Kentucky!

I have made it to Kentucky, my last stop.  I will be on my way home Nov. 6.  In the mean time I have plenty of climbing to do.  Yesterday, the weather was quite poor, so the crew and I decided to grocery shop and hang around the cabin.  A lot of banter was talked, gear was discussed, and many games played.  All in all, I had a mighty fine rest day.

Today, the forecast was promising!  But … the rain came and then snow followed.  We did get some climbing in early today before the weather came.  We climbed at Solar Collector and after climbing Buddha Hole to warm up I onsighted a 12b called Blue Eyed Honky Jesus.  This was a struggle!  I was also rope gunning for the crew and unfortunately did not click with the climb.  I had a hard time climbing the sequences and was clearly fighting and prevailed in the end.  After Blue Eyed Honky Jesus I climbed a route I had climbed years ago, called Supafly and after climbing faster than the speed of pump I repeated this climb in one try. 

I have decided to add a project to my list, Golden Boy.  I climbed it once and figured out a very good sequence.  It is a very sustained climb and will require some serious fitness!  I’m psyched to get to it.  Now I'm going to wait for better temps and less humidity.

Pictures soon!

LCC Full Video

For large videos YouTube is where it's at. Take a look.

Back in Boulder

I made back to Boulder Thursday night and my friend Adam offered me a bed.  I have not made it outside to climb, but I did climb in a competition at the Spot.  It was the second competition in the Spot Bouldering Series called Psychedelia.  The entire comp was black light and very neon.  In qualifiers I climbed well and made it into finals.  I ended up in sixth place after finals and had a good time getting to climb in such a different environment than what I’m use to. 

I’m getting ready to leave for Kentucky soon, but before I leave I am going to try and finish off a couple projects that I have put some effort on in RMNP. 

Here’s a little clip from bouldering in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Final Climbing Days in Utah

I’ve had some really good climbing days lately.  Climbing alone in LCC has its benefits.  With the extra time I have had, instead of traveling from area to area, I have been videoing a lot of the climbs I have been getting on.  I edited a video to share, but it turns out Vimeo only allows 500 MB a week and the video is 1.5 G.  Unless I find a way to share the video without paying $60 to subscribe to Vimeo I might just share little bits of climbing.

Anyway, I have been here in Salt Lake City a week longer than expected.  I have been hoping for some breakthrough on Dominatrix, but it hasn’t come.  I have done a lot of reflecting and when I was here last the weather was much colder, about 20 degrees lower.  I have decided that I am wasting energy throwing myself at this climb.  My left hand has bruised fingertips and it’s a reminder that no matter how hard I grab the hold I will pop off.  I need colder temps and a new psyche.

After deciding that I was going to walk away from Dominatrix for now I focused my energy on getting on some new climbs around town.  I have had a blast working my way around the canyon.  Caleb suggested a few classics for me to get on and in the process I added a few that I really enjoyed to climb as well.  Yesterday, in particular, was a really good climbing day.  I went to the Hidden Forest and climbed a few of it’s best!  I flashed a V7 mantle called Whiskey and if it was in Horse Pens it would probably only be V5, Ha!  In the same area I climb Gerbils and Duct Tape, which at one time were both V9 and Duct Taped was supposedly closer to a 10.  I’m not sure what they are now, but I thought Gerbils was more difficult out of the two, and that Duct Tape was an easy, one move, V8.  Both V8s sounds good to me.  With only an hour of daylight left I drove up canyon to White Pine and got on Citizen Dildo V9, which, if compared to Euro, would only be a V7.  I dispatch CD in only 3 tries and repeated it twice for video.  

 Whiskey

 Gerbils

 Duct Tape

Citizen Dildo

I apologize this post is very to the point, but I have a few things to do before I leave for Colorado tomorrow, the biggest thing being rotating my tires.

Finally some climbing!

Climbing in SLC has been fun, but the weather has not been cooperating.  I haven’t been climbing nearly as much as I planned.  Although, I did make it up to Dominatrix for one session and found that I need more time to finish this one.  That same day, to warm up I went to an area I have never climbed at before.  It was a kind of a rediscovering moment for me.  I got to climb on all new warm ups and higher up the canyon some local guys were hooting and hollering finishing a tall new project.  Needless to say psyche was high and I got to it.  I climbed a problem called Mini Maisch a cool V8, but before I did it, I broke a foot for the last move… Oops… It still goes smoothly, so my conscious is clear.  I also tried Maisch Roof a great V11 that I will have to come back for.  There are so many climbs out here that I have tried or just heard about that I want to try, but I don’t have enough time on this trip.

But mostly the weather has been poor.  I think my Halo skills have far surpassed what they have been in the past! 

 Laying the smack down on Steve!

Since the weather in Salt Lake has been sub-par, Caleb, Steve, and I decided to go down to Joe’s Valley for a day trip.  We left Tuesday morning and climbed a full session.  We went to the Riverside Boulder and hopped on a classic to warm up.  It’s a V2 rail called the Angler.  Such a quality climb, in such a scenic position, it was very aesthetically pleasing.  On the same boulder just to the right Cal and I used our finely crafted Horse Pens style to climb a fun V8 called Feels Like Grit. 

