Gold Wall

After our experience earlier in the week at "the other crag", we headed to the Gold Wall on Bryan's advice. This time we didn't have the baby, so there were fewer logistical things to deal with. We got to the crag around 10 or so, and there were two other sets of people climbing there (one of whom had beta for all the routes). We warmed up on one of the 10's to the right, then accidentally got on the 11c to the right of deliverance and got smacked down. I did stacked deck and check engine on sight (both super fun) and we hopped on deliverance+extension just as the sun started cooking the wall. The extension was crumbly, but fun. All in all it was another great day on Table Mountain, and we are both so excited for the fall. Since chloe gets every other friday off, our plan is to do a minimum of one friday a month here or at the other crag this fall and winter. I guess I had better start saving those vacation days!!

New seats for Zoe

After noticing that ZZN was looking cramped in her infant seat, we did a little research on convertible seats and went with the Britax Marathon in Cowmooflage. Zoe seems to like it, and the installation is very easy. I wish it had a sun shade though.

Table mountain

I've been hearing about a local sport crag named for the nearby Jail since I started climbing. It's on private land, so climbers have tried to be good "wardens" and not publish topos or directions online. A guy I know from the gym generously gave me directions there, so we headed out with Zoe and a another friend from the gym (Bryan) today.





We didn't get very many routes in, and in a Lynn Hill moment I didnt finish my knot (which was thankfully caught by someone else), but I gotta say that I love this place. Since we moved back from Grenoble, its been a little hard not having the abundance of nearby sport crags that we did in France. While not Ceuse by any means, this crag is really a blast. Lots of beta intensive moves, big blocky features, jugs everywhere, fixed draws and a cool vibe are hopefully going to make this a frequent destination for us this winter (It gets too hot in the summer). I feel like a piece of our lives has been given back to us!

Heres ZZN, at the end of the day and still happy


As for routes: We warmed up on the first four bolts of a route to the right of "Soap on a rope", did the two warm up 11ds (The eagles were no longer nesting) and then I did some of the moves on Soap, with a lot of beta from the locals. Its a fabulous route, but I need some serious improvements in my endurance before I try to link.

Alta

We headed up for the first time in a looooong time to Alta. The last time Christa and Tom were up here, we bagged on an Alta trip, but we were determined to make it this time. I took Friday off, and we headed out fairly early from Oakland. We stopped at Awful Annie's on the way up for some cholesterol and to feed ZZN. We were happy to find the cabin unmolested by the local mouth breathers, but in need of a little sweeping. The tub drain had been left closed by the last users (ahem!), and had filled up with mucky water and a lot of spider corpses.

Happily though, the hot water heater had not exploded from all the freeze thaw cycles and we were all (well, not Zoe) able to take baths. We had ample fuel from a large oak that had fallen over since our last visit:


For her part, Zoe was very well behaved and happily napped on the crash pad during the day


I got to work bucking parts of the fallen tree and milling a few chunks for cutting boards:



And then showed Tom around the property, while the ladies headed into town for refreshments



It rained throughout the night, unfortunately, so we decided to get an early start the next day, stopping again at awful annies on the way down the hill. Zoe had taken this opportunity to produce one of her patented "Pant soaker" diaper escaping poops ("Hey, why is her onesie wet?")

Christa and Tom here!

Christa and Tom are out for a break from living on the set of the Wire and some Zoe time.

dinner with Zoe

We headed up to a party that some family friends were having in the Berkeley Hills today. Zoe was fairly well behaved, except for a few moments of baby anger:

Tomatoes

I finally got around to planting tomatoes. I have four different heirloom varieties from Berkeley Hort, as well as one from a guy from our climbing gym.