Fun?

[Bill_Simpkins]

Bouldering at Larrabee (Bellingham) during a bad storm. We were right by the water and the waves would hit a rock and splash us. We were trying to send this one problem and we had to time the entrance by dodging waves. The wind was ripp'in. Then there was a good stormy sunset to top things off.

[Scott_J]

Each and every time I go out to climb is fun. I enjoy the company of my friends and family. I NEVER have had a rotten day climbing, skiing, hunting, fishing etc. It ALL beats the hell out of work.

[allthumbs]

Amen

[erik]

most fun climbing??????

 

epi with mike a couple of weeks ago......that route is the most fun 5.9 ever.........(i have yet to do the becky-chouniard)

 

climbing the plum in birkenhead with mike and kai....

 

dreamer w/ fern was great!!!!!!

 

i dunno though sometimes....i always have fun and other times.....fun seems to be a distant light.....

 

though i will say climbing with pete...is always fuggin outta control and great!!!!!!

 

fuck i guess i always have fun!!!

[sk]

I feel I must quote Texplorer here...

 

" A bad day climbing is better than the best day doing anything else"

Edited December 17, 2002 by Muffy_The_Wanker_Sprayer

[Dru]

Lworth with Fern, Erik and E Rock was pretty fun. Up at Bathtub dome with Bob Marley's green dreadlocks

[specialed]

Most fun climbing memory is the summer-long climbing road trip with my girlfriend after college. It was 105 degrees in Zion and shit inside the truck would melt when we went climbing. And we still managed to do a handful of routes there. Our dog got bit in the nose by a rattlesnake in eastern Washington and the whole front of his body swelled up so much he looked like a fat St. Bernard. We sped around Yakima in the middle of the night panicking the dog would die looking for a vet. When we finally found one he said there wasn't much to do and the dog would be fine in a couple days. After that we just laughed at him because he looked so absurd. Then we went north and spent three weeks in Squamish, climbed in the N Cascades and went to the Bugs. It

 

Also drinking PBR and climbing at the Smoke Bluffs with Erik, TimL, and his buddy who thought we were all a little out of control. Then going to the Squamish pub and hanging out with Dru and having a safety meeting in the van.

[chelle]

This year has been one fun climb after another. Here are a few...

 

Climbing up Cathedral Peak with DaveW, Sayjay, AlpineK, and another friend in Toloumne.

 

Wandering around the beaches of Thailand expoloring caves and tripping out on how cool the rock features are. Climbing the Groove Tube.

 

Hanging out with Erik on some cliffs in Toloumne looking at some distant meadows and watching little puffy clouds form and dissipate in the wind. Then trying Erik's new sport, downslabbing. Imagine crab walking head first down a low angle slab and only using "real" climbing holds. Lots of laughs.

 

Climbing the West Buttress route with AlpineK on Exfoliation Dome.

 

Doing my first cam hook moves at Index and feeling totally secure.

 

Hanging in Squamish with Jeff Hansel, Crack, and DrJay, cheffing out amazing dinners on my two-burner stove after climbing all day.

 

Running down the trail after summiting Half Dome via the Snake Dike route completely elated after bringing my climbing full circle. (My first time up Half Dome via the cable route was 13 years ago and I saw people topping out with ropes and gear. I really wanted to try that...)

 

What an awesome year I've had! Thanks to everyone on this board I've climbed with (couldn't name 'em all).

[Necronomicon]

"Fun"? What's that? Like "which hurt the least"?

 

Actually, climbing the third colouir on Dragontail in the dark, and topping out at 11:30pm, 28h B'ham-to-B'ham, and living, that made me feel good. Also, Central Colouir on Joffre, with a broken rib. Little Finger (5p 5.4 on Lake George in NY) was fun. You have to paddle a canoe to the base, and the climb is over the water. Yak Check... NE Colouir Cutthroat had an awesome topout...

[mattp]

I had a pretty fun time climbing the East Ridge of Edith Cavelle in the Rockies two years ago. We went up there to climb Mount Robson, and despite the fact that it looked like there might be a reasonably good weather window for the next five days or so, my buddy was put off by the fact that there had not been a single successful party yet that season. So we headed over to Jasper and he talked me into going for Cavelle. The night before, we cooked our noodle extravaganza in the parking lot and the Japanese tourists kept taking pictures of us. As we poured some whiskey to aid in contemplating the sunset behind our peak, a pickup truck with three guys in front and two guys and a dog in the back roared up, blasting some kind of heavy metal. Climbers! They were all jazzed at having climbed the East Ridge that day, and two of them got out, piled into another car, and they all sped off down the road to go drinking in town.

