Ben and Krissy: NH - April 2011

With it being four months since our last climbing trip we were in serious withdrawl and needed to leave NS for a bit. After I finished my last exam, we packed up and headed out.

Krissy and I left Halifax on Wednesday, April 20. We left much later than anticipated and therefore just drove to Saint John, NB before heading out early the next morning.

We arrived in Pawtuckaway, NH at about 3:30pm to perfect conditions. We jumped out of the car and immediately began climbing - not the easiest thing to do after lots of hours in the car.

Some of our highlights from our short session in Pawtuckaway include:
Chunk O' Blitz V11/12
Chuckies Torture V9
Dopeman V8
The Whip V2
The Hobbit Hole V3

I worked on Halcyon (V11) first as it was my main goal for Pawtuckaway. After figuring out beta and giving it a couple of good goes, I quickly realized that months of studying and exam writing was not great preparation for the shouldery moves in this problem - Halcyon won this time...

Friday was another great day of weather. This time we headed to Rumney to do some sport climbing. The area was quite busy, however, we still managed a good bit of climbing. We ran into some familiar faces - some from Pawtuckaway the day before, and others from out time spent in Rumney last summer. It was great to see some of these people again. We also met up with Roger and Samantha (who has a wrecked shoulder) from Halifax. We were able to get in a few routes together. Krissy and Roger both nearly sent Social Distortion (5.12a/b), with Roger completing the crux only to fall after...sucky! I started working on Parallel Universe (5.14a). I was able to do all the sequences quite quick, however, I will need to build up some power endurance to link the whole thing...maybe next week.

Saturday the snow came! We woke up to snow falling in the Rumney area. This actually worked out great as we needed a rest day any way. So we went to the hot tubs and coffee shops for the day. Just by chance we also met up with a couple from Fredericton and were able to visit with them as well. We all went out to try a new restrant called the Shalimar - all Indian food - it was awesome!

Sunday was another great weather day! We decided to head to Farley, MA. This turned out to be a big mistake. We arrived to find the boulders wet and actually closed to climbing due to nesting peregrine falcons. So, we packed up and turned around to head back to Rumney where we knew we would find some dry, quality stuff to climb. We headed to the Pound to do a bouldering session. Thanks to who ever put the Easter eggs on our car! I ate them and then climbed my project.