Aloha Kauai

Welcome to vacation! Shortly after our trip to Greece, our great friends and travel partners (James & Laurel) invited us on this trip to Kauai to visit Laurel's mom, Isa, who lives here on the island. We arrived late in the day and were greeted by Isa, Doug (Isa's friend), and Woody (Laurel's brother) in true aloha spirit with a meal of coconut water, fresh pineapple, fresh ahi, and sweet potatoes and settled in. We could not have felt more welcomed or more relaxed as everyone's shoes kicked off and we breathed deep vacation breaths. This trip is particularly unique because it does not involve climbing- a first for Kenneth & I. While climbing trips are still our favorite climb, it limits us from visiting other places in the world with amazing things other than great rock.

For our first full day on the island, we went to Tunnels Beach- best beach I have ever been to! I have never really snorkeled- or I guess I just never had much to look at when I've tried to go snorkeling in the past. In just one day, snorkeling is now on my top 10 list. We saw all kinds of colorful fish, coral, etc- a whole underwater world just waiting below the surface. One of my big hopes is that I will get to swim with a sea turtle this trip so I've been on the lookout. Tunnels is on the north shore of the island- known for its mountainous beauty and little development. Just a couple miles north of Tunnels, the road ends and the rest of the north shore is accessible only by hiking the Napali coast on the trail to Kalalou which we plan of hiking this trip. After a little rain and lunch, we walked at Hanalei Bay and then went to Kealia beach to watch the surfers before calling it a day.

My first taste of Kauai

Kenneth taking a break from snorkeling

Plumeria

Hanalei Bay

April at Little River

April has been the month of return to Little River Canyon. It's been nice to switch to longer climbs and fluid movement after a long winter of bouldering. Route climbing is where my heart is. We spent most of mid-April at the Concave repeating all of our favorite routes and venturing onto some of the more obscure lines. This week we took a jaunt over to Unshackled where I finally took down one of those nemesis climbs that has always given me trouble (mostly due to the large and awkward dyno). Below is some pics of Movie Star- a classic canyon 12 that will no longer get the best of me. Also, I was really psyched to onsight Zamfir, 13a- a good sign that route season is off to a good start.

I defy dynos

secret, stealthy movie star beta

2,249 Clips

I spent this weekend attending a route setting clinic with Chris Danielson, hosted by Stone Summit Climbing Gym. The clinic provided a lot of insight into the art of setting commercial and competition routes and boulder problems. I had a blast putting routes and problems up on virgin walls with the input and critique of one of USA Climbing's best setters. The experience certainly got me more inspired to pursue setting.

The most exciting part of the weekend was to finally step inside the new gym. The awe factor cannot be conveyed. This gym will completely transform climbing in the southeast as it brings in international world cup events and get kids inspired that may not have otherwise found climbing. This is the largest climbing gym in the U.S. and the name of this blog post is real: there are literally 2,249 bolt hangers in the gym! To climb the entire length of the route will wind up being over 100 ft of climbing from ground to anchors. I just can't wait for what's to come- it's an entire indoor crag with unlimited training potential.

Chris giving some constructive criticism on my first attempt at setting on these new walls

The HUGE roof

The Motherlode. . . at the gym

nothing like some giant machinery to make me look smaller

Daniel, one of Stone Summit's owners, and Fernando with buckets of holds

Hotness

Resilience

-(of a substance or object) able to recoil or spring back into shape after bending, stretching, or being compressed

-(of a person or animal) able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions

This word has been my mantra for the past couple months and I feel as though, just now, I have finally regained my original shape after having being bent, stretched, and broken at times. The definition almost completely fits except for the part about recoil or springing back as it gives an image of immediate recovery. I’m in the car with my husband and my dog- on our way to the canyon for a spring day of climbing (no matter the rain). This is the second time this week that I’ve made it outside to climb after over a month of not being able to. Its been a long time since my last blog post- and a hard couple months.

