Hidden Gully Adventure! Smugglers Notch VT

So this winter I have been trying to treat each winter day like it is the last one before the thaw and if I have a chance to get out ice climbing I go...

One of the premier Ice climbing spots in the Northeast is smugglers notch.  Stephanie and I are blessed in that it is a 30 minute drive to the parking lot from our house.  We have the ability to pick and choose our days and go out on the good ones climbing when we have the free time and are not working on the house.

I have been training a lot for the rock climbing season so it has been a good practice ground this year.

I did a trip with Philip from Montreal a few weeks ago and it was perfect.  In early winter season conditions with little snow there are many climbs that are long and ice the whole way that later in the winter just fill with snow and become more avalanche prone.  Philip had never really been to Smugglers notch before so I gave him the grand tour and we went up Hidden Gully.  It is a great climb in that it is longer than many climbs in the notch and has a lot of terrain.  All said taking the middle line up the climb is about 1000 feet of vertical terrain plus 1.8 miles hiking both ways.  It made for a great day climbing and the winter has been like this almost all season with just a few warm ups.  There have been a lot of good blue-bird weekend days.

Start of the hike in from the road. 

Entrance to the gully on the first pitch

Top of the first pitch at the belay

Philip leading pitch two

After Philip had gone out of sight on the 4th pitch

Rappel down easy gully on descent

Looking up easy gully from the descent.  The hike down started from here. 

My garden and Newest Workspace

I have been trying to get back into climbing as of late and work/weather/house/other has ruled my life.  The one thing I feel really good about is my newest revised space which is under my porch/awning.  I have also put a hang board here and I am going to try doing pull-up sessions Tabata style for a while I think.

Jackson Falls

A couple weekends ago I was in the Chicago-St Louis circuit for work so I took the weekend and rocked it in a rental Yaris for 12 bucks a day and went to Jackson falls.

It is a really neat area.  It is sandstone but it is mostly friction technique and movements with interspersed pockets and overhangs.  I got in on Friday night and slept in the Yaris which will barely provide enough room for someone that is 5.10.  The camping scene here seemed like the best free area that I have seen in a long time.  It is within walking distance of the crags (10 minutes or less) and also free.  Most sites are near water and a lot of them get morning sun. I felt like this area was really unique.

The climbing area is pretty neat.  it is a canyon type feel with short (read 30-75 feet) walls.  The hike in is from the top and you can hike and rap or hike the long way around.  There are a lot of  "towers" that are really just short sections where the block has eroded from the wall providing more of a large boulder with sport climbing on it.  These were the primo routes to me at least because there are a lot of arretes and slopers with a unique climbing feel. 

For me the hard climbing was in between the angle changes where each time there were slopers tough friction footwork and unique sandstone holds that felt grainy but not too sandy. 

I thought the area was really good and I was blessed with finding some random partners that were happy to belay me.  It was much better than top rope self belays. I ended up getting a belay on 7 climbs and 4 of them were moderate 5.10s and the rest were warm ups.  Given that each day started with snow on the ground and the rock being wet I was very fortunate to have there be enough sun to melt the snow and dry the rock.   One of them was called group therapy and I thought it was really good.

All in all I thought it was a good off season trip.

A Day Back Home

I was in Boston visiting my parents for the weekend about a month ago and I took some shots of my hometown bouldering spot in Hammond Pond, MA.  It is a great area and has some really awesome concentrated climbs on cobble stone that supposedly climb like maple canyon. I got one V4 and a couple of V2s and had a really good time.  It was surprising how much easier some of the climbs felt than when I was learning and in highschool years ago.  I took some self shots here but didn't get anything really good because I was alone. None the less, it was a great time.

North and South Kinsman

I was really grumbling when my wife kept asking me to go hiking with her and friends in December for an overnight.  inside my head I was thinking " December?  Are you crazy it is cold out there and there is never any good snow!" .  In the end I decided it would be fine and I could survive a single night outside in order to satisfy the camping bug for a while.

