Going against the flow

A few weeks ago Baron asked me if I wanted to do a hike that I've only heard about.  It required climbing lots of waterfalls, following a stream up a narrow gulch.  Earlier that week tropical Flossie came across the islands bearing just enough rain to fill this narrow gulch up with some water. 

We made our ways up a hot ridge and down into a stream bed.  We rocked hopped and jungle gymed through Hau tangles for about and hour before we hit our first real waterfall.  Many waterfalls we came to was easily walked along the side of or contoured around the side of it.  The real fun happens when you get to the waterfalls with the rope tied to the top and you have to climb up it.

Matt, Katie and Baron all were pretty experienced climber and knew how to handle the wet mossy rock with caution.  Some tips if you ever want to do this hike is take people that are confident in climbing and know how to handle themselves and have the strength to pull themselves up.  I seen plenty people freeze up and don't know where to go next when climbing these kinds of things.  It's also a really good idea to bring a dry bag or a old bag you don't really care about to put your belongings in because you and your belongings WILL GET WET!  I actually swam through some of the pools with the bag on top my head just for fun.  The last thing is watch the weather.  I would have loved to do it with a little more flow but there's a fine line between a little more flow and too much water.  This gulch is prone to flash flooding so just be careful when planning this outing.

Photos were taken by Matt Chun or Baron Yamamoto.

Matt Chun climbing one of the waterfalls with aid of a rope. 

Baron guiding Katie on where to place her hands and her feet.  

We had to swim through a series of pools to keep continuing. 

Climbing into the 2013

I've been on a 5-6 month hiatus from the climbing gym I used to frequent.  The reason was that the surf was good and I was spending LOTS of time in the water either shooting or bodyboarding some pretty sizeable waves.  But finally I got back into Volcanic Rock Gym and got to climb again.  I thought it'd be an easy task to just start off where I left off; I was wrong.  When I got back I flashed a few V3's and some V2's but as soon as I was done with those few problems I really started to struggle.  Even with V1's!!!  So I definitely have some catching up to do!  They also added a whole new room that I had never even seen before so I'm really excited to get back into the game.  Anyone else want to join?

5-6 months of this has been keeping me away from the gym.

Struggling with a problem.

Some encouragement and spotting from Cory Yap

Defeat in the new cave.

Pictures in VRG were taken by Aprille Manzano, Thanks!