Vegas Baby 2

This past weekend Jeff and I were fortunate to meet up with Rob and Loni (jeff’s parents) who were down for a business meeting.  They welcomed our smelly selves into their fancy hotel along the strip and we got to live the vegas life for a couple days, well if you consider walking around and seeing the hotels the “vegas life”.  We did a little outlet shopping, even though the last thing I need to do more on this trip is shop, and ate ourselves silly with juicy ribs!  Vegas was fun and all but it was much, much nicer to see family.  We took them out to Red rocks to show them where all the magic happens but it happened to be a miserable day so the magic was brief.  Unfortunately the weather is making a big turn for the worse and has gone from tanning in the 28 degree sun in between climbs to shivering in down coats.  We are on the last leg of the trip and we feel really content with how it has gone so we will probably be making our way home in the next couple days!

Vegas Baby

It has almost been 3 weeks since we have been here climbing in Red Rocks and we have started to develop some good relationships with fellow roadies.  We have mostly hung out with a group of 5 who are from all over but go to school in Toronto together and also a few people who we have seen a few times along the way.  It is neat how taking the time off to do this was so huge and exciting for Jeff and I but we meet people over and over again who have taken dozens of climbing roadtrips through their life.  I love living the simple life and just climbing and sneaking into showers when we can, but I think I am too much of a home body to leave my family all the time.  I guess we have developed a small family at our campsite with all the other roadtripers.  As far as actual climbing goes, both Jeff and I have sent several climbs and more importantly have found some new fun classics.  Jeff has sent a handful of 5.12’s and I have sent many 5.11’s but we are both slow to break through to the next step and I think it will happen after a winter of training in the gym.  I constantly sit on the fence between wanting to train out here and push myself to be stronger, and to just enjoy the climb no matter how well or “not well” I climb it.  I think it depends on the climb for me too.  I worked on yak crack several times and I have virtually sent it many times but I fall on the last move so I have decided to just enjoy what a cool climb it is and when I climb it to try hard, instead of getting frustrated that I haven’t sent it and mentally beat myself up.  Jeff has been working on a 12b called aftershock on tsunami wall and the other morning we hiked over to lace the draws and he almost had it but fell at the very last move.  I think going with no expectations was the way to go because no matter what it was a win.  He has been sending 12a’s like crazy in 1 or 2 trys but is finding the step to sending 12b’s quite a big one.  It probably sounds like were really intense out here but really we just kind of hang out at crags with different people and climb and have a good time.  Climbing with all the different people we have met has probably been my favorite part of this trip.  We meet new people from much more foreign places than Canada everyday, and we have also seen many familiar faces so it almost makes us feel like were home.  Overall the last week here has been full of gratifying sends, good company, and many many mugs of hot chocolate!

The Simple Life and Climbing

                                  At Chuckawalla wall in St. George

This picture of me is from last year, but this is an 11a that I sent on lead this year at the Panty wall

After another wonderful week of hard and fun climbing in Red Rocks, Jeff and I are now in sunny St. George for 5 days staying with the over welcoming and exciting Rea family! The past week we have met a group of people who have become climbing friends and we have enjoyed playing hard in the day and sitting around the fire in the night.  Jeff has sent a few 12 a's now and he is really excited that he is becoming more consistent in the higher grades, and me..well I am still on a high that I am leading every climb right now.  The last week we have climbed at several different craggs but our favorite ones have been the gallery, sweet pain wall, wall of confusion, wake up wall, and tsumani wall.  On friday we climbed at "Sunny and Steep" and Jeff sent a climb called "steep thrills" a 12a in two trys and I have decided that my new project will be an 11d which would be a huge step for me.  That day we climbed with 15 guys in a bachelor party, so the day was extremely entertaining- to say the least.  Friday night we drove to St. George and watched the Reel Rock Film Tour (rock climbing and mountaineering movie) and somehow we got in free which has seemed to be the theme of this past week.  We have been staying/bummin off a group site and we haven't had to pay for camping the last week, we sit at starbucks everynight drinking hot chocolate and tea (that we bring and just use their hot water) and watch online TV.  Life has been pretty simple and I have absolutely loved living out of a car/tent, but when we arrived at the Rea's and were immediately greeted with a hearty homecooked meal, a bed, and some family laughter, we really appreciated the lifestyle  and families we have back home.  The Rea's have been our adopted family for a bit and it has been quite the amusing experience.  We have LOVED hanging out here and the climbing has been awesome too.  Yesterday Jeff sent a 12a in 2 attempts at Chuckawalla wall and I onsighted a 10 d and almost onsighted an 11b..which again is big for me!  We are excited to spend a few days here and then we will go back to Vegas for another week of go time.  Hope everyone is well! We miss you all.

Red Rocks Part 1

Oh Red Rocks! I truely believe it is the reason we love sport climbing as much as we do. So far we have climbed the last eight days straight and I can say we are sleeping like absolute babies every night.  The weather has been around 29 degrees everyday, which is lovely..when your not climbing.  For the most part we have found shaded areas when the sun is at its peak but there have been a couple days where we have just been beaten by the sun, which is probably part of the sleeping like babies part.  We have climbed hard so far and are just starting to feel a bit stronger, I have lead virtually everything I have climbed which is a big step for me, and Jeff is pushing himself everyday.  We probably climb around 8 or 9 routes a day and most of them are around the 11 marker.  I have redpointed (climbed on lead with no falls or takes) a few 11a's and some 10 d's and im just starting to breakthrough to the 11b's.  Jeff is working some 12a's and b's right now and is one fall away on most.  He has onsighted several 11b's and c's, redpointed 11d's and 12a's and is working on his goal for the trip which is a 12d called the gift at the gallery.  My favorite wall so far is the sweet pain wall and the Gallery.  There is just so much for me to work on that is in my range and It is nice to find my own climbing successes and have my own failures.  Normally I have just climbed whatever jeff did because he was able to lead them and I would just toprope, but now I feel really comforatable on lead so I can work on my own projects and while I rest Jeff can work on his.  Being at red rocks has really made me aware of my desire to be a stronger climber.  I think that it is mostly because I am surrounded by women climbing the heardest routes here and it is motivating and inspiring to watch them. It is also partly because without being a competitive basketball player practacing in the gym everyday, I need something to push me to better myself in some aspect of my life.  The great  and different thing about climbing for me is that it is all individual, sure I have Jeff below me cheering me on and the people we happen to be climbing with encouraging me too, but in the end if I "fail" I am the one who ultuimately decides if it is a "fail" or just a great attempt and a fun climb.  The thing I have been able to enjoy the most is that when I am working on a project, the only pressure I feel is the pressure I put on myself...so I am learning to decide wether I feel like pushing hard that day and really trying to send the climb, or if I feel like just enjoying getting to the top and embracing the accomplishment that is in itself.  Jeff on the otherhand is always pushing to be stronger.  He has jumped on climbs that have taken him an hour or more to get up and is "out of his league" but when he comes down he is phyched that it made him that much stronger and has set a precedence of what he wants to be able to climb.  The other day we hiked up to the alternative crag and climbed a 12b that was on a 65 foot roof.  Im not gonna lie here, he got his butt wooped on it but when he came down he was planning climbs that would make him stronger and more able to complete it.  I really admire that about him.  I can get really discouraged and feel like I lost or failed, but Jeff just keeps pushing and looks at it like it is a new goal for him to work at.  It probably sounds like we have been sooo intesne here when really the only part that is intense is the 20 minutes on the climb. In the nights we hang out with people we have met, we have done dinner and a movie a couple times, and our favorite thing is sitting in starbucks all night watching online episodes of our favorite shows..we are kinda sad though because we have no more modern family to watch, that is our favorite.  We have also have kind of snuck into some timeshares and had pool partys after we climb..and maybe use the outdoor shower too...maybe.   Overall we have had such a great time here so far and are planning to be here another couple weeks.  Eventhough we are having the time of our lives, it is starting to set in how much we miss our family and friends, especially with christmas coming around.  I have started to get a little homesick when I see pictures of my new baby niece and her beautiful Grandma! and my little nephew who is getting so big! I am stoked to keep climbing hard and living the dream, but I am also looking forward to coming home to my big happy families in snowy Canada to sip cocoa by the fire and enjoy micheal boltons christmas CD (mom you know you love him).  We miss you all and hope that life, and exams, and work, and basketball are all going great, send us a note how your doing! Mucho love!

