Hooray for new places! I’ve been wanting to go to Ireland (the climbing area on Lemmon) for some time now, but the weather wasn’t right for it. But with the valley heating up, it was perfect. So Patrick and I set out for the new place full of 9s and 10s.
We got to the parking area, took a wrong turn and ended up off trail and going backwards hahaha but after about 20min of hilarious un-losing ourselves, we found the climbers trail. 30min later we were at the crag.
We had hoped to get on the 8 and 9 towards the left of the crag, Luckily Unlucky to Belfast Breakfast, but a group was there already and they had sort of posted up. So we walked to the far right of the crag to warm up on Tullamore Dew (5.8). Patrick led it, and I followed and cleaned. Patrick offered for me to lead it, but I wasn’t really feeling it. Which was disappointing considering how I bailed the day before on 90 Days. But it was whatever, I cleaned on top and we moved to the next route.
The group was still on those routes, so we went to the 10s. I really wanted to feel good about these routes, but they just weren’t there for me. I lead Irish Inche (5.10a) until the crux, where I was not confident in the move to right below the 4th bolt. I let Patrick have a go at it and he eventually got it. I was pissed at myself for the lack of commitment. But it is what it is. It’s been a low mental health week so this was about on par for how things were going.
We cleaned, were in relatively good spirits, and drove down the mountain (with a quick stop at the Dipping Hole).
Low productivity day but good to spend it with someone I care about.
Short post. Bri invited us all to go out to Crags so her friend could get some pics for a journaling project. Very lowkey easy time on the usual routes.
I wanted to go up to 90 Days, so Bri and I went up there, and I got to the first bolt and just felt off. Like I didn’t know what was wrong, but I knew I wasn’t gonna get the route for some reason. I bailed, which sucked. But better to bail than to not and seriously regret it or get hurt.
So that hurt the soul a lil bit. But its okay. I’ll see it again. Feel good about it.
After we cleaned up we all went down the mountain and had a quick lil skinny dip at the Dipping Hole. Good time. Saw a snake. Pretty cool.
Overall a not productive afternoon but still a good time.
We got a group of 8 of us together to run the Upper Canyon section (from the put in to just past Mescal Falls) of the Salt on a Saturday. It was four of us senior staff (Dan, Bri, Pat, and myself) with four promising freshies (Luis, David, Brooke, and Mikaela). Drove up Friday afternoon, made camp, and had a super relaxed and fun evening. Next morning we got up, got the paddle raft and shredder ready, set shuttle, and got on the river.
Pat and Dan were in the shredder, while the rest of us were in the paddle boat. It was pretty interesting to see Bri go into total raft guide mode. I can learn a lot from her. She guided all the more technical stuff, and I got on stick for a good bit. I’d never done it before, and even though I made some mistakes (watch for sleepers! paddle in the water!) I really got the hang of it and did pretty alright! Of course, theres still plenty to learn, so bring on summer!
The day ran super smoothly, the weather was perfect and warm, and we had fun playing river games and messing around. Good times with friends. Love it.
90 Days in the Hole, you were a ride. My first 5.10b outside. Getting on you the first time, just filled with a determination. So much respect and awe for the beautiful route. I felt strong. I felt out of my league but I felt challenged, appropriately.
I got on this route probably 30 times since I started it over a year ago. Each climb was a learning experience. A new beta, a new hold, change of plans, so many falls, so much pump. But each time I was happy to do it.
I climbed it to the top so many times, but I wanted a clean lead. And I finally got it. I am so happy with it. For a long time, I just wanted to finish it, wrap it up, put it to bed. Be done with it. A now I am.
But maybe not. I don’t think I wanna say goodbye to this route just yet.
Lake Mojave! Finally, we got to get up there. Clif, Laurel, David, Patrick, and myself were up there to play around and for David and I to get our Advanced and Rescue Diver certs.
What a cool fuckin place!! It’s right on the border of AZ and NV so its veerrry desert, like hot, dry, Fallout New Vegas kind desert. But the weather was really playing in our favor, so it wasn’t too bad.
