New Zealand Part 1 - The Sunny Days

I suppose it’s safe to say this trip to New Zealand had its proverbial roots in my last visit there three years prior when Kristin and I journeyed the length and breadth of the North and South Islands on a working holiday visa.  During our trek, as fate would have it, Kristin and I met Matt at a pub trivia game in Queenstown and three years later they announced their engagement.  They would be getting married in Queenstown on May 7, 2011, thus bringing the original trip full circle and me back to the land of the long white cloud to share in the joys of the wedding.  The wedding, combined with the stunning natural beauties of New Zealand and the abundance of amazing climbing there resulted in a collusion of minds between myself and long time pals and climbing partners, Bill and Matt, as we ironed out the details for a two week climbing trip across the South Island to end with what promised to be the grand event of Kristin and Matt’s wedding.  Along the way our group of three turned into a group of four as Matt himself discovered romance on the ice (he had been working in Antarctica in the months leading up to the New Zealand trip) and his girlfriend and fellow climber, Jamie, became as a member and co-conspirator on our little escapade.

Our trip commenced in Christchurch where we enjoyed the warm hospitality of my dear friends, Kay and Jaron, who have come to my rescue more than once in my journeys through New Zealand!  On that first beautiful, sunny day Bill, Jamie, Jaron and I explored the sights of the Banks Peninsula and Akaroa, a historic and picturesque French and British settlement.  That evening the whole crew got together, Matt, Jamie, Bill, Jaron, Kay, Lisa, Ben and myself, and we had quite the plentiful and tasty BBQ washed down with heaps of beer and wine.  At one point the libations perhaps temporarily distracted our erstwhile grill master, Jaron, who could be seen busily beating down the head high flames that were merrily leaping over the grill!  I am happy to report that both Jaron and the meat survived in fine form!  After a solid night of sleep and a hearty breakfast of coffee and porridge we set out on our climbing adventure the following morning.

On our way north to the limestone cliffs of Payne’s Ford, our first climbing destination, we paused for some sightseeing and lunch in Kaikoura where we sampled the famous Hine’s Takeaway fish n’ chips, yum!  We also had the pleasure of stopping at a “secret” spot Matt and Tim had discovered on their previous trip to New Zealand and watched the hilarious antics of baby seals swimming, jumping and playing all along a small stream that led to a large pool at the base of a waterfall where even more pups were frolicking...the scene was almost surreal and like nothing I’d experienced before.  Buckling down for a few long hours of driving we finally arrived at Hang Dog Camp in Payne’s Ford.  We hastily set up our tents and headed into Takaka, the colorful, free-spirited local town, to grab a curry dinner at The Wholemeal Café.  The following morning I was able to try out my shiny new Jetboil stove for breakfast…yep, it boils water in a flash so coffee was flowing into everyone’s cups in a jiff and it even did an admirable job cooking oatmeal, well, neglecting the bits that got incinerated to the bottom of the “pot” and the boiling over the top incident which was probably more operator error (read me being overzealous with my oatmeal making) than anything.  Bill was the morning’s hero as he somehow managed to scrub up the whole lot so that it almost resembled new!  Thus fortified we set out to climb…

