9th Street Crag

Robert bought some rock climbing gear with his graduation money and asked us to bring our gear to Utah. A big group of us went up to 9th street crag in Ogden. We had a great time.
Shane and Jared

Abby and Mike, getting ready to climb.

Mike, at the top.

Abby showed us how to put your leg behind your head.
Jessica

Zack

Rock Climbing

Yesterday we went down to Lake Perris to do some rock climbing with Robert. It was a nice day for climbing and by the time we got our climb set up all the other climbers had gone, so we had the rock to ourselves.

At the site there is a list of all the climbs, we picked an easy climb and Shane lead-climbed it. Wherever we go adventure always seems to find us, this trip was no exception. When Shane was half-way down the climb we ran out of rope, so he had to climb up again undo the anchor, free climb down and across to the lower anchors. Then he had to climb back across to release the quick-draws from the original climb. Shane was getting tired, it took awhile but we finally got everything situated and I started lowering him back down. Then I heard a little rattle sound. I looked down and there was a rattlesnake slithering toward the pile of rope (right in front of me). I yelled up to Shane "hold on a minute". "Why?" he yelled back. "Because there's a big rattlesnake". I slowly moved over to the side as far as I could and lowered Shane down as fast as I could. The snake kept inching toward us so Shane scared it away by throwing some rocks at it.

We kept climbing after that, but I couldn't stop thinking about the snake! I hate snakes! Jared did two climbs.

Robert made it all the way up to the anchor.

Close-up of Robert at the top.

Serenity thinks she is such a good little climber, she doesn't know that Shane pulls her up. She did a better job coming back down this time though.

Robert taking a break. This picture is for Shaunna. It was too dangerous for Robert to try and hang upside down, so he just sat down and leaned back instead.

I did one climb, but ended up belaying most of the time. My hands were killing me by the time we left.

Rock Climbing

Last weekend Shane took us rock climbing at Lake Perris. This is the wall, we climbed up a route on the far right, just on the right side of the climbers on the far right of the pic.

All the climbs along the front of the wall are lead climbs. This is Shane at the first bolt.

Shane has a 50 meter rope and a 60 meter rope, he decided to use the 60 meter. After he repelled back to the bottom I looked down at the rope and there was less than two feet left, Yikes!

This was Jared's first climb in his new harness. (no more full-body harness! He passed it on to his little sister. Ahhh, our little rock climber is growing up)


This was Serenity's first rock climbing trip. She did pretty good going up, coming down....that was a different story! (Jared took this pic, so the angle is a little bit exaggerated)

Jessica and Serenity

Jared did such an awesome job. He climbed so high I couldn't get a picture of him and Shane in the same frame! This is a picture of him repelling back down.

Rock Climbing @ Boxsprings

Our Memorial Day plan was to hike Mount Baden Powell. Its an 8 mile hike...and it would have been perfect weather for the hike, but after all the rain we got this week there was way too much snow on the trail still. So I convinced Shane to take us rock climbing instead (we haven't been climbing in months!). We drove about 30 minutes to Riverside and went climbing at a spot called "Boxsprings Crag". Jared brought his friend Justin along (a first timer) and we all had a good time. Now I have the climbing itch, so hopefully we can go again soon.
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Here is Jared getting ready for his first climb. I bought Jared new rock climbing shoes in December (his first pair). This was the first time he got to use them. He loved the shoes and whipped right up the wall.

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Down below is the University of Riverside campus.
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Jared's second climb.

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We set up two routes. Route 1 (the blue rope) was a pretty easy climb at the bottom (we set that one up for the kids). Route 2 (yellow/red rope) was a hard climb at the bottom, but got easier at the top. Shane always makes it look like a piece of cake.
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Shane at the top.

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It was hard, but I made it to the top....o.k. I only made it to the top because I cheated. I started on route 1 (blue rope) then when it got too hard I shimmied to the side and grabbed the ropes from route 2 (yellow/red rope) and pulled myself up past the hard part.

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Then I shimmied back over to route 1 and fished climbing to the top.