Saturday morning after camping out we got gear together at Cabin Site and hopped in the water. As we were swimming out to the buoy, I looked down past my feet. Past my feet!!! WOW! I’m so used to Lake Pleasant which has horrible visibility and it so full of trash and sadness. But Mojave was beautiful!! Like 40ft of visibility!!! I wanted to cry, it was so cool. And this is still nothing compared to the ocean!! We did a lil tour of the lake, and I was blown away. It was so damn pretty, just to see each other floating through the clear water, plants swaying below us. It was like I was flying. We saw a bunch of fish, kinda kelp stuff, algae. I cannot express how stoked I was on it. When we surfaced I was chattering with happiness.
Then we got back into the business of it. David was my buddy, and Patrick was Laurel’s. We worked through a navigation dive and a mapping dive first.
During the mapping dive, David and I did a back and forth grid system. After the first lap, I saw a sort of drop-off, shelf kind thing just outside our grid. As we got close to it, I suddenly realized what it actually was - a BUS!! A sunken school bus! It was put there on purpose for divers to play with. I was so surprised! Nevertheless, we moved on and finished our mapping. Success!! Next for the navigation, we took a bearing and headed out and back from it. As we swam further out, it was getting slightly murkier and darker. I could feel my heartbeat start to pickup, and I could feel myself getting more anxious. I thought we did 25 kick cycles? Why haven’t we gotten there yet? It’s getting darker, I can’t see. Is that a tree? I could feel the panic coming. So I stopped. I took a slow, deep breathe. I collected myself. Then I turned to David, and signed for us to turn around. We swam back exactly how we were supposed to, and surfaced. It was a successful dive in that we didn’t get lost, overshoot, or anything (Laurel said we were maybe 15ft off from the target). I was upset at myself for feeling the panic, but I was happy that I managed it. The Lake Pleasant experience really shook me, but I’m slowly getting over it.
We wrapped up the dives until that evening, where we would do a night dive. So we took the afternoon to ourselves, having a beer or two, eating lots, laying in the sun, napping, just relaxing. It was beautiful. Just to be in each other’s company, at peace with life.
After we recharged, we headed back to Cabin Site and prepped for the night dive. David and I were up first, and I told Clif, “I’m feeling okay. But I know there is the possibility of me not being okay. I just want to let you know. I’m gonna do my best though.” And he was very understanding. With that, we headed down, glow sticks on tanks and flashlights in hand. First up, we went to the bus to get a good look at it. I hung back slightly, knowing that I needed that. We swam all over it, getting a good look (especially at the fake skeleton in the front seat! How morbid!!). I was careful to not kick up sediment, so I wouldn’t freak myself out with the murkiness. Then we went on, looking around for more stuff. Found another sunken pirate skeleton, dive hoops to swim through (which I nailed!), and a van! All very cool stuff, and I was very calm, cool, and collected. We surfaced, and I could not have been happier with that dive. After we had our fun, we packed up shop and went back to the campsite, stuffing ourselves with beer and food, exhausted from the long day of diving.
Next morning, same dealio heading to Cabin Site. First dive of the day was a deep dive. We all went down together, following the bottom until we got to 80’. It was still sooooo clear. At one point we passed a sunken Christmas tree, and Clif and I looked at each other, gave an ‘okay?’ and had a good laugh. We got to our turn around point, and messed around with some math problems on a slate. Nitrogen narcosis anyone!! I could barely multiply! It was pretty funny. We wrapped it up, ascended, had a good laugh.
Next dives were rescue dives and a search dive. Found more boats, I was the dive leader, and we just generally had a good, easy time with them. After it all, we wrapped it up, cleaned up gear, high fives, and got back on the road to Tucson.
What a phenomenal trip though. I challenged myself, saw so many cool things, experienced the beautiful Lake Mojave, and just generally absolutely performed. I’m proud of myself. And now ya girl is a certified Rescue Diver and Advanced Scuba Diver!! Wahoo!!!
Lake Mojave is a great place in AZ to dive. Gotta go back!
I am improving as a diver. I am consistently challenging myself, learning, pushing my boundaries, and getting better with every dive. I am proud of myself.
It feels like its been ages since I’ve lead a climbing trip. But it still is fun every time. This trip we took 7 participants out to Alcatraz Wall at Prison Camp. It was a super solid group, Bri and I were a great team, and it was a beautiful day. Plus we told dad jokes with a fellow guide, so that was awesome.
