Adventures in Kansas and Nova Scotia

Wow – hadn’t realised it had been three weeks since my last post. In many ways those three weeks combined have less if interest happening than my last post but there is still some news.

Carrying on from where I left off. The Saturday after Mary Ashley broke her leg Carol and I headed back to Warsaw with a couple of other friends. Some climbing got done, many head games was had and it was cold! Not the most successful day’s climbing but I think both Carol and I were glad to get back on rock. Some, bad, photos are here.

On Monday I headed over to Mary Ashley’s along with several others as she was off back to her parents in Mississippi the next day. Amazing they made the 12-hour trip in one day, a clear sign that things were starting to improve. Things started to get back to normal the rest of the week with work and climbing on the Tuesday and Thursday.

The next weekend I ended up at a classy Hanukah party on the Saturday evening. I had a good time and it was definitely more fun than being at home! Sunday, after recovering a bit, I headed over to climb at Ibex the further away gym with Carol and a couple of hours. Not a bad session despite the lack of a lead rope (the wall provides them) for much of the session.

The next week I made many early starts to make sure I had time to fit in both work and all the other things I had planned, such as climbing and packing. Eventually it was Friday and Carol gave me a lift to the airport – in my car! I flew to DC that night and stayed in a hotel before catching a day flight back the next day.

Since I’ve been back I’ve not got much exciting to report. So far I’ve been at my parents, mainly relaxing and catching up. My brother and sister-in-law came over for Christmas Day and part of Boxing Day and it was nice to catch up with them as well. Today I picked up a rental car and have just been to see a old friend before I head up north tomorrow to catch up with various other friends over the next few days.

This is definitely the most depressing blog post I’ve yet written. Long story short one of my climbing friends is currently recovering from a broken fibula, tibia and talus. I was there and needless to say it was not a pleasant day. Now for the longer story…

On Saturday four of us headed to Warsaw and things started well with us meeting up in good time and heading down in good weather for the time of year. Carol and David had both led our first route of the day and then it was Mary Ashley’s turn. She got slightly off route between the last bolt and the lower off, pulled off a hold, fell, hit the rock awkwardly and broke her leg. I’d temporarily looked away to avoid the falling rock and when she said “I’ve broken my leg” I turned around to say she hadn’t as she said it so calmly. Having turned around it was however very obvious she had. She was just incredibly unlucky. Belaying was good – Carol was belaying and I trust her belaying completely – and I’ve seen people walk away from far worse looking falls with nothing more than a bruised ego.

Not exactly unexpectedly it turns out that Warsaw, Missouri does not have the sort of Mountain Rescue resources that I am used to in the UK and most of the first rescuers on scene were not happy with the walk down and disappeared to access the site by boat as we were on the shore of a reservoir. This left the one paramedic that did come down the path with nothing more than a back board as all the other medical kit was going the long way around. Lance was however brilliant at dealing with the situation, and unlike pretty much all of the other rescuers, did not look like he was out of his depth at the bottom of a cliff.

Anyway after about two and a half hours, and a stretcher lower that will get anyone from UK Mountain Rescue wincing, we eventually had Mary Ashley on a boat where upon the boat, a pickup truck and a helicopter eventually got her to hospital three hours after the fall. Mary Ashley dealt with it all really well and I was amazed at how relatively happy she remained throughout the whole experience. Having moved Mary Ashley’s leg to a more comfortable position while awaiting help I have now added bone grinding against bone to the sound of someone decking in the list of things I hope never to hear again.

Needless to say the last week has consisted off fitting many trips to Kansas City (where Mary Ashley was both in hospital and lives) around work although Carol and I did manage to squeeze some indoor climbing in on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Mary Ashley was operated on Sunday morning and now has a titanium rod inside her tibia. She was let home Tuesday and is now slowly recovering and still dealing with it all really well.

I could write so much more about everything that happened except I’m not really in the mood right now and I’m not sure it’s fair on Mary Ashley to write more than the basics. Has been a shit week but hopefully things will now get better.

Last week was Thanksgiving and as that meant I got two days off I decided to take the leave the rest of the week so that I had a whole week off. I first went climbing at Trapper’s, then walking in the New River Gorge in West Virginia followed by climbing in the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. All of this is described here.

That doesn’t really leave a lot for this post. This week has been much the same as normal except I’ve had a bit of a cold and was off work Wednesday. Nothing else exciting to report.

Booking flights home a couple of weeks ago made me miss friends and family back in the UK but the friends I have here, unknowingly, did a good job of reminding me that I also have friends here and making me more positive again. So, to my friends in the UK I miss you guys, and to my friends here thanks. Bit soppy that but hey, I’ve been a bit introspective of late.

Wow, I hadn’t realised it had been so long since I last updated this. Sorry if any of you have had withdrawal symptoms. What have I been up to since my last post? Pretty much the same as before, hence the difficulty in coming up with a title.

I did play football, or soccerball, the weekend after my last post but there’s nothing too exciting to report there. Honestly can’t remember what else I did that weekend so I suspect it may have mainly involved being lazy, nor can I remember much about the week after – undoubtedly I did some work but I doubt much else of note happened.

The weekend after that I did indeed go to Arkansas with the Kansas City Climbing Club and I had a thoroughly good time. I went down with three people for whom this was their first outdoor trip and spent the weekend introducing them to the joys of outdoor climbing. I think they may now be hooked! Managed to get them all to do their first sport lead by the end of the weekend as well which was great. I didn’t do so badly climbing wise either. OK, I didn’t get on anything massively hard but I did do more routes than I’ve ever done on an Arkansas trip before and only two of them were repeats. The number of routes were helped by some night climbing both Friday evening, when we arrived just before dark, and Saturday evening. I was particularly pleased with my 5.9+ lead in the dark. All in all a really good weekend. Photos are here.

