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

Green Hour Connection: Guest Post from Kristen Lummis

Miscellaneous.
2 Comments.

I always enjoy meeting other kindred spirits, whether it be in person or in cyberspace, so I’ve been thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate recently with 3 other adventurous mommies on a few writing projects we’re cooking up (more on that later, but you can stay in the loop by following us on Twitter @AdventureMoms.  Anyway, Kristen Lummis is one such Mommy, and she graciously offered to contribute a Green Hour post for me!  Kristen’s family is to skiing as ours is to climbing!   She lives in Western Colorado with her husband and two teenage boys, and recently had a chance to experience a Green Hour with the ladies in her family. The following is a guest post describing her adventure…

My niece was visiting us last month. She lives in the Denver area and we live on Colorado’s Western Slope. She is 8 years old, full of energy and loves to be outdoors. So do I.

So on a cool Saturday, despite the threat of rain, my mom and I took her hiking on the Colorado National Monument. Here is our report from the Devil’s Kitchen Trail.

1. Lots of Prickly Pear Blossoms. As the mother of boys, I am used to spotting lizards, oohing and ahhing over cool rocks, and recognizing unique shapes and uses for twigs and sticks. My niece pointed out the varying colors of the cactus blooms….and spotted lizards. Sticks and rocks, not so much.

2. Plenty of Room to Run. And run she did. She ran, she balanced, she climbed and she skipped. An open trail, a pleasant day and nothing to do but enjoy being alive in the splendor of nature.

3. Time to Practice Trail Boss Skills. My niece is a second child, the second daughter to boot. We let her choose the trail, lead the way, read the signs and set the pace. We pointed out the cairns marking the trail and she became our official cairn-spotter. She was our trail boss.

While hiking with her, I was reminded of an article I recently read entitled “Leave No Child Inside.” Concerned about the trend of more and more kids spending their summers indoors with TV and computers, a consortium of outdoor agencies and groups in the Chicago-area are urging families to turn off the technology and get outside. Stating what should be obvious, one of the organizers put it thus: “(Children) are excited to be outdoors.”

Yes, I can vouch for that. No matter where you live, children are excited to be outdoors. After nine months of school, some time in the sunshine, lying in the grass, hiking on a trail or chasing butterflies is exactly what our kids need. Open the doors, get outside and this summer, leave no child inside….or for that matter, any adult either.

You can read more from Kristen over on her personal blog, Brave Ski Mom.  She’s got a lot of interesting goodies on her site, including a fantastic explanation of why all moms, but especially ski moms (and I’ll add climbing moms…) are brave.

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Green Hour Connection: Studies in Entomology

Miscellaneous.
6 Comments.

(Photo from www.hiltonpond.org)

Last week Cragbaby wanted to be a pilot.  This week he’s a bug man – and not the exterminator type!  While C has always seemed to have an affinity for creepy-crawlies – ladybugs, carpenter ants, daddy long legs, caterpillars, etc, this week he has become fascinated with cicadas.  Actually it would be most accurate to say he has become fascinated with cicade SHELLS.  For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, more information can be found here.  

The Cicada Hunter is on the prowl.

Basically cicadas are very loud, very scary looking, giant bugs that spend the majority of their life cycle buried in the ground, gathering nourishment from the roots of trees.  When the time is right, the nymphs emerge out of their burrows at night and morph into something that looks straight out of a horror film, but is really quite harmless.  Their empty shells are left behind, a perfect hollow specimen with a slit in the back, often found still clinging to a tree. 

Here's what we're looking for...

The smaller cicadas (which are actually not really all that small) emerge every 2-5 years, so odds are good that most of you have seen them before.  However the larger ones, referred to as periodic cicadas, only come out and play every 13-17 years, giving them the longest life span of any insect.  Interestingly enough, this year was actually one of those years for North Carolina (more about that here).  Apparently our county is looking for “cicada watchers” to help log where the cicadas are (evidently they could show up in the thousands in your yard, while your neighbor might not see a single one).  Entomologists are hoping that long term tracking can provide some useful information about the environment, since the underground nymphs would be affected by pollution and development.

Any up here?!?

Cragbaby evidently has taken the county’s call to action rather seriously, and is very enthusiastic about documenting the number of cicada shells in our yard.  There are quite a few, though no where close to the thousands we’ve heard reported on the news, and since we’ve only seen the shells we don’t know whether they are the special 13 year kind or just the run of the mill 2-5 year kind.  But needless to say, the majority of our green hours lately involve hunting for cicada shells.  We like to point at them, collect them in bowls, crunch them in our hands, poke them with sticks, and cover them up with mulch. 

Found one, Mommy!!!

