New and experienced climbers over 50 # 25

Ward Smithwrote:

No hurricane Guy, just thunderstorms and a stuck very wet weather pattern.  I usually don’t complain about the weather, but enough already!  

The sky is actually blue this morning, at least for now.

Yeah, l’m having difficulty coping with seeing a blue sky. Fortunately, while it has been wet forever, we didn’t get the intense rain, at least in this part of western MA, as Nick, Ed and others in VT have been receiving. For me that has been good as our house is about 25 feet from a pretty substantial stream. Of course, according to the weather people, after a 2 day reprieve, more rain is expected for the foreseeable future!!!!

Ward, do you think it will dry out enough today at Farley?

Ed everything ok? this bridge was about 100m from my barn. water came within 70ft of my house last night.. 

the folks on the other side are stranded with no way in or out as are many of our communities up here. one of my friends was on fast squad last night in Hardwick and could not get to multiple calls because of flooding. 

Guy Keeseewrote:

Lori… that’s a photo of the approach! Ice chest is in trunk of the Corolla.
And quite serious about COR. Rent smallish RV COR has max size limits. OLH is the expert here about how Idaho works.
Also serious about pizza oven! That needs to be towed and it takes some time to heat up- but after it’s hot it stays that way. I think you would really like the short approaches and the green environment and the Climbing in general.
What we talk about???? You wouldn’t believe it! 

To all you east coast folks- the west coast news stations aren’t really talking about the flooding. Is this just from rain? I mean normal rain, not the remnants of a hurricane?
I hope everyone comes through this unscathed.

I like the trunk idea better.  I would promise to be quiet and be no bother at all.  Of course, that 3 1/2 mile approach... you might have to carry me.  But other than that, no trouble at all.    

I've been thinking about you East coast folks, too.  It's the first time we've ever had to worry about you.  We've spent the last 7-10 years living through desperate fires here in California every summer... just choking smoke, dark skies, and that claustrophobic feeling of nowhere to run.  We just didn't think it would happen to you.  Keep us posted, so sorry you are dealing with rain, smoke and shit.  Keep head up.

Update here: 'I fought the shrub, and the shrub won...'  Pretty cut up and miserable this morning.  I'm more determined than ever to find a reasonable approach to the 3rd pillar.  

Everyone have a great day!!!  

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Ed everything ok? this bridge was about 100m from my barn. water came within 70ft of my house last night.. 

the folks on the other side are stranded with no way in or out as are many of our communities up here. one of my friends was on fast squad last night in Hardwick and could not get to multiple calls because of flooding. 

Good to hear you're OK Nick.  Hope the disaster response for all the communities is fast.

Guy Keeseewrote:

duh…. Drop a dime on me if you want info on all the places to climb at in So Cal/South Sierra …. Lots of spots.

Guy, methinks you know duh, and he knows SoCal.

Alan Rubinwrote:

Yeah, l’m having difficulty coping with seeing a blue sky. Fortunately, while it has been wet forever, we didn’t get the intense rain, at least in this part of western MA, as Nick, Ed and others in VT have been receiving. For me that has been good as our house is about 25 feet from a pretty substantial stream. Of course, according to the weather people, after a 2 day reprieve, more rain is expected for the foreseeable future!!!!

Ward, do you think it will dry out enough today at Farley?

Sorry for the late response.  I’m guessing that  the dry stuff will be dry, lol.

As far as not getting it as bad as Vermont yesterday, true.  But last week the northern part of Wendell got 6 inches of rain in two hours, and the roads to Farley were one lane with a six foot gully on the other half of the formerly paved road.  Bad enough, though on top of the hill we are fine.

I did a home workout today, trying to get back up to a one arm pullup again.  Week four, Im up to six offset pullups on a jug with a much lower mono on the other hand.  Im also doing weighted half crimp fingerboard on the 20 mm edge, feet up pushups and overhead presses (both of which I suck at), pinch block training, and feet weighted straight leg lifts while hanging from a bar. Only doing it once a week, plus climbing and bouldering on other days, but I’ve made gains every week so far.  Takes about 2.5 hours including the warm up on the home wall Ed Esmond built for us.  

Nina Williams gave me a three day a week training plan, but I just can’t train three days a week if I want to climb at all (which I do).  I did the workout last week then went to the gym afterwards and I sucked.  Great summer to train since the weather sucks.

Ward Smithwrote:

Sorry for the late response.  I’m guessing that  the dry stuff will be dry, lol.

That's because your an optimist and the glass is always half full.  Pessimistic me believes the wet stuff will be wet.

Eric Engbergwrote:

That's because your an optimist and the glass is always half full.  Pessimistic me believes the wet stuff will be wet.

Agreed.  It is easy to be a pessimist since we are all going to die.  But I see no downside in being optimistic. 

Wow, Ward, I didn’t realize that it was that bad in Wendell. It is amazing what a difference 15 miles and a slight difference in altitude can make. We had some periods of heavy rain here, but nothing destructive ( except for some tree branches)—‘our’ stream has not ( yet) approached its banks this season—hope that remains the situation.