After climbing at the riverside we went to a boulder problem called Worm Turns V11.  I have seen videos, but have never actually seen the climb in person. There are two crux moves on this problem.  The first crux move, after working up the tufa, you change the orientation of your body, by flipping your right hand from the bottom of this tufa to above your left hand.  The second crux move you flip your left hand to an undercling on the tufa, put your left foot on the bottom of the tufa and post your right foot on the wall and huck for a jug.  After putting our pads down and throwing myself at the problem for a few goes I had still not stuck either crux move.  I grabbed on to the start holds and before I knew it I had “turned the worm” did the huck and was laughing while I topped out the climb.  Such a splendid surprise, but at the same time it felt easy, I had unlocked the perfect sequence for me. 

 Cal on Worm Turns

After moving on we climb a fun V7 called G207.  All of us hiked this climb and we made our way to the Eden Boulder.

Steve putting down G207

Cal had been talking about Eden V10 and told a story of how he fell in the crux and took a nasty fall.  With the crux at the top of the boulder, this made me nervous.  This boulder is upwards of fifteen feet tall.  I claimed that I was just going to climb the lower section, feel the holds and drop if necessary.  My ankle is still healing so; I was taking safety precautions to prevent reinjuring it.  My first attempt I missed a key foot out left and fell about half way up the boulder.  Then Caleb took a burn and after I hopped back on the problem with every intention of dropping off before the crux.  But, on my second attempt, I made it to the halfway point, made the move out of the mouth into the first crimp.  I planted my right foot and feeling extremely confident I made the crux move into an incut crimp, grabbed the single pad crimps over the lip and topped the problem out.  I remember feeling strong and confident while climbing and as I stood alone on top of the boulder, I had an ear-to-ear grin indulging in that moment.  I’m glad I’m climbing strong and also still on the road to recovery.  

 Hopefully, I'll get some better pictures soon.  It's looking like I will stay in Salt Lake long enough to try Dominatrix one more time.  I'll be headed east before the weekend.  Wish me luck!

Worst Case Scenario at Joe's Valley

I went climbing at Joe’s Valley today and had a very short, but good session.  I warmed up in what I thought would be a good location, in the sun, because of the chill from the morning, but the temps rose quickly.  So, I left the area I was in, New Joe’s, and headed to the Left Fork.  After thinking about my couple of outstanding projects I have, I remembered that they all are quite tall, which means they have long falls.  I decided to veer from the plan and try something different.  I thought it would be a good idea to get on a problem I had tried once before in passing.  The climb is called Worst Case Scenario.  A fun V9 that climbs really close to the road and the worst-case scenario would be falling into the road ... tumbling ... semis ... no bueno.  Luckily, that didn’t happen and after a handful of attempts I managed to make my way up the climb before the rain came.

I didn’t realize how much skin climbing in Little Cottonwood took from me and on my final attempt on WCS I wore a small hole through my middle finger on my left hand and decided to call it quits … Satisfied!

Worst Case Scenario

Dominatrix in LLC is a short climb with a great landing, so after my skin cells replenish I will get up canyon to give it my all!  I'll be in touch.

LCC Boudering Update

My friends originally from Michigan, Caleb, Steve G, and I went climbing on Saturday in Little Cottonwood Canyon.  I have not forgot the style out here, but I did forget how tough the rock is.  My fingertips are raw after climbing for only three hours!  We climbed at an area called White Pine, which I have never been to before.  This is the first time I’ve climbed in LCC without snow on the ground.  Actually, the temps were high, in the mid-eighties.  This was the first day I tried bouldering since I sprained my ankle on the 21^st of September.  I think it was a success!

I was able to warm up doing a couple moderates then made quick work of a boulder called Stephen’s Problem V7 and after being criticized of my beta being too difficult I repeated the climb using alternate beta just to finish my warm up.   Then we made our way to a climb called Euro V9.  The problems first move is really low percentage and then you climb out of a small roof on some really cool, extended, moderate climbing.  The first time I stuck the crux move I had not tried the top section and botched my beta.  So, I started from the second move and went to the top quite easily using a far heel out left.  The second time I stuck the crux move I cruised to the finish jug and when my feet cut I dabbed on our mini pad, sigh… So, I dropped to finish it off properly.  The third time was a charm and after I stuck the first move I gained my composure and finished the climb off smoothly! 

Here’s a little sequence of shots courtesy of Steve G!

Next I’m headed to Joe’s Valley.  I will be leaving tomorrow morning.  The weather is a little iffy, but it looks like early this week is my window of opportunity.  Let’s hope for no rain!

Arriving in SLC

I climbed at Movement on Tuesday and after sticking to theoverhung walls and ten pitches later, I had a great workout with almost no painat all! I’ve only climbed oncemore since then. I made it outsidehere in SLC at the S-curve crag. Ashort bouldery area with the shortest approach, the latter was key. This crag had a small waterfall,feeding a creek running through the center of the mini-valley. I wasn’t informed what the names of theclimbs were, but they were some fun moderates.

Can you guess which one was hurt?

I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Wednesday morning I set off for SaltLake City. I packed up quickly andwas out of the door by 9:00. As Idrove away, through the hills and wind farms, I was actually sad leavingBoulder. I have so many projectsto finish and I overall had a great time, which just made it even harder for meto leave.

Driving to SLC

Soon I’ll be making my way up the canyon to get to itbouldering. Hopefully, I’m stillfluent in granite climbing and will get my projects done here and move on toJoe’s Valley.