It’s winter. Which means it’s gymnastics competition season. This is the time of year that I find myself getting grumpy with all the running around to competitions (which are never in Tucson) and all the sitting inside gyms or sitting in the car driving to and from gyms on perfectly beautiful winter bouldering days. Inside sports should be a summertime activity! Says this Arizona mama, haha. But then I watch the kids do their thing on rings, pommel, floor, vault, parallel bars and the cringe-worthy high bar (high bar scares me) and I’m over it.
Silas crushing the rings. He placed second with this near-flawless routine. I mean, how can this NOT snap a mama out of her funk?
Winter also means it’s Science Fair season. And Ivan has been hard at work with what has become the most wildly successful science fair project of all science fair projects ever attempted in this household. Yes, we’ve had some real doozies over the years. Ivan’s project this year is “Can I design, build and fly a 3D-printed rocket better than the store-bought ones?” The answer is yes. Yes he can.
Design iterations from right to left, culminating in the GFFF (Giant Fun Fin Flyer – the big guy, far left)
Design iteration #2#3#5#6The GFFF. Flight success! Take that Estes!!
Ah our beloved mountain trails, which is another wonderful activity to partake in during the winter months. A trail day is grand when one doesn’t need to wake up at 4am to beat the heat!
Rincon Peak, 15 miles, 5k feet elevation gain. This hike is one we’d wanted to do for years, but didn’t dare take the Prius or Honda Fit down the “4 wheel drive recommended” road to the trailhead, especially when the start of said road is 1.5 hours from our house. Well for Christmas Santa talked us into dumping the Prius and getting a truck. This was the first hike we did in the new year, eager to test out the new truck on some rough terrain. Turns out, the road was all groomed and of ZERO challenge accessing the trailhead! What a letdown. Good thing the gnarly steep trail more than made up for it.
Bear Canyon, 10 miles, 1.2k feet elevation gain. Some mild little 4th class scrambling got us to this lunch spot with a view! Bear Canyon in the background.
Ivan on the way up to Cowhead Saddle, 18 miles, 3.4k feet elevation gain, just the two of us. Crushed it.
How do you make a moody 15 year old happy? Wake him before dawn, shove a banana down his throat, and set off on a 15 mile adventure. Just Silas and me on a thru-hike up Ventana Canyon, past The Window, and then over and down Esperero Canyon, 15.4 miles, 4.8k feet elevation gain. I struggled to keep up.
A 4 mile segment of the Arizona Trail. This was supposed to be a bouldering day at Priest Draw due to the kids having a gymnastics comp in Flagstaff. It snowed though and so the forest roads were a mess. We opted for this short hike instead and a Kilter Board session in the local gym.
Which brings me alas to bouldering. Like many winters of late, we don’t quite get outside on real rock as much as we (read: I) would prefer. But what matters most (and what I keep telling myself when I get grumpy) is this: when the opportunity presents itself, we go! We’re still going people! LET’S GO! 🤪
A v2 on the My Tan Boulder during a free window of a gymnastics comp in Las Vegas. Red Rock Canyon, Nevada
Contorted Lip Traverse, v3 on Hairpin Boulder. Tucson, Arizona
Paul attempting Scream, v11. Hueco Tanks, Texas. And sends Scream Stand, v10 again for good measure
Meanwhile I’m still hoping for a few back-to-back visits to Devil’s Butthole, v6 so I can finally string all these moves together and send! Hueco Tanks, Texas. My trainer on the home wall just isn’t enough! 😤
And that about sums up this year’s adventures thus far!
We’re making a legit effort to give the local boulders some attention this summer. We went up to Mt. Lemmon and down into Marshall’s Gulch, beyond our frequented River Boulder. Here are a couple of good boulders. The setting is unbeatable on a hot summer’s day in the desert.
This is a V10 put up by Eric Scully at the Hairpin Boulders just minutes from our house. Paul ticked this off last December. Thought peeps might want to see video:
We made a quick jaunt up Mt. Lemmon last weekend to climb some local boulders. First the River Boulder for Paul and then the Matterhorn Boulder for me. No pics of Matterhorn, sorry!
Paul on Odin’s Revenge, v10 at the River Boulder
We can’t climb here without the kids getting completely soaked
Notice the dark red sneakers…normally a lighter shade. Wet perhaps?
Seth and Erin and their two kids came to Tucson. We did some climbing and sightseeing. But mostly stayed up waaaaay too late drinking and catching up after kids were all in bed. 😉
On more than one occasion I have used this response when asked about how we manage to climb with kids. My response is just as vague and open-ended as the question usually. Sure we’ve learned a few lessons and tricks along the way for keeping our children happy, rested, fed, safe, warm, etc. at the rocks. But for the most part, ‘forcing it’ has been our most common and successful course of action.
For Paul and I, giving up climbing is simply not an option (and I’m not even going to attempt to go into the ‘why’ of this statement cause we’d be here all day and then some). We will climb as long as we’re physically capable and that’s just the way it is. From our perspective, the choice is crystal clear: We’re either climbers or we’re not. We either finish this drive to the crag or we turn around and go home. We either haul our gear and kids to the rocks or we sit at the campsite all day. We either send this rock climb now or never. ‘Forcing it’ by our definition typically entails an extreme amount of patience, an outstanding ability to tune out distraction, a rock solid tolerance to withstand pure and utter misery, and just a smidge of silliness to make light of the worst possible situation imaginable. Lucky for us there are two of us, so when one falters the other can maintain course. No, we’re not superheros. We’re just two people that happen to be completely obsessed with climbing some rocks. And here’s a classic example of just that:
Paul sending Jewel Thief v10 on Mt. Lemmon a few weekends ago. Make sure your audio is on. 😉
