Day one: Climbing tufas on Dixon’s wall. The Dixon’s have 5 residences all within a stone’s throw away. They’ve lived their entire lives here.
Day two: Climbing on NE point of the island. You have to walk over super sharp jagged limestone then rappel over the edge to get to the climbs. You belay just above the crashing waves below making for very scenic climbs. On the way up you see all sorts of embedded seashells and fossils in the wall, as well as ‘caymanite’ that looks like you threw some seafood into a vat of caramel, solidified it, then you get to climb on it’s features. Probably the coolest 5.11 I’ve ever climbed. The other rock is super sharp though – you do not want to fall here. You will not see another person on the cliff for weeks.
Day three: relax and snorkeling.
Day four: Neptunes’ lair. Climbed a fantastic 5.12 of white limestone just above the ocean. Best 5.12 on the island, and rarely done for whatever reason. Then explored Neptunes cave, and later snorkeling we saw a sunken ship, 4 eagle rays and tons and tons of fish.
Day five: Wave wall – on the way is a blowhole (where the tide pushes through an underground tunnel then comes bursting out of a hole on shore).
Great place – recommended to anybody into climbing, snorkeling, diving, but not so much for people into night life or people under 50.
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Di had her first outdoor bouldering experience, rounding out the weekend quite well with sends of Girls of Juarez, V4, Ghetto Simulator V2, and Paleozoic V5. Turns out she had never done a kneebar or a toe hook, then had to do that continuously to finish the Girls of Juarez. Not a bad first outing. More pics on the gallery page.
The night went off without a hitch… mostly. 1 noise complaint and a little bear-mode from Mike – but otherwise a fantastic night!
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I don’t sit down anymore. 18 hrs a day, every day is on my feet or laying down. CPU at work is raised so I work on my feet. Now I’m doing three exercises to gradually get the thing back: back extensions, twists, and hip side movement.
The extension slightly moves the disk forward each time. So I do this 10 times every two hours. I also do 10 standing versions every two hours.
The twist actually shrinks the disk radially since the fibers of the disk rotate around the core. Two long holds every two hours.
The third is where I lean against the wall at my side, then push the hip into the wall. 2x every two hours.
After 3.5 months of this garbage – I asked the doc “can I climb if it’s just painfull or will it make things worse?” He said – it’s ok – take it easy – the only risk is re-rupturing, but pain doesn’t necessarily make it worse. So I went climbing… sort of. 20 minutes of slow walking to warm up. The exercises above. Then 30 minutes of really easy traversing – basically the most difficult thing I could do without increasing pain. Not exactly climbing. More like boring grandma-movement under the ruse of a highly athletic sport. Not climbing… I’ll call it “Gramming”.
My steroid shot is Monday – that’s supposed to reduce inflammation and therefore reduce pain.
A few things I’ve learned:
1. Taking really good care of finger/hand/elbow tendons is good for climbing – but not the only thing to pay attention to. Back exercises will be a permanent part of my climbing training.
2. Strong abs make for tight abs, which bends the spine forward, creating more pressure on the disk to jump out toward the nerve. Strong abs: good. Not stretching them regularly: bad.
3. When something goes wrong, persist with doctors, Physical Therapists etc to get all the help you need asap. Poor doctor advice up front caused this to last much longer. Appointments take time. I called every day to push up appointments shrinking the time from visit to steroid injection from 2 months to 3 weeks.
4. Yes, Ibuprofen is not great on your kidney. But you have to be on it for many many months before it’s a big deal. The benefit of reduced inflammation is far greater than the potential detriment with Kidney’s over a period of a couple months. I started taking 800 mg 3-4x a day for a month and was happy I did.
5. Everybody will offer you advice. Take it into consideration but trust the professionals. I’m pretty sure salt baths would not help me in this case. Stupid hippies.
Moral of the story: Don’t get hurt. But if you do, take it seriously and get LOTS of advice from qualified people.
]]>We’ve got some cool new props for the new house – get a wristband, get a plane ticket, get a costume and come to the party!
Starting the trip in Denver, with a post-BBQ PT session with Denine {sp?} where she stuck a needle in a muscle that wouldn’t let go. I instantly broke into a sweat. She said I was a disaster, but some exercises should help. Stupid back. This was a good excuse to get some massage time from Di every morning though!
Onto the climbing… well I took exactly zero pictures of climbing. There wasn’t a single other climber in the canyon the whole week, and with just the two of us… no chance for photos. I did get this shot of somebody who decided that Life is so Beautiful, that they would deface the rock with big ass letters to let everybody know. Uhhhh right.
After camping a few days we decided to spoil ourselves by staying at the Wander Inn
Run by a super awesome artist named Ginger. Yup. Ginger. The place was strange in an awesome way – we’d definitely go back. Superb breakfast, talkative host, and right on the river. As always – more pictures at the photo-gallery.
Perhaps the most important part… Di and I had 6.5 hrs each way, and lots of stormy tent nights to sort a few things out. The outcome… ready for this…. I’m moving to Denver to live with her. I thought I couldn’t be happier in ABQ – but this is actually better. I’ll be moving at the end of December. To all the women clawing after me: sorry. Oh – wait – I just did a quick check… there’s nobody clawing.
More to come on this topic in coming months.
I dropped Dave off at the airport at 4 am. That day I got notice that we have 30 days to get outta the house (they’re selling). I considered buying but it needed too much work. I then took 10 days off to go to Ten Sleep Wyoming. Now I’m moving. And traveling for work. And starting school Aug 22nd. I need to invent more hours in the day. This means my post will stop right now.
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