apAdventures

First stop: Park City, Utah for a night.

posted by ARR

I think it’s fair to say that I spend a significant portion of my days in the “highly motivated” category. Lucky for me, I happened to be married to a man of similar motivation. Add the two kiddos and….the psyche runs strong in my family.

Psyche or no psyche, life logistics that threaten to prevent me, excuse me, US! from getting out there on real rock seem to be growing with every year that ticks by. Currently, both boys are in competition gymnastics. The competition season is in winter, which automatically cancels a handful of perfect-weather climbing weekends here in the desert. And now this year Ivan has practice on Saturdays. So what’s a highly-motivated-most-of-the-time climber that is dying to go to Hueco to do?

Leave gymnastics practice on Saturday and bee-line it straight to Hueco, screeching in just before the office closes so we can check in to our campsite. Make a nice dinner and go to bed early. Then wake early Sunday and start climbing as soon as the park opens at 8am. There are four of us, and each person gets two hours max on the boulder problem of their choice. Include transit time, and we’ve got a full but still doable day. Brilliant!

We’ve done this twice now, and all had really good days on our problems of choice, even each of us progressing from last weekend to this one. We’ll head back to Hueco again in three weeks, and in the meantime fantasize about our next two hours of satisfaction.

posted by ARR

Our amazing Yosemite trip has come to its finish. All four of us squeezed in one last good quality send of T-Rex, V3, with Ivan amazing us all with his unique beta on the opening move: go with the left hand??? Whaaaat?!!

All else will have to wait until next trip:

It’s good to have problems to come back for. I mean, how sad would it be to climb-out The Valley?! 😉

Posted by ARR

Our 7th Thanksgiving in Yosemite Valley now, we enjoyed another feast cooked over the fire and Coleman stove: a homemade nut loaf, Brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce, pickles and olives, bread and butter, champagne, and sparkling cider for the kids. We made a special trip all the way to Oakhurst for pumpkin pie this year so we even had a proper dessert too! All of this goodness was cooked up after a morning of routes and a little bouldering with some new friends we met last year, who also come to The Valley for the holiday. After the feasting we reconvened over a fire, us parents sharing adventures while the kids all playing happily late into the evening. What a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

posted by ARR

I did it!!!!!!  The Hexentric, V7!!!!!  A classic Yosemite Valley boulder problem!!!!!  My primary objective for the trip and quite possibly the YEAR!!!!  (And yes, all the exclamations imply that I am VERY excited about this one. For Part 1, read here).

posted by ARR

Rest day!

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Paul making quick work of yet another classic on Yosemite Valley’s top 100 ticklist, 180 Degree Arete, V8.

posted by ARR

Last night was not unlike many nights on a climbing trip for me.  All snuggled in my sleeping bag ready to drift off to sleep I fantasized about the perfect climbing day, tomorrow’s climbing day.  I will wake up, enjoy a good cup of coffee that Paul will make for me, get dressed in a super cute climbing outfit, eat breakfast and pack lunch.  At the boulders I will run up a handful of quality warmups, strategically chosen to get me both physically and mentally ready for the day’s big goals – warmups like a decently sized ramp of a VB to get the shoe rubber re-acquainted with granite friction, a burly V1 to get the blood pumping, a V2 traverse with shouldery moves and glassy footholds to encourage precision feet in lieu of strong-arming it and pumping myself out for the day, and a featureless V3 mini-slab to secure technical confidence.  With these warmup climbs complete, I will then be exactly ready for goal #1: The Kor Problem, rated V3 and a historic Camp 4 slab classic.  And no other climbers will be on it.  And the sun will be on it mostly, but not totally, the tree shadows framing the sunlit patches on the golden-rock crux – a crux who’s well worn, slippery tiny footholds have scared me off for years.  I will look at this beautiful climb that, while a challenge for my mental ability, is well within my physical ability and tell myself “it’s all your’s if you really want it.”  I will convince Silas that this climb is perfect for the two of us.  And he will run right up it, which will get me so psyched that I will totally forget about those slippery tiny footholds and run right up it after him.  We will all high five and celebrate, then jump in the van and roll down-valley to goal #2: Balance of Opposites, rated V7, a climb that wasn’t originally on my radar this trip, but one I’d worked a couple days due to it being one of the few boulders that were dry when we arrived.  I will suss out the top-out beta that was stumping me last session with ease, rest, then pull on and crank it to the top.  We will all high five and celebrate.  Then we will jump back in the van and drive up-valley to get beer and pizza and play a lively round of Clue in the warm Curry Village dining room.  And then later that night I will snuggle into my sleeping bag and replay the perfect day in my mind before drifting off to sleep.  

Well….

…aside from the annoying chore of having to move campsites in the morning, cleaning up the new site of dog shit, a group of dudes taking waaaay too long to get off The Kor Problem, and the standard daily bickering of my children, my perfect day went just as fantasized.

posted by ARR

Or are we? Abandonment, V7 is a full-on roof climb from start to finish, situated up in a wild jumble of rocks that is neither straightforward to access nor straightforward to pad up, and it even has a hueco on it.

Climbing it though feels more like V9. And I’m pretty sure Paul turned on the V10 engines to crank it out for good measure. So…uh no, we’re definitely NOT at Hueco. This is Yosemite baby.

posted by ARR

What’s been dry in The Valley these past few days:

posted by ARR