Hueco part II

Or should i say, Yuma, San Diego and Mexico!!

I took 10 days away from Hueco, to spend Christmas with my Mom in Yuma, do some shopping in San Diego and visit some old friends in Mexico.

My friends Geoff and Deanna Bray recently had their frst baby and i was super excited to meet him!!

Meet Eddie, the cutest baby around!!

Edmund Bray, the happiest baby around!

Papa (Geoff) and Eddie

Sadly i don’t have any pics of Mamma and Eddie  

My mom and i traveled to Mexico to spend a couple days relaxing on the ranch visiting with Geoff and Dee, it was super nice to see them and meet Eddie …. we planned their next climbing trip to Bishop to come meet us in the new year!!!

Mom and i spent some time shopping in San Diego and chilling in Yuma before we both drove back to El Paso. Mom was going to spend two days there with us (Josh, Alex and myself) .. one day we would all go to Carlsbad caverns and the next she would come climbing (watching) with us. We soon realized that there would be no way in hell she would get into North so we ditch part two of our plan …

Here’s a couple pics from Carlsbad caverns! Very cool rest day activity!!

Mom (Wendy Kennedy), Alex and me. About to head into the caverns ...

 

The kids, i mean boys, i mean men

Jan 1 2012 in the evening we picked up the first of two guests joining us in Hueco, Zak McGurk!!

This leads to part III of Hueco ….

More climbing!!!!!

Hueco Tanks!

HUECO TANKS!!

On our way to Hueco

Since my last blog post I read a comment posted by a good friend that went something like “ please bloggers rather than outlining your daily itinerary please post something useful and insightful in your blogs”. So, I will take this advice and start this post off with a section I’m going to call “logistics”. So if you are familiar with Hueco logistics just skip this section

It’s actually fitting to describe some of the logistics surrounding our time in hueco, and I hope it can shed some light for those who plan to go.

Hueco: Logistics

El Paso

El paso is a relatively large city, no I take that back, it’s a huge city with relatively little to do … no hard feelings I hope It’s got everything you need, coffee (starbucks), Walmart and groceries. Actually, the Vista Mercado grocery store is pretty badass, you can get fresh tortillas, pastries and a total random assortment of good food (I say random because for 4 months I had been endlessly searching for Spitz brand pumpkin seeds and I found them at the Vista!). You can grab a pretty good burger and pint at Torro Burger on Zaragoza (warning: service is slow here, but beer selection is good and so is the food so it’s worth it). If you need something closer you can grab some burritos at the local confectionary / restaurant behind the Vista. It’s cheap and they have cane sugar coke!

But if you are a total hard-core, you really don’t have to go into town if you don’t want to. There is internet available at the park and the vista is just out of town (close to the park).

Accommodation

We stayed at the Hueco Tanks state park campground, which I highly recommend. The sites are huge and the picnic tables are covered. There was shelter from the wind with the big rocks around, and the best part, the washrooms are super-heated and the shower is amazing!! Some logistics about this place …

Our campsite

You will like buy a year park pass which was ~$80.00. It gets you into the park daily to climbing for free and it also gets you some discounts on nights of camping. Each night was $16.00 but that got us water and electricity and since there were four of us staying there is really broke down to be pretty cheap. Another logistic is the curfew. You have to be back in the park by 6pm. So, no late night burritos. We really didn’t mind this part of it honestly we were pretty much ready for bed just after 6

You can also stay at the Rock Ranch located just outside the park. Camping was $7 per person and showers are at a minimum but it seemed like a nice chill place to hang out. There’s a big barn to hang out in and there’s internet and also a lot of climbers staying there. The only down side is during busy season if you don’t have reservations to climb you can’t even come past the park gate, you line up in your car until the park officer gets word that he can let some in … some people would be waiting all day. Some would never get in. Some would park outside the gate and sleep on their crash pads in the ditch so that they would be the first in line the next day!

There are also some relatively close motels and hotels at a decent price.