It was a solid day, and I seriously cannot believe this is my life. So much damn gratitude.
Efficient rope transfers for the win at this wall. Great for trips. Not a great area for hot weather though.
Bri seriously looks up to me as a climber. I am so happy to provide confidence and knowledge, and to have her as a friend.
I’ve been trying to kick this cold for a week. I’m finally on the tail end of it, so I figured the best way to purge the demon was to exercise it (lol get it. like exorcise).
So I biked up Mount Lemmon. Gotta love that suffer fest. I decided to get up to Windy Point then ride down.
I don’t know why I do this to myself, bc it truly sucks like every single moment. But holy shit that ride down is something to behold. Downhill riding with good views, going 40mph. What an adrenaline rush.
While I’m going up, I can’t stop thinking “Wow I am never doing this again.” But then once I’m back at my car, I can’t help but think, “okay when am I gonna get to do this again.”
What a fucking phenomenal weekend. Bri, Patrick, and I initially planned to go out climbing on Sat night and spend Sunday climbing. But once we got to my house to leave, we all just kinda agreed that the weather wasn’t exactly gonna feel great for camping, so we were just gonna make curry and watch movies at my house. What a great plan, bc we had a beautiful night and they both stayed over.
After some phenomenal breakfast burritos, we lazily headed out to the mountain. On our drive up, we got to our fave lil swimming hole, and of course climbed down into it, and skinny dipped for a bit. So great. We wanna go back there and have a picnic and swim on a hot day, before the semester is over.
After we dried off, we drove to Prison Camp to climb at Boot Hill. We sent the steep and chossy ascent until we got to a corner with a couple easy climbs. We did Bloody Mary (5.7) and Obsessed Driller (5.8). Easy money warmup routes. We ate our curry leftovers for lunch, and Bri was done climbing for the day so she took some sick pics! At this point, I started to feel kinda sick. Like lethargic, headache, etc. I knew something was coming (I definitely got sick that week, a nasty cold). But it was whatever.
I belayed Patrick on this sick 5.10a/b, Spinal Arc. What an intense start! Patrick topped the first few hard moves and then led the rest of it. I don’t necessarily have a desire to do that route on anything other than top bc those first 3 bolts are the crux and ground fall is a high potential, or at least a shitty catch/fall into your belayed. So Pat cleaned it and we headed up the trail to the last climb of the day, and my favorite of the area: Going (5.10d).
I could feel myself coming down with whatever it was, but my my mind was determined to get up this route. There was a couple there that we were able to use their rope to set up the route to toprope it. I got on it, and at first it was a little messy as I remembered the sequence from last time, but soon I was back into the motion and the flow. I forgot about feeling gross, and worked through the moves. It was way easier than the last time I did it (where I would sit for a long time, trying to work through the moves). Of course, it was physically demanding, but the moves were there and I felt confident in them. Once I lowered off of it, I immediately wanted to climb it again, as I was still riding the high of finishing it (even though I hung a couple times) and feeling strong. So Patrick did a run of it (can you say back muscles lmao thats my man) and did great. He had to stop and work through a couple of the sections, which was great to see how he did them differently than me.
Once he finished, I tied in again and got on the route, and fully fucking sent it!!!! No falls!! It felt SO DAMN GOOD. All of the moves were flowey, strong, and calculated. Everything about it was so great. I talked myself through the whole thing. “Don’t use that hold, you know it’s bad.” “You’re at the crux but use this hold, this heel hook, and you are okay.” “Don’t blow it now, just be smart about these next moves.” “Rest. Breathe. Focus.” It was absolutely amazing. What a flow and happy time.
We left at sunset, Bri peed her pants from laughing so hard after she slipped, and we all cried from laughter.
These people are my home. I love them endlessly.
I want to lead Going. I can do it. And I can put to rest 90 Days. I am physically and mentally strong enough for it - I just have to do it.
God I love mountain biking. Today, Bri, me, and her dad took their nice bikes out to Honeybee. Wowza does a full suspension bike feel great!!
It felt super great to feel confident and cruisey in what we were doing, and to even have the confidence to try a few lil hops and jumps out of ditches and ramps. Hooray more confidence!!
