Adventures in Kansas and Nova Scotia

Well most of my time has spent still being lazy at my parents and getting some work done. I did however rent a car again and go off visiting lots of friends. The Thursday evening before Christmas saw me heading back North to see one of my old university friends, his wife and rather new child. Due to traffic, and some miscommunication between us, I arrived slightly late but still had plenty of time for an enjoyable visit, which included being fed proper sausages. Win! I was staying the night but as Mark was working the next morning so I was up rather early on my way to visit Sarah again. As I was seeing Sarah in the afternoon I had time to go for a swim and do some shopping in Manchester.

I stayed at Sarah’s for quite some time, including being fed dinner, before heading off to see Adam and Kate again. Kate was out that evening but I did manage to see a slightly drunk Kate for a little while when she got in. They kindly put me up yet again and fed me breakfast before I headed a bit south to catch up with an old climbing partner, another Sarah, who was watching a Morris dancing event. Pretty sure Morris dancing isn’t my thing but it was good to catch up as I hadn’t managed to see her the previous Christmas so it had been a while. That evening I had planned to catch up with a few old friends who were meeting up for a walk and drinks. However turns out I had the wrong day as someone had posted the wrong date on Facebook and I failed to notice the correction. Whoops. So instead I headed to the CC hut to spend the night and spent an enjoyable evening chatting with the custodian and his wife.

Next morning I went to visit Colin and after an enjoyable couple of hours I went and visited Andy and Julie. Although I’d seen them the previous Christmas it had only been at a New Year party so we hadn’t had a chance to properly catch up but we soon put that right as I was there several hours. I also got a chance to finally see their place and their one remaining rat. They’d kept rats for some time and I’d never managed to meet them. Now they were planning on taking a break from keeping them so only had one, rather old rat left. Oh well, at least I managed to meet one!

That evening I did the long drive back to my parents before the next evening going down to visit an old school friend who I’d already caught up with in London. However going to visit him at home meant I also got a chance to catch up with his significant other and child. As normal I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening before the hour and a half drive home. They’re planning on moving a lot nearer my parents in the New Year so hopefully I won’t have to do the long drive next time I visit.

Like every year my brother and sister-in-law had decided to spend Christmas at my mum and dad’s again and once again this meant a slightly unusual Christmas as my sister-in-law, a nurse, was working in the morning. This did at least mean I could have a nice slow start to the day, which given that I’m not a morning person – I’m sure that came as a surprise to no one – was rather nice. Even got a chance to go for a short walk and take some photos. A rather nice family Christmas was had and my brother and his wife stayed around to Boxing Day mid-afternoon so I had a nice chance to really properly catch up with them, including going for a walk where we saw someone flying some cool kites of which I got some photos. The couple of days after Christmas flew by and I was soon packing for my trip to Denver and then onwards to my new job.

Well I should have wrote this ages ago, but I didn’t so it’s back to faking dates again. To begin with this was largely because I wasn’t really doing much apart from be lazy at my parents and not doing as much work as I should have done on the papers I was meant to be writing. I’m going to organise this post by subject as it seems to make more sense than the normal chronological.

Starting with my ankle. Not long after I got back in the UK I went to a minor injuries unit to have it checked out as it had been several weeks and was still quite weak and often painful. After quite a bit of faffing I managed to get it x-rayed and was informed it wasn’t broken. I think the nurse I saw was all ready to say I hadn’t injured it that badly until she remembered had long ago I’d done it. Carol nicely reminded me that when she broke her ankle the x-ray didn’t pick it up but I decided to carry on believing it wasn’t broken! I did start swimming again and it turns out that both crawl and turns made it hurt. The turns were a little odd as it was more the twisting motion than pushing off the wall that hurt. Oh well it’s slowly getting better.

