Road Trip O'-Ten

After returning to the US late Nov 5 homeless and jetlagged, I went to Montana (place of origin) and stayed with my mother for more than two months. During this time, I started and finished writing a travel guide for the iPhone (available in the iTunes app store under "Wasatch Skiing Essentials)...

During this time, I also experienced no less than broken memory sticks and motherboard, 9 days of fever flu, MCL + meniscus "crunch" (drop-kneeing in the gym), another two week cold/flu, timing belt and engine seals replacement on Subaru, broken camera, broken external HD, lost Blackberry, front break replacement on car, a 520 Swiss Franc fine for being in the Schengen District too long (you don't know what it is, either? yeah. I do now), mmm... oh, and a dog "fight" in which my dog nearly dismembered my mother's finger and killed her dog.

Not surprisingly, I'm about a month late departing on a North American tour. Leaving SLC today. First stop: Southern Utah. Zion, then Moe's Valley.

My friend, Patrick Purcell, turns 51 this weekend and wants to celebrate by climbing 51 pitches in a day. He tried for 50 last year at Indian Creek, but had laryngitis, bronchitis, a sinus infection, and a very sick daughter. So showed up late, climbed sick, and "only" got 40 pitches. This year, he's going for the full 51 (allowing himself to repeat pitches). We'll climb at the Touchstone Buttress (lots of single-pitch routes), not at Indian Creek (as the weather is supposed to be cold and wet this time around).

Next, Moe's Valley. A good crew is rolling down from SLC and from Flagstaff. So we'll have lots o' crashpads.

I'll be tripodding for a while, but am definitely still psyched to get out and climb!

Alternative Activities in Rodellar

Alternative Activities in Rodellar:

Christine is sad m'puz she stabbed her thumb wif a big, mean, stinky-pants knife and couldn’t climb for four days… and then sad again m’puz a muscle in her back made a crunchy boo-boo.

I arrived in Rodellar about 1.5 weeks ago now, and was absolutely amazed… amazed by the weather (very un-Mallorcan: not raining), amazed by the climbing (cave after cave of steep, beautiful limestone in an beautiful, idyllic canyon). I was also pleased to check into the Kalandraka Refugio- which, unlike my last place of residence, has bathrooms, running water, electricity (not to be mixed with the running water), beds, and roofs. What’s up. And finally, it was good, as always, to meet the nice, new faces here and see several of the old, familiar faces from trips previous, including Ceuse.

If you haven’t been to Rodellar, know this: it’s like Disney Land for climbers. The deep canyon in which all the crags sit, is a twisty-turny gorge with stacks of luscious orange- and blue-streaked caves of all aspects and sizes. A spring-fed river meanders through the bottom and well-worn foot paths cross it here and there on lilly-pad-like stepping stones. There are caves up high, caves down low. Caves in the sun, caves in the shade. Orange rock, white rock, blue rock, grey rock. Walls with big jugs, and walls with more tufas than you’ve ever seen in your life. Some techy climbs, but heaps and heaps of steep lines. Thousands and thousands of bolts and an often a pleasant breeze. Mild approaches –just enough to get the blood flowing a bit, yet not so much as to prohibit two- and three-crag days. There are arches and climbs going straight up the underbellies of these natural windows. 40-meter routes and 15-meter routes. Basically, paradise.

Especially after Mallorca’s rain (and even after the vertical tech-climbing of Ceuse), I was incredibly ready to soak this up! Mostly excellent weather (shirtless climbing and puffy-jacket belaying), an unending list of new routes, and such physical climbing… Oh my! After the first few days, I was so sore from head-to-toe that it was difficult to walk or even sit properly. Though the routes here are supposed to be softly rated, I found them to be, ehh, ehm, pretty tough, as I was completely unaccustomed to such steepness. But I was soooo ready to become accustomed to it! I could feel fitness soaking into my body every day. I was getting nervous that I might rip my clothes if I accidentally flexed.

