with SNOW!!! Upstate New York is buried in the white stuff for the holidays, just like it always would be when I was a kid. And just like when I was a kid, we’ve been outside playing in it nonstop since we got here! 😁 Happy New Year!!
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This is the mantra that’s been in my head this last week. Temps have been soaring here in the desert but we’ve been embracing it, getting outside to play as much as possible. It was over 80 degrees on Monday! But then I woke up this morning, looking forward to hitting up some local boulders with the family before embarking upon the cooking and baking and chaos of preparing our traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner. I woke up to….RAIN!
Oh cozy Christmas Eve day. What a perfect early Christmas present! ❤️
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No big sends on Root Canal or Diesel Power, but lots of fun. It’s really hard to have a bad time in the valley. 😁
Happy Thanksgiving!
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We’ve started the trip off by checking out some new boulders because the climbs we really want to do are wet. (I swear I type this every year!)
After a day or two to dry out, then it’s on to the ticklist. The two main climbs Paul and I want to do have been on our ticklists for years at this point. First of all, they both tend to stay wet longer than most due to their location and the direction they are facing. Sunshine is a rare and fleeting commodity here in the valley this time of year. The last few years it’s been not until the middle to end of the trip that we get to try them (after we’re good and beat from climbing all the Plan B boulders!). This trip is turning out no different. Second, both climbs require the classic valley combo of strength AND technique. Unlocking the puzzle is the real challenge, not powering through the moves. I heard a new climbing word recently on a video that sums up the requirement for sending both of these climbs perfectly: Tech-power.
Wish us luck!
posted by ARR
…when we yank the kids out of school and head to a place where the rock is big, the temps are chilly and the crowds are nonexistent.
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Last stop on our Switzerland trip: B2 Boulders and Bar, the best climbing gym EVER! With a flight scheduled out of Basel, the decision was made that we MUST do a session in “the best climbing gym in Switzerland,” B2. And so we did. For those of us climbers that have been at it for 20+ years now, we likely all remember fondly those early gym days. Plywood walls, late 90’s / early 2000’s techno music thumping, people working problems together and actually having conversations (no stupid earbuds!), climbs that flow like real climbs do outdoors on real boulders (no stupid acro-yoga-parkour-circus b.s. moves!), and people just climbing (not obsessing over their prescribed limit-bouldering training workout). This gym delivered on all fronts. We climbed our hearts out, smiling nonstop. And the kids thought it was even pretty cool too. Old-school rules!
An excellent finish to an excellent trip.
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1 Comment »No, we did not climb the Eiger. Not on this trip anyway. We did do an amazing hike though that skirted the base of it, a loop hike that started and ended in the town of Grindelwald. Unbeknownst to us the Eiger Ultra race was also happening this same weekend, with some of the course sharing parts of the trail we hiked and one of the races being a 155 miler! Wowie!
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No Comments »The Swiss need to get around, regardless of whether The Alps consume the majority their country. Hence the reason for the landscape being riddled with roads, tunnels, bridges and various other manmade infrastructure. While this may not be appealing for someone wanting to get that pure experience or photo of wilderness mountain beauty, unobstructed with evidence of civilization, it does make accessibility prevalent, and well….quite irresistible. Many of the mountain passes have tunnels going through them as well as roads going over them that are open during summer. These passes also have boulders. And so thanks to the Swiss’ need to get around in their mountainous countryside, cranking down on amazing boulders can be done within just a 5 minute walk from the car.
posted by ARR
Next stop on our Swiss climbing road trip: Göschenenalp, and route climbing on the Kompressorwand wall. Göschenenalp was one of our most favorite places on the trip. Grit and Manu shared with us that the tiny town of Göschenen has a population of about 20 people and is one of the only high alps mountain towns that is continuously inhabited year-round, meaning in winter, the town is cut off from civilization due to snow. One morning Grit and I hiked up the hill on a trail through the woods from the campground to the town in search of much needed showers. The “town” consists of a church, a restaurant and lodge, a few homes, and what looked to be a dormitory-style apartment structure / hut, of which contained a coin-operated shower in which I took the shortest shower of my life. The town relies heavily on summer tourism (which is now making me ponder why I didn’t just go ahead and use 10 Swiss francs for a long leisurely shower instead of 3?), and so the restaurant with locally grown and prepared food is quite the hot-spot for tourists. The blueberries for the blueberry tiramisu and blueberry ice cream are picked fresh from the mountainside. And I would assume so is the oregano, as I found myself sitting in an entire hillside of it while snapping photos of the kids climbing the routes.
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No Comments »We literally spent an entire day sussing this beautiful boulder. And while no one sent, dang was it a good day!
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