Cormier Magness (5.6) - Multi pitch Rock Climb

 It was a short, but brutal hot day for us! But still glad to be able to get out and onto a couple of pitches of the Cormier Magness route on Whitehorse Ledge.

Pinnacle Rock, CT - Rock Climb

 

At the top of Pinnacle Rock, CT

It was good to get back to Connecticut to climb again. 3 years ago I onsighted VeeZee (5.4), a super fun crack! Today Jeni lead VeeZee and we also got in a couple laps on Leap Frog (5.6), Wizard Of Oz (5.7) and Emerald City (5.8). So happy to help you out Jeni! :)

#girlswhoclimb #rockclimbing #pinnaclerock #trad #toproping #leafpeeping

Top 25 Climbing Blogs of 2021

Hawaii Girl Adventures Blog has been selected as the Top 25 Climbing Blogs of 2021 by The Adventure Junkies! Thank you TAJ and congratulations to the other climbing blogs that made the list!

Beginner's Easy Variation - Multi Pitch Rock Climbing

Belaying Nuno up P2 

Congratulations Nancy! It was Nancy's first time on a multi pitch rock climb, and it was a lot of fun to be included on her special day! It was also gratifying to help her experience her first multi pitch rock climb. We climbed Beginner's Easy Variation on Whitehorse Ledge. After we got to the P2 belay at the tree, it started to snow light flurries - and then it just colder! In the middle of P2 I ran into a bit of trouble. 15 feet above my last piece of protection the rope wouldn't budge - it was stuck and I couldn't climb any further. Nuno had slack on his end and said it looked like the ropes were stuck around the corner. I had no choice but to downclimb to my last piece of protection. Then Nuno lowered me to the corner where I removed the pro, unstuck the ropes and flipped them onto the top of the corner. It was fine from then on. But it just kept colder so we bailed after completing P3. We used my 70m double ropes and rapped down in 2. Thanks Nuno for the lead belays and for including me. We'll be back to finish up the route when the temps are warmer.

Belaying Nancy up P1

Belaying Nancy up P2

Nuno at the tree belay

Nancy making her way up P3

Nancy rappelling 

Rock Garden - Rock Climbing

Rock Garden (5.4)
Lost Horizon, Sundown Ledges
Albany, NH

Got to onsight Rock Garden (5.4) this morning. The chimney was damp and dark and smelled a bit of urine. Got to hand jam, foot jam, face climb, friction and stem on this climb. But I didn't need to do any liebacking as listed on the MP description for this climb. It was a fun climb and hope to get back there to climb again! Lost Horizon is a super nice crag with clean rocks and the base is well shaded. We were the only ones climbing at Lost Horizon and it made for a mellow day of climbing.

Thermacell Backpacker Mosquito Repeller

Eric brought this cool mosquito repeller to the crag and I was impressed! It's very lightweight and kept the bugs and mosquitoes at bay while we climbed. You can order one online here at Thermacell.com

The Main Cliff

A couple of years ago I had hiked the Boulder Loop Trail at Sundown area off the Kancamagus. At the time I didn't realize it was a rock climbing area. Today, Eric showed me the Lost Horizon and Main Cliff area. 

Farley Ledges - Rock Climb

Photo blog of my Farley Ledges rock climb with Jeff, Geoff and Al. What an awesome crag area, but I didn't get to see the Bouldering stuff! Hoping to get back there soon to climb as well as Boulder!

Women's Trad Climbing Clinic - Rock Climbing

Women’s Trad Climbing Clinic
American Alpine Club Craggin' Classic 2013
Cathedral Ledge, North Conway, NH

Found out about this awesome event while I was still hiking in Hawaii. I had taken the AMC Rock Climbing Course with the intent of learning how to set anchors. But along with it came lessons on Trad Seconding and some ops to second. This clinic looked like the perfect op to finally get to learn about setting anchors, so after checking my calendar, I quickly booked my spot for the Women’s Trad Climbing Clinic.

Check-in was at the Glen Ellis Family Campground in Glen, NH. After meeting with Alexa of Mooney Mountain Guides, we drove to The North End of Cathedral Ledge. It was a short hike uphill from the street parking. There were 8 students, 1 instructor and 2 assistants and Alexa quickly got to demonstrating building bomber anchors.

In this clinic we learned components of building a safe anchor system using the  acronym ERNEST. In the AMC Rock Climbing Course the acronym SERENE was used. After doing some research on this, ERNEST and SERENE are to the two most commonly used/easily remembered acronyms for building anchors. They’re very similar with some climbing schools teaching it one way, and some the other way.

