Upon great pressure, I yield to the majority. I have created a MySpace page. I’m sorry.

http://www.myspace.com/kcalder313

And, on a side note, anybody know how to post blog entries from WordPress into MySpace? Is that possible?

Why Pete Takeda Loves Vedauwoo

…I started up with confidence, but the edge was too rounded to lieback and my only relatively big piece—a number 3 Camalot—was soon a few bodylengths below. The smears and edges felt insecure, and my pinchy, down-toed slippers—great for overhanging limestone—made my feet hurt so much I couldn’t stuff them into the flare.

At last I found some crystals outside the crack for my feet, but the mineral clusters inside tore up my bare hands. I’d always contended, like any good Valley local, that taping was aid; now blood began to lube my naked jams.

A huffing mantra of “It’s only 5.8” brought me quaking over the final awkward bulge. Profoundly relieved, I clipped the anchors, my heart racing.

Other climbers were filtering into the area. I did my best to look collected. Oversized, umbrella-like cams and spring-loaded tube chocks the size and shape of bazookas clanked on their racks.
…
“Bob” glanced at my fresh gobies and unlaced slippers.

“Enjoying yourself?” he asked, Cheshire-Cat-like.

“Yeah, sure,” I replied, the metallic taste of the 5.8 still in my mouth. Your climbing area sucks, I wanted to add.

Fourth of July Crack swept overhead, parallel to Horn’s Mother, equally aesthetic. The alcove’s symmetry of crack and sculpted stone evoked the architectural ambiance of a cathedral.

“Nice slippers,” a man in a rugby shirt and shredded canvas pants said as I reached the ground. He nudged another local, pointing at me.

We drove off in a huff. A few days later I read a Todd Skinner quotation in an old issue of Climbing: Vedauwoo’s offwidths “filter out the weak, the soft and the spineless.”

I’d been filtered.

“… but don’t count on luck to survive.” –Mark Houston and Kathy Cosley in Alpine Climbing: Techniques to Take You Higher

So, this is the advice ringing in my ears when we take off to climb on Lumpy Ridge in the Rocky Mountain National Park on Sunday. As we were heading south at around 9:30 that morning, we knew we were really late. Really late. But hey, you never know. Only a 20% chance of rain, maybe we’d get lucky?

When we got into the area, the clouds were already thick and getting worse. We decided to change plans from a multi-pitch climb on top of the ridge to single pitch climbs closer to the trailhead. We were hoping to make it to Crescent Wall or Fin City.

The first rolls of thunder hit us not more than 10 minutes after we left the car. No visible lightning yet, but we got sprinkled with rain a few times. While we could see the crags in the distance, we never found the approach trails and eventually found ourselves all the way up at Gem Lake.

It was a pretty little lake, with gorgeous views. But it’s still annoying to hike 30 lb packs of climbing gear up 2 miles and 1500ft of elevation gain, and know that you won’t be climbing that day. We rested for a few minutes at the lake, and then started to jog down as the thunder got closer and lightning began to flash around us in earnest. The weather deteriorated rapidly, and we took shelter in a small, dark cave while the worst of the lightening pounded the cliffs around us.

The storm moved off, and we hiked back down to the trail head. Still nervous of flashes in the distance, and a little too-close-for-comfort thunder. The trail through the woods below us was coated in a thick layer of pea-sized hail. It looked like rough, icy, snow had reappeared in patches all over the valley. I guess it’s summer in the mountains!

Maybe we’ll get up earlier and have better luck later this summer.

Monday morning was our last day of vacation, and Mark and I both woke up feeling stiff and sore. Three days of climbing is a lot, but I hadn’t yet had a chance to lead anything. We waved good-bye to all of our CH Ranch friends as some headed home and other scattered to the cliffs for one last day on the fantastic Shelf Road limestone.

Kate’s Favorite 5.7 lead (~5.7) – This climb is not in any guidebook or on the web. We found it once on the hike from the Bank to Cactus, back when the trail followed the cliffline and nobody else bothered to walk. The 7 bolts are shiny and perfectly placed for an interesting (but not too scary) lead of this 50-ft climb.

