Arboretum

Enough is enough. Snow has been on the ground for the last two months and we haven’t made a single trip down a hill on skis or sled, we haven’t put together any snowmen or snow angels. Besides a few snowballs in passing  and windshield scraping, we have all but avoided the snow. Now the snow is begging us to play in it, so we had to get out and play in it before it is gone.

We finally made the trip to the storage unit to find some snow gear. We found two sets of the family snowshoes. It was a chilly 6 degrees outside, but the sun was shining, and the wind was minimal, it was a perfect snow day. We bundled up in many warm layers, packed a lunch, grabbed the snowshoes and headed for Overland Park’s 300-acre Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.

We were surprised that there were a few other cars in the parking lot, and even more surprised when we found that the paths were plowed in places, and clear from cross-country skiers and other walkers in place. Why had we waited so long? Apparently these people hadn’t.  Needless to say, the snowshoes were overkill and unnecessary, so we left them in the car.

The arboretum was a much needed dose of nature. The other cars must have been staff or people hanging out in the heated building, because we had the trails all to ourselves. One would think it was our first time in the snow. We literally frolicked down the trails, taking pictures of every limb heavy with snow, every bench buried deep, sculptures poking out stark against their white blanket. Jonathan ventured onto a frozen pond, and climbed around on shade structures.We were like kids running around in the park by ourselves, pointing out the animal tracks, and trying to name all of the birds we saw from the bird-watching station (we  saw cardinals, a couple of varieties of woodpeckers, a few we couldn’t decipher, and lots of sparrows).

The sky was clear and blue, the air was crisp and the snow was bright white. It was invigorating and beautiful, a perfect afternoon. Now that we have located the snowshoes we are excited to break trail after the next snowstorm. Our timing is impeccable though, because the forecast calls for warmer weather, and no snow!

Homeward Bound

Let’s face it, being sick isn’t any fun. In fact, when I am sick I don’t want to do anything. I certainly don’t want to do physical activities, or have to concentrate or think too hard. I just want to be warm, comfortable, and rest until I feel better.  Well, that is the situation we found ourselves in at the tail end of our stay in Tucson.

Jonathan came down with a nasty cold. He is Mr Tough Guy though and indulged my desire to keep going. We left Tucson and headed for Cochise Stronghold. This is a beautiful area in the Dragoon Mountains with huge formations of pink granite.  There are lots of multi-pitch climbing routes here, but no guide book in print. We found a few descriptions online, and a few in our Arizona climbing guide, but I think route finding (or making) would be part of the adventure out here.

We camped on the forest service road in the valley below Cochise Stronghold. We woke to a perfect day, except Jonathan wasn’t feeling any better. He didn’t have energy to hike or climb, and certainly not for the route finding or multi-pitch climbing we had planned. We both had books, so tried to rest and read awhile and just see how we felt. This didn’t last long. We needed a plan (and water). We drove into the nearest town to stock up & rejuvenate. The nearest town is Tombstone. We had a good time wandering the nostalgic streets, petting donkeys and goats in the free petting zoo, but we didn’t locate any food worth stopping for or a grocery store.  We skipped the gunfight (they wanted $5/each to watch) and drove on. The next town had a grocery store. We picked up food, filled our water containers, and ate some bad Mexican food.  Jonathan wasn’t feeling any better. If we couldn’t climb we wanted internet. This town had nothing. We agreed to not go back to Cochise Stronghold, primarily because there isn’t a town close by with decent food or internet & we needed some comforts of a home base.

We thought we would try out New Mexico.  We didn’t really have a destination, we just planned on getting to a larger town to hang out for awhile until we were ready to climb again. We made it to Las Cruces, home of New Mexico State University. New Mexico was noticeably colder than Arizona. We found a comfortable coffee shop and were happy to hang out here for awhile. We stayed the night, did a quick driving tour of town and jumped back on the highway.

We still hadn’t come up with much of an agenda. We were just driving, hoping that at some point Jonathan would regain his energy and we could start to play outside again.  There were a couple of problems with this. We were driving North, and in central New Mexico we hit snow. We weren’t equipped for playing in the snow. The other issue is that as we approached Albuquerque I started to come down with Jonathan’s cold.  By the time we got there, I couldn’t get excited about getting out of the car. We walked around the old town center, which was nice but my energy and enthusiasm was lacking. I am not the good sport Jonathan was when I am sick.

We sat in the van and deliberated. We could stay in Albuqueque maybe a day or two until we regained health. We could keep driving North, Jonathan wanted to show me Colorado Springs. We could drive South to warmer weather, and maybe eventually find some climbing in NM or Texas.  Or, we could just end the road trip and make our way to Kansas early. Kansas would mean sleeping in a bed, hot showers, all the comforts of home.  It felt like a no brainer.  I was ready. Jonathan agreed. We would eat dinner and start on the road to Kansas.

We put two hours into the drive which was all snow and ice. We passed a semi that had jack-knifed. I was nervous, we were tired, so we called it a night and camped at a rest area.  We woke early the next day and were on our way. We stopped only for gas and food. We were on a mission now with home calling.  We flew through Texas.  There was something sad about Texas. Maybe it was small acre-sized pens packed with a dense sea of cows, while just outside their fence were vast open spaces. Perhaps it was a stretch in Texas when I was driving (Jonathan was napping) and I counted 22 dead deer along the road. We kept a steady pace, and soon enough we were passing through the red soils of Oklahoma, and then we crossed into Kansas. The last hour seemed the longest of the whole trip.

