Day 10

We drove from Thunder Bay to Calgary in one day. 2000 k.

Mostly things were flat.

We wouldn't have made it without Jay-Z and Redbull.... mainly Jay -Z.

Days 7 through 9

We had planned on traveling to Toronto on Wednesday to go climbing in the Niagara Glen. But when we awoke to rain and saw that the forecast was calling for it to rain for 4 days straight we decided we'd be better off skipping Toronto altogether. We decided to spend an extra day hanging out in Montreal and then start heading west the next day.

Our entire stay in Montreal was a ridiculous amount of fun and I can' t thank our hosts and their friends enough for showing us a good time.

Also deserving of thanks is Alexa Martin who on our bonus day in MTL had myself and luke (as well as our friends Mark and Kaya) over for "Brunch and Life Advice". Though I think I managed to talk her out of her original advice for me which was "Go back to school then get a job".

Later, I met up with Justin Avery and Samantha Sullivan then we met up with Luke and posse to go to a free jazz show. Justin and Sam had to head home before we actually made it to the bar but the rest of us had a really great time and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the music.

The next two days were comprised entirely of driving. Not much to say about that.

There was some burping..

And a giant snowman..

Now we are here...

And i am doing this...

Tomorrow we are on the road again all day, then we should arrive in Calgary the next day.

Oh and i think i managed to change the settings so you can comment without signing in or anything... 

Day 6

Ok, so internet connections were tenuous in Montreal and as a result we are a few days behind in the blogging. Sorry to keep y'all waiting.

The last entry left off with plans for supper, wine and sleep, which turned into a lot more wine and a lot less sleep than I had expected. I blame our hosts...

Kendra and Dillon 2/3 hosts

Despite the lack of sleep we still got up early to head out for the boulders, accompanied by our  gracious and gorgeous host Kate (not pictured above).

"Bright eyed and bushy tailed?"

We had a super awesome day bouldering and hanging out at Val-David which is about an hour north of montreal. There are a ton of really classic problems there. Unfortunately our camera battery died very early in the day.

One of the first problems we got on was "La Prue" which is the prow in french... i think...

We both got shut down by it's weird sequence, until on the way out we got beta (advice on how to climb the problem) from some locals who were trying it. Then we both sent it with the better sequence.

Luke on the tricky V4 "La Prue"

Next I worked on a really nice v6 sloper traverse with a local guy name Raphael. I should have finished it  but blew it on the last easy move....twice.

"La Traversee de L'Orque" V6

We did a bunch of other problems we didn't get pictures of due to the battery dying. Luke really is getting strong fast and sent another v4 quickly. I'm looking forward to seeing him send in squamish. I worked a really cool V8 arete for a little while and felt like I could get it but didn't want to concentrate my efforts too much on one problem...that and the guys i was working it with moved their pads away.... and I am a bag of excuses...

One of the last problems I did was a cool v6 that went straight up a face through some big moves on perfect crimps. My finger tips were totally raw and my arms were cooked by the time I started working on it.  I managed to do all the moves separately but just didn't have the juice left to link it together. I was giving up when a couple other people came to try the same problem. I decided to give it one last go and managed to finish it, mainly due to one of the guys reminding me to breathe halfway up the problem.

Raphael on "Louise Classique" V6

Then Luke, katie and I hiked to the top of the cliff the boulders are at the base of to enjoy the view before heading back into town.

"Enjoying the View"

We then headed back to montreal (with a stop for gelato along the way).  Our climbing adventure was followed by a chicken finding and cooking adventure and then more partying. None of which was documented due to the aforementioned battery issues, but that is probably for the best.

Day 5: On the Road

So today we drove from Halifax to Montreal...

So did this bike...

Along the way we hung out with some dinosaurs...

And now that we've arrived after a  5:30 am start and 15 hour drive it's time for supper, wine and sleep.

And tomorrow.... it's bouldering time!

Day 4: Rained out

Got rained out of bouldering today.

So instead we skateboarded....

And hung out with a robot...

And Luke taught me how to play Skip-Bo...

And I made "Dessert Enchiladas"

But one of the coolest things that happened today was we ran into my old friend from high school Terry Myers by total coincidence by the side of the road. I had contacted terry to hang out while i was passing through halifax but he's living in Lunenberg now so I didn't think we were going to make it out to see him. Then who did we see walking by while we were stopped at a red light but Terry and his girlfriend, who had just barely made the decision to walk to the store instead of driving. So we pulled over and made plans to meet up for a beer later. Which was totally cool and a really neat example of how life throws weird little things your way.

Tomorrow its driving to montreal time...

Day 3: Crystal Crescent Beach

"say whaaaat?"

Today our hostess Lindsay (pictured above) had boring class all day, after a night last night that ended with someone getting their underpants torn in a wedgie attempt and someone else getting a nosebleed from a thermarest to the face. So after a little sleep in me and Luke headed out to Crystal Crescent Beach to do some bouldering sans hostess.

CCB is a really beautiful spot, there are 3 white sandy beaches, the third of which is known as a nude beach. Apparently some people are pretty seriously committed to getting their naked on, because as we were leaving I was feeling chilly in a t shirt and shorts but there were still two old dudes chillin in the buff.

