Vision Climbing

Linville Rat Stew

AlyssaH — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 01:23:33 +0000

Linville Gorge – all I have to say is EPIC.

To avoid making the horrendous hike into the gorge every day, we stayed in a cave that overlooks the river. We have stayed there in the past and it seemed not to be that big of an issue, but this time we were bombarded with rats… and by rats I mean HUGE, CREEPY, CLEPTO RODENTS that tormented us every night. AH!

Since we we’re in a cave, all you have to do is throw down your crashpad and call it a night, but to our surprise we got an unpleasant wakeup call in the middle of the night: We were laying on our pads and Mark and I both heard noises super close to our heads. Freaked out we both quickly sat up and turned on our headlamps to see what all the ruckus was about, but all we could see was rocks and darkness. So we tried to go back to sleep, but throughout the entire night we kept having these blank encounters, when finally one of us spotted it…! Scattering to the back of the cave was a huge, chinchilla sized rat, with mangy fur, creepy eyes, and a nasty rat tail. Sorry if I sound like a girl but… EWW!

Aftermath

So at this point I’m freaked out because that THING was just a few inches from my head grabbing our stuff and running off with it! (Seriously, it was taking stuff that we had shoved under the pads we were sleeping on) And there is nothing we could do but just go back to sleep and try to scare it off when we heard it near us. This went on for two nights. However on the third night when the rats had successfully ran off with a pair of Mark’s shorts, one of his sock, chewed through a shoestring of his new 5.10 tennies, and almost gotten away with one of his precious flipflops, Mark decided it was time for them to die. It even got to the point where they would come within 5 feet of us, staring at us with their evil glares. It was ridiculous, our yells and screams had no effect, we had to start swinging sticks and chucking things at them. So Mark declared war and built a rat-trap-of-doom (made with a slab of rock, a stick, and a clothesline). Oh and during set-up he accidentally triggered the trap and dropped the extremely large rock on his foot, which he is still trying to recuperate from; I couldn’t help but laugh. After all that, he actually did kill one (*see pictures with “blood squirtage”) and needless to say, they didn’t come around or bother us for the rest of that night – thank goodness. All in all though it was an epic trip to the gorge, OH and to give you all an idea of the size, Mark said “a full Nalgene was still a couple pounds shy of the dead rat’s net weight”. Haha.

-Sleep Tight!

The LD on Linville Gorge Bouldering.

MarkO — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 01:00:33 +0000

Wonderlnad

The last time we were in this gorge was about 3 years ago, and we had Andrew and Dave Fulton along with Joey Henson, giving us a grand tour of the Wonderland Area. So far I know of two main bouldering areas at Linville: the Wonderland area (which is downstream) and the Dreamland area (which is up-stream. On my last visit we spent the weekend at the Wonderland area. Back then I had left this area with the feeling that the bouldering there was endless and the rock would go on forever, however, after spending a little bit more time in this area, I quickly realized that after hiking one day I had covered almost every boulder problem I had seen the last time. All and all the Wonderland area has about 60 great boulder problems. (This is not including the problems that climb over the river). Also I have not yet been to the Dreamland area. I’ll update you on that area upon my upcoming visit.

The climbing in Linville Gorge is truly amazing, but I found myself constantly asking the question “Is it worth it?” When you arrive at the parking lot, you’re faced with a 45 minute hike straight down hill. (I should also mention that the hike into the Wonderland area is the easiest when compared to the other areas in Linville). Since the hike is so bad, almost everyone plans on camping down in the gorge. So this means you have to pack everything down into the gorge with you. I think my pack weighed around 60-80 pounds. (ekk!) If you don’t have a guide for this area then you should allot about a half to one full day of hiking around the river bed to find all the great problems. From what I know, there are about 4 to 5 different clusters of boulders, each having about 10 to 20 problems at each. Sadly it’s about a 20 minute hike to each area, so unless you plan on staying at one or two areas all day, you’re going to be walking a lot on rough terrain. When I say rough terrain, I mean climbing up and down a 100ft hill to access the main trail that runs parallel with the river, or hopping your way across the river bed on huge boulders. Some parts of the river bed are also impassable due to falls and boulder blockades.

