Categories
climbing general

franklin super crag

Saturday was spent clipping bolts and avoiding the special detachable holds at Franklin River Gorge. Photo snappage ensued.

jumpstart

Jumpstart, 5.8.

castaways

Study in blue – on Castaways 5.8.

contemplation on boulder

Vegas auditioning for a role in our climbing mockumentary as ‘constanty stoned, introspective and spiritual new-age hippy sports climber’.

Lessons from the day – At Franklin they mark the loose blocks and holds with an X; some climbs would be well served with a huge X across the whole damn thing – While wandering from cliff to cliff, always attach my down jacket to myself if it’s in its stuff sack, otherwise I will drop it and it will roll all the way down to the bottom of the gorge, where I will run into a southern fisherman who will think I’m a crazy person – Saigon Cafe in Harrisonburg VA has really really yummy Vietnamese food.

This is what my friends were up to back home over the Easter long weekend. I lament the fact that we don’t have the long weekend over here.

EDIT – Oh, and I was just reminded of the other thing I learnt. Americans call canyoning ‘canyoneering’, which tends to remind me of the Canyonero, from the Simpsons…

Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
smells like a steak and seats thirty-five..
Canyonero! Canyonero!

Categories
general snow

it’s a hard life

snowshoe

Went to Snowshoe in West Virginia on the weekend. On top of all the snow they’d already been getting, there was 6 inches of new fresh powder on Friday night. It kept snowing all day Saturday, and was a bit foggy too, which led to fun as I checked out new runs, with the visibility suddenly plummeting down to 10 metres. The skiing was still great though. Sunday was beautiful and clear and warm (though a bit windy round the top of the mountain). I checked out the feared Western Territory and discovered the black runs there, although 1.5 miles long, and a hell of a lot of fun, probably aren’t as black as they claim to be. Well, at least by the standards I know (Mt Buller in other words).

Oh, and there were hardly any other telemarkers there – I saw one on Saturday, and one or two on Sunday. A lot of people were asking me about my strange bindings (and then about my strange accent). However, there were quite a few of those really short skis (that people use with no poles) around.

snow tree
Categories
general

whitegrass

West Virginia reminds me of Tasmania – an interesting mix of conservationist hippies, and redneck conservatives. Lots of snow around – four hours drive out to Whitegrass from DC, and there was snow the whole way. Camped in the snow both Friday and Saturday; there was consistent cover, but not much of a base, so in places it was just fluffy powder disguising clumps of rocks and bushes underneath. And I’ve now remembered all about those skiing muscles that I only use at that time of year.

skiing down

Skiing off the mountain after camping up there the night before

the final run

Nearly down now, but facing issues…

australian flag

I found an Australian flag!

There was supposed to be another big dump of snow in DC today – 6 to 10 inches. It spent most of the morning snowing, but not reaching the ground, due to the dry air. By the time it finally got around to building up on the ground, it was never going to make 10 inches. Mind you, it’s still going now, so there’ll be a fair bit of it around by tomorrow.

Russell the Peak Bagging Moose has also had a bit to say about the Whitegrass trip here.