Fun at the Crag

Last weekend I had some goodtimes at the climbing crag. I led a 10b and 5.9. Ironically I fell on the 5.9 as I veered left (where there were no holds) when I should have stayed right (plenty of holds) and one would think I would have noticed the chalk marks but no...

I find with sport climbing, as long as I know the fall is clean ie: I won't bounce off a ledge, I'm not too worried about falling. I don't think one can progress that easily as a sport climber if you don't want to fall. Which is an opposite mind-set of the trad climber, who for very good reason is adverse to falling. And then taken to the next level, the ice climber who would avoid falling at all costs since even a small fall could end up with a dislocated hip, shoulder etc if your pick or crampon catches on the ice as you fall. Scarey business.

I find having to shift mindsets like that an interesting thing to do and I really believe it builds more neural pathways in the brain, which perhaps has no intrinsic value at all but its' still cool. :-)

I am really looking forward to this Sunday as Shannon and Pat and I are heading to Grassi. I really want to try and lead a10c that thwarted me last weekend. I have a strategy of getting on it when I'm fresh and stronger and all grrrrrrr arrrrgggg. Shannon has been climbing strong and Pat is now leading in the 11's which provides me with opportunities to second those bad boys and also the inspiration to keep striving. I firmly believe that one gets better when they climb with people who are better than you. So far this strategy has worked well. Having said that, I think us climbers also owe it to give back and give other climbers the same chance from time to time. I had lots of fun taking out newer climbers this winter or even just kicking it down a notch for my buddies who appreciate a rope-gun. I think its that whole "pay it forward" concept.

I'm not sure what is happening with my "objective that shall not be named" The window of opportunity is now closing for me as most of my August is booked up. It gets tricky when trying to coordinate schedules with 4 people. I have to admit to having lost some of my zest for training. I'm still staying active but I haven't been hitting the stairs as much as I should be and didn't put in an endurance day last weekend like I should have either. However having said that, Nathan the trainer punished me like nobody's businees last night and I'm feeling strong and fairly lean which is good.

So the weekend is looking very good, enjoying some music at the Folk Festival this friday evening, Saturday getting ready for my annual retreat and the Sunday getting on the rock again. Good Times

Living Life Up HIll

I was out in the mountains hiking yesterday and I realized that it feels like most days I'm going uphill, literally, that's been my world for the past couple month: hills, stairs, dirt trails, scree slopes and rock cliffs.

I've discovered I love solo hiking for a variety of reasons. I enjoy the solitude and I can manage my day as I see fit. I headed to one of my favorite mountain areas, Kananaskis and started to hike up to 3 Aisle Lake. Again, I chose a destination I had been to before that sees a fair amount of hikers. I got to the Fork Campground and chatted wtih some backpackers who had just encountered a female Grizzly and her cub. They had to divert around them. This was enough information to change my mind about continuing on. I consider the best bear encounter is NO bear encounter, especially when its involving a protective mother bear.

So I headed back where I came and started to consider plan B which I decided would mean hiking up Mt Indefatigable, which is a steep ridge walk, the trail head is right by my trail for 3 Isle Lake. But before that I had a very interesting experience. I'm a firm believer in listening to my body, when I have the desire to climb - I climb, when the body says hike - I hike. But this time there I was at a brisk walk along this relatively flat and shady trail when the body said "Run". And this is where the brain - body dialogue started, which is maybe what happens when you hike alone and aren't having a converstation with another person.

Body: "Lets Run"
Brain: "Run? Come on we're in hiking boots for crying out loud"
Body: "It'll be good calf training"
Brain: "Our pack is too big"
Body: "Tighten up the straps, it'll be fine"
Brain: "But it'll still shift around"
Body: "So? We want to RUN"
Brain: "Fine, we'll run, but I'm going to stop if I don't like it"

I started to run and was suprised at how decent it felt. The boots were clunky but are fairly light and the pack wasn't so bad. I decided that when I did a real trail run it would seem easy compared to this. I had forgotten my hiking pole and that turned out better since I didn't have to fuss with carrying it while running.

As I strive reduce the weight I carry and what I think I need out in the mountains, I find this greater sense of freedom. I started to wonder what doing a long trail run would be like with my lighter, more ergonomic pack and light running shoes. The experience becomes about flow and movement, not packing weight.

I need to digress, here's the kicker, for a month I was being very careful about my food intake and my training hoping to loose about 5lbs for my large objective. No weight was lost and I decided to be philosophical about it. If the body didn't want to drop the weight I would have to accept that. This wasn't about looks or anything, but about deciding I didn't want any extra weight. So after a couple weeks of doing what the body wanted and eating decently without being religious about it, I dropped about 4lbs - go figure. Apparently my body has its own rhythm and doesn't appreciate when I try and bully it into doing what I want.

