Bad Luck Con't.

Well, if it wasn't bad enough to have been dealing with a jacked up knee, shoulder, and neck over the last few months, I got wicked sick with a bad cold the week before Labor day, and it carried on through the holiday weekend. There have been times in the last few months when I've just been wondering, really, should I even keep doing this? I seem to just keep hurting myself, and getting sick only made my attitude worse. Still, after sleeping all day Saturday and resting on Sunday, Melissa and I decided to at least go to Grandmother for the afternoon. Since I was still recovering I stuck to the easy warm ups, while Melissa pulled of some pretty surprising sends of some tall-ish problems near Throttle. The most exciting part of the day came when I fell off the top of the Chainsaw boulder while manteling a slightly slick top out, missed the pad, and bounced off a big rock, and then landed backwards into a dead tree, tweaking both my wrists in the process. This really helped my morale.

The good news is my mood has improved late this week with the cooler weather and some new PT exercises that are really helping my shoulders, making me feel that perhaps not all is doom and gloom after all and that I may just be able to climb more than 5.8s for the rest of my life. If all goes well, I'm gonna try to head back to Grandmother this weekend. Hopefully both the weather and my mood will be improved over last week.

I find that the problem with being passionate about something like climbing and having it be a main motivator and passion in your life is the havoc in can wreak when it's taken away. And I think that idea, more than anything, was the main driver behind my feelings of doubt about climbing lately. I think there's a voice in the back of my head starting to say, "if you don't have this anymore, what do you have to look forward to, what's next?" And I think it's scary not having any real answer to that.

Rainy Sunday

This has been by far the wettest summer I can remember in the 10 years I've lived in WNC. Great for bringing the water table back up after the droughts, not so good for the climbing. Ah, well. You take the good with the bad. Melissa and I still tried to get out and find some dry rock, and we met up with Zach and Heath at a wee little cliff Zach's been developing that stayed dry for the afternoon, even during a good downpour at one point. That's the thing about climbing in the South--specifically here in WNC-- if you're determined to climb, it's possible almost any day of the year if you work with the geography.

My shoulder's been feeling better so I tried the two brand new lines, a 5.11- and a 5.12- (those grades are estimates at this point), and I got within about 2 feet of flashing the 5.12! So not too bad for having not trained at all for the last 2 months.

Even though it wasn't a balmy day, we had to partake in the sick water slide nearby. It beats any other water slide I've seen in the region for it's length and magical ability to somehow not hurt your arse. Be sure to check out the corny super hero pose we copped in the pool at the bottom.

As for pictures, I'm loving the new Canon Rebel T1i I just started using. It really captures colors well, especially on cloudy days like this one. I got some really killer shots of Heath on the 5.12 by getting up on a nearby boulder. Check out the crazy flag move where he's basically parallel with the ground!

A reminder about the photos: to see them larger in the sideshow, click on the 4 arrows in the bottom corner to see them full screen. And if you like some and want to download em, click on the image and it'll bring you to my flickr page where you can save them to your desktop.

Rangers @ Grandmother

I was at Grandmother boulders climbing this Sunday, and for the first time in 10 years of climbing there, I saw not one but two Forest Service rangers go by on the trail together near Throttle. Whether you think this is a good thing or bad thing, it's simply something to be aware. Whether rangers are there or not, it's always good to be on your best behavior while at Gma (as it is at all climbing spots). I'm for sure not the preachy type so I won't go into details--all climbers should know what's acceptable behavior and how to pick up after themselves. Just thought I'd pass on the news...

Blue Hole, TN

Good news! There is, in fact, rock climbing within a half hour of Johnson City. For anyone who doesn't know, I live in Asheville and my girlfriend, Melissa, lives in Johnson City--a place not exactly known for climbing. So when I'm there visiting, I'm generally planning how we can get to Boone for the day! But at an hour away, it's not always practical. So when we heard rumors from a friend that this swimming hole called Blue Hole had rock, we were more than skeptical. Simply put, non-climbers don't know what climbable rock looks like. For example, we recently drove past a chossy quarry with one guy from JC and he said, "Hey, can you climb that?! You use those steel-toed boots with the nails on 'em, right?" Yes, it's 1945, pal!

Anyway, we drove up to Blue Hole thinking we could at least get some swimming in--and were surprised to find a lot of rock there. It's a strange mix of quartz-like rock and a sandstone conglomerate I'm guessing. There are a few boulders and some low cliffs, some with overhangs and most slabby, but all waaay dirty! The route and bouldering potential is limited, and time investment is probably high thanks to moss, but it's mentally calming somehow to know there is rock near at hand. (I know, I've got a problem!) Even without the rock, Blue Hole is a pretty neat area--kind of a mini, mini gorge with a cool swimming hole and a couple of small waterfalls. I'm sure we''ll be heading back soon, fat toothbrushes in hand. And to watch locals do back flips off the cliff above the falls. Check out this blog for more info and directions.

Melissa's Big Day

The last time Melissa and I climbed at Table Rock was in May. We did Jim Dandy (5.4) and the Cave Route (5.5), two classic beginner climbs. Melissa did well on both of them, but admitted to being freaked out on Cave Route. Well, she got some redemption this Sunday. We went back to the Cave Route and she not only cruised up it easily, but also did her first multi-pitch climb by doing the second pitch of the route as well. And the good news is she wants to do more...so she didn't get scarred for life or anything. We wrapped up the day by going to Beacon Heights, where we were lucky to run into Zach L-H, his mom, and Ron Dawson. Zach just got back from the Cirque of the Unclimbables in Canada and it was great to see him back safe.

