An Escape to Powell River and a Master’s Degree!

After two long, hard, fun, and incredibly rewarding years, I proudly defended my MSc thesis on September 5, 2014.  Despite how anxious I was going into the defence, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and it was great to have so many wonderful friends there to support me.  

 (1) Defending my MSc thesis (2) Super awesome LCSRG t-shirt from Meg!

Then, following a weekend of celebrating and editing, Graham and I took off to Powell River to meet our friends JF and Sophie for a week of camping and climbing in the Eldred Valley. What a spectacular place! We drove 34km up a logging road to reach the Colin Arthur Dionne Memorial campground – base camp for all the climbing in the valley. The campground was impeccable, situated within a beautiful stand of second growth right beside the Eldred River. The valley is breath-taking and surrounded by the giants: Psych Slab, Carag Dur, West Main, West Main Buttress, and more. 

CAD campground in the Eldred Valley

The Eldred River in the morning

A view of Carag Dur from Psych Slab

We climbed three days on Psych Slab. The granite is very fine grained compared to the Squamish slab crystals that we are used to. Each day took us to new levels in trusting our feet to stick to what seemed surely impossible. The first day on the slab we climbed the first 4 pitches of S.R.I (5.10). Graham and I swapped leads, which was a huge new accomplishment for me – first time swapping leads on a trad/slab multipitch, and as an onsight! The next day we attempted Schizophrenia, the 12-pitch classic 5.10 that climbs the centre of Psych Slab to the summit, but heat, nerves, and time stopped us at the top of the fifth. We also tried Day Pass (5.7) and Racknophia (5.10/11).  It was really eye-opening how challenging the climbing was. The slab felt impossible to stick to – and yet we did – creating an interesting mental challenge between the spaced bolts. Being a place mostly untraveled, much of the slab had lichen on it, which only accentuated the challenges. 

JF nearing the top of P1 on S.R.I.

Sophie leading P4 of S.R.I

All racked up to lead Day Pass!

Graham leading P1 of Racknophobia, and me trying on top-rope after

Our other two climbing days were spent bouldering. The granite is sticky and textured, there are boulders everywhere, and there is tons of potential for new development. We were like kids in a candy store! We climbed a few fun problems that were already established, but spent a good chunk of our bouldering time scrubbing and climbing new things.

Sophie, me, and JF bouldering at the powerline boulders

Graham working the moves on his newly scrubbed problem "The Princess" V5

G working the moves of a project by the river, just before the send. He called it "Biere dans la Riviere" V7

Sophie on the first ascent of her problem "Safety Fun", and me scrubbing my line "Safety Club"

The rest of our time in Powell River was spent enjoying the gorgeous weather, hanging out by the river, eating delicious food, practicing our French, and enjoying evening campfires.

Aftermath of the celebratory-champagne-mishap

Graham and I during "river bathtime"

"Wild Kids" and "Safety Club"

We are very excited to return to Powell River next year, earlier in the season perhaps to avoid the heat. If you are interested in heading over to check out the awesome climbing and potential in this area, check out Kevan Robitaille’s blog here.

Inside a giant tree stump!

I have now completed all the requirements for my degree, and Graham has finished his job at MEC. This weekend we moved back to the island to begin working on the Millenium FalcVan, our travel vehicle for the next year ++. We are really going to miss the people of Vancouver, from SFU, MEC, and the climbing community – we hope to cross paths with you all on our future adventures.

Cheers,
Kim

Snip snip

Tomorrow marks 6 weeks since I had the bilateral medial meniscectomy (double knee surgery). Basically, one of the little pads that protects the bone surface between the femur and the tibia/fibula on each of my knees had a tear in it, and that tear had a little flap that was floating around my knee causing inflammation and pain. The surgery is fairly straightforward and uninvasive (while still cutting me open...). But, lets step back a bit first.

