Future Climbing Pro

Here is my niece, Morgan, while climbing at VE. She did great and loved it! I think she's a natural, even if she didn't go all the way to the top on any climbs. She loved bouldering especially and was so proud of showing off her "moves" to Richard and Lisa. Thanks, R and L, for being so supportive and friendly. =)

It even kept me out

This is my favorite fence in the whole world. It is located in Jackson, Wyoming. I love this town. When we go there to climb Grand Teton, I will show the fence to you, my friends. I bet you are excited.

"J" is just fine

Just wanted to say typing J rather than Julianne is just fine when referring to yours truly. I know Julianne is kind of long to type. But you can just type "J", rather than "J (Julianne)" as that defeats the purpose of shortening my name to just J. I think we'll know who we're talking about, unless another J person joins the group. =)
See you soon,
J

I'm sure you'll all seen these online climbing guides

But in case you haven't seen this online site with route descriptions, here it is. The Red Wing route guide is the most complete of any of them. In my opinion, you really wouldn't need to have a guide book for Red Wing, just use this online guide. The online Taylors Falls guide is very sparse.

Red Wing

Taylors Falls

Tettegouche

Here's Sandstone which is still very new for sport climbing and they're developing routes each year.

And this page is cool; you can type in the difficulty rating you want to climb and whether it's trad or sport, and it'll give you a list of routes.

They have route descriptions for almost anywhere in the world. (Not Brisbane though, I checked.)

Wednesday's Ice Climbing Postponed

I know this has been mentioned in the comments section and I know either Lisa or I have talked to most of you, but I thought I'd put this in a post so everyone will see it.

We think it's just too cold this week for beginning ice climbing at the Brick Yards. It'll be a lot more comfortable if the temps are in the high 20s or 30s. There'll be ice there probably 'til May so it's not a big deal to wait a week or so.

New Plan on Overtraining

I think I'm not overtraining enough because I didn't feel very strong today climbing. Maybe going every day will help me get stronger.

Lisa and I did a few leads and some top ropes. (Hmmm, now that I think about the leads, I realize they were all overhanging. That might be the source of my weakness.)

We did some top rope climbs with Julianne and Morgan and then went to the bouldering area to work on the routes with the elephant holds.

This is a little off topic, but I'm tired of not being able to climb outside. So here's a video I shot last year at Taylors Falls with The Warden.

Superior Hiking Trail

A conversation with Lisa reminded me of a trip that I took this December up to the Superior Hiking Trail that I thought I would share.

I left Tettageuche State Park with snow shoes and fairly heavy pack for my first ever snow camping trip. The goal was to shoe 6 miles to my intended camp-site. Having never done this before, I quickly realized that snow-shoeing is a lot slower than normal hiking.

I think I made it about 3 miles when I stopped to make some lunch and learned a very important lesson: when it's below freezing, keep your stove fuel warm! I couldn't even get my jet-boil warm enough to melt snow! I decided to make camp for the day and hike out that next morning. It was a cold night with temps dropping to -5. I did get some cool pics and learned many valueable lessons that I can take with me on the next trip.












Has anyone else gone Winter camping/hiking? I'd love to hear any tips and suggestions you might have in regards to staying warm etc.

Lost Email

I found all of the emails that I have been missing from Lisa, Richard, and Julianne in my junk box! Makes me feel like a snob for not responding. To answer your questions:

No
Yes
No, it's a different girl
12:30

Hope you all had fun climbing!

A Video Sequel

Due to the unprecedented requests for a sequel to the Hand's-eye video (actually I had only one request and it was from me), I made a Foot's-eye video. I'll bet you're excited. This is what happens when I spend an hour alone in the boulder area waiting for Lisa so we can do a Brick Yards recon.

