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MH2
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 8, 2008 - 03:27am PT
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a story from the traverse, 2003
This year, since I work at night, I’ve been on the traverse more often than usual because it makes such an excellent evening destination. The setting sun blazes a path across the Strait of Georgia. The waves turn green and gold where the sun comes through them. The cliff and the water distance you from the residential neighborhood nearby. The only sounds are water and birds. The sky slowly loses its color.
There are some worries. I might get stung by a wasp. In some places a fall would probably break an ankle, at the least. Falling into the water could wash my glasses off despite the retainer. A fall into the water might not be good for the camera.
I’ve been trying to get some characteristic but unmistakably amateur pics of this traverse. After all, it’s low-key. No photo is too humble.
So there I am happily going by a tricky section when I reach out to a hold and notice that it’s occupied. My eyes open wider and the optics of this somehow magnify the already large enough spider sitting there. The color of the thing is a tick fever dream orange/yellow. That’s on the abdomen. The thorax, head, and legs are a stealth black so that even though I look real hard for movement I can’t see any reassuring fixity of outline in the shadow.
I know the spider doesn’t want to do anything to me but that is only the weak voice of reason. Nearness to spider overcomes reason. I have an irrational aversion to spiders near my face. I recognize this beast as a jumping spider and they have a disconcerting way of seeming to teleport from one location to another.
Then I notice that this cute furry predator has in its fangs another sort of spider, about the same size as itself. Thank goodness supper has stopped wriggling or I would have been truly freaked. There is something about spiders and their legs and the way they move that gives me the willies. I’m glad I didn’t arrive for the death throes.
Well, now, I’ve always wondered about spider-on-spider predation. I’ve heard that there are no vegetarian spiders, and I think that the young sometimes eat each other, and that black widow thing, but I don’t think too many spiders specialize in eating other spiders. Anyway, I had to capture the moment, and I had my camera with me.
My brain is usually taxed to capacity just trying to climb the rock, but here is what I had to do, now: make sure my feet were at the proper angle (holds were sloping), use the only handhold outside the spider-affected radius as either jam or layback (alternately so as not to overtire the muscles), get the camera out, get the lens cap off then back on, push the right buttons and try to get enough distance so that focus would work, keep enough attention on the spider so as to notice any threatening moves (a digital camera viewfinder has poor resolution).
Like Mark Twight recommends, I put everything I had and everything I am into the effort.
Oh yeah, I truly didn’t want to fall off. I didn’t have brainpower left over at the time to analyze the possibilities of the situation. With hindsight I see myself get stung, pitch off, smash an ankle, plunge into the water, $300 bifocals sinking, and a trail of blood attracting the nearest shark. On the plus side would be losing the camera.
The crack under the spiders is finger size, about 1-1.5 cm.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Now that's a pair of great seacliff stories and photos, Crunch & MH2. Both kinda
cosmic, in very different ways.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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A couple of St. John's climbers took me out cragging at Flat Rock, which sits on
a sloping rock shelf overlooking deep water.
They told about climbing there one day while a whale surfaced and splashed around
below them. I didn't see that, but wished I had.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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A few more shots from Flat Rock, Newfoundland. I think the route is Yellow Fever.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Finally measured it out - the cliff featured in many of Andy's photos (the "traverse") is about 11 km as the ladybug flies from where I live. Assuming that ladybugs are OK flying that distance over salt water, that is.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Dec 11, 2008 - 08:59am PT
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Is there still some life in this theme? I hope so, it's the dark season where I live.
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Dec 11, 2008 - 09:47am PT
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Dec 11, 2008 - 10:55am PT
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Todd, where are those? Any story?
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perswig
climber
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Dec 11, 2008 - 11:11am PT
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Yeah, Todd. The scale of the first pic - whoa!
Larry, would you be willing to ID the Newfie location re: neighboring town/park/whatnot? (God, it is bleak around here, isn't it? I bouldered a Farnsworth stone outbuilding in the sleet this morning - desperation, me thinks. Edit - does intown Rockland still count as by the sea?)
Dale
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Dec 11, 2008 - 11:12am PT
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Top photo;...Dream of White Horses, Wales.....on or near my 21st birthday.......bottom pic is not REALLY the ocean....it's in Minnesoda N. Shore, above Deluth, Lake Superior..............
