Vagabond Climber

There's No Place Like Home

2009-12-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm finally home, and it didn't even require ruby slippers...just a lot of driving. :-)

I had a nice visit with my step-mom, Carla, and her daughter and son-in-law, Julane and Chris, and their family, in Vernon, TX, then left the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to drive to Sam's Throne, near Mt. Judea, AR.

I arrived at The Throne between 9 and 10 Wednesday night to see a fire burning at the large campsite our group has always claimed for the Thanksgiving festivities. This concerned me, because, to the best of my knowledge, nobody from our group was supposed to be there yet. I walked over to the fire to find out what was up and met two brothers from Fayetteville, Ben and Ted. After ascertaining that I didn't have a gun, and probably wasn't significantly crazier than average, they invited me to join them at their fire, so I pulled up my cooler of beer and did so. They were on a week's trip traveling and climbing (mostly sport and bouldering) and stopped at the Throne (where they had never been before) to try a boulder problem called King Lion (Vreally hard). They asked if I was there to trad climb and if I had a rack. When I said I was and did, they asked if I'd like to climb with them. I hadn't expected to get any climbing in on Thursday, so this sounded like a great plan to me. Hanging out by the fire drinking lots of beer and whiskey also sounded like a great plan.

Thursday, we woke up late (possibly on account of the beer and whiskey plan), and took our time getting around. Ben and Ted broke out a bottle of champagne and made mimosas, a Thanksgiving tradition in their family. Who am I to say no to a family tradition? :-) Eventually, around 11, we made it out of camp, and went to find King Lion. I didn't try it, but it looked really freaking hard. After the guys had had their fill of working on the boulder problem, we headed over to The Throne (I know, I've been calling the whole area "The Throne", but, for confusion's sake, there is a smaller area at "Sam's Throne" called "The Throne"... Don't blame me. I didn't make up the names) to do a couple of moderate trad climbs. Neither been nor Ted had a lot of trad experience, but they wanted to lead, so I let them use my gear. Both did well, and their gear looked solid. After a couple climbs (Poison Ivy and Boston Rag), we called it a day. I made dinner and got a fire going, and Ben and Ted headed out. A couple hours later, the St. Louis crew started showing up.

Friday, I climbed with Stacey, Rachael, Sarah, Nate, and Rachael and Nate's brother, whose name is escaping me at the moment (sorry!). One of my goals for the weekend was to lead Razorback Roof (5.9+), and I got the opportunity Friday. I ended up taking a couple takes under the roof, because I was reluctant to commit to the moves up to the good horn. Once I did commit, though, it really wasn't that hard. I'm certain I can red-point it on my next attempt.

After Razorback, I decided to try to lead a "5.8+" next to it called On The Take. It was steep, but looked juggy, and like you could get good rests higher up. The route had a pumpy and committing start, and tricky route-finding. I climbed to where I could get a stance and get some gear in, and then spent a good while trying to figure out how to move past that point. I hung on my gear for a while, and eventually lowered off. We put a top-rope on the route, and it was hard! Nate and his brother took a line to the right of the stance where I had placed gear and the climbing seemed slightly easier, but you would have had to climb higher to get your first piece and wouldn't get as good of a stance to place it from. When I top-roped it, I climbed to the left of my previous stance, and had to pull 5.10 moves on slopey holds. However you slice it, the route felt a lot harder than 8+ to me, and featured some questionable rock...definitely not a classic, but, that said, it was pretty fun.

Saturday, I climbed with Stacey, Bev, Jen, and Clayton, in the Outback area. I led a couple of moderate trad climbs, and Clayton led some bolted 5.10's. I continued my trend of the last few weeks of moving kind of slowly and not being super-motivated, but had a good time on some fun climbs, and just enjoyed being back amongst old friends. I knocked off a little bit early to get back to camp and start working on my stuffing for the evening's feast.

Bev on Silverfish (5.8+), below the first crux

Bev relaxing above the first crux, with Stacey belaying and Jen looking on

Dinner was delicious, as usual; the turkey was incredible; the wine flowed copiously; and I had a fantastic time. What can be better than great climbing, great food, and great friends? Oh yeah! This year, we had amazing weather too!

Sunday morning, we packed up camp, and most of the crew headed out to get breakfast at a diner and make for home. A few hardy souls, however, braved the overcast skies to get in a few more climbs. John, Bev, Becky, and I, despite some threatening sprinkles, headed down to the Throne for a few more routes. The rain held off and we were able to get our last climbing fix.

After a couple climbs, I headed out and made the drive back to St. Louis. I've come full circle at last, and am back home, cuddling with my cat, wondering what the future holds and when and where the next adventure will be. I'm ready for a break, but certain that it won't last TOO long. :-)

Sorry about the shortage of photos in this post. I was a lazy photographer.

Route list for 11/25-29:

Poison Ivy (5.7, trad) (red-point)
Boston Rag (5.7, trad) (red-point)
Razorback Roof (5.9+, trad) (Led with 2 takes, Top-roped clean)
Fat City (5.7, trad) (TR clean)
On The Take ("5.8+" a.k.a. 5.10, trad) (TR clean)
Where's Tom? (5.7, trad) (red-point)
Silverfish (5.8+, trad) (red-point)
The Four Feathers (5.10a) (TR clean)
Pentecost (5.10a) (TR clean)
Patio Direct (5.9+, trad) (TR clean)
Albino Rhino (5.7, trad) (TR clean)

The Long Way Home....

2009-11-24T08:52:00.000-08:00

I spent a couple more days in Tucson. I was going to climb with Chris and his friend, Brent, a little on Thursday, but we got burritos on the way to go climb, and a full stomach, combined with the hot sun made me lethargic and killed my motivation, so I just watched Chris and Brent climb.

Brent on Crow's Nest

Chris on Copperhead #5

Friday, before Chris had to go to work, he and I went to the Desert Museum, which is kind of a desert climate botanical garden, with some live animal exhibits as well. It's a pretty cool place, and a great way to see and learn about a lot of the flora and fauna of the region.

Landscape behind the museum

Ocelot catching some rays

Raccoon in a life or death struggle with his tail

Mountain lion sharpening his claws

Rare "Crested" Saguaro in front of the museum

Saturday, I left Tucson to head toward Llano, Texas to visit my aunt, Cathy, her daughter, Mary, and the family thereof. I broke the 13-14 hour drive up over two days, since I wasn't in any big hurry, and arrived in Llano early Sunday afternoon. I had a very pleasant visit with Cathy and crew. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me to take pictures.

Monday, I hung out with Cathy until 1PM or so, then drove to Denton, Texas to visit an old, high school friend, Tihleigh. We had a fabulous time hanging out and catching up.

Today, I will drive to Vernon, Texas to visit my step-mom, Carla, and her daughter and son-in-law. That should complete the Texas visiting circuit. :-) From there, I am Arkansas-bound! I can't wait for the Saturday feast. It will be great to see everyone again!

Arizona Part One

2009-11-18T15:30:00.000-08:00

After giving up on getting any more climbing in at Indian Creek, I packed up and headed toward Tucson, to visit, and climb with, my friend, Chris Prewitt. On the way, I stopped in Sedona, to catch up with a friend and fellow vagabond I met at Burning Man, Azami. The drive into Sedona was beautiful. I spent the evening hanging out with Azami and her friend, Christopher, then, the next afternoon, headed out to drive the rest of the way to Tucson.

View off the side of the road driving into Sedona. A picture can't do it justice.

Friday evening, I arrived in Tucson, and hung out with Chris. Saturday, Chris, his wife Katherine, their son Elliot, and I went climbing at an area of Mount Lemmon called Jailhouse Rock. I led a few moderate climbs, and Chris led Crime and Punishment (5.11), a great, overhanging crack/face route.

