I drove with a friend down to Slade, Kentucky. How'd we land there? Still not sure, but at least we stuck to not going north this time. Slade, Kentucky is near the Red River Gorge so we had plans for rock climbing and hiking and got plenty of both!
Our last trip somehow landed us on the North Shore of Lake Superior in November of 2020 where we ended up tent camping with snow on the ground and hiking a mile into our campsite. It was fantastic, full of laughs and amazing memories, but I wasn't ready for winter tent camping being newly back from Nepal and still working to get my core temperature back up (Seinfeld reference LOL)!
A little over 8 hours on the road, a stop for beer and food and we got to our cabin for the weekend where I promptly slipped into the hot tub with a glass of whiskey in hand. It was exactly what I needed.
We got up the next morning and went for our rock climbing session with Southeast Mountain Guides. We did their Via Ferrata course where they have iron rungs anchored in the rock...most of the time. They were technically closed for the season but had a guide available so they let us come on out.
Temps for the day were forecasted to hit 44 degrees. We showed up at 10am and it was in the 30s. I came determined to make it all the way through the black diamond level but on the first level my legs started shaking due to nerves. Yikes...I thought I'd maybe make it through the second course which our guide, Jarek, said was easier than the first then likely need to back out before it got too nerve wrecking. But here's how it went...
More than we anticipated on the first course...here's a few pics of Sarah.
Ice on course 1 had us second guessing our choices too...
Level 2 brought a little bit of a challenge but also a lot of laughs!
There was ice all over the place and we had to figure out how to get past it. I honestly wasn't sure how this was going to go and was about ready to back out...
But we figured it out! Could not have done this myself and thankful I had a climbing partner I totally trusted...
After this we got a little freaked out hearing the icicles crashing down around us as the sun started warming up the rocks. We went down and chatted with our guide to see about whether we could do Course 3 after the ice we caught on 2. He said it looked clear so we climbed back up.
Right out of the gate on this one I ran into a bunch of ice that I didn't think I could get past. Our guide didn't have much in the way of suggestions so I just started kicking the ice and was able to free enough of it to keep going. This one was actually pretty easy and took more crawling than I anticipated and but did get us out on the face of the rock more than the other courses did which was fun.
Being on the face of the rock didn't really get to me. It was maneuvering without rungs and taking an unplanned paths due to ice that had my nerves shaky. Kept talking myself out of quitting...glad I did :)
We made it through Course 5. By the end of this one my arms and legs were visibly shaking. I faced the decision of whether to do the expert, black diamond, level. Like I said, after Course 1 I would have bet I would never have finished course 5 but there I stood, facing the tightrope with everything tired out and ready to be done. Sarah opted to stop for the day but was supportive of me going for 6 if I wanted to.
I'm going to pause here and mention that I've been working on accepting my limits...I'm getting better at it, but I'm also getting better at knowing where my limits are AND accepting that failure is a valid option. What better way to REALLY know your limits, right?
I knew I'd pushed my body through more demanding situations and this would take maybe 15 minutes and was my goal for the day. I went for it. Starting with the tight rope walk I got to the other side and felt like I was going to throw up. No going back from here though...
I had to move fast, but remember to be safe, and tried using my arms more than my legs but that was given I had to reclip every 6 feet or so. For a little bit, there were no rungs - hands and feet on nothing but rock. Freaked me out a little but there really wasn't much time to think about it and my mental game was on 100% at this point.
I had a bit of a ledge about halfway through the course and took a much-needed break...
I sat there for maybe 5 minutes and started freaking out about how to get back out on the rock as I couldn't quite see it. I couldn't see it because the rungs were around the little corner. I had to get one foot on, one hand on, and swing myself out. Only advice from the guide at that point, who was yelling from down on the ground, was to move fast - LOL. Thanks. This was likely the scariest part of the whole thing for me given how high I was at this point. I knew my safety gear would catch me and had to trust that but my stomach flipped as I whipped myself out there and kept at it all the way to the end of the line.
So glad I tried this out and definitely want to do more rock climbing...maybe at higher altitudes ;)
Zip lining was up the next day which was only minorly exciting after the rock climbing. Zero nerves with any of this.
We ended up hiking about 15 miles in total with some really beautiful snow falling and so many little detours we stopped to take a look at that we missed we ended up on a trail that was closed. Oops. Made it out just before sunset with my phone and watch batteries dead. Not my proudest safety moment with hiking but I've been in worse situations. Don't remind me of descending from Wilson Peak...that was a scary one!
Here's a few pics from our hikes around the area...
And ending our trip with a debrief over a beer as we wrote down all the most memorable and hilarious moments.
Another fantastic adventure in the books!
And don't worry, I spent plenty of time in the hot tub soaking my muscles that held loyally held me tight to the rock. Cabin for over tent was definitely the right call for this trip.
Next up: Alaska!
