Adventures in Kansas and Nova Scotia

Well it’s been nearly two months since I’ve updated this blog. No real idea why it’s taken that long. Well, other than the normal – me being useless. As it has taken so long I’m going to split this into two posts and fake the date on this one.

When I left you I’d just got back from a brilliant week in Texas. Since then I’ve pretty much been back in the same old routine you’d have heard about so many times before, although at least some of the climbing has been to some new and exciting places.

It would appear that nothing exciting happened the weekend after I got back from Texas, or at least if it did it wasn’t exciting enough for me to remember now. The weekend after that I was off to Arkansas again. Saturday was spent at Candy Mountain. This was somewhere new as although the guidebook includes it in Cave Creek where I’d been before you park somewhere different and it really doesn’t feel like it’s the same place despite being on the same cliff line. I was with Carol and Seth so it was always going to be a day of doing, what for me, was some quite hard stuff. However I wasn’t really expecting to lead a 11a with only a couple of falls – even if it was a very slow lead. Did manage a single clean route – a 10a, which had a nasty wide chimney start where you had to switch to one wall and then hand traverse a break. All quite exciting given that it all happened quite close to the ground.

Sunday morning brought rain. 🙁 Eventually everyone was up and the weather was looking a little more promising so we went and got lunch while deciding what to do. The options were either a hike or climb at HCR so we started to head towards HCR as that was the way we’d need to go for either and being the decisive lot we are we still hadn’t made a definite decision. Pretty much as we were driving past HCR we finally decided to go for a walk. We hiked a section of the Buffalo River Trail before deciding to try to take a different path back. Why we all agreed to that I don’t know as it involved a river crossing. Had I mentioned it had rained a lot the night before? We found where the path seemed to cross the river but as we all appear to value our lives none of us thought it was a wise idea. however, as there seemed to be a vague path on our side of the river we decided to follow that. Eventually the cliff on one side of us and the river, on the other, decided to meet and the options were get wet, try to find our way up the cliff to the BRT or head back the way we came. It had taken us quite a while to reach where we were so none of us fancied going back, nor did we want to get wet so up it was. After some scrambling around and a short section of what was definitely solo climbing we eventually reached the main path.

The Friday after this I headed over to Kansas City for a brief evening climb at Cliff Drive. Nothing exciting to report about the climbing but I was in a small car accident on the way. I just clipped the rear of a car when they broke heavily in front of me. Accident black spot as I always see accidents there – there’s way too much traffic for the road in rush hour and it’s virtually impossible to maintain a good distance as people will take the gap. Still definitely my fault. Police turned up and I got a fine as apparently they have to fine someone if they turn up. Bizarrely I ended up making money though as my insurance company just gave me a check for the damage and as it was so minor I wasn’t planning on repairing it and they don’t require I do.

The next weekend I’d been planning a more “beginners” type trip however the weather forecast saw to it that this didn’t happen and we had some snow on the Sunday – enough to stop the indoor climbing plans I had but not enough to have any lasting effect as things quickly got back to normal. That Thursday was my birthday so after climbing indoors we went for the normal beer and tacos which turned into a rather late and drunken night for me. Oh well a good time was had.

Friday I headed down to Arkansas for my birthday trip. The plan was to go to Mount Magazine and Fern – both crags I’d not been to before. As these were in a slightly different part of Arkansas the trip down involved a different route down which included both cities and mobile reception in Arkansas which was somewhat of an oddity. I also had the novel experience of filling up my tank with exactly 20 cents of gas / petrol – turns out the gas station we’d stopped out was pretty much dry!

Saturday morning brought rain. This was as forecast and it was meant to clear up later in the day. While we were waiting for it to do so we walked round the small reservoir we were camped out before eventually heading to Mount Magazine. After we signed in at the visitors centre we headed to the climbing. After a fun descent down a wet gully we reached the crag. The climbing looked wonderful. Unfortunately it also looked rather wet as there was a waterfall over pretty much all of the crag. There were a couple of dry routes at one end and I managed to lead a 5.9 trad in not great style. I’d assumed the crux would be by the one bolt, but oh no, it was just below that above, well, not the best gear. Oh well I manned up and got it eventually. Carol and Seth left the crag shortly before us but Rob and I somehow managed to make the exact some navigation error they had and we found them about to solo up a short section of cliff as we’d all ended up rather higher than we should and we were all too lazy to head back round and back up the wet gully. So for the second trip in a row we were soloing random rock to get out of where we’d ended up.

