Last outside adventure

Today was our last outside rock climbing trip. We went back to a place that we have been before but I forgot the name of it. It was beautiful. Although I will agree that it is slowly getting almost too cold to climb outside. We drove about an hour through towns, woods and highways until we reached our destination. We parked our van at the bottom of the hill and started hiking higher up. The sun came out and at least warmed up the earth and rock at least a little so we would feel a bit more comfortable.

As always I paid specific attention to the leaves, to its texture and color. I never paid attention to the form of the leaves and although I know that some type of trees lose their leaves earlier or later than others, I never acknowledged the difference lying underneath my feet. This time I did. I saw the trees that still had some of their leaves and trees that were entirely bold and then looked at the ground to see the difference between the leaves on the ground and the ones still on the trees. 

I have been acknowledging the leaves lying on the ground for a pretty long time now and after a few weeks I can slowly see the effects of the decaying process on the leaves. Last week, when we were walking up to Rose Ledge, the leaves were very loud and crispy; today the leaves have become much quieter. They felt softer and I could in fact see them decaying on the ground. It was interesting because they actually started to rot. 

The climbs today were very balanced, we had two easier and two a bit more difficult ones. I made it up for the first time to all four of them so I think it was a nice way to end the season. Although the rock/gneiss was very cold, I felt like I got used to its cold and every time I had moved up the rock to a certain point, my fingers started getting warm on their own, as if they knew they had to make up for the coldness around them on their own. 

We stayed until it started getting dark and it was the first time I have heard the forest around us so loud. I have never paid attention to the noise around me but this time it was hard to ignore. On one end, I could hear something like an owl and on the other side dogs barking. Does that mean that the forest becomes alive at night? It made me feel differently, I definitely became more respectful towards the forest. Coming out of the woods, I suddenly realized how light it is compared to inside the woods. Even though all leaves are gone, the trees still prevent a lot of light from coming in, creating huge contrast in light inside the forest compared to outside the forest. Coming out of the forest, I really felt a little released. It was nice to be in there but it was also nice coming out. 

Rose Ledge Again!

Last Friday, we went back to Rose Ledge to climb. This time, instead of our regular instructor Clementia, we were joined by Bob. As last week, it took us 45 minutes to get to Rose Ledge. And we also had a 30-40 minute hike.

Walking up to the rock we would climb on, I again noticed all the leaves. Although, there were still many on the ground, it seemed to me that the leaves were getting less. It is only a week ago that I have been here last time but I think something has changed already. The forest still looks pretty green because of the trees that don't lose their leaves for the winter, but as a whole the environment looked like it is getting prepared for the cold. I might be projecting my feelings of coldness into the forest and the forest doesn't really care that much about the cold and it really doesn't look any different.

 As long as the sun was out, the temperature was comfortable. Only the coldness of the rock (gneiss) revealed the real coldness of current times. After we sat up some climbs, we started climbing. This time, we had a few difficult climbs and a few easy ones, a nice balance. Something was different this time. I think because the air was fresher and the gneiss was colder, I was a bit more aware of my surrounding. It was more difficult to ignore. Every time I touched the gneiss, it was very clearly letting me know that it's there. When I got into trouble during my climb up, I as always pushed my entire body against the rock and I was never before as much aware of the clear and strong presence of the rock. Even if I would want to ignore it, I could not have, it simply forced itself into my senses without warning, preparing or alerting me. I liked that because sometimes unless I am forced to notice something I won't because I am too occupied with myself.

The second the sun started going down, the temperature dropped to an estimated 0 degrees Celsius. From now on, the rock not only made itself be noticed by us but it almost seemed like it was trying to kick us out. The rocks wanted us to leave. Since I am a type of person that believes everything has meaning I like to think of this reaction as a way to teach us not to be out too late. We could stay out there all night, if it would not get dark and cold but because it does, we leave and I think that's only to our own benefit. So we left.  

Rose Ledge

Rose Ledge was about 40 minutes from Hampshire College. This time, we had to park pretty far from where we were going to climb which gave us some time to become used to the nature around us.

While walking, I as always noticed the leaves on the ground first. By now the leaves have become dry, brownish/dark and crispy. Even if I would have not wanted to notice the leaves, the noise of the leaves when I step on the them forces itself into my ears and therefore not giving me a choice but to notice. The noise at some parts of the path was so dominating that all I could hear were the leaves.

In the area that we were at, all the leaves had fallen off. Most of the trees were bold now, because of which I could really notice all the different forms and branches of the trees. When the trees still have their leaves the dominating factor on the trees are the vibrant colored leaves and the tree itself and its branches often go unnoticed.  The late fall/early winter is the time when trees are having their solos. It's only the tree, without any distractions, all attention is solely on the tree.
 
For me, this is when the trees look most alive. All the branches are pointing in all possible directions, towards the sky, towards the ground, towards me as if they are trying to reach out and grab something. The trees without leaves also reflect different shapes on the ground than they would if they had leaves. The shapes are much finer, reaching into each other but never covering one another entirely. Another big difference to leave-less trees as opposed to trees that have leaves is that they allow more sun to enter the forest. Although there was not a lot of sun, the sun that was there made it all the way through to us.

When we finally arrived at the rock, I was happy to see some gneiss again. Last week we climbed on conglomerate which I like but I prefer gneiss after all. When we started climbing I realized how cold the rock is. It was pretty cold outside but the rock was definitely a lot colder. And since gneiss as opposed to conglomerate often doesn't have little holes and niches that I can grab onto, I again had to hug the gneiss in order not to fall. Because I was hugging the gneiss I was so close to it that I could really feel its cold. However, the farther I got up, the hotter my body was getting and  the better I could prevent the cold from effecting me.