New and experienced climbers over 50 # 25

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Vermont is not perfect but there have been precious few places I have visited that I would want to actually live. the west is awesome for two  or 3 months at a time.. 

I've lived half my life on both coasts and have decided either place is ok, we just want to avoid bugs, smog, smoke, urban sprawl, traffic and places that are running out of water/future ghost towns. It seems the upper NE covers most of that. Small high mountain towns in the west cover that too, just exclude the western cities.

As the cliche goes  -  "Home is where the Heart is".

My wife and I are both transplants but we have lived in MA for 35+ years each. Our kid is being rasied here and she is a liberal to the core and takes all the greats here for granted.
Lexington Green is just another public park we have ice cream on and throw the Frisbee at, and Harvard and MIT are both just two of the many good schools in NE.
And Fenway Park is too old and too uncomfortable.
What's all the fuss? :)

Oh, Alan, if you find more comfort in gyms, move east a bit; I have 10 gyms within a 30-minute drive of me; 5 offering roped and lead climbing, and 5 bouldering only.

The Mid Atlantic holds a certian appeal to us, and I am trying to sell my wife on the Pacific Northwest where I spent 4 years at UW and enjoyed the impressive outdoors there.
I was also in the Bay Area for 2 years, studied a bit at UC Berkeley, hung out with hippies in a time warp, ate great BBQ in Oakland, and fell in love with SF.

I still visit Cal a bit since I have extnded family there (in fact, going to So Cal tomorrow). Love the weather but not liking the sky high prices, mass of humanity, and at times insane traffic. That is saying a lot since prices and traffic in BOS are "world standard".

My wife has family in VT and we have also taken vacation many times in ME.  Coastal ME is really nice.  Acadia is awesome when not mobbed by tourists.  Hiking the backwoods of ME and Katahdin late Sep are both great.  Tree line at 4,000 ft is rare in the Lower 48.  And Monhegan Island; what a great place to visit and leave-it-all-behind after Labor Day.

Soon, As you are well aware, there are costs, both literally and functionally, incurred by moving further east from here, despite the abundance of gyms which take forever to get to in the traffic you mentioned. I moved here ( here being the Pioneer Valley—the mid-Connecticut River valley in west/central MA) from the Boston metro 35 years ago and have never regretted it.

Consistently within 30 minutes, Alan, no lie.

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Vermont is not perfect but there have been precious few places I have visited that I would want to actually live. the west is awesome for two  or 3 months at a time.. 

I was born and raised in the west and have lived in a few other places and will never ever live anyplace but the West. My youngest, born and raised in the west just moved to Maine and I wonder where I failed as a father.

Kevinmurraywrote:

I was born and raised in the west and have lived in a few other places and will never ever live anyplace but the West. My youngest, born and raised in the west just moved to Maine and I wonder where I failed as a father.

I could guess!

I took a hike this morning and just wanted to pass by Dog Day afternoon. I would love to have been there when Dave Houser and Charles Cole decided to put that route up. I walked by it dozens of times before Bob pointed it out and said “You know there’s another Houser route you might be interested in.”     What? Someone climbed that rock???

This is one of those that really got close to my heart and I just couldn’t get it done after 6 or 8 days on that rock. I’d hate for 10b to be my life’s work, but it’s very hard to leave this behind. I hope to go back and give it another try. I’m hoping that some of the more vertical climbing I’ve done recently will help. 

Talk about color therapy… can anyone top this sky?

Still can’t remember what this bush is called but it loves summer like I do. 

I fantasize having 5.10b to be my life's work.

Brandt Allenwrote:

I fantasize having 5.10b to be my life's work.

Brandt, you could climb this in your sleep.  I've seen you climb.  Pretty spectacular!  

With so much time on my hands I listened to a lot of podcasts and found different perspectives on climbing interesting.  The Struggle has interviewed just about everyone.  I listened closely to Lynn Hill as she described her current training including the Moon Board... but she also gave her take on Joshua Tree climbing.  "It doesn't lend itself to sport-type skills.  It's about tiny crimps and edges and balance."  She also talked about trying to convince John Bachar to climb a sport route (in Colorado?) and how much he didn't like it.  She understood that for him it was a matter of honor.   

Almost no one I listened to actually trains outside of their outdoor crags.  Peter Croft echoed Bob Gaines "The best way to train for a route is to climb the route."  

I guess I'm finding my own path.  For the moment, I just want to learn to get better here at climbing here.  I can admit that I wasn't crazy about climbing at Brownie Girl at first... but 3 weeks in and suddenly I had upper body strength and core strength back and was thinking about those routes at night.  Any falls were clean.  Different rock, different angles, new skills.   

