How much is your ankle worth?

Went climbing Tuesday night at the Krag... went by myself, so I was bouldering. I climbed really well actually... especially for not having climbed much in the last few months. For those who don't know, bouldering is climbing without ropes, and you usually stay pretty low to the ground, and fall onto crash pads, or gravel. I don't like the crash pads, because I am always worried about spraining an ankle as they don't give as much.

This one guy was trying to do a route, and asked me for help, so I gave it a go. I ended up popping off the wall, and landing with my right foot half on the crash pad, and half off it. Naturally, it rolled out from under me, and I heard a popping sound. Awesome....

I walked out of there, and drove home. I did the ice and elevation thing... but finally decided to go see a Dr about it. Got the xrays, and yup, its broken. Awesome. Long weekend, of great weather... and a broken ankle is not cool.

Silver lining... I have the accident/injury rider on my insurance. Called them to get the claim forms, look like they are going to send me a check for $800 for this. I am going to try to get their price list, and next time I can't pay my bills, break something. Just kidding, no insurance fraud going on here.

Gotta figure out how to walk the dog... maybe get a wheel chair, and rig a system for her to pull me down the street... and hope she doesn't start chasing cats!

Climb-a-thon

Maria and I just finished a climb-a-thon charity event for the Red
Cross. It was held at the Urban Krag. We climbed 2025 feet combined,
Maria climbed 15 more feet than I did, and harder climbs too. We
raised $257 for the Red Cross.

Here's a photo of our friends Kansas and Eric.

First Trad Lead

So... I have been climbing for not really that long. Mostly seconding up a climb someone else lead (for those who don't understand... a lead climber takes the rope up with them, clips it into the wall (either a bolt or some device they put there) as they go... its scary and more difficult). I do lead too... when its a sport route (or pre-bolted). This last weekend I did my first trad lead!

Trad is where you take various devices (nuts, hexes, cams, tri-cams... yada yada) and find a place in the wall to put them as you go, so that if you fall, you theoretically fall to where you last placed a piece of gear. This means that you fall on something you have put there... which if you don't have the right thing, or place it badly, then you can fall allot further. Basically... its one of the scariest climbing styles, but can be one of the most rewarding (for me at least).

I have been collecting trad gear for several months now, but it is expensive, I just bought a #4 Black Diamond Camelot... and it was $80 (its pretty sweet)!!! I have seconded and cleaned gear on alot of routes lead by different people, so I could see how they placed their gear. This is a picture of the route I lead, but that's not me, its stolen from RockClimbing.com. Basically... it was one of the scariest climbs I have done, even though its fairly easy. Its rated at 5.4, but that's an old school rating, so my weak self would put it at 5.7 or so. Maybe its easier, but when your freaking out, everything is harder.

I didn't fall, so I didn't get to see if my gear would have actually held. My buddy BJ went up it after me and told me that I pretty much would have died if I fell on some of the stuff I placed... good thing I didn't fall. Some of the gear was totally bomber, some was way sketchy, and some was just not ideal. Guess I need more practice... this is a huge step for me, and my climbing career though.

Oh, and we camped on top of Bed Time For Bonzo again... not a bad place to pitch a tent. The "we" was Maria, BJ, Kansas, Eric, and myself. Talk about an awesome weekend... I think I climbed 6 or 8 routes... including Party Time again, which is always fun.

Red River Gorge

Last Friday a few climbing buddies of mine and I went to the Red River Gorge to do some climbing. We got to the Red by about 10:30pm... after making a few directional errors. Instead of camping in a normal camp ground, we went up to the Fortress Wall and climbed Bed Time For Bonzo (5.6)... then dragged all our camping equipment up, and slept atop the wall. It was a gorgeous camp site... very exposed, with some good tent sites further back. It was a beautiful night.

The next day, all 5 of us climbed 2 multi-pitch routes. The first being a 5.7 route, still on Fortress (which is an all trad wall) called Party Time. The first pitch of this 2 pitch route ends on a small ledge... with hardly any room for 5 people to hang out on. The whole climb ascends a dihedral which varies in width quite a bit. The summit gives a beautiful view.

The second climb for the day was one of the classic climbs in the Red, Caver's Route (5.3 R). You can actually free-solo this (no ropes or protection) if you want... but as it was my first time on this route... I roped up for one of the pitches (its a 4 or 5 pitch route). The thing with Caver's is the compression of the crack... it is so tight, that in a few parts you have to just wiggle your way vertically up the wall. Its is entirely possible to get completely wedged in a few of the cracks, and get stuck. Luckily, that did not happen to any of us.

More photos to follow (as soon as Matias and BJ get them up on the net).

Washington Trip Part Duece

While in Washington, I had the chance to do some climbing, alpine style, for my birthday. Talk about awesome. The climb we did was the Beckey Route, on the Liberty Bell Mountain (the right most peak on the photo). It was a technically easy, 3 or 4 pitch climb, about a 5.5, or 5.6 with a few 5.7 moves. The Liberty Bell is 7,700 ft in elevation at the peak, and was first ascended September 27, 1946.
Alpine climbing is different to the style of climbing I have been doing. I have been climbing in a climbing gym, and on some sport routes. With those styles of climbing, once you finish a route, your belayer lowers you down to where you started the route. This climb finished with an incredible 360 degree view of the area around it, and then a long rappel (180 or so feet in this case). Its pretty sweet to actually get to the top of something.

This area of the state has alot of forest fires going on at this time, so it was good to get above the smoke, and in the clear air. You can see in this photo how smokey the air was... and in the video below you can glimpse the smoke plume from on of the fires in the area.

Thanks Janice and Scott for taking me on this, and for teaching me alpine style, and some trad protection.

Hit the play button below to get a 360 degree pan of from the peak.