My only thing I really wanna work on is endurance. The fact that I have relatively low endurance really shows itself here in mountain biking land. I can always keep up and don’t worry, but boy howdy do those uphill sections really whoop me. Endurance is still a thing for all my sports, so I really gotta be working on it. Maybe I’ll get into swimming more. It’s kinda ridiculous how bad I am at cardio lmao but that means there’s room for improvement!!
This was a short lil thing for our PCIA cert. We had to go to a site we’d never been before and do an eval for it. Would we climb here, would we bring participants, etc. We went to Oro Valley and checked out Rattlesnake Pass, both the Corridor and Roadside Crag. After looking at it, we decided it was kinda a shit area. Really chossy, hard to access anchors, and the routes were definitely less than ideal for anyone we would bring out there. I wouldn’t bring clients there- I wouldn’t even climb there myself.
One bright side of the trip was getting to check out a new area, the great weather, doing it with Patrick and Devon, and finding a cool set of animal bones that we pieced together (maybe a baby deer?)
My spring break consisted of PCIA Training. That is, Professional Climbing Instructor Association, both Base Managed System and Top Managed System. Wahoo!!! Official certified! It’s a super similar thing to the AMGA cert, but its less focused on the mountaineering and guiding and more on climbing instruction for clients. Which I’m stoked on! Love those certs!
Every day we built on the last, and we out from early in the morning until the afternoon or evening. I learned soooooo much!!! It was phenomenal to just spend days and days talking rope systems, safety, redundancy, trad gear, placing gear, building trad and natural anchors, rescues, pick offs, counter balance ascents, and so much more. We mostly played around at the Practice Walls at Windy but there was so much to offer there it was great.
There’s so much I learned I wish I wrote this sooner
Holy hell - what a weekend!! Redemption!! We had been debating what we wanted to do for spring break for weeks, and weather was not playing in our favor. But at the last minute, Bri suggested rafting the Salt River near Globe. It was where they went a few weeks ago (the one I couldn’t get on) and we were told we could use the rafts for a personal trip!
So Bri, Daniel, Clif, Patrick, and myself bought permits and robbed food from OA. The best trips are the ones that are pulled together at the last minute, of course.
Come Friday, we skipped our classes and pulled gear together, incredibly excited for the whitewater gar that awaited us. We left in the early afternoon, in our separate cars. Also, Jill tagged along at the last minute! We were stoked to have her! Patrick and I, Bri and Dan, and Clif and Jill a few hours behind. Great music and even better conversations for the ride.
The four of us got to our put in camp (at the junction of the Salt and US Hwy 60), and Pat and Dan left to go set shuttle while Bri and I set up what we could, and played cards waiting for Clif and Jill to arrive with the rest of the gear. Once they did, we set up the rafts and got the gear together. By the time Pat and Dan got back, we were almost completely done. So, naturally, beers were cracked, and cards were played for hours and hours into the night. The best games were Asshole and Bullshit. It was great to tell Clif to drink for a dumb pun, or to get Pat back from a previous round, or when we would all gang up on someone only for it to backfire in the next round when they became the president and made us all drink relentlessly. Eventually, we all went to bed, sides aching from laughter, stumbling over ourselves, and looking up at the stars from our sleeping bags.
Next morning, we got up easy, had an oatmeal coffee breakfast, and brought our gear down to the put in on the Salt. We had 2 oars boats and Daniel’s shredder (El Torrito!!) Right away, I was on the oars with Clif behind me, coaching me through it. I had about 3 minutes to practice with the oars before we were immediately in a rapid. Boy howdy. That was a time. I barely got us through it. My adrenaline was pumping and I was scared. Made it though. I stayed on the oars and was Very Slowly getting the hang of the oars. But man, it was hard.
