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.