Red, White & Boom!!

Wow, what a view! It doesnt get any better than this! Front row seats, plenty of arm and leg room, and peacefulness. I rented a canoe from COP and enjoyed the fireworks from the Scioto River in front of North Bank Park. We put in at the west end of Nationwide Blvd, where Mike, Kitty, Jason, and I enjoyed a nice little cookout/picnic beforehand.

It was all right in front of us! (Noone was allowed past the bridge though.)

I think the OSU fight song was playing here!

Paddling at night.

Jason in front of North Bank Park

Skyline view of the city and crowd from the Scioto River.

Just Another Beautiful Weekend at the Red

Mike working on his leading at the Great Wall.

Just a goofy shot of Joe & I.

Mike pulling a small roof. But really, he is just showing off his guns!

The Casselman, Again!

This is my fourth attempt at running the Casselman River, and finally, it was a success. The river was at a beautiful level, about 8 inches higher than a couple weeks ago. I was eddy hopping and reading the river a lot better than before. And I did not capsize once. Woohoo! I only wish that I had the waterproof camera that Im buying at the time of this trip.

Memorial Day Weekend

Finally, a three day weekend! We headed out the fabulous New River Gorge to climb and relax all weekend. One of the routes I led on Saturday, called “Decamaron,” was about 100-ft in length and went up this arête that had a spectacular view of the New River as you climb. It had a tough crux, but the view was worth it! On Sunday, we hung out at Summersville Lake all day. Did a little climbing, but on a beautiful spring day like this, I think I had more fun lying in sun and jumping off boulders in the lake.

Kevin climbing "Decamaron", 5.10b. The chimney start was fun, but the arete at the way top was awesome!

Kevin, again, climbing Souled Out, 5.9. A nice little climb by the lake.

Ahhhh, Summersville Lake, just chillin on a boulder.

Im sure there is a really good line to go with this pose of Tom's.

Thats me, jumping off the high end.

Kevin midway through his flip, perfectly aligned.

Alisa with her dog Charley in her backpack getting a ride down the ladder.

Boat & Climb Weekend, May 16 & 17

Joyce and I put together a COP trip to do some kayaking on Saturday, then climbing on Sunday. It was great to shake things up by having a multi-sport weekend. We got a bunch of takers for the trip and had a blast all weekend. Unfortuantly, my camera decided to not work, so I do not have any pics. If I can get ahold of some pics from others, Ill post them later.

Saturday: Return to the Casselman River

So about one year I took on this river, and it knocked me around and flipped me upside down. I was hoping things would go a bit better this year. And they did to an extent. The water was low, which meant lots of rocks to dodge. I was much more prepared to deal with the rocks, although they wreaked a lot of havoc on me still. They flipped me over two different times. And the worst part was that I couldn’t even attempt to do an eskimo roll because the river was so shallow at that point. Instead my body just bounced off rocks on the bottom until I could figure out how to reach the cord to wet exit from it. After getting out of the kayak, I had an oh so joyful ride down the river in current not deep enough to swim, but strong enough to stop you from trying to get anywhere. So as you can imagine, getting to an eddy was a bit difficult. By the time I got my feet under me on shore, I had to walk several feet further downstream to get my kayak. And as I am stumbling along the rocky river edge to get to my boat, everyone was parked in the eddys watching/staring at me. I now know what a walk of shame feels like! But despite all that it was still an enjoyable ride down the river with great company.

Sunday: Coopers Rock

The best part of this day was turning the tables, in that I had the chance to turn a bunch of boaters into climbers. I set up a bunch of topropes and let them just go at it. It was so nice to just hang out in the park all day watching them climb.

April Climbing

I cant believe how awesome the weekend weather has been in April! Im off to a great start this climbing season.

Patrick leading the 5.12a "Ro Shampo" at Roadside Crag. I got the chance to toprope it. Tough climb, but a lot of fun!