Reservations / climbing

I’m sure everyone knows that you need reservations to climb at hueco. Some people complain about this, but really it’s to protect the area and I didn’t feel at all like I was restricted in any way by the rules of the park; if you can’t deal with rules, don’t go. Bscially they reserve 60 spots on North Mountain and let 10 extra people in a day. Those staying in the park campground have first dibs on those 10 spots.

In early October we called the park to make reservations and we only got two climbing days out of a month and a half (from Dec 4 – Jan 15^th) we accepted that fact and decided to wing-it with climbing, ie. We would stand in line early in the morning to try and get in. We did however get camping reservations for the entire time we were there, but, one person can only reserve for three days, so Alex would book three days then Josh would book three days then Alex again then Josh and so on for a month and a half. And yes, you do have to go check in every three days but you should be able to keep the same site, at least we did. What I would recommend is to try calling back for climbing reservations. Some friends of ours said they called the park every couple days and each time another day would open up for climbing (someone had cancelled) and they ended up booking a month straight! So be persistent and you should be able to get resos

If you don’t have resos (like us) then you have a couple options ….

In early December when it’s not super busy you should be able to go to the park office and get in relatively easy before 9-10 am. If you did end up on the waiting list what happens is those that had reservations if they don’t show up then they will give their spots away to those waiting. So if you have resos you need to show up before 10am! When it did start to get busy (around Christmas break) we were getting up at 6am and going directly to the park office to “get in line”. It’s really an honor system thing, first car that gets there gets first dibs. You can’t just send one person to sign up for the group, each member has to be there, plus the park people need to see everyone’s cards. This brings me to the certification thing. You have to watch a 15 min vid to go into Hueco tanks park; no one can even pass the office without seeing the video; we learnt this the hard way when we had someone fly in late and we brought them back to the campsite that night and the next morning they were not psyched that he was there at all! They said he should have stayed outside the park that night.

Guided tours

There are three other mountains that make up the park, east spur, west and east. To visit these other three mountains you need to go on a guided tour. There are two types of tours, volunteer and paid. There are pros and cons to both. Paid tours cost money, but you can book a guide and have them take you to exactly where you want to go. We never went on a paid tour but I never heard anything bad about them save for the fact that they do cost ~$10 – 20 per person / day. The volunteer tours are done by guides who are volunteering their time to take you out climbing, very cool! How this worked in our experience is that we knew a volunteer tour guide. We would plan with him to go out on a certain day and then he would call the park office and book a tour in our names. He would put me +4 and Josh +4 to equal 10 total (the max number of people on a tour). Josh and I then could bring anyone we wanted to a max of ten people, and even if it was just the two of us that would be ok (more on this point later). Because Josh and I had our names down that meant we were the ‘primaries’ and we decided where we wanted to go (and the group would have to go along with us weather they wanted to get on those climbs or not) and the group can not break up, it has to stay together. This is a non issue if you are a group of friends who want to go check out the same things, but it can be suckie if you get on a volunteer tour that goes to a V14 for the entire day and that’s it! If you don’t get into the park on a regular climbing day you can sometime get in on a volunteer tour (if there are open spots the office might fill them with random people waiting to go out). This is fine, but this is also where you run into maybe not getting out to the places you want. We had an awesome experience with our friend / volunteer guide, he was super accommodating and psyched to be out at the rocks. Volunteer guides are not allowed to climb or give beta and two groups can’t be at the same boulder at the same time. I definitely appreciate Antonio for taking his time to take us out!!

Wow, that pretty much sums up the logistics … I’m sure there are things that I’m forgetting but most of it is here as a resource for those wanting to travel to Hueco.

Part 1

Alex, Stacey, Josh and I arrive in hueco full of psyche!!

Team noon-to-four catching some sunshine in the am.
Alex Quiring, Regan Kennedy, Josh Muller, Stacey Weldon

We started climbing two days on, one day off but soon realized we needed to climb day on day off as we were feeling spent! The rock was really different from what we had been climbing. At first it felt like there was no texture, but within a couple days, after getting a feel for the rock, it really started to feel good! The movement was gymnastic and we were really feeling the burn in the core!