My left knee has bothered me off and on for the last 10 years or so, possibly from a hockey injury, but I can't remember an exact event when it started. Every now and then it would let out a loud pop and then hurt for a few days. For some reason I guess I thought this was normal and never had it looked at. Then, when bouldering in Squamish one day last June, and walking between problems, I felt like my right knee needed to pop (similar to how one would pop or crack their knuckles). A few hours later, I could hardly bend my leg at all due to the swelling and pain.

The next day I booked a physio appointment to try and find out what was up with my knee. I saw physio for a few sessions as we aimed to solve what was causing the swelling. At first they thought it had to do with the alignment of my knee caps so they had me doing some exercises trying to correct that. I guess my left knee began to compensate for the right and soon I had two very swollen and sore knees. The physio began exploring other options, one of which was a torn meniscus, that could be causing my knee to be sore. They did a simple test of pushing my heel to my bum while twisting my foot laterally and, low and behold, it hurt. This was enough for the physio to suggest I see a doctor to get referred for an MRI.

This is when the waiting game started. After getting a referral for an MRI, I had no clue how long I'd have to wait. "We will call you closer to the date" was all I was told. Then, one morning in July (2013) I received a call from VGH Radiology Department: "We are currently scheduling MRI's for December 2014, but we have a cancellation tomorrow morning at 6AM, can you make it?" Heck yes I can make it, like anything is more important than NOT waiting 17 more months...

The MRI was pretty neat - they put me in a big tube that made retro video game noises for half an hour. One week later I received the MRI report which showed positive for a complex tear of the medial meniscus in my right knee. With this I was able to see my GP and get a referral to a surgeon. I was referred to the Rebalance MD clinic in Victoria. Rebalance has this neat concept they refer to as FAAST - First Available Appropriate Surgeon Triage. You can choose to be referred to a specific surgeon, or, like in my case, you can choose to be referred to their FAAST system. The patient is triaged to the first surgeon who is available to do the necessary work. In August, I saw Dr. Norgrove Penny who did an assessment on my knees. He concluded that, in his opinion, there was a torn meniscus in the right knee. I also asked him about the pain and swelling in my left knee and, even without the MRI, Dr. Penny was able to conclude that the left was probably torn as well. I was then referred to Dr. James Stone to do the actual surgery.

I did a lot of reading online regarding surgeons beforehand and Dr. Stone had by far the best rating out of all the surgeons I found. I have to echo these same thoughts. He took a genuine interest in my situation as well as my climbing. He seems to take a laid back, yet professional, stance in his appointments which really put me at ease about the whole situation.

Fast forward half a year to May 5, 2014 and I am laying in a hospital bed recovering after having both knees worked on. My instructions were to only move when I had to, not when I wanted to, for the first 3 days, and to slowly begin to bend my knees a bit when able. After these 3 days, I began to move around a little more, bit by bit, to get some range of motion back in my knees. Thankfully, the crutches allowed me to move under my own power and I could do most things by myself. After about a week, I was able to lose the crutches and Kim and I decided to come back to Vancouver. Walking was pretty awkward and stiff legged, but it was nice to be able to move around without the crutches. Over the next couple weeks I began to gain more and more range through my legs.

Kim as my patient nurse. She removed, cleaned and reapplied my bandages daily

Walking was pretty impossible at first...but I graduated to crutches, and then free walking after a week!

Showering was also a fairly big challenge...

I saw Dr Stone again 3 weeks after the surgery for the post-op appointment. It turns out both legs had the same tear on the medial meniscus, and the little torn piece had flipped under the meniscus in an attempt to vacate the knee. This explained why I wasn't able to bend my leg all the way - I had a piece of meniscus blocking it! Dr Stone said that, aside from the tear, my knees were "pristine" which was really nice to hear. He still stressed no climbing or other leg intensive activities until the 6 week mark.

