April 18, 2015
Chicks with Nuts!
There’s a lot to be said for the women crushing it on the rock (and ice) in such a male dominated sport like rock climbing. But you know what? We are awesome!
Two years ago, I discovered an all women’s weekend of climbing initiated a brilliant woman guide, Kelly Fields, of Seneca Rocks Mountain Guides. By April, winter and I have had our fun together and I itch to get back on the rock. This year, I wanted to learn something different – I wanted to take the sharp end of the rope and learn to lead trad. As crazy and as terrifying as this notion was to me, I knew it was a step I was ready for. Kelly and I had talked about what my goals were and what I wanted to learn from the two-day course and Kelly being amazing, took note and I was not disappointed.
Arriving on Friday evening and looking forward to staying at the Seneca House with a group of like-minded women, I could not wait to get started. April weather can be very daunting on the east coast, but the gods were smiling and delivered warm temperatures and lots of sunshine. I picked up a fellow Chick with Nuts, Merit, in Silver Spring so we could make the three-hour journey through the sequence of tiny towns together. Come to find out, Merit was a biologist as well, and worked for the New York park system. Needless to say, between the climbing and wildlife chatter, the journey was quickened.
Our first order of business – crack climbing. Oh, how I blocked this part out from the previous year. While I know all the benefits of learned to appropriately crack climb, it humbles me to no end. But I could do anything for an hour, right? The thought (and smell for that matter) of Tom’s delicious hamburgers grilling on the porch just outside got us to focus on getting it done!
With sore fingers and toes and a belly full of burger, we made our way to our bunk room at Seneca House and was entertained by Bubba Lou, a good old hound dog, for the remainder of the evening as we discussed ambitions for the next two days.
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