September 29, 2005

can't wait...

Oh man, Katie, Steven and I are going to the GUNKS this weekend :D You have no idea how excited I am, I really want to climb hard and shake some of this junk off. Oh, the pic is Trang Do doing a V6 in Red Rocks....wouldn't mind going there too...

Posted by agutwin at 01:08 AM | Comments (1)

June 15, 2005

yey!

OK, so i went climbing yesterday and everything was good. That is, except for the fact that I couldn't do anything due to my lack of climbing recently. Anyway, I'm excited that everything's back to normal. I just noticed that my neck is still sore from that chemistry exam...i should probably do something about that.

Posted by agutwin at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2005

grrrr

OK, so if you want to make Anna unhappy, take away her climbing. Last week I had been climbing on tuesday and noticed my back was a little sore and I thought no big deal, I just worked some muscles harder than normal. So when friday came and my back was still a little odd I figured I'd just take it easy that day. So I started on this easy (G1 in a G0-G4 scale) problem, a sit start but nothing I'm not used to. On the first few moves though, the right side of my back spazed out and started hurting. I dropped down, tried to stretch it out some, and tried another easy problem with the same result. I was determined not to let this get in my way and tried yet another problem, this one I topped-out on. Having successfully completed one problem (yea!) I decided to leave, it really wasn't working. I felt really stupid though, walking out a mear 5 mintues after I got there, but whatever. After some ice, jazz, and more ice, it was starting to feel a lot better. Actually now I only feel a shadow of an ache and I plan to climb tomorrow. On friday though, I was pretty unhappy. I realized how much climbing means to me and how I really look forward to going. So that's enough for now, I'll see how it goes tomorrow

Posted by agutwin at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)

May 02, 2005

End-of-year pranks

Ok, for those of you who don't know her, Lindsay is what I would call the head climber (chick I might add!) at the good 'ol Lindseth wall. She is responsible for organizing who is working when, as well as teaching a bunch of classes both indoors and out. She is an amazing climber, kinda short with bouncy curly hair. I think i need to add that she's a very nice and cool person. Anyway, one day this sign showed up (it used to read Lindseth Climbing Wall). Lindsay swears she didnt' do it, but it's pretty funny anyway :) I think i'm going to miss a lot of the COE (Cornell Outdoor Education) staff when they graduate, so many of them are seniors! I wonder who's going to fill their shoes when it's our turn to walk down in cap and gown? Who knows, one can only hope to be as cool as Lindsay and the gang.
Onto another pretty cool prank, also involving climbers. So there's this ledgend that on halloween night in 1997 a group of people placed a gigantic pumpkin on top of our belovid clock tower. Apparently nobody to this day knows who did it or exactly how they did it, but it remains a source of awe to every student or faculty member. So a couple of days ago there was another addition to the point on McGraw tower, apparently it's a disco ball, party anyone?....i think that anything after the pumpkin is going to be old hat, but you've got to hand it to them. Apparently, there was a hatch on the top of the tower that the first group used to place the pumpkin up there, but it was welded shut after that event. So this new group needed to climb the lip of the tower, which seems imposible for all you flat thinkers, but to a climber, especially the one's we've got here, it would have been no problem. Although authorities do not know who did it, i think i've got a pretty good idea. Again, I can only plan which object I want to look over (most) of the Cornell campus. (click on the pic to see a biger version)

OK, so i've wasted enough time, back to work. I've got a bunch of things that need pulling together, not to mention studying for finals and trying to deal with all the social situations going on. Oh, and my neck is still sore from that chemistry exam (I kid you not, it was about 3 weeks ago now...) ohhh, I just want all the work to end and have time to have fun with my friends before I leave for sooooo long!

Posted by agutwin at 11:01 PM | Comments (1)

March 29, 2005

maybe later?....