 

The next morning, we woke up early and headed up in the darkness, thinking an early start would assure we'd be in front of the lineup. But we delayed just long enough at the col that a party of four young climbers caught up and we started up the ridge together. Everytime we pulled up on some little rockface to find another one behind it, somebody would say "dude....that's rad!" We climbed up, around, on and over the ridge crest in a mass party of six, all the way from bottom to top. The rock was great, and although it was incredibly scenic and high up enough to know that you really were on something, nobody ever called for the rope. The last few hundred feet were snow-covered, so it really felt kind of alpine as we topped out onto a corniced ridge, with the famed North Face below, leading to the true summit. The whole thing had been "rad" except a couple of times when it was "sketch." From the top, we could see through broken cloud to the Clemenceau Group and the Ramparts stood off to the West. The lake below was a perfect emerald green. That, too, was "rad." On the descent, there was a traverse on a rotten scree-covered terrace that was dusted with snow. It was "sketch." Then there was a moose at the bottom of the mountain. That was "rad." Back at the trailhead, we piled into their truck and they gave us a ride back to the parking lot where we got out and climbed into our vehicle and headed to town for a drink. But my buddy wasn't into heavy metal. Being old guys, we played some cool jazz.

[glen]

One of my best days was just a regular day of cragging around the base of glacier point apron. Just a few standard lines, son of sam, shuttle bus, etc with a good buddy and a few beers afterwards. Just one of those days where the rock just is what it is, the climbing flows, and the day just slips away.

[texplorer]

Damn Dru,

It is so hard to narrow it down. My road trip this last year was filled with so many fun days. If I had to name just one I guess it would have to be on the Steck-Salathe in Yosemite. It was right at the end of my roadtrip and so I was feeling like a honed climber and such. There were four of us and we climbed in two parties of two. At every belay we were joking and I couldn't believe the quality, position, of the route. There didn't seem to be a single bad pitch. I can still remember so many pitches on that climb. Damn, I want to go climbing!!!

[Retrosaurus]

An eight month road trip after completing a commercial fishing contract. Bought a cadillac and cruised around and climbed and skied all over the western US.

[mattp]

Mitch - tell us more.

 

Here's another story about having fun:

 

When I first began to go out with my wife, she expressed some willingness to go winter camping and I figured I'd take her out for the dee-lux winter camping experience: a snowcave. We drove up to Pemberton one weekend, and it was colder than hell outside so I figured I'd forego my usual routine of sleeping in the back of the truck in an old log dump near town. We checked in to the Hitching Post, and went straight to bed without watching the mandatory hockey. This was a good call because although she had been a little nervous about this whole thing, the bed was warm and in the morning we walked over to the nearby native place for a health-food breakfast and rainforest friendly coffee, and admired pictures of wolves and totem poles on the wall. Diana could see that winter camping trips don't have to be all that bad.

 

Round about the crack of noon, we started up the Joffre Creek drainage. I figured it couldn't be all that difficult to ski up to the upper lake, because it was only a little over a mile and about 1200 feet elevation gain. I was right, but never-the-less it took us all afternoon. By 4:00 or 5:00 we were up at the lake, and I started digging. Not wanting her to get all wet, I did all the inside work and this meant that she stood around a lot. It was cold (below zero Fahrenheit even before darkness set in) and she got a little chilled but soon enough I had a snowcave with plenty of room to sit around inside and a floor level above the top of the doorway to hold the heat; we crawled in and unpacked. I had brought lots of candles and we cooked a dinner of salmon and potatoes and started sipping our red wine. Despite the cold outside, it was warm enough in the cave to sit around with just a light sweater on.

 

As we enjoyed our romantic getaway, the neighbors came calling. A party of three had snowshoed up behind us, and they were tent-camping nearby (those poor bastards, I thought – the one guy knew what he was doing but the couple was obviously new to winter camping and they didn't seem all that comfortable with the situation and it was well below zero outside by this time. Anyway, they invited us over for some hot buttered rum so we clambored outside and sat around in front of their tent for about ten minutes freezing our butts off. "Would you guys like to come inside?", we asked. "No thanks. We're going to bed" was the reply. No shit, I thought; if they aren't going to hang out in a snow cave, what the hell else are they gonna do – I sure hope they brought warm sleeping bags.

 

So we returned to our cave, drank some more wine, and enjoyed a game of honeymoon bridge. In the morning, we had a leisurly breakfast, and waited for the thermometer to rise above zero before we went out for a ski run in brilliant sunshine. The glacier above, with it's icefall sparkling in the morning sun, was dramatic. The snow was perfect. We toured around a bit, took a couple of runs, and then loaded up and skied back to the car. This had been, she said, the best backcountry ski trip she'd ever taken.

