Bailed so that I can bail again

Over my spring break, my brother-in-law, Patrick, and I headed up to Linville Gorge for some climbing.

I still have my goal for 2010 of climbing a 5-pitch 5.5 climb in Linville called the Mummy. It's a bit of an introductory climb for people who get more serious about traditional rock climbing, but I feel like I'm still not quite ready for it.

Patrick and I geared up and hit the road early on Wednesday of that week (April 7). We heard that some bad weather was going to roll in on Thursday, so rather than head straight for linville and have a long hike+long climb on Wednesday, we did some climbing at Crowder's Mt. in Gastonia, NC first.

I lead a clean 5.6 sport climb and a nice and easy 5.3 trad climb at Crowders on Red Wall.

After that, we hit the road and headed for Table Rock at Linville Gorge, NC. Before the trip, I called the Grandfather Mountain Ranger District (like I always do) to check on route closure due to peregrine falcon nesting as well as to get any other information that I might need. I found out that the gate to the Table Rock parking lot (1.4 miles away from the parking lot on a steep, switch-backy road) was closed due to a "landslide" according to the ranger service.
When we started our driving approach to Table Rock on the dirt road, we saw what they were talking about. Downed trees were everywhere...most likely due to a really bad wind storm.

The highlight of the drive was when Patrick spotted a nice black bear in a tree not 20 feet from the dirt road. Awesome!

We parked at the gate, geared up, and hiked in to Devil's Cellar on Wednesay night.

By 10 am the next morning, we were at the base of Jim Dandy 5.4 on the eastern face of Table Rock. It is a 3 pitch climb that is almost 300 in length but, due to the traversing nature of the route only puts you up around 210ft above the route base. I was stoked about this climb as it would have been my first multipitch mixed route. I climed the first pitch really clean and enjoyed my placement choices in between bolts. I skipped the last bolt on the first pitch before the anchors because I found a cam placement opportunity that would have been more on line with the route I was climbing.

After I set up the anchor at the top of the first pitch (by a lovely pine tree growing out of the rock), Patrick climbed and cleaned the route and joined me 90 ft later. Right at this time, we saw the storm clouds rolling in and we both did that "I think we can make it" look at each other before realizing that we'd only gone 1/3 of the way and the liklihood of us climbing on wet rock...or...worse, getting hit by lightning was probably better than use finishing the route safely. So...we bailed.

I can't wait to go back and finish the route!

following the white rabbit...

...like any good addiction, it's the times in between abuse that leave you with a huge hole in your being that aches for the next fix...

...and so I have discovered traditional climbing.

My folks gave me a huge pile of gear for my 30th birthday this year because of my increased climbing efforts over the past couple of years and my goals of doing a multipitch climb in Linville Gorge by the end of this next year. Since Kelley, Moira and I moved back from New Mexico, however, I've had no time to get outdoors. I finally had that opportunity this past Saturday and I called up my old buddy Scott to head up to North Carolina for a little day trip. I've heard that the Red Wall at Crowder's Mountain takes traditional gear pretty well and that the rock is trust worthy. I picked the easiest route I could find in the guidebook (a long but super easy 5.3). The route was pretty uneventful except that it was super dirty. Literally while I was climbing and placing gear in the rock, I had to clear out dirt or move fallen branches. I set up a multipoint anchor at the top and belayed Scott as he cleaned the route. We walked off the top for our first successful traditional climb!



We were in desperate need for some of Scott's PB&J afterwards and then Scott proceeded to tick out his first sport lead ever. It was a real crimpy 40 ft 5.7 climb at the end of Red Wall at Crowder's and he nailed it. I cleaned it afterwards and then we went to David's Castle wall to do some top roping for the end of our day. We climbed Overhang Direct 5.8 and we both enjoyed pulling the sweet little overhang crux that's halfway up that route.



On our short hike back to the parking lot from the crag, we both agreed that the whole "trad" climbing thing is much more than it's cracked up to be. We're both addicted and will continue following that white rabbit as far as it takes us. Hopefully the next adventure will put us on some moderate routes in Linville Gorge!

Wednesday Afternoon Fly Fishing at UWC

So this fall term has been a very busy one for sure at the UWC. I'm involved in residential life for the first time, which means doing dorm check at 9:30pm two nights a week. I'm also running 3 club activities: Tai Chi, Fly Fishing, and Medical Club.

My classes have been pretty active this term and I've been busy grading, teaching, doing field work, and improving (I think) at the art of teaching IB biology.

Wednesday afternoons are a much-needed escape for me. Fly Fishing meets from 3-5:30pm. We bus about 20min. west on the Gallinas river to some private property and have a go at catching trout with lures that we tie ourselves. There are a couple of ponds there in addition to the river where students can practice catching some monster trout. River fishing is much more delicate and technical. There are big fish there, but they are picky eaters for sure.

Yesterday, I fished with:

Prince Nymph - caught the biggest Rainbow trout of my life in the river (~2.5 lbs)
Wire Caddis Nymph - caught a big Rainbow in the pond
Hot Butt Caddis Dry Fly - caught 2 brown trout in the river...good size, but not big. Caught them both on casts that were about 50 feet in length.


