I was giggling. So was Tali. We were in a tent at Devil’s Lake State Park, Wisconsin and it was late at night. We both had traveled pretty far that day, she from Colorado and I from California so maybe we were overly tired. Or maybe we were having flashbacks to being in Girl Scouts….
Continue Reading“Won’t it be hot?” That was the number one question I got from people when I told them I was going to The Gorge as part of an extended weekend trip in August. The answer is, it was, but not necessarily where we went. Climbing Day 1 The first full day of climbing started early…
Continue ReadingDay 6 – 7/15 The Parade of climbers continued on Wednesday. Peter, Jamie and I started off by getting a Wilderness permit and going to Ellery Lake to do a 5.9 there but had to leave early to meet up again with the rest of the gang and new arrivals. We rendezvoused with Cliff and…
Continue ReadingDay 3 &4 – 7/12, 7/13 “Whoa! Hey!” It was around 4 in the morning but I knew what that yelling meant — a bear. That’s how Sunday started. With a mighty shake of the truck and a bang of a box (the bear was scared off quickly and didn’t get anything luckily) at a…
Continue ReadingDespite a stomach sinking prologue to my trip, I was excited to go out to Tuolumne again and this time to add a stop to climb near the Whitney Portal. The Plan was pretty complicated, aside from two nights outside of Tuolumne, Peter and I were in charge of procuring a campsite for a number…
Continue Reading“I’m sick to my stomach,” K was telling me. Mine wasn’t doing too well either. It was Thursday, July 9, a day before my departure date for a 9 day climbing trip and I was just getting the news that our trad rack of gear was possibly donated to a local charity who would have…
Continue ReadingAugust – September 2008 This was to be my second time at the summit of Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States standing at 14,505 feet. Was I nervous? Not really. I was a little apprehensive about the part where I’d be carrying not only my climbing gear but my backpacking gear…
Continue ReadingI went on another one night/one day climbing/shopping trip to the 5.10 Outlet and Joshua Tree National Park last Friday – Saturday. Deciding to go on the trip was last minute. I had work I wanted to get done so I didn’t truly decide I was going to go with my friend until late Thursday…
Continue ReadingLast Friday I finally got to go to the 5.10 Outlet store in California. My local climber friends and I had been hearing about this shop for awhile and we talked about stopping by on our way to Joshua Tree, but there was always this one catch… It’s only open on Fridays, it’s only open…
Continue Reading“You’ll have too much drag!” Dave shouted up to Luis, who was scouting around a round cap formation near the top of a trad climb on Chimney Rock. As his belayer, I was standing in a position about 50 feet below and to the left of Luis, unable to see what was going on. I…
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