apAdventures

As climbers we are always looking for the perfect combination of events that make us succeed. You know, after a day of success you look back on the things you did right before like, getting a good nights sleep, eating the right meal, warming up, stretching, drinking DECAF coffee because the caffeine kind will give you “sewing machine” or “Elvis” legs, and stepping just perfectly on the trail to your boulder problem avoiding the tree root BECAUSE LAST WEEK WHEN YOU STEPPED ON THE TREE ROOT YOU DIDN’T SEND!!! Yeah, that might seem extreme but after you’ve physically mastered a climb there is always your mind that plays trick after trick, making you crazy, making the send that much more rewarding.

The combination of events that worked for April started on Friday morning. First, we decided to sleep in. We never did get a good nights sleep since the tequila drinking binge last weekend. After sleeping we ate! Cracker Barrel in Las Cruces suited our need for sending fuel. April and I combined ate 4 pieces of French toast, a stack of pancakes, a side ball of butter, loads of maple syrup, bacon, eggs, orange juice, water, and coffee with sugar and cream.

When we threw down our crashpads at Warm Up Boulder I said, “Man I’m feeling kinda lethargic from that breakfast.” (It was about 2:00PM). April said, “Yeah, me too. I can’t tell if it’s the sunscreen or the grease and butter that I feel seeping out of my pores?”

Shortly after that conversation April sent the problem, “The Butterdish,” V2! A classic line with a slippery right-hand hold. When you grab the hold a timer in your mind starts ticking. 3…starting to slip…2…better grab something quick…1…opps too late, my right hand slipped…0…I’m on the ground, crap! Oh well, looks like breakfast paid off. It’s better to fight butter with butter.

Realizing we wanted to hit up about 5 more areas and we only had a few hours to go before the park closed, we started moving quick. April made fast work of “Donkey Head,” V4, sending on her first go. We hurried up “the chains” to the 100 proof roof and set up the camera on a tripod. Good thing we got it set up and in place because it only took 2 tries today…April SENT “Mexican Chicken,” V6, 2nd go! It was RAD.

Saturday started out somewhat slow for April making minimal progress on problems like “New Religion, V7” and “Jigsaw Puzzle, V5.” But, by the end of the day she had 7 points…3 from “All the Idiots” and 4 from….MOONSHINE ROOF, V4! Yeah. I was pretty surprised she had the energy. In fact, I took out the video camera, turned it on and filmed her send (2nd go). A mega classic ticked off!

After typing out some of April’s tick list I’ve realized it’s hard to convey the magnitude of her accomplishments. Recently she’s made amazing links, progress on problems she ruled out as possible for herself. Most of her attempts ended falling on the last few moves, sooooo close but lacking the sending ingredient necessary to overcome the mental/physical barrier. After this weekend we both thought back. Hmmm, what was the sending ingredient? What did we do differently? I know…it was the 4 pieces French toast with butter smeared evenly between each slice and half a bottle of maple syrup poured evenly around the exterior of the plate at Cracker Barrel! Nah…it was hard projecting paying off and April proving she is climbing STRONG!

“So how’s the finger?”
It’s been 7 weeks since I blew out my ring finger but finally I’m starting to increase the difficulty in boulder problems that I try. I’m currently trying a bunch of V4s. I managed to do a few this weekend. I’ve ticked a lot of N. Mt. V4s so the remainder of problems are uh…unique? Here are a few of my sends from the weekend:

1. The Slash (V4): Didin’t send. Fell and bottomed-out on April’s horrible, napkin-thin crashpad (I’m buying her a new one tomorrow).
2. Pseudo Left (V4): Lowball. Kinda cool but really just one hard move getting into a slopy undercling.
3. The Pseudo-Feather (V4): Very lowball. Awesome slopers until you pull an easy roof.
4. Epilady (V1): Highball over a hole. Good to a weird top.
5. Shaved Pits (V2): This might be better than Seka’s Speciality (V2). Bad landing for a big move but awesome jugs to the top.
6. Mushroom Tea (V4): Overhanging wall with good edges. One of my favorite styles of climbing.
7. Thingfish (V4): Very crimpy. Not that great.

posted by pjv

It’s been a while since I’ve climbed with a very very *very* bad hangover. Well, today was that day. Another weekend at Hueco. Another stellar tour in the backcountry. High energy, crazy motivation, overloads of fun, and another GREAT group of new friends. Some big sends, some not-so-big sends, and some OHMYGOD-OH-SO-CLOSE sends that raised cheers loud enough to be heard in El Paso. The fun overload continued after the tour was done and carried us on over to the infamous climber’s fav restaurant, El Rancho Escondito. What do you get when you combine a psyched & frenzied crew of lightweight dirtbag climbers with pitcher after pitcher of margaritas after a long and exhausting day of “sick dude, suck it in, breathe, keep it tight, sweeeet, awe yeah, launch for it, c’mon!!, send this!!!!, YYYEEEESSSS!!! NOOOOOO!!!! Niiice”? Four straight hours of loud, obnoxious rib-splitting laughter…..and a hangover the next day that puts my college party years to shame. Work hard, play hard, celebrate hard. Livin’ the good life.

posted by arr

…or shall I say Mid-Summer’s Eve? There were clouds over Tucson this morning. Clouds, glorious clouds. Stepping out of work, I breathed in the oh-so-yummy smell of humidity. Clouds in Tucson bring humidity…just a teensy bit of humidity, but enough to notice the smell of it in this east-coaster’s nose. The temps are extremely mild tonight for this time of year. It’s been a mild winter all around, with not much rain. Hopefully these clouds hold the rain.