But back to hiking! I ran a fair amount of the trail back, walking when I hit the hot sunshine or uphill. I got to the Indefatigable trailhead and started up. By this time it as 1pm and the heat was intense. My progress uphill slowed considerably when I was in the direct sunshine. I would have to stop in the shade, my pack felt heavy, my legs were tired and nausea was lurking. Tell-tale signs of heat exhaustion for me. I debated turning back and decided to keep slowing my pace until it felt more comfortable. At the top of the hike I felt pretty good but then I looked waaaay up at where the summit lie. Consulted the hiking book and realized the summit was still 500m away.

I sat down and had a little break. One thing I've learned about being in the mountains is that the world can look dramatically different once you take a rest and have some food. After my break I looked up and decided that I would head up but with the permission that I would turn around when I felt like it. Numerous times I thought it would be nice to turn around but I kept walking at a slow pace. I was about 10minutes from the summit when the trail ran out and I would be in scrambling terrain. Not a big deal if I was with someone but by this point it was about 3pm and there were less and less hikers about. It felt like an unnessasary risk. I'm not that summit focussed and figured I had met my objective. I turned around and started heading down.

In my other posts I mentioned that I don't feel I'm that sure-footed on uneven terrain. I should qualify that I don't feel that sure footed when falling means a likely tumble to my death. On a trail where a fall might mean some scrapes and bruising thats another story. On this terrain I began to pick up my pace and found I could manage a jog with some slipping sliding that didn't bother me at all. I began to pass other hikers who were tentatively making their way down and I realized that so much is about perspective. While Brian looks like a billy-goat to me on the paths I imagine that I must have looked billy-goat like to the other hikers.

When I got back down to the car, I had covered roughly 20km and 1200m elevation gain in about 5.5hrs. I decided to give myself a pat on the back with where I've come with my outdoor skills and my fitness. I have to give my head a shake some days, I tend to focus on where my gaps are rather than the gains. I didn't miss climbing this weekend but I'm thinking by the time the weekend rolls around again I'll be itching to get out there again. And it looks like trail running will now be on my to-do list. :-)

5 minutes of Fame

I was a wee bit nervous on Tuesday morning as I knew the article in the Financial Post Business magasine was coming out. It's one thing to send some photos and yak about my favorite things to do. Another thing all together to see how someone you don't know is going to interpret that and then find out how an editor is going to revise it.

I got to work and one of my co-workers already had the magasine to show me, so I opened up the page and read about myself. Quite interesting. I had told most of my co-workers about it since I'm the first to admit I can't keep my mouth shut about much. :-) They were pretty excited to see me in print and hey, I thought it was fun too. I mean as I mentioned before, as a Leo how could I deny loving the attention, well I wouldn't be very Leo-like if I tried to do that now would I? I did have a wee bit of a wincing moment when I read that they talked about my ice climbing swim suit competition. I thought they could have emphasised the fun-factor with that so readers would know it was totally campy, silly thing that we all had fun with but no one took it seriously. As well the main thing is that they were technically accurate regarding climbing and they were so it's all good.

I'm still tired and sore from my climbing outting on Sunday. My fingers are finally recovering which has helped my mood dramatically. I hadn't realized that I was in a cranky mood because it hurt to touch anything. I had forgotten that a large boulder had landed on my foot while climbing. I know that seems like a rather big issue to be forgetting about, but yesterday I was looking at my right foot trying to figure out why it was black and blue. But duuuhhh it dawned on me.

Stampede time in Calgary right now, I've been quite restrained I have to admit. I think its because I've been fatigued, so the idea of drinking copious amounts of alchohol and adding a hangover to a sore and tired body hasn't felt that appealing.

Well my 5 min of fame has been very fun and a welcome diversion to the rigors of training. I'm still looking forward to a weekend of no climbing and just hanging out like regular people do. I might get out for a scramble on Sunday. I can't stay away from the mountains for too long, but I just won't climb them. :-)

I'll keep all my readers appraised of when the US media discovers me and I can start my own infomercials maybe selling a new Thigh-Master. I mean Suzanne Sommers has made her millions its time to let someone else have a go.... and ONE and TWO and PUSH...

Tired Fingers, Tired Body

Yesterday Brian and I went out on a climb as a psuedo test run for our larger climbing objective in the Bugaboos. We left Calgary at 4:00am and started out on our approach of Castle mountain shortly after 6am.

