Climb at the Pit with Patty, Mike and Matt Laessig. Send "Excalibur" 5.12c first go, so 5 shots or so over 2 days. Loving the slyle of climbing at the Pit, but it will be good to get to other areas and improve at different styles. I don't want to become a climber who can only perform on a certain rock type, and who gets freaked out on others.
Tuesday 24 May 2011
Plan to leave for Canada today, but synching the iphone to itunes on my laptop for the first time has created problems. I seem to be locked completely out of the phone (reset to factory settings after backing data up and installing new update.), and AT&T are no help. Seems like I need to get the phone unlocked (jailbreak) from its Australian factory restrictions again so it will work with a US SIM.
Wednesday 25 May 2011
Spend the beautiful day playing frisbee golf with a bunch of the Flagstaff locals and lounging by the pool at the country club. What a great lifestyle! I've never been good at the whole "walk in and pretend you belong even though you don't have a membership" thing, so I just kept my head down and followed the others in. We never got bothered, and an evening spent by the pool was perfect.
Thursday 26 May 2011
Continue to try to fix phone problems. Eventually get a T-Mobile prepaid phone until I can get the iphone unlocked. Ditch AT&T prepaid SIM. I'll try to get the iphone unlocked in Salt Lake City (only city big enough on my way North to have a service who unlock iphones) on my way to Canada.
Friday 27 to Monday 30 May 2011
Leave Flagstaff for Canada. Drive over 4 days, through northern Arizona, Utah, the east end of Ohio, Montana, and then up into Alberta Canada. Got iphone unlocked in Mormon town Salt Lake City. The locals I spoke to didn't have much to say in favour of the more hardcore LDS proponents! After the desert of Arizona and Utah, Ohio and Montana were mainly farming with a bit of forest and mountain thrown in.
Red Canyon Utah
Border crossing
view of the Rockys
Lots of little oil wells peppering the landscape of northern Montana. I had a few visa issues (on the US side) entering Canada but, once through, it was reset the GPS to metric and drive baby drive. Its not far from the border to Calgary, and my friends like close to the city. Catch up with Rich and Giselle at their wonderful house in Cochrane Alberta. Only 40 mins outside of Calgary and a nice little town.
Thursday 2 June 2011
Head over to Canmore to check out the climbing scene. Went to the Canadian Alpine Club and asked about local climbing, and at a local gear shop. Posted notices and got a couple of names. Went to the bouldering gym and had a session by myself, but it was pretty quiet.
Friday 3 June 2011
Supposed to climb with a French guy who had a notice posted around town looking for climbing partners, but he bailed. So looks like another day sitting around watching it rain! I'll just go down to Canmore tomorrow anyway, and if he bails again I'll just look at the crags for partners. How hard can it be in such a popular area?
Saturday 4 June 2011
Climb at Grassi Lakes near Canmore Alberta, with Edmonton crew Wallace, Sheelah, Zoe, Dan and Anthony. The Frenchy bailed again, but luckily I found some friendly people to climb with. Try to onsight a 12a, but fell on last hard move. Found the limestone climbing there a bit harder than down in the States. Camped in Banff National Park at Two Jacks campground with the Edmonton crew. Banff and surrounds is so amazingly beautiful!
Sunday 5 June 2011
Climb at "Back of the Lake" area near Lake Louise in the Banff National Park, with the Edmonton crew.
The quartzite rock here seems to suit my style pretty well. Onsight a 12a, and get very close to onsighting a 12b. Climb a cool but hard and scary 12c ("Dynomite") with 3 falls. Hard 2nd clip that would put you on the ground if you blew it with rope out. I fell higher up, and a tight belay put me into a roof lip and caused some nasty shin pain. I guess good climber-belayer dynamics are formed over time!
Tuesday 7 June 2011
Cook San Choy Bow for Giselle and Rich. Last night in Cochrane before flying over to France. Unfortunately the wedding coincides with Logan and Rob's trip to Ceuse, and it looks like I won't be able to participate in both. I would have loved to see Ceuse, but it may have to be a different trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment