Stats: 22 miles and ~5k feet elevation loss/gain in 10ish hours, including a lunch/water top-off stop at the river, another lunch stop at Indian Gardens and an ice cream stop at the South Rim 😁.
…requiring a trip to Las Vegas, where we made a short escape to Red Rocks between Silas’ competition on a Friday, and Ivan’s on a Sunday
Lucky for us, all other comps were in Phoenix this year
Which was good because both kiddos qualified for Regionals, with Silas making the Arizona All Star Team!
…and he has now also qualified for Western Nationals, which is next weekend
After over a dozen comps this winter/spring, I finally warmed up to the idea of hotel’n it to simplify all the driving back and forth to Phoenix. While the van will always hold the place of first class accommodations in my book, when there is no place to park it other than on pavement and after a disgusting experience of The Worst Hotel Room Ever in trying to save a buck, I finally was won over to the more comfortable option of a nice hotel. Alright, alright I’ll go with it! At least for just this chapter in life.
——-
In between comps we squeaked out some trail mileage, for my sanity
Chiva Falls in the nearby Rincon Mountains, 9 miles
Paul literally dragged me away from my work computer for this gorgeous evening run one super busy day amongst the chaos. A trailhead less than 10 minutes from the house is very convenient when life is in the blur state. And Paul is a good husband. 😊
Our desert babies delighted by the concept of mud puddles after a rainy day hike to Douglas Springs Campground, 12 miles, also in the Rincon Mountains
Douglas Springs Campground was fun, but taking the same trail past the backpackers campground and on to Cowhead Saddle at 18 miles round trip and 4k feet elevation gain is more fun, especially when it’s my birthday
—— And capping off our busy spring craziness:
A week at our favorite place on earth
No trip to Yosemite is complete without a little weather. And yes, those are snowflakes you see there whipping around
Ivan and I ignoring the rain and “warming up” on Unnamed Mantel, v1 on the Goodrich Boulder in Camp 4. Gotta work for these v1s baby! Love it!
Paul sends another highball classic on the Yosemite bouldering tick list, Cookie Monster, v7. Why must all the “classics” be highballs? 🙄
A rowdy game of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza with Paul’s parents, who joined us for a good portion of the trip
Kids did a day with grandparents while Paul and I raced up Snow Creek trail. Only 10 miles covered in total, but the 3,000 foot elevation gain was only over 2-3 miles! It’s 4 days later as I write this and my booty is STILL sore!
Snow Creek! Yeah, really
Ivan on his favorite climb of the trip, Unnamed Face, v0 at the Bridalveil Boulders
Despite the last few months being packed full with everything *but* climbing, I managed to pull off a send of a problem I found last trip but didn’t have the juice to put together, Bionic Traverse, v5. Yes there was battle, and yes said battle destroyed any hope of sending anything else in this short one-week trip. But I did it gosh dang it! Sore booty and all!
Paul, and now Michael too, continue to work out The Feather, v11
Silas continues to find very precarious places to chill
Ivan sends Kang, v3
And I try out 1969, v9…less than 24 hours after having a conversation with my friend Raquel on how I was taking a break at trying climbs at my upper limit. Alas, I am such a sucker for hard movement. But I will try very hard not to drag my family here for weeks on end trying to put this one together!
…and I don’t mean skirting around the bottom of West, enjoying the easy-to-get-to ground level classics. A West Mountain Day is a big day. A day where there is hard manual labor, skill and sometimes bravery required to get oneself to the climb of the day, so much in fact that it can become difficult to discern the effort spent climbing from the effort spent on the approach/descent, as one is just as demanding as the other. On days like this it’s best not to do the math. Never mind that you may have just spent more time hauling heavy pads up and over and through and under boulders than you did actually climbing boulders. Never mind that the full-body work over of soreness and exhaustion might not be from the climbing, but the getting to and from the climbs. Never mind that that wide leap over the gaping pit of death with a heavy pad and flip flops may have scared the shit out of you worse than today’s highball. It’s best to never mind all that. Because the mission is the climbing, and all the rest just minor details that never make the evening’s recap of the most amazing climbing day ever.
The top of West Mountain, here we come
Looking down on North Mountain
Poop, v0. Not as bad as the name makes it out to be
More Poop
Duodenum, v1
Higher up on Duodenum, v1
Boop, v3. These are seriously the worst names ever
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