We made it. We pulled into the driveway and knew rest was near. We were home, this road trip was over, but new adventures await.

Return to the Rock

After what turned out to be two full days off spent at Zion National Park, Kristine and I were amped to climb but decided on a bike ride to help us warm up. We bit off more than we could chew when we decided on the 14 mile long scenic drive through the Red Rock Canyon. We had a five mile ride just to get to the scenic drive, then we ascended just over 1000 feet in 4.8 miles, then came our payoff from the hard earned ascent in coasting down the majority of remaining 9.2 miles, and then we had seven long miles back to the van. It was a refreshing ride but neither my butt nor Kristine’s was ready for 26 miles on our bike. We ate a hearty lunch, took a siesta, walked around to look at some climbs, and read the rest of the afternoon away.

At night I was already realizing that my body would pay the next day for the three days of softness I had allowed it. Sure enough the first climb we got on the next day was a 5.8+ dihedral called Valentine’s Day , the climb came highly recommended from everyone we had talked to so we thought it was a most do. I not embarrassed to say it kicked my butt. There were two obvious cruxes, which were both getting over a bulge that didn’t afford many hold or very good feet. I definitely took my time on what was really a pretty short climb. I made it to the top pumped (which in climbing lingo means my forearms were pumped full of blood and fatigued from strain). I decided to climb a 5.10d to the left of the previous climb. It actually felt a lot smoother than the first climb. There were small holds and a thin seam all the way to the top. It warmed my body in the brisk wind that cut the warmth that the sun would have provided otherwise. Kristine then climbed Valentine’s Day and made it to the top equally fatigued and punished.

There was one other climb I wanted to do in that area. It was a 10d sport route that climbed cool looking huecos up the arête of a free standing pillar. It’s pictured on the left looking up at the climb, and the picture on the right shows Kristine at the bottom of the climb and the climb is outlined. It completed the job of trashing my body and spirit. I was wiped clean at the top of the climb and my sweat was quickly chilled by the unrelenting wind. The last bolt before the anchors at the top added to my mental strain when I noticed the bolt itself was sticking away from the rock at least half an inch and was spinning freely. I wasn’t sure it could even hold my weight let alone if I was to take a fall on it. I had to come out onto a steep face on crimps and finish the climb without falling. I didn’t have a choice. I would like to say that it was just me that took a beating on this climb, but Kristine got her share even though she didn’t even climb it. On my way down while I was cleaning the route (removing all the quickdraws from the bolts that I had placed on the way up), I was having to pull myself into the rock as Kristine lowered me to reach the quickdraws since the climb was so overhung. At the last quickdraw I removed it and let go, I dropped a few feet and went swinging out with quite a bit of force. There was carabiner connecting me to Kristine’s rope, which transferred the force from my swing to Kristine and she was sent swinging through a thorn bush and back. The back of her calves and ankles were pretty scratched up. That along with the cold and Kristine was ready for some food and a respite from the cold. It was her never failing good humor that kept her from being totally pissed. She even coiled the rope after the climb. How did I get so lucky!?!?!

Migrating SOUTH: Bishop, Yosemite, Red Rocks…

Ok, enough is enough. Yesterday we got to park early and both Kristine and I got into our groove. We started with a fairly easy but interesting crack climb, which was long and required our entire 70M rope to rappel down to the bottom. I then jumped on my first 5.10 at Smith Rock, which was a beautiful climb, albeit short. It was just a bit overhung with dynamic moves and a two-finger pocket at the top to a sloper finish to clip the chains (climbers reading this know what i’m talking about…). Kristine was so amped that she wanted to try the climb as well. She did amazing well but didn’t make it to the top. The irony the entire morning was that every time I was climbing the sun was shining on me and when Kristine began climbing the sun would disappear behind storm clouds of death. This was the case on the 5.10 climb. I felt the sun on my back while clipping the anchors at the top of the climb. Clouds moved in when Kristine got on the climb and torrential rain showered down as soon as she was back on the ground from trying the climb. We piled our gear in our packs and hurried back to the van. The pictures doesn’t demonstrate just how wet we really were, but regardless this is us after getting back to the van.

We then woke up this morning to 25 degree weather. It was cold but we wanted nothing other than a great day climbing, so after german pancakes with some special Hull applesauce and plenty of maple syrup and butter, we suited up and headed for the climbs. This morning we wanted to try a different area that neither of us had been to before, it was the columnar basalt of the Lower Gorge, which has renown crack climbs that are much different from the tuff rock that makes up most of the rock that Smith Rock is known for. We were still freezing before even getting to the climbs, we couldn’t even imagine taking off our gloves to climbing, so we settled for a hike up to the top of Smith Rock. The hike was beautiful. It was only around a 3.5 mile hike, but we ascended over 2,000 feet to the top and got some great pictures of the park:

Monkey face, which is a 300 foot pillar that ironically looks like a monkey’s face (although not from this angle). It actually looks like rock from another planet and just looking at it was intimidating:

A view of the valley below. This is the heart of Terrebonne, OR. It’s beautiful. With this landscape and cute llamas if it weren’t for the cold weather Kristine would probably never leave.

Back at the van we ate a late lunch and as the sun had just about convinced us that the afternoon was going to be perfect for climbing, we had to run for cover from pellet sized hail. “Are you kidding me!!!!” , I screamed, and Kristine knowingly, simply looked at me and said three words, “We’re heading South.” Simple, direct, and straight from the boss. Now it’s just a a matter of choosing between all the sunny and amazing climbing heavens in California and Southern Utah and Southern Nevada.