There was quite a saga about getting a Canadian work permit. First off I tried to find out when I could expect to get it processed. This was made difficult as I didn’t know what office was dealing with it – was it based on my residential address (Kansas) or my correspondence address (UK). Turns out it was the former and so was being dealt with by New York. But in finding this put New York found out I’d moved and so they apparently had to transfer it to London. Looking at London processing times I was somewhat worried that it wouldn’t get sorted by my start date. But in sorting all that out I’d also found out that, in my circumstances, I could probably apply for a work permit at the border. So I e-mailed to ask had I’d go about cancelling my current application if it got late enough that I was just going to turn up and hope. Someone misread my e-mail and simply put a note on my application that it was cancelled although this wouldn’t actually be processed until my turn come up in London. After some more faffing – including complaining to the Minister as there appeared to be no other complaint mechanism – I eventually got it all sorted. Indeed I got the work permit very soon afterwards so maybe the whole sorry saga also meant it got dealt with quicker.

I’d also decided that I’d probably need a US visa if I wanted to visit friends in the US. Although if coming from and returning to the UK I’d have been eligible for the Visa Waiver Program it seemed, at best, very debatable, if I was living in Canada. This was because you need proof of onward travel out of the US for the VWP program and the US embassy website said that if that onward travel finished in Canada you had to be a permanent resident of Canada. As I’d only be a temporary resident it seemed better safe than sorry. As it turns out getting the visa was rather easy and I was in the embassy hardly any time – in and out within about an hour and a half as opposed to three hours the last time. I also visited a few friends around my trip to London for my visa interview which was enjoyable but there’s nothing much exciting to report.

I did do some visiting more friends in this period – in part to have some time away from my parents. I went and spent the weekend with Adam and Kate. Apart from good company, food and drink, the main thing I did was go for a walk in the Peak District on Saturday. Although my ankle was still playing up I did manage a 5-mile hike which included a nice lunch at a pub! Was very enjoyable and made me realise that I definitely miss the Peak District. Unfortunately the ankle meant I didn’t get a chance to climb. 🙁 After seeing Adam and Kate I popped in on my friend from my MoD days, Sarah, and her two children, which was very enjoyable. On the way I’d stopped off for a short hike by Ladybower reservoir. Photos from both hikes are here. On the way back to my parents I managed to accidentally drive on the right at a deserted services. I drove up to a roundabout and thought something looked wrong so stopped and then realised what I’d done. Whoops!

I also decided that I’d visit Denver for New Year on the way to Canada to start my new job. Kim suggested the idea but I don’t think either of thought it would happen. However at the time I was meant to be working on a paper so was happy to be distracted by looking to see if it was viable. Turns out that it would cost barely any more money as transatlantic flights between New Year and the first Monday were so much more expensive than between Christmas and New Year so even after all the extra flights I’d only be about $50 more out of pocket.

Another couple of minor things that happened in this period. My parents and I visited my brother and sister-in-law for a nice evening of food, drink and playing games. And there was a big storm that hit England which was possibly meant to lead to some flooding in my area. I went to see the high tide about 1am but as the wind had dropped by then the waves weren’t very big and so no flooding. Still I’d never seen the sea that high and I got some reasonable photos that are here. Some more random photos from Clacton are here and here.

Well after getting back from climbing I was in full on getting ready to leave Kansas mode. Which was a little depressing! Monday and Tuesday were mostly spent packing and getting rid of bits and bobs and I won’t bore you with that other than to say that I managed to sell my car for $700. Having not managed to sell it on Craig’s List before I’d left for climbing I put it up on e-Bay with a $700 starting price. While in Vegas someone saw my Craig’s List post and after some discussion ended up offering me a $1000 to take it off e-Bay. However this was all a bit too close to the end of the auction and what with climbing I didn’t really have time to sort it all out so I just let the auction run thinking that as there were a lot of watchers it might go for more then $700. Turns out the man who had contacted me via Craig’s List was the only one to bid so he must have been happy as he got it for less than he originally thought.

Monday evening I headed out for food and drink with Carol, Mary Ashley, Seth and Rob. This turned into rather a lot of drinks and was a really nice way to spend a final(ish) evening with many of my best Kansas friends. Like when I left England we went for Indian food but unlike when I left the UK things did not stay very civilised after that as we all got quite drunk. I’m not entirely sure of my thought process but I ended up staying the night at Carol’s with Rob and Seth rather than walk back to mine. I think partly it just sort of happened but I know my ankle was playing up and as Carol’s was nearer that probably also had something to do with it.

