apAdventures

Paul sticking the crux move on Nutsa 8a+

First big tick of the trip!! Only one week into it, and Paul crushes the Rocklands classic, Nutsa 8a+. This climb was listed at the top of Paul’s boulder problem wish list. A climb which he and I both thought would take multiple days of effort to complete. I can honestly say though (with a great deal of envy!) that this climb went down very easily for him.

Two days ago Paul tried it for the first time, linking the start all the way up to the crux after only a few attempts. By the end of a short 1 hour session on it, he had it linked into two separate sections.

We rested yesterday and went back to it today after a full day of climbing at the Road Crew Boulders. I could tell Paul was ‘takin’ it easy’ at Road Crew. He was gearing up for some sending go’s on Nutsa.

We’re not usually ones to rant and rave about “conditions” (i.e. weather temps, humidity, wind, etc.) but I’ll admit, on this particular afternoon conditions couldn’t have been more perfect under the A Question of Balance Boulder, home to Nutsa. The cool and crisp cloudy weather was nice, yes, but it was the lonely solitude that we really consider to be “perfect conditions.” It was under these perfect conditions that Paul laced up and promptly ticked Nutsa.

So now, with the #1 climb on his tick list already checked off after only 1 week, what will the next 7 weeks hold?! It’s almost too exciting to think about. Paul’s mind is spinning with the dozens of other classic lines to choose from.

April warming up on Boulder L at the Road Crew Boulders

April warming up on Boulder L at the Road Crew Boulders

Road Crew Boulders

Paul sending Rooi Klavier 7c at the Road Crew Boulders

Walking to the car at sunset

posted by arr

Dragonfly Traverse 7a+ at the Riverside Boulders

Today’s bouldering day was at the Riverside Boulders. Again, amazing boulders in an amazing setting. I’d seen in a video that Riverside holds the ultimate classic, Dragonfly Traverse, 7a+. Beautiful red standstone slopers, next to a little waterfall and pool. I was determined to seek this out as my own little project. I spotted the line first as we hiked up the approach. And even from 100 feet away, I could tell it was an aesthetic classic.

After a few easy warm-ups, we were so excited that we got right to business and laced up for Dragonfly. Immediately upon trying the first move, I knew that this 7a+ wasn’t going to go down easily. Paul ticked his send after a few go’s (with the comment that it felt a hell of a lot harder than 7a+) and then started working and eventually sent the direct line up the wall, Metamorphosis, 7b+. Me, on the other hand, was hardly able to link more than 2 moves in a row, with one move being a total stopper that I wasn’t even close to hitting. Perhaps it’s my lack of sloper strength after all that Hueco climbing, (oh no!). Immediately, I got discouraged, worried that 2 months wasn’t going to be long enough to complete such a perfect line as this. After working it for a bit, I decided to come back in a week (hopefully stronger) to gauge then, whether or not I have a shot at possibly sending.

And in the meantime, I will no doubt find a handful of other dreamily aesthetic lines. 🙂

No Name 4 at the Riverside Boulders

Dragonfly Traverse 7a+ at the Riverside Boulders

Dragonfly Traverse 7a+ at the Riverside Boulders

posted by arr

So far so good with weather. Yesterday we decided to take a rest day and yesterday the clouds decided to dump rain…all day. We were getting nervous this morning because of the heavy cloud cover but everything cleared up perfectly. Conditions were cool and crisp.

Today we checked out the Roadside Boulders, the first bouldering area developed at Rocklands, considered the “main area.” Shortly after stepping out of the car and hiking a bit down the road, what I saw was…[ description goes here ]…..breathtaking? amazing? stunning?….you add the description, because I can’t come up with the words. This place is paradise. Boulders forever.

Rainy rest day at De Pakhuys

The rainy view from the front of our cotttage

Approach to Roadside Boulders

Clouds lifting

More boulders on the approach

Roadside Boulders

Unknown name/rating – Fun crack climb

Unknown name/rating – Another fun crack climb with a slab at the top

April topping out on Gadget 6a with boulders stretching for miles in the backdrop

Cool rock formations

posted by pjv and arr

First day of bouldering!! NOW we’re talkin’.

posted by pjv

This is the big day we’ve been dreading: Negotiating our way, safely, to Rocklands.

