Assorted other GB Activities

Among other things we did in the UK we of course got some climbing in on the Grit. I've wanted to climb on Grit for ages, ever since I first saw the movie "Hard Grit" obviously I was not doing anything that would constitute putting my neck on the line in the way that many of the people in that video were (certainly not with the family present). Grit is an interesting rock, more granular than sandstone but not even close to being conglomerate as far as how it climbs. We spent 3 days climbing on this unique stone, 2 before Edinburg and one after, and I went out on my own on one other evening (VIDEO). Dylan was able  to get in some more climbing on some of the smaller of the many boulders that litter the hillsides.

 After Edinburg we headed back through the Peak District and did a bit more climbing before stopping in Bath. Here Linda and Dylan are in front of the Abbey just outside the Roman baths.

 And Dylan in front of the bath.

 We then headed on to Stonehenge and took a tour that walked us through the country side culminating in a special access tour of the stones themselves, which allowed us to walk among the stones as opposed to viewing them from a raised catwalk about 100 feet back.

Our last day that included visiting Bath and Stonehenge and then driving to a hotel close enough to Heathrow that we would be able to make a noon flight was quite taxing and not something I would really recommend. Though in hind site I would just pass on going to Bath because of the crowds, it is kind of cool but at the same time it is difficult to enjoy.

Our flight back landed in Dallas and we spent a little time with Linda's grandma (98 years old) and then I headed back to Albuquerque while Linda and Dylan head to Austin with her dad to visit with the cousins.

July 9th - 11th, 2016 - Edinburgh

After spending a couple of days in the Peak District climbing we headed to “The North” ..... 

to spend some time in Edinburgh. The day we got in we tried to check out the local climbing wall but only arrived as it closed, then got dinner to go from a small restaurant in the “Old Town” called Oink!, where the only make one thing but do it quite well. Edinburgh is a fantastic city and where J.K. Rowling lived while writing the Harry Potter books. We did our usual walking tour of of the city and also checked out the Edinburgh Castle on our first day. We headed to the cemetery to visit Tom Riddle’s (Lord Voldemort) grave across the street from the above mentioned cafe .....

and the views of the city from the castle were quite amazing .....

so amazing that Dylan felt a need to stand guard over it .....

In the evening we headed to The Witchery for dinner, the only “fine dinning” night we had in our entire 6 week trip ..... 

The food was quite nice with Dylan getting his usual, whatever is closest to a hamburger .....

While Linda and I shared the lamb wellington. We had tried to check out the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena the day we got to Edinburgh but got lost since all forms of sat. nav. take you to the wrong place, though different places depending on the app you use. Instead we made a day out of going there. We first checked out the “New Town” part of Edinburgh, getting lunch at a restaurant called The Dogs where the food was reasonably priced and quite good, comfort food, and again Dylan with something as close to a hamburger as possible .....

After lunch we headed out of the city to the climbing arena where Junior Worlds has been held on several occasions. The facility is enormous and makes anything I’ve been to in the US seem tiny ..... 

There are 5 main walls that are all 60+ feet tall including a section that is 100’ tall and an angle adjustable competition wall. Before we headed home Dylan wanted a snack so he headed to the vending machine and returned with .....

Guinness chips, apparently they start them young in Scotland.

We quite liked Scotland and Edinburgh in particular. There are lots of nice homes just outside the main part of the city where it does not seem that crowded but you are still really close to the restaurants and shops, you can also quickly get out of town and to the hills or ocean. All in all it just seemed a bit easier to navigate as a traveler and more homey than London.

June 28th - 30th, 2016 - Final Days in Rocklands

After our rest day we were psyched to get our and try to get back to some areas and try problems that we had not had an opportunity to try earlier. We started by heading to 8 Day Rain with Craig and Natalie, and made our way to the Crazy Leg area. With several problems from 7a through 7b+ on the boulder we all had a good time climbing on various lines including Crazy Leg 7b (VIDEO), Secret Ascent 7b+ and Silky Natural 7a .....

After that I headed over to the Golden Virginia 8a, which looks reasonable but will require a bit more time than I had for me to do. I then risked the skin on my right hand to do the Skink dyno 7b, apparently most people wrap their hand in tape so as to not tear skin when jumping to the hold at the lip. Not knowing this I just loaded up and jumped, luckily sticking it and only roughing up the skin but not ripping any flappers (though it was close). In the afternoon we headed back to Arch Valley so that Linda could get back on a 7a+ she had previously tried, Director’s Cunt (yes bad word and all) and try another 7a that I had done the last time we were there, One with the Freaks, which she sent on her 2nd or 3rd try (photo by Craig Faulhaber).....