You missed the chance of a lifetime

Where was everyone today? You all missed the chance in a lifetime to meet my wonderful husband, Joel! We went climbing at VE today and looked all over for you, but found no one! I purposefully went "late afternoon" since that had been the original plan of some certain lovely ladies and their husbands, but I see now that I will have to check the blog every day all day long in order to stay current on your plans! =) Oh well. We had a fun time with him climbing top ropes, me on autobelays, and then bouldering together. There are a couple (well, lots I'm sure) fun bouldering problems up now that I worked on. No lead today. I will be at VE tomorrow with my niece, Morgan, getting there around 12.30 or 1.00. Hope to see you there (and get a belay or two so I can climb too!). Since you missed the chance to meet Joel this time, you'll have to make do with a photo of the two of us all dressed up this christmas when we went to the "Christmas Carol" at the Guthrie.

A Must See!

We went to The Alps at the Omnitheater today. What an amazing film! The climbing/mountaineering is incredible - a mile straight up the North face of the Eiger. I can't recommend this enough... it's cheap and the film is only 50 minutes.

Our visit to VE today was short and sweet. A lot of familiar faces, including Andi from our Sunday Climbing club. I got up some of my challenge routes and it felt pretty nice. (My leg didn't even shake on the slab!)

See you all Wednesday.

Reconnaissance Mission to the Brickyard:

Richard and I parked at the west end of Cherokee Park and hiked down into it. The trail was in good shape, nice day too. The brick yard has quite a bit of ice available. All the routes are about 20-25 feet and very pretty. There were 4 people climbing down there. There will be ice there for another couple of months. Gals, I think we could get away with sharing one pair of boots but it would be the ultimate in luxury if we had our own. At VE for one day boot rental is $15 and crampons are $5. Mel will check at the U of M to see what their prices are like.
I propose we bump our expedition to Feb 27 because of the following conditions.
We have prices to check
Aaron’s sick, we what him strong
Mel needs to make some day care arrangements
Carl’s foot hurts ( less today)
Should we get a permit?

I need to deal with the Women on the Edge climbing event next Sunday. I need to decide if it lives or dies. It’s not like we didn’t promote it, Mel. From now on I’m just climbing with you guys, those who don’t climb, don’t climb because they don’t want to, I guess.

Over-Training Takes Her First Victim

Last week at V.E. was awesome! I think everyone of us made great progress on some of our "trouble routes". Unfortunatly, the combination of climbing everyday, yoga, and a late night out on Thursday left me with the flu. I've been in bed all weekend; envious of you able-bodied folk. Watching Julianne go across the roof was amazing! I think I need to try that next time. Let me know what the BrickYards are looking like. I'm hoping that with lots of rest I'll still be going on Wednesday. Until then, keep posting! The blog is the highlight of my day!

The Saturday Report- The Liz Version

I walked into the gym and felt the need to feel a little success. so I started with a 5.6, then 5.8, then 5.9 the lime green one left of the cave. With ego repaired I was feeling a little powerful. I was eying up the olive drab 5.10b in the same location, when Mel was doing the friendly thing and we had a new buddy suddenly. He looked at me with a dang smirk on his face and said "Are you gonna climb that?" Well!!!! I said" Yes I am young man and you watch your tone with me!" I tell you guys, I really pushed it up that route. Almost made it too, farther that he did anyway.

Mel climbed her slab route for her new fan club of friendlier young men. Laura the route setter put up a couple of, "Where the heck am I going routes". Mel didn't care for her style. I kinda do, as I don't know where I am going anyway! And I gotta find out what that long red top rope out of the pit is rated, I'm obsessed with it. Finished up with this one. It got the rest of what Mel had.

Mel and Tom will be at VE on Sunday about 1:30. I might take thae day off. But I will be there at 12:30 on Monday (President's Day, no yoga class to teach) If J. (Julianne) Richard and Aaron are going to be there we can work out the detail for Ice climbing on Wednesday.

Former Climbing Buddies

For the sake of addressing the "posting slackers" comment, I'm posting a photo of my sister-in-law and me at VE -- she was my former climbing buddy before she had the nerve to move to rural Kansas (those boyfriends wreck everything!). =) Although I haven't managed yet to make my husband (her brother) a climbing fanatic, the climbing bug definitely has a hold of her. Suzanne set up a bouldering cave in her basement the week she moved down there and is so committed to the sport she's driven a couple hours to Wichita to climb. I miss her greatly, but at the same time am so grateful to have met all of you lovely Wednesdays Rock people!