Gearing up in the Table Rock parking lot.


Melissa on the first pitch of the Cave Route.

Gearing Up for the Fall Comeback

I've now done two very light climbing outings, one at Blowing Rock boulders a couple of weeks ago and another in the ETSU climbing gym, and the results are pretty encouraging. The shoulder and neck are a bit sore, but my knee is feeling about 95% back to normal. So I'm thinking I'm definitely getting close to be back up to speed (about time!). I'm going to try some easy multi-pitch at Table Rock this weekend with Melissa, and possibly some light bouldering. If all goes well, I hope to be back at it full speed by the end of the month. Fingers crossed, ya'll...

Time Off is Working

This weekend was another with no climbing. Tough, seeing the weather was incredible with highs only in the 70s. Just had to keep telling myself that it's only a weekend or two in the summer and I'll be much better for it come the fall. (For those who don't know, I tweaked my shoulder and knee in separate climbing incidents in the last month.) Still, I had to get outside this weekend, so Melissa and I went to Courthouse Falls outside of Brevard. It was a great choice with easy hiking (since my knee is still rough). Once we got there, we pretty much had the place to ourselves, which was sweet since it can be very crowded.

The image below was taken using a rock as a tripod and a very slow shutter speed, hence the slight blur!

Now I'm off to get some stretching in tonight. I'm realizing that with all of the training I undertook in the last year, I foolishly let stretching slip from my routine over time. It's probably a large part of the reason I'm having to take time off now. Stretching's like vegetables: you might not like it, but it's good for you so you gotta suck it up and do it.

Still Resting

It's been a little over a week with no climbing, and the rest is going a long way so far. My left knee is feeling much better, and so is my left shoulder--although the pain there has moved from the collarbone area down and around to the left shoulder blade. I guess it's migrating. I'm working the PT and Ibuprofen steadily, so hopefully another week or 2 and all will be reasonably well.

The flipside is that I went kayaking this weekend instead of climbing--which was a fun diversion. I went down the lower Nolichucky (class II) and it was pretty exciting and very scenic. Melissa did a great job on her first river kayaking trip--she only came out of the boat once at the bottom of the biggest rapid, and that's mostly b/c her kayak was full of water (no skirt on her boat). She really impressed me...it seemed as if she had been doing this a few months already the way she had a handle on the basics of paddling and finding the best lines. I'd like to go back and do the upper section (class IV) in a guided raft later this year. I hear it's one of the prettiest runs in WNC/TN.

Nite Bouldering / Area E

Since I was off work on Friday for the Fourth weekend, I thought it would be sweet to finally hit up some night bouldering in Boone on Thursday. Ben Newton, his gf Courtney, and me headed to the high country at about five pm. The weather called for a 0% chance of rain, but when we got there the skies were low, dark, and the weather felt about 15-20 degrees cooler than it had been in Asheville and the wind was blowing. It was almost too chilly. Luckily, the front passed with just a few drops of rain and we had a pretty good session at small boulderfield called Area E off the 221 circuit. I took a bunch of flash photos, but the ones using just ambient light were definitely the coolest. Pictures #1 and #3 in the slide show are by Courtney Ford.

As a side note, I'm thinking about taking a couple of weeks off of climbing. My left shoulder's been bothering me for a month now, my left knee is a bit tweaked from my weekend at the new, and I think I'm developing a hernia. So as fun as last nite was, it was made somewhat less enjoyable by the constant stiffness and pain. So hopefully just a little rest will go a long way.

New River Gorge

I've been a complete slacker about posting lately. Must be the summertime is making me lazy, or at least less inclined to sit in front of a computer processing photos and blogging. Since the last post, I went to the Red over Memorial Day weekend, Hawksbill mtn, and the North Side of Looking Glass. I also just got back from a 3 day trip to the New last weekend, and while the climbing was good as usual, swimming and deep water soloing in Summersville lake was the most fun. Here's a pic of Ben Newton getting airborn off the diving board rock at the Coliseum. More pics to come soon...if I can get myself in front of the computer again, that is.




Updated Pics:

Barnardsville @ nite

Went out to the Barnardsville boulder again on Wednesday with Robert, and Josh and Chris were there when we arrived. It got dark pretty soon after we arrived, but we set up some lanterns and got some cool night shots. Here's one of the best, of Josh on the way overhanging backside of the boulder with Chris standing by:

Back at it

About a month ago i totally bottomed out energy-wise from too much training for Purgatory (5.13a). I never did send the route, party due to temps getting too warm and partly due to breaking a hold in the crux at the end of the season (and probably partly cuz it's hard!). I actually lost 5 pounds in the training process, which is a lot when you're 6 feet tall and only weigh 160 to start with. Anyway, I ended up having to take about 3 weeks to a month off of training, and i spent a lot of the weekends doing fun laid back stuff like going to Table Rock with my girlfriend, Melissa. I'm just now getting back on the training routine (though I've modified it) and started climbing a bit hard again. This Sunday I went to the Barnardsville boulder with Howie and Ben. It's a fun place...but you've gotta be a V6 climber to get much out of it. I got a couple of cool shots of Howie and Ben on the sick roof on the frontside of the boulder: