Thursday, July 10, 2008

Shoooos

Just a quick post on my exciting shoe purchases!!!

1. 5.10 guide tennies approach shoes. YAY! Been wanting these for a while now, so this is exciting. There so comfy and perfect on rock. I'm in love....

2. Nike Air Zoom Structure Triax+ 11. Fancy name for my first ever real fitted beautiful and comfy running shoe. The store i got them at studies your feet first, then picks some shoes and has you run with them on a treadmill while filming your feet. Funny but cool. They check out how you run and whether the shoe works for your foot. Its great. Love this shoe. Nate and i like to go running together on rest days or just as a quick way to get out so it was time to a get good shoes. Sweet eh!

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Mountain Air

After i got my appointment it was time to get out of the house a bit. We decided to go hiking near Indian Peaks. It was this sweet trail winding passed lakes and glacier run off gaining enough elevation to have stunning views!

I couldn't believe how much snow there still was. The rivers are running high and snow melt is mind blowing.

I loved how easy it was to get to this trail, how accessible everything is here. Only a 30 min drive and i am surrounded by mountains, crispy cold pine tree filled air. Yum!

I think we are heading out on road trip part II tonight. First stop will be City of Rocks in Idaho where we are meeting up with Nate's sister and her hubby. I am excited! Then we will make our way over to Jackson, WY (hi LB, better be ready for us, i'll call you from the road). Time is flying by fast it seems. Hard to believe we in July. The visa business ate up a bunch of time but so it goes!

So updates may be sparse, but i'll squeeze a few in here and there :)

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Alien Blues

After two nights in a row of staying up very very late with my laptop refreshing the visa appointment site over and over again, i finally got an appointment that i think will work out great! It seems the website opens up appts. at about 3am! Crazy, i know. So i am resigning from my job officially August 31st and thus my visa expires that day, hence i must leave country that day. My appt is on Sept. 2nd. So hopefully this will all work out. Now everybody just cross your fingers that they will actually approve my visa that day! Sigh...

Monday, July 07, 2008

Cracking Up!










After a couple of days of cleaning, organizing, and general chilling in Boulder it was time to head back out and do more climbing. We met up with this really nice couple, Matt and Nora, and drove out to Vedauwoo (about 90 minutes north-east of boulder). Its a beautiful area with awesome rock formations, the weather was perfectly overcast and cool, and the area totally deserted.


Most of the climbing is crack climbing which i really haven't done much. Being the face climber that i am, i haven't really gotten myself into many cracks and wow its a different world! Its amazing how much harder it is to crack climb. Especially in Vedauwoo where everything seems to be just big enough so that my fist is too small. Which means full arm and knee jams. I am trying to see the benefits in crack climbing but damn its painful and seems so ungraceful to jam my body into these cracks. I have the bruises and scratches to show for it. Lost alot of skin out there. But i do love gear placing and being out there.

But we had fun and i am determined to get better at it since its what i need for being a better trad climber. I didn't lead anything yesterday, just trying to get used to the movement etc. Nate did awesome, leading a wicked fun 5.10a at the end of the day impressing us all.

The next couple of days are set aside for sitting on the computer and trying to get an appointment with the US consulate in canada (any of them) so that i can get my visa, this may turn out to be a interesting process. Its mind boggling really. Wish me luck!

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Atop Devil's Tower

After the Needles we made our way towards Devil's Tower in Wyoming. What an amazing place. If you haven't been there its quite stunning to see this giant column off rock in the middle of nowhere. I had been here once before but now it was time to climb it. Neither of us had ever done it and we were excited to try. We originally had planned to do Durrance, a classic route up the south face, but due to raptor nesting the area was closed. So we picked a few other possible routes further to the south east side of the tower. We decided to take a rest day after climbing for 5 days and scout the approach etc. We finally had our minds set on either Soler or Tad, a couple of cracks to the top. The morning of it rained heavily and our originally plan of getting up early was foiled (so maybe we werent too bummed about it ;). It stopped and we decided to get going.

We got to the climbs by 10 or so and found a couple of groups getting on Soler and El Cracko. So we decided to do Tad, a 5.7 crack thats not the cleanest but still a nice way to the top. I led the first pitch and ran out of big gear towards the end. We didn't have our full rack with us this time since this was a spontaneous climbing trip. I debated whether to run the last 20 feet out and just go for it but a lady had fallen at the exact spot a few days earlier and there was soooooo MUCH blood on the rock it freaked me. It got to my head and i decided to not risk it. I built an anchor right there and brought Nate up. He led the next pitch, which was a tough 5.7 in my book. I sweated and cursed my way up but had fun. Amazing how different crack climbing is. I need some serious practice.

The second pitch takes you to a place called the meadows which is just below the summit. Its a small lil area that's not too steep. You hike through it and then its a short scramble to the summit. It was soo exciting to get to the top. Very cool! Thats when the sun came out and it got HOT.

The rappel was a bit stressful due to crowds of people jamming up belay stations, tangled rope, and getting rope stuck. Ah the joys of climbing. But we did it and it was awesome.

Yay!

