#54 - Climb Outdoors

The whole group.  I had a camera with a timer and one dude had a tripod.  Oh, the magic of the collective.

I counted this last year but I probably shouldn't have.  (Don't worry, I'll untag it.)  This day trip definitely counted for outdoor climbing though.

Getting ready for that 5.8

One of my favorite friends in the world, Nicole Green-Valentine, just so happens to be in the same profession as me.  (Okay, fine, it's not, like, just-so-happens, like some coincidence.  We met when she was officiating intramural soccer and I was supervising intramural soccer at the University of Michigan.  We both thought we were going to be teachers.  Then, the teaching market sucked the years we graduated, and so we were like, well, at least we have these officiating/recreation skills.  Let's use those for now.  Wait, what?  This is a profession?  Well, maybe we'll still be teachers.  No, actually not.  This is kinda sweet.  So we're Campus Rec-ers for life.  Or at least for the forseeable future.  And it's awesome.)  This year our annual conference was in Nashville (sweet!) and one of the pre-conferences was an outdoor climbing trip.  Nicole asked me if I wanted to go, and I was like, "um... yes."

We did have to sacrifice what was my only night to party it up in Nashville to be ready and willing at 6:30am.  We had one presentation together and I had two others on my own, so it was all professional for the actual conference.  (Fine, relatively professional.)  (Well, relative to past conferences.)  We did manage dinner on Broadway and a couple drinks on the strip, which was quite lively for a Tuesday night.

5:30am Wednesday morning came a few hours too soon, but we made it up with our required water and things.  We had a 45-min or so van ride to King's Bluff, which we spent chatting with some folks we knew and folks we didn't.

The outdoor staff from Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky, and Austin Peay did a fantastic job prepping the gear, teaching us how to use it, and making sure we were all situated before the quick hike down the bluff.  They set up 5 lines for us ranging from 5.4 to 5.8.

Nicole, Dan, and I elected to try the 5.8 first since no one else would.  Dan skimpered right up that thing.  I went next and, well, I put in some good effort to make it part way, as did Nicole right after me.  We downgraded to the less difficult spots and had much less difficulty with those.

After a couple climbs, I remembered that I was running a half marathon in 5 days time and should probably call it quits or I'd hate myself by mile 2 instead of the usual hating myself by mile 11.  Nicole took a few more routes and Dan did them all, I believe.

Our lovely hosts then provided us with quite the spread for lunch.  Some of the group headed back to the hotel to prepare for the conference and others stayed to climb more.  I forgot how much fun climbing is when I remember to trust the safety systems.  The scrapes and bruises are still healing but they were worth it!  Can't wait to go again sometime!