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

Tag Archives: Trad Climbing

Risks and Consequences.

Risks and Consequences.

It has been a sad week in the world of climbing.  The climbing community suffered a loss of a legend this past weekend.  On Sunday, July 5th, John Bachar fell to his death while free soloing in Mammoth, California.  If you don’t know who he is, you can click on the link to find a quick bio, but this guy was one of the greatest climbers of all time, some might argue THE greatest.  This tragic event combined with my injury a couple of weeks ago in Utah brings to the forefront an issue that most climbers don’t like to…Read the rest of this entry →

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Big Cottonwood Canyon

Big Cottonwood Canyon

Day 1 ~ Outside Corner, w/North Face variation, 5.7 Pitch 1 – Steve led the first pitch, a fun wandering crack system that wandered up and out to an arete, and up to a ledge.  We saw Norbert and Manuela driving up as we were just getting started.  They spent the day at the Salt Lake Slips, where our line was in clear view all day.  They were thoughtful enough to check on us throughout the day, and document our progress via photos 🙂 Pitch 2 – Short, but sweet.  I scrambled up a series of broken crack systems til…Read the rest of this entry →

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Seneca Rocks Trip Report

Seneca Rocks Trip Report

  Seneca Rocks – N. Peak on the left, S. Peak on the right, Gunsight Notch is the dip in the middle.   Standing on the South Peak Summit Last summer Steve and I won a day of private guiding at Seneca in a raffle during the “Playing for the Payoff” comp at the Triangle Rock Club, a fundraising effort to help buy the property of Laurel Knob in Western North Carolina.  This past weekend we decided to cash in on our prize.  What a great introduction to a new area!  Our guide was Arthur Kearns, affectionately known as “ACK”,…Read the rest of this entry →

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Faith, Rock, and Gear…

Faith, Rock, and Gear…

This morning I was meditating on the idea of God being an “everlasting rock”, and I was again struck with the similarities that that spiritual concept had with my favorite hobby. This is a personal excerpt from my journal, so its a little on the deep side, so bear with me… 🙂 “Putting my trust in an Everlasting God is a little like doing a really hard trad route with bomber gear placements on perfect rock. I know the protection is sound, so I’m not afraid to keep going, even if it gets hard and I think I might fall. Just…Read the rest of this entry →

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Squamish, BC Trip Report

Cragmama

Trip Report – Aug 2-10, 2008 Getting there – So we ran into some problems getting there…we found out the day before we left that a huge rockslide was completely blocking HWY 99 about 10 miles away from Squamish. Other than by air or water, the only way to get from Vancouver to Squamish was to drive the looooong way around, turning what should have been a 45 minute meandering from the airport up the highway into a 6 hour re-route on curvy mountain roads. We stopped at a greasy little motel at the halfway point Saturday night around midnight…Read the rest of this entry →

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