Photography is the documentation of life, once that shutter has clicked, the moment has passed and history is made. Some may be familiar with project 365, a simple concept, take a photograph everyday for 365 days. This blog is an extension of the project; the goal is to keep photographing every day, who knows how long? It is an excellent archive to look back on, see how things change. Change can be subtle, such as different coloured flowers being planted each year to a changing landscape with buildings being demolished and new ones built. This blog archives life’s diversity and my encounters.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Kentucy 2012 - Day Two

Kentucky 2012 - Day Two
By Corey Lablans

First morning after a long drive, getting up in the morning was a tad slow, once up the energy levels and excitement rose, so did the temperature. Warm, sunny and enjoyable, it was Saturday morning in Kentucky, day one. Temperature somewhere in the nine degree range was a nice change from Kingston’s cold weather.

More windy back roads, typical of this area, we weaved up, down and around arriving out our first climbing location Muir Valley. Every climbing location here requires a little bit of hiking. The sun still beaming down, shedding layers, the group moved on seeking the right cliff faces to set up. As a beginners, similar to many others we rely heavily on the executive who are able to lead climb routes, setting up top roping. For those unfamiliar with the lingo, lead climbing involves taking the rope up and clipping it into bolts periodically, a few more things involved but that is the basics. Once at the top the lead climber sets up an anchor, used afterwards by the belayer and a climber until the end when someone goes up and cleans the route (taking it down).

It has been nine months since climbing, so my stamina levels are drastically lower then last year when I was climbing two to three times a week, knowing this I refrained from climbing a lot, got in one climb.

The sandstone formations at the Red River Gorge permit stunning scenery as well as amazing array of climbing conditions. The only route I climbed was a 5.9, the bottom half was not exceptionally difficult, had to think about it a little, although the second half of the climb posed “slight” difficulties for me. One mental aspect associated with climbing involves trusting your feet, something easily send then done. This aspect strongly applied to the second half of the route, a section known as a slab with few handholds typically half to one inch in depth (slab is a cliff face less then 90 degrees). Once contemplating the idea, for what appeared to be a good 15 minutes, mentally I deciding to go for it, I was able to complete the route. Like many climbers, I believe accomplishing a route, happens when you reach the top without falling.

Before heading off on this fun adventure, I knew it was going to be a camping trip for me and climbing was going to be the icing on the cake. I enjoy the various elements of being down here, chilling with people, going hiking and of course climbing.

The day was nearing its end, the sun was setting and many were getting tired, the trek back to the car still remained. Due to the late arrive the night before the next stop was a grocery run, Krogers in Stanton. Walking up and down the aisles: pasta, chicken, sausages, donuts, carrots, broccoli, peppers, cereal, milk, ale 8 and other various items piled up, dinner was planned and the groceries were bought, day one in Kentucky was almost done.

Kentucy 2012 - Day One

Kentucy 2012 - Day One
By Corey Lablans

It’s dark outside, it’s early in the morning and a pack sits full at the door, the beginning of Kentucky 2012 about to begin. This trip is one of the Queen’s Climbing Club’s most anticipated trips, a week of practicing skills and learning new ones.

Before the excitement of clinging to iron edges on sandstones cliffs, a 15 hour drive lies ahead; some dread the drive, while others relish the road trip experience. Last year’s route took us along the north side of Lake Ontario, down to Windsor, crossing the boarder into Detroit. Crossing the boarder such a distance from Kingston posed a potential risk for stranding individuals, as a result we crossed at Thousand Islands this year.

Across the boarder in swift time, we were on our way, as a new traveler south of Lake Ontario it allowed me see new sites. I’m definitely one of those individuals who relish the road trip experience. When on the road, stopping at fast food places is iconic. Entering new countries, new things are always offered and generally the experience is different. McDonalds was our first stop at around 9:30 am, were I came across pretzels I thought, “pretzels in McDonalds, crazy! They were good.” The remainder of our meals was not to exciting, the typical fast food, and fun times at Wendy’s for lunch and Subway for supper.

No ideas of directions, no desire to look, our van decided to rely solely on the GPS to guide us. As I recall, my dad did set the GPS for traffic avoidance, I’m pretty sure this is what took us on our cross-country tour. The typical route would have taken us down i75, although we ended up taking roads similar to Kingston’s Highway 2. Again as someone who loves seeing new things, this was awesome, saw the countryside and came across a coalmine.

Guitars and harmonicas playing in the back seat, others singing we were nearing our location. During several stages of our backcountry exploration, the question came up if we were we going in the right direction but everything felt right. Going through small villages, one after another, suddenly the sense of familiarity came across, “I’ve been here before?” It was the city of Stanton, a city only 11 kilometers away from Miguel’s Pizza & Rock Climbing. Anticipation rose as we drove the final meandering miles along Natural Bridge Road, we had finally arrived.






Thursday, February 9, 2012

IN FOCUS - Queen's Journal

IN FOCUS - Queen's Journal

Frosh week IN FOCUS


Summer construction IN FOCUS


Fall sports IN FOCUS

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