Climbing

I had an excellent weekend. It was so fantastic that I didn't mind missing the half marathon. I had my departmental retreat this weekend which was held at the Hudson Valley Resort and Spa instead of its usual location. The Hudson Valley Resort is very close to the Shawangunks which means climbing! So Mike went hiking with Joe and Vijay and left me with the car (Boy do I HATE driving. My dream is to be able to bike, run, walk or take the metro everywhere for the rest of my life.). This meant Josh and I could get to the cliffs during our free time. After Josh gave a great talk about BMP signaling in the developing spinal cord, we suited up and drove away. We decided that we would climb Drunkard's Delight. This was a great three pitch climb led by Josh where I had to do some crazy heel hooking (involving my feet to be at the same level of my hands to make it over the roof). It's been SO long since I have climbed that I was hurting after we were done. Bloody hands and a tight calf, but it was excellent. Josh did an excellent job with gear placement.
On Sunday when the conference (a dept. that views drinking as a key element to scientific progress can only be great!) ended, we were planning to climb and meet up with Mark, another Columbian, but I was very hesitant. My hips were bothering me and not to mention a sore bottom from climbing! In the end, I popped three Alleves and decided to climb. It was great. We climbed a hybrid of Nice Crack Climb (5.7) and Black Fly (5.5), then Ken's Crack (5.7) which was tricky until I did a lay-back. Then Josh and I finished up the day with Bunny (5.4). By the time we were done, I was rappelling as the sun set. We packed up with no headlamps (that was dumb) and headed to meet Joe and Mike. As it turned out, they had been drinking for a while which always makes things...amusing :) The best part was when Josh asked Joe what he thought about the vegetarian falafel platter and Joe's advice was to get a meat dish. Mike and I looked at each other and knew that we had entered a bizzaro dimension. We topped the night off with ice cream at Cookies and Cream (and learned that Joe cannot do math) and stayed the night at Joe's as we were too tired (or too buzzed) to drive back.
As a result of climbing, I am having difficulty typing with my sore and bloody hands (I hand jam WAY too often) and have some nice bruises on my legs. It's a reminder that I need to climb more. No wimps allowed.