Birthday: September 13
Hometown: Townsville, Australia
Bio: Click here
Contact: Danielle@alt9.net

First attempt at set-up
 

We were the first ones into the campsite last night and got a really warm welcome from Maura and Kenny, the organizers of the Rendezvous. We had some veggie burgers and chatted for ages. Heard all about how this area has the best (well some of the best :) climbing in the country! We're excited to check out the rock. We met a really cool guy named Jay who said he'd take us deep-water soloing at Summersville (close by here) if we get a chance on the way back through West Virginia at the end of the trip.

Still dealing with some leftover issues that came up before we left for the trip. I'm hoping they'll be worked out in the near future so that I can take a break and really relax. It feels like I haven't been able to do that in months. There was so much planning and preparation and drama leading up to us leaving. I really didn't know it would be as much work as it has been but 2 and a half months is a really long time... There's going to be a lot of work when you pack your life away for such a long time. I hope it will be easier falling back into it when we get back.

I have lots of expectations for this trip - for what we'll see, who we'll meet, how we'll change and grow, and how our climbing will improve. We'll have to see how all that plays out.

It's hard work keeping good communication lines between the three of us too. I guess it always takes a work to live so closely with people for so long. I think we've been doing a pretty good job so far. And I hope that we can keep working on it so that it will be easier and easier as we go.

Started off on a boulder that was totally not my style of climbing. Was a pretty bad way to start off - I couldn't climb it and it was a total hit to my esteem (given that it was supposed to be really easy). After having not climbed in so long it sucked to feel so bad on the first boulder. It took a while for me to warm up but I did eventually get back into a better mental space and started to climb well.

About to do my first top out- scary!!!!

It ended up being a really fun day and I'm really happy with how I climbed. My hands got really sunburned (I forgot to put sunscreen on them) and so did my toes (who remembers to put sunscreen on their feet?).

So after climbing we headed back to turn in our scorecards (after a brief stop to take some photos at a waterfall on the side of the road - thanks Kumpy!). We got back in time for dinner at the camp (all vegetarian - yay!) and a massage (care of prAna). There was free stuff being given away left and right - it turned into a giant free-for-all at one point. Then came the crash pad wrestling and the dyno comps, followed by a huge party. Very fun day.

I kind of wish I'd gone to the women's bouldering clinic. It sounds like it was amazing and I'd have loved to work on the problems from the comp again in such a cool supportive environment. I really love climbing with women, it's just very different from climbing with men. I wish there were more women in climbing so that I could be around that more often.

We packed up camp and had dinner with Kay, one of the many cool people we've met here. About to head out of town to our next stop: Kentucky!

We may be cold, but we're not hungry anymore!
Thanks for sharing Kay.

 

 
We're not supposed to be on this road!!

Getting to see some back roads of Kentucky. It's a really interesting experience for me to see some of the old run-down homes up in the mountains on the narrow roads and then the big nice homes a mile further down - even the road becomes nice and wide for that 2 mile stretch and then back to narrow and windy. The economic disparity is pretty striking.

It must be election time here soon because there are "Elect So-and-So" signs up everywhere (really everywhere). Some of them are really obviously homemade. If only all politicians had to make their own signs :)

I think we're finally getting close to the campground though. Hoping there are showers there! Listening to Kentucky country radio. The forecast is for highs in the 70s and clear skies. Great!

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