We found an area with a number of routes to warm-up on, I use warm-up loosely here as Bill and I opted (ok, it was probably more my fault) to start right off on what I think were 5. 10’s.  Now, let me preface this by saying I hadn’t been on rope in almost nine months, having spent almost all my time bouldering, and the last time I had been on rope was at Kentucky’s Red River Gorge, known for its steep, overhanging, powerful/endurance lines.  Now here I was, suddenly working my way on lead up a technical, vertical to slightly slabby route on crap feet and thin hands, freaking myself out a whopping two feet above the last bolt, thinking to myself “I used to LIKE rope climbing?!” And yep, if you’re wondering, I managed to take my first falls of the trip on that very first lead…guess you gotta get them out of the way sometime…the sooner the better?  Yeah, let’s go with that.  Luckily, after a couple climbs the majority of kinks worked themselves out; I stopped flailing and started enjoying the sport climbing game again.  That is until we decided to attempt a series of climbs that had to be done from a hanging belay, off a tiny ledge that you first had to climb up to, then traverse across to reach your chosen anchor.  Mad kudos to Jamie for leading the technical slab section up to the ledge as well as setting up the traverse!  So following Jamie up, here we are, clipped in with our respective partners on this “ledge” with about as much room to move as a neatly trussed pig on a spit, Bill trying to give me a crash course on rope management, and trying to tick a couple more climbs off before the sun set.  It’s Bill’s turn to lead so up he goes leaving me to my rope wrangling devices.  No problems, I clean the route and we move down the line to the next set of anchors and the next route.  We get all situated and I start checking out the opening moves of the climb.  I look at the holds, or should I say lack thereof, then I turn to look at Bill, feel holds, look at Bill…who is tethered directly below my fall zone should I peel before I make the first clip with no room to get out of my way.  Now anyone who’s climbed with me knows I do not fall in the most predictable, tidy way possible, I more resemble a cart wheeling pinwheel loosed from its anchor haphazardly rushing groundward.  Studying the moves up to the first bolt I had visions of careening wildly off the wall, smashing down directly on Bills head a flailing mass of arms, legs, draws and other various gear, resulting in severe bodily injury to both of us.  Matt, realizing the problem on his rap down from the next route over, wisely decides a trip to the ER this early in the trip is not advisable and clips the first bolt for me.  Feeling better now that Bill is safe from my flailing tendencies I proceed up the most thin, technical climb I’ve been up in a long time, but somehow pull off the onsight.  All members of the team in one piece the routes are subsequently cleaned and we rap off the ledge as dusk descends.  We then head into town for some congratulatory beer and pizza from Dangerous Kitchen.

Day two dawns at Hang Dog Camp and we are all eager to get back to the rock and climb!  The first day issues (mostly) worked out we have an awesome day on some fun and classic lines!  Bill gets the days style points for pulling off one of the most desperate, terrifying looking, no feet, cross-over lunges I’ve ever seen on a route (because he didn’t like my beta) and somehow holding on!  After a full and glorious day of climbing we hit the road hoping to get a good chunk of driving done towards our next destination…Castle Hill.  We drove all the way to Westport where we opted for the luxury of a hostel, Bill’s first night in such an establishment, ever.  I was mightily amused when I learned that Bill, having no soap but desperate for a shower, apparently washed and shampooed with shaving cream because “at least it was something with a scent.”  Grinning, I offered him my soap and he proceeded to get a proper wash-up the following morning.

As fate would have it the weather gods turned against us that morning and we awoke to grey, dreary, rainy skies.  We made the most of our trip down the west coast though, stopping and exploring Pancake Rocks and Punakaiki Cavern before continuing our trip through Arthur’s Pass and Castle Hill.  Alas, our hopes that the weather would clear on the eastern side of the Pass were drowned in the puddles that lay on the road, still rippling with falling rain drops as we sadly drove past a very wet Castle Hill.  After much debate over a couple pints and a dismal local weather report at a bar in the small town of Springfield, it was decided we would stop for the night and the next day proceed to Queenstown where we would have a dry place to stay with Kristin and plenty of climbing opportunities within striking distance should the weather allow.

My pals Kay and Jaron!

Group shot somewhere along the East Coast drive.

Hanging belay!

Jamie crushing

Getting ready to do some spelunking...Kiwi style!