Paul and I decide to go for a nice long slow-paced run this evening in these pleasant temps. I wear shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt and wish I wore a short sleeve t-shirt. Dipping down into the washes, I run through warm pockets of air. The smell of barbequing is everywhere. People are relaxing in their backyards in front of the fire. Is this summer? No, this is Tucson.

My road to recovery is really my road to revenge against the boulder problem Dark Age. I walked by it today, exactly 1 month since I blew my ring finger out while linking a crucial section of it. Today I only looked. I’m staying low key, listening to the D.R.E, not climbing that is… Over the las few months in 2005 I had only tried the moves and made some progress but in December I was feeling really good, linking sections and doing moves much easier than ever. Rather than setting little segments as my goal, my goal became sending the line. Now, I’ve got this unchecked box on my to-do list, a nagging feeling in the back of my mind reminding me daily of unfinished business. I guess in a way I’ve learned to feed off of this feeling: Wake up, pack two lunches, go to work. Eat the second lunch in the late afternoon so as soon as I get home I can run, do crunches, the “circus ab” routine, leg lifts, pull-ups (on jugs), push-ups, wrist curls and of course, long trail runs in the desert! When I first got injured I thought, man, I’m going to have a lot of free time to get stuff done. Instead, I’ve got plenty of time to plot my revenge against the boulder problem that spit me off when climbing at my peak.

April and I returned to Hueco this weekend. It was nice being back but still torture for me, not climbing. I took out a tour on Saturday to a variety of places on E. Mt. and E. Spur. Sunday, I did a lot of push-ups and sit-ups. ha ha. April did pretty darn good for being away from Hueco for such a long time. Saturday, she made some strong attempts at Uncut Yogi V6, El Burro V3/V10?, and Smokin’ Sausage V4. Sunday she almost sent Donkey Head V4 and made several of the moves on Winking Jesus V7. As we left Hueco I was thinking, “Wow, how is she staying so strong?” But, then I remembered that she has been doing hangboard, campusing, woodying by her lonesome, and running with me very consistently over the last month. Its been nice, we’ve kept each other well motivated.

Do you ever crave a nice juicy burger for breakfast?
Do you ever crave a All-American beef patty when going out for Mexican food?
Do you ever crave a quarter pounder with a couple donuts?

I don’t. And I don’t plan on eating here…

Deming, New Mexico.

posted by pjv

This weekend Paul, the dogs (Morgan and Senga) and I went for a trail run up near the summit of Mt. Lemmon. Our friend Courtney showed us this really beautiful (and really hard!) loop back in the fall and we decided to tackle it a second time. The loop involves many link-ups that take you on the Aspen Trail, Marshall Gulch Trail, to the summit of Mt. Lemmon, down next to the ski slopes, through the mountain town of Summerhaven and back down to where the Butterfly trailhead parking lot is (via some “Fern-something” trail, I can’t remember the name). All in all, somewhere around 10 miles we figure. I’d say about 25% of this particular loop runs us straight through where the Aspen Fire of 2003 originated. So yes, some areas are burned to a crisp. Strangely enough though, my most favorite parts of the run are through the burned sections. The sections where the only thing left standing on a steep slope are charred sticks of trees, pitch-black figures against the cloudless blue sky. The ground, a blowing field of tall brown grass. Grass which wouldn’t typically grow in a dense pine forest, but is thriving now, given the loss of shade and nourishing sunlight. The view, down the mountain to the desert flats below, is incredible. No pesky trees blocking my line of sight. With every step, I can see for miles. No having to wait until the next “look-out” spot to take in the view. Paul even pointed out these distinctive double peaks we usually see when driving east to Hueco…which are part of the Chiricahua National Forest…about 2 hours away. (we jokingly refer to these as the “nipple tips”, haha, – I have no idea what they’re really called). And finally (I guess this is due to my being a rock climber), as I’m trotting along, I’m amazed at how much ROCK I see everywhere. Rock that was hidden by the forest, or hidden in the dirt, has now been exposed. I realize I’m actually running on giant slabs of rock, where the earth has burned away. Being from the east, where trees and vegetation nearly smother you it’s so dense, I’m really amazed at how beautiful a forest completely absent of the color green can be.

After a 22 hour traveling epic from NY back to Tucson, we needed to stretch our legs…

This year’s Christmas and New Years was spent with April’s family and friends in Marathon, NY.

