Switzerland Part Deux

Friday, June 19th , 2009

Today is a rest day. It is also a rainy day, perfect!
Magic Wood has been pretty busy. Lots of climbers at the campground, probably because of this beautiful weather we’ve been having. A bit hot yesterday but that doesn’t matter too much when we’ve got boulders that act like air conditioners.

A couple of days ago we had some pretty bad luck. While warming up, Ben split his index finger (yes it is pretty sharp here). Almost immediately after that I dropped my new left Demon shoe down a crack. I watched it tumble further and further until it disappeared in this black hole. We searched for it for about an hour, but no luck. I thought of digging out my camera and shooting photo’s in the blind spots and using the flash to see in darker spots, but still no luck. I left a message on the rock, just in case someone felt like looking for a shoe. Truly bummed out, we chose to continue onto a new boulder problem. I was done climbing for the day, but Ben still had 2 good shoes to work with.



We found this one problem that did make me want to climb again, and so I hopped on it. It is this vertical wall with bad feet at the bottom but decent hand holds. Kinda awkward but doable. It just so happened that the crux move involves a big move to a side-pull edgy/pinchy thing, off of a bad right foot. Ben offered me his newer pair of shoes (which were a bit too big for me, making it tough trusting my feet), then a light bulb went off…I still had my right shoe! So I worked it for a while. I was getting so close, then it happened, one rushed, sloppy placement and my foot blew. I fell straight down and bashed my knee off the rock. Over. I couldn’t trust that foot after that. I thought I’d give myself a break, so I took the rest of the day off. It was not a good day for me.



Ben on the other hand climbed awesome! He flashed “Foo Fighter” a 7C, and sent “Fight Club” in a couple tries…another 7C. He tried “River Bed” (8B) and did all but 2 moves on it. Now he just has to link them. It looks crazy! Kamel Trophy (7A), and a couple easier ones were also sent. Not bad for climbing with a split fingertip.

Now on to yesterday…
We drove up to Ausser Ferrera to find a telephone. We found 1. It wouldn’t let us make a collect call, and it doesn’t accept visa’s. So after about an hour or so of messing with the telephone, we decided to go climbing.
Ben was on a role again. He sent quite a few on his tic list. Entreprise (7A), Bosna Genial (7A), U-Boot (6C), James Bong (7B), Valentines Day (7A+), Schrotti (7B), Hageltrauma (7A+), Man of the Cow (7C), Red Roses (7B+), Space Cowboy (7B), Bosna Royal (7A), Wonder Boy (5), and Madame Etoile (6B+).






After Ben’s sending spree, we decided to take a quick look for my shoe…this time we came prepared. In true Mcgruber style, I fashioned together two shoe searching instruments.

Instructions on how to make a shoe finder:
1. Get 2 long sticks, a compact mirror, and a headlamp.
2. Recycle finger tape (hockey or sport tape) to use as rope or string for tying.
3. Tie mirror and headlamp to each stick.
4. Search and Find missing shoe!





So once my instruments were ready, I walked up to the boulder and noticed a new message under my old one.

Came back to camp, and woke up this morning to find my shoe by the message board! YAY!


Random Thoughts:
Ben doesn’t hike through Magic Wood, he RUNS
Climbing here is intimidating.
It is beautiful here!
We are drinking water from a pipe…it could be a spring. Everyone else here assured us it it ok.
While washing her hands and face in the water, Krissy was this close to experiencing screaming pukies.
We have seen Eric and Ian’s doppelgangers!
It is so weird being in a place where you can’t understand anything or anyone!
We haven’t had a real shower since Sunday!