Category Archives: Climbing

Posts about…you guessed it – climbing! Trip reports, anecdotes, and musings about my favorite recreational pasttime.

Wild West Whirlwind Round 1 – SPEARFISH CANYON

Aug 02 2012

As most of you already know, our family just got back from a whirlwind climbing trip to South Dakota and Wyoming. To say that the trip was a success would be an understatement – we had a fabulous time, and as I look outside at my droopy, hot backyard as I type this, my only regret is that we’d had more time to spend out there! This trip was a far cry from our usual weekend excursions, and in a lot of ways, it was somewhat of a “luxury trip” (for us anyway…though it probably doesn’t fit most people’s definition…Read the rest of this entry →

Trango in da House – and on the Trad Wall!

Jul 16 2012

I’ve probably said it before, but one of the best parts about climbing is the people who do it – they tend to be pretty fun to hang out with. Thankfully our local climbing gym, Inner Peaks (IP for the cool folk…), figured this out a while ago, as evidenced in the member parties they have several times per year. Even though our family has only been in Charlotte for a little over a year, we’ve had a chance to check out the party scene at IP more than a few times, and we’ve never come away disappointed. This one…Read the rest of this entry →

Little Wilson – A Mid-Summer Cragger’s Dream

Jul 04 2012

So after spending the past two (unseasonably mild) weekends catching up around the house and enjoying time with family, the heat was back in full force this weekend. Our original plan was for the New River Gorge, but with temps hovering at 100 and humidity almost as high, no one was psyched on sleeping in a tent in a pool of sweat. We instead opted for a day trip to a shady little crag off the beaten path in the western part of the state – Little Wilson. This was actually our first time going there. We actually attempted to…Read the rest of this entry →

Trad is Rad at the North End of Moore’s

Jun 19 2012

Out of all the areas I’m covering in the Piedmont Guidebook, Moore’s has been one of the trickiest for hands on research. Although I climbed at Moore’s quite often pre-Cragbaby, pregnancy and a baby made for a too-long hiatus. (Due to the nature of the typical descent options we’ve found other areas to be much more kid-friendly, since a day at Moore’s means a day at the cliff sans Cragbaby). Thankfully we have two sets of grandparents nearby, but we certainly can’t take advantage of them every weekend (nor do we want to – climbing is a family activity for…Read the rest of this entry →

Say It Loud! The New Doesn’t Get Old.

Jun 11 2012

But I do. And it sucks. Not sure why, but this weekend made me feel old. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I twisted my ankle (the one that I used to consider my “bad” ankle until I broke the other one…) just hiking into the crag on Day 1. Thankfully it seems to be nothing more than a minor inconvenience, along with an annoying, rainbow-colored reminder that my Earth-Suit ain’t what it used to be. Or it could possibly be related to the fact that I realized that not one but several of my climbing…Read the rest of this entry →

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