And then… four climbing days later: STAB! Without going into the whole story, let’s just say that I managed to stab through the pad of my thumb (entrance and exit holes) with a very sharp knife. So. Understanding that it needed time to heal properly (lest it become a never-ending infection), I took four days off. Ok. Good. It actually healed in enough in this time to climb again. Check.

But then 1.5 climbing days later: CRUNCH! Doing an (apparently strenuous) high-step/gaston move, a muscle in my lower back/ ribs decided to seize up/ pull/ hurt and burn a lot. So. Now I’m waiting for it to tell me whether to stay here and wait it out, or to go home and let it heal. Meanwhile, I’m occupying myself with (gasp!) work and other activities such as blog-writing and hiking… a friend and I walked a few hours to a ghost town (Otin) the other day. I’ve also been hiking back and forth to a PT’s office… but, as things go in Spain, he’s never really around during the times we agreed to meet. But that’s OK.

So, I suppose I’ll know in a few days whether I’ll be able to climb again soon, or whether I should take the next few weeks to get myself back to North America, take care of “life” there, and get back on the road (Southern Utah, Hueco, El Salto). All in all, not bad choices… but I’m really hoping to get to climb more in Rodellar than just 5.5 days.

Bye for now...

Hola Mallorca: probably the stupidest blog title possible.

ANYWAY. MALLORCA IS AN ISLAND IN SPAIN, popular among German urlauber (drunk on board Berlin Air flight # 9414) for its temperate waters and beautiful beaches. It is also famous among climbers round-the-world for its temperate waters, beautiful beaches, and freakingbeautiful, overhanging, seaside limestone cliffs. In recent years, deepwater soloing (or “psychobloc” in European) has become an increasingly popular, yet still exotic, style of rock climbing whereby climbers ascend seaside routes directly over the water, without ropes or any means of protection other than the deep sea below.

Having never properly engaged in psychobloc before, and because of a number of other contributing factors, I decided my next step in this Euro-journey would be Mallorca.

I arrived at Palma Airport (via Nice, Dusseldorf) with Ceuse friends, Alex and Chris, on the night of September 10. Here we were retrieved by a gracious, car-driving friend. I aimed to meet back up with my Australian friend, Chicko… somewhere on the island. According to Chicko,

“from Porto Cristo you can catch a cab to Cala Varques or hitch. About 8 ks out of porto cristo in the dirrrection of cales de Mellorca you will come across a house that looks like a castle (on the left) about 40 mts before the house is a dirt road at the end of the dirt road is a steel gate, through the gate and follow the path. at the beach on the right in the pine trees is me and a smile.”

Luckily, one of Alex’s friends knew what this meant (because I definitely did not), and they dropped me off —right at the steel gate— the next day, after inviting me to crash with them for a night and (thank you!) taking me to the grocery store for food and water.

I wielded all of my unwieldy crap the 10 minutes down this aforementioned path to a beachside campsite in two trips, spoke immediately with someone in the campsite who knew Chicko, and found him playing in the ocean shortly thereafter.

The next few days we spent in sunny paradise, deepwater soloing and generally absorbing the Spanish maritime paradise. A contributing factor to the utopian aura of the place is definitely the campsite –we sleep in a breezy pine forest immediately above a turquoise cove and white sand beach. Also, the majority population of this campsite is… (surprise) Spanish!

This (being a minority tourist among Spanish locals) has been a genuine treat, as, unlike my last time in Spain (El Chorro, December 2008), I’ve actually been immersed in the language, culture (albeit in the form of dirtbagging on the beach), and the sharing of food, jokes, etc. I've evenbeen getting Spanish lessons in earnest from a Uruguayan here. With paper and pens and an English-Spanish dictionary.

