Episode 32: In Which DFM Climbs Some Cliffs And Scares Some Mosquitoes

It was the big climbing trip today.

I took the 45 minute subway ride over to Ace Climbing Center for a 9:00 AM meeting time.  We packed up our gear in the back of the gym's Hyundai mini-van, and then crammed seven adults in and set out on a 2-hour drive to the climbing crag.

It was the first time anyone from the gym had been to our intended destination, so we had to stop at a restaurant and ask for directions when we neared what the SatNav said was the end of the journey (I hate Sat Nav, but that's another post for another time).  It's tough to tell its  height from the picture, but the restaurant had this really cute puppy that couldn't have been more than eight inches tall.

Eventually we found the road-side turn out and set off on a hike to find the climbing site.

After one hour, we finally reached base camp and unpacked our gear.

Alvin and his wife and I were going to start warming up on some nice looking routes, but Choi (pictured above, testing a hold) kept tearing off the rocks on his harder route and told us this wasn't a good area to climb.

Instead we moved to a different part of the wall.  In the past I've climbed in the Canadian Rockies and the first bolts always seem to be around ten to twelve feet off the sharp boulder strewn ground.  Here at this crag though, the route setters placed the first bolts much lower, around six or seven feet off the ground, for which I was quite thankful.  Plus, the ground was sand, so even if we did fall before we made our first clip we had a nice soft landing.

Perhaps it was a result of less initial stress, or that I was now more experienced, but I found myself climbing much better than I have in the past outdoors.  I did not get a chance to climb any PB grades this time, but the routes I did climb were done smoother and easier than I've ever been able to climb before and at the same difficulty rating too.

There also seemed to be many mosquito nests on this cliff face too, but the mosquitoes knew better and stayed away from me, lest they make me angry... they wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

Ji-Hyeun and Choi both made valiant attempts at this unconfirmed route that Choi estimated to be about 5.12b, but fell just short.  Click on the picture to blow it up and see how close Ji-Hyeun was to making it to the final chains (both she and Choi fell shortly after this point).

Eventually we had to head back and face a long, slow drive through rush-hour as what seemed like a thousand different Koreans all had the same idea to go to the same place at the same time.  Before we got to the car though, Choi picked a few choice rocks from the beach of stones that may eventually become set in clay and drilled onto the Ace wall as new climbing holds

Choi had planned to take the whole group out for dinner afterwards, but Alvin, his wife, and myself all had to teach early in the morning, and I still had to pick up groceries as I had completely exhausted my food supplies the day before in preparation for the move.  Furthermore, I had developed a head cold and lost my voice.  Teaching the children tomorrow is going to be a real battle.

Dogs vs. Babies

I spent a half-hour playing with my roommate's Black Lab/Border Collie cross today. That dog is quite possibly the most beautiful dog and playful dog ever. Her two favourite games are catch and wrestling, and she could do both for hours. As I was wrestling and playing catch with her I started comparing her to a human baby. After carefully deliberating for at least a minute, I came up with the conclusion that dogs are better than babies. Here's why:

1. My friend tells me that dogs are fully mobile within 9 days. Even in human terms that's still only 63 days. At 63 days a baby is barely crawling around. Point: dog.
   
2. The aforementioned Lab/Collie is rather good at wrestling. Human babies on the other hand are awful at wrestling. They just lay there and get pinned without putting up a fight. When I try to body slam the dog, she flips out of my hands and comes back and tries to nip me (a worthy opponent). When I body slam a baby it just flops on the floor and cries a lot. Point: dog.
   
3. When I play catch with the dog, she chases the ball and brings it back. If I throw the ball at her head she catches it. The baby, on the other hand, doesn't even move. If I throw a ball at its head it will just get hit in the face and start crying some more. Point: dog.
4. When I go out for training runs with the dog, she pulls me along and makes me work extra hard so I get in extra good shape. When I take a baby out on a leash, it just drags along on the ground and makes nasty scraping sounds on the pavement. However, I still have to work extra hard. Tie, no point awarded.
5. Within months the dog was trained to poop outside. Babies, on the other hand, do not seem to get this message no matter how long I leave them out in the snow. I could leave the baby out in the snow all night and it would still poop its pants the next day. Point: dog.

Well, there you have it. This highly hyped contest turned out to be a bit of a landslide for the dog. In soccer, a 4-0 score like this would probably have gotten the coach fired. I hope you babies are proud of yourselves, you've failed again. That makes me wonder though, who would win in a match between babies and the Washington Generals?