Katherine, Elliot, and Chris at the crag

Katherine in front of Crime and Punishment

Sunday was a rest day. I hung out with Chris and Elliot. We had breakfast a couple times, then went to a friend of Chris's house for mid-morning cocktails. It was a rough day. In the afternoon, Elliot took a nap and I looked after him while Chris went to work...that is to say, I looked after him for the half hour he was awake before Katherine got home. If only taking care of kids were always so easy.

Monday, Chris and I drove out to Cochise Stronghold and climbed "What's My Line?", a classic, 3 pitch 5.6, though I think I did a variation finish that probably goes at 5.8-ish. We also did a short 4th pitch to the top of the summit block of Cochise Dome, which is probably 5.9-ish. Anyway, the majority of the route is 5.fun climbing on massive chickenheads.

Chris following the first pitch of What's My Line?

Looking up the chickenhead highway

Chris at the top of Cochise Dome

Tuesday, Chris and I hiked out to a bouldering area that he has been helping develop at a place called Panther Peak. We didn't do a whole lot there. Chris did some cleaning and worked on a new highball problem, but didn't finish it. I caught up on some sun bathing and general relaxation. I'm not much of a boulderer. :-)

Chris working a new problem at Panther Peak, with Joe spotting

Tuesday night, after dinner, Chris and I drove out to Mount Lemmon for yet another adventure. We did a night ascent of a route called Bender-Axen to Black Quacker. Chris has done this route a lot, and really enjoys doing it at night. I have to say, I was somewhat skeptical, and, when we racked up and got ready to start the hard part of the approach, around 10:30 or so, I was feeling pretty tired and starting to have second thoughts. I decided to go ahead with it, and spent the next 30 minutes of hideous bushwhacking and sliding downhill in my treadless approach shoes regretting my decision. Eventually, we got to the base of the climb, and I let Chris have the first lead, because my head was in no way ready for the 15 feet of unprotected 5.8 slab at the start of the route. About halfway up the first pitch, however, I started to relax into the climbing and began to have fun. One reason we decided to do this climb on Tuesday night, was to catch the peak activity of the Leonid meteor showers, and I did see 2 or 3 meteors at the first belay, and 5 or 6 in the course of the evening. Chris saw more. We topped out after 5 great pitches of climbing to a fabulous view of the city lights of Tucson, and a gorgeous, starry sky, and I was glad I had endured the horrid approach, and that Chris had put up with my bitching. It was worth it. We made our way back to our packs and Chris broke out two pints of Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout. Kickass! Did I mention that Chris is one hell of a guy? :-)

Unfortunately, my camera takes crappy night photos, so I don't have any pictures. You'll just have to take my word that it was beautiful.

Today, I slept as much as I could, then got up, went to the store, came home, and made bacon and eggs and pancakes for breakfast (er, lunch, I guess). Then, I got an email asking me to do a phone interview this afternoon. I did the interview, and it went great. I should have a face-to-face interview lined up when I get home. Yep, folks, this is it...the beginning of the end of an era. All too soon, I'll be a working stiff again...but a working stiff with a slightly different perspective on life, and one, who, I'm sure will find time for plenty more adventures down the line.

Route List for 11/14-18:

Grand Theft Otto (5.9, Trad) (Onsight)
Mr. Meanor (5.8+, Mixed) (Onsight)
Mug Shot (5.8+, Mixed) (Onsight)
Crime And Punishment (5.11, Trad) (TR)
What's My Line? Variation Finish (3 Pitches, 5.8-ish A0, Trad) (Onsight 1, 3; followed 2 clean)
Cochise Dome Summit Block (5.9ish) (followed clean)
Bender-Axen (5.8, Trad) To Black Quacker (4 pitches, 5.7, Trad) (Followed 1, 3; Onsight 2, 4, 5)

High on crack at Indian Creek

2009-11-15T11:52:00.000-08:00

There is probably no single better destination in the world for pure crack climbing. The place is legendary for its splitter, sandstone cracks.

After climbing Castleton, Jules and I made the hour or so drive from Moab to "the creek", and wandered around in the dark until we managed to find the Beef Basin message board, with a note from Scott telling us where he was camped. We located his campsite, and, famished, cooked dinner and went to bed. Saturday morning we woke up and were stunned at the landscape that greeted us, which we had, unknowingly, made our way into under the cover of night.

View from the campground

Supercrack Buttress, which we passed on the way in

We decided to go to Supercrack Buttress and did 3 climbs: Incredible Hand Crack, Wild Works Of Fire, and 3A.M. Crack. I tried to lead Wild Works of Fire, but bailed after I climbed past the crux then found that I couldn't get any gear in because I had used all of the size cam I needed earlier on the route (I over-protected the bottom). I got super scared and ended up...not exactly falling...not exactly downclimbing...more like sliding...back down to my last piece and last good stance...about 6 or 8 feet. After that I was too pumped from over-gripping and mentally fatigued to even want to try to finish the route, so I lowered off and Jules finished it. I top-roped it clean with little difficulty later. Incredible Hand Crack is, perhaps, one of the most fun routes I have ever climbed. The jams were just so solid, it was...well...Incredible.

Me on Incredible Hand Crack (5.10)

3A.M. Crack on the left, Wild Works Of Fire on the right

Me leading on Wild Works of Fire (5.10b)

Sunday morning, Jules packed up to head back to Moab and do some mountain biking before he had to drive to Las Vegas and fly home to London, and Scott packed up to drive to Las Vegas to meet a friend there. I headed back into Moab to work on preparing for interviews, blogging, etc. and rest up for a couple of days. Tuesday evening, I drove back to the creek for a second dose of crack-climbing fun.

Wednesday morning, I hiked up to Donnelly Canyon to see if I could find someone to partner up with, and, at the base of Generic Crack, ran into 3 of the 4-person group that had been ahead of Jules and I on Castleton a few days prior. Their fourth had had to go home. So, I partnered up with Chris, while Ben and Karen climbed together. I led three 5.9's (probably a third of the routes under 5.10 in all of Indian Creek), including Binou's Crack, a dihedral with a couple of cracks of varying size, and Chocolate Corner, a thin hands crack in a dihedral that felt hard to me, since the crack was a less-than-ideal size for me and Chris led Elephant Man (5.10).

Chris at the top of Binou's Crack

Karen on Chocolate Corner

Unfortunately, Chris and company left that afternoon, so the next day I was looking for partners again. I drove back to Supercrack Buttress, since it is popular, and has an easy approach. I sat in my car for a while, then sat on the hood for a while, trying to get motivated to go look for people to climb with. At this point in my trip, this social aspect of being a traveling climber is starting to wear on me, even though I generally meet great people and have a really fun time. Anyway, while I was sitting there, a guy named Dan wandered by, and I said "hi". He asked if I was climbing and, when I said I was thinking about it, he told me he was with a group of three and invited me to join them. I guess when something just drops in your lap, you shouldn't say no, so I grabbed my stuff and headed up to the crag. Unfortunately, I wasn't motivated to lead, so I just top-roped a few climbs, and called it a day.

