Cragmama "Not all who wander are lost…" JRR Tolkien

Cragbaby’s Big Boy Climbing Gear – Part 2 (La Sportiva Stick-It)

Gear Reviews.
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Since Cragbaby was an especially good boy this year, he not only scored a Mad Rock Chalkbag, but also his very own pair of rock shoes – the La Sportiva Stick-Its!  Although the chalkbag is both fun and functional, C is absolutely in love with his rock shoes.  As soon as we get to the crag, C demands to be geared up so that he can get to sending his own projects in the area.

Here’s what Cragbaby likes about his new shoes…
1.  They are fun colors.
2.  He can velcro the straps off and on all by himself.
3.  They make him look like a big boy.

Here’s Cragmama’s thoughts…
Almost all the major brands of climbing shoes sell a kids shoe, but we ended up going with La Sportiva for a few reasons.  First of all, our family hearts La Sportiva.  My old pair of Barracudas held on through years of hard use and 2 resoles before I finally retired them.  At first I was devastated that they’d been discontinued, but was relieved to find the Miuras to be of equal, if not better, quality.

Hurry Mommy, put MY shoes on!

Almost ready!

And my husband swears by his Mythos for everything but the really hard stuff.  When we first began researching kid’s climbing shoes, I was disappointed to find out that the smallest size available is a Toddler’s 11…except for the Stick-Its, which came in an 8/9.  Considering that C currently wears a 6, he’s still got some growing to do to make them a true “performance fit,” but when it comes to efficiency, they’re perfect!

Not only do I think the new shoes make C feel more of a part of the gang, they actually help him get around the cliffbase a lot faster/better.  We put C in his Stick-its pretty much the minute we get to the crag, and he happily keeps them on all day.  Even a couple of sizes too big they enable him to get more purchase on the rock and use smaller footholds.

On the trail...

...and on the rocks.

So if your tyke is ready for his/her first pair of rock shoes, give the La Sportiva Stick-its a try.  Size generously for the most wear, and don’t forget to brush up on your spotting technique, because once your little one gets a taste of sticky rubber, there’ll be no stopping him/her!

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Cragbaby’s Big Boy Climbing Gear – Part 1 (Mad Rock Chalkbag)

Gear Reviews.
5 Comments.

I mentioned sometime before Christmas that Cragbaby had a few key pieces of climbing gear on his list – namely a chalkbag and a pair of rock shoes!  Ever since he found all of his big boy toys under the tree, C has been dying to get out and take them for a test spin.  Luckily for him we’ve had spectacular weather for the majority of January, so he’s had ample opportunity to sport his new duds!

Here’s what Cragbaby likes about his new chalkbag…
1.  It has a monkey on it.
2.  The drawstring is fun to cinch open and closed.
3.  Whenever he pulls his hands out of the bag he leaves white marks EVERYWHERE.

Here’s Cragmama’s thoughts…
The Mad Rock Chalkbag is the perfect size for C’s itty bitty hands.  We thought the most economical and environmental choice would be to fill it with a chalk ball instead of loose chalk, in light of C’s overwhelming desire to dump things out of containers.   He was really excited about digging his hands around in the bag and getting chalk on his hands, especially when he saw the grown-ups chalking up.  The only kind of weird part about the bag is that for some reason it keeps swiveling around to the front, but that certainly doesn’t seem to bother C.

I would definitely recommend having a chalkbag handy for your tyke on your outdoor adventures, whether they involve climbing or not.  Aside from the obvious use as a chalkbag, they are equally fantastic for more creative “off-label” uses.  Not only can a chalkbag serve as a Nature Memento Holder for special twigs, leaves, and rocks your child finds along the way, but it can be a great place to store essentials that are still too big to keep in your child’s pocket – such as tissues or snacks.

But that’s not all C’s been up to this past month – stay tuned for another gear review on one of Cragbaby’s current most prized possessions at the crag – his brand new rock shoes!

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A Mid-Week Respite at Crowder’s

Climbing. North Carolina.
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One of the perks of having local rock is the ability to get out mid-week, so whenever any of my climbing partners can arrange to get out on a weekday, Cragbaby and I try our best to join in on the party.  I was pretty psyched to be able to get out two days in a row last week, especially since by the time the weekend rolled around the unseasonably warm fair weather had turned frigid and rainy.  We spent our first day at Hidden Wall, and our second at Crowder’s Main Wall.  Oh…and sorry for the lack of pictures, I promise I’ll try better next time!

Hidden Wall –
Since I was still nursing a swollen ankle that was a lovely shade of purple from my unfortunate bouldering incident a few days prior, my only objective on the day was to enjoy a beautiful, clear day in the great outdoors.  My sympathetic climbing partners dropped Cragbaby and I off at the road so that I could shave a mile off of the approach, which was much appreciated since I felt pretty delicate about uneven terrain.  While my ankle didn’t seem to be affected in the least by the movements of actual climbing, I wasn’t really up for a long hike with a 45 pound pack, and I certainly wasn’t psyched about slamming my feet into the wall in the event of a hard whipper – so I played the role of top-rope junkie all day.  I also got a chance to nab a few cliffline pics for the guidebook.  After warming up on the link up of least resistance on the right side of the wall (Path to Extinction, 5.10a), we spent the majority of the day taking turns on Slabster’s Lament.  I got in some good work on the original line (5.12a/b), while Bennett mustered up enough technical prowess to send the direct variation (5.12c/d).  I’m looking forward to heading back there soon and tackling the original version on the sharp end.

