new experiences in rumney

This long weekend I went bouldering in Rumney, New Hampshire. It’s a pretty silly thing to do, going bouldering in Rumney, with all the good sport routes about but it just so happens there’s a good handful of inspiring boulder problems there as well and I thought that since pretty much all of Canada was going to be in Rumney I might as well go as well.

I know that I’ll always remember this weekend bouldering, and at this stage in my life that really means something. I’ve been on countless bouldering weekends and sometimes they’re fun and sometimes they’re less fun.


Mastering the cut-loose on Satan on a Half Shell, V10
 
The climbing this weekend was pretty fun. It wasn’t too warm, there weren’t too many mosquitos, and the rain almost held off. I’ve been wanting to climb Satan on a Half Shell since I first visited the black jack boulders six years ago in 2007. I finally got my wish, along with a bonus climb – Dave’s Variation to Zig Zag Crack, super crimp slab. I remember considering the later climb impossible for humans when I saw it in 2007. I was wrong. I did get shut down (not without making good progress) on Satan’s Choice. Getting that really would have made my weekend and I’m pretty sad I couldn’t do it. I really want to be at that level of strength. No more no less.

What did make my weekend was meeting a new friend. JM and I met Patti on Saturday at the boulders and I had a great time bouldering with her all weekend. She’s totally our style of climber and we all hit it off bigtime. She made my weekend. Patti, if you ever read this, I just want to say thanks again for climbing with us and hanging out – we’ll have to make it all happen again one day in Chattanooga.

A less exciting part of my weekend was staying at D’Acres. It’s this hippy farm place and it just wasn’t as cool as everyone made it out to be. I think it the end I would have rather camped. I felt kind of guilty staying there, I don’t think I’m gluten-free enough for that place.


JM warming up
 
It was nice to have a few days in Rumney after so long but unfortunately I think it’ll be a while before I end up there again. I just have to stay motived and keep my strength up so that whenever I do end up there I’ll be stronger than I am today.

Note: I think that Patti captured a few of our climbs on video from the weekend so I’ll post a link to that video once it’s done.

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Mon May 20, 2013

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More exciting news…

So remember how my mom and I are going to Greece this summer? Well our two-some has gotten bigger and my cousin Anna is joining is!

My mom and I are super excited she decided to join us. When we originally asked her she said she couldn’t and to our surprise last week, we got a phone call saying “I’m in!”. Who could really pass up Greece with two fun ladies such as my mom and myself?!

So on July 31st we’re off. Three lovely ladies with nothing but beaches, handsome Greek men, and nights of dancing ahead of us!


Anna and me at my friend Terry’s wedding in October


My mom, a friend France, and me at Danny’s wedding

(I think the three of us will make some heads turn ;)

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Wed May 15, 2013

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Hopes and Expectations

This summer I’ll be bouldering in Rocklands, South Africa. I’ve been to Hueco Tanks and Fontainebleau in the past and Rocklands is measured at this same standard.

In 2011, before I travelled to Fontainebleau I had some thoughts to share about my dreams of that magical forest and what I expected from my time there. Looking back, time having eroded things, I feel that my experience there was not what I had hoped it to be.

In 7 weeks I’ll be departing for South Africa. How many and what expectations do I have? What do I want this trip to be like? The answer: I don’t know.

Before my trip to Fontainebleau I was fully prepared and ready. I would look through the guidebook at night and imagine my body moving across the rocks. I would imagine the French villages and the beach sand stuck to my climbing shoes. I arrived and absorbed everything, comparing things to my expectations and constantly awakening.

Before my trip to Rocklands I am also fully prepared – prepared physically and logistically. I have a copy of the guidebook, I have my clothes ready, reservations made, and time booked. Physically I’m prepared as much as I’m going to be. I competed all season, trained with the team all season, and challenged myself as much as I could.

However, I am not prepared mentally and I don’t know why.

I’ll keep comparing this Rocklands trip to my Fontainebleau trip. It wasn’t until about 2010 when I wanted to go to Fontainebleau. For six years before that I had no desire. The climbing style was as foreign as the location and I wasn’t attracted. Maybe in the end I just needed to grow more, or at least grow into it (Fontainebleau). It eventually happened and I was so happy for that. The memories of that trip are wonderful.

Have I grown into desiring the Rocklands? I think so, but not at the same level. Is it simply because it’s no longer my first trip over the atlantic to a major desination, or have I just not watched enough Rocklands videos online? Is it simply because there’s no magic in Rocklands? There’s no footage of Ben Moon sending Karma, or Ty Landman crushing Khéops. You can’t ignore the fact that there’s just fewer magical moments to expect from Rocklands.

Or is there? Let’s be honest, I didn’t climb well in Fontainebleau. I don’t know how much of it was due to the weather but in five weeks I climbed only one V11 and two V10. The week before in Albarracin I did three V11 and one V10 in one week.

