So today was such a beautiful day. Sunny, no clouds, pretty much ideal weather for backpacking. And I spent almost twelve hours doing homework today. I know, rough situation for sure. I literally wrote my short story for four hours straight. It is now done minus final edits, it is indeed about rock climbing and takes place in Miguel’s though it is extremely fictionalized. After my marathon of writing that, finally writing my Whigs review, critiquing short stories, researching/cursing JSTOR (why can’t I access anything on Sparta?), I’ve decided to keep the marathon going and write this recap!

After our spooky, foggy Halloween night, we woke up to better weather and hit the road to go to our climbing destination du jour: Military Wall. When we pulled up to the trailhead, the song “Space Olympics.” I had never heard this song before, but it’s quite a treat and we were laughing so hard in the parking lot. For those of you who have yet to hear this song, here you go, enjoy and imagine starting your day with this blasting:

We cooked breakfast at the climb and I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated the wilderness as much as I did that day. It was nice and warm in the sun, everyone was happy and joking around while we set up. Really, it should have been some kind of postcard for Wilskills or wilderness adventures in general because there was so much outdoor happiness in the air.

Of course, not everything was perfect and I had one more obstacle to face before heading back to Vandy. It was a 5-9 climb that actually degenerated into an epic battle of princess versus wilderness. Blake and Marne described this climb as “a lot pumpier” than the first day. What I would come to find out was that “pumpier” meant  harder and requiring arm strength that I don’t have. The climb started off with a lovely section that required this move:

You’re right, that shouldn’t work. And actually, it didn’t. So then I tried this:

Well, that actually didn’t work either so to start the climb I had to stand on Marne and have Taube push me up the first move. It was not graceful and I’m not too upset that that little maneuver didn’t make it on film. Now that I had started the climb, I had hope that it would get easier. It did not. The stone was a lot sharper on military wall, my arms were aching, and I was kind of hot in my entire outfit of Under Armour. I wanted to give up about half way through the climb, but Marne encouraged me to get to the 3/4 point with this weird, tiny cave. I agreed, not wanting to look lame and pushed through to get to the cave, where there were actually some really sweet holds. When I finally made it up to that part, I actually said, “This is the best hold ever, thank you mother nature!” 

I wasn’t singing nature’s praises for too long though because the last part of that climb degenerated into my personal circle of hell. If I was ready to give up before, I was so ready to come down at that point. Marne had left to go set up another climb but I made someone take a picture of me to prove that I had made it to the cave just in case I had to bail. Even in this strenuous situation, I did my best to keep my cheering section entertained. After each failed attempt, I would yell out, “Okay, new plan!” and devise some new strange route. Finally, I asked to come down and before anyone else could answer, Taube just said, “No.” She gave me a step by step of what to do and that time, I actually got it. At the top, I touched the anchor with my left hand and just collapsed against it. Somewhere, there’s a picture of that less than triumphant finish, but I’m kind of hoping it stays hidden in the outer realms of Flickr.

After that, the hair and wardrobe situation had degenerated into a low that included my pet peeve, navy with black and the navy was a bandana that attempted to tame my mane, which was totally rivaling Simba. I helped belay Taube:

And then Taube tried to teach me how to loop the climbing ropes. I know, that sounds like a really easy thing to do but it took me at least four tries. Want to see confusion in action?

Finally, the ropes were folded correctly and in the bag, and it was time to head back to Vandy. We ate a variety of snacks in the parking lot waiting for some stragglers in the group who just couldn’t get enough climbing and piled into the van with a lot of moans and groans. From there, we sang along to a great mix of Queen, the Goo Goo Dolls, Motion City Soundtrack and Death Cab. Of course, this was also when Milk Duds invaded my clothing, so maybe not an entirely awesome car ride but sometimes you just have to take the good with the bad. 

Well, that’s the end of that. Once again, Patrick, Bunny, Foozle and I are ready to hit the hay but tomorrow, I’m going to try to recap some lectures, get excited!