Fun in the Florida Sun…a.k.a. The 2^5 Adventure

Let me begin by saying that this particular adventure was conceived by my dear friend Anne during the long, cold, grey, icy Pennsylvania winter.  I can completely identify with the desire to escape the dreariness as this very same weather played a considerable roll in returning me to the warm, sunny state of my birth, Florida.  Anne and I were having lunch somewhere in Hershey, the exact location I do not recall, during my most recent visit to my adoptive northern home when she presented me with the idea…Suzanne and herself, along with their two toddlers, Audrey and Austin respectively, would embark on an epic road trip of 1000+ miles to visit me in the Sunshine State this spring…what did I think?  Of course I instantly loved the idea of two of my best compadres/partners in crime and their wee ones coming to visit me…as long as they arrived with some shred of sanity after two days of driving with two toddlers!  This quickly spawned the trip’s original nickname 2³:  two toddlers, two parents, two days of driving!  We further concluded that if Suz was in agreement and they did in fact make the trek all the way to Florida we should do it up right – after all, one does not typically undertake such a daunting task to visit Spring Hill, FL, my hometown, we simply must stay where the Sunshine State shows off her very best colors…the beach!

Initially, I have to admit I had my doubts as to whether this particular adventure would actually come to fruition.  It seemed to me a tremendous amount of effort and possible misery (imagining the worst case scenario of traveling with two two year olds on a road trip of that magnitude) on Anne and Suz’s part to make it happen.  But as the months rolled by Suz and Anne proved more than willing to embark on this escapade and the trip became a reality, in fact, it even acquired two whole orders of magnitude, evolving from 2³ to 2⁵…‎2 toddlers, 2 years old, 2 parents, 2 days of driving, 2 times!

I cannot provide much detail on their journey down beyond knowing that there was much singing; classics such as “stinkbug is here, stinkbug is here, hi ho the derry oh, stink bug is here” (apparently a stinkbug stowed away with the traveling foursome which Audrey spotted and incorporated into her favorite song…as if we need yet more bugs in FL)!  All this singing must have kept spirits high as everyone seemed to be in splendid moods when they arrived at Ft. Desoto Beach on Sunday afternoon (ok, maybe it was less the singing than finally being out of the car and standing on a warm, sandy beach…free to stretch, run and play in the surf)!

During our week stay on St. Pete Beach far too many excellent and hilarious times were had to be fully documented here.  There was a lot of beach time…sand castles, digging holes, Frisbee, swimming, relaxing, beach bars, walks, talks, and of course heaps of sun and sand!  Some fantastic friend time – Kay, Jamie, my Mom, Tim, Steve, Jess and at some points practically the whole Vertical Ventures crew!  We hit up Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa where the kids got up close and personal with giraffes, howling gibbons, goats, llamas, and a host of other animals as well as being able to take a train ride (for Austin multiple train rides) and have yet more water related fun!  Then of course there was the food and drink, heaps and heaps of it!  We had grouper sandwiches, french fries and cold beer at beach bars, Cuban sandwiches, Media Noches, deviled crab, guava pastries, and café con leche from the very authentic La Ideal.  At Mazzaros, a simply fabulous Italian market in St. Pete, we had fresh-made ravioli in three varieties, gorgonzola, pear and cheese, and spinach and cheese, garlic bread, fresh (literarily made that day and still warm) mozzarella cheese, and mango and ginger stilton.  At Taco Bus we had an assortment of amazing Mexican food while Audrey and Austin entertained us dancing to Latin music.  Thursday night was Ceviche with its amazing tapas menu and pitchers of sangria (the waitress was concerned we might not be able to finish all we ordered…silly girl…I think there was a single shrimp and some lettuce left)!  This feast was followed by hours of dancing with the Vertical Ventures crew to the reggae rhythms of Jahfari!  There was a night of sushi were we had to pull up an entire separate table to hold all of the food…sashimi, seven different sushi rolls, panang curry, stir fried veggies, salad, edamame, and soup to round things out.  Sprinkled in between these eating events were multiple gelato stops , homemade rum cake, piña coladas and margaritas on the deck, a couple home cooked feasts and the list wouldn’t be complete unless I mentioned “hot oats” every morning (you know, trying to stay somewhat healthy)!  All these culinary delights led to one of the trips many memorable quotes “well, we ARE good at eating!”  Not to be forgotten were long talks after the kids were asleep out on the deck overlooking the water, one flakalicious land lady who provided a good hour of amusement all on her own, a brief but fun climbing adventure at Vertical Ventures, wagon rides, walks through downtown St. Pete at sunset, a stop at the infamous John’s Pass and a rendezvous with pirates, and finally one very up close and personal shark encounter!  The kiddos provided their own brand of entertainment, between little Miss Godzilla Heskin and Mr. I-Like-to-Roll-in-the-Sand-Parmer a grand time was had by all! 

