A Live Free or Die state of mind

So, once again, when not in the field I have been slacking in the blog updating. This does not mean that I am not doing anything interesting… on the contrary, I have been extremely busy.

A few days after I got home I began working full time in the Hudson River lab at Normandeau, sorting samples again. Registered for and took the GREs (I think I did decent), and began some preliminary grad school scouting. I also got myself a membership at Vertical Dreams, the local climbing gym in Manchester (or Manch-Vegas, or Man-Chest-Hair) as soon as I could. I’ve visited a bunch with old friends, I think I’ve been apple picking three times already this fall, and have done a ton of climbing with the usuals from VD. We even went to the first Nor-Easter Climbing Festival up at Tenney Mountain about a month ago. Saw some climbing movie premieres and brushed elbows with the likes of Sharma, Graham, Kinder, Caldwell and Rands.

I also made it back up to the White Mountains to hike the legendary Mt. Washington again. And yet again, the temperamental mountain gave me crappy weather, and I had no view from the summit. This time I hiked up with Jakob and his friend Maureen, who was visiting from Oklahoma. We still had an excellent time, even though we were completely soaked from hiking through the clouds, from cairn to cairn the whole way above tree line.

A new tradition started up this summer with the gym crew, bouldering outside at Pawtuckaway State Park on Wednesdays. I got in on this when I got back. Unfortunately the days are getting shorter, so we’ve been relying on headlamp and propane lanterns more and more for seeing what’s going on when climbing. It does make it easier to offer beta when someone is climbing though… just point to the hold/ foot with a flashlight.

A view of “Another World,” a current project of mine at P-Way, as seen from atop another slabby problem I sent

And Jakob working on “The Professor” the week before he sent it.

Last weekend I went up to Rumney for my first real sport climbing experience. Jakob and Kevin gave me some instruction on how to clip, and I led my first climb. (An extremely easy 5.6.) I did a few 5.8 and 5.9s throughout the day, and then got stuck at the crux of a 5.10. I don’t know how many times I threw for that tiny crimp with crappy feet. If I were about 3 inches taller it would have not been a problem. (but that’s an excuse… right?) At one point I had the crimp with my middle finger only, and stuck there with my hand all splayed out for a few seconds before slipping off again.


It was a good day all in all. Got a few more scrapes and bruises, climbed into the dark, and watched Jakob and Jeff work on their current project, “Social Outcast”, a 5.12. (not sure the letter grade) Here’s Jeff climbing, and lurking at a nice little rest stop…



And Jakob yelling at the crux…


No, those pictures are not crooked… the rock is really slanted like that.

The foliage was beautiful, I’m looking forward to getting back up there tomorrow for some more climbing. Maybe I’ll send that 5.10…