Acadia

A bunch of us (Hannah, Jessie, Neal, Eric & Zeb Engberg) went up to Acadia this weekend for the Memorial Day holiday. The weather was sort of cloud/rainy on Saturday and Sunday and then cleared up nicely for Monday. I wanted to do some trad, but it was kind of wet, and I didn't feel like I was in top form, so we mostly just top-roped at Otter Cliffs and Great Head. The setting was super cool, but I wasn't sure the climbing justified the nightmarish drive. Jessie did this cool chimney climb with neat stemming moves:

Jessie (bottom) styling the chimney. You can't see my face
(I have a red thing on my head) but I looked suitably impressed.

She did it with no problems on her first try, which I thought was rather nice. We ate some delicious sea creatures (a 2 lb lobster for me) on Sunday night. There were a lot of stars. On the negative side, it was a rough weekend for gear. Neil lost a BD C4 cam, I lost a BD #6 stopper, and Hannah's brand new 70 m Maxim rope got a core shot about 10 m from the end, which is a real bummer. I don't think it was my fault, but I was using it lower someone on Sunday when I noticed it has a substantial abrasion in the sheath. When I went to use the rope on Monday, it had become a complete core shot...completely flat when bent over on itself, with abraded fluffy white core everywhere. I think if I ever go back there, I'll bring a bunch of static line and try to bring some carpets or something to pad rock lips with.

So all in all, a very nice weekend. I mean, how often do you get to say that you went and explored the sea cliffs of Maine on the weekend? That you went and rappelled the ones that took your fancy and climbed back up?