From Sea to Summit

Hi. Today was beautiful. The sun was shining, the temperature just right, and not a cloud in the sky. You gotta love those perfect autumn days! I know, I know I've been terrible at keeping up with my weekend adventures. Here I'll catch you up on the past two weekends!

Oh the Pacific Ocean..

Two weekends ago, I convinced Aaron he wanted to do a mini backpacking trip with me in Olympic National Park. I had been jonesing to get out to the coast and do some hiking for some reason. So Friday after work, we packed the truck, made sure we had our rain gear (100% chance of rain on Saturday). We took a ferry to Bainbridge Island and drove to a Walmart in Port Angeles to stay the night. We bought a few groceries and we finally stumbled across a great way to make curtains for the truck! Aaron got the curtains set up in such a way the truck is totally dark and we can easily slide the curtains to the side in the morning. In the morning, we went to Chestnut Cottage for breakfast and got served the biggest piece of coffee cake in the the world. We then continued our drive to Ozette.

The baby seal was stranded :(

Low tide leaves bad smelling seaweed.

It was raining the whole drive there but when we got out of the truck to start unloading and figuring out our gear, Mother Nature decided it was a great time to pour and be windy. We put our rain gear on and stuck through it. Right as we finished assembling our gear, the rain stopped. We stuffed our packs and started hiking towards the coast. As we were hiking, it drizzled a little bit but nothing too serious. We made it to Cape Alava and then started hiking on the beach. The tide was on it's way out and there was piles of seaweed and other unknown smelly things all over. It wasn't the easiest walk ever although we were on flat ground. We made it to Sand Point and it started to rain a bit and we decided to set up camp. So we found the best camping spot available and set up camp. The rain had stopped so we took a little walk along the shore. We scrambled up some rock to get a cool lookout over the Pacific Ocean. We were standing up there, the sun was shining for a bit, and then it wasn't. We were on our way off the rock and it rained. Like rain rain rain. We walked back to camp, started a campfire, and boiled water for dinner. We had a tarp set up to block the rain and we enjoyed our freeze-dried dinners at the campfire. We eventually made our way into the tent and played some cards before falling asleep.

Amanita

Sunday, we woke up, tore down camp and made our way back to Seattle. It was a great mini backpacking trip :)

Proof it was in fact sunny for a few moments.

Now, I'm finally on what happened two weekends ago! On Friday, we went to Lee's birthday party and some drinks with a bunch of cool people who are super into mountaineering and rock climbing. Saturday morning, we woke up and made our way to Leavenworth. It is Oktober-fest so you can imagine the people! We did two trad climbs: Poison Ivy Crack (5.9) and Existential Exit (5.10a) and I got my butt handed to me. We then went to The Pocket. I was crushing it and got to a new high point!! I won't go into much detail but enjoy the pictures!!

Aaron and I happy we didn't experience Tidepocylapse this time!

Sooo close! This project just needs to be sent!

Daddy's Girl

Hello beautiful. Cool news - my dad and his gf, Laurie, came to visit last week! They flew in Wednesday afternoon and stayed through Sunday morning. Unfortunately, I actually work full-time 8-5 and play leap frog in traffic so I wasn't able to spend a lot of time with them but it was still great to see them!

Wednesday after work, Dad and Laurie came over and we showed them our apartment. We had dinner at Eastlake Bar and Grille and enjoyed the nice weather. After dinner, we went to Gas Works Park to get one of the classic, iconic views of Seattle. We wandered around the park and then got ice cream at Molly Moons - I appreciate the vegan ice cream :)

Classic

Thursday, I met Dad and Laurie for lunch in Bellevue. We had lunch at Potbelly and then I showed them my office space at ChemPoint. We hung around for a little bit and then i was back to work. After work, we all went on a ferry ride across The Sound. We caught the ferry right after sunset so the Olympics were a perfect outline with a fire colored sky. On the way back we had a phenomenal view of Seattle. Seeing the Big Wheel and Space Needle amongst the skyscrapers of downtown was very pretty.

Big Wheel

On Friday we took it easy. We ended up at REI where I ended up buying some warm gloves. Aaron can atest that I need them because my hands are always cold. I wonder who I got that from, Dad? After hanging out at REI, we went to the Seattle Center and checked out the Space Needle Gift Shop where I managed to convince Dad to buy me a stunning photo of Mount Rainier which I put in our bedroom! We then had a late dinner at Sport Restaurant & Bar where we had delicious food!

Saturday was our last day with Dad and Laurie. Aaron and I went to REI to get him a new, fancier, more expensive bike which he needed to commute to work. Dad and Laurie spent the morning at Pike's Market. After Aaron and I had lunch at The Lunchbox (my experimental salmon burger was not very good), we met Dad and Laurie at Pike's Market which was oh so easy. We bought a salmon and Dad bought a "sandbox." The sandbox was two panes of glass with three types of sand in colored water in a frame. When you flip it, then sand creates nature scapes. It's pretty cool! We then went back to the apartment where Laurie (a super duper good cook) made salmon and baked veggies. We had a bottle of Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay with dinner. After cleaning up dinner, we said our goodbyes :(  In typical fashion, Aaron and I packed the truck and drove out to Leavenworth! 