Tuesday was spent packing before heading over to say a more proper good bye to Carol – she’d left for work way before I was up. I ended up having a much longer, but enjoyable, chat with her than planned so I ended up getting over to Monster Mountain much later than planned. I’d always planned to head there one last time if I could but after Rob said he knew someone that would take most of my kitchen stuff of my hands if I brought it over I decided I’d definitely go. I ended up not climbing – probably a good thing with my ankle – and instead just chatted and gave stuff away. I went out for a quick drink afterwards before heading home and my last night in Kansas.

I was stopping off in Canada on the way back to England to drop off many of my bags rather than flying them across the Atlantic and back. Turns out I headed to the airport with 7 bags. Although I was at the airport with a reasonable amount of time to spare I then took 45 minutes getting all my bags under the strictly enforced 50lbs weight limit. Eventually I managed it and after dropping off my rental car managed to, just, make the flight. Nothing else exciting to report until I got to Canada where it was much easier getting in than last time – which came as a surprise given that I had seven bags with me! Thankfully all my bags turned up and I was soon at my hotel.

Next day, I had a slow start before trying to sort out the one bag I was taking back to England so that it was under 23kg. This is about 50lbs but after the re-organisation of the day before not everything was in the right bags. Eventually I was done and heading up to my new work place. After dumping my bags I headed out for dinner with those members of my new lab that were free before heading back for another night in the airport hotel.

Next day I started the journey back to England. Nothing too exciting to report other than that I somehow managed to get a row of seats to myself on the transatlantic which meant I managed to get more sleep than normal. The fight wasn’t full but it was full enough that I really lucked out in getting a whole free row. All in all I was rather impressed with Air Transat, although I do wonder if this was in part due to flying in a newly refurbished plane. I suspect I’ll get another chance to see what they’re like early in the new year.

My parents picked me up from the airport and since then I’ve been at their house doing not a lot. Now I’ve had a lazy week I really do need to get on with writing papers and visiting friends which is my plan for the next few weeks. I have managed to get out and take a few photos in Clacton but that’s about it for even remotely exciting stuff. Hopefully visiting friends will mean my next post is more exciting than this one! I’m thinking I’ll keep this blog going to keep everyone updated on what I’m up to both here and in Canada, although it may get renamed once I’m in Canada as the title will no longer apply.

When I left you in the last post we were all about to have a rest day. The other three went off exploring the strip in the morning before I joined them for lunch. I’d wanted to rest my ankle and not do so much walking so spent the morning in the motel. The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring some casinos and and doing a little gambling – I lost a grand total of $2! Walking around the strip again definitely reminded me how much I detest the strip and how I can’t spend very long there without getting totally fed up with it.

Monday we were up and about by 5:30 as our target was Crimson Chrysalis which would involve both a long walk in and a lot of climbing. However it wasn’t to be. I checked the weather before we left to make sure it wasn’t going to rain and instead found out it was going to be really rather windy. On the drive to Red Rocks it quickly become clear that the forecast wasn’t wrong so we set our sights rather lower and aimed for Dark Shadows instead which we hoped would be a little sheltered especially as, like most people, we were only going to do the first four pitches.

I led the first pitch without any problems and not too long after that it was my turn to lead the third pitch. This turned out to be a fair bit harder and, in large part because of my ankle, I placed too much gear at the start of the pitch and didn’t have many quickdraws left for the end of it. Thankfully the climbing got easier and, being a mad British type, I was happy to run it out to the end of the pitch. Another interesting and quite difficult pitch followed before we were repelling down the route with the four of us somehow managing to pass a party climbing the route without creating too much of a cluster fuck. Because of the early start we were back at the car by lunch time!