The next day I woke up early to try a few things while it was still cold and shady out, though with no success, projects for next time maybe. After I returned to the house we all headed out to find fun stuff for Linda to climb and ended up meeting up with Craig and Natalie again who were taking Aubrey, who works at Traveler’s Rest, out for his first time climbing. Linda climbed several 6’s including these two on the Middle Plateau boulder .....

and on the Consequence boulder .....

though ultimately Linda was left feeling a bit unfulfilled with the day. In the late afternoon I headed back up to Fields of Joy with Craig and Natalie to get on a couple of lines that I really wanted to do and felt like I had a good shot at. After re-warming up we moved to Macho King 7c+ which had a whole host of pads because there was another group of 4 guys (3 having done it and one still trying it) there, perfect a sea of pads. On my second try I made it to the lip and fell off with the move feeling really hard and a bit awkward. The next time up I bungled the roof sequence and dropped off a bit earlier, then on my 4th try this happened (photo by Natalie).....

SUCCESS, certainly one of the best problems I did on the trip. Natalie also started trying the problem and made great progress through the roof section. After that Craig and Natalie spent some time working the Dirty Lies roof 7a+/b before we headed over to the Barracuda Rail 7b, which is basically a 15m or 50’ traverse on a sloping rail with the crux coming at the end as you make the transition around the arete at the end. I put my route climbing skills to use and hustled across the rail and turned the corner on my first try. Finally it was off to the Kiesl boulder to try the sandbagged classic of the same name at 7a. Being the gentleman that I am I let Natalie go first, then using her beta barely scrapped through (photo by Craig Faulhaber) .....

We did a final problem, Gegen den Wind 7a+ as the sun was setting and hustled it out of there to get back to the cars right as it got dark which was good since the approach is one of the most involved and technical that we did in Rocklands.

As I said, Linda was left with a somewhat empty feeling after her final day, while my skin was screaming. After packing up our house we headed to the Hen House for breakfast where Linda got a mochachino (2 shots with hot chocolate). Apparently caffeine makes everything better in her eyes. We stopped at the Kliphuis Campground to check out the Teapot boulder and so Linda could get a couple of hours of climbing in and hopefully leave feeling happy. Wether the quality of the climbing or the caffeine our goal was met. Linda loved the problems on the Teapot boulder including Up the Spout .....

and did a few other problems in the area including an Unnamed 6b arete that she really liked and Soggy Teabag 7a+ (which would be her hardest problem ever), but in her opinion not that hard. Dylan also had a good day doing 3-4 boulder problems, 2 of which would actually be quite nice even for adults, here he is on his proudest climb of the trip .....

All in all I think we would definitely be interested in another trip to Rocklands in the future, we each have things that we tried and did not finish or saw but did not have an opportunity to try, not to mention that the rock is endless out there.

June 25th - 27th, 2016 Rocklands and Rest Days

On the 25th we finally made it out to the Muisbosskerm, an open air all you can eat fish braai. The restaurant, between Lamberts Bay and Eland Bay, is built right at high tide line and only serves when they have reservations for 15 or more people. We had reservations for Lunch which did not start until 1:15 so to pass the time we wandered the beach as the morning fog burned off.....

Dylan is really into shells when he can find them and was very excited to find several complete sea urchin shells .....

The next day we headed out to the Rhino boulders with Craig and Natalie. After warming up a bit we headed back a bit further to do the amazing looking 6c Tiger Claw, which we all did, here is Linda .....

I also climbed Stalker on the Horizon 7c/+ on my first go. After a brief rest we headed back to the main Rhino boulder to climb the iconic profile of the Rhino. It is interesting as the beginning moves vary dramatically based on if you can reach a particular hold with you feet still on the pedestal under the climb or not. We all had a good time with Craig having 2 particularly good attempts and Natalie making progress while I managed to flash the problem after watching video of it countless times on a previous night when I could not sleep. We then moved back to the Tiger Claw area so Linda could wrap up the 7a Bols Island, her first of the grade for the trip. After that was done, we headed up the road to the Roadside boulders where Craig sent the classic 7b Question of Balance which I had tried our previous time out and after several attempts I was able to climb it as well with some slight changes to my beta based on how he climbed it. To finish off I climbed the classic highball 6c Creaking Heights (photo by Craig Faulhaber).....

of course I did this while Linda was off out of site trying another problem. This started a long line of about 6 people then climbing the problem with a couple of big but clean falls from the crux. With a long day at the boulders we hiked out to a beautiful sunset, here Craig humors me for a posed shot .....