We couldn’t have asked for a better trip:

* Watching Joel, Holly and KT show off their stuff snowboarding on the backyard rail and jump

* Snowboarding at Greek Peak with the fam

* More snowboarding at Greek Peak

* More snowboarding at Greek Peak with Paul’s new snowpants

* More snowboarding at Greek Peak with Paul’s new snowboard boots

* And also, more snowboarding

* Spending time with baby Carley (our neice)

* Meeting awesome new friends, Dale and Tans here visiting from New Zealand (COME VISIT US IN AZ!)

* Chillin’with April’s lifelong friend Jenna, meeting Kate, and laughing out asses off to the point of tears in Applebees all night (our apologies to all those within earshot…yeah, we were kinda loud)(COME VISIT US IN AZ!)

* Firewood stacking – good & wholesome backwoods hard work. Awe yeah

* Crackling woodfire in the stove

* Snowy, icy country roads

* Sledding down the driveway

* The smell of a REAL Christmas tree in the house and a homemade blueberry pie in the oven

* Biscuits and gravy

* Pumpkin soup

* Winter walks in the snow

* And best of all, a house packed full of dear family and friends on Christmas day: Mom, Dad, Michelle, Tom, Carley, Joel, Holly, Joe, KT, Peggy, Sonny, Dale, Tans and the 5 dogs, Copper, Dixie, Layla, Hazel and Achilles. It’s times like these that really make us miss the east and our awesome families.

Damn. Oh well. It sucks to get injured but I couldn’t be more happy showing off my battle injury. I was making my best link yet on Dark Age (V11). I started matched in the undercling and was going to make it into See Spot Run (The V6 finish). I had my left hand on that weird sidepull on the arete. I move my right hand down to the horrible pinch and then over to a right hand sidepull. I’ve never stuck the sidepull before but yesterday I was feeling stronger than ever. I stuck the hold and then the most disgusting cracking noise ever!!!! For a split second I thought, “I should keep going.” Nope…the pain quickly set in and I was off, swearing, “Oh Shit, it’s my finger Apirl…Shit.”

Today I spent most of my day at the doctor. I got an x-ray because I was sure I broke my ring finger. See, isn’t it good that I don’t wear my wedding ring climbing? So, to my surprise they said, “negative.” I was like, “what? it isn’t broken? But I heard it crack, it was a crack not a little pop.” They just said, “It’s a negative sir.” Oh well, I”m off to the hand specialists, maybe an MRI or something like that.

In summary: Dark Age = 1, Paul = 0. When I recover from this Dark Age is going down! Mark my words…

posted by pjv

Another Hueco weekend for us. This time, with our dear friends from Pittsburgh, Jason and Kathy and their friend Stuart. Needless to say, a great weekend was had by all. Some notable sends:

Fri, North Mtn:
Unnamed Slopey (v4) – Jason
Nobody Here Gets out Alive (v2) – Kathy

Sat, East Mtn:
Tri Hard (v4) – Paul
Ostracizer (v2) – Jason & Stuart
The Ventral Fin (v5) – Paul

Sun, North Mtn:
Everybody Wins (v3) – Kathy [First v3 for Kathy!!! WOOHOO!!]
Lobster Claws (v5) – Jason
Lithologic (v4) – April
Right El Sherman (v2) – Paul & Jason
Local Flakes (v2) – Jason & Stuart

Extremely Close Sends (one or two moves from sending!!!):
Mexican Chicken (v6) – April
Fern Roof (v10) – Paul
Brutus (v5) – April
Crimping Christ on the Cross (v10) – Paul
Dragonfly (v5) – Jason, Stuart & April
Big Nose Milley (v9/10) – Paul

Once again Jason, looks like you’ve got some unfinshed Hueco business still. Start planning for your spring trip back. 🙂

“Where have you been the last couple weeks,” has been the common question we’ve been asked recently when bumping into friends at work or while climbing. Our answer is that we spent a nice amount of time with my family in Pittsburgh celebrating Thanksgiving. It would be too much text if I started describing all of the delicious meals (including Thanksgiving dinner) we had so I’ll just mention a dinner conversation that we had which led us into mischief. When we were talking about a place to take a hike one of the days I mentioned going to Laurel Hill State Park near Seven Springs Ski Resort. My Dad said, “Oh yeah, that’s a nice place to hike. I remember when we used to camp there and shoot off those model rockets you’d build.” I said,”Ohhhh yeah I miss shooting those things off.” On the way home from our hike the next day we stopped off and bought a little model rocket. A couple days later we were standing outside in the bitter cold hurrying to get the ignitor wires connected to a 9V battery. My Dad counted down, “5-4-3, no, no, we used to go from 10. Ok…10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 GO!” I put the wires to the battery and whooshhhh. The rocket soared off over my parents city neighborhood. It was awesome.

The rocket soared way up, almost out of sight and then the parachute popped out. The rocket fell back to Earth nice and slow until it touched down right next to some guy’s truck. Whoops. Close call. That guy was actually working construction and watched the whole launch and probably wondered if what we did was legal. Actually, was what we did really legal? ha ha. This was just one of the many fun moments and memories that we got to share with my parents over a great Thanksgiving vacation.