One Day at Little Rock City – 36 Hours of Travel, 8 Glorious Hours of Climbing!

This weekend put the finishing touch on what has been for me an insanely busy month. It began with a week long, amazing bouldering trip to Bishop, CA, followed by two and a half weeks in Washington State for work, and in the closing moments of that adventure a new one was conceived! I was invited by two different friends to join them on a climbing trip to Little Rock City for the weekend (ironically the two people in question knew each other but didn’t realize I knew either of them so it was just one big happy climbing family)! As soon as I was sure work was finalized and we were indeed flying home on Wednesday I began to pull together a plan to get me to Chattanooga on Thursday…yep, fly home from Seattle Wednesday and drive to Tennessee on Thursday!

A quick version of the two day plan goes something like this: after traveling all Wednesday, starting in Richland, WA hung-the-hell-over at 5:00 am, I arrived at Tampa airport at 11:30 pm and by the time I picked up my luggage and made it home it was 12:30 am Thursday. I pulled out all my dirty clothes and threw them in the washing machine while unpacking the things I’d need to take with me in the “morning”. Fell into bed at 1:30 am and was up the next morning at 8:00 to finish my laundry, take a shower, and re-pack my clothes, camping gear, and some food by 11:30 when Eric met me at my house, we packed up the car and were on the road around noon. It just so happened that my friend Eric from Vertical Ventures had nothing going on this weekend and was pretty siked for a southern sandstone climbing adventure himself so on really, really short notice (less than 24 hours) he decided to join the fun! We made it to Chatty by 8:00 pm where we picked up some goodies at Greenlife and then met up with Dan, Margaret and company, who had been lucky enough to have spent the day climbing, for some simply amazing burgers at Urban Stack. Following this feast we all headed to Possum Creek Campground were we set up camp to a chorus of barking dogs in the dark and crashed into our various tents and hammocks as soon as humanly possible!

Friday was a simply phenomenal day of climbing! Good friends, lots of laughs, amazing amount of effort put into some unparalleled climbs, problems sent, fingers shredded and of course plenty of projects to come back to! On a personal high note I sent The Wave (V6), a problem that shut me down in a big way the last time I was at LRC. I’ve got to give a heaping round of thanks to Margaret for the beta that got me up it and to Jenny for brushing those slopey holds for me! Sending Swingers (V4) was another highlight of the day as was making progress with Margaret on Dragon Lady; a frustrating problem if you’re on the shorter side but it’ll go for both of us next time! We climbed until at least 7:00 at which point we were all to varying degrees cold, hungry and sore so we headed to downtown Chatty for dinner at the Terminal Brewhouse…we were well rewarded with some damn tasty beers and again, mouthwatering, gourmet burgers!

Unfortunately, despite Dan’s most earnest attempts to will the weather gods to favor us with no rain it began pouring sometime in the wee hours of the morning Saturday in what turned out to be a regional storm (i.e. nowhere in the southeast was dry) so greatly saddened we were forced to abandon day two of climbing and opted to head on home. However, prior to parting ways it was decided that we should have one more meal together and it had to be………waffles! Nothing else would suffice but waffles. So we packed up wet tents, loaded our wet selves into our wet cars, and rolled on into Chatty once more where we were led a merry and epic chase for the ever elusive waffle. Yes, after driving around downtown, stopping at super crowded restaurants with over an hour wait for breakfast (who knew that breakfast was such a popular pastime in Chattanooga), asking locals for advice, walking around in the pouring rain and splashing though puddles we finally found them, the nefarious waffles, at a diner called Longhorn Restaurant around noon! Here much food and many waffles were consumed as we were entertained watching it being prepared by a little old grandma who could flip, fry, scramble, boil, and sauté with the best of them! We then said a very wet good-bye to Dan, Margaret, Jenny, Eric and Tyler in the parking lot and began our journey back to FL. This trip included severe thunderstorm warnings, tornado and hail warnings, torrential driving rain and gusty winds until we were 90 miles from the FL border at which point Mother Nature relented a bit figuring she had successfully curtailed any further thoughts of climbing this weekend! We arrived at my place around 11:00 pm (poor Eric had another 45 minute drive to get back to Tampa). I don’t think I’ve been so exhausted in a long time, although that single day of climbing and catching up with everyone was worth it! I will admit I spent today recovering though, i.e. laying in a hammock in the warm, sunny, beautiful FL weather by the pool…I need to fill up my severely depleted energy reserves for the next adventure already affectionately known as 2^3, a week with Suzanne, Anne, Audrey and Austin at the beach!