Our intent was to climb Super Brewers and link it up with Brewers Buttress which then gets call "Ultra Brewers" I think. We moved along trails, bushwacked and ended up scrambling up a gully so we could avoid the first 2 pitches of Super Brewers which Brian had heard are shit - quite literally. Lots of animal scat on ledges and pleny of loose shitty rock, so over all Merde!! It took us about 3hrs to get to where we could climb.

We climbed 7 very good pitches, the 8th pitch of the climb was a full-on sustained 5.9 pitch with some super exposed climbing, very good. After we topped out on that climb we had a look at Brewers Buttress but then we had to look at the clouds forming. It had started to spit on us by the last two pitches. The issue with Brewers Buttress is once you're on you can't retreat as there are no rappel stations. I was not liking the weather so we opted for Eisenhower Tower. It has bolted belays which means we could run away if the weather turned bad.

Eisenhower was a great romp as we were climbing fast. I kept gently reminding Brian that placing gear was a good thing, a great thing actually. :-)

Our day was around 14.5 hours car to car. We wanted to see how we worked together and I needed to gauge my stamina and endurance. Now here's the kicker... as hard as I've been training, I had to get real with myself. The objective Brian and I want to do in the Bugs is ambitious by anyone's standards and I knew that. So I've worked hard, but at the end of the day I had to consider what I was really capable of. I told Brian that I didn't think I was strong enough to do the climb in the manner we had planned and he had to agree with me. We both agreed I was climbing strong but that is only one part of the equation. Now this doesn't mean we couldn't change the objective in some ways but we have 2 other partners who are coming with us. And that means having to change parameters for the weakest link - being me. I told Brian if he felt he needed to find a stronger partner I would totally understand. I can't take it personally, if I was a runner training to qualify for a race it would be very obvious, if I couldn't make the time I couldn't compete in the race. So I look at this objective the same way, yes I've trained hard and done what I can. I can't fault my heart and commitment but I also know my weaknesses in the mountains. I'm not that fast of a mover, I can climb well but we still have to get to the climb and back in a very efficient and fast manner. I was hoping that my hill & stairs training would help my cardio which it has. But it's not only about cardio, its about sure footedness along uneven terrain and in exposed areas. On our way back down from the climb, Brian was quickly moving along ground that I am still feeling tentative on. All those lost seconds to find your footing and hesitations can easily add hours over a long day.

Brian is going to talk to the other partners about it but he knows that if they need to find someone else I'm alright with that. And the truth is I'm getting tired, tired of sore fingers and tired of having a sore body. And in some ways I'm tired of the background hum of stress. I would love to do this particular route but having to do in a certain time limit has been wearing on me.

I decided that next weekend I won't be climbing at all, I need a break. So tomorrow, if Brian were to say he wanted to find a new partner I don't think I'd be that fussed about it. I might feel dissapointed in a week when I'm all rested up and wanting a challenge, we'll see. On the positive side I don't consider the amount of time spent training as a loss. I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life and I've learned more about myself. I hope that doesn't sound all self-help trite.

Hike or Climb

Interesting thing when you start listening to your body. Lately the body has been saying that it wants to be moving. While I love climbing it has a different feel to it. You climb a pitch, exert yourself and then you're at the belay for quite awhile before you're moving again. Last weekend I did a hill run in Nose Hill park and there was this sense of pleasure of simply moving, not having to stop and start.

This Friday I had the day off and was looking for someone to go hiking. I really wanted to be in the mountains but I didn't feel like climbing - go figure. It seems that now I have an easier time finding climbing partners than hikers. And when you tell a climber that you rather hike you may get a quizzical look that says..... why?

Nevertheless I try to listen to my body's requests so hiking it is. I couldn't find anyone to hike with me so I decided to go out by myself. I've never hiked alone for a variety of reasons, my fear of bears being the biggest one. Then there's fear of getting hurt alone and lower down the list is the fear of getting lost. Anyhow, suffice to say there were a couple fears rattling around in the brain. So I gave it some thought, as to which fears were serious, which were groundless and what were the odds of any of those fears being realized? I decided to do a hike I've done a couple times. This would mitigate the lost part which, honestly, isn't that serious of a fear as most trails are obvious. The hike I chose is a popular area so that dealt with the fear of getting hurt and bears. Meaning if I got hurt eventually someone would come across me.

Once I got started on the trail and I have to admit I think my fears were bigger in my head than the reality. And sure enough the body started humming inside with happiness that I was in the mountains and I was moving. Since I was alone I was able to hike at the pace I wanted to which was quite fast. I was breaking in my new moutaineering boots getting them ready for my trip to the Bubaboos.