I knew the others were aiming to have another go at Crimson Chrysalis the next day, something I now realised would be beyond with me with my ankle, so knowing the next day would likely be a rest day for me Colin and I headed off to do some single pitch climbs while Si and Claire went shopping. Colin’s mad and would have climbed every day if he could so he was quite up for more climbing. Not fancying too much of a walk in we went to a cliff with only one starred line – a nice, if slightly creaky, 5.8+ which Colin quickly dispatched. I then led a disappointing 5.7 which was a one move wonder before Colin managed to find a surprisingly nice 5.8 to lead. The 5.8 slab route with which it shared anchors seemed like it would be quite nice but a combination of the time, the weather – we could see rain over much of the area and it had tried raining where we were – and my ankle meant we decided to call it a day without doing it.

Next day was indeed a rest day for me as the others went off to do Crimson Chrysalis. Given the state of my ankle I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do the walk in and climb and even if I did I was far from sure that I wouldn’t just slow the other’s down enough that we couldn’t finish the climb so I decided to leave it for another visit. I didn’t do much on this rest day either although I did go out and take some photos once it had got dark.

Wednesday, Colin and I had our eyes on a Johnny Vegas-Going Nuts-Solar Slab link up and so it was another very early start as it would be 11 pitches of climbing. Turned out to be a really enjoyable day with lots of easy, but excellent climbing, and a mad Californian couple for company. Cara and Ellsworth (yes, I’ve never met anyone called that before either) seemed as mad as Colin and I – there were sing alongs, discussion of drinking wee and a plot to kill Ellsworth amongst other things. Definitely turned the day into one of the highlights of trip. We even managed to do the seven repels before it got dark and so we weren’t back at the car too late.

My last day in Red Rocks was spent climbing with Simon. Again we’d had an early start as we dropped Colin and Claire off to do a Dream of Wild Turkeys, a ten pitch 5.10a which I really wanted to do, but which I also knew to be far too risky with my ankle. So instead Si and I headed off to do Cat in the Hat, a nice five pitch 5.6. Thankfully we managed to beat the crowds and were (just) first on it. This was definitely a good thing as the party behind us ended up getting gear stuck and bailing after the second pitch – after being on it for a very long time. And apparently, at one stage, there were another three parties behind them!

The climbing was, once again, easy and good and in a stunning location. On the final pitch I bumped into a couple of people I knew from Kansas City who, having seen how busy our route was, had used an alternative route to get to the bottom of the fifth pitch. Thankfully for them the party behind us bailing had created a nice gap for them to slot into. For reasons I’m still not entirely sure about they were doing the route in fancy dress and carrying two guitars which they then pretended to play at the top of the fifth pitch. Odd!

The most exciting, and tiring bit, of the day was trying to pull our ropes after the first repel but after a lot of hard rock, and some help from a friendly American that had just set up a belay, we managed to get them down and headed back out in plenty of time to pick up the other two. We even had time to go and get a coffee and some lunch!

The first proper evening we were there we’d all over-indulged at the cheese cake factory and we decided that would be a fitting end to our time together so that evening we once again headed there and over-indulged and thus a stunning holiday came to an end. I’ll definitely need to go back to Red Rocks. There’s two routes I really wanted to do but because of my ankle didn’t get a chance to and there’s plenty of other good routes I’d like to get on so I will be back one day. Colin’s blog post about Red Rocks can be found here – it’s far more amusing than mine! Climbing photos from Red Rocks are here, while Las Vegas photos are here.

I was flying out of Vegas Friday lunchtime so the others dropped my of at the airport before heading out for one short last day’s climbing as they were flying out that evening. I’d decided to head back a little before them so I had a chance to go on the KCCC trip to Jackson Falls in southern Illinois. I’d agreed to meet Seth in Springfield, as he was climbing in that area that day, and I ended up joining him and his climbing partner for a pizza dinner which meant we were leaving rather late – we ended up not getting to where we were camping to 2am!

Turns out that I didn’t see any of the next morning. Red Rocks, the long drive, and our late arrival had obviously caught up with me and so I didn’t get up to midday. I hadn’t realised it had got that late as it was cloudy and overcast and so not that sunny – I thought it was more like ten. Thankfully Seth wasn’t wanting to do too much climbing as he’d also twisted his ankle while I was in Vegas so neither of us were too bothered by the late start. We started off with Seth leading a nice little route which I decided to second to see how my ankle was. I stupidly tried to do it his way and promptly fell off before finding a much easier way of doing it. We then caught up with much of the club and I top-roped a couple of slabby routes, one clean, one not, both of which were nice, but both probably under-graded – which seems normal for Jackson Falls. Wanting to lead something I finished the day by leading the nice easy 5.6 slabby route.