Kevin climbing the 5.9+ "Broken Chicken Wing" at the Gold Coast. I led this route and it was by far the toughest trad lead I have ever done! Okay, so I may have hung my way up it a bit, but I still led it and learned a lot from the experience. An awesome route for sure!!

Eric, Jane, Mike, Alison, Brian, Jen (hiding), Evan, Alisa and Kevin (climbing on the other end of the rope) hanging out at the Gold Coast. A big group and we had the whole place to ourselves - Sweet!

Zion National Park

After a week of climbing in Red Rock Canyon, Alisa, Tom & I drove up to Zion to relax and hike. We got a nice little camping spot in the park and spent 2 nights out here. We hiked part of the Pa'rus Trail, Angel's Landing, part of the West Rim Trail, Emerald Pools Trails, and the Riverside Walk to the Narrows. All were beautiful! I definatly plan on returning again one day to do some more.

View of Angel's Landing from the West Rim.

West Rim Trail

Couldn't resist.

Top of Angel's Landing

Alisa, Tom & I

Red Rock Canyon

I organized a spring climbing trip to Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas. I was lucky to have 6 good climber friends join me on this trip - Tom, Brian, Kevin, Alisa, Jen and Jane. The trip was a success and a lot of fun. We spent most of the days out on the rocks and most of the nights hanging out at Jack's, Tom's brother, who offered up his house to us. Only spent one night on the strip, where I got to watch a Cirque du Soleil show, which of course was awesome. Its hard to talk about lot of the climbs, so Ill just show some pics. Here are a few of the climbs that we did...

Jen leading "Clutch Cargo" on the Ultraman Wall. This was a long, freaky, runout slab climb! Our first climb of the trip.

Alisa and Tom climbing "Man's Best Friend." This was an easy-going fun 2-pitch sport route. Alisa, Tom, Brian and I climbed it in 2 groups of two.

This was a super fun 5.6 trad climb. My first trad lead of the week. The top picture is of Jane on "Fender Bender" at Sandstone Quarry. And there is a place inside the crack where you can actually sit down comfortably as Jen is nicely enjoying in the pic.

I was able to get one long multi-pitch climb in during the week. I choose "Geronimo," a 500 foot 4-pitch jugfest. Brian and Jane joined me on the climb. Though it turned out to be a pretty easy climb up, it was still real fun. We got a late start that day, and got back to car only 15 minutes before the park closed (that was a close one.) The climb went great, just a few snags in finding the route in the morning, and a few rope hang-ups on the rappel. But all-in-all, a success.

Hidden Valley

A small group of us climbers -- James, Kevin, Lori, Carrie, Mike, Tom and I -- went to Hidden Valley Ski Resort in PA over the weekend. The ski conditions were great and an awesome weekend was had by all. Even by Tom, who had to deal with the poor property managment, brought skis that didnt work, and got whacked in the head with a clock.

Fun in the half pipe.

Here comes Tom.

Lori going under Kevin's legs.

Thats me, posing pretty. The wind chill had a nasty bite on Saturday.


James and Kevin starting a snowball fight on the lift.

Winter Sports

It crazy to think about how much I am getting into winter sports. So far this winter I've learned how to ice climb, downhill ski and cross-country ski. Its definately making the winter go by fast. Can't wait till springtime though. Six weeks till I leave for Vegas and Red Rocks and Zion!! Woohoo!

Ice Climbing

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to give ice climbing a try. I was a little nervous about it, not the climbing part, but the cold part. I am not too fond of the cold weather! A high of 20 degrees was a little intimidating to me. But I figured if I prepare myself well, I should be able to endure. So I set off with my friends Patrick and Mike out to Ohiopyle, PA.

We set out in the morning on a rails-to-trails path along the beautiful banks of the mighty Yough in about ankle-deep snow. We soon spotted a bald eagle flying overhead, which we took as a good omen. After about two miles of hiking, we hit the turnoff uphill. The path quickly died out and we ended up trudging straight uphill on the 45-deg slope using ice axes for balance. Yeah, that was tiring, but we finally found the icy cliffs, which were absolutely beautiful.