Last Saturday I headed to Trappers where I’d been led to believe slabs lay. And I had not been mislead. This was the first time I’d been able to do a lot of slab climbing in a long time and it was really nice for that. Of course the weather helped a lot as it was a pretty much perfect temperature, not too cold and not so hot I sweated. I now need to go back there to try to get a route cleanly that I got to the top of but not in one push. It’s not in the (rather old) guidebook but the web reckons it’s anywhere between 5.10b and 5.10d – I’d be inclined to believe more towards the later. Photos are here.

After climbing we stopped at the, as it turns out, really not bad local BBQ place before heading back to Kansas City. I then headed over to another climbing friends house for a “games” evening, which while I was there largely consisted off playing Cards Against Humanity which it turns out one of those there is quite obsessed by. All in all a really good day. The next day I was meant to be heading back to Trappers with a different crowd, including many of those that had been at the games night. However the weather put paid to this so after getting Indian food as brunch we headed indoors instead.

Over the last few weeks I’ve continued to practice my swimming and have attended another lesson. Am really pleased with how I’m going on. I still surprise myself at how good I can be at stuff like that when I properly try. Don’t get me wrong I’m not good, just better than I ever thought I’d be. Gets me rather annoyed at my past attitude towards sports. Oh well, what’s done is done.

This coming week includes Thanksgiving and so I’ve taken the whole week off. The plan is to head to Trappers tomorrow (well today now) before heading over the New River Gorge in West Virginia for a few days of hiking. From there I’ll be heading back to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky to catch up with a few others and spend a few days climbing. The weather forecast is looking good for the whole week so I’m hopeful that it will be a really good week and that it might enable me to think of a decent title for my next blog post!

Welcome to my next exciting blog post. Sorry to keep you waiting – I know it’s been longer than normal. Wish I could say that’s because I’ve been up to exciting stuff but actually nothing too exciting has happened. Yesterday I went to the dentist… no, don’t worry I have been up to slightly more exciting stuff than that!

So what have I been up to. Well the Saturday after my last blog post I went climbing at Warsaw with Mary Ashley and Corbin. Although this was my fourth trip to Warsaw and I repeated many routes it was still a very pleasing trip as it highlighted how much my climbing has come on as I found many of the repeated routes much easier than my first attempt at them and even easier than my most recent attempts. That evening I watched Reel Rock at one of the local climbing walls which was good fun despite the inadequate equipment – especially the laptop – which resulted in some stuttering and, for some unknown reason, a whole bunch of icons around the video for the second half. We’d set off rather early that morning so as to get back for Reel Rock and so I was rather pleased to get home.

That Sunday I didn’t get up to too much other than a short hike at Clinton Lake and indeed I didn’t get up to much of anything exciting until the next weekend when I played soccer on the Sunday. We lost two-one, despite being probably the slightly better team, thanks to two mistakes from our keeper. He’s normally excellent but was jut having a off day for some reason. After a post-match bar trip I took a walk around Lawrence and took some pictures (in the photos section) of how the trees were changing. Was all really rather nice when it was at it’s best although it’s past that point now.

The next couple of days were more interesting than for a normal week. On the Monday I had booked a swimming lesson. I’m quite comfortable around water but I can only swim breast stroke and that poorly with no proper breathing. So in an attempt to improve my technique and hopefully learn crawl I’ve started lessons. At the moment we’re concentrating on breast stroke and I’ve learnt lots and I feel I’ve already got better although I’ve still got a long way to go!

On the Tuesday I went and observed a Scout troop with the though of possibly helping out in the future. I’m still thinking about my options as although it was enjoyable it was sufficiently different from what I’m used to – mainly in the adult:child ratio, with most adults having children there – that I’m not sure how well I’ll fit in to begin with and with under a year left I don’t have too much time to get used to it. Am thinking of seeing if any venture crews want help as I think I may fit better despite not being used to the age group.

This weekend just gone I went to Arkansas again this time with Mary Ashley and Corbin. We camped at Sam’s Throne, where the local “club”, the Arkansas Climbing Coalition was holding a meet. I had a good days climbing, including a couple of 5.8+ trad leads and a couple of 5.10a sport leads (although one was a repeat). The less said about my top-rope attempt on a 5.8 crack the better! That evening we watched a presentation by Lisa Rand and entered the ARCC raffle although I didn’t win anything!

Sunday we headed to Cave Creek where we did the exact same three routes I’d done last time I was there. I failed on my lead attempt on Stems and Seeds, and although last time I did get to the top I was more pleased with this attempt as I took a lot fewer rests / falls to my high point. If I hadn’t managed to get my head in completely the wrong place and freak out a bit at the start I reckon I’d have had a reasonable chance of getting it. Did try it on top rope afterwards and took one fall, although I suspect in part that was due to my exhausted state after my lead attempts. Photos from this weekend are also up in the photos section. Photos from this trip are here.

Not much to report from this week so far although it looks like my lab might be getting a new post doc although as she won’t be starting (if she does) until the spring we won’t have too much overlap. This weekend I plan on playing in our last regular season soccer game and then the weekend after is a Kansas City Climbing Club trip to Arkansas so I bet you’re all be waiting with baited breath for my next post.