Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Sorry for the double posting today, but I have the day off to do stuff like update this blog, email people, clean the house, go for a run etc. I spose I should do a few sensible things too, like pay a few bills, pay my credit card, chase up my status on the electoral role and blah blah blah. We are going to Barb and Brian’s place for dinner tonight, which should be nice.
Jono and I realised the other day that our time in Canada is almost half over (and half begun, I guess if you are a glass half full type person). It did not take long before life quickly started feeling normal and full. We do get away as much as possible, but so far my experience of Canada is within a 200 km radius of Vancouver. Jono’s range is a little extended due to his work trip to Saskatchewan. We have spent a lot of money on quite a few toys lately, which include a new SLR camera, a couple of mountain bikes (I got pro deals on them) and a double inflatable kayak. It is now time to seriously knuckle down, and stop spending
so that we can do a little more travel before coming home. We are hatching plans to travel in the states and South America. But it all hinges on money, so I will keep you posted.
Anyhow. To keep to the news, this past weekend (July 14/15th) was the first weekend of the Squamish Mountain festival. I have been pretty busy leading up to it, and events always seem like a bit of an anti climax once they happen, but it all went reasonably well. One of my roles was to supply recycling and compost bins at the trade fair (as these were not supplied by the venue) and I was very disappointed at people’s inability to care. The compost was full of cigarette butts and plastic, and all the various recycling bins were just treated as garbage. I just had to take them all to the garbage dump, which was very disappointing. MEC offered the same service at the paddle fest, and it was apparently respected. So, if the Squamish effort is a reflection of the climbing community, that is very very disappointing. I like to think that, in general, ‘we’ are a fairly enlightened and green group,
and it saddens me to think otherwise.
But to move on, aside from the lack of recycling and a few organisational issues that I will not go in to, the weekend went fairly well. To break up the monotony of a trade fair, Shayla and I managed to get a few people interested in a game we created, which was a lot of fun. It was based on a hopscotch game, drawn with climbing chalk. You basically had to start with all four limbs in start, finish with all four limbs in finish, and crab walk backwards, with one limb only in one square. You had to have a minimum of three limbs down at all times. There were prizes in three boxes which you would have to pick up on your way and carry with you (without dropping) and you could not use the square with a prize in it for placing any limb. Confused yet? It was fun, even just the process of trying to explain it to people. Also, I entered my first ever climbing competition - a dyno comp. I have never even done a dynamic move let alone done so in a competition, but
I thought I’d do it for the sista’s. Well, actually, no, I thought I’d do it for the crash pad, rope and shoes! An hour before the comp was due to start there were not any females signed up, so I thought I’d help out the organiser’s so they could at least have a female comp, and I could automatically win all three prizes without needing to do much at all except try. I signed up and had a practice on the wall. I was able to get to the first hold with out a problem, which was good enough for me. I then went about the rest of my day in the MEC stall, till the comp started, and out of nowhere, 8 other girls, all way stronger and more talented then me had signed up. Two of the Amazonians (actually a switzerlandian and a netherlandian!) went on to beat the official women’s world record! I wanted to drop out immediately, but put my ego aside and went along with it. When they called my name out, my heart suddenly stopped. There were big fancy cameras from media outlets and video cameras pointing at me, and heaps of people
watching. I just wanted to push the eject button. Needless to say, that first hold which I so easily grabbed in the practice run, I totally missed, on ALL THREE ATTEMPTS. Everyone else, of course cruised it. Oh well. It was an experience! And I got a prana T-shirt for my efforts.
Jono and I also managed to get a little climbing in-between my duties for MEC. I scared myself silly on a so-called 5.9 crack near Murrin Lake. It was an old school steep crack with off width sections and an intimidating overhanging roof, over a series of scary blocks and ledges. There was one particularly steep and awkward move not far off a ledge and protected by very mediocre gear in flaky rock that I tried and backed off three times, before finally asking Jono to bring me down. It was very scary, and even big brave Jono said so. After this, we went and clipped bolts on this AWESOME bit of rock called petrifying wall. I led a 5.10d (20, Australian) which I was pretty happy about, even though I took a few falls.
On Sunday afternoon, we managed to get a quick climb in
at the bluffs before we went home, which was equally scary, as we really should have had two ropes. As a result of only having one rope, it got caught in this flake crack, and meant that Jono had to lead by pulling through a few meters of rope, climbing a little, placing pro, and pulling through more rope, etc, upping the grade, which was a stiff 5.9, a fair bit. Grades here still seem pretty stiff to me, and apparently they are soft compared to Yosemite. I guess it is just that a lot of the climbs are pretty old school cracks and slabs, which are a lot different to face climbing. Anyhow, enough climbing spiel. I have probably bore you all. I am going to get on with that housework.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.137s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 65; dbt: 0.0943s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Clare (OE)
non-member comment
Wow. I like your hopscotch game. Sorry to hear about the recycling dilemmas, I wonder how the National Folk Festival deal with it... a generally more hippy crowd?