At first we thought that people would want to come but it turns out that almost everyone does the same grumbling as I do and talks themselves out of it.  We found that it is just the hardcore people that wind up coming.  After inviting 12 people we ended up with us and one other.   It was cold and the best part was the lean to and the winter wonderland on Saturday into Sunday.   On Saturday morning I snapped some excellent pictures of this Pine Marten that was pretty tame due to the time of year and its level of hungriness.  He was skulking around the lean to looking for scraps.  All in all I would say that it was a great time out and it definitely kept me from doing my long delayed house projects.

When you still have it!

Today on the way home from work I stopped in the park near the house and found that the locals had set up a line.  It was a good walk and  anice day for it.  It was nice to know that I still have it.  It brings back my dreams of walking a highline.

They gave me their card since they also make films. www.noreastfilms.com

Getting back into my routine!

Well this last weekend I was able to work on house projects and cleaning and make it out bouldering for a cold day in Smugglers Notch.  The leaves are gone and there were a lot of hikers and very few boulderers out there.  I think mostly because there was some frost in the ground and all the overhanging boulders still had frost under them.  Soon I will be only able to ice climb or climb in gyms.

I got to send Nemesis again with just one pad and no spotter and I felt that this was a great accomplishment for me proving that once you learn the moves it can be incredibly easy and not even taxing or scary the second time.   I had no camera with me so I included the pictures that Steph got this summer of me on the problem working it prior to getting the first send that happened about a month ago.  I also find that this one is all in how you hang on the sloping holds.   The first two are top of the notch which goes at V2 and the second three are getting through the first crux of Nemesis for me which goes at V5.

Projecting and The New House

Projecting

Now that I have purchased a new house and been there a month the word projecting has taken a whole new term.  For me what projecting has always has meant was: Practicing a climb and the movement over and over until you are able to complete the climb physically and technically in one go with no falls on that try. 

 Now what it means to me is: Working on your house to restore it to its state and grandness by taking old classic features and things and fixing them so that they are up to date and functional and as great as they used to be. 

One of the hardest things about projecting for climbing is that you do not have the ability to typically project more than one at a time because it is very consuming to memorize the moves and constantly work on things and it is draining.  With our house the analogy is that it started off in a move in state and each project takes it down a grade from that state until the project has been sent. 

 House Projecting: 

Stairway  Carpet:  We took out the puke orange carpet that had been in the house for 30 years out and now and it was a chore.  The staples from the carpet and the carpet before this one were all in and it was 5 days of 1 hour each morning and 2 hours each evening getting the staples and nails out without pulling out the wood floors underneath.  The wood floors underneath have been painted twice and stained at least once and there are two visible layers of paint over the stain.  We are at a stand still here as we look into: carpet runners, floor sanding, carpet runner bars for the stairs.  Either way we both feel that it is a world better than the puke orange carpet whether it is two layers of paint or pristine.  It is just a matter of taking it to the next level.

Basement windows/Cleaning basement:

Well all of the basement windows were rusty and many were covered with plywood.  Steph’s dad convinced me to start taking them out and so I did.  It was about 1.5 hours a window of solid labor to get the windows out with chiseling, hammering, drilling but mostly a crowbar.  Then once we got the metal frames out I took a whole load to the dump. Now we are researching and fining windows that match and are going to fit the house.  Part of this is also getting or making window well covers and also getting the floors clear and also the basement in general clear and free of things like cobwebs and dust.  There was also the equivalent of 10 sheets of plywood and 40 2x4s that were all moldy and also in shelving that was rotting ans smelly.  That made for a pickup load of stuff to the dump. So now we have holes for windows and are researching the best fit for the house.  Once we have done the research I am confident that it will be easy to figure out the rest.

Gout Weed Removal:

I have never heard of this weed and still do not know much about it other than it is covering almost every flower bed that we have.  Someone has told me that you can make pesto out of it.  I am thinking that this would make a really good pesto party that would feed probably 60 people.  Hopefully we can figure this one out without chemical warfare.

And that is all that is going on right now.  It is plenty.  We have also been able to host a going away party impromptu for a friend with 9 guests and it also felt great.  Even with things sort of mid swing.  Maybe I will have time to project a route for my birthday or something in between all the other projecting.

