apAdventures

Better one year late than never. Here is the video account of our 10 year wedding anniversary bouldering trip we took last fall. And with fall now upon us, hopefully these will drum up some climbing psyche!! Enjoy!!

First stops:
Priest Draw, Arizona
Ibex, Utah

Posted by arr

Our early evening arrival

Campsite for the night right next to the boulders and not another soul around for miles. Life just doesn’t get any better than this

Usually this is a dry lakebed. Not today.

The kids were infatuated with the lake. They spent the entire evening throwing rocks into it. I can just imagine all their little rocks sitting out there atop the white sand long after the lakebed dries back up.

Did I forget to mention this place is absolutely beautiful

Good morning boulders

Hello Red Monster

Good morning Cow. Now let’s climb already!!!!

Me warming up on The Cow boulder

Silas sends

Paul’s turn on The Cow, a v3 line

Now it’s time to get serious. This is the other side of the Red Monster, where all the climbs are.

Paul sending the mega classic Ju, v7. I too tried this one but only half-heartedly. With a sore back, high crux and slabby topout I wussed out and moved on.

Atop the Red Monster after his send. Yeah! First big send since his finger surgery!!! Woohoo!

All day we found ourselves saying that the holds here at Ibex aren’t quite crimps, aren’t quite slopers and aren’t quite jugs….they’re something in between all three of those things. And they took a while to feel comfortable on. This is me sending an unnamed v5 on the Warm-Up Wall. A bitty little climb that sure packs a punch.

Paul giving Meat and Potatoes, v8 a try. Too hard for today.

I find a climb that’s suits me perfect for today, Tranced Out and Dreamin, v6, with the first move being the crux. And may I just point out, I stuck this hard first move before Paul! (my short moment of glory, thank you)

…and I send it!

Silas atop yet another fine Ibex block

And before calling it a day we quickly run up some easys on The Lone Boulder as another Utah rainstorm blows in

posted by arr

This October 2nd will mark TEN YEARS of marriage for Paul and I. Although ten years does kind of sound like a long time, to me it feels as though Paul and I have been together much longer. I reason that it’s probably because we’ve done a lot since we first met – a lot of climbing trips, moving out to Arizona together, a house, even more climbing trips, and now kids. We’ve really packed it in over the last decade. So ten years of marriage isn’t so mind-blowing to me right now. What IS mind-blowing to me though is the fact that Silas was born half-way through that ten year duration. That’s the fact I’m trying to come to grips with. My baby Silas whom I can clear as day picture as a newborn in my arms just yesterday is somehow turning five years old this October! Ten years with Paul I get. Five years with Silas I’m still shaking my head over in disbelief. I’m only just starting to understand the phrase “they grow up so fast.”

Paul and I decided this year’s anniversary we needed to do something adventurous. Not only because it was our 10th, but primarily because since we had the kids we haven’t really done much for our anniversaries, other than maybe toast with a glass of wine. I know, LAME! Here’s a recap of anniversaries past:

1st anniversary: Yosemite. We hiked to the top of North Dome and ate our wedding cake on top, with a magnificent view of Half Dome. (After our wedding in upstate NY my mom had saved the topper of our cake in the freezer, then shipped it to us in Arizona in dry ice a year later and we packed it in the cooler and took it with us to Yosemite, then hiked it to the top –a travelin’ little piece of cake that was!).

2nd anniversary: Grand Canyon. Having recently gotten psyched on long-distance trail running and completed Imogene Pass Run in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado for the first time just a few weeks prior, we decided it’d be fun to run across the Grand Canyon and back. It was both fun…AND HARD! And we loved it.

3rd anniversary: Long’s Peak. Hiking/running it, not climbing it. Hiking proved to be almost as epic as climbing might have been though because I got altitude sickness and we had to turn back below the summit. Still a great time though and we redeemed ourselves with some Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) bouldering the next day.

4th anniversary: Bishop. This anniversary was spent in the midst of our dreamy six month Colorado-Pittsburgh-Rocklands-Marathon New York-Bishop-Yosemite trip. Basically the entire six months was a big anniversary celebration that year. 

5th anniversary: Mt. Lemmon hike two weeks prior to Silas’ grand arrival. I was ready to pop! I remember doing a short little hike and then eating a cookie at the Cookie Cabin that I immediately went and upchucked in their bathroom.

6th anniversary: Can’t remember. My webposts around this time don’t even give me a clue so chances are we did the whole “cheers with a glass of wine” deal.

7th anniversary: I was pregnant in my first trimester with Ivan. If I had to guess I was probably vomiting most of that day. (Pregnancy was not good to me with either child).
8th anniversary: These were sad times as Morgie had passed away. ‘Nuff said about that.

9th anniversary: Feeling that we owed it to ourselves to do something (anything!) for our anniversary that year we arranged for our dear friend Linda to babysit the kids while we went out on the town. Unfortunately Linda fell ill and had to cancel last minute. So we instead gobbled down the homemade mac & cheese I had made special for the kids and the four of us were all in bed by 8pm.

So in classic apAdventures-style, we’re gonna go big this year. For our 10 years of blissful marriage we’re going to boulder at 10 blissful bouldering locations throughout Arizona, Utah and Colorado over the course of 17 days. Stay tuned. We hope to be able to do some posts along the way.

posted by ARR