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

Tag Archives: try hard

Breaking the 5.13 Barrier!

Breaking the 5.13 Barrier!

This past weekend I hit a huge personal milestone for me.  Though my climbing journey has more or less featured slow and steady improvement over the last decade (“more” during times of focused training, “less” during times of pregnancy/newborns), it has been FIVE WHOLE YEARS since I have broken into a new number grade.  But that all changed this weekend!  It actually started this past spring on our kid-free anniversary weekend at Hidden Valley, VA.  We had decided that sans kids was the perfect opportunity to test out the hardman(woman) waters, so we went project shopping.  I was drawn to…Read the rest of this entry →

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The Fort Bragg Spartan Race

The Fort Bragg Spartan Race

It all started earlier this summer with the new NBC TV show “Ultimate Spartan Challenge.”  My ninja warrior wanna-be son was all about it from the minute he saw it.  Add to that the fact that we actually knew a few of the competitors…and his mind just exploded week after week.  He began “training” everywhere – in our backyard, on the playground, at the crag, insisting that he was going to be a Spartan when he grew up (and that he was going to be on the Ninja team, because first he was going to be the next American Ninja Warrior.)…Read the rest of this entry →

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How to Make Reachy Moves

How to Make Reachy Moves

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been shut down by a crux sequence because of a hold that is juuuuust out of reach.  Unless you are 7 feet tall, most of us should have our hands up at this point.  While it’s probably safe to say that a climber who is 5 feet tall probably deals with this more than one who is 6 feet tall, learning how to make long reaches is a skill that can benefit all climbers. Standing at 5’5″ tall, I’m certainly not short by female standards (average height for adult American female is 5’4″), although…Read the rest of this entry →

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Climbing Goals for 2015

Climbing Goals for 2015

Now that our family of 4 has settled into a new “normal,” it’s  tempting to try and make up for lost time with a mile long tick list for 2015.  But I still want to make sure my life stays balanced.  Family climbing time involves FAMILY first, CLIMBING second.  That means that when it  comes to planning climbing trips, there are far more logistics to consider than my own tick list.  That being said, here’s what I personally would be delighted to accomplish in 2015. Since we almost always climb as a party of 5+, (mom, dad, 2 kids, and 1 or…Read the rest of this entry →

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Sending a Family Project: Flash Point (5.11d)

Sending a Family Project: Flash Point (5.11d)

This weekend the hubby and I had the unique opportunity to send a project together, one that was equally meaningful to us both, but for very different reasons.  For Steve, Flash Point was about redemption.  After a pretty successful toprope run this past January, he tied in on the sharp end with no expectations and shocked everyone (but probably himself the most!) by making it through the first two cruxes clean before pumping out one move before a good rest 80 feet up.  After jugging back up he found some better holds that probably would have kept him on had…Read the rest of this entry →

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