Category Archives: Rock Climbing

Stories from Rock Climbing, or something in that general area

Aug16

My first outdoor Oregon climbs of 2022! Ozone!!

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Saturday, 23-July-2022

(Edit: 20-Aug-2022, I realized that these weren’t my first outdoor climbs of 2022! Instead, my first outdoor adventure climbing was at Rumney, back in April! How crazy is that… I’ve climbed equal amounts on both coasts!)

How has it been over seven months, and I haven’t climbed outside??

I mean, I don’t think I have… And I have to admit, there’s good reason. An excessively rainy spring, far longer than most, leading into a summer approximately a billion degrees during the day doesn’t really lend itself to getting out of town and rock climbing.

But none of that matters now because I went climbing!!!

My friend Lexi and I headed out leisurely on a Saturday… it was a bit impromptu, with our plans varying the few days before. Thankfully, everything worked out in the end, and we found ourselves eating breakfast sandwiches in the morning and then starting the drive while the day was still comparatively young.

Our goal was Ozone – to do a bit of exploring and just feel out the climbing. This would be our first climbing trip together, and her first outdoor climbing in 7 years or so, and we weren’t aiming to push grades or do anything particularly crazy… just get out on the rock and enjoy ourselves.

So… we did! We climbed, we crushed, and we had a great time!

Okay, so… photos. There really weren’t any. Since, you know, we were climbing. But I did get a cool shot of Lexi looking up at an impossibly tall section of the wall! And of some BBQ that we had afterward!



What did we climb, you may ask? Well, ask that I may answer!

Stairway to Heaven – 5.6, Sport, Lead

Stigmata – 5.7, Trad, Lead

Rusty Cage – 5.8, Top-rope (climbed on Stigmata anchors)

Stigmata variant (Left) – ~5.8, top-rope

Ripper – 5.9, top-rope

Ripper Variant (left) – 5.9, top-rope

Jun3

A flight of New England Fancy – Visiting Massachusetts in the Spring

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It’s been a while since I’ve been back to Massachusetts… I think it was for Dillon and Liz’s wedding, wasn’t it? That’s sounding right… though I frankly can’t believe that was only six months ago. These last few months have felt like forever, and it was high time that I got back East. The rock was calling, family and friends beckoned, and I hadn’t seen my Grandma in far, far too long…


This… uhh… this post was supposed to go first. So… pretend that it was first?



Friday, 15-May-2022 through Monday, 25-May-2022

It’s been a while since I’ve been back to New England… and now thanks to COVID I have full capability to work remotely… So off I flew to Boston!

The plan was pretty simple:
– Spend Passover with the family in Amherst
– Spend Easter with the family in New York
– Work remotely for the middle of the week
– Go climbing with friends on Friday
– Spend Saturday at a convention that my Mom and Stepdad were running
– Spend Sunday catching up with friends
– Work remotely on Monday, then fly home in the evening


And, if I may say so, it went off without a hitch!

I’ve been working at being slower, this year… not trying to pack in as many little things, and focusing in a bit more on what I’m actively doing at the time. It’s been challenging, especially with constant injuries needing more and more of my time to deal with, but… this week was a chance to really focus in on that plan.

Not being home meant that I didn’t have access to the infinite distractions of my apartment, which definitely aided in zeroing my mind in on a single activity. I wasn’t perfect, of course, but… you know what? I had an amazing time, and felt quite happy by the time the flight home rolled around.

May23

A flight of New England Fancy – Visiting Rumney again!

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It’s been a while since I’ve been back to Massachusetts… I think it was for Dillon and Liz’s wedding, wasn’t it? That’s sounding right… though I frankly can’t believe that was only six months ago. These last few months have felt like forever, and it was high time that I got back East. The rock was calling, family and friends beckoned, and I hadn’t seen my Grandma in far, far too long…

Friday, 22-Apr-2022

Jeeze… how long has it been since I’ve climbed at Rumney?

I mean, it’s where I learned to climb, man! Rumney, Quincy, Hammond Pond, The Gunks, North Conway… okay, it’s one of the places I learned. Joshua Tree should be in there too, maybe Black and White boulders… Red Rocks…

Okay, Other Ben, I get the point. But still!

I definitely learned to lead sport at Rumney, that’s a clear statement. Back when Kasia and I had a borrowed rope, with borrowed draws, and the guidebook was out of print so we just sort of climbed on a wing and a prayer? Those were the good times.

How I survived those good times alive, I’ll still never know… do I have a blog post about the time I ran out of draws 7-clips in, and traversed to another climber to borrow two of his? No? Maybe?

I learned lessons at Rumney. Good lessons, to say the least, and lessons that I’ve been lucky enough to carry across the globe since those carefree, halcyon days.

Since then, Rumney’s grown and expanded, just like the rest of us.

It’s become more popular, more official, and new zones have been purchased and opened up for public use. New guidebooks have been published, and new parking lots graded and opened.

Truth be told, I kind of felt like a small-towner going to visit a old friend who’s been killing it in the big city. I mean… I remembered when I used photos of the guidebook to find routes! Now there’s apps, fancy guidebooks, and actual signage! Huge new swaths of rock, being developed and climbed by folks I knew back in 2009!

Daniel and Brian took the day off from work with me, and we drove North, as early in the day as we felt viable. See… you don’t want to get there too early, because then the rock is still cold and damp from the evening frost and morning mist… but the later in the day you arrive, the less climbing there is!

We got there just in time for the hail to hit Daniel as he worked his way up a route… Which, you know, isn’t actually the worst thing while rock climbing. I mean… we had helmets on, and it was cool enough that we had long sleeves too… so we were pretty well armored against any pain or injury. And the nice thing about hail? It doesn’t make the rock wet!

So… Daniel just sorta kept climbing. Like a boss.

Brian and I followed suit, and an amazing day on the rocks was had by all. We started off at Buffalo Pit, a new area that I hadn’t been to before, and then dove down to Below the New Wave… somewhere that (I’m pretty sure) has been around since before I started climbing at Rumney.

Both spots were amazing, and both spots saw us sending a glorious number of really run routes… and I even climbed a bit harder than I was expecting, which was a super nice ego boost!



And, of course, as is tradition, we hit up Tilton Diner on the way home. I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve climbed at Rumney, then gorged on amazing burgers and milkshakes… but you know what? It felt like I’d never left.




Routes climbed!!

Buffalo Pit:
Lonesome Buffalo (5.8)
Sunnyside Up (5.10c)
Mr. Buffalo to you (5.4)


Below the New Wave:
Bullwinkle Goes Ballistic (5.10a)
Into Air and Pleasant Danger (5.8)
Son of Sammy (5.8+)
Couch Potato (5.9)
Sixth Sense (5.6)