Spring Break

The weather turned out good for the past few days, and thankfully some sends and good times were able to be had.

I ended up driving to Jackson early Wednesday afternoon to take advantage of that good day and good temps.  Quickly, I parked strapped on my crash pad and ran to get in a few problems before dark.  Luckly I was able to knock out repeats of a few problems and send a new one.  Finally, I was able to get Cold Fusion V3 finished up.  It is this stunning arete, that has for some reason just consistently thrown me off, but I nailed it first go.  After that I did some more bouldering around Spleef, just mainly running a few circuits.  Kevin Martin cruised in later that evening and we prepped for the next day.

Thursday, Kevin and I warmed up on a few easy climbs and met up with my friend KR from school.  Then we headed over to Hidden Treasure since Kevin wanted to give it a go.  I figured I'd at least try hanging the draws for him, so I laced up and tied in...AND SENT!  I was super pumped.  Can't believe it finally happened.  After that we chilled for the rest of the day and Mike C. rolled in that night.

Friday, we woke up and ran over to the Hidden Peaks area of the falls and warmed up on a few easy climbs again.  After that it was off to an old project of mine Industry .12a.  I ended up getting damn close on my first go, and in spite of my finger being a little tweaky decided to give it a second burn.  Bad idea.  Fell off of the last move though, but now it looks like I'm gonna take a little more time off.  That is what I get for being a dummy and not listening to my body though, I suppose.  

Saturday, we just really hung out and climbed some moderates and did a lot of easy bouldering.  Today, then we headed out from the Falls at around noon.  Sad times, but it is too tempting to be hanging around all of that climbing!

Here is a brief video of some of the climbs from the weekend!  Enjoy!

Spring Break Sampling from Logan Smith on Vimeo.

Spring Break

Well, it is officially spring break at Murray State University and I was able to kick it off with a proper 10 hours of sleep last night.  Not too shabby I'd say.  

Climbing plans are quite murky right now though.  We've been getting rain here since last night so it is going to take a day or two more for Jackson Falls to dry up.  I'm looking at heading up there ideally on like Tuesday night or Wednesday morning to meet up with my friend Kevin Martin from Truman State, up in NW Missouri.  Let's just hope that we have some cooperation from the weather.  

I've been slowly easing back into pulling harder on my wall and yesterday I was finally able to actually hit a smaller crimp and not have it just be excruciatingly painful.  Thats awesome.  Unfortunately, I still don't think that I'll be able to do any really hard climbing over break since there is still a considerable amount of rehab that the finger needs.  

In other news, Mexico for the fall isn't going to happen.  Luckily, I've found all of this out in time that there is still quite a good chance that I'll be able to get my student teaching placement and still participate in the Belize student teaching program.  I'm pretty pumped.  I got all of my paperwork for the Y yesterday too!  Things are finally falling into place!

Active Rest

So, today was my first real day of 'active rest' where I starting in doing a little bit of climbing to start working the finger back to strength.  It feels good too.  I just hovered around on jug for a while and got to work out the upper body quite well.  Definitely a nice afternoon!  Things are looking pretty good for possibilities of sends during Spring Break!

Updates...

Well the finger seems to be healing up pretty quickly.  It seems to be really good and strong anytime I'm applying pressure with all four fingers.  When I switch to a three finger open hand though it is still quite tweaky though.  I'm just planning to keep on resting it up so that it'll be back to 100% hopefully by the time Spring Break rolls around.

Speaking of which the itinerary for the trip is looking something like this:

• Leave for Conway Friday and get in some night bouldering at Fountain Red.  Camp there
• Drive to HCR Saturday morning and climb there the next two days.
• Monday head back to Conway and maybe rest.  
• Tuesday Petit Jean or go solo to FR.  
• Wednesday, rest.  Drive to Jackson.
• Thursday-Sunday climb at JF with Kevin Martin
• Friday evening, Lindsay and Wayne roll in.
• Sends

I'm pretty excited to say the least and while I plan to try and push the limits some I'm definitely going to mind the finger quite a bit.  I'm not ready for an epic finger injury.  Tape, tape, tape.  

Some big ticks that I'm hoping to knock off of this list over the break are:

• Lavender Eye .12a - HCR
• Even Dirtier V5 - HCR
• Always Lead the Possum V6 - Fountain Red
• Grungesex V6 - Down South
• Horseshoes & Hand Grenades .11a - HCR
• Newton's Law V6 - Fountain Red
• Gak Traverse V5 - Fountain Red
• Hidden Treasure .12a - Jackson (Has finally reached the status of EPIC!)
• THC Sit V5 - Jackson (Did the stand right before I messed the tendon)
• OBD Left & Direct V4 & V6 - Jackson

I'd be happy to tick off any other random sends too.  These are just of priority!  Definitely want to  get some good things down before it is off to Colorado, and then off to Mexico!  So much to do, such little time.

Congrats to Wayne for a sick weekend too, with sends of Orbital Mechanics V8, Even Dirtier V5, and Hammerhead V7.  Probably something else sick too.  He's tearing it up.  Lindsay finished up Always Lead the Possum V6 too.  Sends can only be expected to be increasing once this weather clears up too!!!!  Best of luck to all.