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?
I may or may not have stolen that word from Sydney, but I'm sure (I hope?) she won't mind. It's a pretty baller word. Anyway we had another (mini) climbing trip this weekend and it was pretty rad for only being a 36-hour trip. Matt and I met our friends at the Red River Gorge Friday night, climbed all of Saturday and then trucked out early Sunday morning so I could get back to Columbus for a dance rehearsal.
If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen some of the snaps I took over the course of the day. I didn't get anyone to take any of me, which is unfortunate because I successfully climbed my hardest route yet. It was a 5.9 in Muir Valley--and if the idea of a "5.9 at the Red" seems familiar to you, that's because it was one of my 25 in 25 bucket-list items. To quote Minus the Bear: Booyah achieved! I actually didn't think I'd make it past the small roof about halfway up the route, as I am terrible at overhung climbing. (If you want some context, here's a shot of the route. The guy in the green shirt is working the roof, and the guy in orange is nearly to the top.) Anyway, I surprised even myself when I managed to pull up past it, and then had the conundrum of trying to figure out how to climb the rest of the route, which I hadn't really looked at because I didn't think I'd make it that far. That one route made my whole day.
Matt climbed an impressive 5.10c that totally blew my mind--the start was nothing but the teeniest little nubbins of rock and iron. Think half-inch nubs and smaller. I swear at one point he was hanging on with one finger on a Peanut M&M-sized hold and a couple fingertips of his other hand on an equally teensy little ledge. *PSHEWWW!* <--sound of my mind being blown again at the memory
And to those of you who aren't such climb-enthusiasts: fear not. I have an outfit post to entertain you as well :)
dress: The Limited via Discount Fashion Warehouse
cardigan: Express via DFWh
heels: Target
necklace: The Limited
bracelet: Etsy
I have been largely anti-peplum since...well, basically forever. But I saw this dress on a semi-recent trip to Discount Fashion Warehouse with Emily and kind of fell in love. The peplum is subtle enough that I don't feel goofy, and the whole thing just has these polished, professional lines that I could not pass up.
It's finally getting warm enough to allow me to do outside photos again, and I'm happy to report that this will (hopefully) be the last indoor shoot you see for a while. Oh, and speaking of warm weather, guess who's going to pick up her freshly painted, now-running-again scooter from the shop this afternoon? THIS GIRL! I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it.
So I've been talking about this semi-spur-of-the-moment trip for a week now...which is about how long Matt and I had known about it before we left, haha. Our friends had been planning it for some time, and we kind of hopped on the bandwagon in a moment of spontaneity. All I can say is how thankful I am to have two amazing bosses who don't mind me leaving for a long weekend at the drop of a hat.
(Monday morning) "Hey Angela, can I have this Friday afternoon and next Monday off to go on a climbing trip?"
"Sure, Emma. Have fun!"
Counting. Dem. Blessings.
Anyway. I've already briefly discussed the difference between sport climbing (which is what I've posted photos of here in the past) and bouldering (which you're about to see photos of in a moment). But to re-summarize, bouldering is climbing rocks with no ropes. It's (usually) not as terrifying as it sounds, because the routes are lower to the ground and you always have crash pads and spotters to break your fall. So where a sport route could be anywhere from 30 to 100 feet or more, a bouldering route is usually 10 to 30 feet or so--and those 30-footers are not for the inexperienced.
Being the nerd that I am, I decided to take my DSLR out and get some much-needed practice shooting in Manual for something other than my outfit photos (which, let's face it, are stupid-easy to shoot). Below are some of my favorites, but there are more! Check out my Flickr album, which has something like 150 more photos, or my Instagram, which has iPhone shots of some of the routes I did and some of the damage to my hands (haha), if you want to see more :) (Disclaimer on the Flickr album: It is taking for-ev-er to upload these high-res images, so if you try to click through it on Wednesday afternoon, you might not see much. Sorry for slow internets.)
Stone Fort is a bouldering field next to a golf course on top of a mountain in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee. That might be one of the coolest/most random sentences I've ever typed on this blog. This picture is taken at the top of the trail head, which leads into the woods on the left there.
Jay climbing Fire Crack Flake (bottom and right) and Spare (top).
Bobby on Spare. This photo actually was horribly over-exposed (it took me a while to remember to check my settings for every new location/angle) and I couldn't fix it in Photoshop. I could, however, make it look like a straight-up advertisement photo. Not bad?
Me on Needless Things (left) and Marcy and Matt on The Wave.
Bobby, Marcy and I on Brian's Brain, aka the bane of my existence. My new summer goal: train and get stronger so I can tackle this stupid problem. I was so close...and everyone else got it.
No idea who that woman is, but she was freaking badass. She climbed Tristar, which is nothing but a crack and teeny finger crimps, like it was nothing. See her audience? Matt, who's a pretty good climber, couldn't get it. On a non-climbing sidenote, this photo got some really cool editing. I think I'm going to use it in a mini editing tutorial on correcting exposure and noise in Photoshop RAW.
