Slackline Humbling

I went to Davis to join Hanie for the Balance Community Longline Festival. This got switched to Sacramento for longlines Saturday because of some permitting issues, and then on to the Cosumnes River Gorge on Sunday for some highlines.

I got to Davis Friday evening and Hanie and Peter and I walked to campus to set up an e-line and play on it a bit. I felt pretty good on this line since it is what I am used to. Not so for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday we fortified with kale smoothies and co-op sandwiches and headed to Reichmuth Park. There were a number of lines set up from a mellow 30 or so feet up to a staggering 804 feet. There were all sorts of different materials too, so it was nice to get a feel for the different lines. As the lines got longer they had to be rigged higher to prevent bottoming out in the middle. This made starting a bit tiring and exciting, especially with the gravity assist dismounts. I am glad I brought gloves as they saved my hands from blood blisters and maybe flappers over the weekend.

Hanie brought her silks to play with too

Jerry cruising the 663 footer

bouncing on the rage line

312 and 440 foot lines

standing on the 663 footer

I did ok on the lines around 100 feet, and I even managed to walk almost all of a 230 or so foot line (I came off pushing my way through the tree branches at the end). I managed about 100 feet on a 440 foot line, but beyond that I don't think I even got double digit steps. I did try all the lines though, and managed to at least stand up on them all, although on some that felt like about all I did. It was quite humbling, but also inspiring to see the skills some people had. When I couldn't hold my arms up for balance any more I "rested" by doing acro yoga. Maybe rested is not the right word, but it was fun to try stuff. There was also some very impressive juggling and I even saw some yo-yo tricks.

Sunday I woke up quite stiff and sore, especially my shoulders and sides. It took a while to get going and I ran some errands before heading out to the gorge. There I got an even bigger helping of humble pie on the highlines. The lines that were set up were 70, 115, 240, 400 ish, and a monster 700+ footer (which would be the highline record I think). I only got on the 2 shortest, but that was enough to thoroughly work me. After a number of falls I managed to walk the shortest one, but then fell repeatedly coming back. Eventually I just dangled back the rest of the way. Then I tried the 115 footer and never did get across despite repeated attempts. I did manage a few runs of 10 or more steps, but then I was so tired I could barely stand up straight and I knew it was time to call it quits.

people on the 2 shortest lines

walking the 70 footer

trying to balance...

Jerry on the 700+ footer

a little more perspective of the longest highline - and this is a 55mm lens on a crop camera

there were some good falls

no slackers were hurt in the making of these pics...

...much

There was a lot of waiting around between goes while others tried the lines, so I had plenty of time to take pictures and talk to other slackers. It was again humbling and inspiring to fail so much and to see such impressive slacking.

Thanks a lot to Jerry and the rest of the Balance Community for setting this up. It was an awesome opportunity to get together with others and try a lot of lines I don't normally get a chance to.

Wanderlust Colorado 2013 with the YogaSlackers

On my way across the country I stopped to join some YogaSlackers at Wanderlust in Colorado to help teach slackline and balance classes. After 3 days on the road I was pretty tired and picking Jordan up at the airport and then driving up got us there around 1:30 am. That night we just went to sleep.

The next day we had a 2 hour slackline class at 10:30, then we had to start planning and practicing our part in the Wanderlust Spectacular set for that evening. This spectacular included some talented people dancing, hooping, acro yoga, budokan, music, and us. We did a little bit of acro and hoisted Raquel up on a human anchored slackline, then we lifted Sam in Peacock pose. I didn't get any pics of this because I was in it, but I poached some from Facebook. I should have brought my camera though, as there were opportunities for cool pics of the other performers. Hopefully a video will surface some day.

we started with a little acro - rolled back into reverse shoulder stand (that's me 2cd from rt)

Jordan flips across on our feet and hands - my feet are next

Sam, myself, Mark, and Jordan hold one end while...

