Women’s Rock Weekend was a hit. Hosted by International Mountain Climbing School, this event attracted women from all over to climb on North Conway’s granite cliffs. I showed up a bit early with Kirsten Kremer, a friend who was another guest guide for the event. We were lucky to get a few pitches in right away the afternoon we arrived. It was the next day, however, that we learned that its not all roses and peaches in North Conway. We had been for-warned about the bugs- we wore long pants in anticipation, but we did not suspect them to be quite so extreme. Noseeums are evil! It all starts out great. After a bit of getting our bearings, we head up the Prow of Cathedral. About half way up the route, however, it becomes clear that we have entered a battlefield. Apparently, one bites and draws blood. The scent of blood seems to call in every other noseeum for miles around until you have a layer of them feeding off of your poor, unsuspecting self. At the top, we discussed calling it a day, but on the way down, we found too many good cracks that we could not pass up. So alas, we lost the war and returned covered in big red welts.
The wounds turned out to be very convincing tools when explaining to our groups on Saturday morning that bug spray is essential. Luckily, the rain did not strike until everyone got to the top of at least one climb on Saturday. Then it came in hard turning our path into a river.
Saturday night turned out to be a rad party. The beer and wine were flowing and Kremer put on a slideshow that made us all want to set everything on fire. Sunday turned out to be another fine day despite the threat of more rain- we all got just enough climbing in and tons of bonding. Women who had never climbed before were tying there own knots and sending. Some women jugged there first pitch, others learned how to rescue themselves in the event of an accident. Nights were filled with wine and laughter. I wish it lasted a week.
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