I had one really sad thought while going down the river. “Can I do this? Can I raft this summer? Am I gonna have to go back to camp?” It was a very quick, short, and depressing thought. In that moment, I was exhausted and incredibly frustrated. I would do one thing, expecting something, and getting the complete opposite. I could not get the hang of it. I didn’t understand the pointing towards the danger then pulling away. I didn’t get the difference between pushing and pulling and its effect on the boat. I could get the boat bow on in a rapid. I was just so fuckin disheartened. And I had that thought. Honestly, I’m ashamed that I did. Why did I get so put down so quickly? I immediately recognized this and thought about it a bit longer - this was my second time rafting. why should I expect myself to be good at this right away? No one is! I cannot get so discouraged so easily! - So after that I reflected within myself and felt renewed. Then I started to get the hang of it. I would talk thought literally everything I was doing. I was talking through and saying out loud everything going through my head, and if I was wrong Clif would gently correct me. As I headed into the rapids, things were going well and I was getting it. It felt amazing. When things got too spicy, I could ask Clif for beta, or if I felt bad about something, I could call his name and he would slide down into the chair and navigate. One time during a rapid I fell doing into the boat, out of the seat, and I head Clif, like the voice of god, calmly say from behind me, “back up into the seat.” The motivation and reminder I needed lol! Throughout day 1, I was able to work through mostly Class II and a couple Class III rapids. We had lunch at a sandy eddy, drank a few beers, and relaxed. It started drizzling but it was kinda whatever - we were wet anyway!
Afterwards, we headed onto the water again, towards the next rapid, The Ledges (III-IV). I was feeling nervous as I oared towards the series of big holes. Clif reminded me from behind, “You need to take this bow on. Punch through each hole.” I understood, and pushed toward the growing sound of rushing and crashing water. We met the first hole, and I punched through, taking them on one by one. But then the last hole, the big fucking mama. I pushed the oars, attempting to push through the waves, getting tired. At the last second, I realized I push just a hair too hard with my right oar. This tilted us just enough so we weren’t bow on. And we didn’t punch through. The next 10 seconds were some of the scariest I’ve felt in a while: I felt our gear boat get sucked backwards, water rushing in the back. I tried to pull back into my seat, and the oar keeper broke. At that moment, I knew we were getting fucked. I cried out, “clif HELP!” But Clif was hanging out the back, having been bucked off. I pushed and pushed, filling with dread, afraid of losing the boat or swimming. Clif scrambled into the seat, “START BAILING!” I grab the bucket, and Clif (a goddamn master of the water, I’m pretty sure he’s the son of Poseidon) starts working us out of danger. We made it out, and oared away.
I was SHAKEN. My heart was racing and I just had to collect myself and sit behind Clif, letting him paddle for a bit. After about 20 min of debriefing, learning from mistakes, and calming down, I got back on the oars. The rest of the day, I continued on, working through what I could and taking that experience and putting it towards every following rapid.
Finally, at the end of the day, a little bit past Gleason Flats, we got to camp. It was a beautiful, fairy-like, grassy field. Once we got into warm clothes, we built a fire, made some margaritas, and made camp calzones over the stove. After plenty of drinks, story telling, and laughter, we fell asleep.
Day 2! Today, we played musical boats. I was on El Torrito with Dan, Pat and Bri were on the small oar boat, and Clif and Jill were on the big oars. We would be taking on some big class rapids today. A bunch of Class IV and Class III stuff. After a pancake breakfast we packed up and geared up the boats. Not gonna lie, I was nervous at the prospect of taking on Class IVs in the shredder. We would be way more exposed and susceptible to the waves. More chance of swimming, which is not ideal for IVs. We would scout each one, but it was still intimidating. Nevertheless, we were in it, and headed towards Eye of the Needle (III-IV). Bring it on. And boy did we. We made it through, navigating the massive ledge and even bigger hole. We punched through on the nimble torrito and were stoooked. My nervousness dissipated as we headed towards rapid after rapid, until we got to the next IV: Black Rock.