I know everybody's probably dying to hear about spring break (you know you are - admit it) however, my work load has suddenly jumped up on me. Therfore, I am putting off writing because I just don't feel like it. I'm sure one day i'll want to record what happened - but i think i'm too exhausted now. Don't worry though, i can handle what i've got goin' on, but that's about it for now. Ok, so that being said, I'm going to head off to Jen's room where hopefully I can get some answers to this chem lab report....and try to not think about my 3 pg animal science paper due friday....and the late work for an sci 105....and apply for interviews....and the chem pre-lab questions....my hort. professor also decided to give us massive amounts of work....not to mention the two prelims I have next week and one the following week....and I have paid work to do to try and finance this expensive stress....oh, and I try and actually live other places than the library. In times like these, I'm glad I have friends.

Posted by agutwin at 10:37 PM | Comments (1)

March 26, 2005

camping

ok - so i'm back at Cornell safe and sound. We had a wonderful time down south and I can't wait to tell y'all more about it, but i think i'm heading off to bed for now.

Posted by agutwin at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

March 12, 2005

B-Rock

So today was our last day of basic rock climbing class. It was generally a fun experience, and I learned a lot, mostly that I want to learn a lot more about teaching. The last class was extreamly fun, we had a lot of group-togetherness which is always excellent. Also, we had this 'competition' between two of the instructors (myself and Chris) and 7 of our students. We had three routs and the goal was to climb until you fell off, then the next person would go. If you could climb all the way up, you got lowered and did it again - until you fell off. It was great fun. Actually, I ended up doing 30 laps plus traversing to clip a rope into an achor at the top. It felt so nice to be able to pull as hard as I could, and keep going. I would get into a rythm of:

me - "Climbing!"
Tim (my belayer) - "Climb on!
High step - pull hard on the left - right - crimp - high step again - dyno - smear - point - mantle - pull hard right - flagg left - two big holds - smear
The ceiling would thud as I slapped it
Tim - "Lowering!"
me - "Lower!"
shake out the arms, stretch, shake out leggs, chalk up
by the time my feet hit the floor I was ready for more
me - "Climbing!"
Tim - "Climb on!"

There was no breaks inbetween climbs and I felt extreamly addicted. Everything fadded away, the class, the students, even the hight. It all didnt matter. My forearms were filled with lactic acid and hard as rocks, a term called being "pumped". I could feel the music pushing me on as people said "give me three more" and I responded with "I can give you five". By the last time, I still felt pretty good at the lower parts, but I was starting to feel a little light headed when I got to the top. I had definitly passed my percieved limit about 20 laps ago. I got a pat on the back in the end as well as a little massage by Tim. Still I felt a little dissapointed, I didn't do it untill I fell off - I'm sure I could have kept on going. Oh well, I need to find another belay slave and go for 40, I think I can do it. Actually, now I don't feel bad at all, nothing is sore, nothing hurts, good times. I might not climb in my wall shift tomorrow though....we'll see.

Oh, So I got my hat yesterday. It fits pretty well, pretty snug. It's a lot warmer than my red one, which is a good thing. I can't wait to break it in on spring break trip - yey backpacking! I cannot wait to get outside again, seriously, i think i'm going a little batty being inside for so long. Just not looking forward to the 12 hr cramped car ride - oh well...it'll be an adventure. But I think i've got to take a nap now, and find some hockey tickets for tonight :)

Posted by agutwin at 02:31 PM | Comments (6)

March 03, 2005

Soloing

All right, I figure this blog is named after one of my favorite sports, so i might as well talk about it.

This is a picture of a guy soloing, i.e. climbing without ropes. One might think that rock climbing with ropes is dangerous, sticking onto the rock through very tiny impurities and trusting your life to some woven threads and metal loops might sound a little crazy. Soloing however, brings the sport to a whole new level. Of corse many people have died from this type of climbing, so I don't think i'll be trying it any time soon. Yet there is one type of soloing that's less dangerous called deep water soloing where you are climbing over a pool (a deep pool) of water. The theory being that if you fall, the landing is safer than the base of a rock cliff. We saw a very good video of deep water soloing at the Banff film festival where the climber described the landing as "soft", I guess i'm going to take his word for it. The route they were climbing was crazy insane, as in a 5.14a with a huge dyno at the end, oh, and did i mention they were SOLOING it?? I can only hope of being that good. One of these days....

Posted by agutwin at 05:23 PM | Comments (1)