09.22.07
Who’s that leading?
So we went back to climbing for the past 2 days. Our first climb on Thursday was a little bit scary, but our second climb (Rhododendron) was beautiful. I said to bela that i might actually think about leading it the next day (he of course remembered me saying this!) after those two climbs, we decided to call it quits for the day. We headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up as we were heading an hour north to Albany to meet up with Erin and her parents for dinner. It was great to see them and catch up.
Today we went back to rhododendron so i could make an attempt at leading. I felt semi-confident and gave it a go. I felt like i took too much gear at first but ended up almost running out – seeing as i was placing gear just about everywhere i could. There was 1 section where i got a bit freaked but after a few minutes i just forced myself to go and i didn’t even cry, yay! This was a pretty big step for me, i haven’t lead outside in a very long time, possibly 3 or 4 years – maybe more! We befriended a few locals who had set up a few top-ropes nearby and ended up sharing the climbs. So we hopped on Laurel a 5.7 with a tough start and then Double Chin – a really fun classic gunks climb – with two big roofs. We found a black snake as bela was about to start bouldering- he almost stepped on it until i pointed it out! After those few climbs and a little bouldering for bela we were done for the day and decided to get lunch before we headed back to the city.
We’re staying in New Jersey tonight to save a few bucks on the hotel. We’re planning on getting up early to head into the city and hit central park so we decided to order some food. The front desk had a faxed copy of the menu which offered a special for pizza, pasta and few other things we couldn’t quite make out. So we called them up to ask about the special and they seemed confused, so the 2nd person we talked to was like ok you want the special? and we’re like yeah. he didn’t ask what kind of pizza or any thing and was like, “ok goodbye”. so we had no clue what we were actually getting. the delivery guy got here half the fun was seeing what we ended up getting (pizza, spaghetti, mussels marina!)
So tomorrow should be interesting as we head into the city!