At first I was kinda grossed out by them..  But when I realized that Cragbaby was really into them Idid some fact sleuthing and now I actually think they’re kinda cool (all other closet nature dorks, please raise your hands now…)  I guess its not only the fluffy, beautiful parts of nature that are worth exploring!

What is your child’s (or yours!) current creepy-crawlie of choice?

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The New Never Gets Old

New River Gorge.
9 Comments.

Well its about time.  We went to the New this past weekend and we had….wait for it….NO RAIN!!!  The Lineberry Rain Curse is officially broken!  Sure we’ve had a few sunny day trips here and there, but its literally been a year since we’ve roped up on a completely rain-free weekend.  Conditions could not have been any better – low humidity, cloud cover, temps just barely hitting 80!  And though I would never in a million years wish rainy conditions upon any of my climbing peeps, after hearing of two other crags that got dumped on (one with only a 10% chance of rain!), I will say that it was nice to finally have been the folks that ended up in the right place at the right time.

Bennett stepping carefully on Grit It and Bear It (5.11a)

DAY 1 Routes – Endless Wall
Biohazard (5.8) – Aside from one stray route a little over a year ago, this was the first time I’d led any trad since before I got pregnant.  It felt great to finally drag the rack up a route again (even if I did end up taking easily 3 times the amount of gear that I needed).  And since getting back into trad was on my Hit List for this year, it was great to start working on that goal!  The route was great, the gear was good, and aside from a few awkward moves up top, the climbing was straightforward and fun. 
Exoduster (5.10b) – This was my second time on this climb.  The first time was my first climb back from the Maple Canyon Knee Incident, so my lead head probably wasn’t the greatest (I also happened to be 3 weeks pregnant and didn’t know it…).  Needless to say, my initial thoughts about this route probably were a little negatively biased.  This go round went much better, although I still say the grimy, overly chalked rail makes it feel stout for the grade (I actually avoided the rail altogether and opted for the crimps directly along the bolt line, which felt technically harder, but more secure…)
Stim-o-Stam (5.11c) – A technical face climbing extravaganza!  A bouldery start under a roof led to a thin and delicate dance up small incut edges and pockets, ending up with spectacular exposure out on the arete.  This was my favorite route of the weekend, and I was thrilled to luck up and get the crux sequence right first try, making for a really fun onsight!

Hoping the wind doesn't blow me off the delicate edges of Pockets of Resistance (5.12a)

S’more Energy (5.11c) – I was the only one out of our posse that thought this was harder than Stim-o-stam, but it was definitely harder for me.  I flashed it, but only because there were decent shake-out stances before every tricksy section, enabling me to take twice as long on the route than I probably should have.  If you are sub 5’10”, beware, you will find a lot of the moves really reachy, including a few clipping stances…
Freaky Stylee (5.12a) – Bennett and I were the only ones that did this one.  He hung the draws and I opted to clean it rather than lead it.  The crux is moving above the last bolt and then there is quite a run out to the anchors, so apparently that bolt is the one of the most whipped upon bolt in the entire gorge…I wasn’t super confident on my ability to pull 12a moves at the end of the route at the end of the day, so all things considered I think I made the right choice.  I was really surprised at how solid I felt on it though – I made it all the way to the crux before falling, and probably tried less than 10 times before getting the crux sequence.  Right after the crux you get a really good hold where you can shake out and collect yourself, and to the anchors felt 10b-ish.  Knowing what its like up there now, I think I could maybe be talked into leading it another time.

My crux beta for Pockets

Day 2 Routes – Kaymoor
Not on the First Date (5.11c) – Not really what I wanted to warm-up on, but Rico was taken, and I’d toproped it before, so I knew what to expect.  Bottom section has a bouldery feel – long moves to small horizontal slots, and the crux is moving over a bulge on some nasty crimps and credit card rails.  The slabby finish keeps it exciting until the very end.  I didn’t remember anything about the crux, so I flailed my way through it finally after repeated falls. Not one of my finer moments…
Grit it and Bear it (5.11a) – After reports that this route was runout and felt a full number grade harder than 11a, I decided in the interest of time to just clean it on top rope.  I wanted to finally get to #5 on my Hit List, so I wanted to save my mental energy for that.
Pockets of Resistance (5.12a) – Woo-hoo!  Goal #5 – Lead a 12a, check!  Though I’ve toproped a decent number of 12’s, I’ve never led one before (unless you wanna count Homer Erectus, which I don’t, since its a one-move wonder that most people traverse around anyway).  This was one of the routes that was recommended to me as a 12a that would fit my style of climbing, and would be a good first one to tackle on the sharp end.  I was fully expecting to feel pretty desperate on it, possibly not even being able to finish it.  But although I struggled at two distinct sections, I did all the moves and made it to the top uneventfully and without taking half a day to do so!  I think another couple of tries to solidify my beta and efficiency and I’d be able to get the redpoint!

