Shirts Off on the Rock!

Despite an iffy forecast, Doug, Rosie, Connell, and myself headed to the Apron last Monday hoping to do Calculus Crack and Ultimate Everything.  Due to other parties occupying Calculus Crack we ended up doing Rock On to Squamish Buttress and I think it worked out in our favor.  Rock On had been on my to do list for a while so I was psyched to get on it.  The climbing was much steeper than most of the other routes I had been on, and I would highly recommend it!  After walking over to Ultimate Everything and seeing a party just starting up, and not looking like they were going to be moving all that fast, we decided to do Squamish Buttress.  Earlier in the trip Mark and I did Butt Face, a variation to the last couple of pitches on Squamish Buttress that avoids the crux 10c pitch on Squamish Buttress.  After doing both, I think I like Butt Face better. 

Rosie coming up the long 10a pitch on Rock On

Mark didn’t join us on Rock On because he was resting up to climb University Wall the next day.  The climb is burly, with two pitches of 5.12 and the other six pitches no easier than 10d.  Unfortunately, Mark hurt his shoulder five pitches up so he and his partner Jim rapped down instead of continuing on.  Mark has had shoulder problems in the past so we decided to make a trip back stateside to see a doctor and get an x-ray to check for any trip-ending injuries.  The trip to Bellingham was extremely successful- an optimistic prognosis for Mark’s shoulder (shoulder sublexation), some calls back home, and a trip to Trader Joe’s!  And we were able to watch a couple episodes of Downton Abbey while we waited to cross the border.  All in all, a worthwhile trip.

A few days later we went to Crankworx, a mountain biking event that spans a week or so up in Whistler.  Mark and I were pretty psyched to check it out and we were not disappointed.  The mountain biking was awesome, but I think the most memorable part was the scene at Heckler’s Rock. Heckler’s Rock is exactly what it sounds like, a big rock overrun with rowdy hecklers.    The further we walked up the course, the closer we got to the shirtless hecklers.  I always thought that the climbing scene was pretty male dominated but it seems like mountain biking is even more so.  And the guys seemed a little more rough around the edges to put it nicely.  As we were walking up, some older men commented to Rosie and I that he hoped we had bras on.  At the time we didn’t fully understand that you can’t wear a shirt on Heckler’s Rock, so we were a little taken aback by their comment.  But once we got closer, we realized that their intentions were good natured; any time someone got near the rock, the hecklers would chant “Shirts off on the rock! Shirts off on the rock!” We stayed clear of the rock itself but got a front row view to a pretty hilarious scene. Not only do they heckle the riders racing, but they heckle everyone who goes by on the chair lift and their more sober fellow spectators.  Some of those people on the chairlift do a variety of things to get a reaction out of the hecklers, most notably stripping down naked.  Some of the racers even stop by the rock and drink a beer with them real fast then keep riding down.  It was colorful experience, but I was happy to witness it and not necessarily be a part of it.  Aside from Heckler’s Rock, the racing was really awesome.  I am not sure I will be charging downhill anytime soon, but it definitely got Mark and I psyched on the idea of mountain biking someday.

Looking up at Heckler's Rock

The past couple of days we have done a bit of slab climbing at Seal Cove and on the Apron.  Seal Cove is in a very unique location and can be a bit exciting depending on the tides.  I took a bunch of pictures because I couldn’t get enough of this place!  The pictures are a little out of order but you get the point.  Mark and I also had a ton of fun climbing there with Rosie and Connell, two of our friends from back home.  We crossed paths a number of times up at Tahquitz over the past year but for some reason haven’t climbed outside with them until this trip. Which is unfortunate only because we have a blast with them. 

Rosie ventures off over the water

I love the different colors with the rock and the water

Connell traverses over to the base of Swept Away (5.9)

Connell negotiating the down climb to the foot traverse.

Connell on Swept Away

What a cool belay!

