Well, as I predicted, there is definitely more to say in this post… probably lots more!
When I last posted I was about to head to DC for four days, mainly for work. I flew out Friday afternoon, checked in to the youth hostel, got food and went to bed all without much excitement. It was a little weird being back in the DC area again after a six year break but other than that there’s not much to say. The next day I first went to the National Museum of the American Indian. I’d first tried visiting several years ago but the queue was around the block as it had only just opened and so we went elsewhere – Wikipedia tells me it must have been in 2004. The museum was smaller than I was expecting and covered the same ground as many other museums I’ve been too but it was still interesting and I still learnt some stuff. The thing I found most interesting was how the four cardinal compass directions and a colour associated with each of them seem to form a common part of so many Native American cultures. Having finished at the Native American museum I headed to the Postal Museum. Many, many, many years ago (probably about 22 years) I was briefly a stamp collector and so was intrigued to see what it was all about. The bit on stamps was interesting but was only a small proportion of the museum with the rest being filled with the history of the USPS which, frankly, was rather less interesting.
Having finished being a tourist I headed to a work meeting and dinner. Nothing interesting to say there! The next day promised to be the most interesting work day as it was a day full of presentations. Unfortunately Mark asked me to test their tutorial for the Monday and Tuesday on a Windows machine. Good thing I did as I found several problems but unfortunately it meant I paid no attention to most of the talks. Monday was spent helping support the tutorial, which I still find a little comical given that I had only run the program myself for the first time the day before. Think I was probably a net benefit as I was able to answer many of the numpty questions but I still had to pass many questions on to others. Tuesday we repeated the whole thing with another, thankfully smaller, group. Once that was done we headed to the airport only to sit on the tarmac for two and a half hours waiting for the weather en-route to clear. Finally got back to Lawrence at quarter to one in the morning (or 1:45 Washington time). A very long day given that I’d been up at 6am to go for a swim before work.
The weekend just gone I headed down to Arkansas with four women to go climbing. Not sure how that came about as I didn’t organise the trip, but they all seemed nice enough. Was disappointed when I didn’t get ID’d buying alcohol despite walking into the store with four women aged 21-24. They clearly thought I was a dirty old man or something! Finally got to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, where we were both camping and climbing, at about one in the morning.
The next day I touched real rock for only the second time since I moved out here. I started off by leading some 5.6s (F3+) sport routes before leading a couple of 5.8s (F4+) all with no real problem. Next up was top roping a 5.8 trad climb (~VS) that had been put up by another party and looked like rather sustained laybacking. Glad I wasn’t on lead as it did indeed involve rather sustained laybacking and although my stamina is slowly getting back to previous levels it wasn’t up to that sort of sustained laybacking and I had to take a couple of rests even on top rope. The final attempt of the day was at a 5.10b where the crux was a mantelshelf. Now in case any of you have forgotten I’ll remind you that I am truly useless at manteling and this again proved to be the case and there was a lot of tight rope / pulling to get over the crux.
Sunday was not my most successful day. I started out leading a 5.8+ sport route with no problems. So far, so good. Then I got on a 5.9+ and had all sorts of head games. The climbing itself was not that hard but I struggled to commit to any move above a bolt. I got in in the end but I clearly need more leading practice having not done any since November! I then tried a powerful overhanging start to a harder route and again stamina stopped me – although not before I got further than I was expecting. My final route was to top-roping one of the classic trad routes at the ranch – a 5.9+ (~HVS) crack. It’s a stunning looking line (I’ll have to find a photo from somewhere) and I now really want to lead it. The top roping went OK apart from the crux, where I was lacking some strength, and one foot slipping fall in the top section so I definitely think it’s a viable goal before I head back to the UK for good.
After Sunday’s climbing we headed to Kyle’s Landing for a swim in the river before heading to Jasper for dinner and then to Sam Thorn’s campsite. We first caught the sunset before somehow a decision was made to sleep under the stars on the bluffs, something I’ve never done before – I suspect, in no small part, due to the British weather. Didn’t have the best nights sleep but it certainly wasn’t terrible and I think I’ll probably enjoy the experience more if I do it again as it won’t all be so new. There’s lots of climbing at Sam Thorn’s and I saw enough of it to know I want to go back!
Monday (a holiday here) we headed to Cave Creek, a climbing area just down the road. Here I finally got to use my trad rack! I started on a 5.9 with a couple of bolts for the cruxy section, the trad section going at 5.7 (~VS). Was a slab so I had no real problems and rather enjoyed it. Next up was a new bolted route not in the guidebook that we reckon went at 5.8, or possibly 5.9 for the tricky start, which again was mainly a slab and which only caused me a few problems working out the finishing moves.
I next belayed Carol while she trad led a 5.9+ corner crack, which again was a nice looking line (although not as stunning looking as the crack the day before). After Carol had led and cleaned it I top-roped it with no real problems so after the others had also top roped it I MTFU and gave leading it a go. Not my best lead ever as I was still having head games and rested on the rope several times but I did get it. Another route I will now have to go back and lead clean. That done we headed home.
In short one work weekend that went better than I was hoping and one really enjoyable long weekend climbing in Arkansas. I’ve also still been climbing indoors and am definitely getting fitter. Photos of the Arkansas trip are here. The climbing photos are from the Saturday while the others are either on the way to, or at Sam’s on the Sunday. Hopefully I’ll be climbing outside this Sunday, on some much nearer Limestone, and I’d also hoping I can sort out another trip to Arkansas before I go to Ireland and then the UK at the end of June.