo!
the second climb we did was Bear's Reach, 5.7. this was more face climbing on a flake. the best way to see this is Dan Osman speed climbing and soloing without a rope this exact same climb (also we didnt take any pics). it takes him 5 minutes. it took us a few hours ;) here is youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D0P9aPu51A
so ive learned a few things about myself regarding multipitch trad days:
- they wear me out more than any sport day ive ever had! is it all the hiking/approaching? am i mentally drained bc i'm so far off the ground? i'm still thinking on this.
- i want all the holds to be good, really really good, really bomber juggy good! all the multipitch trad climbs that ive done so far have had awesome holds. i just really want them to stay that way ;) i dont want shimmers of doubt in my head that the next hold could be small, or slopey .. i just want really good juggy holds!
- jason and i need to really learn how to "pack light." this is a work-in-progress. carrying a pack is a super big pain in the butt.
- YES i am still spooked by the heights! it FREEEEAKS me out! i try not to think about it too much but when i'm belaying and im sitting on the ledge and looking out with hundreds of feet below me .. i most definitely see those heights! whew, scary!
- thank you JK for letting me take the purple velcro shoes! they just fit so well for these long days of climbing.. thank you sooooo much! :)
Sunday, August 7, 2011
super duper fun climbing!
picture this.
Mother Nature formed huge molds in the shapes of cliffs and/or ant hills (some parts of the canyon look like enormous ant hills!) ;) she filled it with rocks, cobbles, and pebbles. and then she filled in the empty spaces by pouring in some sort of gluey rock paste to hold it all together. once it was settled and dry, she removed the molds .. and wallah! Maple Canyon! we spent two weeks there -- and my verdict, a super duper fun climbing crag! this place gets a bad reputation bc of the sandy, broken rock (aka "chunder" - a term we learned from some locals.. hilarious!), and questionable grades -- but if you can get past all of that, the climbing itself is just plain fun! we dont have too, too many pics.. we were so busy climbing! so i'll keep this as short as possible - but i can already tell this wont be short. ;)
let's start with -- no guidebook!
again! what is up with utah??! we had an old, old topo from the drtopo.com days. very dated and didnt have much info. but one day, early in the trip, we ran into friends that we met at the New! small world! so great to see them! anyway, the point is, there is a copy of a newer guidebook (although still from 1995 or something) that has a ton more crags. also, we learned that you can purchase it online for $12 or something - for this, ask liz and amber. totally worth the purchase. there is a ton of climbing here!
approach.
pretty easy! Box Canyon is right there off the road. Minimum is about 10 minutes uphill. and Pipedream is at the top of that same hill and takes a good 30 minutes. the plus: you can count it as your cardio for the day! Damascus and Craganmore are also along that same uphill hike ;) but closer than Pipedream. we stayed on that Right Fork area. it was enough to keep us busy for two weeks.
the climbing.
how do i describe it - cobbles and anti-cobbles everywhere (where cobbles have broken or fallen out). if something breaks off, it can make a climb harder or easier. there was an 11 in Pipedream that had a hold break, and it turned to a 12. there was a 12 at Minimum that had a hold break, and is now a good warmup 11 for the harder climbs in Pipedream. fascinating! (especially since generally if a hold breaks, the climb is usually much harder.) the climbing is overhung with awesome holds (just feel around and you'll find something that works for you) and awesome feet options. i didnt touch a climb that i didnt like :) there wasnt anything particularly cruxy about the climbs i did. mostly, the difficult part was being able to hold on long enough to get to the anchors. really, dont look at the grades - dont let anything scare you off. just get on everything.
i cant stress enough -- all of the climbs are fun!
box canyon - lillian and jason are trying to work magic with the drtopo guide. walls of rock on both sides..
Pipedream - check out the steepness of this cave! thats lillian on the left warming up.
im in the top right corner .. some people will hike all the way to Pipedream (and as i said, it is a 30 min uphill hike!) and they will climb inside that hole. jason did. he said it smells like poo. we think lots of pigeons frequent the spot.
jason made pita chips! cut up some corn tortillas and baked them! a salty batch and a cinnamon/sugar batch. so good! impressive!
mr quinlan working for his send! he CRUSHED it for 5 days!
ms lillian sending her last climb (of so many!) of the trip. talk about epic send! storms rolling in, thunder echoing through the canyon .. and RAIN falling and soaking the rock face above her (wet cobbles?? no thank you!) .. intense!
Mother Nature formed huge molds in the shapes of cliffs and/or ant hills (some parts of the canyon look like enormous ant hills!) ;) she filled it with rocks, cobbles, and pebbles. and then she filled in the empty spaces by pouring in some sort of gluey rock paste to hold it all together. once it was settled and dry, she removed the molds .. and wallah! Maple Canyon! we spent two weeks there -- and my verdict, a super duper fun climbing crag! this place gets a bad reputation bc of the sandy, broken rock (aka "chunder" - a term we learned from some locals.. hilarious!), and questionable grades -- but if you can get past all of that, the climbing itself is just plain fun! we dont have too, too many pics.. we were so busy climbing! so i'll keep this as short as possible - but i can already tell this wont be short. ;)
let's start with -- no guidebook!
again! what is up with utah??! we had an old, old topo from the drtopo.com days. very dated and didnt have much info. but one day, early in the trip, we ran into friends that we met at the New! small world! so great to see them! anyway, the point is, there is a copy of a newer guidebook (although still from 1995 or something) that has a ton more crags. also, we learned that you can purchase it online for $12 or something - for this, ask liz and amber. totally worth the purchase. there is a ton of climbing here!
approach.
pretty easy! Box Canyon is right there off the road. Minimum is about 10 minutes uphill. and Pipedream is at the top of that same hill and takes a good 30 minutes. the plus: you can count it as your cardio for the day! Damascus and Craganmore are also along that same uphill hike ;) but closer than Pipedream. we stayed on that Right Fork area. it was enough to keep us busy for two weeks.
the climbing.
how do i describe it - cobbles and anti-cobbles everywhere (where cobbles have broken or fallen out). if something breaks off, it can make a climb harder or easier. there was an 11 in Pipedream that had a hold break, and it turned to a 12. there was a 12 at Minimum that had a hold break, and is now a good warmup 11 for the harder climbs in Pipedream. fascinating! (especially since generally if a hold breaks, the climb is usually much harder.) the climbing is overhung with awesome holds (just feel around and you'll find something that works for you) and awesome feet options. i didnt touch a climb that i didnt like :) there wasnt anything particularly cruxy about the climbs i did. mostly, the difficult part was being able to hold on long enough to get to the anchors. really, dont look at the grades - dont let anything scare you off. just get on everything.
i cant stress enough -- all of the climbs are fun!
our cute little cottage! thank you lillian for setting this up!
box canyon - lillian and jason are trying to work magic with the drtopo guide. walls of rock on both sides..
Pipedream - check out the steepness of this cave! thats lillian on the left warming up.
im in the top right corner .. some people will hike all the way to Pipedream (and as i said, it is a 30 min uphill hike!) and they will climb inside that hole. jason did. he said it smells like poo. we think lots of pigeons frequent the spot.
jason made pita chips! cut up some corn tortillas and baked them! a salty batch and a cinnamon/sugar batch. so good! impressive!
mr quinlan working for his send! he CRUSHED it for 5 days!
ms lillian sending her last climb (of so many!) of the trip. talk about epic send! storms rolling in, thunder echoing through the canyon .. and RAIN falling and soaking the rock face above her (wet cobbles?? no thank you!) .. intense!
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