Rock Climbing

It's close to home so what do you expect?  I did take some good photos this go around too and attached Muscatatuck's aerial of the bouldering areas so there is some valuable pieces here.  Additionally, I made some climber friends and got into some behind the scenes of the park.

I'm one of the people that gets recharged by being out in nature; particularly if there is a physical challenge tied to it such as climbing, hiking, biking, etc.  My wife, and go to partner for climbing, hiking, and traveling in general, has been laid up with health complications this entire year so our adventures have been of a different nature these past months.  But she also understands my needs to get out of Dodge to keep myself in balance and she encouraged me to take a little solo weekender.

I would have used the title anyway even if Big Up Productions didn't beat me to it. Progression is what I experienced last weekend and that in and of itself is success. I ended my climbing season last year at Red River Gorge by giving up on a 5.9+ (Plate Tectonics) and climbing lesser grades the rest of the day. Though I did have other successes in expanding my experience and practicing fundamentals of good climbing, I really wanted to end the year with the ability to conquer 5.9. I fell short.

The winter months I sluffed off physical training but did spend some considerable thought on the mental aspects. Did some pull-ups here and there, bouldered once, and hit the climbing gym 4-days before heading out to the Red again to kick-off my 2010 climbing season but all in all my physical training was not optimal.

It turned out though that it was my mental conditioning that made the difference. Right off the bat, I climbed a 5.10a (Dynabolt Gold). And then another (Lil T-Bone). Then I climbed a 5.9 slab that was a challenge (Dance of the Druids) that did not play to my natural strengths and made it to the chains. That was a boost to my confidence and reaping the dividends of my mental training reinforced my belief that I can continue to improve, to progress.

A weekend ago we had planned a day trip to go bouldering at our favorite site just over an hour from our home (the picture above is actually from Fort Benjamin Harrison State Park as we didn't have our cam with on this trip).  As we were walking out the door, our 3 year old daughter asked if she'd get to use her sleeping bag so on a whim we decided to toss some extra gear in the car and make a weekend out of it.

We have two girls - 3 year old and 1-1/2 year old and for the youngest this was her first outdoor adventure.  It was offseason for the campsite and the only other campers were a large group of climbers from Hoosier Heights and their friends from around the state - up all night playing music, slacklining, telling lies and having laughs - exactly what you'd expect from the climbing community and we were glad for it!

It occurred to me that I forgot to post this post! Well, I intended to edit it first and then it got lost in the shuffle. Better late than never (at least I hope when it comes to my writing).

November 2009 I was invited by my friend and climbing guide, Adam Beck, to hit the crags at Red River Gorge. I suppose one benefit of posting this late is that I can provide an update to Adam's guide status. His business was acquired by Fox Mountain Guides and Climbing School and he is now guiding through them, which if you are in the market, I highly recommend getting in touch with him.

The Red is the closest good climbing to my home in Indianapolis and with over 1600 routes provides a lifetime of climbing so you might see quite a bit of posts in regards to this region. However, I will attempt to be more specific to the routes covered and highlights of the trip that are pertinent to travelers to the area. This was a quick trip with only one full day of climbing and included sleeping in my Jeep at Miguel's Pizza.

We took a drive to Look Rock which according to a forum post on TradGirl is the only place in the Gatlinburg area to do any type of climbing. It's over an hour drive but a pleasant and scenic drive. The guys at Smoky Mountain Outfitters told us to check out the area below the parking lot and another area a half mile hike up to where the ranger tower is (the actual attraction at Look Rock). We hiked up there first for the view and then poked around for the trails leading to the rocks but the paths were fairly overgrown with poison ivy so we headed back to the parking lot. There are several trails heading down to the rocks below but the easiest and one least likely to force a climb down is at the far east end of the lot.

The crags are probably better for top roping since the ground beneath is still steep and jagged with rock making a high jump or fall onto a crash mat still dangerous. My wife was my only spotter so I took it easy but enjoyed a good workout. We didn't explore the whole area and got right into climbing where we came down the trail so we only hit a fraction of the routes. Not my favorite place to climb but not bad considering the lack of other options. ('Read More' for additional pictures)

If rock climbing is your thing, then Indiana is not the best place to setup a basecamp. There are still climbing options, well, bouldering options. My favorite spot is in North Vernon, Indiana at Muscatatuck Park. Muscatatuck is managed as an Extreme Sports park and has some bike trails too but I've only visited to boulder. They have over 350 routes going up to difficulties of V10. There are a lot of easy routes too so the area accomodates climbers of all skill levels. The park is well maintained and managed by Greg Martin, an avid climber and all around good guy. The park has camping and other amenities so make a weekend out of it.

This is a guest post by Adam Beck of Becknology Climbing Guides.

I recently spent five days in Kentucky's Red River Gorge. The Red is one of my wife's and my favorite places to visit/climb. We arrived on a Thursday afternoon. The weather was perfect! We headed up to Roadsite Crag and got in a few routes before dinner at Miguel's Pizza. We camped out in the gorge on Thursay night. We planned to shoot a climbing video with some friends of ours on Friday. Although we had read the weather forecast, we were hoping and praying that the meteorologists were wrong. They weren't. It rained on Friday and Saturday. It didn't rain on Sunday but was still cold. Monday was cold in the morning but turned out nice in the afternoon. I was glad for that because we were meeting some clients on Monday. Although it rained on Friday, we were still able to get some good video footage by climbing under natural roofs and overhangs.