Mount Magazine is a state park and has a rather large lodge at the top. This lodge also has a restaurant and as it was quite late by this time we decided to eat there. After negotiating the requirements for buying alcohol – one of us had to become a member, for free, and then the rest of us had to sign in as their guests, we had a nice meal before driving to Fern and setting up camp.

Fern is a really nice climbing area but nothing that exciting happened there climbing wise. Lots of climbing was done on a nice sunny day. There was also some “swimming” in a couple of the pools there. Well I say swimming, it was more get in, get immersed and make your way out again as it was pretty darn cold. Was still very enjoyable – especially the first one where I slid off the edge into a big plunge pool. All in all a very enjoyable weekend.

Well that covers March. April to come shortly… hopefully!

Si said to me when I saw him just after New Year that “America has been good to you.” He wasn’t wrong, it has. I’ve now been here quite a bit over a year and his comment got me thinking I should probably write a bit of as review of my time here so far. So here goes, organised by subject.

Work
Well work has, on the whole, been better than I’d dared hoped. I like my work, get on well with my boss and are generally happy at KU. Yes things aren’t going great right now but hopefully it will not be a huge setback. I’ve also presented for the first time at a major conference, which went well, and have had the opportunity to meet several more people in my field which can only help my future career. Just got to hope I get some papers now.

Lawrence
I think I very much landed on my feet with Lawrence. I think that as a town it’s my favourite place I’ve lived so far. OK, it’s a shame it’s in the flatlands and a long way from climbing but I really like the town itself. I also landed on my feet when it comes to my apartment, especially given that I was looking for a place at an unusual time. I like the place and it’s pretty cheap and I really can’t complain about anything.

Fitness
Think it’s definitely fair to say that I’m fitter than I’ve ever been – I still regularly amaze myself at just how fit I currently am. When I got out here I was very definitely not at my best and things went further downhill while I was settling in but since then I’ve put a fair bit of effort in and it’s really paying off. I’m also now the lightest I can ever remember being and since I’ve almost definitely got more muscle than ever before this is even more pleasing.

Swimming
I’ve long wanted to improve my swimming technique but haven’t had the money the last few years. However since I started lessons late last year things have gone really well. I’d like to think my breast stroke is now quite acceptable and I’m making good progress on my front crawl. Definitely very pleased at the results so far.

Climbing
Well after a slow start things picked up after I met Carol and since then I’ve been getting a lot of climbing in. As expected I haven’t climbed as much outdoors as when I lived in Glossop but I’ve climbed outside more than I was expecting when I moved out here and I’ve had the opportunity to climb in lots of new and exciting places. Since May I’ve even managed to get back into climbing outdoors at least once a month. I also think the enforced time at the wall/gym has paid off, as although it’s hard to know for sure due to the different grading systems and the different climbing styles, I’m pretty sure I’m climbing better than I ever have. Obviously there was the major downer of Mary Ashley breaking her leg but other than that things have gone really well after the slow start.

Friendships
Well I obviously miss my friends and family back home but I’ve also made some good friends here. I’m sure it’s obvious that Carol has become a good friend, as she correctly stated today, my best friend in the US. That said I think Mary Ashley runs her a close second. I’ve also made several other friends while I’ve been here and it will certainly be a wrench to leave. Yes, it’s not all been perfect – it would be nice to have more friends in Lawrence for example – but on the whole things have gone better than I’d dared hoped.

On the whole I’m sure I made the right decision to come here as it seems to have done me a lot of favours and I’m enjoying yet. It’s gone better than I ever thought it would when I moved here. Yes there’s still stuff I want to change about my life but even there I’ve made progress since I’ve been here. Fingers crossed for the next six or eight months.

Last week was spent in Texas. First for a work meeting in Austin and then a mainly hiking trip to Big Bend National park and one or two other places. I have, as normal, written a trip report for it, which you’ll find in the US section, but there are still a few things to say here.

