From Squamish to Yosemite - Sept 2011

We’ve made it to Yosemite Valley!  This blog comes to you live from deep within The Valley at Curry Village.  Unfortunately, the name has nothing to do with food (I was excited to be camping in such close proximity to a place called Curry Village – but no curries to be found!). 

As i write this, squirrels have made it into the Curry Village lounge where i am and are preparing to smack down over some bagel scraps.  Ahh, the serenity.

Since my last blog update we’ve travelled many miles (well over 6,000 miles on the trip so far).  We made a 3 day journey down from Squamish in Canada to San Francisco, California and finally took some time out to see some of the sights along the way.  We checked out Mt St Helens, which was pretty cool.  I especially liked the local sense of humour – the sign farewelling visitors said “Thanks for visiting Mt St Helens – we hope you had a blast”.  Comic gold.  We also took a whole 20 mins to check out the amazing Redwoods in California.  I was truly blown away (not literally, but one could imagine a scenario whereby that could happen in these forests!) by the size & scale of these trees that grow to be over 2,000 years old.  We also had a sneaky stop at Petaluma just outside of the Napa Valley.

Made it to San Fran where we picked up Chris & Alyssa.  It’s great to be sharing this journey with them - I'm often in fits of crying laughter around them.  We spent a couple of nights camping just outside of SF in the most idyllic gum tree forest.  Felt just like home! 

Once C+A got their van sorted (so quick!), we headed back out to Lovers Leap.   It didn’t take long before we were in the thick of it!  Well, actually, I took particular offence to an anonymous note that was posted on the campground noticeboard accusing us of reserving campsite spots for people that weren’t there, which of course we did not.  Feeling quite enraged by this gross injustice, I confronted the one tosser who had made similar comments to us a few days earlier.  I think I managed to get the message across that maybe he should have just asked us first, rather than make wildly inaccurate and very public accusations!  OK, I’m off the soap box now.

We didn’t spend too much time in Lovers Leap.  The weather was forecast to close in with thunderstorms everyday, so we spent a rather nomadic two weeks filling in time before Yosemite.  We ended up spending most our time in Mammoth Lakes, Bishop and higher up in the Sierras.  Between hail, thunderstorms and being set upon by wasps, we didn’t get a whole lot of climbing done there either.  We did get back out to Owens River Gorge and ticked some more of the obvious classics.  The real highlights were trout fishing at Lake Sabrina and getting to enjoy the fruits of Mars’ fishing prowess on the barbie!  Such simple pleasures!  It was beautiful (& cold) up at these alpine lakes and some funny local characters made our day there super fun. 

We then headed back down for some bouldering at The Buttermilks.  We rocked up quite late one night, well after dark, & took advantage of the free camping.  We parked our vans off the main dirt road leading to bouldering area.  The bright moonlight revealed a wide plateau surrounded by enormous peaks and no other signs of life. We were all super stoked at finding the free camping.  But my sleep was light & a little tortured – I couldn’t help think about scenes from the movie Wolf Creek – would we be abducted by the local crazy just waiting in the bushes for tourists like us? The shriek of a pack of coyotes in the distance did nothing to soothe these thoughts.  Luckily we made it through the night to enjoy some fantastic bouldering over the next few days. 

With the weather clearing up, we headed back up into the ether to Tuolumne Meadows at 9,000ft.  This place has a bit of a reputation for scary & run out climbing, so I was a little nervous going there.  We avoided anything scary and enjoyed what is probably (along with the Valley) one of the most beautiful places we’ve been to yet.  The granite domes at Tuolumne are just amazing – they are such intriguing formations and make for some great climbing.  Hopefully we make it back there to spend some more time exploring.