ERNEST
Equalized
Redundant
No
Extension
Strong (stable)
Timely

Solid: This means that each individual piece that makes the anchor (i.e., nuts, cams, ice screws, pins) are solid enough on their own.

Redundant: There should be more than one piece for the anchor. Common anchor examples are two bolts, three pieces of rock gear, etc. One exception is a single rock or tree that can be considered  as sufficiently reliable on its own.

Equalized: Each piece in the anchor should share the load of the anchor force equally. If there is slack to any single piece, that means that that piece is not loaded, and the anchor is not equalized.

No Extension: This means that if one piece should blow out of the anchor, there will not be a shock-loading of the anchor as a result. If there is slack to one piece and the others blow out, there will be a severe load directed onto that piece,  “a shock loading”.

Timely or Efficient: These terms relate to the common adage "speed is safety." While speed is not the only important element, it is quite important to make your anchors in a timely manner. If it takes 30 minutes to make an anchor, that can add up to a lot of time during a long multi-pitch route. The faster you can make an excellent anchor the better. Take the time you need to make a good anchor but remember that a fast but weak anchor is no good!

And we also learned important components when placing Cams;
1. Rock Quality (are you placing your gear in solid rock)
2. Direction of Pull (angling your gear in the direction of pull)
3. Surface area (that each of the surfaces of your gear is making good contact with the rock)
4. For placing Nuts, all the above but also look for constrictions

After the demonstration, we paired up (I paired up with Karrie) and spent the next 3.5 hours building our anchors. Alexa, Sam and Sara came around to check our anchors. We stopped to break for lunch and someone mentioned getting some climbing in. It was getting chilly and some of the women in our clinic wanted to warm up. So Alexa set up a top rope on Child’s Play (5.6). But Suzy and I wanted a chance to do some mock trad leading. So a top rope was set up on the right section of The North End. It was my very first time setting Trad protection and clipping in, and I was STOKED! Sorry, I didn’t get any photos of our mock trad leading!

I’m so glad I signed up for this clinic. It was packed full of information and I didn’t expect to learn such a great deal. I met other women of different levels of climbing, and got to work with really good climbing instructors as well! The only thing I didn't like about it was that it wasn't long enough. :) I wished it was over a course of two-days! The first day building multi-pitch anchors with some mock trad leading. Then the second day to go over the anchors then actually doing more trad leading on single/easy pitches! Thanks go to Alexa Siegal of Mooney Mountain Guides, Sam Bendroth of (IMCS) International Mountain Climbing School and Sara of CAMP. And thanks to the American Alpine Club for setting up Craggin’ Classic 2013!

Enjoy some photos taken the day of the clinic!

 The North End of Cathedral Ledge

Alexa of Mooney Mountain Guides (4)

Our turn to build anchors

Karrie and Alexa

For a bit of challenge, Sam had Karrie and I build 3 sets of anchors on two different cracks.

After building the first set of anchors, we set aside those pieces of gear and then built the

second set of anchors using the gear we had left on our harness.Then we set aside those pieces of gear and built our third set of anchors using the gear we had left on our harness.

My turn! (2)

Pam and Alexa

Helping one another with knots

Alexa Trad leading to set up top rope on Child's Play (3)

Karrie looking on, with another clinic in the background

Whitehorse Ledge – Multi-pitch Rock Climb

The Standard Route – 1,080 feet (5.5)
Whitehorse Ledge
North Conway, NH

A day before I turned 51 years old, I went rock climbing outdoors for the very first time. Now just 4 days before my 54th birthday, I trad climbed over 1000 feet! It was an amazing day of climbing for me, indeed!

One of New England’s most busiest routes, The Standard (5.5), is a sweeping granite apron full of awesome classic friction routes. Ken, Catherine, Kristina and I headed out early to Whitehorse Ledge in North Conway, NH. The lower parking lot is for climbers and from there to the base of the Slabs is about a 10 minute walk. From the base, we walked/climbed up to the Launch Pad and set anchors to start our 2^nd pitch. There was a bunch of other climbers already on the Slabs, but not the crowd we had anticipated.

On a personal note: I need to bring more fluids! I had 2 liters of frozen coconut water and 1.5 liters of frozen water in my Camelbak. I thought the 2 liters would suffice so I left my Camelbak in my truck. I should've brought it along! Although the 2 liters lasted me to the top, I could've used more. Especially since we spent longer time on the Lunch Ledge than expected.

The guidebook list this route with 9 pitches but we got it done in 8! I'm so stoked I got to trad climb over 1000 feet!