All temperate waters, sunshine, and tropical beaches aside, the last few days have been, eh… a bit tryingbecause, though the area is beautiful and, though it statistically never rains here in the summer, it has, in fact, been raining hard… off and on for the last four days. Which is less-than-ideal on a steeply-sloping campsite that easily becomes a river of mud and pine needles, soggy food bits and other rubbish. An aging tent (with large, new hole in the rain fly), and sub-tent river have severely dampened nearly all of my belongings, and the persistent precipitation has not allowed for any drying of these… Needless to say, everyone else in camp is suffering under the same dampness and, though solidarity is high, morale is generally low.

On the bright side: we have enjoyed a staple of grace from newly-made, local friends and acquaintances. A shower one day and a dry couch one night have made a world of difference in the otherwise clammy mud bog of the last four days.

Climbing-wise: I’m not there yet. I’ve had a high rate of painful falls into the water. Odd belly- and face-flops, thigh slaps, wind-knocked-out-of-me’s, sinus blasts, etc, etc… are making it very difficult for me to properly wrap my brain around this particular style of climbing... needless to say, four days of off-and-on rain haven’t eased this transition for a number of factors (wet rocks, chilly weather, and sometimes simply unclimbable conditions). But I’m convinced that I’m just slow in getting used to it. So… whenever the weather clears, I’ll keep chipping away at this problem. Given deepwater soloing’s popularity, it can’t be all that bad. I think the responsibility is with me and that I’m just an awkwardly-falling, high-surface-area wuss.

But anyway. I definitely can’t complain, though I do look forward to hitting my stride again with climbing (in terms of mentality and volume), and hope I can get some of it done soon.

Next stop: Rodellar!

September 4, 2009: 11 Days in Geneva and back to Ceuse

Sorry if this is boring.

For about a month now, I’ve been limping along with a latent wrist injury. Well. Really, I’ve had this problem off and on for… seven years. It goes like this: sometimes when I use an open-handed hold/ sloper, my wrist does a fancy little fake-dislocation thing. Though my hand doesn’t change grip, and my arm may not change position, the wrist itself suddenly just drops out or “fails”. That is, though I don’t relax, strain, or flex, the entire complex shifts and lengthens. Essentially, it’s as if the wrist dislocates. Once it’s done this, there is no way to muscularly reduce it; the only way to “fix” it is to let go and allow itself to correct.

Normally this is OK; it’s a bit uncomfortable, but doesn’t really hurt. Especially if it only happens once, and I don’t repeat the offending move. But once it’s happened, the wrist is always a bit weaker and prone to repeating the subluxation. Still though, if I’m even somewhat cautious, it’s usually a'ight and I can continue climbing.

However, about a month ago, I experienced a severe, acute occurrence of this injury. Without warning, my left wrist failed and it hurt.It hurt a lot and immediately made me question whether I would be able to climb much at all in the following weeks (and months).

Luckily, the next night I spoke with a doctor in camp who is familiar with this exact injury. He gave me a fantastic tape job that, in fac,t supported the wrist wonderfully. I eased back into climbing and found that, with this slick, new tape job, I was essentially able to use the wrist at full-function. Bam! Wrist power! Even with discretion on open-handed holds. And it didn’t even seem to be doing the wrist any harm; rather it seemed to be healing while I was climbing…

Fast forward a few weeks. And then put Christine on an overhanging route with a crux. Though neither the route, nor the crux, are that hard, my method for climbing the crux involved a two-finger, one-pad, undercling pocket. With the left arm. It was better balanced that way, you know?

Well. I don’t know who I think I am –or more precisely: when I forgot my predisposition to injuries– but I, of course, tried this route, wrist and all, and voila! I tore or strained something in my palm.

Oh Crap.

I tried to belay: Pain. I tried to pick up a water bottle: Pain. I got dressed in the morning: Pain!

Crap.