That brings us to the present day.  We’ve been climbing in the Valley for about a week now (our plan is to stay here for 8 weeks, pending good weather) and managed to tick a few classics routes as we get used to the rock and wait for the weather to cool down a little.  I have to admit that I was totally sh*t scared of coming here.  This is the home of the climbing hard man & woman, so I had no place being here.  But that feeling pretty much disappeared when we arrived in The Valley.  I almost cried (truly!) when Mars & I completed our first climb of over 680ft – I enjoyed it that much.  The climbing is mostly cracks & slabs – perfect for those of us who are vertically challenged!  Now we are setting our eyes on some bigger objectives (still lower grades) to make the most of what this beautiful valley has to offer.  We took some time one evening to watch climbers bivvy overnight on the big walls – until then, I didn’t have any desire to spend a night on a small ledge secured by a few locking carabiners.  But maybe I could be convinced....

Hoping all our friends & family are well.  Given that we’re settled here for a while, it shouldn’t be too long between updates this time.  Hope you enjoy the pics xx

In Canada!

Holy smokes how time flies! We've been on the road for nearly three months now and its been filled with heaps of climbing, meeting some great new friends & loads of fun adventures.  Just getting into Canada was a big adventure! Mars was nearly taken in by the border security guys. They asked me whether I had any firearms on board the van and I reached over and grabbed Mars' arm and said, "just these cannons!". That boy is getting stronger!

Since my last update, we've spent several weeks climbing at Smith Rock (Oregon), Skaha (Canada) and we are now nearing the end of five weeks in Squamish.  This blog update comes to you live from the public library in beautiful downtown Squamish, British Columbia, Canada. 

I'm loving Canada a lot.  Simply gorgeous/stunning/dramatic/majestic landscape.  The campground and bouldering are in these amazing forests that get beautiful shafts of sunlight through the canopy.  To top it all off, we are surrounded by the most beautiful snow capped mountains.  Not even the pics do this place justice.  The only downside are the powerlines right near the campground. 

I've been through here a couple of times before, but driving into Squamish as a climber, I was in awe of the first views of The Chief.  I'll quickly add that I was/still am a little intimidated by the sheer scale of the walls.  They are long, steep and some look particularly featureless.  Up close, its a shock to realise that some walls ARE featureless!  Its been quite the slab climbing education - no holds for hands or feet, just friction.  Luckily, the friction on the rock is mostly good and a quick goggle of "slab climbing technique" has made all the difference!!  Still, its quite weird to think halfway up a climb "how the hell am I staying on this??".  For the climbers: we did get quite the treat and got to see Alex Honnold and several of his buddies in action out at Cheakamus Canyon.  They definitely climb hard.  I think they set a new record for a speed ascent of The Grand Wall as well.

I think we've settled into the simplicity of life on the road pretty well.  The only big decisions are what to climb for that day and what to make for dinner.  Thinking about how simple life is, I did realise that we did in fact have four (yes, four) different cheeses in our little fridge.  Not so simple, eh?  But a life without deadlines, alarm clocks/watches, TV and phone calls is just brilliant!  Its not so brilliant when the propane runs out right in the middle of cooking dinner though.

Finally, of course, there is the climbing.  Far too much detail to go into, so will let the pics do the talking.  In the three months we've been on the road we managed to climb ourselves into a bit of a heap, so we finally took a brief three day "holiday from the holiday" up at Whistler, which was fun.

We leave Canada next week and make our way back down to San Fran to pick up the other half of this climbing troupe - Chris & Alyssa. No doubt the peace & wilderness experience will be destroyed (in a good way) and my next blog update is likely to be coming to you from jail with those two around.

I'll post pics separately until i work out how to link the two :(

On the road!

This post is coming to you live from Starbucks in beautiful South Lake Tahoe CA. 

Gotta love Starbucks - free wi-fi + a double espresso mocha decaf frappucino with whipped cream and car-mel (not free). Mmmmm.  Just missing the bacon & maple syrup.

So much has been happening!

We've spent at least a week out of our first two weeks in the US at Joshua Tree National Park.  Yep, we've been climbing when we should have been out looking for vans.  But its all turned out for the best - we got more climbing done than we thought we could in the first few weeks (weather has been sensational) AND we got an awesome van!  Its a 2002 VW Eurovan with a poptop (sleeps 4 - snug!!), cooker, fridge & shower (note: "shower" is a hose attached to the back of the van).  I love it nonetheless.  I was so excited when we got it that i couldn't sleep on the first night.  We can't get any good radio stations, but the feeling you get when you drive this guy is just awesome.