Josh on Martini right (V12)

 

Early on we were all hitting personal bests! I had climbed my first V8 (Mc. Bain) on the second day. Josh was crushing double-digit problems like it was his job and Stacey had done Fern roof (V9).

Here’s the link to a vid of our time there!

http://www.outdoorresearchverticulture.com/2012/03/van-life-hueco-tanks/

Stacey Weldon on Dark Age (V11)

Alex Quiring finishing up Martini left (V10)

Regan not quite making the move on Gloria (V7)

Josh Muller on Diabolic (V13) ... project left behind.

In the first couple weeks there the park was very quiet. Some friends from Calgary were also there, Krystal Chin, Mark Fraser and Sam Fischer. We spent a lot of time climbing with them. It was also on the cool side (not good for me as I am a fair weather climber). Us girls would hang out in the washroom in the am drinking our coffee, visiting and keeping warm. We spent most of our time on North Mountain. We didn’t want to get too tied into things (projects) on the other mountains so we pretty much stayed on North and for the first part of the trip didn’t have any troubles getting in. Days consisted of wandering around north hitting the classics or projects or resting in town at the starbucks, Vista or Torro  The four of us had an amazing, fun time in Hueco! We all loved it and were super motivated to climb Here are some pics of some of the classics.

Mark Fraser working out some moves on Dark Age (V11)

Josh on Power of Silence (V10)

On a cool and windy day, Alex crushing Bloodline (V8)

Regan sending the slopey problem right of girls of texas (can't remember the name ... sorry)

Look at that hair! Alex Quiring on Free Willy (V10)

Sadly, Team noon-to-four’s time was coming to an end near Christmas. Stacey was heading back to Calgary I was about to take 10 days to go see my mom in Yuma. And, the boys, they were left alone at the tanks.

Part II coming up soon!!!

 

Pebble wrestling!!!

 

Little rock city, horse pens 40 and horseshoe canyon ranch!

You’ll have to catch this part of the story on the flashed web site!

Go to:

http://flashed.com/blog/

happy reading!!

The Red

We spent almost two months in the Red River Gorge, KY.  We climbed a ton, met up with a bunch of friends from back home and had an amazing time. The climbing in the gorge was / is phenomenal! I’ll try and tell the stories of this leg of the journey with a lot of photos

 

Josh on Gods Own Stone, at the Gold Coat, in the Red River Gorge. Photo by Alli Rainey

 

The whole idea of this trip started with going to the Red, everything else just fell into place around it. I had been there before in 2009, but Josh had never been. And on this leg of our trip we were going to meet up with two friends from Calgary, Stacey Weldon and Alex Quiring.

Josh and I arrived early October with a few climbing days to spare before heading to Rock Town (bouldering destination near Chattanooga TN). We had one amazing and long day in Rock Town shooting (taking photos) with Tomas Donoso for Outdoor Research. Such a fun day!! Ronnie Jenkins, Josh and I climbed our hearts out … we spent ~15 hours up there!! We finished the day off at The Terminal for some home brew and probably the most delicious burger I have ever had!!! Thanks Tomas and Teresa for a great day!!!

We were sort of rushed in Rock Town, we may have stayed if we didn’t have to get back to the Red to participate in Rocktoberfest, an outdoor climbing event. I was to teach a clinic, intro to sport climbing The day of the clinic was so much fun!! I had a range of people, some had climbed before, some had only climbed inside before and some had never climbed at all. It was great to help them learn the basics of sport climbing and even watching some clip draws on lead for their first time! I would happily come back to rocktoberfest and do it all again! The event was so well planned and organized!! Thanks to all who participated and the RRGCC (Red River Gorge Climbers Coalition) for putting it all together!!

During the event our friend Alex Quiring showed up in the Red!! We were super psyched to see him; he was going to be with us now until mid January! Shortly thereafter Stacey Weldon showed up from Kingston Ontario and Pete Woods came down for a visit from Calgary!  Let the climbing begin!!!