Good Times in Cali Part 2

Mon Oct 25- Oct 29

 Jeff and I were starting to feel the void of not climbing so we went to an indoor gym close by which was mostly a bouldering place and we climbed for a few hours. After dinner we went to an open gym at a gymnastics club and learned quickly that we weren’t very good.  Chase was teaching Beau and I some tricks and I figured out I should stick to climbing and basketball.  We were a little shy at first because everyone seemed so hardcore and we were completely out of our element but then it hit me that I am in California and I don’t care if everyone thinks I’m a fool.  So after we broke out of our shells we had a really silly and fun time.  On Tuesday the 26^th we drove into Malibu to climb at Malibu Creek state park.  We did a few climbs and then decided to drive down the beaches.  My favorite ones were Manhattan beach and Redondo Beach.  For dinner Jeff, Beau, Chase and I went to the Cheesecake Factory and had a great time feasting and reminiscing about “the good ol days”.  We finished off the night how we have most nights, and that is we all snuggle up and watch episodes of Modern Family online.

On Wednesday we drove to Oceanside with intentions on surfing but when we saw the monstrous waves that day we decided to settle for boogie boarding and body surfing.  We felt a little embarrassed, it was like we were fruit booting instead of skateboarding but it was a great time and I do have to mention that it was a balmy 30 degrees!!  We played and read our books all day then headed to the San Diego Temple.  The next day we hit up Huntington Beach and let cancer sizzle upon us in another day of 30 degree weather.  We would play in that water until the salt got to us and then we threw a football around and just hung out.  I have no complaints about beach life, but Jeff is worried his fingertips are getting too soft from all the water that they wont be able to climb as hard…he is a cutie.  After we went shopping at Irvine Spectrum (a big outdoor mall) and then came home to get ready for Knotts “scary” farm.  It is a big theme park but all decked out for Halloween.  There aqre people everywhere dressed up more creepy then you could imagine and they walk around and scare you.  The scariest ones were ones with knee sliders on and they would run up and slide at you and the sliding would create sparks everywhere.  The other scary ones were these creepy clowns with chainsaws that would chase you.  Needless to say I hated life that whole night.  There were a bunch of rides that were a blast and they also had mazes that were so terribly scary with people everywhere scaring you.  It is crazy how big Halloween is in the states.  We left the park around 1:00 am then went to norms (which is like Denny’s) and feasted.  On Friday we finished up this part of the trip at six flags with Beau and Chase.  We had some pretty hilarious moments there.  However Jeff has learned on this trip that he gets really motion sickness! We left the park around 10:30 then went to In and Out Burger.  Eventhough it felt like we didn’t make it to bed before 2:00 am once..it was the greatest time and we made so many fun memories!  Now we just arrived in Vegas and are ready to climb hard! Hope everyone is well and we miss you all very much! Happy Halloween!
We aplologize there are no pictures..we left the camera in california and it is getting mailed here! They are coming soon.

Good times in Cali part 1

Oct 20- Oct 24

We have spent the last 10 days in Anaheim California and we were fortunate enough to be able to stay with Jeff’s good buddies Beau Lawler and Chase Greep.  I don’t even know where to start to explain how much fun we had with them and all the cool things we were able to do.  We arrived in Anaheim in the evening of October 20 and started our stay there with a big yehaaw at a line dancing club.  Jeff and I were thinking “sweet a little country place with a few old people line dancing…we know how to line dance, we grew up in Calgary”.  Well this was no Cadillac ranch my friends.  The DJ would call out a dance and everyone would flock to the floor and like robots everyone knew what they were doing, minus the clueless Canadians.  These dances weren’t just your average country line dancing, it was like hip hop with crazy spins, jumps, booty shakes, and all sorts of things that were foreign to us.  It felt like in the movies where everyone is at the prom or something and then all the sudden everyone knows a choreographed dance.  The coolest part was that they had couples dances to..too bad Jeff and I were focusing so hard on our footwork we couldn’t actually enjoy that we were not at a nightclub and we weren’t surrounded by freaky naughty things going on.  The next day we recuperated from our humiliating skills on the dance floor and went climbing at the Riverside Quarry for Jeff’s birthday (no surprise he chose to climb on his bday).  The rock itself was awesome and the climbing was great but it was kind of hard to get over the fact that we were in the middle of a local dump.  I struggled belaying cause I swear there were rats lurking around.  In the night we went to Beau and Chase’s favorite Vietnamese place called Pho and topped the night off with a hilarious game of catch phrase.  The next morning we went shopping at the outlets a bit then went to the Santa Monica pier and Venice beach. It wasn’t the hottest of days so we just walked along the beach down to Muscle Beach and checked out the stores and street shops. We came home to Beau, Chase, their roommates, and a bunch of pumpkins ready to be carved.  The competition was more intense then I thought it would be so Jeff and I pulled out our A game and made an epic spider web with a spider on it.  Unfortunately those Californians were biased and Beau won with a mediocre presentation of a Harry potter pumpkin.  On Saturday the 23^rd we went to Universal Studios, and I don’t know what was better- actually being on the rides, or looking at the pictures of Jeff’s face after.  We went on the tour of where the filming is and saw some of the sets from movies and TV shows and that was really cool to do.  The next day we had a full day of fun with Beau and Chase.  We started the morning with a pancake breakfast then went and played an extreme tennis game.  After we came home and played a big game of dunk ball with their roommates Johnny and Erick then cooled off in the pool.  We drove into Temeculeh to have dinner with the Greeps and then played a very entertaining game of guesstures.  The best part was when it was chases mom’s turn..she was pretty comical watching.

