Saturday, August 25, 2012

Calgary to Rumney

Blasting off some bear bangers


Josh on Whale Back 5.13c

Krissy on Jingus Americanus 5.12d

The view from Acephale

The crux of Jingus 5.12d

Krissy on Jungus again

The "B Team"

The hike to Acephale

and more hiking...

The view of Acephale from the parking

Krissy so close to the send of Jingus

The crux of Jingus - the anchor is just out of the frame...


We have now left Calgary, AB and are hanging out in Rumney, NH for a few days before our trip finally comes to an end. Calgary was great! There is so much rock in the Bow Valley!

We met lots of great people and saw many great crags. We are definitely looking forward to our next trip there - or even moving there asap! For our climbing in Alberta we chose to check out as many of the different crags as we could instead of choosing a hard project in one area. It was nice not being in project mode and just trying many different climbs in many areas. Checking out different areas meant LOTS of hiking - this is not Rifle where you just drive your car up to the cliff and belay form your bumper. You have to work for every send in Alberta - hour or more hikes are very common. The plus side to all the hiking was lots and lots of eating - eating out at various restaurants (mainly the Wild Rose) and having awesome home cooked meals courtesy of Josh and Regan! Despite all the eating I am pretty sure we left more fit than we arrived. We owe a super huge thank you to Josh Muller and Regan Kennedy who: let us stay with them in their home; cooked us delicious meals; acted as tour guides and chauffeurs; hooked us up with swag; and then sent us off with dinner to go and a huge bag of delicious homemade beef jerky. You guys are so awesome. We got to meet the crew at Flashed, also really cool people! They sent us off with lots of goodies and made sure we were all chalked up. Derek Galloway and Greg Tos also showed the same generosity by letting us borrow ropes/gear at the Lookout and offer beta and a place to stay if needed. Greenberg lent Krissy his harness one day when she forgot to pack hers...he had just met us that day. Thu, Kayla, Kelly, Vicky and Regan were a blast to climb with. Such strong and inspiring women! Ben's old friend Craig took us out to dinner one night and we had a great time catching up with him. Ghislain and Fiona had us over for dinner in their new house and Brian showed us around one day. Oh and thanks to Evan for showing us that you don't always need a rest day!

As for the climbing in Rumney....it is hot and humid as usual! We are both struggling a bit with motivation and tired bodies. We have been climbing one day on and then one day off for the past few days. Ben is trying to finish up Urban Surfer 5.13d and has one-hung it multiple time the last couple days. Krissy is trying to complete Techno Surfing 5.12b and Flesh for Lulu 5.12b - if we can finish these off in the next couple days we will likely head over to Cathedral Ledge and do some easy trad climbing for our last few days before driving home.

It is pretty crazy that our eight months is now over! We have met so many great people and have seen many incredible places the last few months. We have enough memories from this one trip to last a lifetime. It is definitely going to be tough to integrate back into the real world - tent life has become the norm for us. One more week and we will be back in Halifax. We plan to stay there until December when Ben graduates from Engineering - then who knows, hopefully moving somewhere with great climbing and job prospects for the both of us.