On the 27th it rained leading to a forced rest day. At this point in the trip we were not disappointed to have a break from the 2 days on 1 day off theme to let sore muscles and thin skin heal. We spent the morning at Travelers Rest plotting for the remaining two days of climbing and having a lazy breakfast. Then headed over the pass into town to do some house keeping items and get souvenirs. We visited a couple of Rooibos tea houses .....

, picked up house slippers for Dylan and did more grocery shopping. After we had a nice dinner with Craig and Natalie at our place and went to sleep with high hopes for the coming days.

June 20th - 24th, 2016 Middle Days in Rocklands

After our rainy rest day we headed to the 8 Day Rain area which is typically the first to dry out after a rain to climb with Jan (the South African Ocun importer) and his son Jeremy who is 7 and got along well with Dylan. After warming up a bit we headed to the Beckoning boulder and did the steeper problems with the ones on the right being quite soft (Linda climbed the 7b+ in a couple of tries which is a couple of grades harder than she has ever climbed). After that we headed to To Siemay which is a very pretty looking 6c+ that a couple from Denver (Craig and Natalie were looking at getting on) and everyone proceeded to take turns with most of us climbing it at some point, here Linda puts in an attempt .....

Finally to round out the day the 7 of us headed down to the Vanity boulder to climb the classic 7a+ Vanity, topping out (photo by Craig Faulhaber).....

It was crazy as by the time we left there were about 20 people at this single boulder, but we still managed to climb many of the problems including this fun arete .....

The next day Jan and Jeremy headed back to Cape Town and we climbed with Craig and Natalie again, this time at the Sassies, home of the highball and roof climbs. We all played on the 7a Maties, here Linda works through the roof (photo by Craig or Natalie).....

and some of us climbed on the 7b+ Un Petite Hueco dans Rocklands, here I'm topping out (photo by Craig Faulhaber) .....

After that we moved over to the highball, 7a+ Springbok which we all climbed on using the alternate static beta as opposed to the jump move,  here is Craig .....

After I climbed the 7b+ arete of Olifantshuis (photo by Craig Faulhaber).....

During the day Dylan did a nice little boulder problem (photo by Craig Faulhaber and featuring his foot)..... 

and tried to help out with carrying the crash pads between problems .....

After a rest day we headed up to the Roadcrew area and after a fairly disappointing time there, a few of the “classics” were not so classic and some other climbers were kind enough to throw one of our pads in a mud puddle so that they could stand and lay on it to take photos of each other, we headed across to the Cedar Spine Gully. Once in the gully we found the awe inspiring highball Cedar Spine, but being alone there were not enough pads or spotters (falling with only Linda below is not real appealing) to attempt it. I headed of in search of the Last Days boulder and fell victim to the guide book. The book is not particularly detailed an I ended up in a completely different area before reorienting and finding the correct rock. On the way over to it I climbed the pretty slab of Playing in the Fields of the Lord .....

Once there we did several little problems, here is Linda on an arete .....

We hiked out to a beautiful sunset, viewed through thatch grass (yes, a real thing for making thatched roofs) .....

The next day we climbed at some of the same areas as on our first day as well as a couple of the nearby areas as well. We largely climbed by ourselves and as such don’t have any photos but still had a productive day. Highlights were the 7b+ roof of Born into Struggle and the 6c jump line of Sex Etiquette.

A few random shots, typical South African brands .....

and breakfast of champions .....

June 17th - 19th, 2016 - First Days in Rocklands and Rest Day

Our first day in Rocklands we had our friend Greg for a guide. He took us out to the Plateau Areas in the morning and to Fields of Joy in the afternoon. We started the morning at the aptly named Warmup Boulder which has several nice easier problems to get used to the stone and the blood flowing, which after 8 days of sitting in cars and on airplanes was a good idea. Here Linda climbs the 5c, Ice, Ice Baby .....

