A barge sighting, a labyrinth victory and a close-up train passing!…all within a short and lucky 20 minutes while down at the Monongahela River. The kids could hardly contain themselves. đ
posted by ARR
posted by ARR
Since we moved to Tucson 11 years ago we’ve traveled home to our eastern family and friends for Christmas every year except one, when Silas was a newborn. This year’s traveling is a bit different than all the rest though. We’re DRIVING! The money tree I’ve got growing in the garden didn’t quite produce the small fortune it now costs us to fly east, being a family of four with no kids under 2 years of age anymore. So van travel it is!
And wow, is this the life. All the legroom we want. Seats that fully recline. Fresh air with a mere crack of the window. Flexibility to stop and pee and stretch and sleep and fill up on coffee whenever we feel like it. A layover at a world class climbing gym along the journey to put in a quick training session. Waaaaay better snack selection. And the freedom to talk like robots without people looking at us weird. đ Holiday van travel rocks!!!!
See you in Pittsburgh!
posted by arr
It’s that time of year again to climb with our Pittsburgh buds at Hueco!  Similar to last year, we coordinated our trip over Thanksgiving…a blissful 2 full weeks with excellent temps, minimal crowds and plenty of strong psyche and sends.  Here is a re-cap in photos:
And for every climb and grin and send shown above there were two, three, four times more! We all had such a great trip. Paul, Silas, Ivan and I were definitely saddened to see our dear Pittsburgh friends drive east at the end of it all.
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. đ
Jewel Thief from Paul Vollmer on Vimeo.
Posted by arr
Costumes, pumpkin carving and good boulders to climb. What better way to spend a holiday?!
Last week Silas turned FIVE YEARS OLD! Yes, FIVE. Can you believe it?! I can’t. No, really, I’m serious, I seriously can’t believe it. Four was still kinda-sorta-toddler. When one says ‘he’s four’ phrases like ‘awe, so cute’ and ‘what big boy you are!’ follow. Five though, is just so…big kid. When one says ‘five’ words like ‘school’ and ‘kindergarten’ and talk of ‘school bus rides all by himself without mama or dad’ coming spewing out! In gymnastics, the five year old mark is where the kids transition out of the coed-preschool class. He’ll now be in what’s called the “Beginning and Intermediate Boys Recreational Gymnastics Class!” I mean, some stores stop at size 4T. I’m finding myself now browsing the Boy’s Clothing department! This is serious! This IS SO big kid!
Ok, enough of this mama’s rant. Let’s calm ourselves. Let’s instead talk about Silas and truly what a big kid he is now. This is why I shouldn’t be in such disbelief that he is now five years old:
Silas can ride a two-wheeler bike, all by himself. He can jump in and swim across the pool, all by himself. He can wake up, walk to his dresser, pick out clothes and put them on, all by himself. He can take a box of legos and a set of instructions and build a helicopter or a plane or a bulldozer, with every piece in it’s assigned place, all by himself. He can play a harmonica, reading songs from a book or better yet making up his own. He can count. He knows his letters backwards and forwards. He can spell and write his own name. He can even dial 911 in an emergency…or so we’ve rehearsed at least. Silas is a dreamer, a planner and a do-er. His little brain is continuously at work thinking about what adventure he’s going to dive into next. He is excellent at follow-through. We sometimes find ourselves nodding without fully listening to Silas’ extravagant plans…like say if we’re busy trying to have an adult conversation or talking on the phone, or trying to make dinner, etc. This is dangerous….oh so dangerous. Cause Silas will hold us to it. Be it the tree fort he’s going to build in the backyard, complete with a list of materials needed from Lowes and a diagram of his vision. Or the tea party he has planned for our imaginary pet Water Dog. He’ll spend an entire morning “baking scones,” “setting the table,” and “calling all Water Dog’s friends so they can attend the party.” One time, Paul, Ivan and I were invited. Silas had planned a storytelling after our tea. Sure enough, when all the tea was slurped we sat down around Silas and he told this fascinating tale of a lost bear looking for his mother. Nevermind that it was past bedtime. He said he was going to do a storytelling and gosh darn it we’re doing it. His most recent notable brainstorm of a plan was formed about a week and a half into our anniversary trip. While tucking him into his sleeping bag one cold night in Colorado he announced what he was going to do as soon as we got back home. He was going to build a bridge with his legos. He must have talked about this plan at least 50 more times before we finally made it home, describing how big it was going to be, how it was to be supported, what it was going to connect, etc. And sure enough, no sooner did we unbuckle his car seat in our driveway did he race into the house, open his lego box and get to work. He would not rest until it was complete.
