Devils Tower: The First Fall

My friend and I arrived at Devils Tower in the night and was greeted with dramatic introduction. We drove up to base and it loomed as a black monolith on the back-drop of storm clouds whose lightning lit it's shear faces. It was quite intimidating. So being that we arrived late, we slept out in the car instead camping, which made for an uncomfortable and sleepless night.


I woke early the next morning, bought a guide book, and set out to climb. We hiked up the massive boulder field to the Northeast side of the tower. I timidly lead a 5.8- pitch, which proved fairly easy and built my confidence. I then jumped onto a 5.8+ face climb...it was slightly tricky with face moves and got my blood running a touch.


I woke the next morning with my leading confidence high and after talking with some locals decided that "Soler" would be our next route. I arrived at the climb with excitement. We decided that my friend would lead the first 5.8+ rated pitch, and then I would follow and climb the next 5.9- section. The route followed a hand width crack in a left facing corner, in which the corner slowly moved towards overhanging. Upon starting the first pitch I could tell things weren't going well. As my friend disappeared out of sight and up the crack, I noticed the rope went out slower and slower until it stopped.... I gave it a moment, then asked, "how's it going?" I recieved a nervous response, "I'm setting up an anchor". Which meant my friend was stuck or didn't prefer to climb further and was going to belay me up to their position so that I could climb the rest of the section. So up I went and found the climbing to be moderate. There were solid hand jams and I moved upwards steadily. Finishing the rest of the section optimistically, and clipped into the section's anchor. The next pitch looked like more of the same yet slightly overhanging. I climbed 20 feet up and placed my first piece, a stopper (metal wedge) and continued. However, the next moves got progressively more difficult...the hand jams became awkward and difficult to hold on to and the crack thinned making foot jams difficult. Soon I my breathing picked and my heart pounded while I looked down at my last piece 7 feet below me. I reached high with my feet for my next step, my hands just holding my weight inward towards the rock...Then suddenly my foot gave out and I fell. I slid down the vertical face 12 feet until the rope and my stopper caught me, while my friend and I hung some 200 feet of the ground. I brushed myself off and checked for injuries. Noting none, went back to re-climb the trouble section. I got to my previous place of difficulty and ascended past it 9 feet and placed a cam in the rock and clipped it. I continued upward 10 feet above the cam when things became difficult again. I found myself breathing hard. My arms and calves began to burn, my hand jams nor my feet felt solid.... I was losing friction...I just needed to get past this one move to find a rest...my foot lost it's grip and my hand jam scraped out from the rock as I fell. I fell/slid twenty feet until I was stopped abruptly when the rope and my cam caught me. I looked to see my right hand scraped and raw near my first knuckle and my elbows bruised and bleeding lightly from scrapes. I looked to my friend and decided we should come down. I climb up once more, removed my pieces from the rock and slowly down lead to the anchor. As we rappelled 300 feet down, I looked up and seeing how close I was to finishing the route couldn't help but feel frustration creeping in. I laid down in the grass and warm sunlight near the park office, and with tourists gauking I tended my minor wounds. I sat trying not to be too hard on myself knowing tomorrow was another day. And the next day my luck would in fact turn.... (stay tuned for my next post).

Preparation

The coming weeks host a menu of activity that is sure to create lasting memories. Besides adjusting to life as a hermit and living out of a tent for the next two weeks, I will spend four days getting certified by the American Mountain Guide Assoc. then driving to Wyoming's Devils tower to climb. However in the interim I am preparing for the rigors ahead.

In light of this, I went with friends to Palisade Head and lead trad on the giant cliffs lining the shores of Lake Superior. We started the day by climbing "Quetico" crack, an off-width that I managed to climb with one eye previously this year. Then we to took the route "Danger High Voltage", which proved to be a fun mix of off-width crack, finger and hannd cracks, and face climbing.

climbing "Danger High Voltage"

We then took to "Phantom crack", a 5.9 crack requiring knowledge of hand and foot jamming techniques...

reaching high into the crack on "Phantom Crack"

myself cursing a stuck cam

On the way back I tackled a new adventure...learning how to drive a manual trasmission after a day of hard climbing. I got home with the general sense of fatigue that lent itself to pleasant sleep....

Back In Action

It turns out that I'm not invincible...my last five days of tire-less fun got the best of me. Considering the high water, the next week continued paddle despite a large amount of pain in my back, ribs, and shoulder. I managed to run the Upper St. Louis and Lower St. Louis river twice...and managed to fall in love with a large standing wave aptly named "big glassy". I took a couple days off but couldn't pass up the opportunity to paddle the Stoney River near Babbit, MN. It was pristine it would drop quickly spilling into large pools and small lakes. Stoney River started almost immediately with action providing a class IV- slide into a chaotic bursting hole (see picture). It was a gorgeous sunny day and the water ran warmly. We eyed the the class IV+ "boxer" drop and determined it was just on the edge of our ability levels...and left it for another season. Continuing onward we reached what I would deem "the island of fun". The river split around an island on one side a class III slide/chute, and on the other a 10 ft waterfall. We ran the chute first, and it proved fun and easy...then we scoped out the based of the falls....it seemd plenty deep. And one by one we launched ourselves off the waterfall...it was nothing short of a rush.Upon approaching the fal, you maintain focus on hitting your line as the water leaps off rocks in your path until you see the water line meet the sky as you sail into the water filled air!!! Then you land with a gentle boof on pillow of aerated water. Leaving "the island of fun", talked like school children trying to live in the moment as long as possible.
When I got home later that night, I knew I was going to pay for paddling with the pain. When I woke the next morning, I could barely breath without pain in my ribs. I knew it was time to stop. With the help of my Physical Therapy friends I took this week off...and it was excruciating to be sedintary. I went out and belayed friends out rock climbing, and sat impatiently, knowing fully I could not even cough without pain, much less climb. Yet after three days, couple of painful massages, and a lot of "icy-hot"/ibuprofen, I started to feel better...and after 5 days adventure-less I can honestly say I'm recovered and back in action. I went out and surfed with my kayak this morning at 6am as the sun rose over Stoney Point and the frigid water was better than coffee in the morning...ah, yes...good to be back...