Raquel walks the line

Sam gets hoisted in peacock pose

Most of the rest of the time was spent teaching, playing, conditioning (much better with a group), talking, and sleeping - although probably not enough of the latter. Things are never dull with the YogaSlackers, plus I got to meet a few more of this incredible group. I also managed to take 2 classes, and eat and drink a fair number of the delicious free samples they were handing out. MMMM coconut ice cream. The weather was pretty schizophrenic with hot sun followed by chilly shade and wind and back to hot sun. We got a little bit of rain too.

Jordan shows off her henna guns on a sunny day

Jordan tries to stay warm on a rainy day

attempting a shoulderstand on the line with Mia - it felt possible, but more work is needed

The last day a group of us rode up the ski lift and took a bunch of fun pics. Here are a few of them.

Josh doesn't usually get off the ground - he IS the ground

Raquel risks hypoxia from the added elevation on top of Josh

Headstand - made possibly by the 7 fps of the Pentax K-5

Garret flips Colin

I posted some more wanderlust stuff here:

http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/wand2013.html

Plum Island - birds, bugs, and poison ivy

We went to Plum Island north of Boston a few days ago to check it out. Most of the island is a nature preserve with heaps of birds, mosquitos, poison ivy, and so on. Unfortunately for us most of the beaches were closed for plover nesting, but we still saw lots of birds on the back side of the island and at either end which had access. Mostly they hung out a little too far away for decent photography with my 300 mm lens. In the open it was mostly pleasant although hot in the sun, in more sheltered areas the mosquitos could get fierce. Luckily we weren't besieged by green headed flies which can be a summer scourge there. We also spotted a few ticks, a snake, lots of snails, and a few crabs.

Here I am dipping my toes in the Atlantic (MJPG pic)

a tick - not my favorite thing, but at least he didn't latch on to me

Great Egret

Cormorant

They don't want the nesting plovers disturbed

low tide at the south end of the island

Here is my sister at her booth at the Needham farmer's market. You can see her fabulous art work here:

http://nydamprints.com/

Needham farmer's market booth for block print art and books

Quincy Quarries Highline Humbling

The title just about says it all. I saw online that the Slackline Boston crew (namely Sonya) was setting up a highline at Quincy Quarries, so I headed down there. After a few navigational challenges I found the spot and got in the queue.

This line is set up from the large rock buttress in the center of the quarry sort of north to another buttress. It runs about 120 feet long and is maybe 35-40 feet high, so by some measures it isn't a highline (higher than it is long), but I am going by the scary high and falling to the ground is completely unacceptable measure. When I got there Benoit was just walking across, but on the far side he threw down his hat and lost his powers and was unable to walk back. A few people later and it was my turn. As usual my heart was pounding and my palms were sweating. I managed to scoot out into position and set up for a sit start. I stood up and managed a few wobbly steps before falling. That was pretty much the theme for the day. I tried a bunch more times and managed to get 6 or more steps a few times but I also had some dramatic falls including one where I failed to grab the line and leashed out headfirst (imagine a dive towards the ground that is caught by a leash and a climbing harness). Actually not that bad, but still a little unnerving. Eventually I was beat up enough and tired so that I came back and passed the leash on to the next victim.

Here I am looking good on the line, but it didn't last

This is the usual result - falling and catching the line

In between goes on the highline I also managed to get a few runs in on topropes that were set up. I definitely felt like I was climbing better than slacking that day, although I think the climbs were all 5.9 or less and it definitely didn't feel like a 5.9 highline.

My second go was no better than the first, although perhaps my falls were a little more elegant. I also mixed up my sit starts with Chongo starts. I failed a few starts, but for the most part I was managing to stand up and get a few steps in before I wobbled and either stuck it or fell. Falling and catching the line isn't always comfortable. I got plenty of scrapes and bruises on the inside of my legs and arms.



In between my attempts others went. Some were just getting comfortable perching on the line over space and others were walking with skill. I took a bunch of pics, but most weren't all that exciting.

My final go was probably my best, I managed on my second or 3rd attempt to walk nearly a third of the way across. My foot got in between the walking line and the backup line which sort of freaked me out, but in reality I just lost my balance and fell.

All in all it was a bit frustrating not being able to walk the line very well, but it is good to get humbled from time to time and gives me something to work towards.

Here is the line from below, plus a climb

Sylvain was really busting some good tricks

Thanks Sonya for setting up the line, and Alex (I think) for taking pics with my camera. It was fun to get out on the line with a bunch of slackers.


Here is another pic taken by Matthias. I swiped it off of his post on facebook. I hope he doesn't mind. There are more pics there on the Slackline Boston page. Hopefully the link works.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.552116901511091&type=1

Here I am looking solid (looks can be deceiving)  Matthias pic

Seneca Rocks

A few things happened before Seneca Rocks, like driving across the country and a few little state high points and YogaSlackers teacher training - an amazing experience which I hope to be able to properly write about soon, but meanwhile, back to Seneca Rocks.

After teacher training Adi and I packed up a heap of leftovers and headed to Seneca Rocks, West Virginia. We got there a bit after dark and got a campsite. I had been feeling crappy and run down all day - no doubt in part to the end of the training, but there was something else too. I wasn't even that hungry.

That night it started raining, and it rained most of the night. I also woke up drenched in sweat/humidity. There are definite benefits to living in the desert. This part of West Virginia is very green and beautiful, but there is too much water in the air and falling out of the sky.

We slept in to the sound of rain the next morning. I felt much much better this day, although not 100%. Eventually the rain tapered off and we biked to the Gendarme climbing store to check e-mail and so on and wait out a few more showers. We planned to climb that afternoon, but it rained again. Then on to the fancy new visitor center and then back to camp where we set up a 175 mantra long line. I managed to "full man" it a few times (walk the whole length and then turn around and walk back without falling). This was probably the longest line I have managed that. It sure made my arms and back tired though.

Walking the 175 foot line (thanks for taking the pic Adi)

we camped by the North Fork South Branch of the Potomac River

The Mountain Laurel was blooming nicely

Tuesday it looked pretty threatening and the forecast was for 40% or more chance of thunderstorms but we decided to give it a go. We were going to start on Ecstasy, but someone else was on it so we went up Ecstasy Junior - a much easier but still fun climb. There was a tiny bit of sprinkling while we went up this but it wasn't enough to wet anything. Then we traversed over to under the gunsight notch where we went up the 3 pitch "Green Wall" to the top of the South Summit. Supposedly this is the highest 5th class (requires technical climbing) summit east of Devils Tower, Wyoming. It is a pretty nice summit - a sidewalk along the top of a fin of super hard Tuscarora Sandstone - really more like quartzite.

on top of the South Summit

Dr Rubber Ducky in his summit office

From the base of the Rappels we started up another 3 pitch climb, "Bring on the Nubiles". Actually this is a 2 pitch climb that starts one pitch up. The 3rd pitch was pretty spicy, old school 5.9+ with not a lot of gear and plenty of exposure. Then we headed back down the raps for another quality leftover dinner.

after topping out "Bring on the Nubiles"

The weather for Wednesday was supposed to be a bit better, but still plenty of chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. It actually turned out to be quite nice though. We started up Ecstasy, I linked the nicely exposed 2cd and 3rd pitches past some sketchy pitons that were older than I am. Then we hiked back to near where we were the day before for a trip up some variations on "Thais" and "Thais direct" and "Thais bypass". Then back around to the south end to finish up on "Ye Gods & Little Fishes". This was a perfect pumpy way to finish the trip. Then we packed up the vehicles and headed north towards PA to avoid an impending storm system or at least be indoors for its arrival.

I mostly placed gear to avoid sketchy pitons that are probably older than I am

Adi finishing up the last pitch of Ecstasy

some others enjoying the lichen fest left of the Thais Dihedral

More Cowbell!

Seneca Rocks with nice weather