While out hiking this morning I saw this rock in Hall of Horrors (Tony has given that area another name  ) I saw no bolts. I still think it might be a route.

Brandt Allenwrote:

I fantasize having 5.10b to be my life's work.

Wasn't that rig I followed you up at Shuteye a couple of years ago .10b? Whatever it was, it was obviously way below your pay grade. A mere hike. That was fun. And how 'bout the little bushwhack? 

Kristian Solemwrote:

Wasn't that rig I followed you up at Shuteye a couple of years ago .10b? Whatever it was, it was obviously way below your pay grade. A mere hike. That was fun. And how 'bout the little bushwhack? 

My Shuteye visit entailed a number of ‘little bushwacks’—-enough so that I swore that any future visit would be in the company of a local.

Funny, all my Shuteye visits entailed walking for 2 hours uphill.  Thankfully the climbing was always worth it.

I finally started harvesting tomatoes today, although the skunks, possums and racoons have been harvesting them for the last couple weeks.  I've had to pick a few that were really close to the ground as soon as they started to turn red just so nobody else ate them first.  Got some beautiful lemon boys and a purple cherokee along with a bunch of cherry tomatoes today.  Jalapenos are also almost ready to pick!  Can't wait to be making fresh salsa, bruschetta and a couple kinds of tomato sauce.  I also ordered some wild boar to make a nice ragout for my birthday later this month.

Hi Kris!

The route we did at Shuteye was rated 5.9, named Brushmaster, which was appropriate for the epic that followed. It was more than a "couple of years ago" and I was younger and stronger then. These days I consider myself a 5.8 climber, some days better and some days worse. That bushwhack we did after the climb was solid 5.10.

Brandt Allenwrote:

Hi Kris! ...That bushwhack we did after the climb was solid 5.10.

Obviously you've never climbed in the Adirondacks!   

E.C. Joe included my accounts of climbing in the Gorge of Despair in his wonderful anthology "Rites of Passage, The Legacy of Adventure Climbing in the Sierra Nevada." At one point, while describing the first trip Guy Keesee and I made in there, I make reference to Adirondack bushwacking. It reads like this:

During my formative years as a climber I spent a lot of time in New York State’s Adirondack Mountains. These mountains are not tall, the highest being Mount Marcy at 5,344 feet, but they are harsh. Locals joke that nothing stands between the Adirondacks and the North Pole. While the fearsome winter conditions intimidate the toughest of mountaineers, the summer poses its own set of challenges. One of them is struggling through nearly impenetrable thickets of bushes and small trees, all the while moving over rocks, streams, logs, hornet’s nests, and so forth. This business is called bushwhacking, and it has been known to break the spirit of all but the most intrepid hikers and climbers. When Guy and I began our traverse of the Gorge of Despair, this vile activity was the furthest thing from my mind, but when we arrived at the creek we were confronted by a wide, dense, entangled hedge of alder ten to fifteen feet tall. We began to fight our way across.

About halfway through, I decided I was going to die in there. I was stuck and couldn’t move. My pack, all eighty pounds of it, was hopelessly hung up, but I couldn’t do anything about it because the rest of me was hung up as well. The stream, swollen with snowmelt from the high country, raced under my feet. What an ignominious way to go.

Our disappearance would be a mystery. A search party would find evidence of our camp, but they would never think to look for us here. Sooner or later our decomposed remains would end up in the stream. A bit at a time we’d ride down the gorge, over the precipice, and down into the rapids of the Kings River. Eventually, we’d end up fertilizing farmland in California’s central valley.

With this grim scenario playing out in my mind, I committed myself to bouts of violent thrashing. Finally, the cursed alder spat me out. I took a few steps, sat down, and rolled over onto my side. Guy had suffered equally. We pulled ourselves together, staggered uphill, and camped under the Cobra. We were at the start of a climb called Prow of Cobra. It probably hadn’t seen any action since its first ascent in 1979 by a pair of climbers not burdened with a reluctance for adventure, Gary Valle and Greg Bender.

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Vermont is not perfect but there have been precious few places I have visited that I would want to actually live. the west is awesome for two  or 3 months at a time.. 

Need to represent my adopted home:

Words of Calvin Coolidge (who was the: 30th POTUS, Mike Pence's fav President of all times, and also enjoyed slab climbing...)