Next day we were up rather earlier – despite the beer the night before – and so managed to join the club as they walked in. We did some of the same slabby routes we did in March – last time I was here – and I definitely think I found them easier than last time despite my ankle so it definitely looks like my climbing has improved. Most of the club then left but Seth and I and a few others decided to stay around a bit longer. Seth and I discussed going to try Lovely Arete – a 11a we’d both done last time – to see if we could work it and get it clean but decided it didn’t seem sensible with both our ankles. Instead Seth did one more powerful overhanging route which I tried but decided wasn’t going to happen this time (I’d got to the top last time) before we did a nice but short slabby route to climb out of the climbing area. Photos are here. And that was the end of my climbing in America. 🙁

I’d long wanted to go climbing in Red Rocks, ever since Colin and Sarah went and I’d had a chance to be as tourist there several years ago and I was finally on my way. My original plan had been to find some people to drive from Kansas with and to stop in Denver on the way back. However as I’d not managed to find anyone to drive with I had decided to fly instead. Still wanting to see friends in Denver I decided to stop of there on my way to Red Rocks.

I got to Denver quite late on the Friday evening and after some faffing I managed to get picked up by Kim. I’d hoped to be able to climb in Denver but I decided it would be a bad idea on the Saturday as my ankle was still quite bad. Instead, after a very lazy start, we went shopping. After a rather long, and to me rather boring time, in the prAna shop we made it to REI which was rather more exciting – I ended up buying a new climbing sack. That evening we went and watch “How to train your dragon” at a friends of Kyrie and it was strangely enjoyable.

Sunday the plan was to go climbing as my ankle was feeling a little better but the weather didn’t play ball as it was rather cold and it tried to snow. We headed out with the intent to climb but that soon changed to going for a hike instead. Have to say that I was a bit disappointed in the waterfall on the hike but it was still very enjoyable and it was nice to go for a proper walk again for the first time since I’d done my ankle. Photos from Denver are here.

After the hike we got dinner before I got dropped of at the airport. My flight got delayed for a couple of hours while they found a working plane so this obviously ended up with me having a couple of drinks in the bar – after all what else is there to do at an airport? The flight was really quite empty which meant I had a row to myself so could put my ankle up and rest it. I ordered a wine and surprisingly didn’t have to pay for it – I can only assume this was because of the delay. Despite scare stories about Simon’s inability to turn left he did manage to pick me up from the airport and I was soon at our motel – my friends had decided to stay in a motel rather than camp as by the time extra bag fees were taken into account the difference in cost was minimal.

Three English friends had cone out to Red Rocks – Si, Claire and Colin. As the first two are a couple this left me both sharing a room, and mostly climbing with Colin. They’d arrived Saturday and had spent Sunday doing some shorter stuff nearer the road. Monday morning found us all heading in for something rather longer. Unfortunately this also meant further from the road and given the state of my ankle this meant slow progress from me.

Eventually we all made it to the bottom of Birdland (5.7+) and thankfully there was no one else on it. Climbing as two parties we quickly dispatched the first the pitches before Colin and I waited around for Si and Claire to finish the fourth and fifth pitches as the belay ledges got smaller and would have been exciting with lots of us on them. Having heard the sixth pitch was a bit shit we were all repelling/abseiling off after the fifth pitch so after So and Claire were out of our way we finished the route. Si and Claire didn’t wait for us in an attempt to make sure we at least had people back at the car before the 7 pm parking lot / car park closing time. Once Colin and I were done he took rather more than his fair share of gear and this enabled us to make it back to the car by only a few minutes after 7. All in all a good introduction to Red Rocks – a very nice, but not hard climb, with a really good fifth, and for us, last, pitch.

