Six Weeks One Post.
Alright alright. I’m a Canadian young adult traveling so I guesse I’ll make a blog posting about my trip thus far…
One must note that perhaps the people who spend the most time together are climbing partners; every waking minutes is spent climbing together, traveling together, cooking shared meals, ect. This makes choosing a suitable partner for extended road trips absolutely crucial, perhaps even more so than choosing girlfriends. Having been on many extended trips I’ve classified these individuals as Ultra-Homies, very few make it to the Ultra-Homie Ivory Tower but Alex Quiring easily qualifies for this elite group. Having a solid climbing partner can make or break a trip, my trip is definitely being made!
Week One
It has been three years since my last trip to the Red River Gorge and I have been wanting to go back ever since. In 2007 I spent one month there climbing with Ultra-Homies JJ Mah, Sean Mccoll, Mike Doyle, Audrey Snieznek and crew. After reintroducing myself to the area I’ve been kicking myself for not making the annual return. The fact is that this is one of the TRUE international destinations in North America, cliffs worthy of international travel tucked in the middle of the Kentucky wilderness.
I left Edmonton feeling stronger than ever and was excited to revisit the plethora of unfinished business from my last trip. In an effort to be body-smart I spent the first week easing into the trip and getting used to the RRG’s relentless enduro style. This meant oogling many projects but resisting temptation, not attempting anything harder than 5.13-. Much to my surprise I was able to overcome my lack of endurance and sprint my way up several classic 5.13’s in the area. Before the last trip JJ and myself brilliantly took three weeks off of climbing before coming to the Red meaning we spent the first half of our trip getting spanked on almost everything. This was much to the amusement of the rest of our crew that was crushing everything in sight.
I sent more climbs in my first week of climbing this time around than the entire month on my last trip, I guesse training works?
Week Two
Week two is where I finally sunk into the fantasy world that climbing trips are. Your world becomes encompassed by what books your reading, the routes you want to climb, and the food you want to eat. Other less desirable aspects of the trip also begin to set in, The biggest one for me being incredible skin pain. The one downside of being a heavyweight fatty attempting to scale walls all day is the intense pressure bruising I often get at the start of trips, a steady diet of Vitamin I is was what got me through. We spent this week starting to attempt harder climbs and enjoying some of the newly accumulated Endurance. I was syked to get on the ULTRA classic line Ultra-Perm. This route is often regarded as the best 5.13D east of the Mississippi and its reputation holds up! I managed to send the line in Four burns and it felt pretty casual on the send. I was pretty stoked as up until this point I had never sent 5.13D. Feeling exhausted from another week of getting accustomed we spent some rest days chillaxing with friends as scamming our way into fancy athletic clubs equipped with steam rooms.
Week Three
Man ooooo man, week three was a HAWT HAWT HAWT one. Very little can be accomplished in the RRG when it is hot and humid, at least for us mere mortals. Luckily for me I ran into a crew of friends from Switzerland and Austria all epically stronger than me, which provided some good motivation for the trip. I got on a ton of Routes that I hadn’t previously tried and started narrowing down some projects. The Madness a 90 move 5.13c that is perfectly my anti-style but fun nonetheless, Whiteman’s Overbite 5.13c, Supercharger 5.13D along with several other classics at the various cliffs. I focused on getting in tons of pitches in everyday and trying to ignore the heinous conditions.
On a side note I was easily coerced by Thomas Schmid my friend from Switzerland into tagging along on a mission to Cuba. I spent four weeks with Thomas in Ceuse in 2008 and was STOKED that I randomly bummed into him. I decided why not flip some extra coin and hang out in Cuba for five weeks climbing, adventuring, and living the sweet life. The main goal of this trip is to tap into the massively underdeveloped limestone cliffs of Cuba. Mammut has shipped 60 Kilos of equipment (Drill, bolts ect.) that Thomas and I will pick up in Havana and hopefully put to good use, pending the many distractions that Cuba will provide….
Week Four
On all of my prior climbing trips I have been in full explore mode, never spending more than four weeks in one given area, simply trying to cover more unexplored ground. It’s hard to stay stoked when you spend everyday doing the same hikes, looking at the same cliffs, and throwing back the same stir-fry’s and oatmeal. This is what I think separates the Pro’s from the Joe’s, many of my friends who climb year round and make a meger lving seem to have endless psyche.
My motivation for the RRG was starting to slightly wear down mostly due to the unfortunate reality that I was physically wrecked. More and more I am finding out that gone are the days of being an invincible teenager who can drop the clutch everyday at the crag for weeks on end. That being said, Mike Doyle AKA Chunky Monkey (at least to me) flew in for a week and I was stoked to climb and chill with him for a day. I had been previously encouraged by friends Ally Rainey and Kevin Wilkinson to get on THE SICKEST LINE, a route called Southern Smoke. This route is a MEGA physical MEGA steep 5.14C that links into Ulta-Perm. Feeling wrecked I got on the route with mike and checked out the holds slowly but surely working my way up it. Although this route is a massive step up for me it suits my style perfectly. You climb 20 moves of continuous mini boulder problems checking in at about 14A directly into the 15 move crux of Ultra-Perm with a gutter rest in between. The route definitely feels doable and will linger in my dreams until the chain are clipped. From previous weeks of emptying the tank I unfortunately developed some acute bicep tendonitis so I’ve been taking it ultra easy since attempting the route. Almost all of the climbing in the Red is steep and physically intensive making it a difficult place to climb for months on end.
Week Five
Ohhhhh week five, RAIN RAIN RAIN. Mother nature has a unruly grasp of your life when on climbing trips, she can tear your heart apart, and that’s exactly what she did. With the combination of crappy weather and my arm needing some time off me and AQ decided to do a min trip to the DEEP South.
I love road trips, wake up, weather sucks, lets peace it, six hours later were in Atlanta Georgia kicking it at Chicken and Waffles. This trip was meant as a recovery mission for myself and AQ wanted to scope some potential areas in the south to continue his road trip once I leave. We spent an afternoon bouldering at Boat Rock right in ATL, it sucked, some times you get hosed by over-enthused locals talking up their ghetto crags, right Alberta? From there we spent two days bouldering in Rocktown, Georgia. The place was DOPE, amazingly sculpted sandstone boulders. I knew that if I pushed myself my arm would punish me. To compensate for this I tried to clean up the area classics in the V4-V8 range. I went into game mode and would spent 30 minutes staring down a problem and stealing beta form AQ. This allowed me to flash most problems and avoid putting in big days. The highlight was climbing a problem called The ORB V8, and breaking the only jug off of Tractor Trailer V9 on my flash attempt. I bet there are some locals cursing me back there.
From here we whipped up to Chattanooga to visit two friends who had just moved to the climbers paradise for the winter and take advantage of their luxurious apartment. Damn it felt good to take a shower and sleeping in a bed when a few nights prior we had been kicked of campus and then a public park by the Atlanta police meaning I spent a night under the fluorescent lights sleeping on Wal-Mart pavement. We spent a day exploring Little Rock city another stellar sandstone bouldering area and then toured the Local sport crags around Chat. Definitely a place I will consider locating myself at some point. There is endless amounts of varied climbing in the area and local crags that put Alberta’s best to shame.
Week Six
We left our friends apartment this morning, had a rad lunch in Nashville, a rad dinner in Louisville, Re-uped our groceries, and are now waiting to pick up Pete Woods at the airport in Louisville. Pete accidentally booked his flight into Louisville, rather than Lexington. No worries Peter it’s only two extra hours of driving we all make mistakes. Hopefully upon return I’ll feel rested and be able to cap of USA 2010 in style.
