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Danielle Jablonski
New York, NY
Birthday:
September 13
Hometown:
Townsville, Australia
Bio:
Click here
Contact:
Danielle@alt9.net
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Diary
entries: |
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Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12 |
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Week 10
July 18 - 24 |
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DATE:
July 18 |
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ENTRY:
We got our last look at the ranch today
and checked out the 100+ year old barn
and some more horses. Then we said our
goodbyes to Hilliard, Lynette, Cody,
Nancy, Alli, Lane, Evelyn and Jonathan
and headed off. I had an amazing time
visiting the Ranch and meeting Meghan's
family there and in Helena. Thanks so
much for having us and looking after us
so well!
From the
ranch we headed back to Billings to see
if we could find some climbing and also
to see if we could get the
air-conditioning fixed. We've been
burning up and we hear it's only going
to get hotter in Wyoming. The air con
ended up costing an arm and a leg and by
the time it was done it was way too hot
to climb. We drove over and checked out
the rims where Meghan has climbed before
but discovered that access is now
blocked by three enormous houses
(enormous!) so we just looked at the
rims from afar.
Meghan
and I got in a couple of games of pool
while we were waiting for the car to get
fixed (50 cents a game - we are so not
in New York). We also got our fix of
Montana's famous caramel cookie waffles.
Yum! |
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DATE:
July 19 |
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ENTRY:
We slept in the car last night outside
of Sheridan, WY, close enough to see the
orange flames of a fire burning in a
field nearby (but far enough away to be
very safe). There are fires burning all
around this part of the country but it's
the first one we've actually seen.
We found our way to Cheyenne, WY and
found some internet and then headed to
the Sierra Trading Post Outlet to find
some deals. We didn't :) but we did find
a guidebook for Vedauwoo so we got back
in the car and headed out. We found a
cute little area to camp in and set up
our tents and made some lunch just in
time - the storm clouds rolled in as
soon as we were done. We spent the
afternoon playing cards and catching up
on sleep and then headed to Laramie to
check the forecast for tomorrow.
Apparently there will be some sun so we
thought we'd take our chances and hang
out.
* Happy
Birthday to the people I know who have
birthdays today! * |
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DATE:
July 20 |
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ENTRY:
We did get some sun, in between the
rain, and it was enough for Meg and I to
head out and see what we could find. We
found some really cool bouldering and
had a great time. The rock here is red
and flaky. It's pretty and it's cool to
climb. It's actually one of my favorite
places to climb this trip. We spent a
few hours and climbed nearly everything
in this area (about 16 problems under
V6).
We
found a great V4 that we both really
liked and spent a while working it. It
was pretty hard for me with reachy,
powerful moves but also pretty balancey
and crimpy. I watched Meg on it and
spent some time working a few of the
harder moves and was pretty tired when I
figured I'd give it one last go. And I
sent it! I was pretty impressed. I think
that was my best climb of the trip.
We were
working on a V5 when the thunder started
so we raced back to camp and we all
headed into town to sit out the rain in
a movie theater. |
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DATE:
July 21 |
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ENTRY:
We got up early, packed up camp and the
three of us headed to another part of Vedauwoo to try the climbing
there. We tried that for about an hour
and a half and after only finding
highball slabs (my least-favorite
climbing) we decided to head back to
where we had been yesterday so that we
could finish off on a good note.
After
climbing a bunch of the problems from
yesterday again and a couple of new ones
we went decided it was time to move on
and head to Denver to meet up with Kim!
**
Congrats to Andre (my little brother)
and Samantha who had a baby girl, Raya,
today - Yay, I'm an aunt!!! ** |
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DATE:
July 22 |
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ENTRY:
We stayed at a really dodgy hotel last
night - hopefully the worst I'll ever
stay at! We woke up at 6:30 this morning
to drive to Boulder to meet up with Kim.
We met her and her friend Kate at a
bagel shop and then, none of us knowing
where to go, we waited for 45 minutes in
the parking lot outside of REI, waiting
for it to open so that we could buy a
guidebook. We got in some good frisbee.
We climbed
at a place near the city where you had
to hike a little way up a mountain. The
climbing was pretty hard - everything
was really slimy from chalk and the
heat. After working on a bunch of
problems we thought we'd go check out
Eldorado Canyon. We didn't find much
climbing there - sport and trad climbing
looks like it would be awesome there but
the bouldering was a little hard to find
and what we did find was also really
slimy and hard to hold. So we decided to
take it easy and enjoy the beautiful
scenery. We spent a long time sitting in
the water watching trad climbers scale a
huge chunk of rock right in front of us
and talking about the show that we were
going to tonight.
We
ended up leaving at around 5pm and
heading back to Denver to get ready for
the concert - OAR (thanks for the
tickets Kim!!!)It was a really good
night and a great show.
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DATE:
July 23 |
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ENTRY:
Another early rise after crashing on the
floor of Kim and Kate's friend Greg's
place. We had planned to go rafting with
Kim and Kate today but then we realized
that the drive to Missouri is going to
take much longer than we had been
thinking - 16.5 hours! So, we said
goodbye to everyone and headed back to
the car. Next stop, Ashley at Elephant
Rocks! |
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DATE:
July 24 |
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ENTRY:
We met up with Ashley and her dad and
brother at about 1:30am at a hotel and
we crashed on the floor again (two
nights on the floor does not make for a
happy Danielle...) After bagels for
breakfast we drove off to find Elephant
Rocks. Ashley rode with us to relieve
our boredom :)
Elephant
Rocks is a really cool area with huge
pink granite boulders. They are pretty
tough to climb in the heat though. I can
imagine they'd be a lot of fun when it
is cooler and there is some friction.
Right now we are just sliding off all
the holds.
We read
a lot about the history of the area and
the mining of the granite and when we
got to the top of the boulders we saw
names from people who worked here and
the dates they were here etched into the
rock. It's pretty awesome to see names
of people from the 1800's all over the
place. |
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