Just as this happened, two friends of mine were moving to leave Ceuse (one because of injury), so I decided to get a clue and take a ride to Geneva, where I would be able to stay in a friend’s apartment and recover. And reflect on my real ambitions on this trip, my attitude toward climbing, and my reasons for staying in Europe for the fall. Because, to be honest, flat affect, self-doubt, and buyer’s remorse (regarding my decision to not return to the US) had been getting me down just as much in the days leading up to my hand injury as my wrist injury itself. Furthermore, given possibly seriousness of the injury, I needed to take a few days to gauge my pain and mobility to determine whether I would stay in Europe for the fall –or whether I would just head back to Utah and do some book research. (But… even freaking typing hurt!)

Anyway.

Fast forward a few days. Reading, running, situps, etc, etc… Ibuprofen. Voltaren. Ice. Ice. Ice. Working, internet, showers, sightseeing, swimming… Geneva! Old Town, cafés, cobblestones, parks, barbecues, music. Reading, reading, reading, art, writing, writing, writing. Internet. A real treat. And then…

Pushups! Pullups? Yes! Pullups!

I was so glad to be able to painlessly bear weight on my hand. And only after about five days of rest! Not only did this feel OK, but it also seemed to help loosen up the injury and make it feel better. This told me that the injury was probably just a damaged sheath in my palm that bundles the tendons of my middle- and index fingers together. (Anatomy?) So I decided to return to Ceuse.

As of now, I’m taking it pretty easy/careful… only am doing routes that don’t strain the hand too much (as it still feels a bit vulnerable and prone to being, ehm, crunchy). I’m also taping the two fingers together, but so far, I think I’ll be able to climb through it... And that said, it seems I'm healing and have even been able to pull kinda hard (for me) on it, and it's not getting worse. Woo hoo!

Ok.

I'm off to Mallorca, Spain tomorrow... Bye Ceuse!

End of Ceuse, Part I

BIG CHANGES FOR BALAZY-POO.

PREPARING TO DIVE INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE FIREY VERDON GORGE, JULY
SUFFERING THE CONSEQUENCES OF DIVING INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE FIREY VERDON GORGE, JULY

SKYDIVING WITH KEVIN
SAID AND STEVE

As the summer’s been rolling by, I’ve been undergoing a pretty major metamorphosis. Most normal-lifey/ high-ambitiony  people might call it a “degeneration”. But just a few days ago, I decided that I would not return to Utah this fall; instead I will say to travel, climb, and write (wait, work?) full-time.

Despite the fact that I’ve been in near paradise for the last six weeks, I’ve been processing all kinds of introspection –brought to me by many facets of Céüse life: the hike to and from the cliff (nearly an hour up if you take it nice ‘n’ slow), the intensity of the climbing… and to an extent, periods of relative loneliness –though I’ve been surrounded by people the entire time, it’s been a really transitive crowd of acquaintances and new friends. All in all, good times, though, bra. 

A few days ago, I decided to not return to Utah in the fall as I had previously planned. Though I’d always intended to go back at the end of August with my round-trip plane ticket, it struck me on the hike down from the crag that I wouldn’t be returning home. 

A number of logistical factors, I realized, have aligned to facilitate this prospect and, despite the fact that I will forsake many figments of my Utah: Fall ’09 life by not returning (work, weddings, fall season at Indian Creek, Zion, Yosemite), the opportunity to stay in Europe most certainly outweighs the details I sacrifice by not boarding my August 31^st Air India flight #127 FRA > ORD. 

That said, I am attempting to experience a paradigm shift into vagabondness. It has to do with simple logistics like pace of climbing during the day and pace of climbing across a month. It is a mindset shift from Woo-hoo-fun! Land to Woah-this-is-going-to-be-my-life? Land. which is all good, but I feel like I'm the subject of my own experiment. I seem to like to stick myself into new and bizarre situations without much preparation.

