Archive for November, 2008

A few weeks ago, I found myself relaxing on vacation in Oregon. It was a rainy day, and aside from suduko and naps, we were running out of stuff to do. So, Bruce and I decided to sign up for Twitter, and give the service a try.

Twitter is a “micro-blogging” service. You get 140 characters in each “post” and you can update as often as you want. Each post should, generally, just be the answer to the question “What are you doing?”

So, I’ve been tweeting and having a ball for the last month or so, why post about this now? Well Rockclimbergirl wrote a great post yesterday called Twitter 101 for us outdoorsy types. She goes over the basic premise, why she likes the service, and all of the fun tools and toys to help tweet. I can add that I have an iGoogle twitter widget on my homepage, and I use Twitteriffic from my iPhone for updates.

So check out Sara’s blog post, and consider adding a tiny bit of twitter to your daily routine. It’ll be fun, I promise!

Well, Thursday night came and went, and Mark and I didn’t get ready to leave for Shelf. Camping in the desert in winter is fun – but night comes early. You have to bring friends or entertainment with you, or you end up going to bed at 6:30p. And we couldn’t seem to rustle up either one. So, we stayed home, slept in our warm bed, and then waited for the sun to come up on Saturday before heading north to local sport climbing at the Palace.

The sun was bright, and the river was very low. On our crossing, though, the rocks had a thin patina of ice that was sneaky and horrible. I slid down one boulder on my butt and landed, on my back, in the ice cold river!

We hiked up to the sunny side, the Poudre Face, and I started out the morning attempting to lead B.A.H. (5.9). Somewhere around the second bolt, Mark got cold and decided to wander over to get his t-shirt. When I looked down to see my belayer missing, I had a lovely little panic attack. Needless to say, I lowered off and Mark finished the lead. I climbed it twice on TR, hoping the laps would help me gain confidence enough to attempt a pink point, but by the end of the second, my hands were sore, my shoulders exhausted, and I had just found my final excuse for not leading on Saturday.

We both took a lap up Palace Guard (5.10b) while the TR was on it. Another very fun climb.

The sun set early in the evening, and our late arrival did not leave enough time to get much climbing in. On the way back to the car, Mark made it across the rocks without getting wet, and I plowed straight across the river – actually much less painful. Were two climbs worth the cold water, the panic attack, the drive and the hiking? Actually, yes.

So, the blog has been quiet for a while now. Mark and I haven’t been outside much, and I’m focusing on getting this paper submitted at work. Plus, I’m taking a class, Mark’s got a bunch of fun video games, and we’ve been dancing like there’s no tomorrow. Yes, it’s true, our cha-cha-cha kicks butt.

I have some photos laying around that should come up here in the next few days, and we’re heading to Shelf for the weekend. So, hopefully we’ll come back around to the blogosphere soon.

For now, enjoy the weather weenie Quote-Of-The-Day (ala Matt M in my Boundary Layer class):

“So, if convection breaks out over the open ocean, and there are no weather satellites around to see it, does it form hexagons?”

Feel free to mull that bit of metaphysical mystery over. I’ve got a paper to write.

Too much to blog! Not enough time!

Our first weekend back in town surely had to be spent climbing. Doug and Liz called us, and after some debating, we decided to head up to the Ironclads. Then, an hour later, I walked the dog and noticed that the mountains were enshrouded in clouds. So, we all decided to head south to North Table Mountain.

There’s a few pictures in the Gallery. Not many, though. I wasn’t in a very photographic mood, I suppose.

Mark started out the morning leading (according to Doug, because I suck with the guidebook) Chunky Monkey (5.10a) with one of his shoes and one of Doug’s. Mark made the climb look really easy, but the rest of us had a rough time on it.

Doug led up Honey I Shrunk the Hemmorrhoids (5.7) for his warmup. We were all shocked later to find out this was a 5.7. Seems like it had some very hard parts to it. It’s hard to imagine an “outdoor gym” like NTM would have so many sandbags, but if you’re not used to the rock, the routes can seem much harder than their grades.

At the end of the day, Mark hung topropes on an Unnamed 5.9 with a big roof and an Unnamed 5.10 that followed a long, sharp arrete. It was enough climbing to wear us all out, and several good routes. I’m looking forward to the new guidebook coming out, so we can spend more time really exploring the cliffline.

Also, as we moved the ropes over to the two TRs, a fellow and his friend arrived at the base of the cliff and helped us figure out what climbs we were on. We enjoyed hanging out with them as we finished up our routes, and I found out later that this was Curtis of knick-knack.com. It’s fun to meet another climbing photographer/blogger – even if you don’t find out about it until later!