At this point, we got out and scouted it. Dan and I arrived a couple minutes after the others, and we passed their two oars boats tied up to get to ours. I started scrambling towards the lookout, when I head Pat and Bri shouting down to Dan and I frantically. I had no idea what was going on, until I looked over my shoulder and saw a boat. AN OAR BOAT. CLIFS GEAR BOAT. It had somehow loosed from its bowline, and was headed towards the Class IV. We had an unintentional ghost boat. I ran up to the lookout to watch the expected carnage. I realized that Clif was gone - he had immediately scrambled down the rock face, towards the rapid, incredibly fast. Bri, Dan, Pat, Jill, and I all watched as the boat floated towards the rock, sideways (where Clif had just remarked, “dear god don’t hit it sideways or you’re done.”). “It’s fucked.” But at the last possible second, by some act of the gods, the boat teed up! It hit the rapid straight on! Made it through! And before we knew it, we saw Clif jumping off a cliff (heheh) into the water, and he swam into the boat, and eddied it. We all whooped and hollered! No lost boat today!! Well, now it was our turn. My heart was racing as we got into the boat, Dan and I fist bumped, and we had our line picked out. And we ran it. Perfectly! I was getting the hang of the shredder now. We continued on through a few IIs and IIIs over the next few hours, enjoying ourselves. The Maze (IV) ran next, and again, Daniel and I nailed it. We only had 2 more IVs left for the trip.
But these last two were the big mamas of the river. Quartzite Falls immediately followed by Corkscrew. We rocked up the Quartzite, and sized it up. Dan and I picked a line, knowing that the big fall into a hole and rooster tail was not ideal for our lil boat. I had a pit in my stomach, but we had a plan and we were gonna do it. We were the last ones to send it, as we were the most likely to swim (el torrito can only do so much for us), so the other two boats were waiting at the bottom, before the start of Corkscrew. Dan and I headed into it, albeit not as confident as we would have liked. We started a hair too far right (towards the giant hole), but narrowly missed the hole. We dug our paddles in furiously, trying to pull away from the hole and the rooster tail. My side of the boat got jostled and I slipped into the boat. I quickly got up, but in the mayhem, that movement unbalanced me, and the next wave we hit launched me out of the side of the boat, and like a teeter totter Dan went out the other side. Now we were both swimmers. This was the moment I had been afraid of for so long. As I first went under, there was a moment of “oh shit” but immediately after that, time slowed down, and I went full zen. It felt like an eternity of being underwater, but I was not afraid, I was just ready to surface, whenever that would be. I plugged my nose, recognized that I still had my paddle in hand, and that I was moving towards light and sound. I surfaced! Immediately, I looked around and saw my boat. I swam towards it, and grabbed on. I tried to haul myself up in, but realized that would take too long, and I was quickly approaching Corkscrew. Priority, get out of the current. I saw Dan, “It’s okay, we’re fine.” That calmed me slightly. Apparently, as he swam towards me, I had a look on my face of “absolute determination.” I pulled the boat sideways out of the current, towards the bank above Corkscrew towards a waiting Bri and Patrick. I erupted in a “yeewww!!” of joy, which Bri responded to int he same way. I was full of adrenaline, stoked that I survived my first swim. A Salt River baptism. Clif joined us, and we all had a minute of chattering away about what had just occurred before we refocused on Corkscrew below us. After looking, Clif went ahead with Jill and sent it. Dan and I were next, full of stoke. We absolutely rocked it. It was one of the longest rapids and I could feel myself tiring near the end but we pulled through, ecstatic that we survived a day of Class IVs in the shredder. The next hour was spent paddling downriver, drinking and crushing cans until we got just past Horseshoe Bend and made camp on a hard rock outcropping.
We all tied off the boats, got out of our wet clothes, made a solid fire, and started on dinner. As I was chopping veggies, Dan was cutting up limes. I asked, “ooh are the limes for margaritas?” And Dan enthusiastically responded, “yeah, and the shots you and I are about to take.” And that really set us up for the evening. We all managed to crush several shots each and overall an entire bottle of tequila. It was another solid night spent will full bellies, endless laughter, and the feeling of absolute success as we laid out under the Milky Way and slept well.
The next day was our final day on the river. This day would be short, and easy peasy. Unfortunately, we had gone through all of our beer. But fortunately, we still had knockoff Bailey’s to throw in our coffee. After the easy morning, we loaded up for the last time, again playing musical boats. This time, it was Dan and Bri in the shredder, Clif and Jill in the big oar boat, and Patrick and I in the smaller oar boat. Patrick and I switched off oaring every once in a while, taking on Class IIs as we talked and talked among other things. I was super happy to be back on the oars and to have Patrick being positive and supportive as I worked through the rapids. Hooray for confidence on oars! After a few hours of a slow float down river, I was oaring us towards our pullout. Here, it is crucial to not miss the pullout because the is no other option afterward expect for a waterfall (to definitely NOT go over!). As we pulled up, I would feel the current working against what I wanted. Everyone was on shore, calling out to Patrick and I in support and cheers. And I absolutely NAILED IT. I finessed the boat exactly where I wanted it to go, and was gassed the fuck up after I did so. Dan remarked that no one would be able to guess it was only my second river trip ever, I did so well. One of the greatest compliments ever.