So, is it worth it? Yes and No. This place is so amazing, and even if you don’t get your full fix of climbing in for the day, the beauty of the gorge and serenity of the area will pull you in and make you quickly fall in love with it. If you don’t mind hiking, sleeping with 5-9 pound rats, drinking “questionable” purified water, and don’t mind a great adventure, then Linville is your place. The climbing is amazing and the scenery is out of this world.

Home Cave

If your wanting more info about this place check out, http://upstatebouldering.blogspot.com/2009/10/wnc-local-spot-linville-gorge.html

Peace-

Finished with the Northeast!

MarkO — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 00:45:21 +0000

So just to re-cap over the last couple of weeks, Alyssa and I finished up with the Northeast areas and then headed home for a quick visit. It was great to see all of our friends and family members again! I miss all of yall. Anyways, after our visit back home, we packed up and headed to NC! In case you didn’t know, the rock down here is spectacular!

First we headed back down to Linville Gorge for about 4 days, and now we are in Boone, NC waiting for the snow to melt. Yeah thats right, I said SNOW. Yesterday the mountain tops in Boone received about 3 inches of frigid snow. This might be one of the first times I have seen snow in November…crazy. Anyways, yesterday we hiked around Blowing Rock, Lost Cove, and Grandfather Mountain. (We tend to hike during bad weather so we can lay out a “Plan of Attack,” and maximize our climbing time when the weather is prime).

At the moment we have absolutely no clue what any of the problems are, but to be honest, we don’t really care. Its super fun climbing on problems when you have no idea what their grades are. Climbing with this mind set creates a place of uncertainty, which I tend to enjoy.

Whelp that’s about it. Well be in NC for the next two weeks, and we’re planning on coming home around 19^thesh of November for the Rock Sport comp! I hope to see all my friends there!

Have a Great Day!

Peace-

Roses and Blue Jays

MarkO — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:19:05 +0000

So, about a week ago I was blessed with the opportunity, to get on one of my long thought about projects. I first heard about this problem when Dosage 5 was released a couple years ago. After watching this video over 250 plus times while at college, I became super psyched to climb the problem called Roses and Blue Jays. When Alyssa and I first arrived at Great Barrington, we were sitting in the rain for two days. During those two days we walked the park, found the best boulder problems, and of course washed the holds on a few of our projects. Hehe

Within the first day I had worked out all of the moves up to the lip on Roses and Blue Jay’s. On the Second day I was lucky enough to have a few of my friends come out and psych me up for the send. Ben Safdi and Max Zolotukhin gave me all the motivation I needed, but sadly I was unable to send. (See video at: http://climbingczar.louderthan11.com/?p=298 ) After a heartbreaking fall from the top of the boulder, I took a well needed rest day. Psyched with an above normal version of my concentrated energy, I spent over one hour warming up on jugs. When I knew the moment was right, I got on my project and sent it first go! At that moment it seemed like everything was perfect! Standing on top of the boulder with my heart racing, I realized I had just sent my long awaited personal project! Every climber knows this feeling, and it’s that feeling that keeps us climbing.

For those of you wanting a little more, you should check out Max Z blog about me and Roses and Blue Jays. It’s pretty funny!!! http://climbingczar.louderthan11.com/?p=298

Thank You Max for the awesome footage! Also congrats on the send! Max sent this problem latter that week! Congrats!!!