Ashley belays Paul on Gorilla Crack

Adam on Keyhole Flakes

Unknown climber on Coyne's Crack

Looking down the valley from Supercrack Buttress

Thursday night, I hung out with Dan, Ashley, Paul, Adam, and the rest of the motley crew I was climbing with that day. They had a nice fire, and it was good to have people to hang out with after dark, so I didn't end up going to bed at 8:00. Friday morning, it was windy and cold. I eventually convinced myself to get up and make breakfast, then went to see what the crew was up to. A couple of people were leaving, and the rest decided to head to Flagstaff for a few days. I was considering taking a rest day, driving into Moab, then coming back and climbing for another day or two, but, with everyone I knew heading out, I decided to say screw it and just head for Tucson. There's lots of stuff I still want to do at the creek, and I had hoped to red-point Incredible Hand Crack before I left, but the cards seemed to be telling me it was time to fold and move on. There's always next time. :-)

Route list for 11/7-12:

Incredible Hand Crack (5.10, Trad) (TR clean)
Wild Works of Fire (To First Anchors) (5.10b, Trad) (Attempted lead, TR Clean)
3A.M. Crack (5.10, Trad) (TR Clean)
Binou's Crack (5.9, Trad) (Onsight)
Unnamed 5.9 around corner right of Chocolate Corner (5.9, Trad) (Onsight)
Chocolate Corner (5.9, Trad) (Onsight)
Elephant Man (5.10, Trad) (TR Clean)
Gorilla Crack (5.10, Trad) (TR Clean)
Keyhole Flakes (5.10, Trad) (TR Clean)
Coyne's Crack (5.12-, Trad) (TR Flail)

Not Less Ab, but Mo-ab....

2009-11-13T09:27:00.000-08:00

The day after Halloween, I left Las Vegas, and drove to Moab, Utah. On the way, I noticed on Facebook that John Richard was there and commented that I would be there that evening. He said I should give him a call when I got in, so I did and he invited me to join him and his friend, Adam, in climbing Fine Jade (5.11a) on The Rectory the next day. I had no plans, and had been expecting to just spend the day in Moab at the library, so, of course, I accepted! Also, on the way into town, I received an email from a guy I had met in Camp 4, Jules, asking what I was up to and saying he was interested in maybe getting out to Utah to climb in the 10 days he had left before returning to England. I told him I was in Moab and would love to climb with him. I love it when things just fall into place. :-)

I met up with John and Adam the next morning, and we headed for The Rectory. The desert towers around Moab are simply astounding. Fine Jade ascends a steep hand crack through an overhanging off-width pod, with a tricky move right via a thin, angling crack to another good hand crack, then, on the second pitch, follows a beautiful finger crack through a bulge, all on beautiful, bullet hard sandstone. After the second pitch, the climbing is easier, and the rock quality not so good (downright poor in places), but exciting traverses on the last two pitches keep things interesting to the very finish. All in all, it was a stellar climb, and I was glad to get to do it, even if I did have to pull on gear through the first pitch crux. After waiting for a slow party ahead of us before we could start the first pitch, we got down in the dark, but it was worth it.

Me, John, and Adam in front of Castleton Tower, with The Rectory above my head

Me and Adam walking across the saddle from Castleton Tower toward The Rectory

Unknown climbers on first pitch of Fine Jade (just above the crux)

Me, getting ready to pull around the roof on the final pitch...

Adam, me, and John, on top of The Rectory

Castleton Tower from the top of The Rectory

John setting up the rappel

Moonrise over the desert

That evening, I stayed at a hostel in Moab with John and Adam, and the next day we got up and drove to Fisher Towers to climb Ancient Art, a tower with one of the coolest summits I've ever seen, and probably the scene of the single most common desert tower summit photo. Generally, the rock quality on Ancient Art seemed better than the standard "crusted mud" of the Fisher Towers, but that's not to say it is good. The climbing was varied and fun, but the protection had to be considered a little suspect in many places, and you definitely wanted to think twice about anything you considered pulling on, especially on the lower pitches. The summit is, without a doubt, worth it though.

There were a lot of us on the route that day, with our party of three, a party of two, who John and Adam knew, Elayna and Nate, and another party of three ahead of them. It was a good thing the belay ledges were large.

The corkscrew summit of Ancient Art (foreground, center)

Elayna on the 5.10 section of the first pitch

John on the 2nd pitch chimney

Party on the belay ledge

Me on lead on the third pitch

On the top. :-)

I spent one more night at the hostel with John and Adam before they headed out to drive to Denver and catch their flights home, then spent Wednesday at the library, working on my job search, blogging, etc. Wednesday night, Jules arrived in town. We decided to go to Wall Street, a roadside (literally) crag just outside of Moab on Thursday, climb Castleton Tower on Friday, then drive to Indian Creek to climb on Saturday. Shortly after we arrived at Wall Street, we met Scott, who is on a mountain biking road trip, but was taking a few days off from biking to climb. He needed a partner, so we invited him to work in with us.

Scott belaying Jules on Top-40 (I think)

The crag was still decorated for Halloween. :-)

Scott and Me walking down Wall Street

Thursday night, Scott drove to Indian Creek, and Jules and I headed out to the base of Castleton Tower, to camp, so we could get a jump on the climb in the morning. Our jump was just a trifle slow, however, as a group of 4 (climbing in two parties of 2) showed up while we were making breakfast, and started the approach ahead of us. We took our time, but, when we made it to the base of the climb, the first party was still leading the first pitch. So, we spent quite a while sitting at the base of the climb, hiding out from the wind (which was unbelievably ferocious that day). After the first pitch, though, the first party ran the 2nd and third pitches together, and, after that, the log jam cleared up and things moved fairly well. The climb, itself, was fun. There was quite a bit of chimneying, and some awkward off-width. Jules did a great job on the third pitch crux, which involved climbing a chimney until it narrows to an offwidth, then stemming out through a couple of insecure, bolt-protected moves until you get to good hands on the left face. Much of the rock was covered with a layer of hard, but slick calcite, which made even the chimneying insecure feeling. Unfortunately, the zipper failed on my camera bag a couple days previous, and Jules had only his SLR, having crushed his compact in a chimney in Yosemite, so we ended up not bringing a camera on the climb, so I only have a handful of pictures from before and after.

Trying not to get blown away on the walk down

Jules in front of Castleton

On the hike down, after Jules had taken a couple of minor spills, I was thinking to myself how cool I was to have never wiped out hiking on any of the approaches or descents on my trip. I think this thought came about 2.5 seconds before my theatrical head-over-heels wipe-out. Jules was amazed that I managed to avoid bashing head open, and got right up and kept walking...well, limping. Fortunately, the only real damage was a bruised knee. A little ice, and some ibuprofen, and I was right as rain.

That night, Jules and I drove to Indian Creek, where we re-united with Scott. The tale of my time at the creek will be told in the next installment. So long for now!

Route List for 11/2-6:

Fine Jade (5 pitches, 5.11a, Trad) (Followed pitch 1 with aid, pitch 2 with one fall, 3-5 clean)
Stolen Chimney on Ancient Art (4 pitches, 5.10a, mixed) (Followed pitch 1,2, 4 clean, onsight pitch 3)
Unknown 5.9-ish Slab at Wall Street (Onsight)
Lacto-mangulation (5.10b) (TR clean)
Top-40 (5.8, Trad) (Pink-point)
30 Seconds Over Potash (Stout 5.8, Trad) (Led with one take)
Lucy In the Sky With Potash (5.10a, Trad) (TR clean)
Nervous in Suburbia (5.10b) (TR clean)
Kor-Ingalls Route on Castleton Tower (5.9+, Trad) (Followed pitches 1,3 clean, Onsight pitches 2, 4)

Vegas, Baby!

2009-11-09T10:26:00.000-08:00

My arrival in Las Vegas was greeted with cold and high winds. My car vibrated and swayed at night, like a ship at sea, and it was all I could do to get my stove lit to cook (I set it up inside the metal fire ring for a wind break). I didn't have a partner to climb with, and the weather wasn't inspiring me to climb anyway, so I spent a couple days sitting in the library working on my resume, and responding to calls and emails from recruiters who had contacted me since I put my information up on the web. On my third day there, I woke up to a miracle: sunshine and no wind! Then, as I was finishing up breakfast, Patsy, who I met in Joshua Tree walked up to my campsite. She was there with her friends and Outward Bound co-workers, Ashley and Mary. She said they were going cragging at a place called Panty Wall and I was welcome to join them. I was psyched to have good weather and people to climb with. Awesome!