Insulation and outlets to code in the garage:

We have been working on getting the garage ready as both a working area and also as a good storage unit for all our outdoor gear so that we can pick up and go when we want to go out hiking/camping/climbing/skiing/canoeing/ biking.  One thing that we noticed was that the garage is uninsulated.  Another thing that Steph's dad noticed when visiting last week was that it is not to code in terms of electrical.  The other discovery when looking at the circuit for the garage was that it was a 15 amp circuit that had more than 15 amps of things on it and also that has many of the rooms upstairs lights and basement lights on it so anytime there is a draw all the lights flicker which I don't really like. 

Also I just made some super awesome Vietnamese soup that I thought I would include a picture of as well.

 

We are in the process of adding new wire and will be insulating at some time.
 

Lake Tahoe Area

Steph and I spent a lovely week climbing in Donner pass area last month and I wanted to get the pictures up.I think that this was really exciting for Steph and I because this was the first trip for us together outside of the northeast climbing and it was sort of an eye opener of the possibilities.  Climbing in any area where there is little forest and lots of rock can be intimidating just because of the open feel of the land.  I think that it took a first day of climbing at easy grades to feel comfortable with the area and its surroundings. Donner Pass is a harsh environment.  It was 80 degrees every day and sunny and when it was not sunny it was thunderstorms.  As north easterners it was hard to gauge how much sunscreen we needed.   On day one we climbed at school of rock and got calibrated.  It was a nice single long pitch at 200ft and then one short 60 foot pitch to the top at 5.6.  The views are impressive. 

 

When you look across from most of the climbing you can see where the old railroad used to be.  It sits high on the mountainside and has tunnels that look small from a distance but are able to house a double train track.  They are called Snowsheds because they were used to stop the tracks from filling with avalanche snow.  It is hard to picture the environment with 22 feet of snow like it was back when the Donner's tried to go through the pass the winter they got stuck.

On day two we climbed at the grouse slabs because it is farther back from the road and we lucked out.  It was a whole entire day of climbing and we did not see another climber the whole day at the cliffs.  We did a route that was a stellar5.6 180 foot consistent streaking crack that was great.  Steph liked it and I did too.  That was our 2^nd pitch after warming up on an easier 5.5 and then it started to thunderstorm so we hid in a boulder cave on the side of the hill.  It was a real adventure day that included many types of climbing and really felt genuine.

On day 3 we went back to the grouse slabs and warmed up on a climb called greener pastures that was really good and then we went and did another 5.9+ climb that was really a boulder problem for the first 10 feet.  The third pitch of the day was a 5.6 that we had been eyeing the day before.  For having no stars in the guidebook we both found it really fun.  The climbing was varied and good.

Day 4 we kind of messed up… I wanted to climb on  a different type of rock in a different type of area and I totally messed up.  The directions to the cliff were bad and said obscure all over them and I thought that with my experience we would make it there OK… We ended up hiking out to a chosspile  and hiking around it with no climbing anywhere that looked ok and nothing to show.  So at the end of the day we drove up to Donner pass and went to see the snowsheds up close and personal.  It was a good end to the trip to go out to the more quiet section of the pass and do this. 

In the end I think we both had a great trip.  The pics are Mount Rose, Columnar Basalt, The rained off Day and the 200 foot crack.  

 

In 1932 I am sure that Montpelier was a bustling state capitol with many things happening.  There were many houses built around this year within the town even though it was during the great depression in the economy. As new houses were being built people were thinking about cars as they were just becoming affordable to the middle/upper class of society. The Empire State Building was in the process of being built and one of the famous black and whites of the workers sitting on a girder was just taken.  The assembly line concept was a major process of society in this day and everything from cars to houses were built in this style.  Rail cars shipped Sears Kit homes to towns and there were assembled right there via the part numbers on site. The auditor of My Left Foot was born with Cerebral Palsy and his mother believed that he was very intelligent despite what doctors said.   FDR ran for president and won b y a landslide (although VT was not a state he won in...) 

In Climbing history the first ascent of the lauper route on the North Face of the Eiger took place.  It took two days and was considered a fast and direct route.  In today's standards it can be done by superhuman athletes in about 2:45 for a speed record.

And I am writing all of this because Steph and I have finally found our house that we are moving into and close on tomorrow.  Our house is a colonial type revival and it was built in 1932.  I have been researching history and looking into things as I have my spare time.  Our first task is going to be the wallpaper in the master bedroom and getting down to a nice white wall with no paper.