Probably the biggest bit of news is that I learnt that my boss had been enquiring about extending my contract to a full two years. Don’t really know more than that at the moment as he’s been ill since I’ve been back but I feel it’s likely I’d take it if it did come to pass as it would have a lot of positive results for hopefully not too much inconvenience – I thought the main one would be having to find somewhere to live as I thought my current place would require a year’s renewal in September but having spoke to my landlord yesterday it seems we can probably sort something out.

It also turns out to have snowed, a lot, in Kansas why I was gone. So ironically when the snow my boss promised me turns up I’m not even here. That said it did snow some more over night Monday but I awoke Tuesday to find a quite disappointing amount of snow. Still it was enough to give me the day off work spent sledging and drinking beer with Carol and one of her friends. I’ve put up a few photos of Lawrence in the snow in the Kansas section of the gallery.

As for the trip I was once again pleasantly surprised by how fit I’ve got. Although I’ve done similar length hiking days before I’ve never felt so recovered the next day. I’m starting to wonder just how fit I can get! Hopefully I can translate it to climbing. Have also now reached a new lowest weight and have had a couple of really good swimming sessions since I’ve been back. Inspired by people writing reviews of 2012 I intend to write a bit of as review of my time here so far in another blog post very soon.

Well I’ve been a bit quicker this time – mainly because I’ll be doing more exciting stuff next week so it makes sense to update this before then. Climbing will get mentioned quite a lot again but there’s also been parties and I’ll mention a bit about work. If you wait until the end I’ll even tell you my exciting plans for the next week.

So what has happened since last time. My calendar tells me I last updated my blog on a Monday. I can’t really remember the early part of the week so it can’t have been that exciting! Thursday I went climbing at Monster as usual and then, again as usual, to tacos and beer. It was Carol’s birthday on the Friday and we ended up, just, staying to help her see it in. On the way back to Lawrence we stopped at McDonald’s for Carol as despite being a vegetarian she celebrates her birthday with McDonald’s cheese burgers and bacon (amongst other things…). Saturday evening was part 2 of Carol’s birthday as she was having a party at a gymnastics gym where she used to work. Was a fun evening which I came away unhurt from, as did most people thankfully!

Sunday I went climbing at Cliff Drive with Erica. This is the local crag in Kansas City and is described as terrible by lots of people. I actually found it not at all bad. Yes it’s small and not the most impressive but has the definite advantage of being the nearest roped climbing by quite some way. Although it was a nice day and quite warm when not climbing the rock is always in the shade meaning your fingers got rather cold climbing. Still I had a good day and even managed a reasonable trad lead. Will need to go back on a warmer day to try some of the harder stuff.

Again I can’t remember much of the early part of the next week. That Thursday I again went climbing at Monster and this time it was Seth’s birthday so another rather late but good evening. Saturday I went to Warsaw with Seth, Russell and a few others. Turned out we hardly saw the sun so it was quite a chilly day but I once again had a good day. It being a good day was helped by getting a route clean, and quite easily, that I’d previously had to take a rest on. Also tried a harder overhanging route on top rope which I was pleased to get to the top of even if in terrible style. No way I’d ever lead it as it involved some interesting bolting and a ledge…

Things have been pretty much as per normal since then with not much exciting to report. Had another swimming lesson and my front crawl is getting there slowly, very slowly! Can definitely tell I knew very little about it to begin with as it’s definitely taking it’s time but it’s also obvious progress is being made which is pleasing. I’ve also now returned to my pre-Christmas weight.

As promised a comment on work. On the whole work is still going well and I’m enjoying it. However there is one particular problem that has been bugging me for a couple of months now that has made me suspect the rest of my work. The problem is with someone else’s model and I just don’t trust it despite it being published (for obvious reasons I won’t say what model it is). Finally over the last few days I’ve made some progress. I have finally work out where, in a simple case, some of the results are coming from I just can’t work out why! The math / maths is all a little confusing and there’s an extra factor of two in some places and I can’t work out why. Oh well hopefully that will come soon now I know it’s there!

As for the next week, well I’m off to Austin, Texas tomorrow for a meeting on Saturday. After that I plan to drive to Big Bend National Park and spend a few days walking and sightseeing. Big Bend is in the middle of nowhere in the South of Texas right on the border with Mexico and all three people I know who have been have sung it’s praises. It was my original destination for Thanksgiving before I realised some people would be going and is somewhere I really want to visit so I’m rather pleased to finally be going. Hopefully I’ll have a great time and I’ll be able to write an interesting blog post when I return.

