Almost too hot for climbing

I went back to Bob's Boulders at Whiteface Mt yesterday afternoon. In the middle of the day on a true summer's day here in NH, it's just plain hot and humid. We tramped around in the woods for a while looking at some other lesser developed cliffs on the mountain and by the time we came back to Bob's Boulders my shirt was soaked. We climbed 'The Nose' and 'Left-wing Extremist' and could barely keep chalk on our hands. It was fun though and my brother-in-law, Ben Kane, came with me for the first time and really enjoyed it. Hopefully we get some better, drier weather later this week and we'll go again.

Split Rock Boulder, Mt. Major

Mike Kelly and I work the top-out moves on the Split Rock Boulder at Mt. Major, Alton, NH. We still haven't linked the bottom with the top-out. The bottom is overhangy and the top-out is nearly blank so it works out to be a fun problem.

Not too hot for climbing!

I had two opportunities to go climbing again at Whiteface Mt in Gilmanton, NH this week. Monday I went with a couple of guys from New Jersey, one of them being an exchange student from Belgium. This is Ray, a retired prison guard from NJ.

Jon and Angie Button are back in NH to finish up their partnership development before joining us in Brazil for language study. Jon was able to come with me on Wednesday.

Sam Huggard is the pastor at BeFree Community - Alton, the new church in town that meets at the High School. Sam was an outdoor education major at UNH back in the day. Sam was able to come with us on Wednesday too.
Tony Kappes has been my constant climbing partner and I will miss climbing with him. We went to Whiteface Mt every Wednesday morning all fall-winter.
Here's a picture of me on 'Right-wing Extremist', a route that I projected for several months worth of Wednesday mornings before I sent it on lead. The crux is right at the bottom, the first three or four moves off the ground. Then it is a slightly overhanging jug-haul with a mono on the top-out. My trouble with it was the endurance part. I always expended so much energy on the first part that I didn't have enough left to finish out the top. I always pumped out after the third-of-four bolts. I have been training specifically for it, and though I have already sent it this past spring, I did it two more times this week just because it still gets my blood pumping.