Thursday, 14-May-15

Daytrip to Rumney with Johnny and Kirsten

<Ed Note: Pictures to be added later, when Ben actually has access to his desktop>

 

One of my favorite adventures last year was a mid-week climbing trip to Rumney with Johnny and Kirsten.

Nothing against the other adventures that I partook in – everything was amazing, of course – But this one was special because we had the place all to ourselves.  We could climb, explore, vacillate over what to climb, and do whatever we wanted.  All without having to stress about other teams stealing the routes that we wanted to get onto.

So, when I found out that I was going to be leaving Boston?  Of course, I had to try and get another mid-week trip in.

 

Thankfully, it turned out quite easy to plan, since Johnny and Kirsten both happened to have a Thursday off work coming up.  The morning did start out a little late when Johnny, ever the veterinarian that he is, stopped near their apartment to help a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest.  Definitely a good deed, but one that delayed our start by a few hours… which was actually ideal, in the end, since it gave Rumney enough time to dry out all the way, so that when we got to the cliffs there wasn’t much evidence of the rain that had hit in the days before.

 

Routes climbed:

All routes from The 5.8 Crag

The 5.8 Crack by the Road (5.7, Trad, led by Ben) – This is one of my favorite Trad routes at Rumney.  Tricky and challenging, there’s one move where you’re coming out of a mini-cave that’s really interesting… if by “interesting” you mean “annoying and awkward and scary”.  The rest is just solid crack climbing, which I love 🙂

Bolt and Run (5.9, Sport, led by Ben) – This one… I didn’t intend to lead this one.  I accidentally left a knot in the rope when I pulled down the rope for The 5.8 Crack by the Road, so I needed to go up and get it.  Since the only options were to re-lead 5.8, lead B & R, or lead a 5.10c… I went with B & R, since I wanted to get it done anyways.  A challenging route, with a few “hail Mary” moves that scared the daylights out of me.  But I go it cleanly, and I’m happy about that.

Ashbury Park (5.7, Sport, led by Johnny and Kirsten) – This one was super fun, though a little bit run out and delicate near the middle.  Both leads went well, though they looked to be a bit of a challenge.  I’m really happy that both Johnny and Kirsten could get the leads in though, since this route was a really solid “Rumney style” route – good face climbing, with more than one “wait, what do I do now?” moments.