Hand in The Pocket.

Sunday morning we went bouldering. We warmed up on Woolly Mammoth and then went to The Pocket for me to work on. So for me - short person problems - there are two cruxes - both of which are big big moves. The first crux is throwing to the pocket. Over and over I would just catch the edge but not enough to hold on tight. I lost so much skin on my left hand. Instead of quitting, I taped up my fingers and kept giving it go's. My back and shoulder muscles were beginning to get extremely tired but I just had to give it one more go. I sat down on the pad, popped my hip, got established, flipped my left hand into an undercling, bumped my right hand up, got my left hand up and over, matched, walked my feet over, got the high left foot with a bomber drop knee, locked my eyes on the pocket, and my hand went exactly where it needed to go and I stuck the crux!!! Last go best go :)

Then we went over to Hanta Man and Aaron worked on it for awhile. He could do all the moves but couldn't quite link them together. He has to do this sweet looking double toe/heel cam while matching on a crimp to bust out right. I have some sweet photos! Then we went over to The Octopus (a V3). I just gotta say that it was the fastest I have EVER sent a V3. After a few warm-up go's, I managed to crimp the sh*t out of this tiny crimp because I couldn't reach the jug. I crimped enough to move my feet to reach the jug. Then came the top out where I couldn't reach the other jug so once again I crimped the sh*t out of something to get myself to the top of the boulder.

Look at this crusher ;)

Somehow, Aaron still managed to have energy and psych to go work on the Peephole (V10). He worked the starting moves for awhile. Later in the week, he went to Leavenworth and was able to do all the moves! Now he just has to piece it together and the Peephole is in the send column :)

Next on The Life of Megan: a trip to the Pacific Ocean.

Pebble Wrestling

Hi guys! I know I know! I've been terrible at posting my adventures lately! Now I'll catch you up on some sweet climbing we've been doing!

Two weekends ago, we went back out to Leavenworth. We had high hopes of getting on Orbit (5 pitches of 5.8) but there were some painfully slow humans in front of us that refused to let us pass. We scrambled up the first "pitch" with ease and then Aaron started to lead the next "pitch" but it got to the point were it wasn't worth our time so we decided not to climb it anymore. Lo and behold, on our way back to the path we hear two dudes yell our names. We look up and we see Alex and Camden on Outer Space but there were also a lot of slow people so they bailed too. We walked back to the truck and we went bouldering. 

I finally had a good climbing session! We went to Lovage (V4) and I finally sent!! Camden gave me some good beta and it totally worked :) It involved getting a slightly higher left foot and bumping the compression up until I could grab the jug. Then you do some interesting footwork and ball-up and top out. It was a wonderful send!

Lovage V4

After my send, we went to Coffee Cup (V8) for Aaron and Camden to work on. It was a pretty short problem but hard - I think it got downgraded from a V10 after a hold broke. They made some good progress on it - here are some photos.

Coffee Cup V8

On Sunday we went to The Sword, this beautiful highball V3. Aaron and Camden both flew up the climb. Then it was my turn. I had previously worked this problem but could barely stick the first move! Now was my time for revenge. I easily stuck the first move and could bring my feet up. I tried different beta for the next move and managed to stick the crux move by a little dyno. Unfortunately, I could stick the hold but not long enough to get my feet back on and get established. Progress!

The Sword V3

We then went to The Prism a funky V9. A fellow climber from TRC, Tyler Weiss, is featured in the Leavenworth bouldering guide book for this climb! Aaron and Camden worked Prism for awhile and found some interesting beta. It was fun watching them exploring the beta possibilities. Eventually we left for home.

Prism V9

The next weekend we went to Mile High Buttress near Morningstar Peak a few miles out of Darrington. Aaron, Alex, Camden and I met in the parking lot, packed our bags, and began the hike in. Just so you know, this climb was first done a week before we did it! We crossed a few streams, hiked into the clouds, across a talus field, through some trees, another talus field, up a stream, and then finally made it to the base of the climb. Alex and Camden started off with Aaron and I hot on their heels. Unfortunately, we thought it was supposed to be slightly chilly and sunny but instead it snowed, rained, hailed, and was never sunny. We were freezing. I was miserable but we persevered and made it to the summit. I was only happy when I was back in the truck, cuddled in my sleeping bag warm. Then it dawned upon us that I was the first female to climb that route (FFA) so that was pretty cool. I guess suffering through rough environmental conditions lets you do some pretty sweet stuff :) 

Mile High Buttress.

View of Headlee Pass