 

It took a few years, but I eventually married her.

[glen]

cool story.

[texplorer]

MattP,

That is some of the best fiction I have read in awhile.

[Dru]

"Fiction" - Are you saying Perkins fictionalized some typical snow cave drippy suffering into a rosy -colored romantic evening, Tex?

[texplorer]

There is no way that you could ever possibly have a "lovely" evening with your significant other while winter camping. That only happens in the movies.

 

I am sure the real story went something more like . . .

 

(cheesy wavey lines effect to indicate thinking back in time)

 

2:00am

Her: Honey I'm cold.

You: Me too (as you roll over)

Her: Can we just go back to the car and get a motel

You: Sigh. . . .

Her: Fine then! (starting in a slightly irritated tone and increasing in voracity and bitterness) If you ever want to have sex again were getting out of here. I tried, but I have been nothing but cold, wet, and scared all night. This thing is going to fall in on us at any moment and we will both die because of your stupidity. If you want to go do your "nature is my religion thing" in the woods that is fine but I never ever want to even go hiking ever again.

You: Ok, hang on while I make some hot tea

Her: Did you hear me! I f@#$ing said right now. (she stomps out into snow and begins getting colder while you clean up)

You: Ok, everythings packed up, are you ready to go?

Her: Silence

You:Honey, (in a sweet voice as you put your arm around her)

Her: Smack (her hand stings as it slaps your face)

 

Result: She is scared for life, you don't get sex for weeks,

and she has an act she can hold over your head for the rest of your life. For instance, you ARE coming to the ballet with me. Remember the time you made me go sleep in the ice with you. But. . you wanted to. .. NO I DIDN"T. GET YOUR JACKET ON!

 

Moral of the story:

Don't believe everything you read on CC.com

[Dru]

tex

[sk]

I believe it is fact and this is why...

 

THEY WERE STILL JUST DATING!!!!!

[mattp]

Right you are Muff, it's all true and you nailed the reason why it worked out so well. Now lets hear some other stories.

Edited December 18, 2002 by mattp

[mattp]

Anybody who is bored at work care to entertain us with more inspirational tales about the good times?

[ScottP]

Spent a week at the City of Rocks with my friend Rob. Tried to do ten routes a day, ended up doing somewhere in the mid 40's. Sampled some of the best the place had to offer.

 

Did the DNB on Middle Cathedral in a day (13 hours.) Some of the funnest climbing I have ever done except for the pile of loose blocks at the tree and the dirt slab on the last pitch.

 

Serious partying while bivying on Big Honker during a leisurely trip up Town Crier. Shouting unwanted, drunken beta at a pair on Davis-Holland. Led the original bolt ladder with a crushing hangover (yeah, it was fun.)

 

Soloed the S Face of the Tooth in shorts, t-shirt, approach shoes, and sunglasses through a serious herd of Mountaineers (or some such group) dressed in full rain gear. At least two of them on every ledge. Got the evil eye each time I humbly asked if I could climb through. I can't explain why this was fun, but I had a blast tiptoeing through and around so much misery.

[rbw1966]

" A bad day climbing is better than the best day doing anything else"

 

A bad day climbing can result in death. As much as I hate working, I'll take my best day of work over death anytime.

[Dru]

On about my second or third trip to Smith (fall 93) we went to a bar in Redmond that was having a Bar Rodeo. Real cowboy bar. I sat down on a barstool and some guy told me Id better move "if I liked my teeth and wanted to keep 'em". The first event was to lasso a cow skull on a hay bale while sitting astride a rocking horse. A couple cowboys gave it a shot then it was our teams turn. Crazy John Crump got on the rocking horse, bunny hopped it up to the hay bale trials bike style and dropped the lariat over the skull.We claimed victory.

 

A couple of more of these events went on with our team,bending the rules and winning most of them. The last event was a race around the bar. Two contestants were supposed to go on hands and knees with a waitress riding on each ones back. Well Hajek got off his hands and knees as waitress approached, tripped her, hopped on her back and said Ride em Horsey. This was too much for the cpowboys and they started towards us with the intent of a shit kicking. We ran outside, jumped in the Saaab and peeled rubber chased by a bunch of pickup trucks but we lost em on the back roads heading to Prineville. Went back to the bivouac site and I puked a gutload of Coors all over a sagebrush. Sent Tammy Bakkers 1st pitch the next day which was one of my first 5.9 leads outside of Squamish slabs.