Musings of a Migrant Science Teacher

EMS 3 Day Accelerated Mountaineering Course. The most hard core and badass weekend ever. I loved it. I was cold, I was hot, I wanted to die, but when I reached the top of Algonquin it was all worth it. We learned ice climbing, mountaineering techniques, and safety precautions.

This trip was to celebrate Mike's birthday. George, Mike, Katie and I drove in Saturday night, camped over and climbed all day Sunday. George and I started on Skyline Traverse (scary!) and ended up at Windy Corner. Beautiful day!

Went on a whim on a Tuesday with Matt from Earth Treks. Matt lead Le Gourmet and I followed. The day started off cold and blustery and ended up wet and blustery. We rapped down around 3pm and mad it back to DC by dinner!

Bouldering! I went to San Francisco for work and met up with three awesome chicks from Climb Find. We all went to Stinson Beach, north of SF, and spent the day bouldering next to the Pacific Ocean. It was cool and damp and raining by the time we left, but it was an amazing day. We worked on Old Man and Old Woman boulders mostly, finding the good V0-V4's. Did a V0 R/X as a warm up (eek!) and left on a high note after making progress on a chalky V4.

FAIL! Fail. We got lost hiking to the crag and decided to go back home and play in the water instead. The next day I sprained my ankle on the FIRST MOVE. I give up. Well, not really...

FIRST SPORT LEAD!!!

Eric and I made this trip rather last minute. We camped in a super sketchy location near the New River Gorge and drove to the lake in the morning. We made the approach and set up on Hippie Dreams (5.7). After practicing a few times I lead my first sport route. We climbed a few others before heading to the lake to swim, including Jeff's Bunny Hop and Sniff the Drill (both 5.8)

First time trad climbing!
Went with George and did Conn's West (5.5) the first day and the first pitch of Skyline traverse the second day. Sat on the summit, wrote in the log, had a small panic attack while looking down... the usual stuff. The south summit is the only summit east of the Mississippi requiring technical climbing to reach.

Local Crag!

Carderrock is a dearly loved local climbing area. Eric and I visited a few times the summer of 2009. The area is worn smooth from all the love and years of use, making it home to the hardest 5.8's in the world (in my opinion).

This was more of a hiking trip. My brother James and I decided it was time for an adventure so we drove from DC to Utah to see Arches National Park and a few other sights. We brought the climbing shoes and a crash pad just in case... We found big bend and this gorge only accessible  through a culvert. Love sandstone...

Climbing trip with George, Mike, and three others. We camped at Mike's employer's cabin and climbed around "The Brain" the next day. Mostly 5.9 and 5.10. Difficult but do-able with a patient enough belayer. George lead a 5.9 sport and took his first real fall. Mike's friends ate mystery veggies out of a glass jar... Good trip :)

Some girls get flowers...

I get taken Ice Climbing. My first time on ice - The trip was lead by George. Sara, Christine, Chris, Julie and I were all there. We slept in one hotel room, stocked up on hand warmers and carbs, and set off across Chapel Pond to climb Positive Reinforcement and Quin the Eskimo.

Astronomer's beginner climbing trip. Also first time climbing with George. We did a climb called "Chickadee Corner" (5.4), and a crack called "Doublecrack" (5.5). If you only use the right crack, then the climb is called "Epileptics Only" (5.6)