The thing is that, as a nurse, I am constantly surrounded by illness and death and these past couple months have been a little more so than usual. While my work has been particularly stressful, I had a very unnerving experience in early March with my best friend who had one two many close calls during the childbirth of her first baby. She's just fine now, but it only reinforced that constant presence in my life of: Go LIVE Now While You Still Can. People’s lives change on a dime every day. Having this constant reminder in my life is usually a blessing: the perspective it provides me with, and the understanding that comes from being with people in their most difficult moments. Sometimes, though, you can get to feeling a little broken from it all. And while some things are going on in my life that still have me filled with worry, it is amazing how a day at the crag can relax whatever tightness was filling my head.

Much like the Taoist teaching that it is a whole lot easier to go with the bends of the stream than try to redirect its flow, climbing requires a certain yielding or cooperation with the way things are. At the same time it gives the most freedom that I know. Give and take. Resilience.

ABS Nationals Finals

Sorry for no post since Friday- just got back in Atlanta and got the ol' laptop charged back up. For me, the finals on Saturday night were a bit of a disappointment- winding up in 11th place. I was not very excited about the problems set, but that is how comps go: sometimes the problems suit you/inspire you. . . and sometimes they don't. I did well on the first two problems only to get completely shut down by the slab problem, unable to reach a hold statically and unable to control the swing. Then I tapped out on the fourth problem when the start required my left hip (my bad hip) to be in a position that felt like I was risking injury. I still had a lot of fun at the event, but my friends that came to spectate were disappointed not so much by the route-setting, but by the lack of beer (what kind of climbing comp is this?). The disappointment faded quickly afterwords thanks to good times with friends and diner food, and my thoughts moved on to plans for the spring. I'm feeling pretty strong and capable of competing well, so I'm strongly considering competing in the Earthtreks Roc Comp in April, hopefully having some more time to prepare for that event than I had to train for this one.

Snowtorious

ABS Nationals prelims today: so nice to have this event on the east coast! The weather has made it very difficult for people to get here as DC was filled with dump-trucks full of snow going out of town today to try and relocate it. I am staying with my best friend, Jess Culpepper, and her husband and we had some trouble of our own making it to the comp. The plan was for them to drop me off at the metro station so they could get to work, but maneuvering around the slush streets was gripping and the traffic was gridlocked. I was beginning to think that I would surely miss my climb time, but we changed the plans and decided to drive to Alexandria instead and traffic permitted in this direction. I later learned that the red line train that I was supposed to ride to the gym had de-railed. Another bullet dodged in my book: good thing I was already wearing my lucky underwear!

The comp was super-fun with gymnastic, but technical problems: an power/enduro-fest of six problems 4min on/4min off. I am in eighth place going into finals: not too bad for an old lady (believe it or not, I am by far the oldest female competitor making it to finals). It was good as always to see all the familiar faces and friends.

After competing, I went out to lunch with Charlotte, Sarah, and Alex J. and we decided to celebrate the record snowfall:

(ABS Nationals or traversing Mt Ranier: you decide)

Climbing pictures to come tomorrow- I promiss!

Valentine's Day

Getting ready to leave for a quick meeting at work this morning and then it's on the ATL airport to fly out for ABS Nationals. I'm as ready as I'm going to be (given my current schedule) and pretty excited to compete in a nationals event on the east coast, at least I was until the double blizzards dumped on DC. As of this minute, Reagan International is still not open and only the underground portions of the metro are running (which doesn't help you if you're at the airport).

National weather service is claiming 4ft of snow with wind gusts up to 60 mph. As of now, the flights before mine today have already been cancelled, but my flight is claiming to still be on time. This is going to be a very long and blustery weekend with no guarantees that I'll actually make it to the gym in time to compete. No matter what, it will be an adventure. I'll keep posting on that situation, but in the meantime, I wanted to talk about Valentine's Day.

Nationals has always fallen on this weekend, and so, for the past 4+ years, I have not been with my husband on valentine's day. While many people hate valentine's day for the hallmark holiday that it is, I love it for all the reasons I love every movie that has Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan together. I don't know how much longer I'll be competing at events like this, but I'm really looking forward to the day I get to celebrate a Valentine's Day in the same state as my husband (like New York on top of the empire state building). Happy Valentines Day, Kenneth: I love our life together!