|
Danielle Jablonski
New York, NY
Birthday:
September 13
Hometown:
Townsville, Australia
Bio:
Click here
Contact:
Danielle@alt9.net
|
|
|
|
Diary
entries: |
|
|
|
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12 |
|
|
|
Week 4
June 6 - June 12 |
|
|
|
DATE:
June 6 |
|
ENTRY:
The last day at HP40 was a good and bad
day for me. I did my first V3 (onsight)
which felt pretty darn good and I had
fun taking photos but I also got sick
(stomach bug). First and last time for
the trip, I hope. Thankfully it didn't
last too long and it didn't ruin the
whole day. HP40 has been really fun all
round. I feel like my climbing has
improved in 4 days which is pretty cool
(my top-outs especially!), the scenery
has been beautiful and the campgrounds
were great. The history of this place is
pretty interesting (see Meg's journal
for some of that info). It's been nice
to spend a few days here but I'm ready
to move on and see more!
 |
|
|
|
DATE:
June 7 |
|
ENTRY:
Dallas is big and dry. A lot of the
drive to Dallas reminded me of driving
through parts of Australia when I was a
kid and we drove to Ayers Rock through
the deserts. Flat land, lots of dirt,
small shrubs and hot, hot air (that
makes the road look like it's melting).
We found
the gym we were looking for only to find
that the electric was out and wouldn't
be on until after 7pm (right when we had
planned to leave...). Glenn, the owner,
was really cool though and gave us the
tour and let us set up out back on the
very cool patio with sofa chairs. We
used the wireless to check our mail and
watched a movie. I fell asleep out there
it was so beautiful.
The sky was such a
great blue, we were in the shade from
the huge silos (where the climbing is)
and there was a great breeze. Perfect.
StoneWorks'
Silos
Climbing in the silos looked like it
would be cool but I think I might be a
little too claustrophobic and seeing
them in the dark was a little too eerie.
I was too tired to really climb by the
time the power came on anyway but Meg
and Rory did some bouldering. It was a
really nice afternoon. |
|
|
|
DATE:
June 8 |
|
ENTRY:
The drive out to El Paso was sooooo
long. We had changed plans to come out
here to meet up with a local and we'd
debated changing back to our original
plan when it was getting time to leave
Dallas and we hadn't heard from him. But
we decided to try it and thought it
would be worth heading out there to see
Hueco Tanks. So after nearly 13 hours
(!!) of driving we arrived in El Paso
and found a motel carpark with wireless
access to check our email. We ended up
not being able to catch up with our
contact so we drove around El Paso for a
bit and went down to see the US/Mexico
border. You couldn't see much except a
bridge with US flags on one side and
Mexican flags on the other. I think it
was worth the drive! We were so tired
and hot (a hundred and something
outside) that we decided we didn't have
the energy to try to find Hueco Tanks
and we knew there was a house and food
waiting for us at our next stop so we
took off and started up through New
Mexico.
The
drive out of El Paso past factories and
very run-down looking areas got the
three of us into a pretty in-depth
conversation about poverty and
capitalism (which surprisingly makes the
driving fly by!). The land in New Mexico
was really beautiful and so different
from Texas. We drove through dark grey
skies nearly all the way to the Arizona
border and met up with Meg's sister
Brook and crashed right away...
 |
|
|
|
DATE:
June 9 |
|
ENTRY:
We made the hour and a half drive to
Canyon de Chelly in the morning. It was
incredible. It blew me away the same way
the Grand Canyon did when I saw it years
ago. I feel like this canyon had even
more of an impact on me - it was smaller
than the Grand Canyon but still enormous
and the colors were so beautiful - the
red rock and all the greens at the
bottom of the canyon. Maybe it's also
easier for me to appreciate the beauty
of the rock in a place like that now
that I can appreciate rock on a much
smaller scale (as in the boulders we
climb).
Knowing a
little history about the place also made
it a much bigger experience and
I'd love to learn more. There was one
huge rock formation called Spider Rock
that was amazing. It turns out there is
a Spider Woman who is very important in
American Indian History - a few thousand
years longer than Spider Man...
I'm
really glad we had the day here. It's
been one of the highlights of the trip
for me so far. |
|
|
|
DATE:
June 10 |
|
ENTRY:
Driving to Flagstaff from Fort
Defiance/Window Rock in the Navajo
Nation. Did an interview this morning
with Curt, an American Indian living
in Fort Defiance who really gave us an
insight into the recent history of the
Navajo Nation and the struggles of
American Indians in this country (as
much as is possible in such a short
time). There is so much history here and
so much struggle that has been faced by
these people and struggles that are
being faced everyday and it's amazing
that so little is known about it outside
those living it. It certainly keeps me
motivated to try to make a change and do
something with my life. There are so
many struggles faced by so many people
everywhere and we just need to keep
fighting.
Curt was
such an amazing person to interview, I wish
we could make a documentary about him
and the history of his family.
He also
spoke some about climbing in this area
and about how there used to be a lot of
climbing done here and why it no longer
is allowed. It was really good to hear
and I hope we can get some of that
across in the movie and share with
people the importance of respecting land
and the people who live there and who
have lived there for so long.
On the
road: stopped at a petrified
wood/ostrich farm place. I fed an
ostrich! It was huge! A little bit of
Americana for me :)
I can't
believe I'm feeding an Ostrich!! |
|
|
|
DATE:
June 11 |
|
ENTRY:
Our first day climbing in Flagstaff at
Priest Draw. We got in yesterday
afternoon and met up with Zak and
Rachael who are very kindly letting us
crash at their place while we are here.
They have a really great place and a
beautiful puppy!!
We got
in to town in time yesterday to go check
out a festival that was happening
downtown and then crashed early. We got
up early this morning and headed out to
a great climbing area on the advice of
Zak and Rachael and met up with two
really cool local guys, Sonny and Brad,
who showed us around and got us up on
some really cool problems that we
otherwise probably wouldn't have tried
(overhanging with crazy mantle
top-outs!).
We had
really good Mexican food with Rory's
sister and her Dad who happened to be
road-tipping through Flagstaff at the
same time and then we all spent a couple
of hours playing pool and having our
butts kicked by an 11-year old (Felicia
you rock!). |
|
|
|
DATE:
June 12 |
|
ENTRY:
Meg and I headed out early and got in
some good climbing in the morning before
going back out in the afternoon with
Rory, Zak, Rachael and Aspen. It's so
good to have people showing you where to
go - I don't think there is any way we'd
have found the areas we did without help
and even less way we could have climbed
the hard routes without good beta. I
didn't climb much in the afternoon
session so I'm excited to get back out
there and try some of the really hard
stuff that Meghan and Rory were jumping
on. |
|
|
|
|
|
(The writings in these
blogs are our personal
views, not those of any of our sponsors,
so
please don't send them any nasty
emails!) |