Although the ice was a bit too thin and hollow for Patrick lead, it was sufficient for us all to toprope. Patrick gave me the scoop on how to use the ice axes and crampons to climb up and let me go at it. Thats me in the pic at the top! Climbing ice felt very different from rock, but still used of many of the same techniques so I quickly felt pretty comfortable. I also found it very tiring in gripping and swinging the ice axes repeatedly, a motion that I’m not quite used to. And I also realized my left hand is much weaker and less accurate than my right, which added even more challenge. But all-in-all it was pretty fun and well worth the trip!

We finished up climbing in time to make it down to the base of the hill just before dark. I even got a quick first-time lesson on how to self arrest down a slope. Then we hiked out in the dark with our headlamps, which seemed to be a very long, cold hike. At that point I was running low on energy and body heat, likely from not eating or drinking enough, a lesson learned there.

I still prefer climbing rock much more, but I think I could get used to a little ice climbing to get me through the winter.

Backpacking in Zaleski State Forest

Here are some pics from our 2-day backpacking trip in Zaleski Sate Forest this weekend. Kevin put this trip together despite the cold weather and chance for rain and snow flurries. I really despise cold weather, but decided to take part in this trip anyway. I figured I could last for a weekend all right, and it was also a good excuse to buy some cold weather gear. Driving down through the cold November rain, we came to the conclusion that we were absolutely crazy. But luckily the rain stopped as we started hiking, and only a drizzle and light snow had come down on us. The weather ended up being absolutely great!

Tom and I on the hike.

Emily and Kevin eating lunch. Kevin was very nice in cooking some delicious salmon and mashed potatoes for a group dinner later that night.

Kevin and Tom developed a great way to cut up the wood.

Here is the friend I made on the hike back. He met up with us in the morning at camp. We fed him some warm breakfast and gave him a little attention. Emily and Kevin arranged to return him to his owner back at the car. On our way out, I agreed to walk the dog for Kevin and Emily so that they could go on ahead and take a longer trail back. As it turned out, they took the shorter trail and beat Tom and I back to car. And the owner tracked down the dog near the end of our hike anyway. He was a nice companion, but definately a pain in the back to hike with.

The Upper Gauley

Okay, I am really starting to get slow on posting stuff. We set up a raft/climb weekend on Sept. 20 where we rafted the Upper Gauley River on Sat, then went climbing on Sunday. Wow, is the Gauley River fun!!! Our guide was on her first commercial guiding trip on the river, so we definitely had a shaky ride. Somehow, we survived a long and intense rapid named “Lost Paddle” though going through the large wave train sideways. We made it through “Sweet Falls” even though we missed the sweet spot. But it was “Pillow Rock” that got us. We missed the pillow and rammed full force into a different rock that halted us and caused us to flip. Well, not quite completely flip, the guide managed to stay in the raft. But the rest of us enjoyed a frantic swim through the rest of the rapid – some more frantic than others. But we survived, and we got a good story and laugh out of it afterwards. As for the climbing the next day, well, that was pretty uneventful after the rafting, and much more relaxing.

Coopers Rock

I went climbing at Coopers Rock, located just outside Morgantown WV, for the first time during the Labor Day weekend with Kevin and Richard. We found this beautiful flake that was just begging me to climb. So I climbed it. Kevin took a cool shot of me at the top showing off my guns.

Pluots

There are a few things that taste oh so incredible after a day of climbing – beer, pizza, and a pluot! Yes, a pluot! Jane introduced me to this super juicy fruit that is a cross between a plum and an apricot. On our trip to the Red this past weekend, she brought a couple down with her. I was so looking forward to having one after climbing, but as we were packing up, (I wont mention names here) the pluots suffered a devastating blow and turned into a bag of juice. Oh what a tragedy! (sniff, sniff!) Well anyway, Jane, Brian, Tom and I had a great weekend climbing. I caught a few decent pics too.

Brian climbing at the Shire...

Jane climbing "Its a Wonderful Life"...
Tom lounging on the rocks quite comfortably...