Pat, Dan, and Clif left Jill, Bri, and me to unrig and breakdown gear while they left to get our shuttle cars. Jill was pretty much there for moral support as Bri and I cranked it out, working hard and eating spoonfuls of leftover spaghetti out of the pot every so often. But she did surprise us with a could minis of Tito’s! So Bri and I had margaritas to help us out! After about 3 hours of hard work, the boys came back, and with beer! I played my throwback playlist over a speaker and we all jammed out and destroyed the entire 18 pack in about 30 minutes. Bri and I went hard (lol we weren’t the ones driving) and were sufficiently feelin it by the time we loaded up in the cars to go to Judy’s, a lil diner in Globe.
We were all so slap happy and loving life that that old rundown diner seemed like the most perfect place in the world. Our laughter could be heard probably from down the street. At the table, before our food came out, we all went through mountain, valley, flower as a reflection of the weekend and all we accomplished. At the end of it all, we felt incredibly happy to be with one another, and an air of content surrounded us. We paid our bills, and started the drive back home.
After a super great drive home (*ahem*), we got to OA and worked as a team to get the gear squared away. We finished up, did a shoutout circle (Pat, Bri, Dan, and I did) and went our separate ways home, still feeling the rocking of the boats as we slept.
Highlights and good things: New hozier music came out for the car ride up! Drunken card games on night one. “drinkassholedrinkassholedrinkasshole!!!” Puns for dayssss. Three 30-racks and a bottle of tequila! Getting the hang of oars on day 1. Star tripping!! Bringing bocce balls and not actually playing it ever. Clif pulling a Jack Sparrow run and scramble to get his boat. “This looks questionable to me!” “This is sub-optimal!”. PBR at the pullout. At Judy’s, twerking in the bathroom, drunk as shit with Bri. Clif: “I hope that my kids are like you guys someday.”
Learning oars. Everything I could about them. Pulling is stronger than pushing, taking things at an angle, pulling away from danger, spin to win, bow on, punch through, its a game of chess so plan 3 moves ahead, don’t get stuck in the present or the past, focus on what’s coming.
I can guide this summer. I am more than capable, and I am strong enough to face the challenges and amazing times this summer will bring.
So Patrick and I have not been climbing outside for a hot minute, and we have also been super interested in trying out some trad stuff. For this reason, we decided to head up the mountain to Crags Against Humanity and Prison Camp to work on some stuff.
It was only once we were at the base of the mountain, facing a line of barricades and flashing lights did we realize that the snow (!!!) from last Friday dumped a lot on the mountain. So, the road was closed. Big bwomp bwomp.
New plan: Milagrosa. So we made a right and headed towards the canyon. After about a 5 minute drive, we came to the parking area for Milly. And it was PACKED. Of course, every climber that went out to the mountain on this beautiful day got sent away and went to the canyon. I don’t know why we didn’t think of this.
Still no deterred, we started our hike to the Main Wall. After 20min of walking down the private road, we came across the stream. Which was now quite flowing. Because I was expecting a chilly day, I was wearing my hiking boots. Not ideal for river crossings. But, we had a way to go, and would require multiple crossings, through rough rock. I was not stoked on the prospect of barefoot, so unfortunately, the boots were getting soaked. It was a decent time, and we eventually got to the Main Wall.
More bad news. It was soaked. Again, something we should have anticipated. Plus there were no other climbers around?? But then we looked across the canyon (to the sunny side!!!) there were SO Many climbers. They were the smart ones. So by this point, it had been a few hours of hiking around and navigating water to get to a wall that was not climbable. Huge bummer. We were both kinda over it, and decided that today was just not our day, and we hiked out.
In terms of climbing, today was a failure. But quite honestly, it was still a fun time. I always love being around Patrick, shooting the shit, etc etc so even though we didn’t get climbing done, I was still happy to have gotten some time out with a great person.
