Donner Weekend

Chelsea and Eric looking at a hard climb

After spending a couple of weekends in SLO, it was definitely time for another trip.  We had Monday off for Memorial Day and I don’t have class on Friday so Chelsea and I decided to head up to Tahoe for the long weekend.  We arrived on Thursday night and woke up to cloudy skies on Friday.  We met up with Eric (Now my boyfriend! Wee!)  and headed out to Star Walls.  There is still a TON of snow at Donner so we snowshoed out to the wall.  I failed miserably on last summer’s project (probably because I was so distracted by the prospect of lunch!) and then watched Eric cruise Warp Factor 5.13a and try the link up, a Steep Climb Named Desire 5.14.  Steep Climb’s crux is right after the anchors of Warp Factor and it involves a really hard move to an undercling.  Sweet!  At this point, it was getting a little chilly and we were all so excited about all you can eat sushi that we called it a day and headed to Reno for a two hour marathon of eating!

The following morning, we met Ian at an awesome boulder problem called White Lines (V8).   Ian never fails to impress me with his natural climbing abilities and by the time we had hiked down to meet him, he had done most of the problem and just needed a spot for the last few commiting moves.  I set up my sweet new camera and watched Ian take an awesome burn.  Eric put his shoes on and sent the problem in an amazingly smooth fashion on his second go of the day.  As soon as Eric was back on the ground, Ian jumped on and sent.  Watching the two of them climb such a beautiful problem got me so psyched!  It was super excitng to see the problem go down twice in a row in such excellent fashion. 

Getting creative and making a stick brush out of a ski pole

About to crush White Lines

After White Lines we headed to Star Walls again.  It started snowing pretty hard and I tried climbing my favorite climb, Short Subject, but wimped out and came down.  I couldn’t believe how hard it was snowing!  Just a few days before June, and it seemed like it was the middle of winter still.  We met my good friends from the Bay, Danny and Adriel over at Star Walls and watched them try Warp Factor before calling it a day and heading for shelter from the elements. 

Danny trying to stay warm under Warp Factor

The weather was pretty terrible the next day so we took the dogs snowshoeing and took a rest from climbing.  On Monday, the skies were blue so we trekked up to Black Wall and got on a few fun climbs.  Donner is such a beautiful place and it was amazing to be there without the summer time crowds.  In fact, we didn’t encounter a single other person the entire weekend! 

Finally got a break from the snow on Monday

Titan sunning himself

Eric leading a fun climb above a lot of snow

It was a great weekend that got me rejuvenated for the last three days of class (now two!), psyched for the upcoming Tahoe climbing season and super excited about starting a new relationship with one of my favorite climbing partners :)

Chelsea snowshoeing

Lots of snow

Escape

I’ll admit, I am horribly behind on my blog.  I have so much to say!  I started writing this post several weeks ago, but got super busy and never posted it.  So here is one of hopefully a bunch of new posts going up this week.

Climbing is thought to be dangerous by those who have never done it.  But to climbers, it is exactly the opposite.  Climbing is my safe space.  The place where I go when I want to escape reality, to get away, to pretend that everything is right in the world.  Climbing is what feels right when everything else is wrong.  In my happy little climbing bubble, all I have to think about is the present time.  The past isn’t weighing on my mind; the future isn’t looming like a dark cloud in the distance.

In climbing, I have a certain amount of control.  I can take steps to make it safe, to minimize risk.  I double-check my knot, my harness, my anchor.  I check my partner, bring way too much gear, use two locking biners on my daisy chain.  Calculated steps, precision, repetition. 

Lo Pat it's a 60 foot 5.6, are you really going to bring all that gear?

If only I could control the real world in this way. 

On Monday, May 2, I biked to school for my midterm.  I took a slightly different route and ending up running over a big rock and popping my tire.  It seemed like a bad omen for the test, but I ended up answering the 40 questions at my normal sprinting pace and finished within 20 minutes of receiving the test. 

After the test I received a text from Chelsea.  She said she had fallen off her bike and her neck kind of hurt.  Obviously, I was concerned, but it was a text, not a phone call, and it was written in Chelsea’s normal nonchalant manner.  I decided to call her though and ended up getting a ride from a friend to where she was. 

Chelsea says, "wear your helmet, ALWAYS!"

