[Forge]

surprisingly the pool was at most 3' deep when we were there yesterday.

[spec]

It was great meeting all of you guys, I had alot of fun. Give me some time and I might be back out in the primative gullies with company and ropes, but as of right now Im leaning towards places like Letchworth, Watkins, Buttermilk...etc. My knee is the size of a softball and I have an apple sized black and blue lump on my hip. Still playing in my head how very differently that could have ended.

Yeah, that's likely not an experience you're going to forget and move on from for a while. I'd probably take a break too if it were me. Ben and I were looking at those pictures trying to figure out exactly how you got into that pool. We guessed much as bremer did that you likely hit that top rock sticking out and bounced outwards, though we guessed you'd hit it with your pack not your knee/hip. We figure that must have slowed you down a bit, which kept you from breaking your legs when you went into the pool. Either way, as we've all said, it could have been a hell of a lot worse. I know I keep replaying it in my head, I can only imagine how it is for you.

I stayed relatively injury free -- a few scrapes and bruises from where I fell at the top of Clark when Ben and I went up and over the hill to the upper falls. That was just a slip and I landed on my side, nothing major at all. Other than that, I only got the "expected" minor cuts and scuffs that I'd normally get while out in the creeks. I'm starting now to get a little sore around the shoulders and deltoids, and I'm sure I'm going to be feeling it more in the morning.

Thank you for taking those videos of us at Grimes. I use videos like that to review and critique my climbing (and other activities), as well as to "recapture the moment." I've learned and changed a lot of things about my climbing from videos that have helped me stay safer while doing it. I love the pictures you got of us while we were scrambling up the side of the gully at Clark, too. The closeup is awesome, and then the zoomed out one just puts it all into scale. I think that scramble is what most of my soreness is from -- that was waaaaay more upper body intensive than I usually do.

Again, glad you're not too horribly injured, and that we all got the chance to meet finally. I'm looking forward to our next outing at Letchworth!

[hobkyl]

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[hobkyl]

Can I post video from Flickr here?

[spec]

Can I post video from Flickr here?

I don't see a way to do it directly. I played around for a little bit and got nowhere. One way I was able to do it was to paste the code from flickr into an HTML page on my server here and that worked. If you let me know what vids/pics you want shared here I can throw a quick-n-dirty index up on my server that you can post the link to here. All vids etc will still stream from Flickr, but the index will reside on the server sitting under my desk here. Another option is photobucket or youtube. Photobucket generates the code for you that puts a thumbnail into a clickable link that you post here, then when you click on it, you go to the photbucket page containing the video.

[Matt]

Need flickr?
I'm working on it now.

[Matt]

hmmm... seems like flickr doesn't allow websites to use BBCODE to embed it.
This website doesn't take the embed code, because doing that also allows people to embed anything (including viruses and spyware).

[spec]

Damned flickr.

Anyway, here's the vid of my solo climb up Grimes 1. Many thanks to Matt for color-correcting the video for me. My apologies for the shakiness in the video; we were not using a tripod to shoot.

[Matt]

if I had a waterfall at home, I would still try it.

[hobkyl]

Youd try it Matt???

[hobkyl]

Ben and Andy climbing through a waterfall





Sorry Andy wasnt sure if you were gonna make it....but then you did

[hobkyl]

[spec]

Sorry Andy wasnt sure if you were gonna make it....but then you did

Yeah, I was waiting for the rope, then I just said, "ah screw it, I can't go too far if I do slip, so what the hell..." I'm kinda glad I did get up there when I did, tho, with that rock Ben sent my way accidentally. If you watch that vid in slow motion, you can see that rock go flyin' down the falls. Had I still been standing there, my legs would have likely been obliterated.

[hobkyl]

Seconds before I yell "Four!"

[spec]

This is one of my favorite pics from that day. This one, and the one of Ben looking back over his shoulder in front of #3.

When we went back on Memorial Day, the flow was a bit lower. We actually sat in that little channel at the top of #2. Quite fun! Current was nowhere near as strong as it was when we were there.



We also stuck our heads through the cascade off that ledge at the top of the channel to cool off....





Ben's camera is waterproof, so that went in as well....