It doesn’t always turn out in the way that you want or expect it to. But that doesn’t mean it was a failure.
I am always happy to climb. I am always happy to climb. I am always happy to climb.
I tell myself this desperately this weekend. I had told Devon a week or so ago that I was available to co-lead on her WILO (Women’s Initiative for Leadership in the Outdoors) climbing trip. This WILO thing is basically Dev’s workshop thing where a handful of women meet up, she teaches them skills for a certain outdoor activity (such as climbing, backpacking, and paddling), and then they go on a trip that pertains to that activity. This month’s was climbing.
I am really not being conceited, but I am one of the most competent climbers in OA. I would say the others include Clif and Patrick, and Zaynah. But because its a Women’s thing, Dev wanted a woman to help her. So, it came down to me as a first choice. Which I’m flattered about. I have outdoor climbing skills and Devon needs help. So I was happy to, especially with a group of women focused on being in the outdoors.
But then! A couple days after I confirmed with Dev, Clif sent out an invite to me and a few select others to go rafting on the Salt. Which I was so stoked for!! Plus if I’m to be working as a raft guide over summer, I would need the experience and river miles. I wanted to go rafting!
Then it slowly dawned on me - WILO and rafting were the same weekend. And I already committed to WILO and could not back out. It would leave Devon in the dust and generally fucked.
So that was it then. A bunch of my friends would go whitewater rafting and I was stuck in Tucson.
Needless to say, I was salty.
But that was it. So as much as it stung and sucked and the FOMO was real, I did the climbing trip.
Here we are, at Crags on a Saturday now. A group of women (a couple of which I know already) are with us, and we are teaching them how to climb, how we set climbs, how to be safe, etc. So generally, yeah, it was a really good day. Solid climbs in, by both participants and myself. We did the 4 right routes are the Draw Pile and had a great time.
It was incredibly validating getting to get out there and climb, feel solid on the routes, and know that I had come realllly frickin far in the few years I’ve been climbing. Makes me hopeful for the future. I’m happy to share my skills and knowledge with other people, especially if it is with other women. #ForceofNature y’all.
So yeah. There was definitely a tinge of salty-ness, FOMO, and all those negative feelings around this trip, but I wasn’t about it dwell on them and make it a bad time for myself or anyone around me. A good day, spent with cool ladies. Happy to share it with them.
Be thankful for where you are. You carried yourself there, and worked hard every step along the way. Even though you may feel stuck and stagnant, remember that you have come so far, and deserve to feel happy with all the work you’ve put in.
I haven’t done a night hike in AAAGES. Tonight I was doing it with Mikaela. Even though I was lead, I wanted her to kinda take the lead, to gain some experience.
It was a successful hike from the King Canyon Trailhead to Wasson Peak. Around 8 miles roundtrip. Stiff going up, sweet going down. A few slow participants, but generally everyone was up to summiting and sticking with it. We got to the summit, and had a grand ol time, enjoying the chilly night and messing around with the lightshow that is lifesavers wintergreen mints lmao
Very next day, another climbing trip! It’s great to get out to climb 3 days in a weekend!
Today we went to Prison Camp, Alcatraz Wall, and set up all 5 routes there. We brought out about 18 international students, which is always an interesting time. They always seem to not have a lot of experience in the outdoor realm, so it’s always fun exposing them to that.
We had a fun, chilly day there, and headed back down the mountain once everyone had their fill and was content.
Just another solid trip. Fun to work with Seeloff and Patrick again, plus Simon and a new guy, Luke. It’ll be interesting to see where he goes. He’s a good climber, I just hope he doesn’t turn out to be like Mark lol
Today we went out to Crags for a trip through OA. I was lead, with Seeloff and Patrick with me. We had about 9 participants, and one who was really interested in learning to climb.
Trip went super smoothly. That’s all I can really ask for hahah, not much to say beyond that. I love guiding climbing trips, but after spending an afternoon yesterday climbing hard stuff on a personal trip, its’s so hard to not think about that allll day! I love pushing myself and others to climb their best and hardest! It sucks when people don’t really care much for it. Just a small personal complaint haha