We check out of the hotel, dump our bags and pads into our cute little euro car and say adios to the parking attendant. No sooner does Paul start up the car (using a choke!) and tunes his brain for driving on the ‘wrong side’ of the road, does another car pull up along side us, waiting for our parking pace. More pressure please? Help us out here people. Luckily, our tiny Volkswagon is the little-engine-that-could and miraculously pulls out of the parking space, on a hill, from a dead stop, in THIRD gear…since Paul wasn’t able to successfully find first gear with his left hand. Good job little car. Way to take one for the team.

After numerous stop and go’s in third gear, and only one near-miss fender bender (don’t forget to look right!), we finally make our way out of the downtown city center and begin cruising on the interstate. I snap a few pics of the city with Table Mountain in the backdrop as we zoom away.

Table Mountain hovering over Cape Town, South Africa

Soon, we’re away from the city and cruising through the Western Cape countryside. So far, what we see is absolutely beautiful. The mountains, cliffs and rocks of the western United States, meshed with the lush green pastures of the eastern United States….(my best description).

A glimpse of the Western Cape, South Africa, along the N7

WEIRD THING #4:
Monkeys!…or Baboons!!….or some other monkey-like creatures! Just as we enter the dirt roads of the Cederburg Wilderness Area, past the town of Clanwilliam, about 3-4 hours from Cape Town, I say to Paul, “look…a pack of dogs up there on the road.” Not dogs, stupid. Baboons? Baboons are supposed to be pretty prevalent here in the Cederburg Wilderness. I snap a few pics. They’re all staring at us! Sheesh, is it THAT obvious we’re American?!

Baboons in the Cederburg Wilderness!

At about 3:00PM, we finally pull into our accommodations at the de Pakhuys Farm. We empty the car and move into what will be out little home for the next 6 weeks, the Blokhuys cottage, cute as a button.

The Blokhuys cottage on the de Pakhuys Farm

After some grocery shopping and a nice dinner, Paul and I are finally able to sit back and relax….I mean really relax, without the stresses of traveling in a foreign land. We sip on wine and delve into the printed online bouldering guides we have strewn about the table, salivating over the boulder problems listed in front of us, over the boulder problems awaiting outside.

excerpt from April’s journal, dated Friday July 25th, 2008

Cape Town! Paul and I awake in our hotel around 8AM and head outside to catch our first glimpse of South Africa. We hit up a cute, artsy little coffee shop next door to the hotel, the RCaffe. Mmmm, is this the best Americano I’ve ever tasted or am I just dreamily giddy right now?

We stroll down Long street, more in awe with Table Mountain hovering above than the shops, restaurants, and cafes that line the street. We decide to check out the South Africa Museum and Planetarium, spending the majority of the day there and in the Company’s Gardens. Back on Long street we hit up Lola’s for some coffee and a music shop, then mozy on back to our hotel for some Internet and naps before dinner.

Based on the hotel staff’s recommendation, we ate dinner at the Khaya Nyama Game Restaurant. I had the Curried Lamb and Paul a big skewer of Eland, Ostrich, and Kudu. Both meals, authentic South African cuisine…mmm.

excerpt from April’s journal, dated Thursday July 24th, 2008

Due to the long delay at JFK, we don’t arrive on the continent of Africa until around 10AM (Senegal time), versus the scheduled 4AM arrival. Our itinerary states we fly from Syracuse, New York to New York City. Then, New York City to Dakar, Senegal. Then, Dakar to Cape Town, South Africa. A total of 30 hours of travel time, with the delays.

So we’re at the half-way point in our journey now. At 10AM, we’ve landed on the continent of Africa in the city of Dakar, Senegal. The good news about this is that it’s daylight and we can see outside! The bad news about this is that we are seated in the center of the plane and can’t see out the windows very well. Did I mention we are also seated in front of the bathrooms and haven’t been able to recline our seats for the last 14 hours (6 hr delay + 8 hr flight)? Oh yeah and did I also mention we had the privilege of being seated in the last non-reclining row on our last flight too (Syracuse to NYC)? Grrr. That’s enough complaining from me though, because if there is one major thing apparent of the passengers on this plane, it’s how totally chill, relaxed, even playful everyone is, especially the South Africans.

