not practice

today was not practice!
(knot practice)

never before had i climbed at lighthouse park.
i've been there often and with many loved ones.
rae, grandma, mom, mikey..

..i followed my nose to a place i figured would work out.
my familiarity with the terrain led the way.
i knew there were a few formations to the west near the sea.



my focus surrounded rigging anchors and testing gear.
i havent been climbing in a while - if you dont use it, you lose it.

unfortunately, my camera battery was dead this morning.
i only snapped a few photos right when i got on the rocks.
make sure to click the photos in this post to see them full size!
the ones i took turned out pretty good!

i found a great place to climb just off trail and out of sight.
it overlooked the howe sound and vancouver island beyond.



the view and the crashing waves soothed me.
it felt great hanging on a rope in the sun.

key takeaway from today:
i love to use a sling as an auto-block for my rappel.
i used to use a piece of cord.
the sling grips better because of increased surface area.

in the picture below, the autoblock is the purple sling.

it is clipped to my harness leg loop and then wrapped around the rope.
the other end is clipped into the same locking carabiner on my leg.
thus, a friction knot below my rappel device (which controls descent)
the downward pull from my leg loop keeps the rope from feeding.
this effectively arrests my rappel to free my hands to build anchors.




click the picture below, check out the rope coiled on the ground!

click the picture below, check out the rope coiled on the ground!


i like the coils of rope on the ground in the 2 pics above ^


Tasks Performed Today:
* rigged a top-rope anchor using webbing around a few trees.
* practiced rappels at various speeds with various autoblocks.
* pre-equalized anchors before creating master clip points.
* created 2 and 3 point anchor systems.
* utilized sliding X equalization for lateral movement.
* placed cams vertically and horizontally.
* used traditional nuts and chocks in flares and cracks.
* created hanging belays using different protection schemes.
* practiced standard use knots.
* smiled.
* texted. (i love rae THAT much!)

____________________________________________________________________________

i wanted to document some of my rigging, but my camera was dead.
so i used my phone to take these last couple of photographs.

the section of rock i chose to climb today was perfect.
it was as if the heavens intended this day and place for me!
* a wide, sloping ledge for my feet.
* a great crack system at chest height for practicing anchors.
the horizontal and vertical cracks suited my needs nicely.
(this allowed for varying placement of the same pieces of gear)

there were plenty of places to hang gear off of cams or nuts!
notice my pack magically hanging on the rock in the pic below.





it was great to spend the entire beautiful day outside.
i became acquainted with the unique sea side cliff biometry.
the purity of my joy for staying in this one place was delicious.

i was raised to love sitting by a creek - looking, listening.
i am so thankful that my dad took me outside as much as possible.
instilled in the core of my being is a passion for nature.
everyone has this passion; children of mother earth.
some people just don't know how to connect with this core.

at one point, i marveled at the beauty of the different trees.
just hanging there, listening to the waves, looking at leaves.





after i was done climbing, i gathered my gear, coiled my rope.
i took one last look off juniper point at the setting sun.
i didn't even look for long, i intentionally wasted the view.
because its so close to home, and i gotta go back.