Hello hello~
I’ve mentioned before that I like to rock climb. Well, last Friday, I got to hang out with some Northeastern friends who also like to rock climb! (Shout out to Erik, Dana, and Dylan) And we watched Valley Uprising!!!! They’d all seen it already but they were champs and watched it again with me.
For those of us less inclined to scale cliff faces, a bit of American climbing history: it originated in Yosemite. And this awesome movie Valley Uprising (trailer here) documents it! Yes it’s a documentary, but it’s a pretty sick documentary.
So that was fun! Got my weekly dose of climbing. Also stopped by the MIT gym before I went to NU and got a bit of actual climbing in.
Anyway, it’s great to have friends in the cit! Highly recommend it. I met at least 5 other people just that night, and all through these new friends I’d met only recently at the MetroRock InterCollegiate Sleepover a few weeks ago! (I forget if I’ve mentioned this in a previous post already, but in a nutshell, a climbing gym near Boston hosted an intercollegiate sleepover and Wellesley, NU, MIT, and other schools attended. There was popcorn and a ropes course and climbing in the dark. A great time was had by all.)
So, I meet all these new people, and we just chill…in their penthouse. Yes. A penthouse. With a kitchen. So naturally the baking of desserts was happening. I remember caramel brownies, pumpkin muffins, and some kind of chicken(?). Not a dessert of course.
Anyway, it was great to just sit and talk and relax. Prior to the MIT rock gym and NU, I’d been in Cambridge for a Goldman Sachs networking event. So, it was nice to be able to unwind.
Around 1am, Erik, Dana, Dylan and I left the Dorm Fit For Kings and went to a nice room with a big screen to watch Valley Uprising. It was great. I learned a lot of climbing history, and that made climbing even more special to me. Knowing where the sport you love came from motivates you to be better I guess.
Seeing people climb in Yosemite in the film made me a bit homesick though. This summer I lived in Berkeley, and climbed a lot at this place called Indian Rock (it’s a real outdoor rock, made of granite) which will forever hold a special place in my heart. I made a lot of climbing friends there, and we went on trips together to Yosemite and Tahoe…and the film just made me remember Indian Rock and miss the Indian Rock Crew and want to be back in sunny California again…
But it’s okay! Because I’m going on a climbing/camping trip next weekend (Nov. 1) with the aforementioned friends (plus some!) to Rumney in NH, and it’s going to be great.
Anyway, that was my climbing splurge of the week. And! These new friends of mine were super awesome and walked with me from NU to the CommAve stop to catch the last Senate Bus at 3:20am! We ran the last bit too because the bus was already at the stop and it looked like it could leave any second.
I’m happy just remembering this night. Climbing + friends + late night adventures just makes for great memories. Also, on an unrelated note, did you know that it’s encouraged to journal at the end of every day, because when you write about the good things that happened earlier, your mind relives them and makes you happy all over again? (:
Anyway, I’m going to tell them about this post, and I hope they enjoy reading it. I haven’t really featured anyone in this blog yet except my dad. Oh, and Jean and Richard. And I guess since I’ve only written 4 posts before this one…that’s quite a lot of featuring. But anyway!
One last note: the image at the top of this post is the cover photo of Alex Honnold’s facebook page. He’s one of the more common names in the climbing community right now (read: he’s a super awesome famous professional climber who makes his living by climbing at various places around the world and being sponsored by outdoor brands like Clif Bars and Adidas and the North Face, etc.) He’s also a Berkeley dropout. (Read: he climbed at Indian Rock in his early days. Actually, a surprising amount of famous climbers spent their early days at Indian Rock.) He’s also famous for climbing without ropes (free soloing) though most climbers would acknowledge that he gets a disproportionate amount of attention for his solos considering the actual ratio of how much he solos vs. how much he climbs with ropes (i.e. safety). But! For an adrenaline rush, watch one of his free solos.
Alright, enough climbing talk for one post. Until next time!
~Emily