Well I certainly hadn’t intended to leave it that long before updating this blog. No single reason although coming back to Kansas, illness and nothing much interesting to report all contributed.

Anyway carrying on from where I left off on the 30th I drove up to Sheffield in the evening and spent a thoroughly enjoyable with Adam, Kate and Tammy and they also very kindly part me up for the night. Next morning I headed over to see Sarah an old friend from my time working for the MoD and her family. Her youngest, just over a year old now, seems to have taken to me rather better than her older sister who does now at least seem to tolerate me. Was nice catching up and thanks to other plans going awry I got to stay a bit longer than I’d originally expected.

That evening I headed over to John’s for the same New Year’s house party I’ve been to for a few years now. It was great catching up with more friends and this time I even managed to stay relatively sober. By relatively sober I mean I was definitely drunk but for once didn’t wake up with a stinking hangover. The next day most of those that stayed over went for an extremely muddy walk before we headed up our own way. I headed up to Jen’s as the plan was for us to go away for a few days, most probably to North Wales.

Well that plan didn’t survive a proper look at weather forecasts. Low cloud, wind and possibly rain did not seem a particularly appealing idea so I stayed around Sheffield went climbing indoors a couple of times and bouldering once. I also went for a couple of rather muddy, if enjoyable walks. All the walking definitely brought home to me quite how much rain the UK had had! On the Thursday evening I headed over to Glossop to catch up with more friends. Other than a slight organisation issue, where everyone except me knew we were meeting at a pub rather than a friends house, it was a really enjoyable evening.

On the Friday I headed south to catch up with Si and Claire in Dartford. Another enjoyable evening ensues and it was really nice to catch up with them both, especially as Si had been ill when I was back in the summer and I’d been unable to see him. After a rather late and tired, but thankfully safe, drive I was back at my parents. Next day I returned the car before my Mum, Dad and I all went over to my brother’s and his wife to watch some football, eat Indian food and generally have a good time.

Sunday I flew back to Kansas. I’d deliberately got a late flight from Heathrow so we could take our time getting there. All in all the trip went really well and the only thing that went a little wrong was more funny than irritating – when we got to the gate at Kansas City the pilot had to admit to not knowing where his ground crew where! After a short delay we taxied to another gate and I was soon back in Lawrence. Thanks to Carol for picking me up and Daniel, one of her friends, who had been co-opted in to keeping her awake for the drive!

Things then began to settle back largely into the normal routine. Took a little while to get back into climbing indoors what with the jet lag and not having done too much but I got there. The first Saturday back I went to a “New Year’s” party organised by Carol and Mary Ashley at Mary Ashley’s as apparently both of their actual New Years had not been the best. It was a really enjoyable evening and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves so hopefully it was better than the original for both of them. As I was in KC late on Saturday I finally got to another friend’s quite regular Saturday night gatherings. As these don’t normally start to gone eleven they’re not the easiest to get to for me. I eventually got home about 3:30am after another nice evening / night.

That Tuesday I had a good climbing session at the wall before coming down with a stomach bug that led to me having Wednesday and Thursday off work and not really being totally back to normal for more than a week – although I felt OK after a few days I lacked energy for considerably longer. This somewhat derailed plans to take advantage of the long weekend so instead I ended up working quite a bit on the Monday and I plan on slyly taking the day off some other time.

Last week I’ve started to slowly have more energy – I’m pretty much back to normal now – and I got to the wall both Tuesday and Thursday for much reduced sessions. This Saturday I got my first outdoor climbs in in nearly two months on a really nice day where we were climbing in T-shirts. Didn’t get too much done but did help Russell with his second and third trad leaders so it was far from a wasted day. The weather here is currently all over the place – more than 20 C today but forecast to barely got above freezing later in the week.

Well that’s things pretty much caught up – hopefully I won’t leave it so long this time. Photos from the last climbing trips are here and photos from walking in the Peak District are here and here. Bet I’ve forgotten something there while trying to remember the last month but oh well I think everything important is there.