We got a few climbs in, including a 5.9+/10a trad route called Panty Raid, that Ashley and I both led. It was mostly easier, but slightly pumpy, climbing, with a short crux near the top, then a slightly scary final mantle. I hung at the crux, mainly because I missed the key right foot.

At the crux on Panty Raid, missing the key right foot.

Ashley on Panty Prow

The following day, Patsy and Ashley dropped Mary off at a bus station early in the morning then went to climb Cat In The Hat, and I climbed with a guy named Sunny, who I met through Mountain Project. I had made plans to climb with him before I hooked up with Patsy and Ashley. We climbed Dark Shadows (first 4 pitches), which was a fantastic route, then rappelled down and climbed Cat In The Hat to the 4th belay and finished on a 5.10d bolted arete. Sunny was a good partner, but our personalities didn't really mesh, and when we got down in the dark after a total cluster of rappels with 10 people sharing the same ropes, I was a bit grumpy. Food and a couple beers while hanging out with Patsy and Ashley fixed that, though.

Unknown climber on 2nd pitch of Dark Shadows

The next day was Halloween, and Sunny had plans to go cragging with some friends, so I got off the hook without having to tell him I didn't really want to climb with him again, and went sport cragging with Patsy and Ashley, who were dressed for the occasion. I didn't have a costume, but they let me come along anyway. We went to the Black Corridor and did two climbs, then called it a day.

Ashley belaying on Halloween

Patsy climbing in costume

I went into town and hit up a thrift store for a Halloween costume, then hung out at the library for a little while before meeting up with Patsy and Ashley again. They ended up getting a room at the Tropicana, and I tagged along. We spent the evening wandering around the Strip, people watching. I wish I had pics of some of the great costumes, but I didn't feel like carrying my bulky camera around.

Sunday, Patsy and Ashley headed out for Joshua Tree, and I headed for Moab.

Route List for 10/29-31:

Brief Encounter (5.8) (Pink-point)
Panty Raid (5.9+/10a) (Led with a couple hangs)
Unknown 5.10d (Possibly Totally Clips) (TR)
Panty Prow (5.6? More like 5.2) (TR clean)
Dark Shadows to 4th belay (3 pitches, 5.8, Trad) (followed 1 and 3 clean, onsight 2)
Cat In The Hat to 4th belay (3 pitches, 5.6, Trad) (Onsight 1 and 2, followed 2 clean)
Unknown 5.10d arete starting from 4th belay of Cat In The Hat (followed with one fall)
Burros Might Fly (5.10b) (TR clean)
Bonaire (5.9) (Onsight)

Last Day At Tahquitz And Death Valley

2009-11-04T11:22:00.000-08:00

Wow, just when I was so proud of myself for keeping this current, I got super busy, and way behind. I've been working on getting my resume up to date, talking to recruiters, etc. So, I'm going to try to catch up a bit in small installments.

After my last post, Brett and I spent one more day climbing at Tahquitz. We decided to do The Long Climb (5.8), with the 5.8 direct start via The Wong Climb Pitch 1. The direct start first pitch was amazing. It was just a beautiful, long, splitter hand crack. I felt so solid on this pitch, it was incredible. I can scarcely remember when I've felt so good climbing a pitch. Brett wasn't feeling like leading, so I led all of the pitches, and I pretty much felt great the whole way...except perhaps for one point when I fumbled and dropped a cam. Then, I felt kind of stupid. Fortunately, it landed in a bush a short way down and I was able to lower down and get it, then finish the pitch. I just got to do a little bonus climbing. Generally, though, I had a "climbing should always feel like this" kind of "in the zone" feeling for the whole climb. In case you hadn't gathered, I enjoyed it. :-)

On the last pitch, instead of taking the standard finish on easy fifth class ramps to the right, I followed a 5.7 angling crack directly up, which was fine until the crack ran out and deposited me on a dirty slab with no protection. I was able to pick my way through it, though, to a small roof where I could get some gear, and then on to the top. Next time, I'll do the standard finish. :-)

Brett following on The Long Climb

Tahquitz from the base

The next day, I left Boojum, and got in touch with Alan Baldwin. He was on a road trip and headed for Death Valley which was more or less in the direction I was planning on heading, so we arranged to meet up. I drove to Red Rock Canyon State Park (in California, not to be confused with Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas) and camped for the night with Alan, then the next day, we continued to Death Valley.

Alan at our campsite

Sunset over Red Rock Canyon State Park

Another Sunset Pic, with a Joshua Tree on the horizon

We arrived at Death Valley in the early afternoon, visited a great overlook and took some great pictures, which I somehow managed to lose, then drove on into the Valley, checked out the visitor center, and got a campsite. We spent the rest of the day checking out the "Devil's Golf Course" (crazy salt formations), Artist's Drive (lots of crazy-colored rock), and Bad Water (the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere).

The Devil's Golf Course - that's some rough!

Looking up at sea level...

Badwater: That's not ice; it's salt.

The following day, we drove out of the park and back in via Titus Canyon road, a long, one-way, dirt road, that's a bit rough in places. They recommend 4-wheel drive and high clearance, but it's really not that bad. The Subaru made it fine. The road passes an abandoned mine at Leadville, then, towards the end of the drive, as you near the valley floor, the canyon narrows to a slot canyon barely wider than the road. It was a nice drive, with some cool scenery.

The Subinator on Titus Canyon Road

The Leadville Mine

I just thought this was cute. :-)

After we got back into the valley, we drove up to "Scotty's Castle", a mansion built by some rich guy a long time ago. Obviously, I didn't pay for the $11 tour. Then, we checked out Ubehebe crater, a big hole in the ground with a great name, formed by explosive force when magma came into contact with underground water. Pretty impressive.

Scotty's Castle

Ubehebe Crater

The next day, I said goodbye to Alan and drove to Las Vegas. I got a campsite outside of town at the Red Rock Canyon campground and spent the next two days working on my resume and talking to recruiters. On the third day, I climbed. :-) More next time....

Route List for 10/23-28:

The Long Climb Direct (First Pitch of Wong Climb, last pitch via 5.7 crack and dirty slab) (5 pitches, 5.8, Trad) (Onsight)

Out of J-Tree, on to Tahquitz

2009-10-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, what's gotten into me? I'm actually keeping this blog fairly current! Crazy, eh?

So, Friday, after my last post, Patsy ended up heading back to the campsite with Brett and I. She was hoping to find a ride to San Francisco or LA, but it didn't work out. So, Saturday, the three of us set out to climb Dappled Mare, a 2 pitch 5.8 on Lost Horse Wall. The goal was to get an early start so it would still be in the shade (it is southwest facing). We didn't do too badly, and were probably climbing by 10 or so, but it was already coming into the sun. I think the the crux of the climb was getting off the ground, but the whole thing was enjoyable and worthwhile.

Brett on the cruxy start of Dappled Mare, with Patsy spotting

Brett nears the end of the first pitch of Dappled Mare

Patsy at the top of the second pitch of Dappled Mare

Brett and Patsy on top of Dappled Mare

After Dappled Mare, we headed over to Rock Garden Valley and got a few more climbs in.

Patsy tops out on Swiss Cheese (5.8), with Brett belaying

Sunday morning, I found Patsy a ride to LA, with Walker, who I climbed with the previous weekend. We went to Hemingway Buttress to meet up with him and his friend Zac, and Brett led Funky Dung (5.8), a fun route, with some funky, committing moves out a roof. I started to get on Overseer (5.9), but had second thoughts about the committing, unprotected moves at the start and backed off. We got Patsy's stuff transferred into Walker's car (he was leaving early to get back to LA), and said goodbye (again) to Patsy, then hooked up with some co-workers of Brett, Marion, Katie, and Jackie, and went out to Atlantis Wall. Brett and I got a couple leads in, then we hooked up with another group that had some top-ropes up, and got on their ropes. The climbs at Atlantis are short, but fun.