"The Van".  We don't even have plates yet, so we have the dealer labels on it called "poptop heaven"!!

Mars below a climb called Dung Fu - named after the bats that chill out in the cave/off-width at the top

 

The Mofo's at J-Tree! As you can see my 'fluro' tan is still in full force.

More cracks at Joshua Tree - "White Lightening".  Met an Aussie guy at the base of this climb.  Its amazing the people that you meet in the most remote locations.



Classic Joshua Tree.  Apparently there is a booming drug business here.  Who woulda thought.

Our travels have taken us north from Joshua Tree to find some cooler temps. We stopped in at Bishop CA. Its definitely a boulderers dream, but the climbing there is pretty adventurous too. We also stopped in at Owens River Gorge. It was a super hot day and we completely messed up the walk in and ended up boulder hopping at the base of canyon for about an hour rather than doing the leisurely 10min walk in. 

The view of Owens River Gorge from the top.

Some of the really amazing rock architecture at Owens.  Actually, most of the top part of the cliff looked like it was about to fall down at any moment!  Yes, we wear helmuts.

And now at beautiful Lake Tahoe - surrounded by the majesty of snow capped mountains and lush pine forests.   

This is where we are climbing at the moment - "Lovers Leap".  We did a climb on this cliff (you're up about 450 ft before you even start) that goes up the corner just left of centre on this cliff.  It was just a little exciting! There is still a little bit of snow around at the base of some of the cliffs too.  And the odd Rattlesnake.  Yep, we've seen a baby one - assume the rest of the family wasn't far away :(

Awwwww.  Some happy Mofo's at the top of 'Bears Reach' at Lovers Leap on Mars' birthday. 

Mars is doing a sensational job of leading my ass up some great classic climbs and I've had the pleasure of leading him up lower grade almost-not-worthy climbs :) 

Hope all is well with our family & friends!

Getting Ready

Holy cow, its the first post!  This trip has been planned for so long, that i wasn't sure it would actually happen.  

Ok, what its all about is going on the big adventure of a lifetime - the infamous gap year!  We're going climbing at some of the best places in Nth America & hopefully Europe (if time permits).  I'm planning to share the awesome experiences from life on the road, and what I don't have, I'll make up for sure!

With access to a wide variety of global experts, I'll also share links on music, the economy (ours, US & Europe) and anything cool or funny that I happen to see.  I'm mostly going to post pics of our travels but I just won't be able to resist a few bad puns.  Lets face it, you'll be missing the Dad-jokes too!!

Anyway, this first post comes to you live from Natimuk, Victoria 3409.  A beautiful town of over 500 people near one of the best climbing cliffs in Australia, Mt Arapiles.  Its amazing here and home to many a climbing hard man & woman (I don't fall into either of these categories).  
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Our house in Natimuk

So how do the vertically challenged prepare for such a gruelling climbing road-trip?  Training, training, training!  But, its unfortunately pouring with rain at the moment, so there is no climbing being done at all.  But on the positive side, its freed me up to lounge around like a good dirt-bag climber should, so getting lots of good practice at that before i go.  Also, lifting jugs of beer will help build my finger strength, right?  But on the serious side, we will be doing a couple of days of rope mgt and rescue with a friend of ours before we go.  Best to be safe.  As soon as the weather clears, we'll be back out there climbing too.

Mt Arapiles - the view over to The Bluffs

Given that I have all this new found 'head space', i also thought that i should put it to good, rather than evil.  I'm preparing a list of all time classic books to read while I am away (there is no way we can climb every day).  What needs to go on the list?  Let me know some of your fave books that you think are 'must reads'.

So whats left to do?  We've got the Rock & Road Guide to Nth American climbing, so we've started ticking off the must see crags.  There is so much to do!  Just need to pack for the trip now.  Item number one to be packed?  The hairdryer of course!