Ward Smithwrote:

I did a home workout today, trying to get back up to a one arm pullup again.  Week four, Im up to six offset pullups on a jug with a much lower mono on the other hand.  Im also doing weighted half crimp fingerboard on the 20 mm edge, feet up pushups and overhead presses (both of which I suck at), pinch block training, and feet weighted straight leg lifts while hanging from a bar. Only doing it once a week, plus climbing and bouldering on other days, but I’ve made gains every week so far.  Takes about 2.5 hours including the warm up on the home wall Ed Esmond built for us.  

That is pretty serious stuff, Ward.  Jeez.
Is this just training for training sake or do you have a proj/objective in mind?
SoL at Farley, by any chance?

I can't get motivated to climb hard or train in this weather so hat's off to you.  I went to a gym last Sunday, full of good routes I have never been on but I was not able to get psyched.  But Whitey kept me going.  Did 11 routes or a "half weekend session".  About 380 linear feet of leading.  Felt like I was just going thru the motions just not to feel guilty.  Sigh.

Guy Keeseewrote:

I manage my stuff ok - shoes, chalkbag, harness, bear and beer. But you must agree to the rules- no posting on the net.

Wait, does this mean you have seccret crags, Guy?  Sign me up!!
What is it with you guys? Everyone in the game long enough has secret crags except me :(

Seriously, I was in and around San Diego last week - with my non climbng fam - and boy were the conditions (esp near the coast) perfect for climbing or what?????

Edit to add: Perfect temps so much so that I asked myself if I could solo this choss pile in my tennies, wihtout breaking something off and killing myself, in front of my wife (in the pic for scale).

San Diego has more secret stuff than almost anywhere else.  Problem is that it is all out in the desert and away from the beautiful weather on the coast, and it is all at least 90 minutes of uphill hiking to get to it.  Southern Sierra is a lot like that too.  The fact that there actually are secret spots in and around Los Angeles is pretty amazing.  They all eventually get outed but some stay secret for a bunch of years.

a few more shots from the storm. yesterday doing a wellness check. this was before it got really squirly. 

trying to do another wellness check today and simply could not find a way to get there. 

this is the road to my jobsite...

So sorry for the folks in the NE who have been affected by these rains. Stay safe!

a fitting end to a couple of wild days... 

Our big "secret crag" in the 90's was The Rincon. But it became apparent that despite the brilliant climbing to be had, there was no reason to be concerned about keeping it secret. No one wanted to hike up there, except for us, that is.

So the cat's been out of the bag for a while, but here it is:

https://www.mountainproject.com/area/124218513/the-rincon

Dig into the sub-areas and routes. There are some cool pics in there. Even the great Greg Epperson hauled his photo rig up there once. 

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Ed everything ok? this bridge was about 100m from my barn. water came within 70ft of my house last night.. 

the folks on the other side are stranded with no way in or out as are many of our communities up here. one of my friends was on fast squad last night in Hardwick and could not get to multiple calls because of flooding. 

Yeah Nick, we're good.  It was bad here, but not as bad as in a lot of places in the rest of the state. Definitely not 2011 Irene bad.  This time the river crested at 12' and during Irene it went to 14' (normal for this time of year is about 2'.) 

We got lucky..  The flooding did break a water main, so they shut it off until they can find and fix it.  It's been out since yesterday around 3PM. 

The rest of the state, not so much.

Glad you're ok, those photos are pretty dramatic.

And today we had blue skies (with a fair amount of Canadian fire smoke) and a pretty nice sunset.

Ed

ps. Ward and Alan, over night, 2 days before this storm, it rained 5+" 15 miles upstream,  we got maybe 1/4"-1/2". The river was raging in the morning.  Then we got 4-5 more inches during the storm 2 days later.

Ward Smithwrote:

Agreed.  It is easy to be a pessimist since we are all going to die.  But I see no downside in being optimistic. 

Words and thoughts to live by! 

I'm a pessimistic optimist, I know nothing is going to be ok & I'm ok with that. 

My best to you folks back east!

So sorry, all you guys on the east coast.  Please stay safe, and check in with us.  

I was out hiking all morning... it's hard to describe the joy right now in this empty vast desert.  I keep finding my own secret places, roam a little farther, see a little more.  Towards the top of the Buttress I just took a seat and put my headset on, and listened to Eddie Van Halen's Eruption.  What a perfect way to take in the desert. 

I was always a Eddie fan, not so much David Lee Roth.  I really miss his incredible guitar and his sheer joy when he played.  

A happy memory showed up on my computer this morning... it brings laughter.  I wanted to climb CS Special, another Houser route.  I mean... I REALLY wanted to climb it.  But I could not get off the ground.  I tried on two different days, gave it everything I had.  

I even brought a step ladder... which Nelson said was 'undignified'.  It was extremely undignified!  It also didn't work.   

Photo below by Jeff Laina.  

I know Todd could climb this.  Carl probably could, too.  You super strong guys could mantle up.  Nelson onsighted it.  Bob said I just have to know the sequence.  That, and be able to do a one-arm pull up ...  

But this is all I really wanted.  Well worth the humiliation of a bad start.  

Dave did not show up for this.  Perhaps he knew it would be a spectacle.  I still believe that someday Dave will appear and say "Glad you liked my route!"   (Along with Ed Ehrenfeld and Bob Malloy)

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While sitting this morning I got to wondering how different Peace and Bachar-Yerian are from each other.  Perhaps Jan could comment.