On March 31st, after our last post from AZ, Marie and I headed out into the town of Tucson to take care of various odds and ends that would finally put the finishing touches on our rolling home. We stopped by Goodwill, where bought ourselves a couple of pots and pans, and scored on some really hideous drapes that Marie was going to turn into curtains for the van. Taking a cue from Adam, we stopped by the dollar store and bought a little storage bin to keep our utensils and condiments from rolling all over the place, as well as some plates, a serving spoon, and cutting knives. We also took advantage of $2 showers at the Udall Rec Center before finally heading towards the U of A to meet up with an old classmate of Marie's for some drinks and food.
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| View of Tucson through the saguaros on Mt. Lemmon |
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| Close-up of a saguaro |
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| Marie and Derek on the U of A campus in Tucson |
After a solid afternoon of food and conversation, we parted ways back to Mt. Lemmon by way of a peircing shop to replace the hoop that made its way out of my lip and onto parts of the van unknown. The shop was called Straight To the Point, which coincidentally had the same name as the piercing shop where I bought my jewelery in Portland. We were greeted by Alec Bezzina, who it turns out owns the various studios in Portland and had just recently opened this shop in Tucson. Like my experience at the shop in downtown Portland, Alec's shop was very clean and had interesting decor and nice displays of the jewelery for sale. Alec was very courteous and professional (also like the staff in Portland), and upon finding out that we were fellow Portlanders, hooked me up with the replacement hoop at no charge! How about that? We also found out that Alec is not only the shop owner, but is also a life coach and motivational speaker as well, and he seemed to be a big fan of our climbing trip.
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| Juan getting a new hoop at Straight to the Point |
Once back at Mt. Lemmon, Marie and I turned in for the night before Adam got back from picking up Ali at the airport in Phoenix. When we awoke, it was officially April Fool's Day and we set off to pull a fast one on unsuspecting Adam and Ali. We quickly came up with a story that included a bar fight with frat boys down at the college that resulted in a seriously cut eye for myself, and nasty sprained wrist for Marie. We dug through our first aid kit to find bandages and gauze. Hook, line, and sinker, the recently awoken Adam and Ali completely fell prey to our prank, but were great sports about the whole thing and we had a good laugh about it over breakfast.
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| All sad about her "sprained wrist" |
The next two days were spent furiously protecting our fingertips by any means possible. We climbed some very difficult, water-polished rock at the Jailhouse, but even that was not enough to keep Ali from tearing a nice-sized hole in her index finger, making it extremely painful to continue climbing for the rest of her 2 days. Marie scored herself a nice redpoint on a route with a powerful and balance-y start, complete with full extension dynamic moves near the middle and decent runout a couple bolts before the finish. Adam and I redpointed a physical line that began on slopers which were slipperier than a wet ferret, and had some taxing moves that wore you down from start to finish. Did you notice how I left out the names and grades of the routes? Well, even with guidebook in hand, we had no idea most of the time, what routes we were on because it one of the least stellar guidebooks we've ever come across, to put it lightly. The end of the day was spent terrorizing tree frogs, gathering wood for the fire, and making dinner before repeating the agenda the next day at the Knight's Wall.
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| Adam on an unknown 5.11 at Jailhouse Rock |
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| Ally warming up on Goosehead Rock, near the Knight's Wall |
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| Eric on Gneiss Boys (12a) on Knight's Wall |
We received word that my friend Jessi and her family were headed to Red Rocks for climbing and dirtbike riding, and so instead of staying one more day at Mt. Lemmon, we wisely left the park with one last redpoint, and skin intact, in favor of nice smooth sandstone.
What a great trip this has been so far right? I'm constantly amazed at how many cool, and different people we meet while on the road. I don't know any other sport, pastime, hobby, etc., where you can meet a complete stranger, in a completely new area far from your home, and instantly make what can almost be considered a lifelong friend. One minute you're sharing beta on climbing routes, the next you're discussing favorite places, and before you know it, many times after meeting only once, you have an open invitation to a new area with a place to crash and friends to climb with. Even people that don't climb, like Alec Bezzina or Derek, are interested in our unique experiences, and are eager to share experiences in their own lives, be it professionally or recreationally. We seem to always find a common interest and varied conversation, and it never gets tiring to share and listen. So far on this trip we've left with invitations to New York, Norway, Utah, and of course Colorado. With the exception of NY and Norway, places we were going to anyway, but how cool that we have friends waiting to happily show around? And the same for us. We have extended invitations as well from Mexico all the way to Norway and are looking forward to showing them around and introducing them to our already awesome and expanding group of friends back in Portland. I know I speak for the both of us when I say I hope we can take up the offers both ways.
-Juan
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Picking up where Juan left off, we decided with Jessi and her family to climb at the Black Corridor, a narrow corridor lined with lots of great 9's, 10's, and some 11's. We almost climbed out the upper level, including routes such as Live Fast, Die Young 10d, which has a tricky mantle right at the first bolt, and Rebel Without a Pause, a really fun, short, overhung 11a/b. We were so impressed with Jeff & Robin's climbing, especially as Jeff was in approach shoes!
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| From L to R: Juan, Marie, Jessi, Robin, Joel, & Jeff |
Tuesday April 5th was my 25th birthday, and I had a mission - to send Yaak Crack (11c), a route at The Gallery in Red Rocks that I tried once back in October and once a few weeks ago when Dave, David, and Isaac from Portland came climbing with us. It's an overhung, pumpy route that follows a left-leaning crack using big holds on the face and in the crack. But I wanted to send it in style. A trip to the thrift store took care of that - I picked up a set of lavender satin pajama pants and a sparkly belly shirt and -POOF- a genie was born :)
Juan & I met Jessie and her family at the crag, where we warmed up and stretched well. Then I got on the Crack, and pulled my way up with every bit of strength I had. By the end it was sheer willpower (and perhaps the magical genie pants) that kept me from pitching, and I was overjoyed I had made it first go. We celebrated with red velvet cupcakes with birthday candles, and Jessi's family even gave me a sweet birthday card. Calls and messages from friends and family throughout the day also brought many smiles to my face.
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| Levitating (I wish!) up Yaak Crack |
The others had a great climbing day too - Jessie & Joel did great on lead, with Joel onsighting his first-ever 5.11 lead, Gridlock, after Jessie hung the draws up on it. Juan also had a huge milestone, sending Where the Down Boys Go (12d), on his second try! That route involved a strong move to an undercling flake, among a lot of other really pumpy moves. We left there feeling 10 feet tall.
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| Juan redpointing Where the Down Boys Go 12d |
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| Irish Car Bombs - one of our favorite concoctions - at Dick's |
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| Hey Adam, look, we have curtains! |
Marie
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