Linda also attempted the classic 6b+, Girl on our Mind but without success as the headwall finish was giving her trouble and she kept starting from the beginning without figuring out how to climb the end. I managed to climb the 7b, Poison Dwarf on my first try, not a bad start to the trip. We then headed to the far side of the Plateau Area to look at the 7b Minki which is quite an interesting roof problem where your feet are doing much of the work to keep you on. There was a whole group there working the problem so I sat back and watched all the different ways they were working through the roof. When I got on for a burn I chose the method used by the 5’ 2” girl which worked perfectly for me since it involved tying myself into an upside down pretzel and I pulled through again on my first try. As we wrapped up the morning we hiked out past Girl on our Mind and we stopped so Linda could pull off the send. Here she is pulling through the headwall that had shut her down all morning in the full sun .....

In the afternoon, between staining my back pulling Dylan up a rock step in the approach trail and Linda slipping on a rock and landing on her chin (she had a habit of landing on her face when she falls) I managed to climb the 7a+, Dirty Lies and the 7b, Maniac, both on my second try. We then proceeded to hobble our way down to the car.

In the morning on our second day we said good by to Greg after spending our time in Kruger and Cape Town with him and his family it was sad to see the last of the Crum’s go. We then headed up the pass to go to the Roadside Area, which is a bit of a misnomer as the approach is 35 minutes long. While it is alongside a road, the road is closed to vehicular traffic. Once we got to the area I took some shots of a few guys trying the 7a, Sunset Traverse .....

which I climbed shortly after. The day ended early when Dylan was sharing snacks with another little boy at the boulders and had some chocolate with a cashew coating, leading to a rushed hike out and quick drive back to the guest house to get Benadryl into him. Other than a pissed off stomach and hives all over he got through fine.

On our 3rd day we took the day off of climbing to let tired muscles and thin skin recover. We chose to check out the Sevilla Rock Art Trail just down the road at Travelers Rest. Here are Dylan and I at the entry area .....

and a few examples of the rock art to be found along the trail, Zebra ..... 

Dylan checking out a well covered panel ..... 

Several different characters with a particularly detailed archer .....

3 Years Off - I'm a Slacker

At the beginning of 2013, with Dylan now in school 5 days a week, I headed back to school myself. I was not doing anything with my math degree but got talked into accounting. So I headed to CNM and went through their CPA prep program, basically a series of classes that fulfill the requirements in NM to sit for the exams. I had intended to complete the program before looking for a job but ended up getting hired by a small local firm that fall, Matts & Co. Accounting Professionals, LLC (only 5 people in the office), through a referral from a classmate. Anyway, I finished the program while working my first tax season and took the 4 exams between the end of August 2014 and January 2015 (4 total), and received my license from the state on April 15th, 2015. In the meantime, Matts & Co. merged with Atkinson & Co., Ltd., a large local firm of 50+. So I'm now finishing up my 3rd year in public accounting which has of course taken time away from many of the things I used to do, such as maintaining this blog and cycling, climbing etc.

Anyway, Dylan has changed and grown quite a bit in the interim. He has picked up and given up soccer and guitar after a couple of years doing each. He is going to the NM International School, a NM state charter that is spanish immersion and based on the International Baccalaureate program. He currently is mostly focused on learning to swim, being water safe is important to both Linda and I. I don't really care if he ends up being a good swimmer so long as he can keep himself afloat and get where he needs to if he was to fall in with his clothes on. As well as violin, which he has twice a week at NMIS as well as once a week on his own with the same instructor.

While climbing has definitely taken a back seat for a few years, Linda was eligible for her 3rd sabbatical with Intel in August 2015, however with a child in school we were unable to go anywhere until this summer, not to mention I'm not allowed to take time off during tax and tax extension seasons. We have been wanting to go to South Africa to check out Rocklands for years and with some friends that are from there and will be headed to many of the same areas we want to go to this summer seemed like a perfect opportunity. We have been working on the plans for at least 10 months and even then we were not able to reserve our first choice lodging at Rocklands.

With a climbing trip on the horizon it was time to get back into climbing shape. So, with what spare time we had through tax season, Linda and I put in many nights at the climbing gym and trying mostly unsuccessfully to climb outside. We did however make it out to El Rito for a day in May. With Dylan getting a little into climbing these days and a new hammock, Linda and I were able to get more climbing in than we've been able to recently. Below are a couple of photos of Dylan on his first completed outdoor routes, chilling in the hammock and a sunset.  

Focused on getting to the top, possibly the offer of Rebel Donuts had something to do with Dylan's enthusiasm on this day.

 Linda is the grey looking spot below

 Getting serious about and apple

Pretty colors