Highs and Lows

As my brief time in Tennessee has come to an end I once again begin to reflect on the trip, areas visited and general experiences.  It's also interesting to compare current impressions with those from 10 years ago when a much younger me last visited the area.  Before I get too much into my take on the bouldering I thought I'd list a few highlights and low-lights from the trip.

A few Highlights (in no specific order)

• Getting hissed at by a opossum.  What a nasty little creature.  Still made my evening to encounter something that is best described as a "giant rat that hangs in a tree".
• Southern BBQ.  Delicious, what more can I say.
• Southern Hospitality.  Climbers in general are generous and at times I felt like a bit of a charity case as I surfed coaches, loaned an assortment of gear (tent, stove, pads, guides, sleeping bags, etc...) and hounded folks for beta.  I guess having an adorable 4-year old along tends to soften hearts and we are ever so thankful for all the wonderful folks out there.
• Southern Accent.  The opportunity to listen to folks talk had me looking forward to even the most mundane encounters.  "Would ya like paper or plastic?"  Oh, I don't know. Can you ask me again?  And even in the rare cases when someone was being condescending it still sounded so sweet that I couldn't even get irritated but would simply respond with a goofy smile.
• Climbing.  More on that later

A few Low-Lights (also no specific order)

• Mexican Food.  I knew mexican food in TN would be bad but I didn't know the extent of it.  Maybe I just found the worst restaurant possible but it's safe to say I won't be eating any more tacos until I return to the Southwest.  
• Weather.  We actually had quite a few good days but no trip to the South is complete without being chased away by rain.
• Pay to Play.  It seems that many of the areas in the South require a user fee.  Don't get me wrong, I think it is awesome that climbers have good relations with landowners and a small fee can be appropriate but $5 a day starts to add up.  
• Poison Oak.  For some reason I was under the impression that I didn't need to be on the lookout for poisonous plants this time of year.  Well apparently the don't lose potency after a freeze and it is a hard learned lesson.
• Vomiting.  Don't think this one needs much clarification as being sick on a climbing trip just sucks.  My girls definitely got the worst of it.  

So that's just a few things that stuck out from the trip and I'll be posting more about the climbing soon.  

Poison Oak sucks.  The spot on my back is the worst but legs arms and stomach weren't spared from itchy torment either.  I've found it hard to sleep with all the burning and itching, but fortunately it should go away in a couple weeks.

Chris knows the importance of hydration.  Maybe that's why he was the only one from our group of 4 to not lose his lunch.

When not hindered by rain or sickness there was a good deal of climbing.  More on that soon

The Wave, LRC

The Wave is one of the many classics at Little Rock City and this one certainly deserves a climber's attention.  Aptly named, the sloping arete is pleasing in terms of both movement and aesthetics.

The Wave.  Love those slopers

Katie working The Wave.

Max on the subtle crux at the end of the Wave

Not all sunshine and unicorns

My primary concern when planning a trip to TN was the weather.  This place is known for getting some moisture so it came as no surprise that we got rained out Friday.  Fortunately the forecast only had rain in our future for 3 days and while I wasn't looking forward to so much time off it could be worse.  The good news is Nalani and I had a place to stay as we bombed up to Nashville to crash in a hotel with Lina and  picked up my good friend Chris to join our adventures.  The only major bump of these forced off days was a night hovering over the toilet ejecting a giant hamburger from earlier in the day.  But now that is over and we can look forward to getting back at it as the forecast is looking up and I'll be lugging a few less pounds up the rock.

I'll spare you more details of projectile vomiting a post a few pictures from Stone Fort (aka Little Rock City).

 Two patties, 4 slices of bacon, 4 slices of cheese and all the fixings.  GBA.  

Max fires the classic Genghis Khan, one of the first problems you encounter at LRC

Niko on his nemesis, Cleopatra  

 Jackie (sp?) feeling out the slopers on Spanky

Max on an awesome highball

The Pinch is one of those problems that might not look like much but the 

features are so cool you want to climb it.  

Tennessee, Tennessee. There ain't no place I'd rather be.

It's always a relief when you touch down on your last flight after 20ish hours of travelling with a 4 year old.  We had escaped Sweden and were ready for some good southern hospitality and lots of sandstone boulders, only 2 days in and we've found plenty of both.

Chelsey and her son Ezra have been gracious hosts and it's nice for Nalani to have another little person to hang with (even if he's "only" 2).  Generally Nalani's trips with just her dad involve lots of dirty boys so the chance to hang with other kids makes her transition into climbing mode easier.  The climbing has been awesome and my knee seems to be holding up as long as I'm selective with what I climb on.  Now the main downside to the injury is that I haven't climb for so long that strength and skill is now lacking.  No matter as I've thoroughly enjoyed failing and will hopefully pull myself into some semblance of shape before our time here is over.  Just have to avoid wrecking myself which could be a problem with so many great problems.

Here are a few pictures from the first day at the Apartment Boulders.

Niko on a fun lerp dyno.  The rock here is awsome

The Brain is one of the cooler problems I've actually managed to do.  Niko fires this awesome slab

The gem of the Apartment Boulders sits off by itself and alone would warrant a visit.  I'm hoping to return to this one after miraculously getting back in shape.  I think it is called Solaris or Polaris or something like that.  

Greg working the problem.  Anyone actually know the name?