Next day we headed into somewhere with some shorter routes. Colin and I stated up a two pitch 5.8. I was leading the first pitch but within sight of the belay I decided I couldn’t do some moves up a crack. The next move involve twisting my right foot into the crack and it looked like I’d have to do it at least once more before reaching the belay. As my ankle was complaining a lot about the first move I really didn’t want to lead the rest. So I set up a hanging belay and brought Colin up who led the rest of the pitch before leading the next pitch. A nice climb although my ankle meant I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have.

After repelling off and eating lunch we went and did the route Si and Claire had done. Again a nice route, this time a two pitch 5.7+ where I led my pitch with no problems. As Si and Claire had had some issues with stuck ropes we were finished some time before they finished the route we’d started on so Colin led up a really quite nice single pitch 5.9 which, given my ankle I was pleased to get clean on second. If I’m ever back in the area I’d definitely lead it. If everyone cares the routes we did that day were Fold Out, Hop Route and Sensuous Mortician.

The next day I took as a rest day to give my ankle a day off. Didn’t really get up to too much other than sorting out trying to sell some bits on eBay and Craig’s List before I left Kansas.

Thursday Si and Claire had a rest day so we got Si to drop us of the walk in to Frogland. We hadn’t made the earliest start so by the time we made it to the start of the route there were several parties ahead of us but we didn’t have to wait too long before Colin was heading up the first pitch. The first few pitches involved quite a lot of waiting around before I headed off up the first 5.8 crutch pitch. Well I say up but there was rather a lot of sideways involved as well – the crux section. I was rather pleased to dispatch the pitch quickly despite the relative lack of gear around the crux. As the pitches had got shorter the people ahead of us the people ahead of us had got a but further away so Colin and I were now relatively alone,

Colin led the next pitch, the other crux pitch, and brought me up. The end of the pitch involved some squeezing under a big chock stone that provided Colin with some amusement as I went through it. The last pitch was a long easy pitch which was made more interesting by me running out of rope just before the end. I didn’t know that at the time as Colin had stated climbing. I’m glad I didn’t know as I was rather run out. Still we finished and got down safely just before it got dark.

Si and Claire were back climbing the next day and we headed off to do Black Magic and Lotta Balls. Colin and I started on Back Magic while Si and Claire started on Lotta Balls. Due to the state of my ankle Colin led to two crux pitches but overall it was nice climbing with no real problems – I was especially pleased with how easy I found the first pitch and it proved to me that my climbing has definitely improved while I’ve been in the US. The climb was nice but the descent was a bitch for my ankle and it was quite painful by the time we were down.

Although we decided we didn’t have time to do all of Lotta Balls we both really wanted to do it’s second pitch so I headed up the first pitch. I was really glad Colin was leading the second pitch as it involved a few metres of climbing on small “balls” protruding from the work. An absolutely cool feature but definitely not much fun for my ankle. It was a little run out and I suspect I’d have struggled to hold it together on lead. As we didn’t do the final third pitch we rappelled off thankfully saving my ankle from the horrible descent.

Next day I, wrongly, thought I’d be good for another day of easy climbing. We decided that a short, relatively easy route might be our best bet so we headed in to do Black Dagger. However we’d misjudged how long the approach would take, especially with a very slow me in tow – as I said I should have taken the day off. After a couple of hours approach the others decided we weren’t going to make it to the climb and get back out in time – we hadn’t got a late exit permit – so we changed our goal and went and did Geronimo, a four pitch 5.6, instead. It was rather busy but we got on it and our ascent of it was helped by the party ahead of us going terribly off route allowing us to overtake them on the proper route. In general they had a bit of a mare with everything – turns out it was the second’s first multipitch and first trad climb! We caught up with them on repel and had to wait around while the second sorted out all sorts of rope mess when she was rappelling – something she clearly wasn’t used to. Turned out to be a pretty damn good climb and a nice alternative to our original plan – especially as it was a easier climb and so wasn’t too bad on my ankle.

Next day was a rest day so this seems a sensible place to split the Red Rocks posts. More overly detailed climbing stories in the next post!