Team Noon to Four! Pete Woods, Josh Muller, Regan Kennedy, Stacey Weldon, Alex Quiring.

 

The five of us had such a blast down there together! In the mornings we drank a lot of coffee, prepped for the day and were off by mid-morning (this is how we got the nick-name “team noon to four”) The days were filled with climbing, of course. We visited many different areas, almost something new each day. We had great temps and sweet sends

Mornings at the campsite

Stacey on Table of Colors.

Every morning as we drove out of the campsite Pete would yell, “Pumped up Kicks, Pumped up kicks” and so we’d listen to it daily on the drives. We’d be home around 5pm in time for Alex to play his ukulele and Pete to serenade (free style bluegrass) Simon, Jamie, Tanya, Danny and Eva back from the cliff… they loved it! We called them team hardcore because they would leave the site way before us and get back way after us … somehow I think we still got more laps in

We also spent a lot of time with our friends Alli Rainey and Kevin Wilkinson. It’s very inspiring to watch those two climb! Kevin was a bolting machine, and Alli a projecting machine! Can’t wait to see them (and Jedi) again!

Kevin, Alli and Jedi. Photo taken at the New River Rendezvous in May

 

It’s hard to write about our time in the red … we really didn’t do much other than climb, eat, sleep and rest Here are some photos of the amazing place and people we spent our time with.

 

Stacey Weldon

Pete Woods on No Redemption.

Stacey on Table of Colors.

The Motherload.

Josh on Gods Own Stone. At the Gold Coast

Alex on Snooker. At the Motherload

Josh on Dirty Smelly Hippie. At Drive By crag.

The Madness Cave. At the Motherload crag. Can you spot Stacey???

Stacey Weldon on 40oz. Of Justice.

Big Leaf!!

Forest life

Critters

Mornings in the van ..... van life

Here’s a link to a video Josh and I made for Verticulture, a community page on the Outdoor Research site.  

 

http://www.outdoorresearchverticulture.com/2012/01/van-life-the-red-2/

Next up… Pebble wrestling …..

Van life, on the road

Thunder Bay – Toronto

Josh’s sister Nicole was getting married early September so we made sure to be in Toronto for the week of the wedding. Nicole and her husband Jeff are incredibly welcoming, fun, enthusiastic people. Their wedding was so beautiful and so much fun! They were even partaking in a reality TV show called four weddings, where the brides judge each others weddings … you would think that may add a touch of stress to the situation, but not for those two, they ate it up and everyone had a blast!!

Luke Muller, Mark Muller, Nicole Martin, Jeff Martin, Rachel Muller, Josh Muller, Laura Krause

 

We had heard so many great things about Lion’s Head we had to go check it out (since we had the time). We drove out there to meet Mark Smith and friends and spent an awesome day out there with them climbing. What a beautiful place!! The logistics are something to be desired, but I would definitely suggest going if you’ve never been, even if it’s just to spend some time in the quaint little town.

View from the rappel at Lion's Head

 

Toronto – Ottawa

Well we stopped in Toronto for some family time, so why not Ottawa too (not that we didn’t want to). Actually, it was good timing since my dad had heart surgery early Sept. He’d be home recovering. My younger brother even came down for the week we were there. We ate a lot of dinners out, spent some couch time with my Dad and visited with the Kennedy and Motsi families. It was great to see them and show off our new “home” before our long trip

The fam... Regan Kennedy, Mike Kennedy and Ryan Kennedy

 

USA here we come!

Ottawa – Rumney

 We really didn’t know what to expect of the border crossing “how long will you be gone”, “at least 6 months” we reply, “do you have jobs” they ask … “nope” we reply. And so they look through the van, but there’s nothing to hide and they let us through!

 First US stop, Rumney NH. We didn’t have a lot of time but we had heard a lot of good things of this classic sport climbing area, so why not stay for a few days. It didn’t disappoint! And as it stands, this would probably be the first place we’d go back to if we have the chance!! Phenomenal routes, a variety of climbing styles, and good sessions with old friends. Thanks for a great day out there Anne Skidmore Russell!

