Road Trip

This was a photo on my last road trip to the Gunks. I plan on having a lot of photo's from my next trip.

Chit Chat and 50 Bolts

As the weather improves and the days get longer, the talk about getting outside gets more enthusiastic. I am kinda psyched because we suddenly have 4 more people looking to develop and three new drills for placing bolts.
Paul, Matt and Trevor bought a drill between them and are keen to put up routes. I think they are looking to stay at Main Face. Paul has put up routes in the past. Matt and Trevor have all kinds of resource to help them get routes up.
Bob has put up many routes in the past but this year he has gotten a drill. With the two of us putting up routes in Manuels with two drills we hope to double our productivity.
John is an unsuspecting developer. Opportunity knocked on his door and he found an offer he couldn't refuse. He managed to get his hands on the same drill I have (but 5 years newer) for half the price...lucky SOB.
How will all this pan out? Who knows. But I just received my first order from MEC, 50 bolts with hangers. Last year, I think we put up about 100 bolts over seven lines. I figure I will need at least one more order.
The picture above is one Bob sent me. It is part of the Upper Faces above the German Wall. The continuous face seen in the right side of the picture Bob has coined as the Wall of Possibilities. The face continues right for another 100 feet or more. It is all about 40 to 80 feet and fairly accessible. Oh where to start?

Oh, Rumney!

Well it is starting to get close. I have booked my flights to Montreal with the intention of going to Rumney for some climbing. I will leave on Tuesday June 29 for Rumney (evening). It is a 3 hour drive. I should be climbing 5 days (wed-sun). I have a flight back at 8:30pm meaning that I should be at the airport at 6ish. Quit climbing around 2 or 3 for the last day.

So here is a question...is anyone interested in coming?

Total cost
Flights= 580 to 680
Car=350 divided by the number of occupants
Hotel= 80-90 per day divided by number of occupants (I ain't sharing a bed!)

On the high side about 1000$, if things are split in two.
Middle is about 350 if you can get the fight on points and the car is split by 4.
Low is 110+ is you get your flight on points and stay at a campground.

It is time to pull the trigger so let me know if you are interested, I am going to book my hotel soon, Plymouth Red Roof Inn
Noel

Tour De Bloc- Eastern 2010

The Newfoundland Climbing Team blew away the Tour de Bloc in Quebec City this last weekend. The finals were Sunday night and Kaleb was getting spotty 'text's' about what was going on. I spoke to Alex briefly about the results last night.

I am sure I will be corrected for inaccuracies but here it goes:

Newfoundland had 9 participants, 8 of which made the finals. Of those 8, 5 brought home medals. I am unsure of some of the placements and in what divisions so I will not elaborate. All I know for sure is that there was a little gold out there!

I have been checking the "Tour de Bloc'" website with no results yet. I will keep ya posted. If there are pics to post send them on.

Tim's Submission

Tim Hierlihy is a proud Newfoundlander who against his better judgement has gone off to Ireland for some schooling. I guess it is the closest thing he could get to the Rock outside of Newfoundland. Regardless, like most of us reading this blog, he has a bit of a climbing problem. I have climbed with him a fair bit when he manages to visit is homeland.

He was reading my blog when he came across my clip on the advantages of an equallette. He was iceclimbing when that information came in very handy. In His own words:

"Hey Noel,

I watched the equalette videos on your blog, and decided to give it a whirl. I just spent a few days ice climbing in Rjukan, Norway. I used it for a couple of 3 screw anchors, but on the last day the ice was starting to turn to shit so I used it for a 4 screw anchor. I don't know if I could have made the anchor with a cordelette, but the equalette was a snap. I thought you might like to see a pic. I probably should have shortened up the right side a bit, but it took me ages to dig down to decent ice, so I just said screw it (no pun intended) and carried on.


Tim"





Thanks for the feedback Tim. I think that was pretty fcuking cool.