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Click to read
our individual diaries:
Meghan
Danielle
Rory
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Meghan McDonald
New York,
NY
Birthday:
June 21
Hometown:
Nashville, TN
Bio:
Click
here
Contact:
Meghan@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 |
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Week 3
May 30 - June 5 |
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DATE:
May 30,
2006 |
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ENTRY:
We changed plans a bit and went for
Foster Falls instead of the Obed- who
knew that was so far away?! I'm really
excited because it's the first place I
climbed outdoors. I have really
great memories of the summer Colette,
Chris, and I made the trip nearly every
weekend and how we followed every
climbing adventure with Cracker Barrel-
an adventure of its own. What were we
thinking! |
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DATE:
May 31,
2006 |
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ENTRY:
I found the very first sport route I
ever tried to climb. What a disaster
that was! I lead the beginning well and
I was feeling confident, but that was
short lived. I got to the last bolt and
was facing a big ledge over my head.
To this day I've never been as scared
climbing as I got on this route. To
finish I needed to do three hard moves
over my last piece of protection- no
way. I made it nearly there, my hands
were over the ledge, but I couldn't
move. I was stuck. I felt completely
helpless. I couldn't go higher, I was
petrified to fall, and it was too hard
to down climb. I ended up having
to fall on every bolt to get down low
enough to unclip and get down. I was
humiliated to say the least. I didn't
finish the route, I didn't know how to
get down, and I was scared to the point
of tears. I vowed to never lead climb
again. Never would I be that vulnerable
again. Well, here I am back again.
Danielle is pushing me to get back on
and challenge myself. I'm not up for it
today, my head's not ready for it. We'll
see about tomorrow. |
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DATE:
June 1,
2006 |
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ENTRY:
I hate bugs! I wore socks last night
trying to be proactive, thinking I could
at least save my feet. But no, they
attacked my ankle anyway, along with all
around my pants line and even my
forehead! Really attractive. But on a
good note, I did my route! What was I
thinking doing that way back when?! It
was grueling. I got to the ledge this
time and was just as ready to come down
as the first time. Maybe seeing Rory do
it gave me some motivation. This
time I hit the reachy move and was
squeezing so hard with one arm all the
way at the base of the ledge and the
other fully stretched over the side.
After nearly flailing off I threw up a
heel hook and found a little divot in
the flat, slopey roof- just enough to
get me over. Phew!! Now it's time to
nurse my bug bitten body. |
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DATE:
June 2 |
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ENTRY:
We realized far too late that the
directions we were following to get to
Rocktown in Georgia were actually from
Atlanta, not Chattanooga where we were
coming from. Ordinarily it wouldn't be
a problem and you could easily make
adjustments, but when you're traveling
on these little narrow roads, winding
further and further away from the last
marked road sign and there are no gas
stations, stores, or signs of life
generally, who knows where you are. You
get to so many points where you're
facing with completely guessing which
way to go. You just have to keep
driving, hoping that the next junction,
the only road sign you'll ever see out
here, will validate that last left turn
you took or if nothing else, at least
tell you it was wrong so you can work
out what's right. Well, we eventually
realized that left we took was
definitely a right and we made it to
Rocktown with enough light to get in a
good climb.
Unfortunately our good luck with weather
didn't hold out. Only a couple of hours
into climbing and over a mile into the
woods, the storm brewed and this time
the rain came crashing down. Luckily
Rory headed back to the car early with
the camera bag to at least keep it dry.
Meanwhile, Danielle and I gathered our
gear, packed our crashpad, and started
back. I tried running with the
oversized pad on my back, which is a
funny sight no matter who does it, but
with the wind blowing me backwards and
my ankle throwing me awkwardly side to
side with every stride, it was too much
to take. We opted for the crash pad-
overhead plan where at least the gear
inside would stay dry (so we thought).
What seemed like an hour trudging
through the rain was probably only
twenty minutes but by the time we got
back we were tired, hungry, and of
course, soaked. Time to take off. |
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DATE:
June 3 |
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ENTRY:
We made it to Horse Pens 40 in record
time. What an amazing place! The
campsite will spoil us a bit with all of
the amenities (although you won't hear
us complaining!) and it's a bit
touristy, but a short path away from our
tent is some of the greatest, most
beautiful boulders I've seen. There are
some unbelievable formations where the
rock curves around itself and other
rocks and trees with crazy bumps all
over and then quick vertical ledges.
Every boulder is unique. And there is
so much history in these rocks. For
thousands of years Native Americans
lived on this land and used the natural
rock shelters for protection from the
elements and from intruders. We learned
that the only peace treaty ever signed
by the Cherokee and Creek Nations took
place right here. I'm trying to take a
step back and imagine what it could have
been like to live here when this
remarkable rock was seen as much more
than a playground. |
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DATE:
June 4 |
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ENTRY:
Climbing at Horsepens 40 is really hard
for me. When I'm a few feet away from
the rock it's amazing how many huge
looking holds I see. I work out what I
imagine the sequence of the problem
should be. Then, I tighten my shoes,
chalk up, and and sit down underneath to
grab the starting holds to find out
nearly every time that nothing is what
it appeared to be. Sometimes this is
really great and part of what I love
about climbing, the endless surprises
and variations. It's an amazing feeling
to try something, fall off and try again
and again until finally you work out the
right way for you to contort your body
to move up and over the boulder. What's
not a good feeling is trying and trying
the same move over and over when you
don't know what you're doing wrong and
you can't think of anything different to
try. Climbing becomes such a mind
game. For me, I'm really good at
staying positive when we're all working
on something together and when I feel
like I'm getting closer to working out
the move or when I can see creative new
approaches to try. What I'm having a
really hard time with is staying
positive and not getting frustrated at
myself when I'm working a problem and
I'm stuck on a move but can't think of a
single thing to do differently. I feel
stuck and option-less. I've read a lot
of books and heard a lot of people talk
about not tying your self-worth into
your successes and failures, but it's
really hard to do. Today I was doing a
classic problem at HP40 called Bumboy
and I was on the last and hardest move
feeling like I tried everything I could
possibly think of but kept slowly
sliding off the round, turtle-shell
shaped rock. It was really fun up until
now when we were all trying new things,
some would look good, some wouldn't, but
now I was frustrated. And what's worse
is I get frustrated at myself for being
frustrated. At this point, it's over
for me and I have to step back and
really get a break to get my head back
into it. Sometimes it works and
sometimes it definitely doesn't. Today
I was lucky and two cool guys we met on
our first day here, Ben and Ryan, gave
me some good new beta to try. After a
few frustrated attempts and a nice rest
I started fresh and sent the problem
with a loud gasp of relief at the end.
I feel pretty happy now about a
successful send, but I've got a lot of
work to do. |
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DATE:
June 5 |
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ENTRY:
Round of applause for Rory, he's now a
proud member of our "you don't need to
change clothes for at least five
days" club. You don't have to look very
closely at our pics to see that Danielle
and I are the founding members.
Here's a big thanks to my Dad for giving
me some of his good luck when it comes
to playing cards- "When you're lucky
enough to be Irish, you're lucky
enough," right Dad? |
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(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!) |
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Favorite trip music:
Lucinda Williams (thanks Becca)
NPR (when possible)
Bare Naked Ladies
John Butler Trio
Alanis Morrisette
Favorite climbs:
"Iron bar" V5
(New River Gorge)
"Unknown" 5.11b
renamed STS!!
(Red River Gorge)
Favorite Snack:
Trail mix with peanut m&ms
Apples
Sandwich:
PB & J (light on the J) |
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