Christine Balaz

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Freakin' Croatia, Yeah!

Too jetlagged to post much.... More later.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

I'd never been rock climbing in Colorado before. In fact, I never really go to Colorado-- despite the fact that I have a number of really good friends there- through climbing, college... even from back in the Montana days.

So when I decided to spend the summer in Europe, and realized I had an extra 10 days free before my transatlantic departure, I started casting lines to see if I could generate a climbing trip for that time chunk.

Chris Goplerud quickly responded to a Facebook post and invited me to come to Colorado- he'd pick me up in Grand Junction (and spare me the risk of driving my ailing car), take me climbing, put me up in his house, loan me climbing and camping gear- and the whole shebang.

Yes, Chris- thank you. I'll come directly to Colorado.

We attempted to climb at Independence Pass- and enjoyed a few hours of fun bouldering (at the James Brown area), as well as a night session at the Redstone Boulders- but daily rain disallowed any kind of serious Independence Pass climbing, and definitely prohibited any Black Canyon routes.

So. I went to Rifle Mountain Park for my first time- it was freakin' awesome. Polished and techy? Yes. Fo' sho. But in a way, it was perfect climbing for me post non-climbing-month. Though the climbing is sometimes physical, it's mostly physical in a full-body, twisty-tricky way- and not in a brute force, finger-strength-intensive sort of rejected-if-you've-had-a-month-off sort of way.

I didn't send (or even attempt) anything heroic, but definitely enjoyed the week. It rained every day. Sometimes hard. But Chris Kalous lent me his '82 Toyota Dolphin, Del Fuego. This miracle vehicle kept me dry in the worst of weather.

Met some great people, ran into friends from all over, and even got to check out the Bouldering World Cup at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail- where we got to stay with my friend, Alana.

Anyway. This from the Chicago Airport. I'm off to freakin' Europe (baby!) next.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Balaz Rides Again!

FIRST DAY OF FREEDOM:

IT'S BEEN A LONG SPRING. I've moved more than once, surfed couches, worked extra hard, packed my stuff, stored it in friends' basements, (gone back into those basements to retrieve stuff I've prematurely stored,) lost my wallet, lost my mind, found both...

Also, the last month has been completely devoid of climbing. My joints and muscles were creaking, crunching, and genearlly losing steam. Knowing well that I'm injury-prone, I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to give 'em a rest. It also turns out that I was so freaking busy recently, there really wasn't time to climb anyway. So I now head into three months of climbing all rested and recovered! A bit softer than before, but whatever... There's some battles you just can't fight.

Yesterday, Friday, May 29 was my first official day of this grand summer... I will be working on two books this summer- but don't have any scheduled work until Sept.

I had one free day in SLC before work, and before leaving for the summer. My friend, Ed, and I had planned to climb on Friday, time permitting. As per our epic-seeking tendencies (see most recent post, below), we decided to not only try for a long, pretty hard multipitch route, but one that would require hours of approaching. Because this particular route tops out at something like 10- or 11,000 feet, much of the approaching would be in serious snow and would require skinning and skiing.

So we got dressed and loaded our bags for a yuppie extravaganza:

Hiking Gear (check)

Ski Touring Gear (check)

Rock Climbing Gear (freakin' check!)

The only thing we were missing was a mountain bike tied to a kayak. With a hemp rope.

Anyway. To confess: we did not even reach the base of the climb. Our goal was to climb Hogum's Heroes (5.11D, 6 [LONG] pitches) at the top of Hogum's Fork drainage in Little Cottonwood Canyon. But...

It turns out that in springtime after a super-duper snowy winter, the river is FULL! (?) Yes. LCC River = Swift DEATH right now. So... we had to start the approach much farther north in LCC, rather than at the base of Hogum Fork drainiage.

We thought we'd cleverly use a bridge and trail to ascend into Red Pine Basin and just "go up and over a couple of ridges and we'll be right there!" Turns out that once again we got suckered by benign-looking contour lines again on the freindly-looking topo map... Again! (Again: see below post.) Those "little countour lines" actually depict freaking MOUNTAINS covered in freaking ROCKS and SNOW!

The real nail in the plan's coffin was that we had taken a wrong turn early on the hike that took us into White Pine Basin (yet one farther north of Hogum's Fork than Red Pine)... so we basically had no chance of reaching the route on time- far too many rocky, rocky spines, steep slippery snow traverses, miles of seperation, and feet of elevation gain and loss.

But the good news is: We had a hell of a day of ski touring (my first and presumably only ski day of the year), and I got to see Ed try to ski his split board down. Funny stuff that Ed Lyman split-board snow plow! Also, I got to see the Wasatch Mountains in a way I haven't in a long time... they're truly incredible. And, as with our last mountain epic (below post), Salt Lake City was often in plain view.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

9 Hours of Bushwhacking and Snow Sliding

MY FRIEND, ANDREW, recently got in touch with me and our friend, Ed.

Andrew has been increasingly interested in endurance days and wanted to put together a trail run/ bushwhack/ endurance adventure day. Ed is a freak and regularly does this kind of stuff. I'm also a freak (though a much less competent freak than Ed) and get super excited about committing to epic-style adventures.

So. Andrew and Ed did some research and came up with a plan: Start in Salt Lake City's Avenues neighborhood, ascend to the shoreline trail system and up to Black Mountain, at which point the trail ends. Follow along the ridgeline to Lookout Peak off-trail. Link up with the Great Western Trail on the other side of Lookout Peak, and circumnavigate a big ol' basin to eventually reach Big Mountain. Descend into East Canyon. Drink one delicous beer.

The day went exactly as planned... except: in spite of ourselves and our legitimate aggregate experience, we had vastly underestimated the up-and-down-ness of the ridgeline. The topo maps and their nice, friendly-looking contour lines made the ridge look like a gently rolling freaking grassy knowl.

So anyway. "Four or five" hours turned into "almost nine".

Turns out the ridge went UP and DOWN and UP and DOWN... a lotttt. The five-ish hour run we imagined got stretched into a nearly nine-hour affair. There's something silly about three (quasi-)adults stumbling around deleriously on a mountain top, laying occasionally in the dirt, out of food and melting dirty snow for water-- especially when they're often in clear view of Salt Lake City, and totally within cell service.

Anyway. The day (9:30 am to almost 6:30 pm) finished-- and we were all glad to have not bailed (though we had a few chances to)... We ate a delicious pizza and parted ways.