     

Though my original goal was to just lead a 12a bolt to bolt, I’m wondering if that was setting the bar too low…I’m tempted to not to cross it off the list until I can tick the redpoint, especially since I feel like I’m only a few tries away (I figure 1 try to remember the beta, 1 try to make it efficient, 1 more to almost make it but botch it when my foot pops at the crux, and then a send on the 4th go seems conservatively reasonable?).  I guess it depends on when we can get back there, and if we can find a third that wants to hit up Kaymoor (takers?)  I was also starting to get worried that Goal #7 (Get back into Trad) wasn’t gonna happen, so it was nice to make a step in the right direction.  And of course I was psyched about the weather – after temperatures in the low 100’s earlier in the week, this weekend felt absolutely heavenly.  And from what I hear, I’ll probably have to savor that feeling as long as I can because there’s another heat wave coming through this week…The only negative to speak of was that we were having way too much fun to pick up the camera the majority of the weekend.  The next couple of weekends we’ll be taking off from climbing (and blogging…stay tuned for lots of guest posts from some cool peeps next week!).  We will be headed to Michigan for my brother-in-law’s wedding/family vacation.  But we are already starting to line up the adventures for August, so if anyone has an in with the weatherman tell him if he could copy and paste thist past weekend into every weekend in August, that would be just great, thanks  🙂

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What Can Your Earth-Suit Do (aka Perceptions on Body Image)

Climbing. Reflections.
19 Comments.

I’ve never heard this conversation at the crag…

I think most of us tend to focus on what our body is and what it isn’t. That’s how I used to think anyway, especially a few lifetimes ago back when I was a personal trainer at a gym filled with a bunch of testosterone-driven meatheads.

For example – my body IS/ISN’T able to fit into those jeans today.  My body IS/ISN’T as pretty as that girl at the gym.  My body IS this, it ISN’T that – put in your own words, I’m sure you have some.

One of the first things I noticed when I started climbing was the wide variety of shapes and sizes of climbers.  It was a refreshing change to the image-obsessed fitness arena I was accustomed to!  No one cared what anyone else looked like – everyone was there to push their body to new limits and explore new ways in which they could get to their personal high point.

After I’d been climbing for a while, I noticed that I began thinking that way too.  I would come home from a day at the crag completely spent, and feel good about what I had accomplished.  I became more in tune with my body’s inner voice – I realized that if I would just listen to my body it would tell me what it needs – when it needed to eat or drink, when it was in a frame of mind to push, when it needed to back off and rest and rebuild.

Earthsuits can do all sorts of amazing things…

Maybe I’m wrong, but I’d wager that most people in today’s society spend a good deal of time thinking about their body – whether it be healthy thinking or destructive thinking.  I’ve learned to adopt the attitude that my body is the “earth-suit” my soul has been given to get me through this life.  I can either focus on what it looks like – which is going to change with age no matter what I do, or I can focus on all the cool and crazy things I’m able to do from inside of it.

Not all of God’s creations are blessed with such an amazing Earth-suit as we humans – although I will admit that I am a bit envious of the capabilities of a few animal earth-suits (the ability to fly, the ability to hold one’s breath for 20 minutes, along with the capabilities to spin webs, to name a few).

Most of my favorite memories come from times where me and my Earth-suit have done some really cool things – backcountry kayaking in the Everglades, summitting Estrellita in El Potrero Chico, Mexico, bungee jumping in Queenstown, NZ, and about a billion other things I don’t have time to even get started on.

…but growing and giving birth to another human being is at the top of the list!

The really neat thing that comes to my mind when I think about all of the things our bodies are capable of, is the mind-blowing fact that we are created in God’s image. Not exactly of course – clearly I am NOT God, and obviously everyone is created different, but its my personal belief that all those quirky things that make us unique are actually just little tidbits that reflect God himself.  The cool part is that when we look around we get to see all those little tidbits enacted by others – the set drummer that can play a different time signature with each limb, the diver that can do 10 crazy contortions in 100 feet of air and still enter the water with only a ripple, the skier who can strap two long flat panels to her feet and whiz down a snow-covered mountain side, and of course, the climber that is hanging out quite comfortably upside down with a fist jammed in a crack, fiddling around to find the right size gear to use.