So far, though, I must say the summer as a whole has been great, trials and lulls included. I feel that, though Céüse is a soul-crunching gravity knob, it’s facilitated my near physical recovery from last winter’s penalizing life changes and, even though I don’t feel necessarily in “good shape”, I now feel that I’ve returned to a normal baseline of climbing fitness. (Though I definitely realize I will need more patience with this recuperation that I might have a few years ago.) 

Most of my time in July and August have been in Céüse, but I’ve also gotten to climb a few days in Orpierre and one hot-as-Hell day in Verdon Gorge. I even learned that just 13 km down the road from Céüse is Europe’s largest skydiving center. So I jumped out of a plane. What’s up. Also, my friend, Tye and I hiked to the top of Ceuse via the via feratta. Which was illegal. What’s up. 

Ceuse

CEUSE IS STILL PARADISE. For the first time in years,  I feel like I'm finally getting the chance to get in proper climbing shape... Each day I feel more and more fit -which leads me to believe that I still have a lot of room to improve before I plateau. In addition to the physical gains, I'm also enjoying a good head. I think all of the trad climbing of the recent years, the less-than-ideal conditions on trips all winter and spring, and all of the varied rock I've been on recently have all contributed to strengthening my mental game in climbing-- and now that my body is finally getting the chance to gain fitness (through regular, uninterrupted climbing) for the first time in YEARS, I'm finally able to take advantage of the mental improvements I've been accumulating. 

So. I'm continuing to climb lots of volume here -but am also starting to send routes more regularly -flash and onsite as well as 2nd try. I've also got a project that's heavy in the techy/ power-endurance department- and I've made huge improvements on that. The holds feel like they grow 30 percent each of the two days I've tried it since the initial burn. 

As for the social scene, there's been a major changing of the guard recently. Many of the original crew are long-gone and others are preparing to leave. The camping is getting quite crowded (so, too, are the cliffs)- but it's OK. I've moved into a caravan- so I now have a power source and desk for writing (yes!) and a stove for cooking (yes!)... for only 2 Euro/ night more than camping. 

Anyway. I think the next week will be a major transition phase around camp. Lots of people on their way out and an inevitable replacement by new neighbors. It's been great meeting all of these people and making genuine, life-long connections with a truly international crew.

More later! Peace out from the McDonald's (free wifi zone) in Gap.

Croatia (Omis), Slovenia (Marja Pec/ Osp), (Italy, Austria, Munich,)

BROKEN CAMERA... SO INSTEAD, 1,000 WORDS.

Well, It's been a bit of a haul.

Spent a few more days chasing good weather in Croatia. Had a few more days of climbing in hot/ off-and-on rain inCroatia with the crew. The rain increased, though, and Nathan, Cheri, and I rented a car and got outta Croatia en route to Munich via Slovenia, Italy, and Austria.

We made a brief stopover in Osp, Slovenia. Not surprisingly, it was super hot with afternoon rain- but nonetheless we decided to brave the weather and head up to the crag of Misja Pec (photo in the last blog post, below). Despite rain, it was a great climbing afternoon- and we got in a really quick 6 or 7 pitches.

After Misja Pec, we traveled by car through Slovenia and Austria- both extremely mountainous and beutiuful, and then into Munich where they were to catch a plane home. I embarked on a long, solo public transportation/ pedestrian journey to Frankenjura... In Munich alone, I caught the bus, the "S bahn", the "U bahn", and "the train" to Nuernberg where I used my "legs" to walk accross town to the Hostel. After a night in a youth hostel, I walked to a train station and caught a series of trains and buses to Frankenjura.

I arrived in Untertrubach, location of the famous "Oma" (Granny) Eichler, owner of the climber campground Gasthof Eichler (www.gasthof-eichler.de). Martha is a splendid lady who kindly spoke with clearly-articulated German, that I could understand her and reply using my 8-years-expired German language skills. I was debriefed on where, how, etc... of the camping setup there and went about putting up my tent. Within ten minutes, Martha's son, Hannes, came
and offered me a ride to the nearest village so that I could stock up on provisions at the supermarket.