The Hanford Experience

While most people would not, perhaps, include their work as an “adventure” there are elements of UXO field work that I feel could certainly apply. Honestly, I’ve had some crazy stories come out of my time in the field that rival some of my travel stories, a fact I believe anyone who’s worked at a UXO site can attest to!

For this particular job there is the actual nature of the site that makes it somewhat “original” and unique. The Hanford Site, where Roy and I have been working for the past two weeks, is a decommissioned (for the most part) nuclear production center that was originally established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project and was home of the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. To add to its infamy Hanford can lay claim to having developed the plutonium that went into the first nuclear bomb which was dropped over Nagasaki, Japan during WWII. Subsequently the project expanded to include nine nuclear reactors and five large plutonium processing complexes from which most of the 60,000 weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal were developed. The manufacturing process has left behind 53 million gallons of high-level radioactive waste that remains on the site representing two-thirds of the United States high-level waste by volume. Currently the federal government spends $2 billion annually and employs about 11,000 workers on the clean-up effort, despite this Hanford still remains the most contaminated nuclear site within the U.S. In order to work on the site you have to sit though a veritable college curriculum of safety classes covering topics where you learn such things as the difference in the warning sirens you could potentially hear on the site, archaeological training, asbestos avoidance, how to handle potential targeting by foreign spies and terrorists, site specific safety, UXO specific safety, etc, etc, etc….

Given the above, the work Roy and I were out there doing seems the proverbial small potatoes - attempting to clean up UXO (unexploded ordinance) from a formal pistol range along the base of a scared Native American site within the Hanford complex. A typical day meant getting up at the bright and cheerful time of 4:20 am to arrive on site by 6:00 am for the daily safety brief (and stretching, can’t forget the stretching). We’ve spent the last two weeks pushing an EM61 (for those unfamiliar with this instrument it’s a time-domain metal detector) over, around, and through around 61 separate, 100ft x 100ft grids with about 40 pounds of batteries strapped on our backs. This was accomplished typically over varying terrain with the ubiquitous and often completely exasperating sagebrush scattered across the grids in typical Washington weather, cold, rainy, and blustery until 4:00 pm at which point we headed back to our motel (and to be fair this was actually an “easy” site compared to others I’ve been on). Afterward we would download the data, photocopy notes, write up a daily summary of work, charge the heaps of batteries that take up every outlet in your hotel room, head to the gym to lift (first time in years that I’ve seriously lifted weights again and it’s been fun…Roy’s been a great personal coach), then off to grab dinner and crash into bed to repeat the process the following day.

On the weekends things liven up a bit. The first weekend in Richland we stayed local and went out on the town with some of the UXO techs and personnel from the site. We had a great time partying it up at The Pub and Jokers, were many drinks were enjoyed, dancing (dirty and otherwise) took place, and quite a few laughs were shared. We also experienced Jason and Brandon’s combined cooking prowess when we were invited over for a BBQ and movie…the pork chops were spot on and a welcome break from all the restaurant food we’d been eating! The second weekend Roy and I headed west to Seattle where we enjoyed the hospitality of my dear friends Bill and Vanessa. We had a fabulous time hitting up some of Seattle’s plethora of enchanting, delectable, and unique bars and restaurants, climbing at Stone Gardens, eating scrumptious cupcakes (for breakfast nonetheless…at least in Roy’s case…Vanessa and I chose to eat ours at 2:00 am after hours of drinking and if my somewhat fuzzy memory serves me correctly they were scrumptious), seeing old friends and meeting new ones, and participating in a pub crawl that ended in the wee hours of the morning!