In my opinion, this “Earth-suit uniqueness” is actually one of the most interesting parts about climbing.  But unfortunately I hear a lot of climbers getting caught up in IS/ISN’T mode – too short, too fat, too weak, etc.  In truth, each climber’s earth-suit is equipped with natural strengths and weaknesses – and our job is to figure out how to tap into our personal strengths while minimizing our weaknesses. Once you can appreciate the differences, its really neat to watch 10 climbers do the crux of a route completely differently.  As a smaller woman, I will use really high feet and match hands on the smallest of holds to move through sequences that a taller climber like my husband can just reach past.  However, as a bigger guy, he relies on great footwork and technique to pull him through steep, overhanging terrain that lighter climbers can muscle their way through.

The bottom line?  We are all blessed to have bodies that are capable of far more than we often give it credit for – yet so often do we put it down and complain about what it can’t do, or more commonly, what it IS and ISN’T?  Whether you’re a climber, hiker, grandmother, computer guru, architect, or film stunt man, your body is unique and is intended to reflect the Creator.  So treat it as such!  Think twice before allowing yourself to wallow in a sea of negativity or do anything to mistreat it.

Now its time for some Earth-suit Love!  What’s the best part about the Earth-suit YOU’VE been given?

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Interview with a Mentor: Christine Millbern

Interviews.
8 Comments.

I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on my last interview with Aimee Roseborrough – I think its definitely safe to say that this segment of my blog is definitely worth continuing!  Today’s interview is with someone who in some ways I consider to be the “Original Cragmama.”  Christine Millbern was the first woman I ever saw climbing while pregnant, and her family was the first I ever saw take a baby to the crag.  I always loved running into them out at the crag, and we had the pleasure of taking several trips with their family – it was obvious that their whole family was always having so much fun.  When I found out I was pregnant I remember Christine’s husband Scott telling me that continuing a lifestyle of adventure after kids was easy – but everything took a lot longer and required a lot more gear.  Since Cragbaby’s arrival we have definitely found this statement to be true!  Their family unfortunately (for us anyway) moved to Germany almost a year and a half ago.  In fact our last time hanging out with them was at a brunch just a couple of hours before I went into labor!  And my Cragbaby has Christine’s Cragboy (he’s hardly a baby anymore!) to thank for the majority of his outdoor wear from his first year!  Here’s what Christine had to say…

Christine crankin' on Up Yonder (5.11b) at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky

 

Christine and an almost 1 year old Finn

Name: Christine Millbern
Age: 35
Cragkids/Ages: Finn, almost 3
Currently from: Cologne, Germany
Climbing for: 10 years

Favorite Climbing Area: North Carolina, because you have so much variety… but I do love the Alps, as that is what I grew up with…and
more and more I like the Pfalz with its sandstone towers

Proudest Climbing Achievement: Not quite sure, probably that I finally started leading again after my pregnancy.

How old was Finn when he first went to the crag?  1 week old – we had bright sunshine and you could see the Alps from the bedroom, so I had to get outside…

Does Finn climb?  Yes, everything!  I think he climbed the kitchen table when he was 8 months.  He even climbs the slide on the overhanging side now…But he asked for climbing shoes not too long ago, and last weekend he said that he wants a rope for his birthday, so he can climb by himself!

Finn sending his own projects at Pfalz, Germany

Has your attitude with regards to the risks in climbing changed at all since having a child?  I think I am even more careful. My biggest problem is still pushing myself and comitting, as I didn’t do it while climbing during the pregnancy, but it is slowly coming back.

What is the most challenging aspect of family climbing trips?  Most of the time we get to climb less than we would like to, but we are getting there.  It is so much fun to see everybody much happier outside – we have a good time and everybody is happy and satisfied by the end of the day!

What is the most rewarding aspect of family climbing trips?  Seeing how much fun Finn has playing outside on the rocks and getting dirty, and seeing the smile on his Daddy’s face when he finally gets to climb again.  I think it is so nice to show your child at a young age what you like the most… being outside, camping and climbing.  And luckily he likes it so far!

If you could offer one piece of advice to other mama’s out there what would it be?  Always pack enough food and make sure your child is dry. Enjoy everything you did before – it is much easier to have fun with kids outdoors than you think it would be. Be patient, but you can do almost everything with a child.

Anything else you would like to add?  Never forget that your child is much happier when you are happy, so don’t give up your life for a child.

Finn, Christine, and Scott - another awesome Crag-family!

Christine takes the idea of introducing baby to adventure at an early age to a whole new level – 1 week old!!!  Kinda makes me wonder why we waited til 6 weeks…oh yeah, because I was still recovering from the hardest thing my body has ever done, both mentally and physically!  Props to Christine for such a bold committment to staying active and for agreeing to let me interview her – she’s an amazing woman for sure!  If you were inspired by her story, let her know in the comments section!

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