Geocaching and bouldering
Yesterday I went geocaching and was able to use my bouldering skills. It had a difficulty rating of four and a half stars. The highest rating is five stars. The cache was midway up a pine tree (18 feet). The problem was that the lowest branch was eight feet up. What to do? I had a McGyver moment and saw two possibilities brute force, or make use of my environment. About 300 feet away from the cache were two things that might help, a shopping cart and a oil drum trash can. I opted to take the plastic bag out of the drum and roll it over to the tree. Once the drum was upended I could reach onto a branch and pull myself up the tree. From there I was able to climb up to the tree until I reached the cache. I signed cache log and slowly worked my way down the tree and finally landed back on the drum. I rolled the drum back to its home and was on my way.
Home for the holidays
Late last week, my holiday plans were uncertain. I had a couple of modes of transportation for getting home for the holidays. While surfing I was able to locate a cheap flight to Toronto at an incredibly low price. It bought the ticket as quickly as I could. The past couple of days at my folks place have been relaxing and given me chance to get some much needed rest. I’ve read two books over the last little while. The first, “Cold Mountain,” by Charles Frazier and the other is “Replay,” by Ken Grimwood. Both books are a good read. I am glad that I had a chance to read “Cold Mountain” as it answered many questions that remained unanswered when I saw the movie. a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com”Jason’s/a father gave me a list of recommended books to read over the holidays and “Cold Mountain” and “Replay” were highly recommended.br /br /Yesterday, I decided to check some of my local geocaches and will head back to them over the next couple of days with a camera. There are some bouldering faces that I want to get Jason’s opinion on as they could be climbable once the weather improves.
Bouldering
span lang=”en-us”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;”Last night, I was back at the gym climbing working on my bouldering. I climbed the “red” route a couple of times to get my arms warmed up. While wondering around, the gym is still new to me, I discovered a couple of caves that were hidden away. I usually climb in the two gravel floor area and then migrate to the “X” platform room that I have talked about in blogs. The extra cave will give me some more challenges. The gym is having a bouldering fest all day tomorrow so I’ll stop in see what it is all about./span/span
Small Victory
Tonight at the a href=”http://www.verticalreal.com/en/index.htm”climbing gym/a, I did something I’ve wanted to do for a while, climb onto the a href=”http://flickr.com/photos/verticalreal/86087849/”platform /awhich is a structure in the middle of one of the bouldering rooms. The room is circular and has an “X” shape a href=”http://flickr.com/photos/verticalreal/86087964/”climbing wall /ain the middle. When you climb the X or any of the walls it takes up to a platform on the next floor. I had been climbing the “red” route for a while and decided it was time to go over the edge. I used brute force at the end to pull myself onto the platform. My first victory can a little cost, a white chest as my black t-shirt rubbed on the floor of the platform. I was stoked and climbed the wall a couple of more times each with a little more flare. Hmm, this to find a new color marker…
Golden Key Leadership Retreat
p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;”span style=”font-size: 12pt;”On the weekend I headed down to /span/spanspan style=”border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1195062743_0″Toronto/span for a leadership retreat associated with the a href=”http://www.goldenkey.org”Golden Key Honor Society./a We met at a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/GoldenKey_HartHouseFarm_Nov2007/photo#5132450952709709234″Hart House /aon the University of Toronto campus and then took the bus up to the a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/GoldenKey_HartHouseFarm_Nov2007/photo#5132451356436635314″Hart House farm/a which is about an 45 minute drive north. I came representing the Ottawa chapter, and a couple of people came from Alberta with the majority of the people coming from span style=”border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1195062743_1″Toronto/span. Over the weekend we went hiking, played capture the flag in the dark and did a couple of leadership exercises. Our first task was to split into two teams and come up with a team name and chant. My team was called “Mas cash” which was based on the first letter in our given name while the other team was called “the Wonka Nerds.” During one of our breaks we hiked around the property and explored the caves/a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/GoldenKey_HartHouseFarm_Nov2007/photo#5132451158868139602″cliffs /aas well as take some novel pictures (a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/GoldenKey_HartHouseFarm_Nov2007/photo#5132451249062452866″people arranged by height/a). We each took the a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator”Myers-Brigg personality test/a and determined our leadership styles. It was fun adventure and gave me a chance to network with people from different chapters./p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;”span style=”font-size: 12pt;” (a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/GoldenKey_HartHouseFarm_Nov2007″main photo gallery)/abr //span/span/p
Virtual Reality Climbing
On Thursday night I went to, a href=”http://www.verticalreal.com/en/index.htm”Virtual Reality/a, a climbing place very close to where I live and did an hour of bouldering. It was neat when I arrived as the guy asked why I had climbed sooner living so close to the place. They have a couple of bouldering caves some having padding on the floor and others with fresh gravel. They also have an area where you can boulder up the side of the wall and then climb onto a platform on the a href=”http://flickr.com/search/?w=29046729@N00amp;q=competitionamp;m=tags”second floor/a. Some of the faces are marked with color tape (difficulty ratings) and there are others with different size mounts. The top-rope area is smaller than a href=”http://www.earthtreksclimbing.com/”Earth Treks/a. It was a great night and I’m looking forward to my Thursday night bouldering expeditions.