Brett TR's Wet Pigeon (5.8), while Katie TR's the unknown 5.7 to the right

Brett and Jackie pose in front of an amazing Joshua Tree sunset

Sunday evening, Brett and I met Katie, Jackie, Chase, and some other Boojum Institute employees at Pappy and Harriet's, a fun little bar/restaurant in Pioneer Town. It was nice to hang out, drink beers at a bar and see a band. I hadn't done that since seeing the Saps with Melissa back in June....

Monday, Brett and I took our time getting up and about, packed up camp, headed into town to take care of some town stuff, then drove down to Idyllwild. Tuesday, we climbed a route called Sahara Terror (5.7) at Tahquitz. The route featured lots of fun, easy, overhung climbing, a cool, but dirty left facing corner, that probably wasn't exactly quite on route, and a great steep corner with a beautiful splitter crack and great edges for feet. The real beauty of this route was that it looked so improbable, yet climbed so easy.

Approaching Tahquitz

Looking down the first pitch of Sahara Terror

Brett a cheval on the start of the second pitch of Sahara Terror

Brett on the dirty, but fun corner to the right of what was probably supposed to be the second pitch of Sahara Terror (note the cool looking roofs through which the third pitch ascends)

On top of Tahquitz Rock

I would like to take this moment to endorse Cerveza Caguama, product of El Salvador and my new favorite cheap beer. I'll have to take plenty of this with me when I leave So Cal. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog.....

<rant>The main problem I have with Tahquitz, so far, is that I have yet to find a place to camp that doesn't want your first born child in payment. Come on, people, $20/night is freaking ridiculous for a CAMPSITE. OK, maybe if we were talking about RV hookups, and free showers, that would be fine. I want a few square feet of ground to park my car on and a place to cook my meals (a picnic table would be great, but I'll take a rock, or a flat-ish bit of ground). A toilet or outhouse is probably good, to reduce impact, but I can live without it. It really aggravates me when those of us who require little and leave little impact are expected to pay the same as those who expect five star accommodations and think someone should clean up after them. </rant>

So, Tuesday night, we drove about 45 minutes to the headquarters of Boojum Institute in Anza, Ca, who Brett works for, and crashed there.

Wednesday, we drove back to Tahquitz, and climbed Coffin Nail (5.8) to Traitor Horn (5.8). Wow. What else can I say, but, "wow". This was two absolutely amazing pitches of climbing. I think the first pitch of Traitor Horn may be the single coolest pitch I have ever led. I was incredibly disappointed that Brett didn't have a camera with him when I reached this perch, but was very grateful for the rest.

Brett on Coffin Nail

Brett pulling the roof at the top of Coffin Nail

After getting down, we still had lots of daylight to burn, so we climbed Left Ski Track, a classic 5.6. This was a great, casual climb. Most of the way, if you didn't have your hand on a great jug and/or your foot on a huge hold, you were doing something wrong...yet, it was steep and exposed, and you were grateful for those beautiful big holds.

Brett climbing jugs on the first pitch of Left Ski Track

Brett at the top of the first pitch of Left Ski Track

Brett leading the second pitch of Left Ski Track, just before the "classic step-around"

Once I get this blog posted, my task for the day is to start making some progress on my resume. Yep, that's right. It's getting close to time for the vagabond climber to settle back down into a real job for a while. Never fear, though, there are plenty of adventures left to be had before that happens. :-)

Brett and I are planning to climb one more day at Tahquitz, tomorrow. Saturday, I will hit the road again...but where to is yet to be determined. I may try to catch up with Alan at Death Valley, or I may head on to Las Vegas, and Red Rock Canyon. Whatever works out, you'll read about it in the next edition.

Route list for 10/17-21:

Dappled Mare (2 pitches, 5.8 Trad) (Followed pitch 1, onsight pitch 2)
Swiss Cheese (5.8, Mixed) (TR clean)
Smithereens (5.8, Trad) (Onsight)
Lewd and Lascivious Conduct (5.10c) (TR)
Funky Dung (5.8 Trad) (TR clean)
Wet Pigeon (5.8 Trad) (Onsight)
Vorpal Sword (5.8 Trad) (TR clean)
Unknown 5.7 (Trad) (Onsight)
Grain Surplus (5.8) (TR clean)
Galumphing (5.10a/b) (TR clean)
Sahara Terror (5 pitches, 5.7, Trad) (Onsight 1,3, 5; Followed clean 2,4)
Coffin Nail (5.8, Trad) (Followed clean) to Traitor Horn (2 pitches, 5.8, trad) (onsight 1, followed clean 2)
Left Ski Track (3 pitches, 5.6, Trad) (Onsight 1,3; Followed clean 2)

Joshua Tree Part 2

2009-10-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

Monday morning, I was considering taking a rest day, but Kara, who I'd met on Saturday, came by as I was finishing up breakfast, so I decided to do a few climbs with her. We decided to go to The Real Hidden Valley, warm up on some easy stuff and then, maybe do Sail Away (5.8). So, we got on a 5.6 called Leaping Leaner, thinking it would be casual. I started up a crack that appeared to be the obvious start to the route, got one good piece in and started to move above it. Outside of the finger slot where I placed my gear, the crack was shallow and flaring. With a long reach, I got to a halfway decent handhold, and started working my feet up in the flaring crack. I need to get to a stance with my feet on the afore-mentioned handhold before I would get gear again. With my feet maybe a foot above my gear, my foot slipped and I fell. For a second I was just kind of sliding down the rock, but had no way to stop myself. I wondered if my gear would catch me before I hit the ground. As the ground approached, I felt the rope go tight. My feet hit the ground. I felt a slight twinge in one ankle. I had hit the ground, but only with rope stretch...the rope had taken the brunt of the energy out of the fall. I became aware of Kara and saw that she had been yanked forward and scraped her shin. She almost definitely saved me from a sprained ankle, or worse, though. It was the first time she'd ever caught a lead fall.

After further consideration, I cleaned my gear, and down-climbed. I started further left, kind of chimneying up behind a boulder, then traversed back right into the climb. Even without the sketchy start, the climb felt awfully hard for 5.6. Later, I looked it up on Mountain Project, and the consensus grade is 5.7+, with a note that, if you start on the right (as I did initially), it has “ankle busting potential at 5.8+”. It was not quite the mellow warm-up I was looking for.

After that, we, somewhat apprehensively, got on a 5.7 called Jumping Jehosephat. It was distinctly easier than Leaping Leaner. At that point, we decided it was cold and a cup of hot chocolate (perhaps with a shot of peppermint schnapps) sounded nice.

Leaping Leaner (The 5.6 that isn't) on the right, Jumping Jehosephat on the left

Tuesday, Brett, who I had also met on Saturday, and another girl, Patsy, joined Kara and I in our campsite. Brett and Kara went into town to do some shopping and such, and Patsy I went to Hemingway Buttress to do some climbing.

White Lightning (5.7)

Dung Fu (5.7)

We had awesome chicken fajitas for dinner. Unfortunately, I woke up in the night to a severely deflated air mattress. I aired it back up, but it quickly deflated again, and I ended up sleeping (poorly) on the hard, lumpy floor of my car. Perhaps the added weight from all the fajitas I ate was too much for it. I don't know. I got up early, since I was uncomfortable, and couldn't really sleep anyway. I eventually found the hole, and made an attempt at patching it, then decided to take a rest day, get a shower, and generally relax. Brett, Kara, and Patsy went to climb Hands Off, a climb you can see from our campsite which seems to always have people on it.

