Climbing!

We only became interested in climbing after Stacy began at REI and forced me to come in on my days off and climb while she was on the belayer shift.  But did it ever stick.  Starting top rope on mock rock to now trying our first traditional lead climbs.  We spent too much on things we don't quite need yet and to help justify the expenditures, we told ourselves that climbing would be a priority activity on this trip.  Hence why you see climbing photos every now and then. 

Some background: Almost all climbing you see is 'free' climbing (vertical gain from hand/feet only).  Most gym climbing is 'top roping', with the fulcrum point of the rope at the top of the obstacle, which is very safe, but requires access to said top.  Historically, to reach to top of an inaccessible obstacle, a climber must climb above the 'fulcrum point' of their rope, placing and attaching new 'fulcrums' as they ascend. They 'lead' the rope, hammering protection spikes into the rock to run the rope through and arrest any falls.  Scary, in the event of a fall, as you fall twice the distance to your last piece of protection.  The spikes have been replaced by safer protection mechanisms but the theory is the same.  This is the traditional method or 'trad' climbing.  Some people got so excited about lead climbing the same route over and over that they decided to drill holes and permanently mount bolts into the rock so that they could just quickly clip a carabiner into the bolt and rope, and not worry about properly placing a spike or cam or nut.  This became known as 'sport' climbing.  So onto the historical birthplace and current mecca of sport climbing.  We visit Smith Rock State Park in Oregon.

We had one day of nice weather to climb, and managed to take 0 pictures of ourselves!  Here is a pick of some other climbers on the 'buckets' wall.

We climbed aside a class.  They were a week long yoga/climbing fusion class offered by some outfit.  Nice people, but we watched one of the students improperly belay another and not catch a fall.  She had about 10 feet of slack on the rope when this guy slipped and just scraped the heck out of his front on the rock.  Not fun.  We had a good day though, and definitely want to return.

Onto a more Traditional Mecca, City of Rocks,  in southern Idaho.  This place has some really pretty rock formations, and was part of the old California trail (like Oregon trail).  Oh and by the way, this was our first encounter with a true dirtbag.  While we were out climbing for the day, we marked our campsite with an item to show it is occupied.  In this case, a hammock draped over the table like a tablecloth.  Some Dr. Jerkberg came into our site and took it.  I'm just glad I didn't leave more stuff laying around.

We spent almost 3 days here and almost all of it was blowing cold with occasional snow.  We managed a 4 pitch (4 lengths of rope) sport climb with the final 3 pitches in blowing snow.  It is the little (400') spike to the left of the big (650') spike in the center.

And from the top!

     

The following day was spent prepping for a 'trad' climb at a new level of difficulty for us.  To do this in the safest way, I would set up a top-rope to first test drive the route safely.  And then...

WHAM! snowstorm after I was all set up.  I had to tear everything down without climbing and we called it quits with the City...and moved onto a place that's special in our hearts, Idaho Falls!

We were heading to Yellowstone, and decided to visit existing friends (Hailey) in our old stomping grounds on the way.  We also made some new friends (Hazel).  We immediately went to Blast Off! to hang out with our new friend. 

We were pretty tired out but needed to revisit some old memory spots.  After asking Hazel if her parents were allowed to come out and play for the night, we had some fun at the local establishments.  The following day we visited a pumpkin patch to get our fall fix.

Stacy managed to convince everyone her pumpkin decorating method was best.  

We even convinced dad to go, you guessed it, climbing at a local pointless crag.  We found a snake, too!

We didn't want to overstay our welcome, and our weather window for Yellowstone was fast closing so we hit the road for yet another park...

-K

P.S. On our last night, a random Golden Retriever was wondering about the neighborhood.  Thanks to the efforts of some English (with a little of our help), she was safely returned to her rightful owner.