During my visit home in Newfoundland, I’m bound to meet up with my friends who, conveniently enough, are all rock climbers like myself.
Lori, my climbing buddy (we were each other’s first climbing partners—19 years and going!) mentioned to me that she was heading down to Flatrock, a small town, minutes outside of St. John’s where she was going to be volunteering for the day and invited me. You know I had to go to that.
Flatrock Fest successfully finished up its third consecutive year of inviting regular climbers, folks who’ve never stepped foot on a climbing wall or rockface, and the others who have been itching to try outdoor climbing. For fifteen bucks you show up, get the gear supplied to you, sit in on sessions, and climb til your hearts content for a full day of climbing and rappelling, down at Flatrock.
Wallnuts Climbing Centre, amongst many more sponsors helped out in executing the event held by the Alpine Club of Canada. There were goodie bags handed out to the first 50 climbers who signed up. Inside the bags were a variety of prAna tee’s, chalk bags, Rock & Ice magazine, and a rock climbing DVD. I was not one of the lucky contenders to sign up in advance, plus I was volunteering so I didn’t think it was fair for me to grab one from a lucky attendee. I sure wanted one though! I did end up getting a sweet door prize (Evolve boulder brush) and a Black Diamond cam keychain.
It has rained continuously throughout my trip back home in Newfoundland, but we lucked out weather wise and had a fantastic day down on the rock with over 150 people in attendance. The guys from Wallnuts worked hard putting the event together, with more than 20 top ropes for people to get on and climb.
Leo (the owner of Wallnuts, who is like an older brother to me. My brother and him go “way back”) ended up staying overnight in a tent down at Flatrock the night before the fest, working hard putting everything together for a successful day. I was told he knew the tide wouldn’t be coming in throughout night, so he was safe and sound. Still wouldn’t be me down there, scary stuff!
Lori set up the rappelling station — which I had a go at multiple times. It scared the crap out of me, since I don’t regularly climb outdoors, if anything I boulder. But after a few tries I easily got over the fear of leaning bum back over a cliff and use an ATC to rappel down. That’s me getting ready to go! 
There was a special guest this year, Black Diamond sponsored climber J.P Ouellet was there giving a few talks throughout the day on trad climbing. I sat in on one of his two sessions (can you spot me?), and asked a handful of questions. 
(photo from ACCNL)
I felt a bit silly at first when he asked everyone in the group how long they’ve been climbing. Some answered 5 days, a few months and up to a few years. He pointed at me and I squirmed, answering “ninteen years” — and here I am sitting in on a beginners session on how to use cams, nuts, and bolts. J.P was pretty great, funny and informative with his talk at Flatrock, so I’m glad I sat down to enjoy it.
I’ll leave you with a few more photos that I took throughout the day at Flatrock Fest:
Leo’s a Dad!
I’m the queen of inappropriate footwear, so I had to borrow Lori’s 5.10 accents for the day trip.
I’m glad I was home at the perfect time for the Flatrock Fest, and hopefully I’ll be back next summer for the fourth year.
Sponsors of Flatrock Fest 2014: Wallnuts Climbing Centre, The Outfitters, Black Diamond, Metolius, Rock – Ice, Flashed.
When I attended BlogHer’14 a few weeks ago in San Jose, I couldn’t help but gravitate towards the Pets Add Life booth that was set up. I spoke with the women who worked there a couple of times, and they mentioned that over 75% of blog readers have pets, most of them being dogs. Which got me thinking, I rarely talk about Alfie on the blog.
He’s literally smiling for the camera. Love when he does this.
Think’s he’s King of the Castle with two beds (one is old, other is brand new and he LOVES his beds)
It’s exhausting having so much fun all day long.
For the sixty hour drive in the uhaul coming down to California, he definitely didn’t want to be put into his crate but he obliged and I took him out and sat him on my lap where he slept on occasion. It was a tiring trip for him too since there weren’t any specific rest periods. My husband and I were driving non-stop swapping seats with one another trying to get to California as quickly as possible. It was tiring.
We are lucky he was able to come directly with us as he’s so tiny and can fit into a carrier. If we had a larger dog in sure I’d be far more scary for him to be shipped down and left alone waiting for us.
I’ll huff and bark under my breath for belly rubs.
We take him everywhere we can with us, especially on weekends. He loves going in car rides, and sometimes hops into The Guys car in the morning, right into the passenger seat thinking he’s going for a ride somewhere. Here’s Alfie & I out on a hike a few weekends ago in Los Gatos.
He’s a happy boy, and we love him dearly.
Too bad he hates selfies.