Traversing over to the base of Sole Mate (10b)

Connell cruises up the slab

Quite possibly the most scenic top rope I have ever done

Mark hasn’t been climbing since he hurt his shoulder so to ease back in, he picked out a slab climb called Over the Rainbow on the Apron.  Slab climbing is low angle and generally requires much less “pulling” than steeper climbing.  This is perfect for Mark as he starts climbing again and doesn’t want to stress his shoulder that much. The climb itself was surprisingly fun with some high quality friction slab, some “thank god” edges thrown in, and an exciting bulge surmounted by mantling a crystal of granite.  I tried to get some pictures that show how few holds there are on a slab climb. Slab climbing is a unique in that half the fun is the fact that you are still sticking on the rock despite really not holding onto anything. Also, slab climbing is surprisingly challenging-  you have to be delicate but bold, and not hesitate.  As our friend Drew so appropriately puts it, “sneak past the move before it notices you.” 

Mark on the last pitch of Over the Rainbow

xoxo

Mark and Lauren

Rainy Rest Day Photo Dump

The past week has been super busy so I have a lot of pictures and a few stories to share.  

Thursday of last week Mark’s Dad (Tom) and his sister (Venessa) came up to Canada!  We started off their Canadian tour with dinner at a brewery in Vancouver where I got a raspberry wheat beer.  Or as I like to call it- pink beer.  Seeing as how it was National IPA Day (in the US), I had to send my Dad (a devout IPA-ist) a picture of my pink beer. 

Over the following days, Mark and I gave Tom and Venessa the grand tour of Squamish—the Smoke Bluffs, the Grand Wall boulders and the wall itself, Shannon Falls, climbers eating pie made from fresh picked blackberries, and the spit to watch kite boarders.  

Mark shows us what it is really like to kite board

Tom, Mark, and Venessa at the spit, with the Chief in the background

Tom and Venessa looking up at the Grand Wall

A picture Venessa took of me on Lounge Act, a v6 I want to do.  

Picking blackberries

What a haul!

Tacos for dinner, pie for dessert.

The finished product!  The first of three pies that were made on Pie Night.

After carboloading on some pizza while watching Psicocomp (an awesome deep water soloing competetion held at the outdoor retailer trade show in Utah) we got psyched up for a hike up the Chief.  The hike up to the top is no joke!  Venessa and Tom rocked it and we made it to the top not long after the clouds had cleared so we could take it all in.  In addition to the views, there are some pretty cute chipmunks.  The chipmunks up at the top are pretty bold and sneaky, but after Doug and Greg told us about a group of guys on top of third peak the day before yelling “dude get the nuts,” (to feed the chipmunks) it is understandable as to why they are fairly habituated.  I imagine that those chipmunks eat like kings.

On top of Second Peak

Cute and sneaky!

I love how the water  looks from the sound and the river meeting.

We saw our friends Alix and Jim on Freeway (11c).  Here is Jim on one of the crux pitches.

The day before they left we headed up north to Whistler to see what that place was all about.  And as it turns out- it is awesome!  Skate parks, bike parks, crazy downhill biking, and a lot of shopping.  And a gorgeous lake not to far out of town- Cheakamus Lake.  The water was turquoise, tolerably cold, and we had the place to ourselves more or less.  Considering the day before we went to check out Alice Lake and we showed up to what looked like La Jolla Shores on a summer day, we were pretty impressed with how quiet and gorgeous Cheakamus Lake was. 

We stopped to check out Brandywine Falls on our way to Whistler

Mark makes friends in the village

Gorgeous

Cheakamus Lake looked even nicer after walking onto this scene at Alice Lake the day before

Mark and I after taking a dip in Cheakamus Lake

We were able to get some climbing in at Murrin Park before they headed back to Vancouver.  It was so good to see them, and both Mark and I were super happy to have some family around after being on the road for two months.

