RM explores beyond her little circle

After I got an email from the US consulate in Taipei telling me that I can have an earlier interview date (which means that I will be back in time), I forgot all about the stress I had on Friday and went to Baihe with my buddies on Saturday morning.  Apparently it's company outing season with all the flowers blooming, and Daxue had organized a company outing to go to Baihe (how convenient!)  It served as a double duty of entertaining his coworkers, and allowing us climbers ride on the same tourist bus for free and setting up some topropes for them.

We went back to the same area as last time, which I learned is called Xiaoguai (Little Monster).  I also found the real online topo with some help, and I hope this will tempt some of you to come and visit me ;)  All these topos are available by phone and people basically have the topos on their smart phones - how convenient is that?  Here is another online article I found about Baihe.

Photo from DYNO

So I confirmed that these are granite rocks, really polished on the popular routes, but crumbly on the less popular ones.  The first climb I did was a popular one called All in One, which was a 10d.  I led the climb because Mantou was already leading another climb and apparently no one else wanted to lead.  And since Mantou took the easiest climb over there (10b), I had no choice but take the next easiest climb.  It was a fun climb, but I really struggled mentally all the way up.  It had a little bit of everything - crimp, laybacks, jugs, you name it.  It was also really long for me (~30 m), probably similar to Iron Man at Rumney.  After I passed two cruxes already 2/3 up, I asked Mantou who was next to me whether the rest was easier.  Unfortunately, he said there was at least one more hard move, which was height dependent.  I chickened out and decided to come down (I know, I'm lame).  No one else lead it that day (Mantou got lazy and set up the top via the 10b route).

After the 10d I decided to check out a trad route.  There was a 5.9 next to the area we were at that looked awfully easy, and didn't look like 5.9 from the bottom.  Without much thought, I jumped on it, and only took a few pieces.  I was surprised.  It was after all, a 5.9, and it sure felt harder than that.  Either the ratings here are freaking stiff or I'm just really out of shape.  I had to hang at at least 2 different spots, WTF?  Remember those dihedrals at the Gunks with bulges?  That's what I was struggling on.  There were no hand holds or vertical cracks to jam in at the bulges (twice).   I guess I should have warmed up on an easier climb, if there were any.  Other than the crappy 5.9 that I went on, I toproped a 12a that Mantou set up.  It had some interesting moves I have never had to do before, but I made it up eventually.  Gaga also made it up, but no one else bothered to try it. 

The next time I go there in June, I'm going to try some of the 10 trad climbs right around the corner.  They may be hard to get up, but at least they look more interesting than the 5.9 climb that I did.  Perhaps they will also be sick of Xiaoguai area and try another crag!

On Sunday it was extremely windy, and the climbing areas had sandstorms that were making us all uncomfortable.  After feeling a bit sore (especially me and Mantou), and Gaga hurting her knee from the 5.12 climb, we were not particularly motivated to climb on Sunday.  So when we found out that Daxue's coworkers were leaving for Beijing at 10:30AM, we all packed up and went home.  Instead of going straight home, I had the great idea of going hiking instead (don't ask me why, Max).  There was a 500m hill right outside of Beijing, perfect for an afternoon hike.  One of my new buddies nicknamed Hippo decided to come along.  For some reason I also thought it was a GREAT idea to go hiking with my rope and trad gear as part of the training (which I really regretted and asked Hippo to carry later on).  We made it up in 1 hour and 15 minutes, which is WAY slower than their record time (among friends) of 35 minutes. The whole experience felt like a typical RM and Max approach - Max would be at least 20 steps away, and I would be huffing and puffing my way up, except that Hippo wouldn't even stop for me like Max would.  At least at the end of the day I was rewarded at a nice restaurant where they served grilled fish.  I was spicy (of course) but very delicious.  I guess I made enough of an impression yesterday that Hippo asked me out to dinner again today, ha.

http://www.contemporarynomad.com/2007/08/different-tastes/

When Hippo took me out to dinner yesterday, it was near my apartment, in a section that I have never explored before.  There we discovered an outdoor market, which I have been looking for since I came to Beijing.  I was glad to discover that it was near my place, opposite of the direction that I have been going to all these weeks.  The prices here are WAY less than they are at the supermarket, and the veggies don't look that different from the ones that I pay an arm and a leg for.  I spent about 15 RMB (2 bucks) and brought back 3 kinds of fruits, 3 kinds of veggies, and some mushrooms.  This would probably cost me about 30 RMB at the regular supermarket, if not more.  I look forward to taking Glen to the outdoor market when he comes to Beijing tomorrow!