So it's taken me a bit longer than I had hoped to get a post up here (go figure), but I've got you covered now! I've been lucky enough to get outside the past three weekends to do some bouldering! The weekend before my last post, Andrew, Adrianne and I went down to Jackson Falls (our normal spot) to do some bouldering. We met our friend Sarah and her boyfriend Ryan the night before at Sarah's family's lake house stayed there. The house is about 1/2 an hour away from J-Falls and has lots of beds and other nice amenities, so I always like it when we are able to crash there. Anyway, we do all of our sport climbing at Jackson Falls and have definitely done some bouldering there before, but at the end of this summer, a guidebook devoted completely to southern Illinois bouldering was released. This book is incredible, and has been a huge help in finding quality bouldering in a bunch of different areas, including Jackson. Anyway, we got to J-Falls and did a little warming up on a couple short problems: Flint (v2) and Tomahawk Traverse (v3) before moving on to Andrew's project: Arete Syndrome (v4/5). Unfortunately, the problem was soaking wet, so we had to put a hold on that. We went around the corner to a problem called Matt's Sloper Problem (v4). We ended up spending a good chunk of time on this one, but I finally figured out how to finish it, and after watching me top it out, Andrew sent it on the next go. After that, we went to check out a problem I was wanting to work on a bit: Fusion (v3). Unfortunately, that one was soaking wet too, so we moved on to the Reefer Madness area (yeah, I know...lots of climbers are also hippies...). Here we did a few different problems including Juicy Fruit (v2), a really fun problem with two easy moves and a REALLY hard top out, Ghetto Life (v2), which I had done before, but repeated (and for some reason I barely finished it and looked like a newb on it), and Wolverine Problem (v4), a one-move-wonder with a long move from a horizontal crack to a pocket. This was all coming after over a month off from climbing and only 2 days at the gym the week leading up to this trip, so the rest of the week following J-Falls, I was sooooooooooooooooooooo sore. Here is a list of things I couldn't do without it hurting: move, laugh, pick up my phone, sit, stand, etc.... It was pretty bad. But the soreness eventually went away and I've now learned my lesson: don't be so lazy! Although I was starting to feel better, I had just gotten home from work the Friday following J-Falls and was taking off my suit jacket and had a shooting pain in my left shoulder. It was really strange and ended up hurting quite a bit for awhile. Just in the past few days has it started to subside.
Anyway, that was the night before taking our trip to The Graveyard. A new area that we found through the new guidebook. This area is about 45 minutes closer than Jackson, but not as big, so it has advantages and disadvantages, but it was nice being somewhere new. I had a really good day, onsighting Eyesockets (v0), flashing The Tomb (v1), Slab of Meat (v1), and Skeleton (V3), sending the classic problem Formaldehyde (v3) on my 2nd try (Andrew has video of my two attempts on this, I just need to get it from him and I'll post it up on here), and red-pointing Hornball (v3), a one-move-wonder, after trying the move about 6 or 7 times. So really, I only ended up being on the rock about 15 times that day, so it ended up being a light, but productive day. This was probably a good thing though considering my messed up shoulder. I actually started noticing the tendinitis in my left elbow coming back a bit that day as well. I'm not sure if it was because of my shoulder or not, but either way, that has been bothering me since then as well. Luckily, I think I can get that to go away with just doing some push-ups every day for awhile. The problem with climbing is you work all these muscles to pull your body in different directions, but you don't really do any pushing, so muscles grow different and can cause tendinitis.
Anyway, that night upon my return, I got all cleaned up and into my lounging clothes when Ben and Nicole came home from watching the Iowa Hawkeyes win. They were really excited and wanting to do something fun, so we decided to go meet a few of my friends at Lumiere Casino. This was my first casino experience since going to Vegas with the family about 10ish years ago. I took out $40 dollars from the ATM upon arrival and said that would be the max. I ended up buying in $20 for a little bit of blackjack AND I WON! I was up and down for awhile, but after a bit, I told myself once I was up $50 I would leave the table. I went up $50 and went and cashed it out, but kept my original $20 in chips. After Ben and Nicole had both lost their money, Ben said he was ready to leave, but that $20 was burning a hole in my pocket, so I sat back down. I proceeded to lose it pretty quickly, but overall, I still ended up making $30! Pretty much the easiest money I've ever made....I think I might go back EVERY night and quit my job. Oh wait...that's where people run into problems right? Anyway, here is a picture to sum up the night...oh yeah, Ben and I suited up for the festivities:
That finally brings us to this past week/weekend. Tuesday night we carved our pumpkins. It was an interesting experience. I hadn't carved a pumpkin since at least high school, so I wasn't very good at at. I think all three of ours turned out pretty well. I ended up sticking to the climbing theme and it ended up looking pretty sweet (I think):
Ben carved the Bears helmet and Nicole carved the Hawkeye logo:
Unfortunately, my actual Halloween turned out to be pretty lame. Ben and Nicole went up to Iowa for the weekend and I had to work at the club on Saturday, so I didn't do anything for the holiday. Andrew and I got up early on Sunday and went to Elephant Rocks State Park in Missouri though. E-Rocks has a TON of quality bouldering within 5 minute's walk from the car and it is only 1 1/2 hours from St. Louis. The only problem, though, is that the rock is uber-sharp granite. I'm used to climbing the sandstone rocks of SoIll, so its a rude awakening when we go to E-Rocks. My hands were bleeding by the second climb of the day...but it was a gorgeous day for the beginning of November (about 65 degrees and not a cloud in the sky). The bouldering started really well, Onsighting The Finger Crack (V2), The One Way (V1), and Bookstore Blues (V3), while flashing The Right Way (v0), Tennis Shoe Crack (v0), and Scobione (V2), and red-pointing Jump Start Thing (v2) and Vector Days (v3). Unfortunately, this was all within the first 1 1/2 hours of being there. After all the sending, we moved on to some harder problems, including Smoke (v4) which we got some good work in on, but never finished, and a few V5s. Overall it was a good trip, but it is always hard to climb for more than a couple hours at E-rocks just because of the sharpness of the rock. My fingertips are pretty raw today, but it is a bittersweet feeling.
This weekend Andrew and I are planning on going to Pere Marquette State Park. Pere is an area about 40 minutes north of Andrew's house along the Mississippi River that we are trying to find some good stone at. We have been there twice before and only found two climbable boulders, but we are gonna go look for more this weekend. It would be great to have a place to develop ourselves close to home! Anyway, I'll let you know how all that goes.
Sorry about the huge post, but I just needed to get all that down. Don't forget to check the sidebar lists for updates between posts. I keep that pretty up-to-date.
Go Bears! (I missed my first game this past weekend in favor of climbing, but it was the Browns....and I was pissed at them for the horrendous Bengals game)
