Climbing and Cycling

This weekend I opted out of doing a long day trip (5am-10pm) to the Red in KY and stuck around ohio to catch up on some rest and be ready to go for the next week of school. Some-times the day trip can really throw you off since its such a long day with 6-7 hours of driving, and a lot of climbing. Instead of focusing on climbing all weekend I switched it up a little bit with some other forms of fun training. Sat morning I did a 5miler with a couple of friends, and in the afternoon I planned on playing ultimate frisbee, but unfortunately we didnt have enough people to put together a real game so we just tossed the frisbee around. On Sunday I headed to a friends house and we biked to Scioto Audobon climbing wall and spent the day there in the sunshine n 84 degree weather. It was so nice to finally have nice weather in Ohio, the last couple weeks I have only experienced nice weather traveling outside of OH, but it was perfect - windy enough to make it not feel like 84 but still sunny and beautiful. 

Scioto Audobon's Climbing wall also called "Whittier" by most of the locals, islocated a little off of front street in downtown columbus. They have imitation rock and some climbing holds on as well, so climbers have the option of climbing "natural features" or using the holds. There are two or three lead routes that require only 6 draws (i believe), and the rest are top rope. In order to set up the top ropes you have to "bolder up" an 8-10 foot section in the back, and while wearing your harness, clip in a set of slings to the cable that runs throughout the top of the wall and run your rope through whatever climb you want. There are also some spots here that are just bouldering sections that are pretty fun.

Here's a photo of one of those boulder only sections. This is usually what I end up doing here when I go because I am not patient enough to wait for and open spot on the top rope climbs. This wall has gotten very popular among the climbing crowd in columbus, especially since it is FREE to climb there, you just need your own gear. I climbed here more last spring when it hadn't gotten as popular yet. I love the idea of being outside in the sun climbing only 15 minutes away from my apartment, but the "imitation rock" and holds have all gotten pretty slimey and you have to be careful with the holds because they tend to spin pretty easily. I've heard rumors that this is due to the lack of volunteers willing to tighten the hold and help clean em off, apparently the climbing wall itself is all volunteer run, except for the rangers that drive by and make sure no one is climbing after it closes. I might be spoiled with super frictiony and sticky rock with only climbing in the spring and fall because of my summer guide job at La Vida, but its too slimey for my tastes, and like I said before it does get very crowded on nice days. Most of the time I can spend a whole day here and just end up socializing more that I do actually working out. So if I'm looking for a day of fun climbing in the sun with friends I'll go here, but if I really want to focus on training and getting a really good workout I'll head to trusty old VA, where I always seems to leave sore, especially on the slow days where there are not as many people to distract me from my work out.

The bike ride was my first long ride, it was about 10 miles each way and we biked with all our climbing gear for the day there. I was thankful to have to fight the head wind on the way there, so that on the way back, when we were tired of climbing all day, we had a tail wind to help us out a little bit. But the overall pace of cycling I must say is really refreshing and I can see how it can be addicting. Its nice to be able to cover 10 miles no problem, in a short amount of time. Its such a big difference than running/walking/hiking, and so much less strain on your body it seems. I finally understand why it has gotten so popular with the younger crowd recently. I have been wanting to try it our for quite some time, but havent had the chance to. I thoroughly enjoyed it and could totally see myself getting into, I just need to quit buying climbing gear for a while so i can save up enough money to get a decent bike. The bike that I rode on yesterday was worth 1200$ new, 200$ less than what I paid for my truck. Its really expensive, but if you use that as your way to get around the city, it is essentially your car, especially if you live in a city where you don't get that much snow or bad winter weather.

If you haven't tried it yet, find someone you know with an extra or older bike and try it out. Its an awesome way to get some exercise, get outside, and go exploring your city or anywhere you feel like that day. Careful though, you might start having to survive on a diet of ramen noodles to afford a good bike.

Spring Break Trip:)

Instead of Blabbering on about my Spring Break trip to Foster Falls Tennessee and Huntington State Beach Park I decided to just tell you the story through photos.

  

Overall Great trip. Lots of laughter, sun, and new experiences.

Was A perfet Last-spring-break-ever trip.

Online Portfolio Finally Published

Hey guys I finally finished my online portfolio! I used carbonmade.com which has a "free version" of their portfolios. I'm sure it would be cooler if I paid and got all the perks for it, but for now this will do. Check it out at http://www.kbirdsall.carbonmade.com/!!!!

Sign up for your free portfolio now here!



Fading Tradition of Hand Painted Advertising

Thanks to OrganicClimbing's facebook page, I watched this cool video that emphasizes the importance of patiently working through a process. Nursing a pulley injury in  climbing right now I am more acutely aware of the process of patiently, but still very determinedly, working towards your goals. This video touches on the slow but beautiful process that we encounter in life sometimes, a process that us climbers and athletes are all too aware of as we strive to obtain our own personal goals.

Watch the video Up There by Mekanism on Vimeo.com 

Sleeping bag fun

Hey guys I'll post more on what i've been up to for the past two weeks later this week when I don't have so much school to do but I found some fun videos for sleeping bags on backpacker.com.