From Here to There

AlyssaH — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 22:55:00 +0000

So my space bar is broken on my laptop thanks to Mark having too much Mountain Dew and staying up the entire night playing games on my computer… So that’s one of the reasons we haven’t been writing because its super annoying to type when you have to push this super tiny button every time you want a space. But anyways…

We have covered some ground in the last couple weeks. The fall colors are spectacular and it seems like each area we go to next it just keeps getting more and more beautiful. We were in Western Massachusetts for about 3 days: Here we climbed at The Hideaway, The Happy Valley and Farley. The first two areas we went to were ok; they had some cool stuff there but barely anything to warm up on, and most of the lines were wet from the rain.

Farely, however, was pretty cool, we didn’t have a guide book or anything so we spent the hours searching around and hopping on any boulder that looked cool. One thing we did know was that Farely is home to what is known as possibly one of the most classic V10s in our country – The Speed of Life, but my goodness that thing is tall and scary. I’d say it’s a 25ft climb on a 35 degree overhung wall with a 15 ft square boulder right behind it in its landing. So needless to say with only 3 pads and my tiny little body spotting him, Mark had to call it quits for safety reasons… but maybe in the future.

After that we headed to Southern Mass to a little town called Great Barrington. We didn’t have a guide to here either but after a couple days of searching in the rain, when it did dry up we knew the area pretty well. The climbing is on a huge hill side that overlooks the town’s reservoir and it is absolutely beautiful there. The rock type is Gneiss, which I would compare to a darker color, super solid sandstone. And the climbing there is awesome… especially the Speed Boulder.

The Speed Boulder is a large overhung boulder with a high concentration of all hard problems. There we met up with Max Z and our old fried Ben Safdi who helped Mark get super psyched as he worked Roses and Blue Jays, a problem he has wanted to do since Dosage V came out. And when Mark gets psyched – he sends. On the 3^rd day of working it, Mark sent (first go) his hardest project yet.

So we finished up all we wanted to do at GB, and off we went to New Jersey. We have been staying at Ben’s place at Princeton University where we can have a nice hot shower, some good food and even a little social interaction with some really smart people. During the days we have met up with Christopher Redmond, a super friendly and extremely nice guy who has showed us around to some local areas near Princeton and introduced us to a rock called Diabase which just eats the skin.

It’s been fun, it’s been interesting, and it continues… Can’t wait to see who we meet and where we go next.

Climbing around the Rains schedule

MarkO — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 00:29:15 +0000

Sorry we haven’t posted a blog recently. In our defense though, living in a van can really wear you out. Even though our average sleeping time is totaling 12 hours a night, (!) our bodies are still very tired and worn out. But we don’t worry. Our normal daily routine is developing quickly, and might I add, it’s a lifestyle that I’m quickly falling in love with. The daily grind for us consists of sleeping, eating, sitting in the rain, growing skin, and of course Bouldering!

Recently the rain has been giving us a head-ace. While the weather hasn’t been bad enough to qualify as a migraine just yet, it’s getting pretty darn close. At the moment the sky is dry, but for the next four days there is over a 60% chance for rain!!! Just to re-cap a bit, Alyssa and I are still getting over being held captive in the rain for a total of 8 days. But thanks to a friendly local (Jed) a few of those rainy days were quite enjoyable. Jed being a typical psyched-supper friendly climber invited us back to his house to wait out the rain. During that time Alyssa and I became re-acquainted to the essential luxuries of a normal house. It is hard without a micro-wave, fridge, and of course my normal infinite supply of candy. But oh well, this style of living is totally worth giving up those everyday norms.

Quick Re-Cap of the last couple weeks and the weeks to come…

Spent 14 days in P-way.

Now on day 3 at Farley.

Still going to Great-B, Lincoln Woods, NY, and NJ during this leg of the trip.

I miss all my friends and family. Wish yall could be here to enjoy the earth.