The bouldering is on a variety of clean granite  sea walls, most of which is pretty easy to moderate, the hardest problem listed in the guidebook for this area is v6.  (i think i might do a bouldering grade explanation at some point soon in case any non climbers are trying to read this). The granite has very big crystals and is very coarse and hard on the fingertips after a very short amount of climbing.

We stayed out all afternoon and climbing alot of problems. Luke is getting back into bouldering shape fast and was stoked to send the V4 "Figure 4 thing" which sadly didn't actually involve a figure 4.

Luke on "Figure 4 thing" v4

"The Benevolent Elephant" V3

"Heffalump" V0

"Crank" V5

 

Day 2: Chillin

Luke and the trusty Volvo

So we decided to skip climbing today so we could be fresh for tomorrow. Also it was 300 degrees. 

Instead we focused on accomplishing some very important goals we had for the trip.

We bought; a hackey sac, toothbrushes and toothpaste, radical new sunglasses for luke and new climbing shoes for luke.

At one point today luke and I had a discussion about our allergies.

Things I am allergic to: Dust, Cats.

Things Luke is allergic to: not having fun.

As I've been sitting here to post this, the discussion in the room turned to my beer gut.

"Time to switch to gin and tonic?"

We are trying to make arrangements to get out to dover island tomorrow, which should be amazing. Tonight the plan is to have a BBQ at gregs and maybe go out afterwards and see what Hafilax has to offer in the nightlife department. Neither of which is likely to help the aforementioned beer gut dilemma.

Day 1: Halifax

I arrived by plane in Halifax this morning and met up with Lindsay our Halifax hostess. We went on an Ice cream adventure and made sweet potato tempura before she had to go to class this evening.

"Chef Dave"

Greasy...

Then I sat around reading the halifax bouldering guidebook anxiously waiting for Luke to show up in the Volvo so we could get out on some rock. Luke showed up to me chomping at the bit to get out climbing, so without taking a break after driving here from New Brunswick we turned around and immediately headed out to Chebucto Head with Lindsay's friend greg.

We only had about an hour and a half of daylight left by the time we got out there but we had a good time playing around on the twin sisters of pain boulders. I've been really curious to see how I will fare with the grades in halifax partially just because I have heard they can be pretty stout but also to see what level I am climbing at after recovering from a couple injuries this year.

I was pleased with climbing Tough Sailors V7 relatively quickly, but made absolutely no progress on a V8 around the corner. Really anxious to get to spend a whole day bouldering tomorrow but very concerned with how my skin is going to hold up after a couple days straight of this.

"Tough Sailors"

Better and better

Okay so it wasn't a dream. This new area is actually even better than I had initially hoped. It's taylor made for bouldering. It seems like everytime you walk up to a face hoping to climb a line the holds are laid out perfectly. There is a really good mixture of easy stuff, moderates and desperate looking projects that will keep climber around st.john's busy for years to come.

One of the sub areas we've spent the most time on so far we've dubbed the pump house. Its a short overhanging ceiling where we've put up around 10 problems so far. All very moderate with low top outs and safe landings. The toughest line being maybe v4 at the hardest.

Trevor harris climbing at the pump house.

But the pump house is just the tip of the iceberg. Right around the corner from it is a section of rock with where a large ceiling leads to a high vertical face where really interesting features give a lot of potential for hard lines.

One of the nicest lines we've done so far starts underneath a ceiling on a perfect two handed jug,  comes out through an undercling to the face where you have to swing your heel around to get out from underneath the ceiling and then battle your way up a really interesting bulge feature.

Here's a series of us working out the moves on "Cullam Bruce-Lockhart" which goes at probably around v6.

One of the most aesthetic pieces of rock we've found is a boulder set apart from the group of boulders huddled under the nearby cliff. We've names this solitary boulder the lone wolf and we expected it to be nice to look at but not offer much in the climbing department but were pleasantly surprised to discover that it actually held problems with deceivingly tricky and interesting sequences.

All pictures courtesy of Beth Spencer.

Leaving St. John's too soon

I have a recurring dream where I find a great new bouldering area. The boulders are always amazing with stellar lines and great concentration. It's always really realistic, near places I know in real life. Then I wake to the crushing realization that it was all a dream. This happens way more often than I am comfortable with.

Right now I am really hoping I am not about to wake up. Today myself and Andrew Linegar checked out an area that we were told might have some potential for mainly easy problems on really nice rock. What we found was better than I could have hoped.

At Blackhead, just a 10 minute drive from downtown St. John's, we parked the car and immediately started scoping lines on perfect sandstone. We were running around like kids in a candy store from sea wall to sea wall. This area has everything, roofs, highballs, free standing boulders, easy problems, hard problems and one of the most amazing views of any climbing area I've ever been.

Today was mainly just scouting and we only climbed for about an hour but put up 10 really nice problems from V0 to V3. We are heading back tomorrow with more people and more pads to get on the harder and higher stuff. Also tomorrow I'll bring a camera so I can let the area speak for itself.

What's bittersweet about this discovery is that it comes just one week before I depart on a cross country bouldering trip with Luke Nicholls. At least it will still be here when I get back. (providing it wasn't a dream that is)