Well, where she was, was sitting on the sidewalk next to the road, holding her head up with her hands.  Still rather calm about the whole situation, she explained what happened (went over the bars and landed on her head) and that her neck was a little sore, but probably fine.  We decided to go to the ER just to be on the safe side.  Having spent my fair share of time in the ER, I was no stranger to the waiting process we would have to endure.  We sat around while I made jokes and harassed the nurses to deliver Chelsea’s catscan results.  Finally someone came in with a huge neck brace and put it on Chelsea.  He said he didn’t know the results but he had been instructed to put it on.

Still, we were not completely concerned and took funny pictures with the neckbrace.  Eventually the doctor came in and told us that Chelsea had fractured her C1 and C7.  At that point we looked at each other with more of a ‘woops this actually might be kind of a problem’ expression.  Chelsea got moved up to the main hospital where we spent the night and the following day.  I kept us entertained by practicing my wheelchair antics, popping wheelies and crashing into walls in between pestering nurses to let us out. 

Chelsea handling it like a champ!

Finally, on Wednesday, the 4^th, Chelsea was let out with a soft neck brace and went home.  She has since seen the doctor again to make sure everything is healing straight, but we still don’t really know when she will be fully recovered (aka riding her bike and climbing again!)

Throughout this whole process Chelsea was a champ.  Actually she is probably the most badass person I know.  I’m pretty sure that if I broke my neck I would have been crying and blubbering and snotting all over the place and hyperventilating and all sorts of other stuff.  Chelsea, however, was joking around, posing with her neck brace and keeping a great attitude the whole time.  She didn’t complain once and denied all the pain medication offered to her.  What a boss. 

So the moral of that story is: wear a helmet- Chelsea’s saved her life, and send good thoughts to my partner in crime! 

So that was Monday through Wednesday.  Thursday was May 5^th.  One year since Tim passed away.  I spent the first part of the week in the hospital, having weird flashbacks of being there with Tim so many times before and Purrell-ing my hands into a chapped oblivion.  Thursday I just sort of existed and went through the motions.  After the week, I was completely drained and decided I just needed to leave, so I hopped in my car on Friday morning and headed for the Valley to clear my head.  Climbing is my escape and after that week, I needed to duck away and pretend that everything was just fine. 

Eric and I simul rapping 

It was refreshing to spend the four hour drive to the Yosemite with someone I often forget to spend time with- myself.  Just me and my thoughts and my beautiful singing (ha!) all the way to the Valley.  I instantly felt better when I got there.  I went on a quick solo boulder mission and then met up with some friends from Reno and Tahoe- Eric and Chris.  Eric and I simuled up Jam Crack on Friday and took on the Direct Route on Reed’s Pinnacle on Saturday.  The Direct Route is SWEET!  Super cool offset crack for the first pitch and a funky crack that gets real wide for the second.  I’m pretty sure the climb keeps going but that’s all we did.

A silly picture of Eric and I at the top of the first pitch of the Direct Route

 I had my traditional Its Its and met up with Fabien, Tyber, Mitch, and Sam for some bouldering later in the afternoon.  The next day we climbed Moby Dick, an awesome climb at the base of El Cap.  It starts at fingers, goes to hands and then gets wide at the top.  I had fun practicing my hand stacks and heel-toe cams.  The weather turned a little nasty, we bouldered a bit, and then headed to Curry Village for some pizza.  I finally left the Valley around 8 PM on Sunday, had a lovely conversation with my mom on the way home and made it back to SLO sometime after midnight feeling much, much better about things.  

Moby Dick.  So awesome!

 It is important to deal with your emotions, but I also believe that there is no harm in running away for just awhile and getting lost amongst never ending granite walls.  Climbing is the ultimate healer for me, cleansing my soul, clearing my mind, and bringing a smile to my face.

   

Oh boy!

As you can see, my blog has a new banner!  What do you think?  Also I recently received some fantastic news: the remaining 7 courses I need to graduate will be offered winter and spring quarter so I can take fall quarter off for another climbing adventure!  That's right, 3 more days of class, 3 finals and then I am off until January 2012!

