Cragmama "Not all who wander are lost…" JRR Tolkien

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Stonewear Designs Winter Review (and GIVEAWAY!)

Stonewear Designs Winter Review (and GIVEAWAY!)

I am lucky enough to have access to Stonewear Designs apparel as part of my contract with Trango, and those of you that have been reading for a while may recall the “Review Collage” I did on this company this past summer.  But now that tank top weather is long gone, it made sense to do an updated review of my favorite threads from Stonewear’s Winter Collection.  AERY TOP:  This cute little number transitions seamlessly from Crag to Date Night.  In fact, I wore it at the hubby’s company Christmas party, which was dubbed as “Holiday Casual.”  I’m still not sure what…Read the rest of this entry →

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An Equal Opportunity Climbing Weekend

An Equal Opportunity Climbing Weekend

“I have a dream that one day bolt-clippers, boulderers, and tradsters will come together on my birthday and climb and eat pizza,” – The Crag Daddoo Well, maybe those weren’t his EXACT words, but in the spirit of the MLK holiday weekend, it was a reasonable paraphrase…and with that in mind we invited our friends from far and wide to celebrate Steve’s birthday this past weekend.  And we couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather – highs in the 50’s without a cloud in the sky!  DIXON:  We kicked the 3 day weekend off on Saturday by converging at the Dixon School…Read the rest of this entry →

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Jetflow Hydration System: Hydration Evolved

Jetflow Hydration System: Hydration Evolved

There’s a lot of different types of hands-free hydration systems out on the market now – with the grandfather of them all being the well-known CamelBak.  Of course there are plenty of companies that design special backpacks with the purpose of hydration in mind, and they can come in a wide variety of forms (over-the-shoulder pack, “fanny pack,” under-the-bike-seat pack, etc).  But the common theme of these specialty hydration “vehicles” is that the method by which they deliver water is always the same.  A soft, polyurethane bladder is connected to a tube that is secured somewhere close to your mouth, usually via a shoulder strap…Read the rest of this entry →

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New River Gorge (in January?!?) and Climbing “Tall”

New River Gorge (in January?!?) and Climbing “Tall”

  The cool thing about living in the Southeast is that rock climbing can be a year round endeavor.  In fact, some south-facing, friction climbing areas are pretty much only good in the winter (Stone Mountain, Rumbling Bald, and the Asheboro Boulderfield come to mind).  If the sun is shining and the wind is calm, you can have a very pleasant day with relatively warm rock even with high temps in the low 40’s.  But despite the abundance of winter climbing opportunities, our family always makes a definitive shift into “cold weather climbing mode.”  We spend more time jumping down onto crash pads than…Read the rest of this entry →

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A Little Bit of Holiday Crankin’

A Little Bit of Holiday Crankin’

Back in my pre-kiddo days, I was an elementary school teacher, and was accustomed to having a lot of time off over the holidays.  My hubby is blessed to get a decent amount of  vacation days at work, so he grew accustomed to taking off the same days that I had for Winter Break.  Now that I’m not working outside of the home anymore, he’s STILL accustomed to getting lots of time off at Christmas, so he saves up enough vacation days every year to take a full two weeks off over Christmas/New Year’s.  That means we have plenty of…Read the rest of this entry →

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“Not all who wander are lost.” —JRR TOLKIEN