Video: Pyssel in Västervik

A few weeks ago Jonathan and I took a weekend trip to Västervik.  Jonathan (aka Pyssel) had a pretty decent trip despite it being cut short by a trip to the hospital after I hurt my knee.  Needless to say my weekend was shitty but on a plus side the knee is starting to feel better and I'm feel good about being able to climb in Tennessee in November.  Anyways, here is a video of Pyssel slaying a few problems that weekend.
Hope you enjoy.


Swedish Bouldering: Pyssel in Västervik from Walker Kearney on Vimeo.

Pop goes the knee: Dealing with injury

Sometimes when climbing we have to bend and tweak limbs in unnatural ways.  Occasionally our bodies decide they want to make it very clear how unnatural these positions are and communicate it with a loud pop and shearing pain.  Two weeks ago one of these unfortunate reminders from my knee and between the brooding, complaining and worrying I've also been reflecting on how I deal with injury.  So here is a standard chronological(ish) take at how obsessive climbers (or maybe just me) respond to injuries.

1. Panic is almost always the initial reaction and it happens instantaneously.  Along with the requisite profanities and/or shrieks of pain the first thoughts are of how long I'll be out of climbing.  This concern over when I'll be able to climb injury free is immediate and remains in the forefront for the duration of the injury whether one day or one year.  For myself and most obsessive climbers I know the idea of not being able to climb for a day due to bad weather send us into grumpy mode so you can imagine the utter terror at the idea of being out of climbing for an extended time.  "Am I out for an hour?  Four weeks?  Four months?  Longer? Should I cancel my trip to Tennessee?  What the hell am I going to do if I can't climb?"  
2. Denial.  Once given a couple moments to compose myself I put aside the thoughts of never being able to climb again and hop right in to denial.  "That nasty popping sound was nothing.  I'll just walk it out and be back on the rock in a minute or two".  The denial period is short lived as misguided attempts to put climbing shoes back on only result in unbearable pain and we fall back to panic mode. The luxury of denial is of course never afforded to the most serious of injuries as it's hard to sugarcoat bone sticking out of skin.  Denial is not limited to the initial incident but continually pops up throughout the healing process.  Denial (or maybe it's just extreme optimism) causes delusional climbers to start cranking before the injury is ready and is generally counter productive, resulting in re-injury, more time off from climbing and a return to panic mode.
3. Anger at myself general pops up as most of my injures could have been avoided with a little preparation/foresight.  "Why didn't I just scope out the top and make sure it wasn't wet."  Hindsight is after all 20/20 and it's best to get over hating yourself or the road to recovery is going to be rough.  Take a few lashes and move on. 
4. Acceptance has to come sooner or later.  The first minutes or so after an injure are generally a dizzying cycle between panic, anger and denial and it's exhausting and not at all productive so moving on can be refreshing.  Acceptance starts with properly assessing the injury/situation which for me often involves a call to friends/family in the medical profession to see if they can provide some expert insight (thanks to everyone that tolerates the climbers in their lives using them for free medical advice).  When assessing the injury I'm also confronted with the practicalities like "can I hike back to the car?" and "will I be able to work?".  These concerns are important but generally just a distraction from my big question which is "when can I climb again?".  This latest injury was of enough concern that I even went to the hospital and get my knee looked at.  On a side note, this is only an option for me since I live in Sweden as I'd never go to the emergency room in the States unless bone is sticking out and I had a good bankruptcy lawyer.  Acceptance is something I'm getting better at but it's still not easy as I've never been good at "taking it easy" and constantly want to "test" the injury (see Denial and how productive that is).  Once I've accepted the reality of my injury it comes down to the hardest part.
5. Patience can be hard when it involves not doing the thing you're passionate about but for most injuries it's just a waiting game.  Now I just need to give the injury the time it needs and do some rehab to help it along without spiraling into depression.  Waiting has never been something I'm good at as I general try to start climbing on my injuries too early (again, see Denial) and they therefore take their precious time getting better.  As I get older I do realize the need to be nice to our bodies if we want them to preform and I'm getting better at finding distractions while I recover.

So that was a simplification of the initial process without going into battling depression and trying to maintain fitness during injury.  Maybe I'll do a post about that later since I can't climb I have to find other things to do, like write a windy blog-post pertaining to nothing of importance.

Hope everyone stays injury free

And for those that are interested, I tore my lateral collateral ligament (LCL) and while it doesn't require an operation the time-frame for recovery is generally anywhere from 3 to 12 weeks.  It's been two weeks and doesn't feel much better so I'm not holding out much hope for the 3 week recovery.  I guess it could be worse.  I'll hobble around and just hope I'm able to climb a little by Nov 11th when I fly to Tennessee.

Low Water

Occasionally over the years I'd drive by a lake up in Bohuslan and see this impressive looking boulder just on the other side.  I'd resisted the urge to check this boulder out because the landing has always been in the water and I've generally got a lot of other projects in the area.  Well, this year when I drove by I noticed that the water level of the lake is way down and figured it was time to take a closer look at this boulder.  What I discovered is a striking line up the middle of boulder that will be well worth the effort of building a landing should (when is more like it) the water rises to normal levels.  All the holds are there and I'm psyched to head back to this amazing project.  

The boulder and a visible water mark.

The line to do will climb the steep face then continue up to the left once reaching the "lip".  I think a slightly easier escape can be done by rolling over on the slab but it will still be hard.  We did a problem on the right arete that can have a sitstart added, at least until it is under water.