"Vermont is a state I love. I could not look upon the peaks of Ascutney, Killington, Mansfield, and Equinox, without being moved in a way that no other scene could move me. It was here that I first saw the light of day; here I received my bride, here my dead lie pillowed on the loving breast of our everlasting hills.

I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, her scenery and invigorating climate, but most of all because of her indomitable people. They are a race of pioneers who have almost beggared themselves to serve others. If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the Union, and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont."

Poetic, especially coming from someone known as "Silent Cal..."

That said: Vermont isn't a desert, has no major geologic fault lines, nor is below sea level. We have few tornados, droughts, massive wildfires, earthquakes, major floods, insane mudslides, Mormon crickets, etc, etc, etc... 

 Due to plate tectonics, a lot of Vermont's rocks (from a climber's perspective) are not that great.  There is some good rock, but not all of it is: "God's own stone... "  From what I've seen: most of our schists aren't great; but, we do have some spectacular granite. 

And, we still have some cows...

Ed "who grew up in NJ, between the NJ Turnpike (Exit 9) and the GSParkway (Exit 135), just south of Newark Airport...  That said: I think I know what does and doesn't suck..." E

What you also don.t have is anything over 14,ooo feet or powder snow that is light and fluffy. What you do have is heat, humidity and a massive amount of bugs.            

Maine also has a nut ball who wants to build a 1400 foot flagpole with a football field  size flag. Not that Maine has the corner on nut balls.

Kevinmurraywrote:

What you also don.t have is anything over 14,ooo feet or powder snow that is light and fluffy. What you do have is heat, humidity and a massive amount of bugs.            

All of what you say is all too true..

Realistically, east coast powder is slushy ice crystals that are wet, sticky, and can blow a knee out....

But compare: "heat, humidity and a massive amount of bugs.." vs "tornados, droughts, massive wildfires, earthquakes, major floods, insane mudslides, Mormon crickets, etc, etc, etc..."

Last year, I flew into Albuquerque, there were 15+ fire air tankers on the tarmac; I flew out of Burlington, there were none...

Fires vs no fires. 

Earthquakes vs no earthquakes.

The list goes on...

Ed "You create your reality..." E

Love the attacked by alders story, lol!

I'm a lifelong westerner, coming from Oregon. And a small town at that. Same house until I left after high school, only a couple moves in one town....then Boise in 1980. And bought the current house late in 1980.

Idaho is a place I stumbled into, following Dave to his new job, but it's definitely a pretty good place to be. Even with half a million people moving into the region since we came here? It's STILL not very populated. 

And it's more varied and interesting than most people know. It's also fun to live in such a wonkily mapped out place that a great deal of it has very little relation to any of the rest of it.

About the only we don't have is tropical temps, ocean, and anything like big city. 

I think they've consolidated the herd into Canada now, but the far north had woodland caribou, and, there are reports of ringtail sightings at COR, although not recently. Still, the park is the northernmost range of pinyon pines, and the southernmost range of other species.

I just arrived back here today, a short trip, for a very small town 4th of July. Only 3 nights.

But?

I made an important ascent this evening, Lori, specifically with your Beth Rodden post in mind!

It's hot hot hot, so.....

Trigger warning, extremely ugly pic coming....

FKSBA* ascent on this new route!

*First Known Sport Bra Ascent (sport bra, or sloppy belly, or both)

Although, Lori, Imma thinkin a halter top would have the advantage of having cloth under the harness. Kinda itchy sticky sweaty poky with harness on skin.

Obviously, the look good boat irredeemably set sail long ago for me, so comfortable is way more of a priority!

Best, Helen

I can never decide which animal genes are winning out, tortoise....or rodent.

EDIT to add, the prickly pear here are just starting! Wild ones in Idaho stay low and small. Oddly, there was one about halfway up the face we were climbing, although off to the side. How the heck did it get up there in the first place??

The brilliant magenta are going, some a bit deeper than this. A nice coral/salmony was about to pop, and pretty sure some yellows will show up eventually. This is at about 6500 feet. Barrel cactus are here, too, but not as common. 

Oh, and I'm happy in that pic cuz I found a bit of a crack to play in! You can't tell, but I'm left on a foothold, right jsmmed, and hands free. Pretty much everything on the right foot jam. I'm also farther up than it looks, but, I was more interested in wandering around the face, than vertical, this go round on this route. Climbed it on and around the bolt line last trip, seeing how doable it would be, at the grade, for a lead, and for my height. 5.7, iirc, and doable, but a brand new 5.7 lead might have some puzzles to work out. 

Helen - You are beautiful inside and out.

What's the name of the route you did?