Due to some last minute work schedule changes, Charlotte was able to head back up north and visit for a few days! I don’t get to see her that often so when she texted me asking if she could come back up, I was already making plans for us before I had texted her back.  I got my fill of some much needed girl time, and Huckleberry (big black dog) time.  Charlotte and I caught up, walked along the river, and cragged, all with Huckleberry by our side.  I think my favorite part was when we couldn’t find Huckleberry after we had been packing up at the crag. Luckily “big black dog” is a pretty recognizable object and after some hikers pointed us in the right direction, we found him a minute down the trail, playing in the lake and making new friends.  I can only imagine the sight of a 120 pound dog running down the trail, by himself, and then splashing into the water. When we found him he looked pretty pleased with himself.  

Huckleberry likes to pick up sticks, or maybe more appropriately, logs.

As far as climbing goes, we have been doing a little bit of everything here and there.  We spent an afternoon at the Pet Wall, climbed St. Vitus’ Dance with Doug, cragged at Octopus Garden, and Mark climbed the Grand Wall again with Greg as part of Greg and Ryan’s grand link up.  And when I say grand, I mean it!  I am talking snowboarding, mountain biking, climbing, skydiving, and surfing.  After some flat tires, some closed airports, and some wallet losing, they managed to hitch hike their way back home and it sounds like it was quite the adventure.  Hopefully in the not to far away future Greg will have the footage together.  I don’t think my second hand account really does their link up any justice.

Mark starting up Memorial Crack off of Memorial Ledge, after climbing St. Vitus' Dance

I can’t believe that it is already August 11^th!  We still have a long to do list in Squamish but we are also starting to think about the next leg of our trip.  The month of September is fairly open for us- we have some definite stops, but other than that our plans are somewhat loose.  I figured this was the perfect place to ask for any suggestions for stops along the way.  We are planning to head to Montana from Seattle, check out Yellowstone, and probably head back towards California by way of Colorado and Utah, and ultimately be in the Valley around the beginning of October.  If there are any places along that general route that you recommend, let us know! 

xoxo

LMo and MK

We have a couch!

The biggest news of late is that our landlords gave us a bunch of furniture!  Previously, our most prized decoration was a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II that Greg rented through an art loan program at the Squamish library.  Here is a picture of the couch making it to the third floor and our new set up. 

Last week we met up with our newlywed (congrats!) friends from back home, Will and Aniela.  I didn’t climb to give my elbow some more time to return to a normal size so I hung out with Mark, Greg, Will, and Aniela as they crushed all day!  Seriously!  Mark and Will both sent Worm World Cave, V9!  This climb was at the top of Mark’s list in terms of bouldering so it was really cool that he sent it; in one session none the less.  It was also Will’s first V9 outside!  However, my favorite part was watching Mark get off the boulder by scooting backwards on a log.  And don’t worry, I caught that on video.

Aniela on a problem in the Easy Chair area with her husband spotting!

The other day (last Tuesday?), Mark and I ticked off a climb that we had our eyes on for a while.  Literally.  You can see the entire thing from our balcony.  The climb, Angel’s Crest, is arguably one of the most popular long moderate lines in Squamish.  It is 13 pitches long with a couple pitches of 10b, and a little bit of everything else below that.  It follows a steep ridge-like feature to the top of the Second Peak of the Chief.  We started the climb by climbing 60 ft of a large cedar tree!  As I have said before, no long route is complete (or classic) without some good tree climbing.  After the tree pitch is the classic 10b “Angel Crack” followed by some climbing that I don’t recall much of.  The money pitch imho is a super exposed traverse along the ridge (the Acrophobes).  The position was super cool, the climbing was fun, and I was super psyched to be climbing it.  After a couple raps you take it to the top, finishing on a very unique pitch with some mandatory crawling to rock straddling to super exposed chimney climbing.  We were psyched to top out, eat some chips, then head back down the Chief trail.  I kind of blew it on my photographic duties so I don't really have any picture to show but the next blog posts will be full of pictures!  

Missing everyone and still wishing our Dad's the happiest of birthdays.  I can only imagine there is some beer involved :)

xoxo

MK and LMo

Two Month Reflections and Happy Birthday to our Dads!