Rumney was not the easiest place for us to “camp”: it’s our fault really for putting zero effort into looking for camping. We stayed in the Walmart parking lot for 6 nights. This would be the first of many many nights at Walmart (insert glamorous lifestyle here). At least most of the US locations are open 24hours and we can therefore have access to the facilities Nonetheless, Plymouth NH was a great little town to spend time in; we would definitely do it again!

Coffee, good eats, antiques, climbing gear and a plcae to stay all in one!!! The Common Cafe. We spent a few mornings in this place.

Rumney climbing

The view from the cliffs

 

We did pop out of NH to VT overnight to see some east coast Canadian friends compete in the Nor Easter event in Burlington VT. What a beautiful city! Too bad the rain put a damper (literally) on semifinals … however it was cool to see everyone advance and compete in a super final! 

 

Next stop, the Red River Gorge (to be continued…)

Van life, on the road

I think most climbers can empathize with the yearning to be at the cliffs or boulders or at the base of a huge big wall climb with the anticipation of the ascent. For some people, the feeling is so strong that you abandon, for lack of better terms, your “regular life” to hit the road, to be at the cliffs, the boulders, the big walls. After a year of working two full time jobs my partner and I hit the road, nothing to do but drive and climb.

Sunset in Arches National Park Utah

 

Have you ever told your parents that you were going to quit your job and live in your van? It’s quit the experience, lots of head shaking, lots of questions … lucky for me, my parents are avid and traveled golfers, I explain to them “it’s like going to Florida to golf, but except for going for a month, we are going for a year”. That seems to sink in for them, and since I’m not looking for funding, they accept.

Our Van. Pretty simple, seats two, has a bed, bins and some Ikea shelves

A lot of non climbing friends don’t really understand #1 why anyone would want to live in their van, #2 how I can afford to do something like this and #3 what the big deal is?? But, they also think that life without work and full of traveling is glamorous (and I will let them believe this . People often write to me looking for updates, wondering what we are up to … and really the only answers I have for them are “ we’re great, loving life, we eat, drink coffee, climb and sleep”. This pretty much sums up the last six months of my life, and, it has been amazing!

Hanging out in the van after dark - Regan Kennedy

We are not alone on this journey; we have had friends along for the ride from day 1.  We’ve also had support from Outdoor research, evolv and flashed, thanks guys!

It’s been a while, but enjoy the next series of photos from our travels. 

September:

Calgary – Skaha

Josh and I on our way!

First stop, Skaha for the Skaha climbing festival!

Josh picked me up from the U of C (work) for the last time at noon Aug 31st 2011. Our actual first stop was Acephale, a popular climbing area 45 mins west. We had been procrastinating the week before, we were supposed to go get our draws from up there, but alas the departure date came and we figured, hey, why not run up there and grab them on the way to skaha … simple plan, right?

Well, it snowed that day in the mountains and only 15 mins out of the city we were stopped dead on the highway because a semi had burned to the ground right on HW 1. We made the decision to skip Acephale and go directly to Canmore to meet our friend Alex Quiring for one last delicious poutine. You can bet we bribed him with poutine to trade us his draws for ours, the catch being of course, he would have to hike up to Acephale and get them because he is awesome, he greed, and we were on our way, draws in hand, to Penticton. 

evolv sponsored the event, so we took the opportunity to put some of the athletes to work either working the booth or competing. We also took it as an opportunity to spend some time with our closest friends before we set off on our trip! Thanks for a great weekend Adam Currie, Alex Quiring, Craig Doram, Ashley Gales, Kim McMurtry and Josh Muller.

Skaha climbing festival

Alex and Josh hard at work ......