We get quite the kick out of this little guy. Or shall I say, this BIG little guy. Keep dreamin’ boy. We’ve got a million adventures ahead of us together. Happy 5th Birthday to you, Silas!
posted by arr
As predicted back when we decided to spend an extra day at Joeâs Valley, we found ourselves having to hack a destination from the tripâs hit list due to limited time. Sorry Wild Basin, Colorado. Weâll visit you some other time.
Then we figured what the heck, why not hack another destination and spend a nice three whole days in Rocky Mountain National Park? After all, it is our trip and we made up the rules so we can modify them if we want, right? Right. See ya Clear Creek, Colorado – another destination for another day.
So now that weâve got destinationâs 8 and 9 out of the way, itâs time for the grand finale: Durango, Colorado. Weâd heard of the great plethora of rock in Durango from fellow climbers. Thereâs even a bouldering guidebook for it. And weâve always liked the town the few times weâve driven through it on the way to Ouray and Telluride. We were excited for destination #10.
We arrived in Durango around 3pm on Friday. The protocol weâve fallen into on this trip has been to arrive at the destination late in the day. We spend the remainder of the day scoping the climbs we had picked out from the guidebook and/or videos. This way, the next day could be spent just climbing, not hunting around for stuff or getting stuck at the first boulder we see that looks amazing.
Durango was a little different. Iâm not sure what fire got under our butts that day (maybe the REALLY great cup of coffee we scored in Pagosa Springs?), but we literally drove into town, found the local climbing shop, bought the guidebook, drove to the boulders while flipping through itâs pages as fast as possible looking for good lines, parked and haphazardly packed up the kids and pads, speed-hiked the all-uphill 25 minute approach, threw the pads down and just started climbing any and everything we could get our hands on. As Paul summarized rather brilliantly on the dark hike out, âI felt like a dog, running around and pissing on everything!â (Note: For those that havenât hung around Paul or I enough to hear the vulgarities start spewing while weâre climbing, to âpissâ on a climb is a climberâs way of saying he or she âclimbed it with ease.â Or as in, âthat climb was piss-easyâ meaning, âthat climb was extremely easy.â)
Annnnyyyywaaaay, vulgarities aside, the boulders were fun. Really fun! We climbed the next day too, until threatening clouds rolled in and started to thunder, lightening and rain on us. From there we topped the day off with burgers and a brew in town and a visit to the Narrow Gauge Railway museum for the kids timed perfectly with the trainâs arrival from Silverton. Good climbing, good food and beer and a no-kidding operating authentic steam engine all in the same day???!!! Durango is awesome!!!! This made for a stellar ending to a superbly stellar trip. Now back to Tucson.
We tried our best to shoot video of this trip. More so to capture the boys at their adorable ages than us and our earth-shattering sends. đ The climbing video probably sucks anyway since itâs mostly all from a tripod. We hope to put together a little summary post soon, video included. Stay tuned.
posted by arr
Our next stop landed us in Rocky Mountain National Park, a place we’ve been a couple of times before. We love these boulders and every time we leave them question why we don’t live closer. This trip, like the few before had us barely scratching the surface of the numerous stellar lines. We scoped out some different areas this time: the Moraine Park Boulders, the Veritas Boulder and some undocumented blocks nearby, and another roadside boulder with the climb Donut Thief on it.
posted by arr
We’re in Colorado now and bouldered at another place we’ve never been, Poudre Canyon, just west of Ft. Collins. At this elevation the Aspen are in full color. Beautiful area, beautiful boulders and beautiful temps! Too bad we’re feeling subpar strength. As expected, the trip is starting to wear on us.
We primarily bouldered at the 420’s. We had really really REALLY wanted to get to Against Humanity, v7 at the Gandalf area, touted as the best of the grade in Poudre. But unfortunately it required a river crossing. We were hoping to wade or rock-hop but neither panned out safe enough to do with the kiddos. While scoping it for us, Paul slipped and fell in and dropped the guide book in the water. He came back to the van totally soaked and had a chat with a fly fisherman as to what the hell he was doing, haha. So sadly, until we come back equipped with waders, Against Humanity is untouchable. Which is probably a good thing (for me anyway), cause given how tired I feel it no doubt wouldn’t have gone well.
posted by arr