Paul and I struggle to get a few peeps between passengers out the little portal windows. What we see, when we finally do see it, is a backdrop straight out of an Indiana Jones movie (my best description, sorry): small, colorful, pastel, stucco box shacks…everywhere, covering every pinch of earth, as far as the eye can see. The sky is a pink haze, even at 10AM. What little earth I do see is brown and dusty. I catch a quick glimpse of one lonely, straggly African-looking tree, branches splayed out much like a bonsai. Then the woman in the seat across the row lifts her head and my scenery becomes the familiar tin can again.

WEIRD THING #1:
A team of Senegal cleaners and security board the plane. We learn that we are not allowed to get off the plane, we are just passing through Dakar. The cleaners clean up after those who got off the plane, whose last stop or connection was in Dakar. The security crew starts checking baggage and searching under the seats, even ripping up the seat cushions! We were warned of these hostile inspections ahead of time by the sarcastically funny South African next to me, so we weren’t too alarmed. Still though, weird. Weird thing number one we decide.

WEIRD THING #2:
Finally all cleaning, inspections and new passenger boarding is complete and we climb into the air once again. Once we’re airborne at cruising altitude the flight crew announces that they will be walking through the cabin to spray pesticides on us. No, really. World Health Organization approved, of course, which somewhat comforts us. Not really. Perhaps to keep the malaria mosquitos at bay? Whatever the reason may be, a definite item for the weird thing list.

WEIRD THING #3:
After being disinfected with insecticide/pesticide, it is now time for breakfast. But before the real breakfast we are served a little breakfast appetizer: Ice cream. Ice cream for breakfast, weird.

Eight hours later we finally touch down in Cape Town, South Africa. The hour is 9:30PM. Everyone claps. As mentioned, everyone is still upbeat and peppy as ever, even the babies. The Cape Town airport is swanky and nice and the people at the Avis car rental center are even nicer. A pleasant guy about our age even walks us out to our rental car, gives us directions to our hotel and shoots the breeze with us about climbing.

No plane crashes on the way to Cape Town, check. Navigating through foreign airport successfully, check. Get rental car, check. Learn how to drive on the right side of the car on the left side of the road…uh. Luckily the roads between the airport and our hotel were all one-ways, which I guess is kind of cheating. Who cares, check.

We check into the Daddy Long Legs Hotel on Long Street, the downtown party street of Cape Town, pound our complimentary martinis, and hit the hay. Whew. We made it.

The room Open at the Daddy Long Legs Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa

excerpt from April’s journal, dated Wednesday July 23rd, 2008

I wish I had something exciting to say about this would-be exciting day. But by the time this day is over, I’m not so sure we’ll be more than a few hundred miles off the Atlantic coast, stateside! I’m sitting here in the big tin can on the New York City JFK tarmac…waiting, waiting…and even more waiting for liftoff.

“What is going ON? We should riot,” we overhear from a few seats ahead. ‘Pajama Man,’ we call him, because he went into the plane’s bathroom wearing jeans and came out wearing pajama pants, prepared for a long journey of going nowhere apparently.

We’ve been delayed for almost six hours now and still counting. First, air conditioning mechanical troubles, then zero visibility rain storm, and now here we sit, plane number fifty (we were number 5 but JFK air traffic control switched the direction of the runway and we went to nearly the end of the line) in the takeoff line.

excerpt from April’s journal, dated Tuesday July 22nd, 2008

We’ve spent this last week in April’s home town of Marathon, New York. Small town USA. No Internet, no cell phone reception and…….no electricity or running water (just kidding). Here are a few pics of April’s home that her parents built (still building):

Where April grew up: Marathon, New York

Since we’ve been away from our home in Tucson for so long, missing those home improvement projects, we decided to embark upon one of the many unfinished projects of April’s parents home. As I mentioned, April’s parents built this place with their bare hands. A huge undertaking over the past 25+ years! About 15 years ago, April’s parents salvaged this hardwood floor from a gymnasium in Binghamton, New York. It has remained unfinished since…until yesterday:

Original gymnasium floor

First pass with the sander

Final pass with the sander

Finished floor

In between the floor project, gardening, walks and runs in the woods, and plenty of Mom’s good home cooking, we filled our days with lots of hugs and kisses from our little nieces, Carley (3) and Lillian (2).

