Friday, April 3, 2009

The Same Old New Feelings

Sorry, no photos today. It's just been Lindsay and myself lately and as many of you know, it's more important to keep a hand on the rope vs. the camera. The past handful of days has been not too shabby. We got our new Mac and it's been a contest of brick chewing trying to move various files over from the Dell. We're making progress but for every transfer that goes the way it's supposed to, two more require that we run back to Laurie and Dewey's computer and do a quick Internet tutorial on "how to's". I can say that the ole Mac Book Pro is WAY more user friendly than our PC. I'm liking the multimedia "manipulation" programs that come standard.
Lin's finger is feeling better, she climbed on a .13b yesterday called Resurrection. Not only do I think that route is heinous (since the holds are small, tweaky, and barely there), it's certifiably HARD. The consensus around the campfire is that it's big in the grade (meaning it's difficult for the grade it's given). She went up once, had a strong burn (or try), came down and professed that she had used up all her juice and was gassed out. She then made two more attempts, each one stronger than the previous. The last go, she bobbled her feet, bobbled her hands, and still made a clip that has proven quite difficult in past tries. Encouraging.
I tried a .13b also called Indulgence. With our friend Kyle spraying me down (giving me suggestions on what to do) I flashed all the way to the top, four feet from the anchors. Flaming out, I faltered and had to hang. AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! It definitely would have been one of my strongest efforts climbing ever! Recomposing myself, I tried to figure out the very cryptic ending sequence. I pitched off right at the chains, taking a funky little fall. Due to the nature of the rock and the bolt placement, I swung into the wall kinda hard and jammed my big toe, bad. We knew it wasn't broken but it was really sore for the rest of our time at the crag. I tried putting on my climbing shoe but it was a no-go. Way to painful to stand in the tiny little pockets at the top of the route. Poop.
The weather is crapping out on us again, cold and windy. It has to be a minimum of 70 degrees in town before we can conceivably climb at the Cathedral crag (the area we're most excited about) and it's been in the low sixties for the past two weeks. Hopefully it'll warm up this next week and we can get some good days in. We're scheduled to golf on Sunday with Laurie and Dewey, we're pretty excited about that. Our good friends Vance and Jenn are coming down from Lander this week also to visit her parents. We're making plans to get out and climb with them which will be WAY fun.
Nothing too new on the Salt Lake front unfortunately. We're still job hunting, the question still remains, "what do we want to do, and how often"? It's hard to think about going back to forty plus hours a week when we see all the people around us working part time and playing just as much as us. Sure, we're struggling with the age old question of balance. Luckily, we have really good looking dogs and camper named "Gwendoline, The Ivory Palace" so I think we'll probably be just fine!

1 comment:

Sarah and Chris said...

Leif and Lindsay,
I hope the weather turns around for you guys so you can continue to crush, thereby allowing us back home to live vicariously through you two. Enjoy and good luck with the age old questions. Say hey to Vance from Sarah and I when you see him.

Chris