Peace Everyone-

Good Friends

AlyssaH — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 00:24:09 +0000

So throughout our entire trip so far we have met and hung out with some really cool and interesting people. You would be surprised how friendly the locals can be, and how helpful they can be too.
During our stay at Pawtuckaway we met up with some of Mark’s good old Kentucky friends, Thailia and Aaron (and of course their adorable new baby girl). They were nice enough to show us around to some awesome problems and really got us psyched and motivated to climb there. It was really nice to have some familiar company to spend the day and crush with.
We also met some very generous locals while we were at P-Way too. As we were cooking up some dinner by the van, a guy in a red truck pulled up beside us and invited us out to a huge night sesh in the boulder field (… little did we know that we would end up staying days at his house later that week). So we went down to see what all the ruckus was about and that’s when we got to know Jed: a super nice guy who open his home up to us when we got swamped with the outskirts of a hurricane. He gave us a place to stay, a hot shower and of course introduced us to his fiancé Hillary who cooked us some amazing homemade meals and hooked me up at the woman’s night at their home gym. An extremely generous couple… and of course their dog Lincoln.
Oh I can’t forget Lincoln. A huge, lovable, playful, goofy, American bull dog who has a man-crush on Mark. This big ole pup was the entertainment at the crag, him and Mark kept us laughing for hours as they played fetch with 6 foot logs and growled back and forth at each other (and at the house when Lincoln would cry if he couldn’t be touching Mark or playing with him). It was an awesome time Jed + Hillary, thanks so much.
And we wanted to not only thank these people but also all the people we have met up with so far and the ones who have showed us a great time; it’s been a blast.

Good Grubb’n

AlyssaH — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 02:35:44 +0000

I’ll tell you one thing for sure, these boulders are kicking my butt, however, one thing we have been doing right is eating and cooking.

I’m surprised we have been eating as well as we have been but that’s because the huge challenge of no refrigeration has not overcome our creativeness yet. We’ve been eating decent breakfast, on-the-go lunches and hefty dinners. Just the other day we had our best dinner: Creamy chicken rice with some fried up canned chicken and to top it off canned pineapple… Mix it all up and Yum! Who knew that living out of a cargo van, cooking on a camp-stove, and eating nonperishable foods could be so good?

Although there is only so much you can do with those limitations, and we are already getting bored of some of our only food options…not so good considering we still have about 7 ½ more months to go. Haha, but I’m sure that we will find new and exciting meals along the way, at least I hope so.

So we found some SLOPERS…

MarkO — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 01:48:57 +0000

So far the majority of the holds at P-Way have been sharp, small, and super crimpy. But today we went up to the Blair Woods area for our first time. I absolutely loved this area. BW’s had a ton of hard problems, mostly slopey arêtes and squezzy forearm scratching bear hugs! I LOVE IT! On our way into the woods we ran into a couple of locals, Patrick and Shawn. They were super friendly and were kind enough to show us around the area all while giving us the low down on super classic routes. My skin is raw and my muscles are sore. For all you non climbers that means I had a super duper day!

Oh yeah I found this super sick slopey traverse on an arête. I highly doubt this thing has ever been cleaned or climbed. But now I will hopefully do both, hehe. It totally reminds me of Five O at HP40.

Peace Everyone-

Another Rest Day?

MarkO — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 20:20:00 +0000

Rain in the New England area sucks. Its super cold, sporadic, and the meteorologist act like they got their degrees online in a day. Needless to say were spending another restless day in the van.

But on the upside, Pawtuckaway is awesome! This place kind of gives you the feeling that the potential for new problems could be endless. They also have a vast amount of double digit problems for me to wreck my skin on. But on the downside, the rock here is super sharp and the majority of the holds are crimps. I’m not sure why, but I came to Pawtuckaway with the pre-conceived notion that the majority of the holds here would be slopers. Sadly I was wrong. Once again I am finding myself struggling with my weakness: CRIMPS. I guess it’s time to strengthen my tendons and learn how to climb on crimps.

P.S. – I still refuse to close my hand on crimps. The best way to strengthen your tendons is OPEN hand crimping. Dispute me if you dare, hehe.

P.S.S. Sorry we dont have any new pics. Well be sure to get some rad new pics up soon!

Peace Everyone-