Any suggestions?  I have been throwing around the idea of another US trip including the Red River Gorge and the New River Gorge and much more, a possible trip to Turkey to check out the sport climbing, and recently someone threw out the idea of Rocklands.  Wow!  The possibilities :)

Yosemite Video

Here is a video I put together of my last weekend in Yosemite (I'll be writing a post on it soon!)  It isn't a very good video because I wasn't using a tripod and I didn't have a ton of footage, and let's be honest, trad climbing isn't always the coolest thing to watch!  But, what the heck, I'll post it anyway :)

Lazy Days in Yosemite

After much debate, Chelsea and I found ourself in the car on the way to Yosemite again.  The reason for the debate was that 1. we were both out of money and 2. I felt really bad leaving the dogs at home again.  However the perfect weather, beautiful granite and need to escape won out and with friends Kent and Cori in the car, gas was manageable.

Kent and the Captain!

We slept under the stars, and woke up Friday, the 29th, which is Tim's birthday.  (For those of you who don't know, my friend and climbing partner Tim passed away last year.)  So, basically I needed to escape from reality, pretend that everything was great, and do some climbing because that is what Tim would have wanted to do!

Pretty much sums up our weekend- laying in the meadow eating ice cream

Chelsea and I decided to climb Munginella, a popular 5.6 in the Five Open Books area.  It is a three pitch climb, but we decided to combine it into two.  The first pitch was great and super cruiser.  The second pitch was my lead and I accidentally went completely off route and climbed a blank, almost unprotectable face instead of an easy crack system.  Ooops!  As I was climbing I was thinking that it felt a bit harder than 5.6, but all ended well as we topped out the climb and hiked down.

Me going off route on Munginella

The descent happened to involve rappelling down a waterfall.  Our rope got completely soaked so we decided to grab an Its-It ice cream (best ever, you must try one!) and head to El Cap meadow for a nap.  We had an awesome afternoon in the meadow and got to see a few parties on the Nose.

Headed to the waterfall to rappell

On Saturday we redeemed the free breakfast that I had scored from a friendly climber in Camp 4.  It was a coupon for the Food Court at Yosemite Lodge and we were psyched when we found out it was worth $13 and we could get anything we wanted!  We got waffles, eggs, bacon and chocolate chip cookies.  Properly fueled up, we headed to climb Central Pillar of Frenzy (5.9) on Middle Cathedral.  The base of the climb was completely covered in snow and we pretended we were Ueli Steck climbing the Eiger as we kicked steps (well Chelsea kicked the steps and I followed) up the snowy slope, using branches as ice axes.

This is me coming up the second pitch, look at all the snow on the bottom!

At the base of the climb, we found that there was a huge abyss between the snow and the wall.  I balanced precariously on the snow and put my climbing shoes on.  I spanned the gap (not gunna lie... super sketchy!) and somehow got onto the wall without falling into the hole below.  The first pitch was thrutchtastic!  I was scootching up a weird chimney offwidth thing, throwing in gear, scoot scooting, getting my shoulders stuck, making funny noises, and whew, finally at the anchors!

Me on Central Pillar

I brought Chelsea up and then she led a sustained finger crack for the next pitch.  When it came my turn to follow the pitch I was really cold and stiff for some reason.  I made it up and met Chelsea at the anchors.  For some reason we both had the shakes and just weren't feeling super psyched.  We decided not to climb the next three pitches.  We rappelled down the snow bank, laughing all the way.  Another adventure!

Rappelling down the snow

Naturally, we found ourselves back in El Cap meadow and slept for about three hours.  Feeling slightly unproductive, we decided we needed to get in a few more pitches before the day was done.  We went over to After Six, a climb we had done on this very weekend exactly one year ago.  The climb went well, but it got extremely windy the higher we got.  By the time we were topping out five pitches later the wind was howling and we were ready to run down!

Me and Half Dome

In the morning we decided to go cragging with Kent and Cori.  We headed over to Pat and Jack pinnacle and I got on a sweet 5.10b face climb.  The first two bolts were definitely the crux, very techy and balancy.  The rest of the climb was big basketball jugs- super fun!  I then led Suds a 120 foot 5.9 that was a little dirty and sharp, but fun anyway.

The Captain looking quite nice

The sun was getting hot, and we were all getting tired so we decided to call it a day and hit the road.  It was another great weekend in the Valley and a nice escape from reality.