I am now nearly 6 weeks post surgery and the knees are feeling fantastic. I am able to ride the stationary bike without any pain, and the swelling has reduced almost entirely - I can bend my legs well past 90 degrees now. Despite not being able to climb, I have kept busy doing some core work outs and training on the hang board. It has been pretty hard the last few weeks as I keep hearing about my friends sending all their projects. I am super stoked for them and cannot wait to join them on the next projects.

Kim and I working core and upper body strength on the monkey bars at the playground by our house!

Hanging out at Paradise Valley while Cory, Kim and Marc are bouldering

Our main focus over the past couple weeks has been checking out vans. Our trip is growing closer at an alarming rate and we really need to focus more on the van situation. I have a feeling camperizing one is going to take us a lot longer than we expect, as neither of us really have any experience doing anything like it. We're both super excited to be creative and make it livable though. We've test driven some really nice vehicles, and are feeling pretty close to making a decision...hopefully within the week. As I'm now allowed to start climbing (gently) again, we'd better find a van soon, as it'll be hard to trade off one activity for the other!

-Graham

Springtime countdown...

Just under one month remains before Graham goes in for his double knee arthroscopy in Victoria to mend his pesky menisci. He'll be off his feet for about two weeks, and not back in full climbing form for at least 3 months. It will be very difficult to refrain from pushing it too hard during the healing process, but on the flip side, there are no limits on pushing it beforehand! This has sparked strong motivation to make the most of spring climbing - in a time of freshness and new beginnings (in between the rain days!)

From February 7-16 we travelled to Red Rocks, Nevada, for a climbing adventure with these beautiful people:

Dan, Emrys, Yannick, Kirsten, Allison, Nicole and us.
"WE WENT TO LAS VEGAS... to be bums on rocks?"

While we had to accept the unexpected twists of 9 hour flight-delays (thanks for the $8 voucher Allegiant...), strange tummy bugs (I will not expand), and no coffee pot (we remedied this), we also had seven glorious days of climbing. We spent most of our days sport climbing in the sun, with the exception of an adventurous multi-pitch day on "Dream of Wild Turkeys" (moonlight rapelling!).

Dan and I at the top of pitch 7, Dream of Wild Turkeys

Red Rocks is a gorgeous place, with so much climbing that we could have spent weeks there. The rock is a gorgeous sandy red, and the desertscapes are beautiful. Here are a few of the photo highlights of the trip.

Day 1 sunset in Red Rock canyon

Nicole and Dan being snazzy 

Delicate Kirsten [photo cred: the Emrys cam]

Nicole and a sunbeam

Emrys on Geometric Progression (5.12b)

We could hardly believe how beautiful each day was.

Graham climbing
The Gift (5.12d)
[photo cred: the Emrys cam]

Yannick climbing
Fear and Loathing (5.12a)

Kim climbing
Where Egos Dare (5.12a)
[photo cred: the Emrys cam]

There were some very cool climbs that called for superstar moves as well, particularly at Trophy Wall...

Graham resting, Dan doing a superstar, and Yannick flying!

Graham made some awesome progress on Monster Skank (5.13b). A bit more time and it probably would have gone.

Gearing up for Monster Skank

All in all it was an awesome trip, and we can't wait to go again.

Back in Vancouver, the weather hasn't exactly been wonderful, so our days in Squamish have been fairly limited. Mother nature gave me a lovely birthday gift with sunshine on April 1st, however, so we headed up after work for an evening session. It's hard to believe the days are already long enough to climb until 8:00pm! I worked on Sloppy Poppy again and made some good progress, then we headed to a climb Graham had tried a couple years back and wanted to get on again. After working the sequence with friends Frank and Tom, and figuring out the blasted first move, Graham sent his very first V10: No Troublems. What a super exciting way to finish the day!! And to top it off, we got free birthday cake at the brewpub after our session :) :)

Graham on No Troublems, V10

All for now. Wish us good April weather and fast recovery from surgery in May <3

Squamish Winter Bouldering

It has been an absolutely fantastic winter. From late November through to the end of January, we have had multiple good-weather days begging us to adventure up to Squamish. There have been gorgeous days, sunny and up to 12 degrees, there have been several cold days where mother nature only spared us a couple degrees, and there was one day with a balmy high of -6.