Four Days

Here I sit, my eyelid black and blue, my back sore enough cause pain with breathing, my biceps and shoulders sore enough for me to avoid lifting them. However, I do not list these attributes as complaints but as proud evidence of my last four days of adventure.

It started last Wed. with the baptism river... Me and a friend drove up and decided to run a river we had never paddled. It was laden with falls to portage, and class III drops that kept your adrenaline pumping as your kayak leapt over wave trains.

Next came Thursday in which I drove with companions out to rock climb Palisade head. I rappelled down the 80 ft cliff to the shore of lake superior. There after I managed to whip myself in the eye with the rope...leading me to climb half blind for the remainder.

Friday I awoke a 6:00 am and drove out to Ely's peak where I spent 9 hours tackling a 5.11b overhanging dihedral finger crack. Promptly thereafter myself and a friend drove out and kayak surfed the standing waves of the St. Louis River until nightfall. Then we drove to the Kettle River.

Saturday, I awoke to the sounds of the Kettle river running and thunder approaching. I paddled and played in the whitewater of the Kettle river all day.

I awoke more sore than I had been all year, but pleasantly had much to show for it....

Surfing Lake Superior: Day 2

I woke in the early AM hours and put on my damp wetsuit and dry top. Seeing the sun shining warmly through my windows woke me up as I headed out the door. I loaded up kayak and was off with my fellow paddler for the wave riddled shores of Stoney Point on Lake Superior. We arrived to find that the stillness of the morning had slowed the winds and lessened the size of the crashing waves. Yet having seen a few sets break, we deemed paddling well worth getting wet.

They were nice clean 3 ft breaks just fun enough for a nice ride, but having no wind you had to work for your waves very little. It was balmy in temperature as we surfed and watched as the sun rose from it's lowley position until it was high in the sky. Blue skys complimented the crystal clear lake. It was a gorgeous day of non-strenuous surfing, and I was thankful for every minute of it....

Having trouble viewing the video...click this link to view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwc8mHG1WmA

Surfing Lake Superior: Day 1

The April gusts brought grey skies and rolling waves to the shores of Lake Superior. Suprisingly I stepped out my door, kayak and paddle in hand, to find it warmer than expected. I jumped in my fellow adventurer's vehicle, and raced for the body of water that so beautifully graces Duluth.

When we reached Lester river we could see the large waves curl towards the shore line in long breaks. Having seen a few sets come in it was clear we needed to get on the water. Clad in neoprene from head to toe we set off into the wind swept waters. We paddled furiously against the breaking waves and broke through their peaks until we were past the break line. There we found we were not alone seeing five surfers on their boards working tire-less for the prize of a long ride.

With this same goal in mind I paddled hard, and found just what I was looking for. It is an indescribable feeling, dropping over the crest of an 8 foot wave and carving down its slope as it curls down and crashes around you in a explosion of water. For a small momentum you're blinded then you emerge from the spray surfing sideways in the continuing wave of whitewater then carefully placing a paddling stroke and turning an edge to turn slide down the wave backwards: watching a wall of water curl up and reach out for you as it block your view of the dark horizon of sky and water. You couldn't ask for a more exhilaratingly beautiful scene...

After leaving as darkness slowly crept upon us, you felt like an excited little child having just discovered candy: speaking in half sentences usually ending within exaggerated exclamations of awe at the experience. That night when my friends asked me what I did, there came the normal frustration at my inadequacy to conveying the experience of surfing a wave... then suddenly finding a better way to describe the undescribable... I let out a sign while I smiling wide and stared off into the distance.

The Quest For The Cadbury Egg

Every spring, out of fantastical childhood dreams and the reinforcement of TV advertizing comes into existance a rabbit that lays delicous chocolate eggs filled with a dilectable white creamy frosting filled yolk. Biting into one of these eggs, one couldn't keep the taste from reminding them of the sweetness of spring, the resurrection of Jesus, the coming daylight, multiplication of rabbits, and.... fertility. Of course, with absolutely no seriousness I am refering to the Cadbury Egg...straight from the British shores of...um...Cadbury? It is the quintessential Easter candy.

Anyhow, this year having attained an age far past childhood, I recieved no Easter candy this year. Having the rising feeling of deprivation, I decided that the week after Easter would be the best time to make a killing on Easter candy and satisfy my insatiatable desire for Cadbury Eggs.

And so the night of April 10th, I set off for my adventure filled quest to obtain Cadbury Eggs. At my side I brought two companions of the utmost stature when it came to Easter candy shopping. The first stop was Cub Foods, which left me empty handed with the exception of some lowly starburst jelly beans. Next we arrived at Super One Foods, and reflective of the quality of the establishment: they had absolutely no Easter candy. Next came Target, which was also devoid of Cadbury. Then having entered the infamous Walmart store, it became apparent that China hadn't found a way to bypass the Cadbury Rabbit and manufacture Cadbury eggs, for it too was empty of Cadbury. We then stopped at a Walgreen's...it was closed, then another Super One Foods...nothing, no Cadbury.

So in a last desperate attempt I drove down another Walgreen's in a less then pretty area of Duluth...and there in urban ugliness shined a little light... for there I found half price Cadbury Eggs at 25 cents a piece. I left the store with my bag filled with 40 eggs knowing that I would have enough to have the a taste of spring for months to come...