Spray: Where are you climbing this weekend?

[granite_grrl]

I'm leaving work early and heading down to the Red for the weekend. I'm so excited I felt the need to spray!

Where are you climbing this weekend?

Rebecca

[Fred]

The Red kicks ass. Have you been?

Have a good trip. I duno how hard you climb but if you get a chance try to get on RoShampo. Made my pants wet.

Have fun!

[granite_grrl]

Nope I haven't been before. Truth be told I slacked this summer I didn't explore the crags in the east the way I ment to (only 6 hours from the gunks! why did I keep playing on the slick limestone of Ontario!).

This is actually my birthday present to myself, I'm taking Monday off work too for the trip.

Hee-hee!! Only 3 more hours till I'm on the road!!

[Fred]

You'll love it.

Here is some beta:

-stay at Miguell's (all the climbers stay there) and try out the Pizza. It's wicked. The showers are pretty good and super cheap. The bathroom is a bit dodgy but you can go to the rest stop just down the road. But it's not too bad.

-get your coffee at the Shell just down the road

-you can climb even when it is piss pooring. Check out Torent Falls and Roadside crag. If you are mutant strong you can also go to the Motherload. There is tons of overhanging stuff that stays dry even in downpoor.

-The first five minutes you are there you'll wonder why the hell everyone is drinking Ale8 and if it's beer or not. Try it out. It's wicked local brewed gingerale.

-I recommend sticking to the classic areas. Some of the smaller crags are less traveled and can be hard to find. It's not overly busy since everything is spread out so you won't find yourself waiting too long for classic climbs.

[granite_grrl]

Thanks Fred

I guess I only have one other question: I'm brining no fruit/meat/milk, etc across the boarder (figure we'll be an odd enough group there anyways, and my car still has it's NS plates....), is there some where to pick up a few things like this?

We only have the select guide so classic areas it is!! I think that we'll be doing a mix of gear and bolts (we're bringing the gear for it anyways). I only have 1.5 hours more! (and work is super duper slow today).

I'll do a quick TR when I get back.

[Fred]

I ate bologna and eggs for two weeks so I'm not sure where you can get apples and oranges. Ask around at Miguel's. We did find a super market about 20min away (there is nothing close) but the vegi selection was quite limited. Maybe stop in a big town once you get to the states before going to the Red.

for the guidebook... go to http://www.redriverclimbing.com and print off the online guidebook. It looks terrible when you print it off but in combination with the maps and topos from the select guide it will make your life easy. If you want to get fancy you can copy and paste into word then reduce the font size and print booklet style. I made a nice coiled version of the online guidebook with photos etc but it took me a little while. You may have to resort to just copy/past/reduce font and print if you are leaving in an hour. Best of luck. Take lots of photos.

[granite_grrl]

So the weekend was pretty good, more scouting than hard core climbing, but that just means I'll get to pull down hard next time I'm there .

Saturday: Pebble beach.
I guess I wanted to get on some easier sport leads, but there was a guy we met down there who was much more interested in gear leads. That, combined with the weekend crowd, led us to this crag.

Boy, did we choose wrong. We get to the pull off and see half a dozen cars there. This should have sent alarms off, but it didn't, so up we hike to the crag. We find that there's a huge group who've set up a ton of top ropes. Sure they were willing to let us climb on their ropes, but the gym atmosphere was over whelming. Despite that I got on a few easier crack climbs (I only got to lead one of them), top roped a harder sport line, and lead an easier sport line. Oh well, back to Miguel's.

Sunday: Purple Valley & Left Flank.
This time I said screw this, I want to lead some sport!! I see that Purple Valley has 4 5.10a's there, which sounds good for me. We went there, it was nice an quiet, I lead one, my boyfriend lead the another climb (5.10a if you're tall!! Much harder if you're not 6' plus). Tons o' fun.

Then it was off to Left flank. Now this is what RRG sport climbing is all about!! Fantastic, steep, pocketed walls. Beautiful! Inspiring! We got on a couple more sport climbs that day before heading back to camp where we enjoyed some great pizza.

Moday: Military wall.
Another beautiful wall, wish we had gone there on Saturday, even with the crowds! Too bad we were pooped! Tried a couple steep 5.9's and I was hurting by the end . Oh well, we had to drive back that day anyway. So after a few group photos and a stop at the gas station we were back on our way to Ontario.


Oh, how I wish I could have a few weeks there! That place could teach me so much! I think I'll take a few more long weekends there this spring.