As has been the case, seemingly, with everywere I've travelled this spring (Red River Gorge, Spain, whatever), this was the wettest conditions many of the locals have ever seen-- and rocks that typically are dry due to their overhanging nature were utterly soaked through... So we climbed wet rocks.

Though the weather never really cleared, it definitely improved and we climbed another two days, took a rest day, and then climbed another two(ish) days. The trails and roads in the area were really quite perfect for running- as they were numerous, rolling, and criss-crossing- so the jogging (or as I always do: sprinting at blinding speeds) was excellent.

Unfortunately, I never wrapped my head around the climbing at Frankenjura. It seems that each day I climbed, I got worse at it! I think a number of factors contributed to this: the high heat, very high humidity, seeping rocks, strangely-shaped, finger-strength-intsenive pockets, awkward clipping stances, greased and knobby foot edges (that didn't allow for smearing), and oft high-penalty bolt placements... these all surely contributed to the problems I had... 

but I suppose I felt that the problem I there was that I never figured out how to climb "well"- in other words, I think that the best parts of climbing are figuring out how to best relax in strenuous situations-- with straigh-arm clips, creative body positioning, dropped heels, minimal "gripping", smart bolt clipping (if that means clipping at or above the bolt)-- but I felt the climbing here required over-gripping (which here seemed necessary), poor clipping stances (strenuous), bad foot technique, etc, etc... in other words- I just never figured out how to climb it properly.

So Frankenjura and I shook hands and agreed to disagree. Having never done this before, I left the place without ever really enjoying the climbing (save for one or two routes)-- though I do intend to return at some point. Perhaps in dryer weather.

Meanwhile, I came to the conclusion that this summer is actually a "vacation"- something during which you're supposed to have fun- so I thought I'd just roll on out to Céüse- reportedly among the best sport crags in the world.

Other motivating factors for getting to France sooner included word that good friends from the US would be there from the 4th through the 11th only...

Plus, I wasn't too inclined to stick around and beat myself up in a moldy German forest when a world class crag was just a train ride or three away.
....
Turns out Ceuse is truly a climber's paradise. The camping is plush (free hot showers, plenty of shade trees, relaxed international community), the lifestyle is greast: beautiful approach hike, long mornings in the campsite, and spectacular limestone.

I'm having somewhat of a hard time adjusting to the climbing; it's been so long since I've climbed with this much volume- that is, it's been a long time since I've been injury-free, on vacation, and had good enough weather to sport climb long, hard, sustained routes as much as I want!

That said, I think I'm getting stronger, but at the same time, more run down. So today is the first day of a back-to-back rest day session. Anyway. Without feeling super strong, I've still found that I'm able to climb OK- lots of volume with onsight/ flash climbing, a few second-try routes, and some projcets that are within reach for sure. So that's cool. I'm digging the technical climbing, but also the overhanging power-endurance stuff as well.

Socially, I've been hanging out with a great family/ neighborhood posse. Representatives from Brazil, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Britain, France (no way!), Belgium, etc, etc... Also, a Utah friend, Isaac, a bunch and his crew (Dave Graham, Seth Gilean [from St George], and Jon Cardwell), as well as a bunch of people in my "neighborhood" at camp. My bestest homie here is this australian dude (Chicken) who's been a perfect buddy. I'm in a constant battle of trying not to pee my pants from laughing- and we're really compatible as climbing partners, attitude- and ability-wise.

in other news, the weather's been spectucular. Sun-shiny days back-to-back. But, Ceuse does have super weird weather- one minute you're WAY too hot and the next you're numbing out. It has everything to do with sun vs shade and still vs windy air.

I'm pretty much not in touch at all this summer, but that's OK, I suppose. I do wish I were getting more work done on my books, but at the moment there's not much I can do about that b/c of lack of car, scarce power sources, and remote internet (Gap). Anyway.