Once I got to the end of my hike I headed on another trail up a valley, steadily ascending upward. Halfway up the valley I took a break to eat some snacks. I had been going pretty hard and it was good to stop. Once I had started up the valley I didn't encounter anymore people since the hikers usually stop at Lake Galatea. As I sat down, I had a chance to really look around. It felt so amazing to be in the mountains by myself. No distractions with making conversation allowed me to fully be present and feel apart of the landscape. I reflected on my time in the mountains and how my relationship has changed. I realized that I now feel a comfort in the mountains. I feel awake, alert and aware. The bear issue is something I will always be watchful for and a healthy fear is a good thing (in my opinion). My one guide Dave Marra talked about aquiring mountains legs and eyes. I realized that I finally experience what he was talking about.

I'm back to climbing tomorrow, a big day with my friend Brian Spear. We will try and tackle Super Brewers, weather permitting.

Long weekend

Another excellent weekend happy blog readers.

Saturday Colin and I got out on EEOR, (East End of Rundle) in Canmore. It wasn't starting out too well. We parked our vehicles in the parking area to gail force winds, misty rain, and watching ominous clouds forming over head. I have to admit that my interest in climbing was dwindling rapidly. But then there is the "Colin" factor. Colin rarely lets something as annoying as weather deter him. We did quickly scrap our intial climbing objective, a longer route on Ha-Ling. Colin suggested a shorter route which he said was "well protected from the wind" Which translates to "No Lise, I won't let you be a bailing lazy ass" I started to bundle up, gloves, touque and we headed out. Now one thing I have to say about Colin and his predictions about things, he is rarely wrong. Perhaps this is because he doesn't offer an opinion unless he's fairly confident he knows what he's talking about. But over the years his opinions of routes, conditions, gear, I've learned to accept that he's usually right and ohhh how it bugs the shit out of me to admit this. :-) But sure enough as we start up the route, the wind dies down, but as I look down at the lake I can still see the white caps. We're climbing Raptor a 7pitch 10b sport route. The climbing was stiff thats for sure. Then Colin suggested I lead a couple of the easier pitches, so I figured what the hell, why not. I lead a 5.8 pitch that I was really happy with. By 2pm we were back down in the windy parking lot. Colin was jetting off to Cache Creek to climb with Nic and Karena.

Tom is staying in a time-share condo for the week before he leaves for Peru. He was nice enough to leave me a key. Him and Shannon were climbing someplace else. So smelly, dirty climber-girl show up at this very spanky resort, nestled across the way from the 3 sisters mountains. I check out the lobby and the decor and my spidey senses say "HOT TUB". I ask as the front desk "why yes ma'am we do have a hot tub, sauna and pool" CHA-CHING. One little snag. I have no bathing suit. Zoom-Zoom back into town and ba-ta-bing-ba-da-boom Lise is now sporting a damn fine 2 piece.

And then aaaahhh.... as I slip into the hot tub. Totally uncaring that my legs are bruised and battered, I look like an accident victim. Who CARES. I lazed around the rest of the afternoon, waiting for Tom and Shannon to show up. We met up with more climbing friends Gerhard and Yuka for dinner. I crashed at Tom's place and for the second weekend in a row Shannon and I were sharing a bed together. We decided it was an excellent arrangement, sleep together on the weekends and have our freedom the rest of the weekend. Leave it to 2 women to figure out the perfect relationship (snicker)!

The next day I decided to head back to Calgary. I turned down offers of climbing and Mt biking, for some reason that day I just wasn't feeling the luv. I was happy to spend some time with the kitties and I went for a great hill run in Nose Hill Park. Apparently what the body wanted was the fluid feeling of running and moving. I'm a fairly social person but I find that I also need my alone time. So Sunday was a nice quiet day.

Monday I met up with Tom at the Yamnuska parking lot. (please read previous post for the whining about Yam) We climbed a classic Yam route, Directissma. And a classic for good reason, some of the best rock I've climbed on Yam. 9 pitches of clean, excellent climbing. I think the first ascentionists were on drugs when they graded is a 5.8+. This route is HARD, pulling roofs, shimmining up chimneys, delicate climbing, HARD. It was a 12 hour day for Tom and I. As usual, we thoroughly enjoyed our climbing day together. AND we didn't get off-route. Tom lead every pitch and did an awesome job. Unfortunatly I added some new strokes to the black and blue palette of my legs. I wacked them good twice and could feel the warmth of blood beneath my pants, uggh.

Now, back at home I'm sipping my wine and wincing a wee bit as I type since my fingertips are alittle oozy - I am such a delicate flower :-) But I figured I should capture my thoughts now as I know my day tomorrow is going to be a zoo.

Well happy blog readers I hope you had a great weekend as well. :-)