Bobby, Jay and Marcy on Graham Crackers, the biggest pile of NOPE I've ever seen. That sketchy mofo was something like 25 feet up, by my guess, and hard. Marcy decided to jump down from about 3/4 of the way up when she realized she might not make it to the top.
Just a cool face in the rock.
One of my favorite shots from the whole trip, mostly because I achieved the exact look I was trying to get. Hooray for figuring camera stuff out!
Sunrise on the lake by our campsite on the second day.
I wish I knew what I did to capture these awesome rays...
Matt working on These Feel Like Your Sister's up top. (I don't know who named that one, but I'm seriously worried for his/her acquaintance's sister.) Bottom is Marcy, Nick and Bobby doing a fun dyno to that jug up top. (Dyno = dynamic move, typically a jump that forces you to catch yourself at the apex. Jug = a nice, big, friendly hold that you can hang on for dayssssss.)
More goofing around with focus.
Matt and Nick working on Swingers. They and Jay worked this problem for something like five or six hours total, and they got reeeeally close to getting it. Something tells me I won't have to twist too many arms to fanangle a return trip :)
Marcy, killing it on the last climb of the trip on the third day. The Swollen Goat--another problem that I don't really understand the name of, haha.
Bottom line: I didn't think I'd be a big fan of bouldering, for some reason. I've never been more happy to be wrong in my whole life. My fingertips are still a little rough/cracked, but I'm already looking forward to our next trip!
Forgive this post if it seems a bit narcissistic, but it's basically a bunch of pictures of me being a BAMF last weekend. I meant to post them last night, but I got distracted. Days aren't long enough, I think.
So I'm definitely standing on a ledge here (Kentucky Pinstripe)...but the picture cuts off so let's pretend I'm not, cause that makes this so much more awesome.
Starting up "the one that got away" last time (Eureka)
Almost to the top of Eureka!
Starting out on The Offering. I like this shot because I'm actually mid-clip here, so you can see how far the last bolt is below me and how far I'd go if I fell!
More of The Offering
Last couple of moves on The Offering
This might be my fave. Look at those back/shoulder muscles! Technically I'm cheating here; I'm hanging on to the anchor, not the rock. But hey, any way you can make it up, right? Right.
So yeah, there you have it! Pretty cool, if you ask me :)
So before all the shiz went down on Wednesday, Matt and I had been talking about taking another trip down to the Red River Gorge to tackle the routes we couldn't quite manage in April. On Thursday, he asked how I felt about the trip. I immediately responded, "Hell yes, let's get the eff out of here!"
So Friday evening, off we went with our friends Jay and Marcy. We stayed two nights this time, and the whole weekend was a lot of firsts for me. First two-night camping trip. First route over 60 feet tall. (Two of them, actually.) First 5.10a-rated route (usually I stick to the 5.6s and 5.7s). And first time lead climbing on an outdoor route, which is waaaaay harder than top rope climbing. All of those were pretty terrifying, to be honest. There were a lot of moments where I just stood/hung/clung there and thought, I can't do this. I'll fall too far, it's too high, I'm not strong enough physically. But then I told myself, you chased a criminal this week while you were wearing flip flops and a dress. You can do anything. And then I did it. I did it all.
Sadly, none of the photos below are of me. They're shots of Matt, Jay and Marcy that I took on my phone. Marcy has a bunch of really great shots of me (and everyone else) on her camera, so once she gets them uploaded I'll post a few :)
First row: Jay on Kentucky Pinstripe (80 ft, 5.10a) at the Lady Slipper/Global Village wall (the arrow is pointing him out waaaay at the top) | Matt on the same | Marcy on Eureka (85 ft, 5.6) on the same wall
Second row: Matt on Eureka | Jay on Creature Feature (60 ft, 5.9) at the Phantasia wall | Matt on the same
Third row: Matt on Methane Rising (60 ft, 5.11a--the one he didn't finish last time) at the Bruise Brothers wall | Insta of Marcy on The Offering (45 ft, 5.7) at the same wall (aka my favorite route at the Red so far) | Jay on the same | Matt on the same
Fourth row: first two are Matt on The Offering | view from our tent on Saturday at Miguel's
I tried Creature Feature but could barely get six feet up--it was the end of the day, and the start was really difficult. We also climbed a newer 5.7 route (about 60 feet, maybe?) at Bruise Brothers, but I can't remember what it's called and it's not in our guidebook. And we went swimming, played around on the slack line I got Matt for his birthday, and just generally had a good time. It was exactly what I needed. When I climb, I get really in the zone. It's like meditation, or a trance, and all I can think about is where I'll put my foot next, what hold I can reach after that. It's a kind of focus that I just don't get from anything else in my life. And it's perfect for helping me forget about things that bum me out. It didn't hurt that the weather was absolutely gorgeous and I was getting a ton of endorphins from hiking and the climbing itself. Overall, it was a pretty amazing weekend.
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.