Friday, July 04, 2008

The Details

Climbing the Needles was great!!! I had no idea how awesome that place was. Sure the climbs are a bit run-out and quite sustained at times but no less fun. And even on a weekend we had the place to ourselves. Here are some of the highlight climbs we did:

1. The Needle's Eye area: we got so lucky because this spot is right on the road with a perfect pull-out for all the tourists. But the day we wanted to climb it, the road was closed and no cars allowed. So we hiked the mile to the area and had the place to ourselves. Sweet! We ended up climbing the Hitching Post, Bloody Spire, Thimble, the Needle's Eye, the Genome. Sweet trad climbs. I led my first one of the trip and it was fun! At about 4pm they opened the road, right when i was leading up the spire next to the parking lot. As i got to the top i looked down to see all sorts of old ladies and popses and kids waving at me. Hehe...funny. Nate had to explain what it was we were doing and then i send him up the needle and everybody was watching. He was the star on the road!


2. Cathedral Enchainment: essentially a climb in which you combine three spires into one. So up West Gruesome, rap off, up Spire 3, rap off, and up south tower and finish. All in all 400 feet of climbing. Phew, that was a long day. It was super fun. I led the first pitch, a long sustained chimney. Heady but good. Nate took care of the rest including a wicked 5.9 that i found myself cursing over. The views were amazing and the weather outstanding. We climbed a few other spires in the area, spire two being my favorite and first fully led multipitch. Very exciting!


3. Conn Diagonal or we can call it Classic gone Epic. What a beautiful climb. All there, all fun, challenging yet tantalizing. I never even noticed the dark clouds moving in as i led the first 180 foot pitch. By the time Nate had led the second pitch it started raining. Not so bad right. A lil rain isnt going to turn us away. Oh yeah, well there was the rumbling of thunder in the background but we were untouchable. So up we went, pitch three to the top. Superb climbing and another great view. Thats when the lightening came a lil close to home. We quickly set up the rappel and off i went into the unknown since we were rapping off the other side of the rock. The guide book said something about a nice landing but all i found was a tiny perch that luckily appeared right before i hit the end of the rope. Yikes. I put a couple of pieces in and made myself comfortable in the lil nook. Nate followed being chased by ever nearing lightening. The next moves were precarious to say the least. Exposed funky climbing to get to the next anchor. Nate went ahead to find a way when the storm hit us square on. All i saw was Nate standing there on top of these rocks with lightening all around and thunder echoing in the walls. Right about now the hail starting coming down and blew sideways through the air. Nate found a lil corner away from the impact. So there we were unable to see each other, attached by a rope huddled against the rock. I was pretty freaked. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the freezing waterfall that starting coming down on top of me. I was drenched within minutes. Who knew i could lose body heat so quickly. Some of the lightning must have hit the rock above me because i felt the hole column vibrate like nothing else. At this point you could say i was thoroughly scared. It didn't seem to let up much but in what seemed a small break, Nate got it together and found the next anchors. He told me to climb over to where he was. I could hardly move my fingers or hear him through the roaring thunder. By the time i got to him the hail had returned. We both were shaking so hard. I tried to keep it together and set up the rappel. I could have never done it without Nate. He was awesome. I rapped down and he followed. Finally on the ground. It was still raining but getting less. We were both incredibly cold and yet so happy to be down and safe. We looked at each other shivering & dishevelled, and started laughing. All of our stuff was drenched and we hiked back to the car like a couple of hobos but we had big smiles on our faces!
The climb was stunning and i am glad we did it. I learned a few things about weather, my ability to function in a crisis, and how amazing my man is.

Up next: Devil's Tower

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Welcome to the world!

August Kamanakai Koessler
Born Tuesday June 24th, 2008, 10:35 pm
Weight: 7lbs 9oz
Length: 19 inches


Congratulations to Katie & Phil!!! He is beautiful and i can't wait to meet him. I love you guys!

Monday, June 30, 2008

Threadin' the needle



Yes, we are still alive. We are in the Black Hills in South Dakota climbing in the Needles. A beautiful, quiet, awesome climbing spot. Nobody is here, everyday we have the climbing all to ourselves. Its crazy. Even this weekend.

We climbed some beautiful spires with sweet views of the hills. I did some trad leads i am proud of and feeling better about it every day. Lucky for me i got Nate to lead all the hard stuff ;)

Today we found us a library with internet to catch up on life a bit.



Sorry if i have been out of touch but phone reception is spotty at best. I think we will be here a couple more days and then off to Devil's Tower in WY.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Meet the Parents

After 4 weeks of St. Louis and training we are finally on the road. Its nice to get out and away. To start the summer!

This past weekend we headed to Indiana to meet Nate's parents. And they are awesome!!! Totally loved his mom and dad and grandma. Wonderful peops. We had a great time, got spoiled, and enjoyed a few good laughs (always edit your camera pictures before his mom sees them!!!).

Nate's dad has a bunch of horses and teaches riding etc. So i got be on a horse and learned how to ride it all on my own. Definitely NOT as easy as it seems. Beautiful creatures though!


After too many days filled with lazing around, eating donuts, and having pancakes, crepes, eggs (you name it) for breakfast, it was time to get going. So yesterday we headed out through indiana, illinois, and into iowa (hi LB, we are heading straight through des moines ;)). the flooding is crazy. Pretty bad in some places. Found a nice place to camp and went for a run this morning by a lake. That was great!


Now we are in a lil coffeeshop in the middle of nowhere catching up on email, work etc. I just sent in my resignation letter, its official, i quit! Scary & exciting. Its not end of the story though, so there will be more to tell.

We are trying to make our way towards South Dakota to climb in the Needles and hopeful up Devil's tower. YAY!

I'll update as i can!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Piled Higher and Deeper