On Monday, I led it up slowly, placing my own gear, and puzzling out the tricky sections. I felt more confidant than usual on the smaller footholds, because I had spent so much time climbing thin slabs this weekend. The section of thin, tough climbing at the anchors still made me shake like mad, but I didn’t fall or hang.

Mark suggested I take a few laps on this climb, working the moves until I felt comfortable. I climbed it carefully on toperope once, and then pulled the rope and led it again on my own pre-placed gear. This second time felt great! I felt fully confidant in all the tiny, sloped ledges and sharp, shallow, pocket holds. I was still nervous clipping the anchors, but much less shaky, and it took me about half as long to complete the climb as my first trip up.

I cleaned the climb and came down. Mark was happy to not have to climb again; he felt completely done. And I felt like my weekend had come to a successful, and educational close. I’ve had so many problems with leading during my six year climbing ‘career’. I’ve tried so many things to get myself on the sharp end, and so few have helped at all. The idea of being able to run laps on comfortable climbs until I’m comfortable leading felt like a good one. Maybe this tool and some commitment will help me take the baby steps I need to become a consistent and confidant lead climber.

We packed up and hiked out before noon. On our way back to the Springs, I got to really enjoy my happy-post-Shelf glow. A little sunburnt, a lot sore, and very happy with my accomplishments.

Just because I forgot to mention it in the last post, check out the photos in the gallery!

On Sunday morning, Mark woke up groaning. He put a pillow over his head and went back to sleep. Turns out he’d had a lot too much beer the night before. Eventually, we got up, made the coffee, packed the gear, and headed out for a day of climbing on the Dark Side.

Come to the Dark Side. We have Cookies.

Lumina (5.9) – Ann hopped on the lead of this one first thing, but found pretty quickly that the 5.8 rating in the guidebook was quite the sandbag. She decided to let somebody taller and more reckless finish the lead after several valiant attempts at the crux sequence. We all took a turn on this one, and while I thoroughly enjoyed the slabby section at the top, the cruxes were tricky and I took a fall on my way up.

Fragile (5.10c) – Despite my grumbling and worry, Dylan convinced Mark to lead up this one. I remembered a couple of guys having a h*ll of a time on this climb the last time we were there, and I was worried about another sandbag. But Mark dispatched the climb with absolutely no problems, and in fact had a ball on it. This climb went up the left side of a detached pillar in the middle of the wall, and lended itself nicely to lots of great photos.

Porkus Procurement (5.10d) – This was one of my favorite climbs the last time we were in the area, and climbing it again on Sunday was not a disappointment. Once I get my confidence built up, I’m going to come back and lead this one. It starts with an easy ramp up to a thin vertical face, and then it’s all happy crimping on sharp but extremely solid black limestone. Beautiful.

Enchanted Porkfist (5.11a) – By late in the afternoon, there were only a few hard climbs left in our little area that we hadn’t tried, and this was one of them. Mark (aka The Rope Gun) shot off on this lead, and enjoyed the climb. He actually had his first real lead fall in over a year on the third bolt, and was proud of himself for climbing to failure on the sharp end. I climbed this on top rope later and really really enjoyed it. I think it might just be my all-time favorite 5.11.

While Mark and I were enjoying Enchanted on TR, Dylan worked Punjabi (5.11a/b) on a fine lead. He worked hard for that climb, and took several impressive whippers from the top bolt without quite being able to clip the anchors.

As we packed up for the day, thunder started rolling in, closer this time. Rain fell for a while and stopped, and we hiked out. I tried to take a shot of lightening from the parking lot, but it just didn’t come out, so I made my own.

Another evening back at the Ranch, and another evening of campfires, card games and hanging out with friends.

Every year, for the past five years, our friend Brian from the rock gym has had a big group of climbers up to camp on his ranch near Shelf Road, and enjoy a weekend of great sport climbing and fun desert camping. Mark and I have been in the area in past years, but never fully participated in the gathering for various reasons. This year, we threw worry into the wind, and caravaned down to the Cheesehead Ranch with Dylan, Ann, Doug and Liz.