However, with a doubt, the magical things I can expect from Rocklands are great climbing moments. I will climb better in Rocklands. I will climb harder, I’m sure. I’m good at the style of climbing in Rocklands and I will enjoy it.

I just have to get mentally prepared for it. That’s the missing piece. I need to know the climbs more, read about the place more, dream about it more. I need to have expectations. Magical or not, achieveable or not, inflated or not. Perhaps once I have those expectations I can then begin to let them go, replacing them with hopes and then I can succeed.

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Sat May 11, 2013

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Our Big News

Leanna’s pregnant? Nope!
We bought a house? Nope!

Dave will be spending his summer in Africa while Leanna travels to Greece with her mother? YOU BETCHA.

Our flights are booked and we’re committed.

On July 1st I will be boarding an [expensive] flight to Cape Town, South Africa. It will take me two full days of travelling to get there and I’ll stay there for 5 weeks. I’m travelling with my friend JM and I will be staying in a cabin with my friends Max and Liberty from Las Vegas. We’ll be bouldering like maniacs in the “Rocklands” in the Cederberg wilderness. We’ll be climbing non-stop, and when we do stop we’ll be thinking about climbing or resting for more climbing.

 

Rocklands, South Africa. photo © Lisa Rands

The “Rocklands” is the last big international bouldering destination that I have to visit and the biggest and best bouldering in the southern hemisphere. When I heard that my friends were going I had to get on board. It was my last and only chance. I’m not getting any younger and this opportunity will only happen once in my lifetime. I thought that our year-off would be my last and greatest opportunity to push my climbing level as far as I could – I keep surprising myself. Since I’ve returned from my year off I’ve been successfully training with my climbing team and achieved success in the competition circuit in Canada. Now, with my level of fitness being higher than it ever was I’ll have the opportunity to apply it on the rocks once again, this time in South Africa. Rocklands is the destination most boulderers dream of seeing. The exotic location and the extreme shapes of high quality rock make for a premiere destination.

Of course none of this would be possible without Leanna’s support. She accommodates my training schedule, competitions, and travelling without any complaints. We’re spending 7 weeks apart from each other this summer (parts of that in two separate foreign continents) and that’s only possible because of our mutual support.

I’ve never been south of the equator and of course I’ve never been to Africa before. It will surely be an adventure.

 

Athens

Leanna’s summer will be just as exciting. She’s returning to Greece! She’ll be spending nearly her whole summer away from Ottawa, in fact, first travelling to Thunder Bay to go on canoe trips and sun-tanning adventures with a novel, doing NOTHING high-school related. Her friend Bina from Ottawa will join her in T-Bay and they’ll have a great time eating at “Ristorante Puiatti”.

She’ll leave Thunder Bay for a stop in Ottawa mid summer before flying to Greece with her mother for about 2 weeks.

For a little while now Leanna’s wanted to travel with Emilia. She wanted to take Emilia on a trip somewhere exciting that she’d like. A few months ago she proposed it to her and said “Well, where would you like to go?” and she chose Greece. Leanna’s super excited because Greece was her favourite destination in Europe during our year off and it’s the perfect place to take her mother. They’ll eat a lot of great food and visit a lot of nice beaches. It’ll be HOT, like 35-40C. I don’t know if I could handle that. They plan to do some cooking classes too. I’m pretty jealous. She’s going to have so much fun being a tourist again.

Expect a lot of blogs from us while we travel this summer.

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Sun Apr 14, 2013

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What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas…

… well except everything I’m going to share now :)

Hi everyone! It’s been awhile since I blogged because it’s been only about climbing. But Dave and I finally went on a vacation together (the first once since we’ve been back – yes I’ve been going crazy!). It was sooo nice to get away. I really miss the travelling life.

Last week was March Break for me so we decided to take off to Las Vegas. Whohoo! It was neat because last year we lived in Vegas for a month with our friends Adam Seely, Ashley, and Shaq and when we returned to their house just now, it felt like we never left. We were right at home. Back in our old room, putting our things in the same spots, and joking and hanging out like old times.

We chose Vegas for a few reasons: we have lots of friends to visit (in addition to Adam, Ashley, and Shaq, our friends Karissa and Jason from Portland were meeting us there for a few days and our friends Max and Liberty already live there); we could climb in Red Rocks; we could enjoy Vegas (i.e. go shopping, eat at good restaurants, enjoy the shows, etc.); and it wasn’t too expensive. So those are exactly the things we did.

Of course our first day there we headed to Red Rocks to climb. I didn’t climb much, but believe me, I didn’t mind. It was just sooo nice sitting outside in a tank top with the sun on my face. Ottawa is cold and full of snow. Why do I live there again? Oh yeah, free health care, good pensions, …


The boys doing shenanigans… so who’s is biggest?
(from left to right: Max. Adam, Jason, Dave)


Dave and Jason… too cool for school

As I already mentioned, we enjoyed the good food of Vegas while there. The BEST is the Mexican tacos. There is a taco truck called Cuki’s not far from Seely’s house and it is soooo goood! The tacos only cost $1.25 and they are authentic, good tacos. There is always a line-up of Mexicans outside and one man told us this truck is the best Mexcian food in town and I believe it.

