Kicking off our year in San Diego!
Last weekend, we started the season with our Ladies Weekend Out San Diego event! Friday evening, Pure Project Miramar hosted us to kick off our weekend with delicious craft beverages while we set intentions for the days to follow.
Bringing these events back to San Diego every year, really hits home for our Lead Guide and Program Manager - Jo - Jessica Olson, who grew up in the suburbs of San Diego, and upon moving back after college, truly developed her skills and passion for the sport in the many climbing areas found in San Diego’s backyard.
Our first day out, we went to Mission Gorge making our way to Lunch Rock, a climbing zone with a variety of fun sport climbs. The San Diego river roared below us from the recent storms, and we were greeted with perfect temps, cool enough to wear a jacket throughout the whole day, and warm enough to keep feeling in our fingers. We dove into skills focusing on solidifying belaying techniques, constructing the quad anchor while going over ways to check the systems in place and understanding the steps to set up to rappel when cleaning the anchor after the last person climbs. After our day out climbing, we made our way to Pure Project North Park, where we all received another wonderful craft beverage paired with food from the local food truck.
We met at the Mount Woodson trailhead for our second day of climbing, with intentions to build skills around the wonderful world of crack climbing. Crack climbing is a different style or type of climbing language in which one has to understand the way their body is communicating to the rock. From the contrary of face climbing, crack climbing is a style in which you must fit your body - be that fingers, hands, feet, etc - into the crack while finding constrictions and means of ascending the wall. Throughout the day we set up Baby Robins, Corn Flake, Girls Climb and Jaws. Each climb provided certain lessons and challenges for the whole team, while offering a variety of styles and types of climbing within a short distance from each other.
While all good things have to come to an end, we are certain that events like this create lasting belaytionships for years to come. Our goal is to provide connection to likeminded community members, while helping build foundational skills to set one up for any adventure ahead. We are so grateful for the friends that come together in making events like this happen, and thankful to our guide team who are leading mentors within the educational space created.