Carley and Lillian

Sorry for the short entry. We are in a rush, trying to make the best use of our Internet time here in an Ithaca coffee shop. We are just finishing up our last to-dos before we catch our flight tomorrow. The BIG flight(s). Stay tuned for our next post – from the southern hemisphere…

posted by pjv

Do you know where the toothbrush was invented? West Virginia of course. If it had been invented anywhere else it would have been called the teethbrush.

I first heard that joke ten years ago while top-roping at Coopers. A West Virginia local delivered that joke to my Dad and me and then smiled ear to ear. I couldn’t resist staring into his mouth and I quickly counted how few teeth he actually had. I guess since he had more than one tooth he felt comfortable telling it. As I started to climb I think he continued telling similar jokes. My mind was clouded with banjo music and a sense of wanting to escape, to flee up the rock. I think the climb I was doing was called “stop and go.” I would have named it Deliverance.

At the time, after having just started climbing outside, I was convinced that Coopers Rock was where IT was at. The cutting edge of climbing. My goal was to tick off every top rope climb that was offered and maybe even establish something new. I vaguely recall setting up an anchor and looking over the cliff edge and noticing Brian and Jen (who would later become great friends of mine) walking past the amazing top rope climbs with their crashpads. I was intrigued at what they were doing. I figured they were missing out on the real classics of Coopers and sure enough they would be back and in line to try one of my top rope projects.

Once I realized that I wasn’t getting any better at the Coopers Rock top ropes and I wasn’t establishing any ground breaking first ascent top rope classics, I purchased a membership at the climbing gym in Pittsburgh. After climbing in the gym for about a month Brian told me to ditch the socks (the big white socks I wore with my climbing shoes) and get over on the bouldering wall (I had been traversing and climbing on the top rope walls in the gym with a friend). I started to get to know the Pittsburgh crew of climbers. They talked about sport climbing at a place called The New River Gorge and taking vacations to go bouldering in Bishop. I expected them to talk more about Coopers and the wonderful top roping potential. I later learned that where IT was at was somewhere far from what Coopers had to offer.

Over the years I got to experience the amazing sport climbing at the New River Gorge and took less and less trips to Coopers to top rope. I learned a lot from the fun top ropes but they could not compare to the aesthetics and quality of the New River climbs. Back in 2001, two friends of mine from the gym invited me to go bouldering at Coopers for a day. I thought back to the top ropes I was familiar with and realized that Coopers might have more to offer for me. I realized that I had come to a new level in my climbing and could take on new challenges in a place I love.

The day I went bouldering at Coopers for the first time was one of the best climbing days ever. My friends and I had a blast. I returned to Coopers plenty of times after that day and learned of many new challenges and climbs I never knew existed in a place I was so familiar with.

Last Thursday April and I, along with our friends Jason, Kathy, Karl and (baby) McKenna toured the boulders once again. As I passed the old top ropes I realized that 12 years had passed since I first started climbing there. I reflected on all the fun I had with my Dad climbing top ropes, hoping to develop the most ground breaking line Coopers had to offer and meeting the local West Virginia good old boys. I missed those times but I also realized I’ve come a long way from those days.

I’m glad to come back to the place where I started and be able to have as much fun with people I love. Thursday was another day to add to my list of best climbing days ever, thanks to Coopers Rock, WV.

Karl warming up on Tilted Tree Slab v0

Karl cruising Visitation v2

Paul sending the 4-star classic Twist Dah Hick v5

April sending Tilted Tree Arete v3

Jason slappin’ Bitch Slap Arete v5

posted by pjv