Bouldering in Bishop: March 1 – 5, 2011

Five days of bouldering the stunning lines of the Buttermilks, Happys, and Sads has left me in a somewhat bittersweet state of mind. Sweet because the climbing has been, simply put, amazing. Sweet because climbing there moved me along the path on my personal journey to overcome some of my bouldering hurdles/demons…among these, sending some of my tallest (by far) problems to date (and not having a complete melt down mid-way through), working on the mental aspects of my climbing such as not putting limits on what I think I can accomplish (despite this I still had a number of unexpected and very enlightening instances where I initially doubted my ability to work a problem or move but when I actually put effort into it the results were significantly better than expected), as well as the simple joy that comes with climbing a lot of extraordinary rock and sending some classic lines. Bitter because it feels like I was just getting into my climbing groove when I had to leave, because there were still so many incredible boulders I didn’t even get to see, much less get my fingers on, because there were so many projects left unfinished (but that just means I have to come back which, after all, is not a bad thing)!

The climbing in the Buttermilks and Tablelands is radically different but superb in their own unique ways. The Buttermilks are characterized by long, pure, often technical and beta intensive climbs up stand alone quartz monzonite boulders. The Happys and Sads are a jungle gym of rock and boulders – a veritable climber’s playground. The bouldering in the Tablelands tends to be more athletic, bigger holds and bigger moves with varying beta depending on climbing style, height, etc. However, not only is the climbing in Bishop remarkable and varied, but the scenery itself is stunning. The broad vistas afforded from the Buttermilks and the rim of the Tablelands across the breadth of Owens Valley, flanked by the snowcapped Eastern Sierras to the west and White Mountains to the east outlined against a huge blue sky is worth the journey to this majestic land in and of itself.

To add the obligatory hilarity that is a prerequisite for any climbing trip we piled six people (Eric, Jehs, Gus, Patrick, Katy and myself) into one cheap hotel room at the seemingly notorious Thunderbird Motel for five days straight. Sleeping arrangements were interesting – three to one queen sized bed, two in the second bed and me on my sleeping pad and sleeping bag across the floor. Luggage, food, clothes, climbing gear, towels and electronic gadgets strewn across the room in haphazard disarray added to the general chaos. Many trips were made to the delectable and locally famous Erick Schat's Bakery with their 35 cent day old baked goods shelf! As an additional perk we met up with Micah, Stella and Sarah whom we climbed with at some point every day of the trip. Micah served both as our local tour guide, personal climbing coach and spotter extraordinaire! We also met new friends along the way including a group of climbers hailing from Norway; these we met at the local climber’s camp descriptively called “The Pit” one evening on our way to soak in one of the regions many natural hot springs. We ended up having such a splendid time chatting with them that the trip to the hot springs was abandoned and the evening was spent around their camp fire drinking Tecate, passing around a huge bottle of wine, and swapping stories (some among our group consumed substantially more liquid refreshment than the rest of us which led to a fair number of entertaining stories and the obligatory hangover the following day)! In the end it was exceptionally inspiring and rewarding to see everyone climbing so well…to see projects sent, hard lines on-sighted, the effort, blood, sweat and tears everyone put into personal favorite climbs and new friendships forged!