I actually wrote this particular blog post over a week ago but we have been pleasantly busy with visitors (don't worry, that blog post is already in the works) and I am just getting around to posting this up.  Also, Mark's Dad's birthday was yesterday and my Dad's is today so a big Happy Birthday from Squamish!
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It is hard to believe that two months have already gone by, but at the same time has it only been two months?! 

This is the first time I haven’t been in school or been transitioning between schools.  This is also the first time I have not had a job in a while.  I have always been very driven to do well, whether it be in school or at work.  So now that both of those are out of the picture, climbing has taken its place.  Which in a way is awesome- I get to work on bettering myself as a climber, but at the same time, if I am not constantly getting better, or I have a bad day, it is easy to get down on myself. 

Just the other day I got myself super psyched up to try the first pitch of a climb called The Great Game.  The first pitch was the crux pitch at 10d, and would have been my hardest lead on gear (Indian Creek doesn’t count for all intensive purposes) yet.  I started up the pitch and right off the bat there was an awkward bulge to get over.  I placed a couple pieces and finally figured out beta to get over the bulge.  I definitely struggle with awkward climbing so this was not the best start.  I made it up the next 40 feet then got to a part where I had to climb above gear and couldn’t place gear whenever I wanted.  At this point I was pretty gripped and there was really no fun being had.  I was finally able to place a few pieces and decided to bail so Mark could finish it up.

Due to an overall lack of psych and fun we bailed after the first pitch.  I was pretty bummed and as we were walking down, Mark and I got to talking about what we really enjoy about climbing.  And for me- I love doing hard moves, getting strong, and the feeling of confidence I have after doing something I didn’t think I could do.  Not included in that list was getting scared or pushing it on lead all the time, especially on gear.

Sometimes I get really frustrated that I don’t lead harder on gear. I know I am capable of pulling the moves on 5.10 pitches, but when I get on lead, I start to doubt everything, which does not have the best outcome.  But I think after yesterday I realized that a) I need more mileage before I am pushing grades but most importantly I need to b) be having fun.  Why climb if I am not having fun?  Why save up a bunch of money to feel inadequate for six months?  If I am going to base the success of this trip on how hard I climb then I am just setting myself up for disappointment. This doesn’t necessarily mean I won’t try harder climbs, but I think there are certain settings that I still have fun, while pushing myself mentally. 

In Smith when I was working Latin Lover (my first 5.12), I was always having fun.  I always felt safe, I always felt comfortable between bolts, and I was willing to fall trying moves.  But put me above a bomber piece of gear and I am still not willing to fall.  This unwillingness to go for it holds me back and my climbing just deteriorates.  For me there is a balance between pushing myself and having fun.  And that sweet spot where they overlap is where I want to be.  Finding that balance is harder than I thought.

So back to the other day- I think I realized that I need to adjust my agenda for this trip.  Fun first, climbing hard second.  Of course once I was coming to this realization and feeling better about bailing off the climb, I got stung in the elbow by a wasp.  Go figure.  Maybe it was the universe’s way of telling me to not over think climbing.  Just have fun, push yourself when you want to, and don’t get down on yourself for not always pushing it.  Some days, you just gotta top rope.

Since we have left that has definitely been the most significant realization I have come to.  I am pretty sure anyone could have told me this, and Mark has, but I think it was one of those things you have to discover by yourself.  Some things are just best learned the hard way, right?  (ask my Mom about the time I insisted on touching the iron)  Of course I have realized other things: having a dog makes life better, having the means to stay in touch with friends and family is crucial, and food is really expensive in Canada.  Those are way less profound so I will spare you the details.

Long story short- I am still psyched to be on the road with Mark, I am learning more about climbing and myself everyday, and I would like to teleport Buddy and Mia (my family’s dogs) to our apartment. 

As an aside, my wasp sting is finally on the mend despite a fairly pronounced reaction. After spending a couple days in a Benadryl induced stupor with swelling causing confusion as to whether I had been stung or had elephantitis, I decided to check out the Canadian healthcare system.  Interesting, but once is enough for me!

xoxo

Lauren (and Mark)