Brett on Hands Off (5.8), as viewed from our campsite

That night, the mattress leaked more slowly...with one re-inflation, I was able to keep it reasonably comfortable. In the morning, I made one more attempt at patching it.

Thursday, we decided to go to Lost Horse Wall and do some multi-pitch climbs. We started out on The Swift, a pleasant 5.7. The book has it as three pitches, but we climbed it easily in two.

Kara following the first pitch of The Swift

Kara at the first pitch belay on The Swift

Brett leading the second pitch of The Swift, while Patsy belays

After we all got down from the walk-off, it was blazing hot in the sun, and we decided to seek some shade. We headed for Dairy Queen Wall, got two more climbs in, hiked out in the dark, and headed back to camp.

This morning, Kara and Patsy headed out. Brett is going to hang out and climb with me through the weekend, then we are going to head down to Tahquitz and do some climbing down there.

I gave up on my air mattress today and bought a new one. I'm not sure if my patch is still failing, or if there is another hole. Either way, I didn't want to screw with it any more, when I could just spend $20 and get a new mattress.

Route List for 10/12-16:

Leaping Leaner (“5.6” Trad) (Fell on one start, onsight with alternate start)
Jumping Jehosephat (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
White Lightning (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Dung Fu (5.7 Trad) (TR clean)
Feltonian Physics (5.8 Trad) (Onsight)
The Swift (2 pitches, 5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Frosty Cone (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Mr. Misty Kiss (5.7 Trad) (TR Clean)

Moving On: From Yosemite to J-Tree

2009-10-11T17:04:00.000-07:00

After Shaun and Ben headed out last Sunday, I took Monday off, and did a lot of laying around in the sun and reading. Tuesday, I hooked up with Hannah, who I had climbed with once before and we climbed the regular route up Higher Cathedral Spire. The route is 5 pitches long, with three 5.9 pitches (all pretty short cruxes), is a lot of fun, and reaches a really fantastic summit, with amazing views. My camp-mates, Dominic and Evelyn were just ahead of us on the climb.

Dominic on the third pitch of Higher Cathedral Spire

Hannah on 4^th pitch of Higher Cathedral Spire

Looking down on Hannah at the 4^th pitch belay of Higher Cathedral Spire

Hannah and Me on top of Higher Cathedral Spire, El Cap in the background

El Cap from the top of Higher Cathedral Spire

After the climb, Hannah and I cashed in the free dinner I won in the Yosemite Facelift raffle. The steaks were amazingly delicious...perfectly cooked and deliciously tender. Maybe I should have taken pictures of my dinner. :-) All in all, it was a great finish to a fabulous day.

Wednesday, I packed up my stuff and, by about 1:00, was on the road again. I drove to Bakersfield, CA, where I stopped to do laundry, stock up on supplies and "camp" in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Thursday, I drove the rest of the way into Joshua Tree National Park, and got a campsite at the Hidden Valley campground. I met a guy named Kevin who had a site a few down from mine, who I ended up climbing with the next day.

Welcome to Joshua Tree National Park - View from my campsite

Kevin, his friend Jose, and I went out to Echo Rock (a short distance from Hidden Valley), and I led Stichter Quits a.k.a. Black Tide (5.7), a nice, somewhat run-out (4 bolts in about 100') slab climb. It was fun...slightly heady, but fun. About the time we got down, Kevin's friend, Dave, showed up. Dave led several harder climbs, and I top-roped a couple of them. The highlight was Heart and Sole (5.10b). This was a super fun climb.

Heart and Sole goes up the slab under the roof, around the roof on the right, then back left above the roof and up the flake. Super cool route!

We headed back to the campground for a bit, then Kevin, Dave and I did a couple more routes, Papa Woolsey (5.10b) and Double Cross ("5.7+"). Papa Woolsey is a tricky face climb...slick rock and small edges. Double Cross is a beautiful hand crack with a tricky start that feels more like a solid 5.8.

Me on Double Cross (“5.7+”)

Friday night, Kevin headed home and Dave's family and some other friends of his and their families came in. I hung out with them some in the evening. They were cool folks. I ended up sharing my campsite with a guy named Isak who is in the area doing outdoor education work. Another guy, Walker, came by, and I made plans to climb with him on Saturday.

Saturday morning, I was late showing up to climb with Walker, so he ended up heading out with another friend of his who he had run into to climb. Meanwhile, Isak's friend who he was supposed to climb with didn't show up, so I ended up climbing with him. Funny how things work out. :-) We did a few routes in the campground area, waiting to see if his friend would show up. Eventually, she did, along with four other outdoor ed people. The lot of us went out to Rock Garden Valley, got a few climbs in, and saw a lovely sunset.

On top of Intersection Rock

Sunset from the top of Young Lust (5.8+) in Rock Garden Valley

Today, I climbed with Walker and we got four excellent routes in before he headed back to LA.

Route List for 10/6-11:

Higher Cathedral Spire Regular Route (5 pitches, 5.9, Trad) (Led pitches 1 and 5, hung on pitch 2)
Stichter Quits (a.k.a. Black Tide) (5.7) (onsight)
Heart and Sole (5.10b) (TR)
Falcon and The Snowman (5.10d) (TR)
Papa Woolsie (5.10b) (TR)
Double Cross ("5.7+", Trad) (TR clean)
Toe Jam (5.7, Trad) (Onsight)
Overhang Bypass (5.7, Trad) (TR clean)
Upper Right Ski Track (5.3, Trad) (Onsight)
Double Dog Leg (5.7, Trad) (TR clean)
Young Lust (5.8+, Trad) (Onsight)
Pope's Crack (5.9, Trad) (TR clean)
Bambi Meets Godzilla (5.8+, Trad) (Onsight)
Effigy Too (5.10 a/b, Trad) (TR clean)
The Flue (5.8, Trad) (Onsight)

Yosemite Week Two Plus

2009-10-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

After bailing on the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral, I took a day off. I blogged, read, and generally relaxed. The following day, I got together with Paul again and we tried to climb Nutcracker, a classic 5 pitch 5.8. When Paul reached the top of the first pitch, he suggested I trail the second rope so we could bail from the top of the second pitch, because it was so freaking hot. I brought the rope up, and, despite getting a cooling breeze at the top of the second pitch, we decided our hearts weren't in it right that moment, and bailed. I spent the rest of the day relaxing.

On Saturday, I thought that Shaun, Katie, and Shaun's friend Ben were going to be arriving, so I made no plans. As it turned out, they got delayed in Reno because Shaun's bag didn't come in on his flight. All week, an event called Yosemite Facelift had been going on. I had been taking advantage of it in the form of free slideshows, films, and beer in the evenings, but hadn't participated, yet. I decided to help out since I had no other plans, and spent the day picking up trash around the Yosemite Creek trailhead and campground. Every day, everyone who helped pick up trash was entered in a raffle. I won dinner for two at the Mountain Room, a nice restaurant here in the valley. I can't wait to take advantage of that. I could use a great meal!

Sunday, I still didn't know what was up with Shaun and company, so I hooked up with Hannah and her friend Chris and met up with a bunch more friends of Chris at the North Face Apron of Middle Cathedral. It turns out that most of the climbs at this crag are hard and run-out, mostly with high first bolts (like 25 feet high). Hannah and I ended up climbing one pitch, the first pitch of a climb called Fall Guy, recently put up by Chris's friend, Bob. We were going to do the whole 3 pitch climb, but the party ahead of us took a long time on the third pitch and we decided to bail. I had to aid the low crux of this "10a" slab. I pulled through a higher crux, but it wasn't pretty.

Monday morning, Shaun and company found me and got registered at Camp Four. After they had setup camp, we went to Glacier Point Apron to do "the best 5.6 in the Valley", The Grack, Center. I led all three pitches, with Katie seconding (her first multi-pitch climb!), and Shaun and Ben swung leads. The clean, aesthetic, low-angle splitter crack of pitch 2 was quite enjoyable, and everyone enjoyed the climb.