We had a great group of climbers to camp and climb with this year. There were probably close to 30 people all said, and most of them we knew from the rock gym already. This made it a really nice weekend to relax and get to know cool people we’ve only met in passing, and to really spend time with those that we don’t get to see very often.

Friday night, we arrived a little late (around 9p), and most of the campers had already gone to bed. Mark and I took campsite number 2, which turned out to be about a 5 minute walk down a nice little pinon-lined path, to the top of the ridge that runs down the northern edge of Brian’s 35 acres. It was one of the best campsites I’ve stayed at in a long time. Beautiful, quiet, shaded, sheltered and even perfectly level; it was an ideal tent site.

On Saturday morning, Mark, Liv and I got a tasty breakfast of bacon, egg and cheese bagels before hopping in the car and heading out to climb with the group on the Mural Wall in the Gallery. Up until we arrived at the base of the climbs, I had been sure the whole of Shelf Road would be packed, route-to-route with climbers for the holiday weekend. I think we were all pleasantly surprised to see this shady little crag almost completely deserted before our group descended upon its plethora of tasty moderates.

Block Party (5.10a) – Mark led up this climb as our morning “warm up”, and it was a bit of a shock to my system. I don’t mind overhanging pumpfests, but first thing in the morning?? It was a lot of fun, and I completely understand why it gets the “classic” rating. The giant swiss-cheesy goodness is not to be missed.

Morrocan Roll (5.10b) – Dylan led up this climb as his warm up. I had heard somebody point to it earlier in the morning and say “That’s the 5.9 you’re looking for.” So, I climbed it thinking it was simply a hard nine (after hearing people complain a bit), but I didn’t have any problems with that rating. The slab was full of fun and friction, and the small finger pockets were all over the face. I found my feet stuck wonderfully to this climb, and I had a great time on it. Much more my style of climbing.

John Cruiser Meloncrip (5.10b) – Another overhanging and hard route to grunt my way up, but the sun felt good, and the moves were definitely interesting. I was exhausted by the time I made it to the top of this route. Totally ready for my afternoon nap.

Mother of Invention (5.10c) – One nice thing about climbing with a big group is that there always seems to be another toprope around to climb on. I had been watching people lead this one for most of the day, and when I saw the rope was free in the afternoon, I decided to try it. Boy, I was so done. I don’t remember anything about the climb. About half way up, my hands gave out on me. They wouldn’t open all the way or close to grip rock. I had to come down. But it was a good, hard day of climbing for me!

Pi (5.12b) – Yes that’s right, 5.12. I don’t know exactly which routes Mark climbed on Saturday, but I hung out and watched him try this one at the end of the day. Again, just because there are topropes on fun climbs, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be able to climb the route. Mark gave a great effort, but didn’t quite make it through the crux on this one, as it was the last route in a very long day. Other memorable moments included Mark revealing his true traddie self as he screamed “What tick? What the $#*% is a tick?!?” in the crux.

In the late afternoon, we packed up and headed back to the ranch. I will, for a very long, long time, remember how cool it was to pull into the main camp area and have everybody wave “Hi!” to us to welcome us back after a great day of climbing with cool friends. It felt like coming home.

Brian tapped the keg, and made no less than 10 bar-b-que pork loins, which we all devoured happily. We spent the evening screwing around on the slack line, hanging out by the fire, loosing at cribbage and Five Crowns, and enjoying far too much beer. Now that is the end to a perfect day of climbing!

I’ve been working on raising a few different types of plants: tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. The tomatoes are doing great, but these peppers just won’t flower. They’ve had these little buds for two weeks now. I’m posting the pictures to see if anybody has any ideas for what I can do to coax those little flowers out?

1 fresh peach
1.5 shots of Raspberry vodka
1/2 can of Sprite

Blanch the peach in boiling water for just a few minutes. Gently rub the skin off and slice the peach. Pour the vodka over ice cubes in a tumbler, and almost fill the rest of the glass with Sprite. Add the warm peach slices. Enjoy.