We just can't make ourselves leave. We've been rock-climbing 2 of the last 3 days, up in the boulder-fields in front of the Chief. WOW. This is hand-tearing stuff, with sharp granite and nothing we've seen so far below 5.9. Most of the clean stuff here is firmly in the 5.10-5.13 range, and whenever we could sequence even a few moves together, we were mighty pleased. It is all problems, and very little in the way of traversing fun. Bring your muscles, your hand tape, and some crash-pads.
I haven't climbed in over 2 years, since for whatever reason, climbing activates my accident injuries like nothing else. I kept my indulgence fairly moderate (!), and spent more time cheering on the ever talented Kate as she conquered more sequences and routes than I did. Still, this was a big deal for me- past efforts to get back into the sport were hugely discouraging, with days of resulting pain teaching me not to try again. As some of you may know, climbing used to be a major love of mine, and giving it up was a bitter pill.
I managed to indulge this time without any major penalties. I was able to power up some tough stuff, and climb casually for a day and a half with only some minor arrows in my back. A night of sleep later, and no more pain!! This is a whole new world for me, in terms of living without that chronic pain, and now- being able to enjoy climbing again! Thank-you MonaVie!!!
On the downside, there is now talk of fetching and dragging along my old climbing gear, further reducing our storage space. What a dream though; to be able to return to this sport!!
Yesterday was a recovery day, and we went instead for an exhausting bike-ride. We were aiming for Alice Lake, but instead spent 40 minutes winding up hills to Quest University, and then completely lost, we dumped out at the end of the Powerhouse Plunge. I only oriented myself when we crossed a roaring chasm, and looking down, I realized I had taken a picture here 3 years ago with Erin and Madelane- when I was being evacuated off the Plunge with a torqued thumb and knee injury. Ahhh, good times... ( pictures here: http://vonsworld.blogspot.com/2005/09/i-took-plunge.html )
By the time we pedaled home, I was exhausted and useless for the remainder of the day. I must have yawned 400 times yesterday, but could not fall sleep for love or money. Finally, we watched an Alfred Hitchcock DVD, The Vanishing Woman, and stumbled into bed.
Now that we've been here this long, we figure we might as well make it a full month, and get a lower rate. We'll try to focus a little more on our film and website projects, and hopefully make some progress there. We've been in play-mode here, unable to resist tennis, baseball, hikes, bikes and beaches, not to mention rock-climbing. We've also got our eye on a $45/day canoe rental down at Valhalla Outfitters, so we may have to muster some sturdier resolve to stay pointed at FinalCut and DreamWeaver. Also not helping is watching Dallas run around like a puppy down at Nexen Beach. This will be our last ocean-spot for a long time, and she is so happy and energized here... it's hard not to spend all our time watching and playing with here there. Her pain pills are really helping.
She has no idea that we're about to drag her back across the country again. : )