Katie, Ben, and Shaun at the base of the first pitch of The Grack, Center

Looking up the second pitch of The Grack, Center

View from the top of the Grack

Katie following third pitch of The Grack, Center

Shaun leading third pitch of The Grack, Center with Ben belaying

Katie and Me at the top of The Grack

Tuesday, Katie had to head back to Winnemucca, and Shaun opted to hang out with her until she left. Ben and I decided to climb a 3 pitch 5.8 called The Caverns. From the base of the route, I got a hold of my friend, Matt, who had driven out from San Francisco the day before, but had, so far, eluded contact. Fortunately, it was a short approach, so I hiked back down and got him and we did the route as a party of three. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was Matt's first multi-pitch! We ended up doing the route in 4 pitches, as Ben stopped a little short on the second pitch, and we were a little rushed on the final pitch, as it had sprinkled a little, and was threatening more serious rain. The rain never materialized, though, and we made it up without difficulties. We made it back to Camp Four in the nick of time for me to renew my campsite, and Matt headed back to SF, after sharing some tasty chips and homemade salsa.

Matt following second pitch of Caverns

Blood for the Blood God!

Ben following the 2 1/2^th pitch of Caverns

Wednesday, Shaun, Ben, and I went back to Glacier Point Apron, and climbed a 2 pitch 5.8 called Harry Daley. The first pitch started with challenging friction climbing right off the deck with no protection. After down-climbing several times, I pulled the moves, and got up to a good stance where I could get gear in. The rest of the first pitch was pretty mellow. The second pitch started with a slightly wide hand crack through a roof which turned out to be quite easy and a lot of fun. The crux came higher up on a section of finger crack. Ben did an excellent job leading the second pitch.

Ben below the roof at the start of the second pitch of Harry Daley

Shaun jamming deep at the top of the second pitch of Harry Daley

When we got down, the apron had gone into the shade, and, in a major change from the previous couple weeks, this left us a bit chilly, and seeking sun, so we headed to the Church Bowl area, and I led Church Bowl Lieback (5.8). Wow, that was a fun, burly climb. It was pretty much sustained, nearly vertical laybacking all the way. There were some good stemming rests, but you definitely had to look for them. I psyched myself out a bit when I ran it out a ways above my last piece, thinking I was going to a good hold, only to find that it wasn't so good after all. I down-climbed, got another piece in, then pulled the move. I got a good scare for a second, though.

Thursday, Shaun and I climbed After Six, a popular 6 pitch, 5.7 (or 5.6 in the older books...) while Ben took the day to do some hiking. Shaun took the lead on the first (and crux) pitch, but backed off after getting intimidated by a tricky, awkward move. I pulled the rope, re-led the bottom on his gear, and finished the pitch. It was definitely tricky and intimidating in places.

Shaun near the top of the third pitch of After Six

Friday, Ben, Shaun, and I went to climb Royal Arches (14 pitches, 5.7 A0). We left camp at 6AM to drive to the trailhead, and were at the base of the route around 6:30. There was a party ahead of us, but they moved quickly. I made it up the first pitch chimney fairly quickly and efficiently, despite some intimidating moves pulling around chockstones. Pretty quickly, Ben and Shaun had to put up with me being bitchy about moving quickly. I tried not to be too sour, but, with a party of 3 on such a long route, we really needed to be efficient. We actually made reasonably good time on the route. Climbing on 70 meter ropes, we cut out a couple of pitches by belaying part way through 4th class pitches rather than climbing them as separate pitches, and made it to the top in 12 pitches by about 4:00PM.

Shaun leads the second technical pitch of Royal Arches, while a party passes on the left

Me and Ben: 2/3 of the Bearded Guys Climbing Team

Ben follows the 4^th class traverse on pitch 8 of Royal Arches while Shaun Belays

Ben at the 10^th pitch belay on Royal Arches, waiting to climb

Ben leading the 12^th and final pitch on Royal Arches

View of the Valley from the top of Royal Arches

That's where things got sticky. We intended to walk off via the North Dome Gully descent. Unfortunately, I had the descent directions mixed up and we went in the wrong direction. After failing to find the descent trail, a little strife amongst the party, and a lot of frustration on my part (not with the people, but with the situation), we decided to go back and descend via the rappel route. This required leading back across a slightly heady 5.4 slab. Ben led it the first time. I led back across. It was probably 6:00 by the time we started the rappels. On the first rap, I missed the bolts for the second station, and ended up stopping at a cluster of trees which our 70 meter roped just reached to, and managed to knock my headlamp off and drop it down the cliff in the process. I had failed to get it clipped properly onto my helmet. Oops. With Shaun's headlamp running low on batteries, this left us with one fully functional headlamp. Great! Shaun took over leading us down the rappels, since he was doing better than I was at seeing the stations, got us back on track, and did an excellent job of getting us down quickly and safely. It was a little stressful, but, in hindsight, a good climb. It was definitely fantastic to get down. :-)

Today, we are resting. I took a shower, then made myself a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich for brunch. It's great to relax after a long, hard day. Tomorrow, Shaun and Ben head out. I will probably hang around until Wednesday or so, then consider heading to SoCal.

Route List for 9/24 - 10/2:

Nutcracker Pitch 1 (5.8 Trad, followed clean) and 2 (5.4 Trad, onsight)
Fall Guy Pitch 1 (5.10a, followed with aid)
The Grack, Center (3 pitches, 5.6, Trad, onsight)
The Caverns (4 pitches, 5.8, Trad; Onsight pitch 1,3, 4; followed pitch 2 clean)
Harry Daley (2 pitches, 5.8, Trad; Onsight pitch 1; followed pitch 2 clean)
Church Bowl Lieback (5.8 Trad, onsight)
After 6 (6 pitches, 5.7 Trad; dark pink-point pitch 1, followed pitch 2-3 clean, onsight pitch 4-6...or something like that)
Royal Arches (12 pitches, 5.7 A0, led some, followed some, all clean)

Yosemite Week One

2009-09-24T13:23:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, September 15, I left Rob and Angela's and drove to Yosemite. I arrived at the park about 5:00PM and found out that, to get a site at Camp 4 (the only walk-in, non-reservable campsite in Yosemite...and where all of the climbers hang out), I would need to come back early in the morning. I drove out of the park, made some dinner and found a place to park and sleep in my car for the night. At 7:30 in the morning, I came back and the line was already 30 people deep (they open at 8:30). While I waited, I met a few other people in line, including Dale, who, it turns out, was in Squamish at the same time that I was. Despite being told there were only 25 sites available, I managed to get one, and setup camp, then Dale and I went out to climb.

First climb in the Valley, Bishop's Terrace

Half Dome, from Bishop's Terrace

Thursday, Dale and I climbed again. We drove up to Reed's Pinnacle to do a route called Reed's Direct, which we finished on Reed's Regular Route, rather than attempt the heinous 5.10a offwidth 3^rd pitch. Reed's Direct is a beautiful, long, sustained, 5.9 hand crack.

Reed's Direct Pitch 1 & 2

Dale on top of Reed's Direct Pitch 2

Reed's Regular traverses from the top of Reed's Direct pitch 2 through a chimney, with some 5.6 climbing. It's pretty freaky, with some particularly committing moves at the beginning, sparse gear, and a tight squeeze. I had to take my helmet off to fit through, and, at times, couldn't turn my head from one side to the other!

The tunnel on Reed's Regular Route

Me and Dale on top of Reed's Pinnacle. “On the count of ten, open your eyes!”