Noonmark and Hopkins Peaks
Late on Friday night I got a call from Chris MacDonald to say that he was organizing a last-minute weekend hiking trip to the the Adirondacks. The plan was to climb Noonmark (3491 feet) and Hopkins (3150 feet). This would be my third hiking trip with Chris Mc this year so I knew what to expect. After catching my breath, I replied that I was eager to go. The plan was to meet at 7:00 am on Saturday morning. I headed over to the 24 hour grocery store to get some last minute supplies.br /br /On Saturday morning, we met at John Galbraith’s house and headed over to meet Kerry McDaniels at her house along the way out of town. Our next stop would be Lake Placid where we bought lunch for Saturday and Sunday. We registered at the a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524377802857938″Adirondack Loj /aand then drove south to Keene Valley to a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129523866701749378″start our trek/a up Noonmark. Before heading out we registered at the sign out box a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129523892471553170″a/a, a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524309083381138″b/a. As we started to climb the temperature started to drop. a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524042795408610″Ice crystals/a were visible in the soil and we would find a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524201709198674″ice /aat the summit. Along the way we had to climb a couple of neat a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524141579656466″ladders/a. I was the first to reach the summit which was a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524163054492978″cold and windy/a. I was under-dressed for the conditions having left my polar fleece jacket, gloves and hat in the car. Before we heading back down the trail we took a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524244658871666″picture /ain the lee of the wind. It would take about 30 minutes before my hand warmed up. Chris Mc, Kerry and I were the first to reach the trailhead and I took a picture of the a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524339148152242″sunset /awhile waiting for John to finish the hike. Once we were all together we headed into Lake Placid for a meal and headed back to the Loj.br /br /I was up at 6:30 am on Sunday and had a quick shower. The cook would bang his breakfast gong at 7:15 am and I wanted to hit the shower before the masses did so. Breakfast took the form of all-you-can-eat pancakes and oatmeal which were a welcome sight. After checking out we headed back down into the Keene Valley to summit Hopkins. Along the trail I snapped a picture of a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524407867629026″myself /awhile catching my breath. As I was getting closer I noticed a rock face off the trail and wondered if a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com”Jason /awould climb it if he was a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524467997171202″here/a or a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524506651876882″here/a. Chris Mc, Kerry and I had lunch on the summit of Hopkins and I showed Kerry how to sight a bearing with her compass. When the sun was out it was pleasant to sit out on the rocks and catch the rays. Once the food has settled in our stomach we started our reluctant slow descent back to the car. As the sun was setting we bid the Adirondacks goodbye and started our trek north.
Two more days..and one more run…Sugarstomp
Tonight, I will do my final run before my a href=”http://www.thebaltimoremarathon.com/site3.aspx”Baltimore half-marathon/a (13.1 miles) on Saturday. It should be a fun and low pressure workout as there is very little I can do to improve my fitness before the race. All of my training for the past couple of months have been focused towards running well in my third Baltimore race. Once the race is behind me I’m going to head over to the climbing gym on Thursday night and start doing some bouldering problems. The climbing should strengthen my core. I would have gone to the climbing gym sooner but didn’t want to run the risk of injuring my legs.br /br /One swing dance tune that I like is the Sugar foot stomp. I have in one my ipod performed by a couple of artists but still looking for a version performed by Bert Firman. There is a really good youtube video of Burt’s orchestra playing the a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROaTbsv52LQ”tune/a. I think that it is the best version of the stomp that I have ever listened too.
Climbing Shoes – Five Ten – Spire
Last week, I went bouldering and climbing at a href=”http://www.earthtreksclimbing.com/”Earth Treks /ain Timonium. As we were chilling Jason talked about how good climbing feels when you have proper climbing shoes. I was skeptical but rented a pair to see what they were like. As well, climbing in sneakers is not cool!! I was quickly convinced that how could I not be climbing in climbing shoes. I had fun trying my first bouldering problem. My climbing started out rough but got better as the session progressed. It was weird that even with a lot of chalk my hands wouldn’t stop perspiring. It could be, I hadn’t climbed in a while, seeing a tall climbing wall that scared me or a low energy balance. While at a href=”http://www.mec.ca/”MEC /atoday I bought a pair of a href=”http://www.fiveten.com/”Five Ten /a a href=”http://www.backcountry.com/store/FVT0003/Five-Ten-Spire-Climbing-Shoe.html”Spire climbing shoes/a. There is a climbing gym close to where I live, a href=”http://www.verticalreal.com/en/index.htm”Vertical Reality /aso I’ll head over to see if I can do more bouldering.
