Vikki Weldon

The past few weeks have exhibited both an extreme high and low for climbers; the girls in particular. Angie Payne proved herself as one of, if not the, strongest female boulderer in the world today by completing the Automator (an established V13) at RMNP in Colorado. Angie is on a rampage this season after coming back from a year long hiatus due to an ankle injury. She’s a a champ on the stone and a true inspiration to me.

The climbing world also suffered a severe loss with the death of Belgium climber Chloe Graftiaux  earlier this month. Chloe won the Vail World Cup this year and was  ranked 3rd in the Boulder World Cup series this season. It was an untimely and unfair death and my condolences go out to her family and friends around the world.

I feel that these two events have shown us the highs and lows that the sport of climbing has to offer. We can work hard and achieve what has never been done before, and we can also suffer the consequences of a dangerous sport. Now I know that Angie was bouldering and Chloe was alpine climbing, and both offer different dangers and challenges, but there is a common thread of success and consequence in all forms of climbing.

These two events, as well as my own experience in the past week has ignited a little flame in my soul.

This past Tuesday I headed out to Squamish with my boyfriend Ryan for an evening bouldering session. The goal for Ryan was to complete an absolutely beautiful and asthetic V10 called Hydra in the North Wall boulders (a problem that I cannot do a single move on..sigh), and for me to continue to work on Worm World Low. Ryan made progress on the problem (and sent it quickly on Saturday when we went again. The photos below are from Saturday).

Ryan crushing Hydra V10, The North Walls

Hydra V10

"Sasha l'avion!"

It ended up being dark when we walked into the Grand Wall boulders to World World. As I walked in I was completely devoid of enthusiasm. I’ve been working this problem all summer and am completely stumped at one move every single time. It’s frustrating. Instead of approaching the problem with a clear mind and psyche, I was already anticipating the frustration and failure. I was not appreciating the cool night air or the wonderful person by my side, and the fact that I was engaging in the sport I love most. Nope. It was a grumpy girl brushing the problem and pulling on her shoes that night.

As I worked the powerful sloper moves on the bottom of the problem, I felt my right wrist was weak. Usually I tape my wrist for these moves to help support it, but alas, no tape in my bag that day. I managed to do the crux move from a lower down move (I won’t slay you with details on the problem), something I had not managed to do before. Instead of feeling excited with the progression, I was indifferent. The next moment, I was trying the same move and felt an intense pain in my wrist. Busted. I could barely open my hand and could not hold on to any holds. The day was over and I immediately fell into a depressive state.

I’m no stranger to injuries. Just this spring I injured my shoulder and am still recovering from that. As a youth climber I suffered serious finger injuries, and I still feel the lingering effects from those as well. It sucks. Simple as that. Injuries are a pain in the ass. Yet they also come with the sport.

The next few days I was overcome with regret. My wrist ached constantly and all I wanted to do was go back out and climb. It’s funny how you don’t appreciate something until you’ve lost it (cliche alert!). I went back out to Squamish this past Saturday to watch Ryan kill it on The Hydra and to watch him session a crazy hard testpiece called The Squaminator (V12), also in the North Walls. Awesome to watch people crank, not so awesome to be sitting with your ass on the ground and your shoes in the car.

But the next day. A sliver of hope! I taped my wrist up like a mummy and tentatively climbed a few moderates. Not completely pain free, but definitely not as bad as I thought. After not even a week on the ground I felt rejuvinated. It was so good to just climb. I was with amazing people (Thomasina Pidgeon as well as her little girl, Cedar) who inspire me and make me happy. It was fun. Plain and simple fun. The way it should be.

Thomasina hanging out at Paradise Valley

Cedar brushing holds just like her mama!

Rock Lady Boulder, Paradise Valley

Crushing at the Rock Lady Boulder, Paradise Valley

So I just wanted to share with you all the lesson I have learned and hope to keep learning. Appreciate the ability to be able to do what we love. Push yourself to new heights and keep in mind the consequences our endeavours can have. Angie Payne and Thomasina Pidgeon are my heroes. Chloe Graftiaux was a soul lost to us too early. Climbing takes you to heaven and hell and back again. Enjoy the beauty, push yourselves, be healthy and be aware.

It’s Sunday night, and I’m sitting cross legged on my bed, starting at my school schedule for tomorrow. August 23rd, back to school. As much as I love BCIT and the nursing program, I am feeling a lump of resentment in my belly. The song  horribly sung by Adam Sandler in the movie Billy Madison comes to mind…”Back to schoooool, back to schoooool, to prove to daddy that I’m not a fooooool”. Blah. It’s still warm and sunny out darnit. I want to rock climb, roll in the dirt and jump in some lakes.

The past two months have been busy. Too busy to write a blog post apparently. Here’s the quick recap: Half-way through the summer I realized I wasn’t making any money and quickly snagged a job as a nanny for two blonde-haired blue-eyed wonderful little monsters and spent the rest of the summer as a kid. We made cookies, went swimming and played in countless water parks. I love being a kid. I grudgingly finished up my summer courses, putting in a little less effort than I should have, but passed with some sort of colours (wink) and squeezed out every bit of enjoyment I could from the two and a half week holiday I had off from school.

Somewhere in the middle of that my mum came out to the coast and we set out for a three day kayaking tour just off of Vancouver island. It was a beautiful trip. We camped in Pirate Cove and ate lunch at Blueberry Point. Sounds like a children’s story book. Told you I love being a kid.