Yosemite = Hard and Humbling

                                                            The 2 Jeffs's Looking at El Cap

                                                              A king swing we decided to play on

                                                                      A nice tree belay

                                                              Jeff in sending mode

                                                                The Giant sequoia

                                                         ...i think we have a bit of gear?

                                                              A view of the beautiful valley!

We arrived in Yosemite on Wednesday the 13 late at night...or early morning and slept in our car for a few hours then at around 5:00 am we woke up to wait at the camp 4 registration booth till 8:30.  We were told from several people that if you want a spot you have to get there super early, so that’s what we did.  Because we had driven into the valley in the dark, when the sun rose on Thursday morning we were in awe of how massive the mountains were and how beautiful the scenery was.  We set up camp and with high hopes and very little sleep we did our very first TRUE crack climb at the church bowl.  We figured we would start on some easy single pitch and very quickly we learned that nothing was easy.  We started on a 5.8 layback crack and Jeff took a good 15 foot fall on a lovely nut (small protection that you slide into a crack) and it was exciting to say the least!  We moved onto a 10.a crack that Jeff onsighted (climbed top to bottom with no falls or takes on the first try) and I surprisingly did as well.  At around 2:00 it was getting too hot for our very redheaded friend Jeff Runions to climb without frying himself so we took a drive around the valley and conversed over a cold pop!  After the first day we were super confident that we would be able to do a big wall so we hiked over to El Capitan and sat in silence admiring the 3000 ft clean face with the sunset glow beaming on it.  We mapped out our route then headed back to camp for dinner.  Camp 4 had such a neat feeling to it.  We were surrounded by some of the strongest climbers (including Kevin Jorgeson), and people from all over the world.  Everybody is super friendly and we made really good friends with 4 guys that stayed at our campsite as well.  On Friday we woke up early to get first dibs on a Multi Pitch named Frenzi- a 5 pitch 5.9.  We climbed with a girl named Anika we met in Smith rock and we quickly learned that she was the only one who had climbed crack before.  My whole life I have never been known to be slow..but I was seriously a turtle in molasses getting up this thing.  We decided to bail off at the start of the 4^th pitch because there were some pretty adequate climbers below us waiting at every anchor.  The repel off was super fun and we still had some confidence that it would get easier, so we had lunch then went to swan slabs and climbed a 5.9.  It’s a hard thing digressing from 5.12’s to 5.9’s (which we normally warm up on) which made our egos  pretty sore so the next day we did a 5.7 multi pitch and I had a blast on it.  At this point our optimism toward climbing El Cap was diminishing fast, but at least we were having a fun time with everybody at the campsite. On Monday we “attempted” a 3 pitch 5.10a splitter crack that required handjams (jamming our fist into cracks and crying cause it hurts) Jeff jammed out a send on the first pitch but we were shut down after the second pitch.  Okay, so now our big wall balloon was completely depleted and Jeff, Jeff and I sat there on Monday afternoon debating our level of adequacy to get up this monster.  Unfortunately it came out a no for many reasons, a) we have never aid climbed b) we are getting tormented on 5.9’s , and c)bad weather was rolling in.  After much debate we decided to blame our inability to climb a big wall on the “weather” so we packed up our things and headed west…we didn’t know where west but we were going to the ocean.  On Monday night we stopped in Monterey CA and now we are making our way down the beaches of the California coast.  We feel a little ashamed/guilty that we only stayed a week in the crack climbing mecca of the world, but we learned a valuable lesson : we are sport climbers. We leave Yosemite with the positives...it was the most stunning mountain valley, the campground was so diverse in culture, and we planted a seed for what we might be able to do years down the road.