Devils Tower would be the last destination of the trip. From there, we drove three days straight back to Ontario. The drive was pretty uneventful, although the return to real humidity was a bit of a shocker. Somewhere outside of Chicago we stepped out of the car and were immediately drenched with sweat. The thought of sleeping in such horrible conditions did not appeal to us. We got a motel for the night.
We didn't pass up one more opportunity to tie into a rope though. While we were at my parent's, unwinding and cleaning out Kristal's car, we were solicited to clean out the chimney of the wood stove. Here we are chilling on the roof, anchored to the old brick chimney.
And here I am, being belayed by Kristal, exercising my expert chimney sweeping technique.
The trip was incredible. In 4 months we traveled 20589 km, visited 20 destinations in 13 states, and spent 83 days climbing.
We amassed a nice collection of shoes (Kristal more so than I), most of which are in desperate need of being resoled.
We also amassed a mighty collection of guidebooks.
We keep pretty detailed logbooks of everything we climb, more for our own curiosity than anything else, but for those interested, here are the final stats...
We spent 41 days climbing routes (32 trad and 9 sport). In that time we climbed a total of 128 routes (74 trad and 54 sport), with 177 total pitches, ranging in total height from 30 to 740 feet and difficulty from 5.2 to 5.11b.
We spent 42 days bouldering (I win!!). I sent a total of 406 problems ranging in difficulty from V0- to V6. I don't have Kristal's numbers but I'm sure they aren't much different.
We'll be home for a couple of weeks before hitting the road again in early September. In the meantime I may or may not post anything here. It depends on if anything interesting happens. I'm looking forward to climbing some of the local areas around Ottawa again. In the fall we are planning to head out west again, to Squamish, eventually to Utah, and anywhere else the road takes us.
wow man 128 routes and 406 boulder problems! that is quite a number!
ReplyDeleteLOL, wow and all that remains of the Lego hobby is tubs to put the guide books in...
ReplyDeleteIt was great seeing you, thanks for dropping by.
I enjoyed reading your post on actually climbing Devils Tower and this one. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHaha! I remember Dick Van Dyke’s character Bert in “Mary Poppins” when I saw the picture! It can be fun to clean chimneys, but you have to stay safe too. It’s a good thing that being professional climbers gave you the advantage for you to climb the roof easily. Smart move to use safety ropes as anchor!
ReplyDeleteLakisha Autin
There are climbers on the roof! Haha! It’s good that you still have the strength to clean it up after your travel and your hiking. Anyway, I think it’s nice to chill on the roof, but not under the scourging heat of the sun. I hope you post more about your adventures on the road. I enjoy reading your stories, just like this one! :)
ReplyDelete