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| the Pacific Ocean from Kalaloch Lodge, WA. |
One of the highlights of the trip was, of course, finally meeting Sara, theclimbergirl, in real life! We organized a small dinner rendezvous in Gig Harbor the night before I left with Candace. The dinner was fantastic, it was as if I'd stopped to visit old friends! It's so great to have the opportunity to meet such wonderful people, and to have a common ground with them.
Saturday was the last TerraMar Hiking and Pie event of the summer. One of my fellow guides and I took 24 people along part of the Appalachian Trail and stopped at Sunfish Pond, a little oasis in the Delaware Water Gap along the Appalachian Trail. It was a relatively long hike, 9 miles, but we had four freshly baked pies waiting for us at the end! Needless to say, that event has been quite popular this summer, and we've run it three times already. I cooked dinner with Nina and we closed out the evening with a good dose of climberporn - the movie "Pilgrimage."
Sunday began with a short bike ride to the start of the SheROX triathlon along the Schuylkill River. I had two good friends competing for the first time, and went out to watch. Halfway through, the announcer warned spectators of impending severe weather, and asked us all to return to our vehicles. With no vehicle to return to, Dan and I jumped on our bikes and sped home. We got a quart of the way back before getting caught in the worst of the weather. Strong wind gusts and stinging rain pummeled us on the ride back. When we finally made it, it looked like we'd taken a swim with our bikes! Based on these photos, it looks like our area fared relatively well. This extreme weather - heat waves in the PNW and 3-6 inches of rain in an hour in PA - our planet's changing, and it really scares me.
The weather cleared, and I spent the afternoon at Go Vertical with Nina and our friend Joe. It was a leading-only day, which I really needed. I'm still getting comfortable with it, and still get super scared. I backed off a long 5.9+ after a few takes, even though I probably could have finished it. The bolts are close together, but this particular route takes you up a corner and a few feet right of the bolts. A fall would mean swinging left shoulder first into the corner.
The good folks at Urban Climber Magazine pointed me to a post on beating the fear of falling, which suggest purposely falling from the top of the route right before clipping the chains to help get used to the feeling. It all makes sense - falling, for some of us, is an extremely scary thought, even though we intellectually understand that we're safe in the system. It's something I need to train for, and to get my body used to. I intend to try this technique Tuesday at our next indoor session. We'll see what happens!
The weather cleared, and I spent the afternoon at Go Vertical with Nina and our friend Joe. It was a leading-only day, which I really needed. I'm still getting comfortable with it, and still get super scared. I backed off a long 5.9+ after a few takes, even though I probably could have finished it. The bolts are close together, but this particular route takes you up a corner and a few feet right of the bolts. A fall would mean swinging left shoulder first into the corner.
The good folks at Urban Climber Magazine pointed me to a post on beating the fear of falling, which suggest purposely falling from the top of the route right before clipping the chains to help get used to the feeling. It all makes sense - falling, for some of us, is an extremely scary thought, even though we intellectually understand that we're safe in the system. It's something I need to train for, and to get my body used to. I intend to try this technique Tuesday at our next indoor session. We'll see what happens!