apAdventures

Posted by arr

“We force it.”

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. 😉

Jewel Thief from Paul Vollmer on Vimeo.

Posted by arr

For some self-centered reason I’m sure, watching video of myself climbing gets me amped. Paul too. So I put together this short snippet of footage we took last season at Hueco and thought I’d share. Hopefully it motivates for hard training!

Click on the picture to play the video

Posted by arr

For as long as I can remember, Silas has always had a major attraction to dirt. Nearly every outdoor photo I have of him (in locations where dirt is plentiful), he has it on his face, covering his hands, under his fingernails, up his pantlegs, between his toes, etc. – unless I wipe it off real quick for the photo, or to eat sometimes…sometimes, or to go out to dinner in a public place afterwards. Where there’s dirt, Silas must play. He must lay down in it to play with his toys with his chin is resting in it. He must scooch around in it such that his shirt slides up to his armpits and his belly is exposed, making it oh so easy for the dirt to creep and puff and slide into every little crevice of skin and clothing. I had always thought that every kid went about their outdoor play like this. Getting dirty was just part of being a kid, right?

And then along comes Ivan.

Ivan. Little, innocent, cute, chubby-faced baby Ivan. THIS BOY takes his love of dirt to a whole new level.

It all started with him discovering he has a little pointer finger. A pointer finger is useful for doing things like picking and poking. So first he started picking and poking at the tiny pebbles and sand grains between the bricks in our courtyard. He would do this for a half hour straight, I swear. Cute. Next, having discovered the usefulness of his thumb in conjunction with the pointer, he started picking up larger pebbles and little rocks. Coordination. Impressive. After that, he decided that it really was way more fun to grab with his whole hand after all versus all that picking, poking and pinching nonsense. So he grabs just about anything he can get his chubby hands near, including and especially DIRT. Oh, and there’s just one small thing I forgot to mention: Unlike Silas at this age, Ivan puts everything, and I mean everything, in his mouth. And he’s fast. Wicked fast.

We are now thus in a bit of a predicament. We’re a climber family who goes climbing outside nearly every other weekend. We climb on boulders, which a lot of times sit upon lots and lots of dirt. And Ivan is now mobile on hands and knees and never at all interested in the toys we bring to the boulders for him to play with. He’s got only one thing on the brain: his true love, dirt.

So Paul and myself, being the resourceful parents that we are (when we’re really really desperate to climb and not wanting to worry about our baby choking on rocks and dirt), have the idea of putting him in his snowsuit that has the little rollover hand-covering-thingy’s so that he can’t grab anything. He’s safe now. “He has no hands” as we like to say. And this idea did actually work….for a little while anyway.

Ivan too appears to possess some resourcefulness of his own, as well as a little desperation. Picture this: Our baby, in his snowsuit, without hands, sprawled out on his belly like a starfish, face down, head down, mouth open, going in for a big luscious mouth full of good ‘ol fashioned Hueco-flavored dirt. Not so cute. Paul and I both see this simultaneously. I yell, Paul lunges, and before he can reach him, Ivan goes in for seconds. Fast, remember?

Meanwhile, Silas is getting a kick out of it all (probably impressed with his little brother’s ingenious technique of successfully getting dirt into his mouth). Ahh, what are we going to do with these boys? Watch ’em like a hawk, that’s what!! Anyone know where can I get a pair of those eyeballs that go on the back of mama’s heads?

Click on the picture to watch a short video of trouble brewing

posted by arr

Paul sent this weekend! A big thanks to John for putting together this sweet little video.

Paul ticks Lolita, v10/11 at Priest Draw

My turn is next: Imogene less than 2 weeks away!

posted by arr

This is a long standing project for April which she can finally add to her tick list. Congratulations!

Click on the picture to play the King Cobra video

Posted by pjv

My friend Raquel got the proudest send of the weekend when she mastered the crimp challenge of See Sharp, v6. This climb travels up a beautiful wave feature on some very bad crimps. It doesn’t look that hard but I dare anyone to try it. Just try it. Go ahead. It’s sharp and with the slightest imbalance you’ll find yourself standing on the ground crying in pain. It takes technique, balance and strong fingers to tolerate the sharp crimps. If you can master those elements then you’ve got yourself a proud send.

Click on the picture to play the See Sharp video

Posted by pjv

Next up is Dragonfly, v5. Congratulations to Tom on the flash! Have a nice weekend…

Click on the picture to play the Dragonfly video

Posted by pjv

For starters, the climb called Full Service on the Hardman Rock is described by the Hueco guidebook as a mega-classic. It’s been over 3 years since we’ve gone on a tour to the East Mountain area of Hueco so I figured it was time to add this one to my tick list. I knew the beta and feeling stronger than ever, I pulled on and slipped off….whoops! Then I pulled on and sent! It may be my favorite v10 ever. You can hear Silas cheering for me in the background, or he was just excited because the trees were blowing. Probably both. Enjoy.

More to come…

posted by pjv

…Our Rocklands Trip 2008! Finally, the South Africa footage is compiled and we have a little home video ready to share with our special peeps. Click on the pic below for a mild taste-tester.

Get psyched people!