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Dec 11, 2008 - 11:24am PT
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Perswig, Flat Rock (I should have written Flatrock) is a local crag, a few miles
up the coast from St. John's. Here's a page with how-to-get-there beta.
http://www.infonet.st-johns.nf.ca/eecc/flatrock.html
I just visited for one day; I'm sure Newfoundland climbers could fill you in on
the routes. The last of my photos is below. I think this is on what the EECC
page calls the "Big Wall" section of the cliff.
Some other photos are on Rockclimbing.com.
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Petch
Gym climber
Lover's Leap
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Dec 11, 2008 - 11:28am PT
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The best Cali has to offer.
Seductive Mermaid 10c
Footsteps rock
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duncan
Trad climber
London, UK
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Dec 11, 2008 - 11:59am PT
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Todd, you've got your Dream reversed.
(not my photo)
We'll allow Lake Michigan as your lakes are probably bigger than our seas!
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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Dec 11, 2008 - 12:22pm PT
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Dream on. Another picture form a previous lifetime. Ogmore, in south Wales, is steep, frightening and the tides go up and down by twenty feet or so, twice a day.
On this day, I made the mistake of letting my friend Howard lead. You can see him, in red, belaying at the top of the cliff. And that's me, just above the waves. Pic from about 1978 I think.
Edit: Actually both figures are almost impossible to see, sorry. Let's try this:
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Dec 11, 2008 - 12:27pm PT
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Petch, is that Mickey's Beach? How do the newer Cali seaside areas compare?
Crunch's last picture, in which I can't make out the alleged climbers, reminds me
of a definition I read somewhere that said true seacliff climbing had to take
account of conditions on the sea. The British cliffs really exemplify that idea
(no doubt it was a British definition).
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duncan
Trad climber
London, UK
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Dec 11, 2008 - 12:46pm PT
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Skeleton Ridge, Isle of Wight.
The best line in England? It's chalk but fairly hard as chalk goes, so climbs with rock gear rather than ice tools.
It's a great day out, someone into the softer desert sandstones would enjoy it a lot.
The last few feet of the top pitch, close enough to start grand-standing.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Dec 11, 2008 - 12:52pm PT
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Wow, what are the logistics of Skeleton Ridge? You got more photos?
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MH2
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 12, 2008 - 12:27am PT
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Life by the sea is one of the themes in a tentative queue I had in mind before starting, so yes there is life in this theme, and that theme within the other theme has been greenlit by what could have been an eagle over the Parson and the whales surfacing at Flatrock. And the mention of spider.
As long as there is potentially shining water under the cliff I don't think it matters whether the water is sea or not. The body of water I climb near is either a strait or an inlet depending on which direction you are looking in.
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duncan
Trad climber
London, UK
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Dec 12, 2008 - 04:15am PT
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Chiloe,
No more photos I’m afraid.
Ian Parnell has some good ones here:
http://www.ianparnell.com/Html/Gallery%20Pro.htm
and here:
http://lightbox.alpineexposures.com/rock-climbing/page/3/
Trip report:
http://www.sandrock.org.uk/Articles/skeletonridge.htm
There is an account of the first ascent by Mick Fowler in Alpinist 25.
Getting on the route involves abseiling 250’ or so down the grassy slope to the beach you can see in the top photo in post 139, to the right of the ridge as you look at it. Then it’s a sea-level traverse to the tip of the ridge, assuming you got the tides right and the waves are not that big. Some dampness is inevitable. Once you’re on the ridge there are five or six pitches of mostly very straight-forward Alpine 5.4-5.6. There are a couple of harder sections and, satisfyingly, the final tower is the crux. Or it was when we did it five years ago, the nature of the route is that large chunks fall off from time-to-time so it could all be different now!
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MH2
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 15, 2008 - 03:58am PT
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Another seaside theme is the people who go there. A large gallery of eminent persons may eventually appear but for now consider this mild-mannered architect (foreground) who is at present between 82 and 83 degrees S on route to visit the frozen sturgeon at Amundsen Scott.
Meanwhile, back at the forest primeval,
Another non-climber user. These are rare.
Then there is the swimmer. He visits quite often. I’ve spoken to him and he has a job and all, he just likes the quiet and solitude.
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