TaxNerdAtPlay

Saturday morning we gathered at the dining canopy for an early start. The objective was to beat the ‘crack of noon’ club at the crag and be back for the UBC finals, so we planned for an 8am departure from the campground in the Loon Mountain parking. Coffee in hand, we left around 9… the late start may or may not have been related to the beer consumed Friday night. Spirits were high; we were all pretty anxious to get on some rock and gain some altitude.

We didn’t know exactly where we were going yet. George and Patrick had suggested checking out Cathedral Ledge. George had been there previously for ice climbing, but none of us had climbed the rock there. We figured a stop at IME in North Conway to pick up a guidebook would be the first order of the day. So we set off, a convoy of three cars bearing plates from two different States and one Province.

After reviewing the guidebook (we were looking for something easy) we decided on trying out Child’s Play. It was soaked (as in covered in running water, not just a little bit wet). We checked out a few other possible routes, admired the boulders at the base of the crag, and then headed back to the cars for plan B. After some discussion, we decided we’d head back towards Loon Mountain and try to get some climbs in on Rainbow Slabs.

Unlike Cathedral Ledge and Rumney, there is no parking at the base of Rainbow Slabs. We instead parked on the side of the highway and hiked our way in, which makes things WAY more fun, and generally less crowded. Continue reading →

I spent last weekend in New Hampshire attending the Nor’Easter put on by the good folks at Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS).

I first heard about the Nor’Easter from Aleya on Twitter. A weekend of camping, climbing, conservation, and concerts sounded pretty ideal. I knew immediately that I wanted to go. Talking to Jim from EMS (managing the @Easternmntn account) and finding out that twitter friends Patrick (aka CampTheSummit), Katie, George, and Aleya were going reinforced that desire… It was no longer that I ‘wanted’ to go… I HAD to go. My colleague and climbing buddy AJ agreed, and it was set.

We set out on the road Thursday morning more excited than kids on Christmas morning. The plan was to cross the border at Niagara Falls and travel through the US all the way to New Hampshire, with a pitstop at EMS in Syracuse to pick up any last minute items. Knowing that we had a planned shopping stop, I packed hastily the night before… climbing shoes – check, harness – check, gear – check, tent – check, tickets – ….. tickets? S*%T! Arriving in Syracuse, 4 hours into our roadtrip, I discovered that my event tickets were in my laptop bag… in Toronto. Immediately I tried to get a hold of Jim on Twitter, and then continued on with the drive.

The drive through Vermont and New Hampshire was breathtaking… and fun! Narrow winding roads, up and down hills, through the gorgeous New England fall foliage and 200 year old towns. I’d never been to this part of the country before. I was awestruck… double-rainbow awestruck.

We arrived in North Woodstock, NH late Thursday evening, stopped at a local convenience store and asked which campgrounds were still open. They directed to Country Bumpkins, just up the street. Country Bumpkins was already closed, but the owners live on-site. They opened up the office and got us set up with a site and some firewood. In true Canadian fashion we opened some beers, lit a fire, and then set up the tent.
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My cousin was in town recently for some work-related training. He came over for dinner, and the first comment he made was “Ontario is just … weird”. Having lived here for 15 months now I have to agree.

It’s been a big adjustment for me. Certainly bigger than anticipated. I think I’m starting to settle in; I referred to Toronto as home for the first time recently. But there are some things that still seem strange to me.

The big stuff is relatively easy to adjust to. Foreign (to me) grocery chains, area codes, the sheer size of the city, generally not having a clue where anything is, the Leafs stuff everywhere and their losing record :) (most non-Torontonians I know LOVE that the Leafs perpetually suck; GO FLAMES GO). All of that is easy to adjust to.

It’s the little things that make it hard. The relative lack of 7-11‘s and Slurpees (I grew up in Winnipeg, the Slurpee capital of the world), milk sold in 3 bags (1.33L each) instead of 4L jugs, wiper blades propped up of windshields, backing into parking spots.  All of that little stuff makes this feel less like home.

Talking with my dad about he came up with a great analogy:

It’s like, all your life your pencils were in your right-hand drawer, and now you’ve moved them to the left. Whenever you go to reach for one, especially when you’re stressed and REALLY need one, you reach to the right…

“Where the eff are my pencils?? Oh. Yeah. They’re over here now.”

Climbing is something that always appealed to me, even before I really started getting into it. When I first moved to Calgary, I finally got a chance to try it out, and I was instantly hooked. Within a week I owned my own gear and climbed regularly at The Crux Climbing. I was hooked. I couldn’t get enough. Then I broke my knee.

Throughout my life I’ve tried and abandoned a lot of things. I really didn’t want to give many of them up, but other things (like work) ended up getting in the way. I really only blame myself for this, partly because I’m always interested in trying new things and partly because my priorities change. I was determined to not let that happen with climbing. It almost did.

After nearly a year in Ontario, with work finally settling into a post tax-season routing, I decided I needed to start taking some more time for me. Climbing was the answer. A colleague (friend) who also moved here from Alberta also had a strong desire to climb, so after months of me stalling (working long hours), we finally set out to find a climbing gym.

To date we’ve climbed in four different gyms in the GTA. We originally intended to climb the few that were within a reasonable driving distance from our office, but I think we’ll now venture out a bit further for the sake of exploring the gyms. Along the way I’ll be posting my reviews of each gym.

Climb on!