Today we hiked into a part of ORG to do some climbing on some shaded walls. In general, ORG is not considered a summer climbing area because it gets to be about 180 degrees (a *slight* exaggeration). But in the shade is a different story. In the shade it was only about 90 degrees. Yay!
Down we hiked. Around bends in the river we hiked. We contorted ourselves to avoid the copious stinging nettle in the gorge. If you've never been introduced personally to stinging nettle, you are a lucky person!
Stinging nettle has a long history as a medicine plant. For whom? One's enemy??!?! The leaves and stems of this wicked beast are hairy with stinging and non-stinging hairs. The stinging hairs break off when touched turning into little needles that inject chemicals including acetylcholine, histamine, 5-HT, formic acid and/or serotonin (so says Wikipedia). The pain is intense and can last minutes, days or even a week.
Evil stuff. I remember my encounters from last year and somehow managed to avoid it totally this time. Dave got stung several times however. Poor guy. He's been getting first hand knowledge of a lot of stinging biting things lately.
We arrived at a shaded wall and off Dave went. He loved the climbs and was climbing well (or perhaps it was the excellent belaying?). I did get on one climb that appeared feet-friendly. Some 11b. I couldn't pull the reachy and powerful crux move, but was psyched that I was able to do the rest of the moves (with a few hangs).
Given I had retired from climbing due to frustration/failure of feet only a few days before, I thought perhaps I would consider coming out of retirement again... :)
We played around in the gorge until Dave had enough then hiked back out. In all, it was a fun day. I can't wait for my feet to be 100% for climbing.
Today we hiked into a part of ORG to do some climbing on some shaded walls. In general, ORG is not considered a summer climbing area because it gets to be about 180 degrees (a *slight* exaggeration). But in the shade is a different story. In the shade it was only about 90 degrees. Yay!
Down we hiked. Around bends in the river we hiked. We contorted ourselves to avoid the copious stinging nettle in the gorge. If you've never been introduced personally to stinging nettle, you are a lucky person!
Stinging nettle has a long history as a medicine plant. For whom? One's enemy??!?! The leaves and stems of this wicked beast are hairy with stinging and non-stinging hairs. The stinging hairs break off when touched turning into little needles that inject chemicals including acetylcholine, histamine, 5-HT, formic acid and/or serotonin (so says Wikipedia). The pain is intense and can last minutes, days or even a week.
Evil stuff. I remember my encounters from last year and somehow managed to avoid it totally this time. Dave got stung several times however. Poor guy. He's been getting first hand knowledge of a lot of stinging biting things lately.
We arrived at a shaded wall and off Dave went. He loved the climbs and was climbing well (or perhaps it was the excellent belaying?). I did get on one climb that appeared feet-friendly. Some 11b. I couldn't pull the reachy and powerful crux move, but was psyched that I was able to do the rest of the moves (with a few hangs).
Given I had retired from climbing due to frustration/failure of feet only a few days before, I thought perhaps I would consider coming out of retirement again... :)
We played around in the gorge until Dave had enough then hiked back out. In all, it was a fun day. I can't wait for my feet to be 100% for climbing.
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