August 4th, 2012: This morning I woke and walked to the kitchen, the first there as usual. I like to sleep in till about 8:30 at home, but when I go places, I don’t like to, especially here. I have found that one of my favorite parts of the day is waking up and being alone in the kitchen, even if it is for a few minutes. Today I was welcomed to a wonderful view of the moon still sitting proudly over the mountains. Made me smile. Then of course, it was time to make the grits.
Nate gave us his environmental explorer lesson on Giardia. Of course, I already knew everything about it because I’m a nut and looked all this up before coming out here. Good thing there weren’t any other drinking options and good thing the instructors kept asking us how many liters we drank, or else I’d be dehydrated to the point of an evac I bet. Anywhom, then we geared up and headed to South America…? We learned the munter hitch and munter mule overhand in order to do rescue belays. HOW FUN! I practiced with Rich and surprised myself when I did really well. I really enjoy tying knots and learning all these things!
Then I tried the 5.11 splitter crack route again and felt soooooo good when I got farther than the last time! Again, I climb for personal successes and for the challenge. I completed like 6 jam moves which was a huge feat for me. My hands hurt so badly and bled but it was awesome to get so far and work on my skills. It was freezing on the crag today too. Definitely bundled up.
Jared then took Nate and I to our newly ascended routes near the tents and I mock led “Afternoon Delight” and after Jared checked my placement, he reported back, in his vague way, that I had perfect gear placement. OH MAN! This meant I could do my first lead climb!!! I was giddy inside, but of course tried not to show it, nervous too! Did my lead and had a couple iffy placements but overall not bad at all. I was SO proud that I had surpassed my goal of just mock leading. Jared then offered my “Crack of Dreams” to mock lead and I did. Wouldn’t pass up that offer! Had to do a lot of gardening on that route, had 2 funky placements, but still believed I did really well for being the first person to mock lead it.
Overall, a superb climbing day! Jared and I packed up and went back for dinner, Jared continuing to make fun of me for my first kiss story (“don’t I owe you something”). At the crag today, Jack and Jared played it out against the rock wall…..too funny. Glad I can bring entertainment to the group somehow. Made some bomber calzones for dinner then had a meeting. Andrew taught us about the mental part of climbing which was really intriguing, then Lee and Chase were on the hot seats. Afterwards Andrew, Jared and I chatted about the day, shared some pictures of the day then we all retired eventually for bed.
August 5th, 2012: Woke up with Paige today and actually…..wait for it…. BRUSHED MY HAIR. Quite a feat in itself. Breakfast was cornbread and cheese. Today is the last day of climbing. I’m really sad about that. We headed over to South Africa/America…for the love of Pete I can’t get it right [and I kept referring to it as both in my journal…haha]. We started with a lesson on how to clean gear (rappel or belay style) and being redundant was again reinforced. Since I was “check failing” (according to Chase) rappelling, I practiced with Jared on a mock set up. Then we got a lesson on homemade aid devices with a short and long cordelette. I unfortunately did not get around to trying it though since I was so busy today with learning other things and making sure I got the rappel set up down.
After this, Andrew helped me with rappelling, then gave Lillie and I a private lesson on multi-pitching belay styles and transitions. It was really cool that he would take the time to teach us something we were thoroughly interested in, when he didn’t have to. Then I went with Andrew to do some climbing. He sent the splitter crack twice in a row!! And I tried again, getting some great jams in, but only getting half way. I did another lead climb perfectly with Adam while Lee belayed me too. Then I moved on to red point the 5.10a with Jared belaying me and I had no problems this time (was it the pressure to do well since it was Jared belaying me??? I’ll take it if it was!). This time on the climb I used a lot of hand jams.
Towards the end of the day everyone looked pretty beat and was just hanging out and not climbing anymore. I enjoyed watching the instructors climb (and take off articles of clothing during climbs…. And NO I will NOT wash your shirt Jared…) and just had fun learning from observing them. I then, of course, wanted to do one last lead climb so Jared okayed it and came to belay me since everyone else seemed kind of dead to the world. After reaching the anchor, I then clipped in and did a multi-pitch belay for Jared to join me! It was awesome! I clove hitched to the anchor, tested it, yelled “off belay” to Jared, pulled and flaked the rope till he yelled back “that’s me” then put the rope through the other anchor as a directional. I hooked up the belay device and belayed him up, only for him to tell me there was a more comfortable position I could have been in. ::sigh:: With Andrew looking on too, I was told to set up for a rappel. DAMN him! Jared got me good. I’m assuming the whole reason for this was so that he could watch me rappel one more time. Touche. I set it up, noticed myself it was funky, fixed it and then Jared replies with “great, now you’re going to rappel us both down.” A tandem rappel! AWESOME! Something else fun and new!!!!! It was werid….awkward… but totally mad cool. I had him anchor in, got off the rope, sent the rope through the anchor, found the middle by stacking, hooked up the rappel, Jared hooked on and I rappelled us both down to the ground! What a way to end my climbing time here in the Winds!
We gathered and counted gear, headed to base camp then spent the rest of the day checking all the gear for defects and retiring what we needed to and fixing what we could. Dinner was mac and cheese in a tortilla with fritos and dessert was no-bakes. I had some free time, so I did some journaling while the others talked of partying…
“Gorgeous sunsets over the mountains, indescribable. Peaks of mountains as shadows against yellow and orange with shades of blue. Spotty white clouds, some forming lines. Andrew was on the hot seat and talked about living simple. I think I’d like that. I want to go home and live simple. Like this beauty. Not worry about money but instead necessity and happiness. I respect the dirtbag climbers who live to be happy and simple and who realize how easy life can be. Andrew talks so positively and always changes negatives to positives. I find it respectable and amazing. Jared thinks of all and their feelings too. All of my instructors are so caring of us. Great guys… uncompetitive…humble… a lot of fun.”
At this point, the stars were out in full force and I stayed up and spent time just looking at them. Jared stayed up too and we laid on the cold rock and he showed me all the constellations and explained things to me that I didn’t know. There are SO many stars here. Really makes me realize that there is so much more in the world and even universe than us. We are so small. There are things past these beautiful stars….it’s so humbling. It was a very relaxing time. I don’t want to lose this feeling…..or this view…..or some of these people I have bonded with.
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