Very Exciting....

Deer Leap

Steph and I have started getting ready for our trip to California in between all of the house buying things that have been going on.  I will post on the house later as I could not be more excited about it I just am doing my research for the post. 
We made it to Deer Leap on Sunday and did a bunch of the classic cracks and face climbs that are pretty good and I am hoping will get us in gear for Tahoe area and Donner pass/lovers leap. 

We ended up doing one called the monkey that is good finger lock type constrictions in a slanting seam and another called offwidth but it is just a changing crack size the whole way and then another that was a simple ramp type climb but was good to get some feet in of climbing.

I got one picture in of Steph rappelling after we did the offwidth crack. 

Mountain Fit!

Two months ago I was talking with my wife and I found that she had signed us up for the cross-fit program.  It is an exciting thing and also an overwhelming thing to try a new type of fitness regime. The first four sessions were two hour training classes where the technique of each of the moves that happen during a typical class have been reviewed.  This was the first time that I have learned some type of physical movement that has some serious technique to it.  The concept is to take high intensity movements such as an Olympic weight dead lift and combine the timed aspect of a cardio type exercise and enough core exercises to make my head spin.   The idea is to do this two days a week and get some serious power in all my movements beyond climbing so that I am more efficient. Each of the four workouts that we have done so far has used some form of body weight type exercise and another piece of equipment to build accuracy and fitness. Each time I have also been sore enough to know that I am going somewhere with the program.

The hope has been that it will help me on hard sport climbs to just power through the tough overhangs and get to a point where I can relax again during the climb. In my research while learning about the crossfit program I found a gymnastics specific type WOD or (workout of the day) type program that looks really interesting too.  It makes me wonder if there is already a climbing one out there and some searches have revealed that there are but I have not been able to do the full amount of reading.  The one thing that I will say even though I am trying not to drink the cult like kool-aid is that there is a lot of camaraderie it seems in the workouts and I like that aspect.

Now I am at the point where I have completed two months and have enjoyed it emensely and am thinking that it is time for climbing outdoors to see what it has done.  I am also thinking that this is something I could get back to.  So far I think that the most impressive thing I have learned to do is a gymnastics style muscle up on the rings.  This I am hoping will make my mantle type move in climbing really progress

My new favorite Crag!

It is 20 minutes to drive to the cliff and 25 to hike in at a good clip.  At 200 feet tall it is awesome.  Some of the climbs can be done in one single push with a 60m rope and 17 or more draws and the face climbing and intricacy of it all is also really good. And the best part of it is that it is all close to home.  Crag 82 is quickly becoming my favorite home cliff.  

On sunday my friend Zach and I went out and did this route called block party.  It is a nice 5.10a route that has some cool climbing and it is a nice couple hour jaunt to do it from home.  It is about 2.5 hours with the hiking from car to car if you are pushing it.

My first race ever!

A week ago I ran my first race ever.  I have been actively training since November. It was the 6.4 mile relay section of the Burlington marathon.  At work we have had about 9 people running off and on and I have had good lunch time training partners.  Someone had the idea of doing a relay team for the marathon and so three of us entered the lottery for this race and we got two teams accepted.  It was good to have someone at work to run with during lunch breaks for the last couple of months but I did find that I was a little more hardcore about it like going in the rain and snow and cold. 

On race day during leg one Steph and I stood by to watch the marathon start and Steph immediately commented as the race leaders were running by "It is only mile one and they already look like they are in pain".  This reminded me to smile and have fun during the race.  When it was my turn to run the third leg our team was running along with the ten minute mile section so since I was running faster I got to pass lots of people.  I have decided that there was no better way to start learning how to race.  I was happy and running fast and I ended up running faster then I had thought I was.  The leg I had included one hill at the end which I sprinted up and was nice.  I ended up running 6.4 miles in under 47 minutes.

Laraway Mountain and Ramp Ravioli!

Last Weekend was one of the best we have had in a while weather wise and Steph and I spent it with some friends hiking on the long trail.  We did a section that is pretty lightly used just north of Johnson VT and I also found a cliff that I think I will go back to and put a sport route up.  The cliff is right off the trail and the climbing looks excellent on these small and large pockets that are pretty untypical of VT.  There are even a couple of Mono type holds.  I am thinking it is going to make some excellent pocket climbing like training for limestone type climbs.  The cliff also overhangs like 15 degrees which is cool.  More on that later.  Project....