I spent all last summer in my dad's Marmot Pinacle 15 degree bag. I actually borrowed it from him before he actually had a chance to use it and then -the horrible daughter that I am - borrowed it for the whole summer of leading trips in the Adirondacks and I never washed partly out of laziness and partly because I wasn't really sure how to wash down bags. But here's a helpful video explaining how to wash your sleeping bags:

Washing your sleeping bag Video -backpacker.com

I'm excited to try this technique out on the Stoic Vamp 15 degree down bag I just got off of Steepandcheap.com for a very good price. I will look like a carrot when I'm sleeping for sure, but if I roll off my hammock n down a hill in this thing - It will be an easy search and rescue attempt with the extremely bright orang color. But I was preasantly surpised with the leg room for how light this bag is when I tried it out in my apartment. When I'm sleeping on my back outside, I sometimes like to bend a knee to the side, and in some mummy bags, that just isn't possible, but this one it worked out great. I'm very excited to see how it holds up this weekend in my second trip out to start the climbing season out. I'll let ya guys know how it works.

 here's some other fun videos and such that backpacker offers:

fun sleeping bag  test

Fixing your bag guide

shopping guide

Happy Sleeping!

Clothing Company: Verve Climbing

Verve Climbing

Watch this VIDEO about the philosophy of Verve.

These guys based out of Boulder CO make quality stuff out of quality-highly-durable materials. Also they have four "grannies"(they call them) that sew all of their gear. Anything not made in China is always a plus in my book.

I always seem to be searching for climbing pants and shorts that I can feel totally comfortable in while climbing. The ones I have either are too loose and need to be pulled up mid-climb, or don't last very long because they can't take all the rugged activity. After reading about this company, there women's attire is definitely high on my wish list for the upcoming spring. Baggy enough to be doing some crazy high steps and/or heel hooks without showing your goods, but still flattering, and don't look like your boyfriend's pajama sweat-pants = SICK - get me a pair before my next bouldering trip!!!

Check out more photos and review at Verve's Climbing Blog

My New Hobby: Birding

Now hold on- Birding? how in the world does someone who loves outdoor adventures get a kick out of bird watching? All you do is look at birds through binoculars right?! It's usually just a bunch of old men and super weird people like the photo above? Definitely not something for the young college age kids.

I have been known to hop from hobby to hobby at times, the only one that seems to have stuck as a major part of my life is climbing so far. But my new thing is Birding: The act of Bird Watching. I know its seems silly and something to make fun of someone for, and truthfully, that's what I did at first. When I first thought of birding I thought of old retired men sitting on their porches with binoculars, or old people that use it as an excuse to go spend the day in the woods smoking weed without their wives yelling at them for it. But I've learned that these scenarios are not always true. I recently learned that two of my climber friends are "birders" and man did I make fun of them for it. After enough pestering, and after the more serious birder of the two found out that my last name was "BIRDSall", they invited to me to tag along and see what it was all about. I thought "Why not?" and giggled at the thought of how crazy I would look to my participants during my summers at an outdoor education program called La Vida: The crazy sherpa that knows everything about the woods including all the birds!

Okay, maybe not this crazy of a bird lady.
 The first trip out birding, I was smiling the whole time at how silly I felt; creeping out of car windows to catch a look at some birds, hiking in the snow so I could see an eastern screech owl sleeping under a bridge, searching around for an hour or two to catch a glimpse of some other owls that were supposedly nesting around somewhere. The five or six hour trip that at the beginning of the day seemed like it would feel like forever, seemed to fly by. I was having too much fun learning about and observing all these different animals that I had never really payed very much attention to before.
 It probably helps starting off with some experienced people that are very knowledgeable about the local spots and species. At times, I feel bad for my birder friend that lets me tag along, because I just spend the whole time on our trips picking his brain, and more often than not he seems to be a walking textbook about everything that is cool - including birds.

If you think you want to give it a try and see what it is all bout, the book to check out is The Sibley Guide to Birds. Its the one that was recommended to me, and it has helpful illustrations and descriptions of the birds. After having to renew my copy from the library, I decided I needed to buy my own copy, committing myself to become a birder, at least an amateur birder. You can get an App for this guide that will play all the common calls for the birds as well as showing you all the information about them, which is really helpful and cool, but for those of us who don't have an I-phone that doesn't exactly work for us. I got my book off of Amazon.com

Flicker Woodpecker

This little guy is one I learned about this past week at Kill Dear Plains near Marion Ohio. We spent the morning there checking out what was there and looking for owls in two different spots. Although we weren't to lucky with the owls (we saw just one Bard owl that was cool to me, never seeing one before, but wasn't as exciting to the other more experienced birders), we saw plenty of these beautiful flicker woodpeckers, some horned larks, american tree sparrows, harrier hawks, rough-legged hawks and some bald eagles. There were many others there but those were just the highlights for me, if you get a chance and want to go check some birds out, Kill Dear planes was a pretty place that isn't that far of a drive from Columbus.

 These are all photos I just pulled off of google, next time I go, ill see if we can get some photos of some of the stuff we see to show ya guys.

Now when I go on a hike with Molly, or am walking to class, or even driving around the city, I tend to pay more attention the birds around me, and I must say I am amazed by how much wildlife activity I never noticed before I started paying attention to birds. So I encourage you to not think of Birding or Birders as I did a couple weeks ago, like the people in the photo above, but really look at the birds around you and if you pay close attention you'll see just how interesting these under-rated little creatures really are!