Cragbaby scrambling around at Hidden Wall while the boys play on Slabster's Lament

Crowder’s Main Wall –
I’d been pleasantly surprised at how well my ankle had done the day before, so the next day I strapped on my mack-daddy ankle brace and tackled the Main Wall.  C’s grandmother (aka “Bebe”) had driven up for a playdate, which meant my pack load was significantly lighter – so as long as I stayed under a forced march pace, it didn’t seem any worse for the wear.  We started our day on the New Policy Wall – New Policy (5.10c/d) and Orange Prickadilly (5.11-).  Both lines are relatively obscure for Crowder’s and giving them a test run was certainly worth our time.  Our next stop was Welcome to Crowder’s (5.12a).  When I first got on it about a week and a half ago, I thrashed my way up it – so this time I was hoping for some redemption.  Since a few of the clips can be a bit tenuous I decided the best decision for my ankle would be to work it on toprope.  After my first attempt I had a sinking feeling that “progress, not perfection” was going to be the mantra for the day.  However I surprised myself by squeaking through with no hangs or falls (on toprope) the next time around.  I rehearsed the last moves a few more times just to get them dialed in a little bit better, since I knew I would be pretty pumped by that point and wanted to make sure I didn’t blow it at the top.  I lowered off and belayed Bennett on The Flyby (5.10), anotherobscure line on the Red Wall that merges into the other undocumented route we discovered on our last visit.

The New Policy Wall

By that point I was ready for my redpoint run on Welcome to Crowder’s.  I took a few deep breaths, did some dorky visualization things…and SENT!  The more I get into projecting routes, the more I’m realizing the difference it makes when I’ve got moves dialed.  There was no comparison with how smoothly it went that time versus the first attempt that day.  Even though the moves still felt really hard, I knew exactly what to do – where to put my feet and how to use each hold – so I was able to move much faster and more efficiently on the rock.

Had our day ended then I could have left the crag on a sender’s high…but we decided we had just enough light to throw a toprope on Burn Crack
(5.10c).  This steep, burly crack line definitely got the better of all of us, and in hindsight was a little ambitious for a cool-down finale after 2 days of pulling down hard.  I managed to blast all the way to one move from the top before peeling off and taking a wild, “George of the Jungle” style swing.  I decided it wasn’t worth it to try and get back on, so I figured I’d save it for a day when we break out the trad rack.

I still left the crag with a sender’s high…but also with a healthy slice of humble pie for the road.  Can’t wait for the weather to clear again!  What adventures has everyone else been getting into during these uncanny warm spells we’ve been having over the past couple of weeks?

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LEAVES! And Family Lessons.

Parenting. Reflections.
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A scene from a previous Leaf Fiasco in Raleigh

With the climbing hiatus in effect throughout most of the holiday season, our weekends were open for more than just baking, Christmas partying, and wrapping presents.  We also took advantage of the opportunity to catch up on household maintenance jobs that get overlooked the majority of the year when our weekends are filled with vertical adventures.  One such job involves tackling large heaps of leaves and dragging them out to the street. While I realize that most folks tend to view raking leaves as a work-in-progress activity to be whittled away at throughout the fall season, our family likes to wait until the task seems insurmountable before we even think about breaking out the rakes.  While there are probably numerous advantages to taking the little-by-little approach, the procrastination theory has some definite positives as well. Waiting until every last leaf is off the tree might create more work for us at the time, but at least when its done, its done, and we can check it off the list until the next year!

 

I will admit that on more than one occasion we’d gotten in over our head (almost literally!) at our old house, due in part to the sheer number of trees in our yard, but mostly because of the fence with a tiny opening that corraled all of them in.  But the fall fiasco of our Raleigh house is someone else’s problem now, as this was our first fall in our Charlotte house!  We designated a sunny, unseasonably warm Saturday in September as “Leaf People Day,” where we pretty much did nothing but rake, scoop, pile, and mow, with a little bit of pile-jumping thrown in for good measure.  And although it took all day Saturday and part of Sunday, we were pleasantly surprised at how quickly and painlessly we were able to get everything done.

Though the “quick” part I’m sure had something to do with the fact that we had easily one third the amount of leaves at the new house, I think its fairly obvious that the “painless” part was because of the extra set of hands we had this year (last year that extra set of hands was too busy trying to shove the leaves in his mouth…).  What Cragbaby lacked in efficiency, he definitely made up for in comic relief!  Aside from a mid-afternoon nap break, C was with us the whole time – sometimes watching, sometimes, following, but many times “helping”!  At times his raking actually took leaves OUT of the pile rather than in.  His attempts to transfer leaves into the bags left more leaves on the ground  than in the bag.  And its of course a lot harder to wheel overloaded leaf bags down to the street when there’s a singing toddler in your wheelbarrow.

