…requiring a trip to Las Vegas, where we made a short escape to Red Rocks between Silas’ competition on a Friday, and Ivan’s on a Sunday
Lucky for us, all other comps were in Phoenix this year
Which was good because both kiddos qualified for Regionals, with Silas making the Arizona All Star Team!
…and he has now also qualified for Western Nationals, which is next weekend
After over a dozen comps this winter/spring, I finally warmed up to the idea of hotel’n it to simplify all the driving back and forth to Phoenix. While the van will always hold the place of first class accommodations in my book, when there is no place to park it other than on pavement and after a disgusting experience of The Worst Hotel Room Ever in trying to save a buck, I finally was won over to the more comfortable option of a nice hotel. Alright, alright I’ll go with it! At least for just this chapter in life.
——-
In between comps we squeaked out some trail mileage, for my sanity
Chiva Falls in the nearby Rincon Mountains, 9 miles
Paul literally dragged me away from my work computer for this gorgeous evening run one super busy day amongst the chaos. A trailhead less than 10 minutes from the house is very convenient when life is in the blur state. And Paul is a good husband. 😊
Our desert babies delighted by the concept of mud puddles after a rainy day hike to Douglas Springs Campground, 12 miles, also in the Rincon Mountains
Douglas Springs Campground was fun, but taking the same trail past the backpackers campground and on to Cowhead Saddle at 18 miles round trip and 4k feet elevation gain is more fun, especially when it’s my birthday
—— And capping off our busy spring craziness:
A week at our favorite place on earth
No trip to Yosemite is complete without a little weather. And yes, those are snowflakes you see there whipping around
Ivan and I ignoring the rain and “warming up” on Unnamed Mantel, v1 on the Goodrich Boulder in Camp 4. Gotta work for these v1s baby! Love it!
Paul sends another highball classic on the Yosemite bouldering tick list, Cookie Monster, v7. Why must all the “classics” be highballs? 🙄
A rowdy game of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza with Paul’s parents, who joined us for a good portion of the trip
Kids did a day with grandparents while Paul and I raced up Snow Creek trail. Only 10 miles covered in total, but the 3,000 foot elevation gain was only over 2-3 miles! It’s 4 days later as I write this and my booty is STILL sore!
Snow Creek! Yeah, really
Ivan on his favorite climb of the trip, Unnamed Face, v0 at the Bridalveil Boulders
Despite the last few months being packed full with everything *but* climbing, I managed to pull off a send of a problem I found last trip but didn’t have the juice to put together, Bionic Traverse, v5. Yes there was battle, and yes said battle destroyed any hope of sending anything else in this short one-week trip. But I did it gosh dang it! Sore booty and all!
This was a trip of checking out new boulders, thanks to the climbs we had intended to get on being wet upon arrival. New boulders can be very addicting! Check out this gem I found, Bionic Traverse, v5!
Squirrel, v7
Pocket Rocket, v2
Orange Fever, v7
A Thanksgiving day route climb with Yosemite friends
Jamcrack, 5.7
More Jamcrack
No Thanksgiving dinner until everyone sends The Presidential Traverse, v0
And thankfully everyone did! First try!!
Hiking day rest day
Glacier Point
An expertly brewed cup of coffee on a bitterly cold morning at the boulders. Not sure if life really gets any better than this.
I will be the first to admit that the boys’ adventure up Mt. Lemmon made me SUPER jealous. DOUBLE SUPER jealous even, because about a month ago we supported our buddy John in the Imogene Pass Run in Colorado, moral support, not physical. I wanted to run something too! I was suffering from a bad bad case of ROMO. Reality Of Missing Out (yep, made that one up. Much more severe than FOMO).
Well, I think I barely finished my sentence to Grit in throwing out there a little running adventure idea of our own before she was jumping up and down and we were hugging. Oh my goodness yes! Let’s run Tuolumne to the Valley! 17 miles! Up and over Clouds Rest! We’re doing it! And bonus idea by Grit herself: let’s have the boys run back up to fetch the car. Brilliant! Dang I love this gal.
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