Skaha – Thunder bay ON

We did the long drive from Skaha to Thunder bay stopping in Medicine Hat, Winnipeg, then Thunder bay. We had heard a lot of good things from our friend Nick Rochacewich who has done a ton of bolting out there (his annual fall pilgrimage to T-Bay), so we figured it’s along the way so why not stop. It and he definitely didn’t disappoint. The routes were short, but  all in all solid rock and interesting unique features to climb. We had a great day out there with them, definitely glad we stopped by!

Nick belaying Josh

Josh taking a swing at Nick's freshly bolted route

 Thunder Bay – Toronto

Stay tuned…..

It was January and now it’s July……

Ok ok, I know everyone says this, but I really do suck at blogging

And this blog will not do any of the events I have attended in the last 6 months justice, but nonetheless, here it is.

JANURAY

January, hum…. January, I have no idea what went on that month, but it mustn’t have been too terribly exciting since I can’t think of anything to write about? And that is January.

FEBRUARY

Here we go, this is where things start to get fun! February started with a trip to Toronto to compete at a stop in the Tour De Bloc comp circuit. I was especially psyched for this comp since it was being held at True North climbing gym, managed by a good friend of mine Dustin Curtis. Another great opportunity to learn and climb on problems set by setters I have never met before, and hey, nationals was going to be out east so I better learn the ways of the east coast. I met a lot of great people and was inspired by the numbers of competitors, especially by all the strong ladies that were there! Qualifiers was super fun, and so was finals; they really set in the “world cup” style of volumes and tricky beta, very cool!

Weather in Toronto

The secret was that I had actually stopped in Toronto conveniently on my way to Jamaica!! Oh yeah, I was on my way to spend the next week in Jamaica with some of my family. Why you might ask? Well, it also happened to be my 30^th birthday!!! And, what happens in Jamaica stays in Jamaica, right? (So, technically I am still 29.).

Weather in Jamaica!!!

What an awesome trip! Treated so well by my Aunt May and all the staff at the Ritz. My Aunt and Uncle Rosemary and Norman (Norm is Jamaican) go to Jamaica a few time a year so they showed us the ropes as we spent time in the sun, snorkeling and touring around.

Me and Uncle Norm (aka Storm)

The Family. Susan, Regan, Emily, Craig, Rosemary and Norman

 

MARCH

The red rocks rendezvous, of course. This would be my first time attending the event, and giving a clinic. Evolv of course had a booth, and so Mason, Jay and I chatted a lot about shoes, we also had the new Shaman for people to try and so started the psyche!!

getting the climbing wall built! Mason, Prophet, Todd

I taught intro to lead climbing and had a blast!! Everyone in my groups was so fun and eager to learn, I would definitely do that again!! All in all it was a pretty fun event, save for the million mile an hour winds that demolished tents, ez-ups and car windows. PS. Thanks to Jay Peery for getting me a hotel on night two, having not slept due to the roof of my tent on my face the night before, best night of sleep ever!

My good buddies, Geoff and Deanna Bray came up from Mexico for a visit too! This time it was not only personal but also some business. Evolv and the orphanage, Project Mexico, are hoping to build a climbing wall on the ranch at the orphanage. Jay, Geoff, Dee and myself started the ball rolling on that project which I hope comes to fruition soon!

 

My last day in Vegas I spent with two wonderful people climbing up at trophy wall in red rocks, thanks Heather and Chris for a great day!

APRIL

Nationals!!!!  Yay, nationals in Burlington!!!! As our Calgary Climbing Center adult team was winding up, we were all getting ready to try our butts off at nationals!! All in the hopes of being able to climb at the world cup in Canmore the following month!

Mike Doyle sorting out men's final #1

Walson and Rhonda (owners of the CCC) were gracious enough to fly three members of the adult team out to Burlington and put us all up! So between the evolv suite and the CCC team suite almost 20 of us were around to climb and hang out together

Dustin Curtis MC'ing and Josh Muller about to climb...