It would have been a lot easier to have taken care of the task at hand while C was sleeping, so that we could really be efficient.  But I think just as vital was the lesson we were hopefully modeling to C by example – that FAMILIES WORK TOGETHER!    No matter what the task or how hard it is to complete, we will always support each other as a team.  It’s my hope that working together as a family will not only reinforce C’s sense of worth as a child in our family, but also his value as a child of God.

If I’m being completely honest, C’s abilities would probably be categorized somewhere between helping and hindering, but he sure did add a sparkle to an otherwise boring weekend of yardwork.  He was having a grand time, and the lesson he taught me was that even the mundane can turn exciting with the right perspective.  What I saw as a tedious task was for him an adventure just as exciting as the ones we have on the rock.  For him, it was a fun-filled nature experience with his favorite people!

Has a mundane household chore ever turned into a life lesson at your house?

 

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Gear Review: EMS Longtrail 60L Women’s Backpack

Gear Reviews.
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I recently had the opportunity to review the latest pack from Eastern Mountain Sports – the Women’s Longtrail 60L pack.  In the interest of full disclosure, EMS provided the pack for free, but as always, everything expressed here are my honest and unbiased thoughts – in other words, my opinion can’t be bought with gear 😉  .

Anyway, this isn’t the first time I’ve reviewed a pack.  A few months ago I outlined our family’s system for schlepping gear to the crag and listed the pros and cons of the Kelty Kid Carrier that we use for toting Cragbaby to and from the cliff.  So in order to take the new pack out for a proper spin, we had to completely revamp our system.  Instead of me carrying Cragbaby/Food/Water/Diapers/Misc (clocking in around 45 pounds or so), I let my husband have that job while I hauled up ALL of the climbing gear – which probably ended up being significantly more than half of my body weight…and while I felt fine on the hike in (just under an hour of steep, scrambly, sometimes 4th class terrain), my back started screaming about halfway back to the car on the way out.

I had a sneaking suspicion that perhaps not all of the blame should be on the pack – I probably shouldn’t have upped my pack weight by such a large margin (duh).  I also probably should have taken more time to play around with the torso adjustment (I was psyched to try it out right away!).  So over the holidays I made a few changes and gave it another whirl.  While my ex-outdoor-store employee brother-in-law was in town for Christmas, I asked him to help me adjust it to the perfect fit.  I then took a couple of trips sans Cragbaby so that my climbing partner and I could divy out the climbing gear evenly, without the extra burden of a 25 pound jumping bean and all the miscellaneous other items that come along for the ride when C is with us…And I have to say that I’m so glad I gave the Longtrail the benefit of the doubt, because it performed wonderfully!

Here’s THE GOOD STUFF:
SIZE – Everything fit perfectly, with enough extra space that I could easily load and unload it, but not so much that the everything on the inside shifted and got unruly.
EASILY ADJUSTABLE – Once I figured them all out, I realized there were a million and one ways to adjust this pack so that it was the perfect for me – and all of these straps are conveniently located to use on the go as well, in case for whatever reason you need to switch pack-duty mid-hike.
ZIPPED ACCESS BOTTOM COMPARTMENT – This spot seemed to be tailor-made for my climbing rope!
LOTS ‘O POCKETS – I’m kind of a pocket junkie.  I like for everything to have its own designated spot, and this pack was loaded with pockets both on the outside and inside, perfect for keeping gear that doesn’t see a ton of action but might be called upon to spring into action at a moments notice (such as rain gear, first aid kit, spare contac lenses, climbing permits, guidebooks, etc).
COMPRESSION STRAPS – Once I had everything adjusted right, this pack did a really good job of distributing the load effectively across my hips.

THE ONLY DRAWBACK (possibly…):
DAISY CHAIN – There are two daisy chain type features on the front and top of the pack, which at first glance I thought would be perfect for attaching Cragbaby toys and the random assortment of carabiners that I never know what to do with.  However, I’m not entirely sure that the material used is the best for the job.  Other packs that I’ve seen with this same feature generally use some sort of webbing, and the loops to hook things on are formed by sewing portions of the webbing down along the pack.  This pack’s daisy chain feature had no sort of reinforcement, and the loops were small and seemed like they could tear easily.  Granted, I may be completely wrong on this, and they might last forever.  They are still in tact now and show very little signs of use as of yet – but the material just doesn’t seem tough enough to live up to every day rough and tumble use.
Even though the Longtrail and I got off to a rocky start, I’m really glad I didn’t give up on it, because I think we have a bright future together.  It’ll still be a while yet before I’ll be able to transition to the Longtrail as my main cragpack (since I like spending the majority of my cragdays with the aforementioned jumping bean, and it’ll still be a good long while before he can hike in under his own power…).  But for now I’ll just bide my time with the Kelty Kid Carrier and settle for an affair of the heart with the Longtrail (along with an occasional rendezvous here and there when I’m able to get out sans Cragbaby!)    And would I recommend this pack to someone else looking for a day-trippin’ cragpack – certainly!

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“Not all who wander are lost.” —JRR TOLKIEN