Life On The Move

Five Days Here and There

What an extremely busy extended weekend it has been. In the past five days Team G has been to Yokohama, Mizugakiyama, and Ogawayama. We stayed in a five star hotel, the back of our car, and Jack’s cabin in the mountains.

First it was Yokohama. I was in search of an IPA bar that I heard was the best in town. Star was looking forward to just chilling out, but I was determined to locate great beer. Turns out that they are either closed or like to make up hours of operation on a daily basis. We walked around for over three hours our only night in town and needless to say I licked my wounds and moped back to the bar at the hotel on the 29th floor. With a 12 year old Scotch in hand, we enjoyed the piano music, our sleeping baby, and the beautiful view. The next day we drove down to the bay area near China Town. After a walk around the water front parks we ventured into CT. What a colorful place. The street vendors pushing their slightly raw chicken at you mixed with the flashy colors made our visit worth wild and exciting. We ate lunch at a nice restaurant with a very nice charcutier. He is nice and does a bang-up job with the duck! We walked a bit more and found the Yokohama Brewery. Long story short their English IPA was just that, English. I am not a fan of the English or Imperial IPA. I am more of a NW IPA man. They did do a nice job with their American Pale Ale though. Late Friday afternoon we headed back home and prepared for our trip into the mountains for a few days.

Saturday morning we left Fussa for Mizugaki. The weather was supposed to be nice for the next few days so we were excited for some dry granite. It is a nice drive to Mizugaki. I have to say that this is a two hour drive that I look forward to. I know where this road is leading and as the miles pass, I become more and more pumped! I decided in advance to show Star some boulders that where new to her in of Jack and I’s secret areas. As it turned out, it looked as though it had rained earlier that morning and all of the top outs proved to be quite wet. Mix that with moss here and there and you have yourself a slippery slope for sure. We humped it up the steep but short trail to the Christine Boulder field and I started to re-clean the beautiful warm up boulders. We only climbed three of four problems in a few hours. There are many bugs out right now so we had to keep a close eye on the little guy. We decided to call it a day at 4pm and heard to the onsen down the road.

After a wonderfully cool night of camping we met Jack at the Red and Yellow area for some route climbing. I helped teach a beginner level class that Jack was guiding from Calafate and in turn Star and I were able to actually climb several routes. Star was very happy with her climbing and I have to say she is still quite strong.

At one point in the afternoon I found myself looking at an old project of mine. One that I had not worked in 6 months. I thought I remembered the moves but I was not sure about the crux hold. A while later Star came over and asked if I wanted a ride. We asked one of the nice ladies to help with Gavin for a few minutes, and they all jumped at the opportunity. I roped up and forgot that the second bolt is high and clipping it was tough. I placed a double draw and lowered to send it next go. The crux on Dixie King 12b, consists of two parts. The lower crux is v4, making a long move off of a very small right crimp and a shallow, sharp pocket left to a nice ledge. A v5 move is next. On two small, sharp crimps and bad high feet you throw, for me it is full extension, to a half pad right pocket gaston. Tough. The moves after are not too bad though not so easy either. A hard mantle is the last tough move at bolt four. Dixie King marks a milestone for me. My first 12b!!! What a great feeling. Second Ascent too!

That night we stayed at Jack’s sweet mountain cabin. The cabin even has electricity which is pretty very nice with the baby. I made a veggie medley that was fantastic. We drank Yona Yona, sake, and red wine till I had to join Star and Gavin in bed.

The next morning we went bouldering at Ogawayama five minutes up the road. Star had never been, so we showed her some popular boulders and we all enjoyed the lack of many climbers around. I think Star wants to go back to this area soon. I have no problem with that at all.

We made it back home last night safe and sound. The car is a mess, but the trip was a huge success. When you have a baby on a trip like this and everyone returns home without too many bumps and bruises, it was a good trip. Red pointing a project never hurts either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 5th, 2011 at 1:50 pm. It is filed under Bouldering, climbing, mitake, sandstone, travel and tagged with baby, bolts, Climbing, family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.