On the last day of the trip I managed to send Fly Boy Arête (V5) on my final attempt! I have to thank Micah for talking us into checking out the Fly Boy boulder in that final hour Jehs and I had left in the Buttermilks, and again for convincing me to have that final go on it before packing up to leave. It was in incredible feeling to walk away with that send in my pocket! Jehs and I then had an enjoyable and leisurely journey back down south to Los Angeles making a stop at Gus and Nancy’s roadside stand along the way for some local honey and various samples of tasty goodies! Thanks to Jehs I was able to enjoy a totally new culinary experience once we reached LA as we dined out at an amazing little vegan restaurant where I sampled vegan chicken wings (delicious…and they even had a little drumstick looking “bone” and all), drunken noodles with vegan chicken, and to finish it off vegan carrot cake! We then had a bit of an adventure returning the rental car and getting back to the hotel but a long soak in the whirlpool bath tub and a gloriously comfortable feather top mattress provided the perfect ending to a wonderful trip!

The Trip West

I'm currently hanging out at an oh-so-fascinating terminal in the Nashville airport waiting out a weather delay. Thus far the trip west has been a classic study in air travel. Let's see, first there was the emergency pit stop for my Mom on the drive to the airport which put me behind, but not so badly as to be unrecoverable, usually. Today, however, just had to be the day that I experienced the worst security lines I've ever seen at Tampa International (the line snaked all the way back to the shuttle doors after zig-zagging like an oversized, coiled up, sleeping python and moved about as fast). The stewardess was making the final boarding call for my flight when the lovely security agent decided MY backpack needed a second look due to my offending (but empty) Nalgene bottle. After she studiously ascertained that my Nalgene was in fact empty, I was allowed to collect my various checked luggage and made a haphazard dash at full speed to the gate trailing personal items in my wake. All the running I've been doing lately must have paid off as I made it before the doors closed! I was then sandwiched between two rather large men as only middle seats were now available but as I was actually on the plane I didn't mind all that much. Just outside of Nashville the weather gods decided to frown on our flight and we were placed in a holding pattern, circling aimlessly round and round for about forty-five minutes until it was deemed "safe" to land. When permission was finally granted we of course passed through the offending storm to fairly substantial turbulence...at which point the little girl in the seat in front of me began throwing up...and continued to do so until we landed. This same beautiful weather has now also delayed my outgoing flight to LAX. Ah...air travel, how I have sooo missed you!

A New Beginning

Three years after my first trip to New Zealand, and my admittedly inadequate attempt at blogging my adventures while there, I'm back at it for round two! Round two of both traveling as well as attempting to write about those travels. I've learned a few things about both endeavors in the years between and sincerely hope I apply those lessons this time around!

Today seems an appropriate juncture to begin the writing process - at this point I'm fully committed to two amazing trips that should provide plenty of fun, excitement, adventure, sordid stories...oh wait, we're supposed to be learning from the first trip...nix the sordid stories, or was that increase them?! First, I will be joining some friends from my adoptive state of Pennsylvania on what promises to be an epic climbing trip to Bishop, California. Second, I'll be headed back to New Zealand with a couple old pals/climbing partners/work mates of mine from Tampa for a grand climbing tour of the South Island, my original traveling partner (and dear friend's) wedding, followed by a whirlwind tour of Australia's east coast! First stop though, Bishop....

Bishop is an area with over 2000 boulder problems on two different rock types, a virtual cornucopia of climbing. The Happys, Sads and Catacombs are part of the Bishop Tuff, a rhyolitic pyroclastic flow that formed during the cataclysmic volcanic eruption of the Long Valley Caldera 750,000 y.a. The bouldering here is characterized by an abundance of finger pockets and crimpy faces as well as gymnastic, juggy overhangs and low traverses with mostly flat landings. The Buttermilks, on the other hand, are massive glacial erratic boulders made of rough quartz monzonite, an intrusive igneous rock. These are notoriously rough on the fingers and TALL…one site describes climbing on them thus “…on many routes you’ll soon find your feet well above a height you’d want to bail at. Don’t leave any foam at home." Anyone who’s bouldered with me knows which type of climbing I prefer! I suppose it is good conditioning for my second trip to New Zealand and the high rocks of Castle Hill! Wow...I'm actually talking about volcanology and glacial erratics - knew I got those degrees for a reason!! (For any geology geeks our there besides me who are actually interested in the regions fascinating geology check out the USGS site: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/lvo/about/history.php).