Jun. 6, 2009 - Somewhere in AL
So, I thought about writing up a trip report to detail the last club trip and weekend extravaganza but I was beat to the punch by one the organizers, Brooks Walker. I will let young Brooks sum up the weekend.
OK, so I've inspired myself to write by drinking a double caramel latte, reading a bit of the new TIME mag, some DISCOVER mag, and listening to Beth Rodden whisper sweet nothings made up of grunts streaming from Dosage III playing behind me, all while serving coffee to the wonderful people of Homewood. This past weekend was a bambalam blamtastical good time. Imagine if you will: Everything goes according to plan. That's it. No death, famine, AIDS, or protests. The weekend was like a deja vu of a dream we dreamt up three weeks prior. This all started with a Email entitled "A call to arms" written by Sir Paul Morley in the wee hours of the morning from the fortress of solitude(I believe that's Superman's home). It outlined a need for us Birmingham folk to "bring it back to the bottom of the map". Do it quickly and do it in style. Who comes to mind when you think of style? Oh yeah: Adam Henry, the quintessential mason of style and ethics for southeastern climbing. His property has slowly become a camp 4 for the South, and his property is where BB&S 2k9 takes place. [Cue the beats>>>> blurr screen] Natalie, Tyler Timberlake, and I were entrusted to make this event something to talk about, and as much as we would like to take credit for all the activities of Saturday..... scratch that, we will take credit for the activities, but we were influenced by the New River Rendezvous just a few weeks prior, which we all attended.
The day starts out with climbing and merriment. Hi, how are you? Your name is wah? You stayin tonight? Yada yada yada. Fast-forward to the night, kegs are tapped, food is eaten, Nate's trying to catch the sky on fire, and here we are!!!! Sumo crashpad wrastlin almost didn't happen, as the exhaustion of the day was apparent, but alas! three brave souls decided they would fight it out: Donny, Scotty, and Will Hightower. When that was announced, the competing spirit of the mob manifested as an "I wanna go first" line leader war of third graders trapped in the bodies of 6ft+ climber dudes that were as ferocious as they were jolly. In other words, I would have died had I participated. One brave girl did participate, Stephanie, and the guy that knocked her down is a mean spirited chauvinist pig that gets off by pushing lighter people around... joking Donny, or was it Mike... whoever it was, I'm joking. The rules were basic, survival of the fittest, winner takes all, ALL being a $200 BD crashpad from AO. After dismantling numerous opponents, Donny, master of the spin move (as he was once an amateur ice ballerina... haha), brushed Hunter to the dirt in a long heated battle. Go Donny.
Then we raffled off some good stuff from AO and our own stashes. Thanks guys. Then beer pong ensued, followed by action bat jousting, as mega spartan Scott showed everyone who was Leonidas and who was Princess Peach. Funny stuff.
Per usual, the girl to guy ratio has to be reported. From my count, it appeared to be 1:2 ratio on Saturday, and it was probably a near even 1:1 ratio on Sunday. That's pretty good I would say. Happy to say that in many cases, the girls were stronger than the guys, and they were humble, happy, and despite the embarrassing efforts of some of our patrons, the girls seemed to be enjoying themselves. Southern Hospitality [again cue the beats, fade out].
Food! BBQ from JIM&NICKS is faya!!! Thanks Chris!!
Bugs! At the end of the weekend, Tyler looked like he caught the plague... haha! We also learned that Casey is a skilled etymologist (if that's someone who studies bugs).... not afraid to pick up spiders... yowsers!! Deer! Apparently a deer decided the Earth was being flooded and Leslie's car looked like the Ark, consequently making Leslie Noah, and furthermore the deer found out the hard way that Leslie's car was in fact........ NOT the Ark. Sorry to said Noah, said Ark, and poop on shoe (you'll have to ask him).
Beer! Killed two kegs. Go us...
Weather! I called it three weeks ago..... clear skies. Just so you know that I'm not in any way a prophet, I'll go ahead and predict the rest of the summer: Always dry, breezy, with a slight mist in the afternoon. Jee yeah...
If you didn't go, you pretty much missed out big time.... nough said. I wish I could of let all you OG's know in advance that this was going to be a fun one, but ya snooze ya looze. Maybe we'll do it again sometime..... all we need is an excuse.
Brooks
So just to add... we had a pretty good size group show up climb and contribute to the SCC cause -- opening more climbing areas. The closing on the Steele property is the end of the month. Enjoy the summer, stay cool, be safe and we'll see y'all in the fall.