But despite the varying temps, what all of these days had in common was the dryness of the granite. Occasionally we had to seek out these dry boulders, the Apron being a consistently good bet.

Graham sending Nick's Link (V9)

Kim sending Alien Within (V3)

Graham working the moves on Blast Hole Traverse (V7)

Deeper in the forest wasn’t bad either though, with locations on the fringe of the woods drying only 1-2 days post rain.

Kim's one billionth attempt on Easy Chair (V4)

Graham working the moves on Sesame Street (V9)

Kim working the beta on Lounge Act (V6)

On the third weekend in January the weather was SO good that we even climbed up at Lipsmack and in around Sloppy Poppy. Take that wet top-out moss!

We were so happy to session this winter with so many awesome people too! Cory, Julia, Marc, Luke, Frank, Phil, Tom, Natasha…to name a few J

Marc's hardcore knuckles after battling the granite

We had a number of key accomplishments too. Sending very long term projects, flashing new grades, etc. Graham put his talents to work to make a video of the highlights – check it out to see us in action!

After all this bouldering, we are off to Red Rocks in less than a week. Route climbing, here we come!

Disappearing Evening Sun

As we welcome in November, we sadly wave good-bye to the beloved evening light that keeps us on the rock just that little bit longer. We spent as much time as possible throughout the dry month of October between Squamish and Horne Lake. With our new house being so close to the Iron Worker’s bridge, we can make it from our doorstep to Murrin Park in a mere 40 minutes.  The short commute made it worthwhile to head up after work even with reduced day length compared to summer. Graham has been working Vultures Circling (5.13b) and on October 23^rd, despite many wet hand and footholds, walked away with the send!

The invisible footholds at the base of Vultures Circling

Traversing into the first rest on Vultures Circling

Vultures Circling upper rest

Moving into the upper crux, Vultures Circling

In addition to Squamish climbing, we have made several trips to Horne Lake this fall. On November 3^rd, we celebrated by each taking home some hard-earned sends. After three days of working it, I was stoked to send Quarter Century Girl (5.12a). This is my first 5.12 on the island, and I was determined to send before my next birthday so I could be a quarter century girl on Quarter Century Girl. Graham cruised his way throughout a graceful redpoint of Fast Cat (5.13c), his second 13c at Horne. To finish the day off, I finally battled my way through a redpoint burn on You Enjoy Myself (5.11a), my first send in the amphitheater.  This is commonly referred to as “the warm-up” route, but the steep climbing is very difficult for me and not my style at all. Needless to say, I was thrilled, particularly since I have been working this route on and off since 2009.

Back in Squamish, Graham and I also made our first trip to Paradise Valley last week for some bouldering. The climbing here is FANTASTIC, I can’t believe we hadn’t been there before. Graham had a brilliant day, climbing over 50 points, including two V7s, one of which was a flash (Little Dragon). I flashed my first ever V4, and was very pleased to also send Tai Fighter (V4) on my 3^rd go.

Kim getting ready to be dynamic on a V2

Airborne!

With the February Red Rocks trip on the horizon and the knowledge that we are less than a year (pending Graham’s knee surgery) from our big trip, we have decided to spend the winter months training hard. In addition, we have set some pretty ambitious goals for ourselves, which should be fun to try and achieve.

Kim’s goals:

#1. Bring my bouldering tally in Squamish to 100 problems before the end of winter (currently at 66)

#2. Climb ten 5.12s before we leave on our year-long trip

Graham’s goals:

#1.  Try some harder boulders. He would like to send a V10 before the trip

#2.  Double the number of 5.13s that he has currently (12) sent.

Wish us luck! <3