Such a great turn out to the event, the setting was fantastic and the psyche was high! Could have been a better performance on my end as I didn’t make finals, but it was very cool to fore-run women’s finals the night before and then watch friends competing the next day. Walson even made a video of the process of putting a comp together mostly from the setters perspective, definitely check this out, the trailer for the vid is worth watching, it pretty much sums up the comp!!

http://vimeo.com/22699036

Props to Vikki Weldon who Crushed on the Canadian women’s side and Sean McColl for the men’s, but an ever bigger props to Josh Muller who was nipping at Sean’s heels and came second in Canada for men’s!

I followed that comp up with a week on the road seeing accounts, dropping in on gyms and doing product knowledge clinics for MEC … let’s just say that I had a lot of naps in my rental car as I squeezed in Toronto (and GTA), Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City into 4 days!!!!

evolv youth program … kids gettin fitted for some shoes!

MAY

What a busy month! I literally spent three days working in the lab and the rest of the time on the road.

First 10 days of May I spent on my “evolv west coast trip” again, dropping in on accounts, gyms and doing MEC clinics. It wasn’t all work; I did get to see some good friends in Seattle (Byron) and Victoria (Heidi)

Thanks to Outdoor Research I got my first taste of the New River Rendezvous; what an amazing event!

Getting set up for the rendezvous!

Mid May I went down to West Virginia to the New to spend some time shooting with the very amazing, talented and fun Anne Skiddmore. Her Husband Byard and I spent a couple of days in front of her camera taking in some of the best lines at the New! Wow, my first time there, the climbing was amazing, different from the Red, more techy, but definitely very cool. I cannot wait to bring Josh there this fall! For the event I helped Byard teach intro to trad…. Ya…. Intro to trad?! I know, don’t worry I don’t think I contributed to anyone’s demise :/ Ack! Hahahah, it was really fun to watch By show the group the ways of placing gear and building anchors, I was definitely learning as much as I was “helping teach”. It was really cool to be a part of the event with OR, we were giving out free t-shirts and having people send inspiring note on postcards that we would mail out, cool eh!

Christian and I spent a lot of time at the event chillin, at the cliff fallin off of stuff and at the local coffee shop, the cathedral café. I am so excited to return to the New! Big props to Elaina Arenz-Smith, Kurt Smith along with the crew at Water Stone Outdoors for putting on such a great event!

May is not over yet! I return home just in time to … compete at the world cup!!!!! It should be noted that I literally squeaked onto the nationals team in the tenth spot with a wild card, phew …. but you know what, I worked hard all year and I was psyched to have the opportunity to climb at that level!!!

Team Canada Josh and Thirza steppin onto the wall

Evolv also sponsored the event, so as per usual, I was on double duty setting up the booth and getting ready to compete In true Canadian style, it dumped snow the day of qualifiers (it was an outdoor event), really adding to the dynamic of the whole thing! Athletes were crowded in front of heaters between climbs and the audience, bless them, spent their time crowded-in under the tent to watch the climbing (so standing all day outside in the cold). But, it went off without a hitch and it turned out to be a really great event!!

Team evolv: Craig, Catherine and Alex holding down the fort (aka evolv booth)

 

JUNE

June I was calling my staycation month. I had aspirations of climbing outside every weekend, you know, getting a lot of mileage on easy stuff to get into it, but instead it rained consistently from the world cup until pretty much July 1^st ….

So, not so bad as I was still training indoors and getting a lot of work done in the lab.

Unexpectedly, at the end of June I was making a trip out west to Vancouver. My uncle had passed away in his home in North Van, so the entire family was going to congregate in Vancouver to mourn the loss. Definitely not the way I would have liked to have a family reunion, but we were there nonetheless to say goodbye to Uncle Mike. We hosted a celebration of life for him on a beautiful sunny day in Vancouver and it was just the right thing to ease the pain of losing our loved one. We will definitely miss your company, friendship and humor.

 

 

JULY

Here we are and it has dried up at last! I had my first serious day on rock last week and it was awesome!! My summer plans contain working, and climbing in the bow valley. A quick trip to SLC for the trade show, then Josh and I will be packing up for our trip out the south east in the fall!

See you soon!