April 5-7: Bouldering at Stone Fort

Another weekend, another climbing trip, this time to my favorite (to date) bouldering destination, Stone Fort. M & I met T at his place, loaded up M's car and headed out Friday evening. After a tasty (and cheap!) dinner at Acapulco Burrito south of Nashville, we checked into The Crashpad, a sweet hostel in downtown Chattanooga. It was a gorgeous weekend for bouldering, as the forecast called for sunny skies and temps approaching 70. We wasted no time making ourselves breakfast and heading to the boulder field Saturday morning. We warmed up with a few problems on the Blind Spot boulder, then headed over to the Two Shoes Jack boulder to work Tom Jones, a long V0 traverse with a tree in the fall zone of the crux move. The length and lack of feet provided a great workout, T discovered the tree provided an uncomfortable slide to the ground. M put all the moves together and got to check the problem off her list. Sweet!

T on Tom Jones

After a break for lunch at the clubhouse, we headed back to the Two Shoes Jack boulder to do some more problems, including one of my projects, Slow Poke, a V1 with one long move. After a few tries, I finally stuck the move, then held on through my shock to finish the problem. Yay!

The long move

At the top!

We got on a few more problems throughout the afternoon before our stomachs took over and let us know it was time to get some dinner. We made our way to Taco Mamacita, which was delicious as usual. This was my first visit since I started eating ground beef again, so I finally had the Sloppy Jose taco M has been raving about - fabulous! (The Sloppy Jose is spicy ground beef, jalapeños, monterey jack cheese, sour cream and Fritos. Mmmm.) Afterward, we hung out at the firepit at the Crashpad and watched some of the Sport Climbing nationals on the computer before crashing for the night.

We fueled up with breakfast at the Waffle House then got back on the boulders. Two of my triumphs for the morning were topping out the Fire Crack Flake quickly (I've hung out at the top for quite some time in the past) and getting off the Bowling Ball boulder without sliding down the downclimb tree like it's a fireman's pole. I also made some progress on Gutter Ball. We headed back to Tom Jones and T sent it on his first go. We hit the Frontside boulder next, then ended on Milk Money, which featured a dyno to a ledge, which was both fun and made for awesome pictures. We stopped at Mellow Mushroom on the way home, and while the pizza was fabulous, none of us would recommend the pretzels appetizer.

M on Milk Money
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March 21-April 4: Louisville, RRG and Columbus

One of these days, I am going to make time to stop and visit the Vacuum Cleaner Museum when driving back from Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, but this trip was not it, as I drove straight to Louisville for more climbing with friends. The original plan was to camp Thursday night then climb Friday and Saturday at the Red, but given that the temps were going to dip into the low 20's Thursday night, we opted to drive down Friday morning instead. It was much more pleasant sleeping in M&L's guest room in Louisville than being serenaded by bullfrogs in sub-freezing temps.

On Friday, we climbed at Muir Valley. It wasn't exactly my best climbing day, but it was a lot of fun. A little bummed I didn't get Bethel clean, but I'm stoked to try it again. J was on fire, though, putting up five of the six routes we climbed. All that climbing worked up a big appetite and after setting up camp we went to the Rock House for dinner. We hit the the PMRP on Saturday, where I came tantalizing close to flashing my first 5.10b outdoors (Murano) but blew it two moves before a nice rest spot. I was so mad, but then I got back on the route and finished it. Next time! After an ugly lead up Darwin Loves You, I climbed it again on top rope cleanly, after remembering that the key to making the first few moves easier is to use the wet hold. After one more climb and a few more dodging of falling icicles, we called it a day. Actually, we called it a weekend, since the forecast called for a 60% chance of rain on Sunday. We stopped off at some pizza place in downtown Lexington, then realized that an NCAA tournament game was going on at nearby Rupp arena that appeared would be ending as we were finishing dinner. Oops. We were rooting for overtime, which didn't happen, but we managed to beat the traffic.

Beware of falling ice!

Sunday, despite not climbing, ended up being great. M and I had a delicious breakfast at Toast (a tiramisu pancake and the eggs dish with the harissa hot sauce), then went to see the play Appropriate, which was part of the Humana Festival of New American Plays; I think the play was even better than breakfast! I spent the rest of the week catching up on TV, hanging with my friends, climbing at the gym and doing my taxes.

We headed back to the Red on Friday morning for two more days of climbing. Muir was even more packed than the week before, but we managed to get in several climbs and teach a couple of people how to clean. I had a lot of fun working Beta Spewer and am looking forward to climbing it cleanly the next time I do it. Was quite happy to eat my first slices of Miguel's pizza this year at dinner. Mmmm. Was not happy that my tent was covered in frost Saturday morning; I just love packing a wet tent. We did some climbing at Pistol Ridge after a nice workout hiking in.

M on It's a Wonderful Life

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I drove to Columbus to visit the family for Easter and to hang out with my sister over her spring break. The drive took a little longer than I expected, since I entered the wrong street name for her address. Smooth. We went out to eat for Easter, then got together with some relatives for dessert. This was a nice change from the usual, although I did miss having my mom's fabulous scalloped potatoes. My sister kindly made the green bean casserole we typically have on holidays, so that was tasty. Unfortunately, we were unable to find any shredded chicken at the grocery store, although if I had thought to consult the Root's Poultry website before today, we would have discovered a couple of places that sell it. It was a good week of hanging out with the family. Looking forward to seeing everyone when we go on vacation this summer.

