Did everybody enjoy their weekend? Many of us here in the States enjoyed a nice long weekend, thanks to the Fourth of July landing on a Saturday. A few friends and I took the opportunity to head down to Coopers Rock, where I was last month, only we had a bit more luck this time around.
We got to the site late Thursday night, threw up our tents and settled down for an early morning. There was a huge chance of rain starting Friday afternoon and running through the weekend, so we wanted to get in ahead of that. After a legit Breakfast of Champions at IHOP (natch), we hit the rocks. I actually was shooting my friend Marcy for a project I'm working on, so I can't share the photos I took on my Nikon. But I did remember to whip out my iPhone for a few snaps here and there.
This was probably one of my favorite routes from the entire weekend. It was on a block called Mushroom Boulder; you can't see it from this shot, but the whole front of the rock looks like a giant mushroom — skinny at the bottom with a overhanging roof. You had to work around a ledge and up through that chimney; I modified a few moves because the actual route was a bit out of my league, but I think with some work I could get it as it was intended to be gotten.
The rain started mid-afternoon on Friday, so we headed back into town for burritos and beers at Black Bear before returning to camp. The rain let up just long enough for us to get a fire started and a tarp hung over our picnic table, so we sat around under the tarp until the fire finally petered out.
Saturday dawned foggy and wet, but not rainy. We knew the rocks would need time to dry, so we slept in and hung out around camp before hitting up some hiking trails. The hike we took was really cool; we went beyond the official, marked trail and followed an unmarked but well-worn path down to this really cool, really enormous boulder on the edge of a cliff.
Naturally we geeked out over the boulder for a bit, then we hiked out. It was short, but kind of brutal — just one long, steep hill. By then, some of the high-sun areas had dried out a bit, so we climbed a bit. Spent most of the afternoon just lying around on the crash pads, though. That's where I found this lil guy:
Finally, we headed into town to get supplies for a campfire feast. It. Was. Glorious.
And since Saturday was the fourth, we did the most American thing we could: Sat around a fire with a few beers and some whiskey!
Sunday slept in a bit again, but managed to get some great climbs in before we left.
I was just so excited to get back on some real rock for more than a few hours; it's been months since I've done any good climbing. And I have to say too, camping is starting to grow on me. I mean, we car-camp, so things are still pretty cushy. I was never outdoorsy as a kid, but something about sleeping in a tent in the woods is strangely calming for me now. Isn't it funny how things like that change sometimes?
Okay first, thanks to Kelly for letting me know that last week's link to my magazine story on spring fashion didn't go through. Womp womp. Here it is for reals. If you were semi-interested in checking it out. Now, on to the topic du jour...
This weekend, Matt and I and our friends Jay and Marcy all went to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky for a little weekend adventure. We headed down Friday night, camped at a climber's campground (Land of the Arches, holla!) that night, then climbed all day Saturday. We were there for only about 24 hours total, but it was SUCH a great weekend. I couldn't resist putting together a little Instagram-inspired collage of our collective awesome:
top-left: Matt climbing the A-Beano route at the Bruise Brothers crag
top-center: Jay on The Offering (Bruise Brothers)
top-right: Matt on Rising (Bruise Brothers)
middle-left: Matt on Rising (again)
middle-center: me on Eureka (Lady Slipper crag, Global Village wall)
middle-right: Matt on Eureka
bottom-left: me on Eureka
bottom-center: Marcy on Eureka
bottom-right: ...this rock looks like a sloth, right?
(If you want to see these pics closer up, you can check out my Flickr album here.
I went into the experience with fairly low expectations for myself; I've never done an outdoor climbing trip before, and climbing on real rock is very, very different from the artificial holds found at the sport climbing locations I'm used to. But I scrambled up our first route (Shawty on the Practice Wall, 20 feet, 5.8 rating that's is a bit harder than what I'm used to) and did a lot better on it than I thought I would.
From there we headed over to the Bruise Brothers crag, where we tackled A-Beano (30 feet, 5.7), The Offering (45 feet, 5.7) and CH4 (30 feet, 5.7). The Offering was my favorite of the whole day. It's higher than I've ever climbed before, which was both nerve-wracking and exhilarating. But the coolest part about it is that after you start it, the route traverses over to the right, over a huge overhang. So when you reach the top, you've climbed 45 feet...but you're really 80 feet or so from the ground directly below you. It was breathtaking. CH4 actually had another route over it called Rising (30 feet, 5.11a) that Matt attempted. It was a really hard route, and he was a little worn out from the morning's climbs, so he didn't quite make it. Still, the guy hung upside-down for three or four minutes at a time on each attempt. Pretty badass.
After some lunch and a little rest, we hiked over to the Global Village wall on the Lady Slipper crag. It was pretty late in the day, so we had the luxury of being the only people at that site (the others had been pretty crowded). Eureka is a 5.6, which is pretty easy, but it's an 85-foot climb. By that point in the day, I was so physically and mentally exhausted that I got about halfway up and started to lose it. It's a hell of a psychological battle to pull yourself up that high, hand over hand and foot over foot. I did manage to turn around and take in the view for half a second before being lowered. I'm a little bummed that I couldn't finish it (Matt, Jay and Marcy all did), but now I have a goal for next time! (At least, that's how I'm trying to look at it. I'm a bit competitive with/hard on myself when it comes to climbing.)
Anyway, safe to say I am already looking forward to our next trip to the Red! We've only scraped the surface of the awesomeness that that park has to offer :)
Note: I used Photoshop actions to give these snaps a little Instagram-inspired flair. You can download them here if you want.
