Neel Parikh

Back from Red River Gorge, which, although tonnes of fun, was a bit of a bust personally. We only got 3 days of basically “warmup” climbing in before the rain took over, and by the 2nd day, my right ring finger was a swollen red throbbing mess. A few days of ice, a few bottles of advil later, and the decision was made that there’ll be no more climbing for me for a while, at least nothing steep or crimpy. That does however lead to a pleasant part of RRG – I got to get on some easy trad pitches including my first lead on gear. While it was easy enough to solo, building up confidence in gear is a pretty gradual progression. I dropped about 4 grades from my sport redpointing max for my first lead, and threw on my trusty helmet. I guess these things come with practice, but there’s something unnerving about looking down at your harness to find the piece of gear you want to place, then noticing how far you’ve run out on nothing more than a red C3. A million things went through my head “i suck at hand jams”, “i wonder if i’m going to blow this foot placement”, “do i need a purple C4 or a green?”, “when is the Arrested Development moving coming out?” … oh Tobias, i <3 you. There's a whole new world of opportunity open now, and I'm excited to get on as many trad routes as I can. It's like learning how to climb all over again!

Rocktoberfest itself was a blast as usual, and I can't say enough good things about it. This year's Reel Rock Tour screening was BigUp’s Progression, which has set new standards for ANY climbing movie. Incredible cinematography, awesome soundtrack, and, of course, phenomenal climbing sequences from Sharma, Caldwell, Usobiaga, and the wonderchild Ondra. If you haven’t seen this, why are you sitting around reading this… go watch Progression!

. . . and what kind of people would we be if we bailed early from RRG due to bad weather without an impromptu detour to Chicago for some of Gino’s East’s famous deep dish pizza. terrible people, terrible people. that’s right. i said it.

So I’m back from Denmark and London and catching up on some work (yes I do work from time to time) and relaxing a little before hitting up Red River Gorge in Kentucky for Rocktoberfest! I’ve been itching to head back to the Red since last Rocktoberfest ’08, which was so much fun it should be illegal. Unfortunately last month my left ring finger decided I needed a break from climbing, as evidenced by a tendon and/or ligament that won’t let me crimp anymore. I took about 3 weeks off climbing, and then yesterday, thinking that everything was better, I did a single open handed pull-up on my hangboard. Much to my dismay, it appears that I still have some healing to do. It’s a good thing there’s so may jug hauls at the Red to keep me occupied. I suppose I should still take a bottle of Advil, just in case!


I also splurged a bit at a fantastic little store in Waterloo called Adventure Guide. The result was a set of BD Cams, Nuts, Hexes, and a new Bluewater 9.7mm rope. Hopefully I’ll make some good use of them on some easy trad climbs down in the Red.