The Boys and Blue Magic

March 15-20: East to HCR

After saying goodbye to my friends A&M after our great climbing trip in Joshua Tree, I got back on the road for three long days of driving to meet my friends D&S for a last-minute climbing trip to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. Fifteen hundred miles is a long way, but getting to climb with friends at the end of it is worth it.

The highlight of Friday’s drive was the sopapilla gifted to me by a couple at dinner. Mmmm, although I guess that’s more of a highlight of dinner than one of driving. I made it to New Mexico before calling it an evening.

Cool old sign

Saturday’s drive was long, as I decided to go all the way to Oklahoma City, where I knew I could find a Buffalo Wild Wings to watch UFC 158, with the hopes that I could enjoy some victory chocolate cake when GSP defeated Diaz. (For the record, I was eating the cake regardless of the outcome of the fight, but preferred it to be victory, not drowning my sorrows, cake.) By the time I got to the restaurant, there were no seats available and it was likely there wouldn’t be any until after the fight. A couple young boys next to me worked their own MMA moves until their dad broke it up with a well-executed time out, which was unfortunate, because their thirty-second fight had more action in than fifteen minutes of Ricci-Fletcher.

After a few more fights, including one between two people at the restaurant, it was time for the fight! Since M couldn’t join me in person this time, I texted her round summaries, which were all good news, as GSP won all five rounds. GSP! The place emptied out and I could finally eat, wolfing down a half-dozen hot wings before enjoying victory chocolate cake a la mode. Mmmm.

On Sunday morning, I got back on the road for the last bit of the drive after fueling up with a nice breakfast at Waffle House. I actually was going to switch it up and go to the IHOP, but it was too packed. Maybe some other time. Had to stop a couple of times to take pictures of awesome signs, but I eventually made it through the fog and rain to D&S’s cabin at HCR. It was great to know I’d be staying in one place for a few days with friends.

More cool signs

Although the forecast wasn’t ideal for Monday (rain overnight with 30% chance of showers during the day, highs in the low 40’s), we headed to the North Forty area to see just how wet the rock was. Turns out while some routes were indeed wet, plenty more were not, and we got up seven routes, five of which I led. I was particularly stoked to have led the deceptively pumpy African Herbman. There were quite a few people climbing, but it appeared we were the only climbers not on spring break. Overheard a couple of interesting stories. Story 1 - the guy who claimed he had accidentally peed on one of the retired ranch dogs earlier in the day discovered that the dog was now napping on his gear bag. His friends thought he was getting what he deserved. Story 2 – On a previous climbing trip, this group found a snake and brought it into their car. Once they got to the crag, the left the snake in the car. The car got hot and the snake went into the steering column to get some shade, but it wasn’t cool enough and the snake died. The car stunk of dead snake for some time. After all that climbing and listening to stories made us quite hungry, and we wasted no time making dinner once we got back to the cabin – beef tacos with Sriracha sauce, mmmm!

Putting up Paul's Redemption

The weather was gorgeous on Tuesday, sunny with highs in the 50’s. We went to some areas that were new to me, Cliffs of Insanity and the Far East.  We warmed up with a couple of easy routes then moved over to Swamp Rat, a fun climb with awesome views of the ranch. Next up was the long 14 bolt Orange Crush at the edge of the property line. (Remember to give the barbed wire fence some distance. Ouch!) We got up two more routes before calling it a day and heading into town for dinner. Unfortunately, we were too late to hit the Ozark Café and most other places, so we ended up at Subway. I’ll trade a long day of climbing for an OK dinner.

D on Swamp Rat

The temps dropped on Wednesday and the sun went away, but no rain showed up, so we were set for another day of climbing. We didn’t do as many climbs as we had the previous two days, but got on harder ones. I flashed my first 5.10a outside, Gimp and Wheezer. Yes! The 5.10b, Hassenpfeffer, we got on next stepped t up quite a bit, and we all spent significant time getting up it. (Nice lead by S!) We ended with Hickadelic Jazzgrass and I managed to keep my distance from the barbed wire fence. We made it into town early enough for dinner at the Ozark Café Mmm. I had the flamethrower burger, which did not disappoint in the heat department; I had to get a scoop of ice cream for dessert to put out the flames!

The rock was cold on Wednesday. Yay for no hands rests!

We hit the Ozark Café again for breakfast (chocolate gravy, mmmm) before our long drives to Chicago and Louisville. I’m already looking forward to my next climbing trip with D&S!

Got to wear that hat I bought in J-Tree!
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The Climbs

Monday (North Forty)

Perfect Hair Forever 5.7 Lead

Paul’s Redemption 5.7 Lead

Lion Tamer 5.9- Lead

Frankenberry 5.9+ TR

African Herbman 5.8 Lead (no stick clip!)

Stiff-Neked Fools 5.8+ Lead

Local Hebrew 5.9- TR

Tuesday (Cliffs of Insanity and Far East)

Little Sprout 5.6 Lead

Fesic 5 .6 Lead

Swamp Rat 5.8 TR

Orange Crush 5.9+ with falls TR

Montezuma’s Toe 5.8 TR

Sphagnum Esplanade 5.8 TR

Wednesday

Solid 5.9+ TR with fall

Gimp and Wheezer 5.10a TR (first 5.10a flash outdoors!)

Hassenpfeffer 5.10b TR with falls

Hickadelic Jazzgrass 5.8 TR