Yikes 7/1/07

Sunday after a day of rafting I went back to Rumney, to go rock climbing with Igor. As previously stated I find it difficult to write about rock climbing but feel compelled to tell you about Sunday briefly because there were so many firsts for me.

We warmed up on a 5.8 that I cleaned and rappelled off of. That was my first rappel.

We climbed a multi-pitch route! It was super easy, basically a hike but good for figuring out the rope system on multi-pitch especially when the other multi-pitch we were going to try doesn’t exist! That was my first multi-pitch climb.

Ok, I’ll try harder on this next first. We had just finished a fun 5.8 called Drilling for Dollars and we were waiting for one of two other routes to open up. Either a 5.8+ or a 5.10a that are both very popular, however the Quebexicans were all over the place, mainly on these 2 routes, so Igor opted for a 5.10d, named something – I imagine it was named something but I can’t be sure. Before starting the route, Igor said, “its time to get over my fear of falling”. And that’s what he did, yikes. This is a very difficult route (as you may have guessed from the 5.10d rating). So I had Igor on belay about as tight as I could get him without pulling down on him when he came off the rock. He was about 4 feet above his last draw and it took about 6 feet to catch him which even though I’m not an MIT student equals about a 10 foot fall. For my mother’s sake I won’t go into detail but this was my first big catch (I made that term up I mean belaying and stopping someone else on a big fall).

Igor was fine and we took some time to chill while the Quebexicans yucked it up in French, English and Spanish (all very funny) while still climbing our intended routes. Finally, about an hour later, they got off Lonesome Dove, the 5.10a the Igor had his heart set on. I told Igor “I doubt I’ll get up this but I’ll give it a shot.” Igor decided that rather than lead, lower, belay me until I gave up then have to clean the route he would lead, top belay and then move over to the 5.8+ from above. That way I could finish my last route and Igor wouldn’t have to climb the same route twice. Igor had no problems with this extremely fun climb and set up to give me a shot. This climb is very balancy and does not have many jugs (big holds). As I got past the bottom and ran out of jugs, I tried to go off route and climb a crack but I soon realized (by realized I mean I came off the rock twice) that going up the route was my only chance. At first I didn’t see any holds but eventually I changed my perspective and noticed the smallest cracks and bumps. After deciding to climb the real route things started going really well. I climbed my first 5.10a!!!!!! and we went home.

High Side 6/30/07

Not our pics, again

I thought I signed up for another kayaking trip with MITOC but because it turned out to be a rafting trip, I’m still alive. 9 of us left MIT at 6am and headed out to the Dryway, a class 4 section of the Deerfield river (class 4 means big whitewater and is why I say that I would have died in a kayak). At the put in the MIT cars met the RPI cars, we ran shuttle to the take out, inflated our rafts and we were good to go/have a safety meeting because I hadn’t been in a raft since I was 13 and it was on a lazy river.

Oddly enough, when the group split into the rafts, all the BC skiers ended up in 1, odd. Ernesto was our guide and Doogie was training to guide which left Ali and I up front along with one non BC skier, Slobodan. The first run, led by our experienced guide was a lot of fun. The Dryway starts right below the release of a dam and about 100 yards into the run, we hit the rapids. Unlike the Winni, where I went kayaking, the Deerfield is cold water and as we ran the first rapid, I felt how cold, with multiple waves crashing into me.

During our safety meeting we were told to keep paddling until we were told to stop and we must have done a good job because Ernesto decided it would be cool to take us surfing! I didn’t know you could surf in a raft but we did it! Our first shot didn’t workout but we caught the eddy and gave it another try. Ernest told us, “when I say forward, I mean forward. Seriously, jump forward.” And as we paddled hard into the wave and finally got into the surf we heard “FORWARD” and Ali and I basically jumped into the water with the wave pearling (I’m guessing on that term) over the bow and the 2 of us pushing all of our weight on it, we were pressed between the water and rubber! Sitting there on the wave, not paddling but just balancing is an awesome feeling and because I was so focused on the task at hand I didn’t even notice the freezing water.

As we made our way down, we ran through a handful of rapids and even took one of them switch! The second to last rapid on the Dryway is called, Dragon Tooth and it is massive (we saw multiple kayakers swim). We head into the rapid paddling hard and follow the tongue half way through, when all of a sudden we come up on a wall of water. As we hit the water my contact shifted in my eye and I had to close my eyes to make sure I wouldn’t lose them. This meant I paddled the mankiest section of the river blind which also meant I probably wasn’t being so useful because I was hitting the side of the raft with my paddle rather than the water! Either way, Dragon Tooth is a sweet rollercoaster that guarantees you are soaked at the take out!

The last rapid, while not as intense as Dragon Tooth, was plenty exciting. It starts with an entry about as wide as a raft that drops about 2 feet (it looks big) into a re-circulating hole called Terminator! Ernesto lead us through rest of the maze (oh yeah this rapid is called Labyrinth) without a problem and we were out of the boat and loading Ali’s Civic with rafts (funny picture).

For the second run, Doogie was our guide! We didn’t get to surf but we really had a good time! Evidently, it takes 3 seconds to get a raft to start moving in the direction a guide wants it to and Doogie, while an experienced kayaker, had a little trouble adjusting to this.

We made it through a few rapids sans incident but soon enough, Doogie railed us into a rock and Ali went for a swim. Luckily Ernesto was able to pull him out right away. After that rapid, came another shallow rapid section, where Doogie did something, (I have no idea what that something is) Ali and I kept paddling and then we heard some commotion, looked back and Doogie is sitting on a rock in the middle of the rapid, Ernesto is guiding again and we are being told to paddle hard up river to try to rescue Doogie. We didn’t make it to Doogie so we had to eddy out about 40 feet from where he was. Ernesto tossed him a rescue line and pulled him through the still freezing water.

After laughing at Doogie I asked him if he was ok and with chattering teeth he said “cold”. But Doogie manned up and got back in the drivers seat! One more rapid and the excitement began. Doogie was taking on a maze of a rapid trying to get us river left of a large boulder when all of a sudden, he didn’t. The right side of the boat slammed up into the boulder and we were pinned. Let me restate that, pinned sounds so nice and comfortable. The right side of the boat SLAMMED into the boulder and the water started pushing the left side down so the right side was moving up the boulder. Yes this means the boat was going VERTICLE! Ernesto yelled “HIGH SIDE” as Ali and I were jumping up on the right side of the boat to level us out. We managed to counterbalance the water and ended the rapid going switch, hooting and hollering, stocked to, one not be swimming and two have had such a rush! Thanks Doogie that was sweeter than candy.

Doogie pulled through and led us through Dragon Tooth without a problem. We picked up 2 kayakers who had lost their boats and ran Labrynth (Doogie nailed this one as well) with their dead weight. The BC ski boat had an awesome day!