Some thoughts from the river:

Wind blows through the grass
Mountains rise in strong circumference around the gentle Gallinas
I become the fish I seek.

Big Girl

So this is little Moira Josephine Gregory at 8+ months of age. She won't crawl, she still doesn't like to sleep all the way through the night and she's a picky eater, but boy does she love to WALK!

She still needs a little help with walking (we hold one hand with her), but she can take about 5 steps by herself before losing balance.

I think there's some metaphor in this whole "I won't crawl before I walk" thing...

...at the very least, her ambition is inspiring!

The Hermit

So it's officially the Alumni Reunion time here at the United World College and "students" from all the way back in the 80's through the present converge on the campus to pretend that they're younger and to relive some old UWC memories. It seems like a pretty fun time, and our friend Jeremiah does an amazing job at organizing and running the whole reunion.


Today, I led a hike for about 9 of the Alumni up Hermit's Peak...one of the more prominant peaks in the Sangre de Cristo mountains that is about 20 miles west of campus. The peak itself is at an elevation of 10,263 feet above sea level, but really only 3700 feet higher than Las Vegas, NM (which is the nearest town to the UWC). It was about a 4 mile hike to the top and it gains about 2,000 feet in elevation.
The peak itself used to be called Cerro Tecolote (Owl Mountain)until the 1860's when Juan de Agostini occupied a cave near the summit. Agostini apparently was born in 1800 as an Italian nobleman's son and later studied for the priesthood, but refused to accept his eventual vows. This cat walked most of the places he ever went to, and his walk to the summit of Cerro Tecolote evidently was something like a 600 mile trek from Kansas. While he lived in his cave on the Summit, he befriended a local group of Penitentes and they evidently thought him a saint.


Only living there a few years, he left to have more foot journeys in excess of 250 miles each and finally ended up in a cave on another peak near Juarez, NM. A friend he met near there was concerned for his health because of hostile locals and asked him to burn a fire every night so the friend would know he was alright. On an evening in 1869, the fire didn't burn. The friend headed up to the hermit's cave and found him with a knife in his back. Evidently, people would still hike up to Hermit's Peak (Cerro Tecolote) even until the mid 1960's to pay homage to Agostini and visit his cave. The Penitentes would continue to make rosaries out of native plants that they took up to the cave at Hermit's Peak.

The hike up to the peak was really nice today. I've been hiking in Sebastian Canyon every day now for about a week, and I feel like I have my altitude lungs back as well as improved knees since a bad backpacking trip earlier in the summer. I have to admit that I'm feeling much more spry on my feet than I have in a long time.





Along the way, I saw tons of these little moths that I mistook for butterflies. Gnophaela vermiculata is the official name. Pretty little guys were everywhere on the trail today along with some Pine White butterflies. At the top of Hermit's Peak, there was a massive hatching of lady bugs as well...my phone was dead though, so sorry for no picture of that.

my dog has a stiff neck

What's with the dog posts lately? I guess there's just a lot of canine drama around the Gregory house recently.

This is Camden, our sweetheart. When we came home Thursday night from Walmart, poor little Cam was having some major hip issues. She was squealing horribly and couldn't really walk. She's always had bad hips, but we couldn't figure out what would have caused them to flare up so bad in just the 1 hour that we were at the store. We came to the notion that she and Jack must have gotten into it a little while we were gone. We figured that Jack flipped her so that she tweaked her hips.

Camden and I went to the vet today and he heard the whole story and did a physical exam. He came to the conclusion that when she and Jack got into it, he probably caused her to yank her neck too far to one side, causing a mildly inflamed disc. It just so happens that the small nerve the inflamed disc encroached on was giving her a hightened sense of pain in her hips. Poor thing!

She's getting better after some TLC from Kel and Me, and, as funny as it sounds, she seemed to appreciate me taking her to the vet.

my back yard

It's true what the mysterious "they" say about how being away from home makes you miss it so much. This past year, we were SO homesick for South Carolina. The summer vacation that we just came off of was indeed a breath of fresh air. So good to see family...so good to feel the humidity and the mosquito bites...(I know that sounds weird, but it was). At the end of it all, though, it's also nice to be back in New Mexico where we can get our little baby Moira on a schedule again, and where we can see some of our newer good friends.

It's also good to get back to the wilderness out here. This is a shot I took last year on one of my day hikes behind my house. Over the past 3 days, I've been doing either 2 short hikes a day or 1 long hike. Today's hike was a long one for me...probaly about 7-8 miles round trip in some pretty mountainous topography. The baby girl has been strapped into a child-carrying backpack that I tote on each of the hikes and she does SO well. She usually talks her baby talk for the first 20 minutes or so and is then hiked off to sleepy land for a good 30 minutes before she wakes up again.

How much of a blessing it is to have such beautiful land that we're free to explore literally out of our back door.

So to all those natural born explorers out there, the proverbial door is always open and the guest room can be cleaned up anytime you want to come visit. :)