We also enjoyed a dinner at “Hot & Juicy Crawfish”. Adam and Ashley took us there and this place was crazy! The way it works is you order your choice of seafood (crawfish, shrimp, crab, lobster, etc.) and your choice of seasoning (louisiana style, cajun, garlic butter, etc.) with the seafood and its all by the pound. Then they drop a bag of seafood on your table and you have to just eat it with your hands. Everyone wears plastic bibs and gloves and the tables are covered in plastic because it’s so messy. It was super fun! Dave and I tried the crawfish, shrimp and some crab (our favourite). It was my first time eating crawfish. It’s ok, tastes like shrimp to me. This restaurant was actually featured in the show “Man v.s Food”. Here’s a link to that episode on youtube.


Ashley, me, and Adam getting ready to eat with our bibs on


Dave and I getting down and dirty

We wanted to see a show while in Vegas so Adam got the four of us tickets to Zumanity. It is a Cirque du Soleil show but with a twist. It shows the sensual side of Cirque (so it was all about sex) with amazing acrobats and what not (by what not I mean boobs and butts everywhere). It was hilarious too – a good time.

Afterwards we met up with Jason and Karissa at the duelling piano bar in New York, New York. It was their last night and we all hit the town. The piano bar was lots of fun. Two people play songs on the piano by request (and for cash) and everyone else gets to sing and dance. They work hard at trying to get you to spend your money, of course. At one point they realized there were Canadians in the bar and started a battle between us and the Americans to see who would pay more to get their songs played. We won for a while without having to spend to much because there were a lot of Canadians to pool our money together. We got them to sing Oh Canada, and Brian Adams (summer of ’69) – it had to be Canadian of course. After the piano bar we headed down the strip to do some dancing. I LOVE to dance! It was good times. We… ah, ah, remember: what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas ;)


The crew at the piano bar (from left to right: Ashley, Dave, Karissa, me, Jason and Adam in front)


Dave and Jason look suave


Karissa and me looking hot

Dave had lots of fun bouldering. He was able to get out 4 days in total and managed to climb a lot even in the heat (the temperature was in the 30′s while we were there – that’s in Celsius. For our American friends, that’s in the 80′s). Here are some of his thoughts:

Even though I only got out 4 days I had a blast. Bouldering in Vegas seems like home to me. I climbed a number of new problems but didn’t put down anything hard. I almost did Wet Dream V12, but one day on it was not enough. Next year I’ll get it. Did some fun short problems, sat in the sun – it was great. I did 1 of 4 problems on my to-do list. Not bad at all. Climbing with Seely, Max, Karissa and Jason brings back good memories.

The highlight of the week for me was seeing all our friends. I wish we all lived closer to hang out all the time. Thanks everyone for such great times! Well, I thinks it’s your turn to come visit us now. Ottawa is beautiful in the fall…

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Wed Mar 20, 2013

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The tale of Alexander Megos

When I was climbing in Hueco in January 2013 I met a humble German climber named Alex Megos. He is 19-yrs-old and he had been on a 4-month road trip across the United States with some other Germans in a van they bought for 900$.

I had heard about him previously for some of his impressive climbing achievements during those 4 months and it turns out we got to climb together a few times. I’m pretty sure my strength-to-weight ratio is the inverse of his :(

He climbs incredibly light and technical. Kind of like Adam Ondra, but with less power. Here’s a funny story from one day spent with him:

We were on a tour in the back country with him, his friends, and some random girl from Alabama named Sarah. She was southern. She had never met or heard of Alex before and eventually after spending half a day together and seeing him climb some impressive boulders she began to realize that he was, in fact, a big deal. She was excited to be part and to point him to all the hard stuff and watch him crush everything. At one point during a conversation with him she was so excited to be climbing with a top level athlete she asked quite excitedly “So you must climb, like, 5.14d?” commenting on the grade of the level of his ability.

She expected a detailed answer about either how ‘Well, no, not yet because blah blah blah’ or ‘Yah, I did [name here] climb in [date here] and it was [hard / easy] and blah blah blah’ but instead, Alex replied in his most German of tones with an flippant “… Yes.”

She had no where to take that conversation and it ended there. She was impressed.

So that’s the tale told, and here’s a video of him climbing Diaphanous Sea, V12 in Hueco Tanks:

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Fri Mar 8, 2013

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Hueco Tanks as sung by Max Moore

Check out my friend Max’s Hueco Tanks video he made of our trip there. It’s a lot of inside jokes and shinnannigans but there’s lots of cool climbs in there too.

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Wed Mar 6, 2013

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