The Hike
We started out on Friday at route 109 and hiked in two miles to a really new and nice shelter.  IT was a neat one with barn doors and a sky-light.  Saturday morning we did 7 miles and ended at another neat shelter where I found some ramps on the descent into camp.  Dinner at camp consisted of Thai style peanut noodles with chicken, ramps, a red pepper and other food ( I think I gained weight on this trip).  Sunday we hiked over laraway mountain and back to our cars.  On the way up in the morning I stopped for about 20 minutes and got a bunch more ramps and the final 5 miles was hiking but I was just really thinking of how I was going to cook the ramps.  Hiking always gets boring for me so I find my mind wandering...

The Meal:

Back home after a little Internet research I found a recipe for ramp ravioli at a Fork My Life blog!  I am starting to think that soon cookbooks will be all outdated and no one will have them.  They will go out of print and people will just follow blogs.  After seeing a recipe on a blog complete with up to date pictures I decided it is how I want cooking how-to's to be for me.  If only climbing techniques could be learned so easily. 




Steph Expressed experience to learn how to make ravioli so we had this endeavor together.  We did this on Tuesday night.  I have to be thankful for the granite slab kitchen table that we have and got at a yard sale.  It is a great surface for these types of things.

It made for a fun evening and something to do.  Steph started asking about doing rice noodles and other things that were exotic with the maker so maybe I will have to start doing food blogging in the near future.   





 I have to thank one a friend of my parents friends Janet Tambascio for teaching me to make ravioli back when I was homeschooling for high school. 

Intimidation and head games!

Well this weekend I ate some humble pie.... Steph and I went to Marshfield for some serious granite climbing.  We had been to this cliff and climbed once before and I remembered it as being big but I forgot how awesome it really is.  You drive to Groton which is the middle of nowhere VT and then get on an old logging railroad bed that is now a road and drive 2 miles until you get to a spur road.  The road gets progressively worse so I just stop where there is a good pull off and don't beat on my truck too much. 

From there it is a half an hour hike on logging roads, faint trails and across an old beaver type flow area. The cliff is between 300 and 700 feet tall in places and has some really good slabs, faces, and features on it but it is exploratory type terrain.  Because it is so tall you can see a bolt line going up the cliff and think all the climbing will be bolts but then you get to pitch two and find you need gear.  The rock also can change as you go up so it can go from grainy to smooth slabs or holds to no holds.  All of this adds to the commitment.

When I first looked at the weather in the morning I saw that the percent chance of rain had gone up to 50% from 9-4pm so when it got cold briefly I questioned if I should start up the mossy slab. The sun came out a few minutes later and Steph was saying I should go so we went for it. 

I picked a slab that was close to the trial in where it met the cliff just thinking it would be a nice long moderate with a chance to explore and really see the cliff. 

I started up a relatively clean but with some lichen that looked like it would vanish as I went up.  It ended up being about 5.7 with one hard move at the bottom and was 4 bolts over about 110 feet so it was a little run out. For the last ten feet getting to the first ledge which was full of branches and leaves and was a little heady on lead since I have only been climbing in well travelled areas lately.  Steph made short work of the slab on toprope and so I started off exploring the sections above when I was back on belay. 

It turned out to be another slab pitch after doing some high angle leaf crawl/climbing on lichen to get to the clean stuff again.  As I was going up the rock got cleaner and cleaner but the rope drag got pretty bad and the bolts got really spaced out even though the climbing got harder. The rock also got pretty smooth.  The bolts started traversing to the right and they had some space so I just kept telling myself I would make it to the next one and see not knowing the grade or anything else. 

After 4 bolts on pitch two like that and around 100 feet I was heading out and feeling bad so I rested at a stance and tried to talk myself into the rest and had no luck.   We bailed..... It was a neat day and we had the whole cliff to ourselves.  There is so much adventure climbing there and so few people show up to do it. This is one area that is so close to home for me that I have to start getting out here more.   I guess humble pie never tasted so good!