Momma Weldon showing off her pipes in the front there

Of course there were the countless days I squeezed in at Squamish. While I continued to work with the kiddies I resorted to driving up for quite a few night bouldering sessions. The best moment was out in the North Wall boulders with a few of the team kids, Sean and Ryder, as well as my good friends Gary Foster and Jamie Chong. We head up to try a V7 highball called Styx that Jamie had done a few weeks earlier. It was a new and crazy feeling to be pulling hard moves up high with only a spot of light from my headlamp in front of me and the encouragement of my friends pushing me up from the darkness below.

I’ve also been putting in quite a bit of effort on my boulder project, Worm World Low. A new friend, Allen from Texas, got a fun shot of me working the finishing moves. It still feels quite hard and far away, but as the weather cools and I continue to work it, I hope it goes down soon.

WWL, V10 (Work in Progress)

I’ve also been coaching once a week at the Edge for kiddies with a passion to keep up with the plastic crushing in the summer. One day we crammed 5 people into my little Gopher and headed out to Chek. The four teammates included Ryder, Sean, Alannah and Ayesha. Four psyched individuals with a newfound passion for climbing outside the gym. It was great to see them crush, and refreshing to climb with such joyful and fresh spirits.

E-Crew taking over the Crag

Ayesha "Weesher" Khan crushing stone to make pebbles on Timber Queen

"Yeah no big deal, just stopping to smile for ze picture" Alannah Yip on Timber Queen, 5.12c

Finally, this little summer recap ends with my little trip of the summer. I left for Cow-town on August 13th for a week long trip home to visit family, friends and the ol’ faithful Canadian Rockies. After a summer of bouldering in Squamish, I was keen on a week of limestone sport routes. Yeah yeah, I’m no hard core trad crusher like Will Stanhope or Hazel Findley (who are two wicked strong peeps by the way). I love to boulder and I love sport and I wish to love trad. It’ll happen one day, I swear.
Anywho, back in Cow-town, I managed to get 5 solid days of straight climbing in.
DAY 1: Out to Planet X with brother, Mike, and sister, Stacey, as well as an Alabama friend, Todd Clark, who I met last year in the Red. We had a bit of a ringer the night before at the Drake, the local pub in Canmore, so we were all light and dehydrated. This seemed to help Stacey, who crushed her project, Shooting Packer, a super fun 5.13b. I on the other hand was suffering a tad from the altitude change. Lack of water and lack of air makes Vikki one useless rock climber. It was fun nonetheless.
DAY 2: Back to Calgary to celebrate the end of an era. The Calgary Climbing Centre (CCC) was having one last hurrah for the A-frame bouldering cave. I bounced around and cruised on the walls that I was raised on for one final night before they were torn down the next day. The replacement is a massive free standing boulder. Upon leaving on Friday, they already had the metal frame up and were texturing and t-nutting the panels. Keep tuned Calgary climbers. Check out the CCC webpage for more details to come.

We also went to the river to skip stones. A big thing to do in Calgary, skipping stones..

Honing some prostar stone skipping skills at the Bow River in Calgs

Todd's a Juggler, don'tcha know

Day 3: Acephale. What a wonderful place. A nice 45 min-1 hr. hike puts you up to my most favourite place on earth. It was a brilliant day, with many old friends and loads of strong beasties. I managed to squeak in a send of a newer route called Ice Box (5.12d/13a?) which is on the far right side of the Upper Wall. It’s a super technical and powerful route. Tons of fun! We had some funky weather that day as well. Throughout the day, fog billowed down from the tops of the cliffs as if someone had placed a dry ice machine above the cliffline. We ended up in our own little cloud bubble, which was surreal, yet also frustrating as the surrounding moisture found its home on the rock. As the end of the day arrived, I felt my heart strings tugging as I realized another year would pass before I would be able to visit this crag again.

Luke Muller and my dog Logan rocking some sick top-knots

Day 4: TALL STOREY! Woah, what’s that? A multi-pitch? No way. Oh wait, it’s fully bolted. Ok, phew, not quite at my trad days yet folks. Stacey and I geared up (16 quick draws yo!) for a freshly bolted 8 pitch 5.11c classic up in Echo Canyon (Grotto Mountain) on Wednesday. Our older brother, Chris, had done the route a few weeks before and raved about it. It was my first multi-pitch where I wasn’t with someone who was hugely experienced. It was a beautiful day, on fantastic rock, pulling rad moves up high in the air. Can’t say more than that. It’s a great feeling when you can share such a unique love  for a sport with your siblings.

Day 5: Last day on. Back to Planet X. I was exhausted from the day before (A 9 hour day from car to car), but was psyched to get one more day in on rock before I had to leave the following day. Yet before I knew it, I had fallen asleep on the smooth river stones after my warm up, which had felt terrible. Apparently I was ready for a day of cheering on good friends from the ground. But apparently my buddies were not so stoked on that idea, and I was awoken by my little bro, Mike, who was clapping at me (yeah, clapping, I know right) to get a belay and shortly after encouraged to get on Shooting Packer (the route Stacey had sent earlier in the week). I suprised myself immensely when I made it to the chains. I love suprising sends. They’re so much more fun than the expected ones.

So there you have it. Five days of pure fun. My last morning in Canmore, I woke up with smoke in my nose and in the air. Apparently when BC has over 400 fires raging in the province, Alberta gets a whiff of the smoke now and then. It was disappointing not being able to say goodbye to my favourite mountains as they hid behind a veil of smoke. But never fear Rockies, I’ll be back to give ya a hug.

Anywho, that’s my blog update. Unforunately I took no pictures of climbing on this trip. I was too busy having fun doing it instead. But enjoy a few other randoms I managed to take.

Peace out boys and girls.

Where'd all the mountains go? Thanks BC for all the smoke!

Logan stopping to smell the flowers

Water droplet on the pretty petals

Me 'n ma dawg enjoying the smokey summer breeze