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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 5
June 13 - 19 |
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DATE:
June 13 |
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ENTRY:
Zak and Rachel took us back to Priest
Draw yesterday. Zak was great at giving
beta (he really knows this area) and
Rachel motivated me to try some problems
I never would have gotten on myself.
My new favorite problem is called
Ten-Ho. It's a roof that sits
above and behind another wall. At first
glance I kind of laughed at the idea of
trying it because the landing looks
horrible. Just walking up to the
problem we've all already slipped down
the hill right below the big move
getting over the roof, so the idea of
being completely horizontal to the
ground with both heals locked into
pockets wasn't very appealing. I
never climb big, powerful stuff like
this anyway. It kind of freaks me out to
begin with. But after seeing
Rachel doing so well (she was awesome!)
I had to give it a go. I
definitely felt pretty sketchy up there
and was really hesitant to go for the
move over the edge, but after a few
tries I sent my favorite problem.
"Awesome."
Tomorrow
I'll try to finish a v5 I've been
working on. I've worked all the moves,
now it's time to piece it all together.
Maybe I'll even try the crazy hard v6
that Rory and I struggled on yesterday.
If we get any further on it I'll be sure
to rave and rave! |
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DATE:
June 14 |
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ENTRY:
Rory's sister and her Dad joined us
climbing yesterday. It's really great to
see kids climb. They're naturals and
their bodies are more made for it than
adults sometimes. Felicia just
flew up the rock. We're really glad you
two joined us! And Rory's very
sorry he walked away with your really
cool bright orange and blue sunglasses
Felicia, but he's wearing them like
crazy! We'll put up some pics soon. |
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DATE:
June 15 |
ENTRY:
Woo hoo! I finished the problem I have
been working on since I got here. It's a
v5 and I have no idea what it's called,
but it was really hard for me. I
tried so many times yesterday and was
getting really close, but I just
couldn't hold on to the last hold- the
toughest move on the problem. When
we got there today I got on it three
times and I wasn't even close to getting
it. I was definitely frustrated with
myself, not so much for not getting it,
but for not even doing what I could do
the day before. Mind games for
sure. I think I was putting way to
much pressure on myself. I wanted to
finish it right away because I didn't
want Danielle and Rory to have to spot
so many times again. I guess they
would have been fine and happy to spend
time letting me try, but I couldn't see
that then.
These are the tiny things
Here I am, oh so happy to
I was holding
on to
have finished
So we packed up the
gear and headed to the Bat Roof where we
worked a couple classic problems on this
beautiful horizontal roof with hundreds
of pockets. Overhanging climbing
like this is not my best for sure.
It wasn't as scary as Ten Ho from a few
days ago, but it was tricky.
You're looking up at all these pockets
and who knows which ones to use.
Luckily Zak gave us some beta the other
day, but it was still pretty hard to
link it all together between memorizing
the moves and it being so long and
overhanging. It was a great
problem overall because it was something
that challenged us all, but that we
could all work on well. Then we tried
something further to the left, Shark Fin
maybe. It was pointed out to us by a
couple of Flagstaff locals who did it
incredibly easily. It was a really
fun problem- thanks for sharing it! |
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DATE:
June 16 |
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ENTRY:
We had to leave Flagstaff last night,
but we definitely wanted to stay.
Rachel and Zak were amazing. They have
to be to let three complete strangers
into their home for almost a week. We'll
miss having a room of our own (we were
spoiled!), a kitchen, Rachel's
extraordinary bouncy-ball talent, Zak's
dancing ability, and much more about our
great hosts and the fantastic city of
Flagstaff. We'll keep in touch : )
We've now
made it to California!!! We took this
insane windy, pothole ridden, dirt road
for almost an hour, gaining thousands of
feet in elevation to finally make it to
the campgrounds of Black Mountain. It
was an exhilarating drive and view to
say the least. We had a chance to
look at some of the boulders (which are
huge!!!) and everything seems
impossible. We'll have to do some more
exploring because I don't think I can
get off the ground on any of these.
After
declaring today a rest day we took out
the crash pads, pillows, sunscreen, and
books and headed for the flattest rock
we could find (well, within twenty feet
or so of the campsite). There we
were, surrounded by boulders, roasting
in the sun. Just a few hours later
Rory was feeling the pain of sparsely
spread sunscreen. Let's hope we
all don't feel that way tomorrow. |
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DATE:
June 17 |
ENTRY:
Happy B-day Ash-the coolest Climb
Nashville climber ever : )
We're off on "the" 10. Thanks Amy for
letting me know the correct way to talk
interstates here in Cali. The plan
was to stay around Joshua Tree and meet
up with Amy, but she got pulled down
south to beach areas (I think).
We'll meet up somewhere on this trip for
sure! So for now we're heading
north and hoping for the best when it
comes to Bishop. I'm sure it will be
beautiful and hope there's some amazing
climbing for us. |
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DATE:
June 18 |
ENTRY:
Most importantly, Happy Father's Day. I
love you Dad. We have no service here,
so I can't call, but I want to!!
Sometimes it feels like we're on a cross
country tour- of climbing shops.
Everywhere we go there they are and
we're sucked right in. Nope, never to
buy anything, just to wonder and wish.
This time it's Wilson's Eastern Sports.
A good one.
To recap,
wow, the drive last night to Bishop was
crazy. It was a two lane road, but it
felt more like a rollercoaster with
bright lights. Up and down, up and
down. It's about time to be more
careful with gas too. One minute there's
a station every few miles and then, far
too suddenly, there's nothing but road.
We
nearly made it all the way to Bishop,
but it was so late and the long drive
wore me out, so we pulled over and
pitched a tent, hoping to overcome the
sleeplessness that car camping usually
implies. Unfortunately for us we
seemed to be in animal town and they
couldn't help but check out the
newcomers. It's strange being the ones
looked, sniffed, and prodded at.
Rory can tell all about it. But it was
all worth it when we took a look up and
were finally able to see all the sky
offers when there are no signs of
civilization around. Pitch black,
the stars layer upon layer as if you
could reach out and touch them lighting
the sky just enough. |
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DATE:
June 19 |
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ENTRY:
The town of Bishop seems great- the
phone service sucks! First,
there's no cell service (okay, not
Bishop's fault, I'll hand this one over
to Sprint) and then the pay phones only
call locally, but keep rejecting my
money! What does it take to make a phone
call around here?! But yeah, again, the
town is great : )
Climbing in Bishop is gruelingly hard.
It's SO windy! and the boulders are
frighteningly high. The combo is almost
too much for me. What am I
supposed to do looking up at a 40 foot
boulder with wind so strong that it's
throwing our huge crash pads around like
they are nothing more than a daily
newspaper. What do I do? I start
the trend- touch the first two holds,
realize that there are no feet in sight,
decide to find two new starting holds
with again, no feet, walk around the
boulder in circles hoping that I must
just be reading the little guide book
wrong (no such luck), try the first few
moves, fail miserably, and walk to yet
another giant rock to be scared by once
again. But those brief few moments
did present themselves where I could in
fact manage the first two moves and I
took the plunge and kept going and going
and going until I could finally breathe
again knowing I was safe at the top.
Relief. Then I would realize I still
have to manage my way down. Fear.
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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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Weekly favorites:
Music:
Spanish CDs
Climb:
"Ten-Ho" V4
(Priest Draw, Flagstaff)
Snack:
Cheddar and Sour Cream Chips
Cardgame:
Thirteen - a Montana special
Now Reading:
Kite Runner |
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