Peak Fall Weekend

This weekend was the peak of the fall colors here in the High Country and the weather was absolutely incredible--warm and sunny the whole time (while the rock remained crisp many places). The traffic was also at its peak. I tried to get to the Parkway via 221 from Linville and had to turn around because of the traffic jam from tourists trying to get into Grandfather Mountain (above). I also had to do another workaround to 221 later because of standstill traffic backed up for miles on 105.  We (me and Melissa) did make it out to Grandmother for a short session on Saturday (when we shoulda been studying) and I think I may be turning a corner with the shoulder. I bouldered a V3/V4 line and my shoulder feels OK today. Regardless, hope everyone got out to play this weekend.

Just a heads up of a few things to come this week on Frixtion: I went out to Misty Mountain's factory in Valle Crucis on Friday for a great tour and I'll be doing a post on the visit in 2 parts: first, a quick history of this local company and then a post showing how a Misty harness gets made. Also, I was just wading through pics from the last month and realized I've got a lot of odds and end images from short trips out that didn't deserve their own post, but together will make a nice slideshow of after-class climbing. 

Side note: While I was at Grandmother's Long Wall, I continued my test run of the Sportiva Boulder Xs, this time using them for some real climbing instead of just approach as I have been. (And don't worry, I wiped my feet off really well before stepping up to the rock.) They climbed really well; I was surprised by some of the smaller holds they would smear and edge on. This was only a V0 warm up, but it was stll a good test of their climbability. I'll be using them more and getting a review post up soon.  

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