Nor'Easter 2010

Friday

Friday morning we were up fairly early, made some coffee and breakfast, and enjoyed a visit from the campground cat and a few ducks. Jim gave me a call and laughed while saying "I'm trying not to laugh but...". He assured us that the forgotten tickets wouldn't be a problem; he'd make sure that they had our names at the gate. We packed up camp as and made our way to Loon Mountain, hitting up Lahout's Summit Shop on the way just to kill some time. Even with that stop, we were amongst the first to arrive at the Nor'Easter grounds. We set up our tent and began wandering the festival grounds, entering contests, grabbing stickers and swag from our favourite vendors, and watching the UBC Qualifying Round.

Later in the afternoon our Twitter friends arrived, with some other friends that I hadn't yet met (Bill, James, and Rachel). It was awesome to meet everyone in person... I'd talked to Aleya the most previously, but was ecstatic to meet everyone. Our group was now 9 people, all of us there for the climbing and the concerts.

Friday evening saw some more bouldering and the #NETweetUp organized by Aleya, with stickers and artwork by Patrick. In spite of having to relocate the TweetUp due to a premature beer gardens closure, we met some other folks from Twitter, including Jim from EMS. We had a few beers, a lot of laughs, and enjoyed Rubblebucket on stage - especially 'Came Out of a Lady' which we all knew from listening to the Nor'Easter website prior to the trip.

Saturday

Up early on Saturday for what turned out to be an epic climbing adventure. I'll post about that separately. The epic lasted a little longer than expected, so we missed the Petzl ice tools demo and the UBC finals. I'm sorry we missed it, but frankly climbing was better. Saturday night involved more laughs, more beer, and The Gaslight Anthem on stage.

Sunday

Sunday was another early morning... up early, pack up camp and head down to Advanced Base Camp at Rumney for some pancakes courtesy of the American Alpine Club. AJ was REALLY anxious to get pancakes so we left before the rest of the group was ready. Everyone else made it on time, though they were limited to the chocolate chip pancakes (Oh no! What a terrible problem!). Bellies full, we meandered around the vendor tents checking out Osprey Packs, PrimaLoft, and shoes from Evolv, La Sportiva, and Five-Ten. The conservation component of the festival was supposed to take place with an "adopt-a-crag" cleanup, but it didn't seem to have too much steam behind it.

We sat around on the grass for a while, taking in the clean air and beautiful scenery, and visiting Piper before splitting up for some more climbing. AJ and I were taking a redpoint clinic with Joe Kinder and a guide from EMS, Bill had a trad clinic with Sonnie Trotter, and the rest of the group were going to find some sport climbs. After the clinics we relaxed a bit more, AJ cut the grass, and we headed off in search of food (and found it at the Whippi Dip somewhere in Vermont). It was the best burger and sweet-potato fries I think I've ever had, though I think that was more because of the friends and the setting than the burger itself.

Bellies once again full, we said our goodbyes. The plan for the trip back home was through Montreal, but we were far enough into Vermont that the US way back was faster. This lead to shouts from Aleya "you're going the wrong way!!!" when they passed us heading South on I91. I was so happy with the memories; yet so sad to have the weekend come to an end and to say goodbye to such awesome people.

On the whole, the weekend was fantastic (in the true sense of the word). As hard as it was to go back to work, I feel de-stressed, refreshed and very happy to have been there and to have made some new friends. None of it would have happened without Twitter.

A couple of thoughts/suggestions for next year...

• It would have been nice to have some guidebooks or printouts available on the festival grounds... so travelers could easily find some climbing for the morning and get back on time for the afternoon events.
• Have some climbing on the festival grounds. I would have loved to try out the pro boulder problems... or bolt a few more holds on there and let us play.
• I would have loved a cd (or better still, downloads) of some of the music featured at the festival. I loved listening to the Nor'Easter website (I'm still listening to it now), and I'm scrambling now to find all the music.
• A little more on the conservation side. Yeah, I know that's pretty vague, but the conservation theme wasn't really predominant at the festival.
• Free wifi. I love disconnecting, but I wouldn't have been on this trip without Twitter and it would have been fun to tweet more easily.

I left Toronto with very high expectations for the Nor'Easter. I left the Nor'Easter with those expectations greatly exceeded. Thank you to @Easternmntn for holding the event. Hugs and thank yous to new friends who really made the weekend what it was. I can't wait to see you all again at next year's Nor'Easter, in the 'Dacks for some ice climbing, or anywhere that we can possibly meet up for another adventure. Climb safe, I miss you already. --------------------------------------------------------------------

Other accounts of the trip:

Patrick on CampTheSummit Aleya (including awesome video) on RockAndSky Katie on Adventure-Inspired George on privon.com