Great climbing, meeting cool people!

Although climbing can be an individual sport at times, it’s very prone to meeting other people. Climbers like to talk about climbing and most are more than willing to share their knowledge and experiences. We went to Lac Long nearby St-Alban on Tuesday. It’s a newer climbing/recreational area related to Nature Port-Neuf and they’re trying to keep the climbing there as traditional/natural as possible. They have many sport routes too but it seems like the majority of the routes are trad. Although you need to plan around it, there is a zip-line you have to use to make it across the river safely. We only own one pulley so Elaine got the easier pull and I went with a steel carabiner.

The zip line to make it across the river to go climbing

Based on the recommendation of another fellow climber(Charles the vegetarian from Montreal) we met at the beginning of our trip in Kamouraska, I climbed the first pitch of a pretty cool trad route. It’s called Aero-Tango and it is rated 5.9+. I doubt that I would have gone up on it on my own had Charles not talked to me about it. It’s a classic route but it’s also harder than anything I had led on trad before. I’m getting sweaty hands just remembering it. It’s one thing to know you can do something and a different one to actually do it. Elaine had the good idea to film it and you can see the footage below. It starts on a wicked crack/layback and turns into solid face climbing afterwards.

 

We got on the move at the end of that day to head towards St-Come, QC to a climbing spot called La montagne du Tranchant. Rain was in the forecast and it did rain a little here and there but I don’t think the rock actually got wet from it. We met two parties at the crag today. The second encounter was more interesting than usual because the guy, Jean-Sebastien, turned out to be very willing to provide route recommendations for all the crags on our way to Elaine’s hometown since he’s from the area. Interestingly him and his girlfriend Genevieve are in the market for a campervan. Therefore we were more than happy to have them over for a little while after the climbing was over and give them a little tour of ours. There’s got to be something called “Camper Van Porn”. No it’s not about having sex in a van, it’s about drooling over the ever so spacious and gorgeous vans that are out there. We know we get really turned on by the Sprinter for one.

We only had time to do a two pitches route today before getting rained out. We left shortly afterwards and walked around downtown Montreal in the evening. We are meeting up with some of Elaine’s friends over the week end and will resume climbing on Monday. The fingers are thanking me for these upcoming two days of rest.

Oh and tonight we treated ourselves. We try to eat fairly healty but with the arrival of Thursday and a replenishment of our weekly budget, we figured we could use a box of cookies. Well guess what, price on the shelve was $2.19, price paid at the register was $2.69. Thanks to the SCOP (Scanning code of practice), they have to refund you if the price doesn’t match on items below $10. So we got a free package of cookies!

Wednesday is weekly recap day for the budget. It’s crazy how time flies, we have already been on the road for 5 weeks now. It feels like we just left! Are you enjoying your summer yet? If not, hurry up, September is just around the corner!

Here’s some clarification on how we file our expenses.

Fuel: It includes everything related to transportation. Oil changes will always be needed and ferries or tolls are all part of it.

Food: Unavoidable expense. We must eat. Treats go in there as well. I’m sure if I eat enough chips, I might be able to skip a meal 🙂

Fun: Stuff that’s avoidable. Beer & wine goes in there. Access passes too.

Also, we had some Gift cards come our way before and after we left. We weren’t sure how to count those in but from now on any revenue or money coming our way gets added on to the total. So far we’ve “made” $158.65.

July 24 – July 30 Weekly & Total since we left

Fuel: $174.56 / $1173.87 (fuel is soo expensive in QC!)
Food: $63.29 / $312.33
Fun : $168 / $443.39 ($104 for FQME climbing pass and $59 for my cell)

Total for the week without fuel: $231.29
Total with fuel: $405.85

Total spent since the beginning: $1929.59
Total money available: $15158.65

We budget about $200/week for non transport related expenses and unfortunately we went over last week. We didn’t have much control over it but in any case we only took out $180 for this upcoming week to compensate.

I’m leaving you with a picture of this spider we saw on a rock by the river. I didn’t know Quebec or even Canada had spiders this big. Cheers!

M & E

Big spider