Friday, Dale and I climbed a route called Braille Book on Higher Cathedral Rock. Cathedral is on the South side of the valley, with a northern exposure, so it gets less sun...which is key, as it's been seriously hot here. The approach is long, and the book we had was a little vague about how to get there. We got a little lost (I think everyone I have talked to that has done this approach has gotten lost), and ended up hiking up the gully between Higher Cathedral Rock and Middle Cathedral Rock, when we wanted to be east of Higher Cathedral. We had to hike back down and across to the next gully, but finally made it to the base of the route...just after another party. They moved quickly, though, so it was no big deal.

Higher Cathedral Spire from the approach to Cathedral Rock

El Cap, from the base of Middle Cathedral

Dale following pitch one of Braille Book

Dale on pitch three of Braille Book...a less lazy person might have cropped it to exclude my knee

Dale starting up pitch 4 of Braille Book

Dale in his belay tree. Slightly off-route, but really cozy. :-)

The valley from the top of Cathedral Rock. Higher Cathedral Spire near right.

Saturday, I planned to take the day off. Dale was going to hike to Glacier Point, then drive up to Tuolomne, and I was pretty beat after a long day on Braille Book. That morning, however, I got a text from a guy named Paul, in response to an ad I had posted on the Camp 4 bulletin board, and decided to do a couple climbs with him in the afternoon. We climbed a popular, easily accessible, 2 pitch 5.6 called Munginella, then a cool, short finger crack called Grant's Crack (actually, the climb is pretty long, but the difficult section is short).

Half Dome from the top of Munginella

Paul at the top of Grant's Crack

Sunday, Paul and I climbed Snake Dike, 5.7R, on Half Dome. The approach to Half Dome is long, something like 5 or 6 miles, and the descent is about 9 miles. The climb, itself, we did in 9 pitches, plus probably 1000 feet or more of simul-climbing and scrambling to the top. Car to car, the climb took us a little over 13 hours. A great deal of the climbing is easy, but the catch is that there is often little to no protection. You have to be prepared to do 70 foot run-outs on 5.4 terrain. Even on the 5.7 terrain (all friction slab), the run-outs are enough to make you really not want to fall.

Party behind us on first pitch of Snake Dike, beginning a scary friction traverse

Looking down from top of pitch 3 on Snake Dike

Paul on pitch 4 of Snake Dike...or is it the moon?

Paul following pitch 5? An unusual pitch...he is cleaning gear.

Pitch 7: Now that's a normal pitch on Snake Dike!

Me and Paul out of focus on top of Half Dome

Monday, I took a well-deserved day off, and Tuesday I climbed with a guy named Mark. I had to renew my campsite, so we went and did a couple single pitch climbs in the morning, then came back to camp, and did some more climbs in the afternoon. Mark was really gung-ho and pushed me to do a little more than I wanted to, when, really, I was still kind of tired from a long day on Sunday. Other than that, though, we had a great day and did some really fun climbs. I was very happy to successfully lead the crux pitch of Commitment (5.9), even though I think it's a pretty soft 9.

Mark at the second pitch belay on Commitment, below the crux roof

Mark at the top of Jam Crack

Wednesday, Mark and I set out to climb the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral. We left camp around 6:00AM, and were at the base of the route by 7:30 or 8:00. On the approach, however, I started to question the wisdom of me attempting this climb (9 pitches, 5.9 A0, or 10c). I was really dragging and my feet were tired and sore. I told Mark I was worried about it and he convinced me to try the first pitch. It was easy climbing, but still kicked my ass. There was no way I could keep going. We rappelled down and I took the rest of the day off. I felt bad for bailing on Mark, but I wasn't going to have any fun on the climb, and could have endangered us both by continuing when I was in no shape to do so. Much better to climb another day....

Route List for 9/16-22:

Bishop's Terrace (5.8, Trad) (TR clean)
Claude's Delight (5.7, Trad) (Onsight)
Leina's Lieback (5.9, Trad) (TR clean)
Reed's Direct To Reed's Regular (4 pitches, 5.9, Trad) (Followed 1 clean, 2 with some falling/hanging, 4 clean; Onsight 3)
Braille Book (5 pitches, 5.8, Trad) (Onsight 1, 3, 5; followed 2, 4 clean)
Munginella (2 pitches, 5.6, Trad) (Followed 1, Onsight 2)
Grant's Crack (5.9, Trad) (Onsight)
Snake Dike (9 pitches, 5.7R, Mixed) (Led odd pitches, all clean)
After 7 (5.8 ,Trad) (Onsight)
Nutcracker Alternate Start Pitch One (5.9, trad) (TR clean)
Commitment (3 pitches, 5.9, Trad) (Onsight pitch 1 and 3, followed pitch 2 clean)
Jam Crack (2 pitches, 5.9, Trad) (Followed Clean)

From BRC to Reno, to SF

2009-09-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

After helping tear down camp, and leaving Burning Man, I joined several others of the Pandora's Crew to help unload the truck into the camp's storage unit in Fernley, NV. We got the truck unloaded, the trash taken to the dump, the storage unit packed, and the truck washed, then went for pizza. Food that wasn't mixed with Playa dust. How novel!

After pizza, we all headed for Reno, where we spent the night at the Peppermill hotel and casino. A nice steam shower did wonders towards making me feel human again, after a week of being encrusted with alkaline dust. After showers, it was time for drinks, then slot machine lessons from Rex, a.k.a. "How to lose $20 as slowly as possible (while getting free drinks)". When we finished losing our money for the night, we headed back to the room, had a few more drinks, and one by one, crashed out....

I hung around Reno for one more night, with a few other stragglers, then did laundry, and headed out for California on Wednesday. I hadn't decided yet, what I was doing, so I drove, more less toward Yosemite, taking California Highway 88 through Eldorado National Forest. I stopped near the edge of the forest to camp for the night.

In the morning, I decided to contact my good friends Robert and Angela and see if I could stay with them for a few days at their home in San Rafael. They said sure, so I headed there. I really wanted to get my blog caught up before I headed to Yosemite, and also needed to have access to wi-fi on Sunday for the annual Raven's Loft Hockey League Entry Draft.... Just smile and nod. You really don't want me to explain it.

I arrived at Robert and Angela's Thursday evening. Friday night, I talked to my friend, Matt, who moved to San Francisco from St. Louis about a year ago, and we decided to go climbing on Saturday. I drove down to his apartment and picked up him and his friend, Jess, and we headed for Castle Rock State Park, south of San Jose. We got a couple top-rope climbs in, but the heat did a number on us, and we wore out quickly, and headed home.

For some reason, my car was really struggling on the way back. It stalled out several times, and going up hills was a real ordeal. I'm not sure what was going on.... I can't imagine that it was just the extra two passengers, but, everything seemed fine again on the drive from Matt's back to Rob and Angela's. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Last night, Rob and Angela hosted a "budget gourmet" French night. Some friends of theirs came over, brought fabulous French food, and we all hung out, ate, drank wine, and played Mille Bounes, and Taboo. All-in-all, a great night with friends old and new.

So, I guess that's it! You are all finally up to date on my life! Enjoy it while it lasts. :-)

Tomorrow, I head to Yosemite!

Route List for 9/12:

Triple Overhang (5.9) (TR, clean on second attempt...a pretty hard 5.9)
"Jess's Route" (5.7-ish) (TR, clean, not in the book...a little TR improv)

Burning The Man

2009-09-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

Sunday evening, I met up with Katie, yet another friend from St. Louis, who has recently migrated West, in Winnemucca, NV, where she is living. We had dinner and drinks and plenty of great conversation. Monday morning, Katie made me breakfast, and then I headed out for Black Rock City.

The most direct way to get there from Winnemucca was by taking a nearly 100 mile gravel road. The alternatively was nearly twice as long, but on good highway. I opted for the gravel road. A short ways in, I passed a van stopped that had had a flat tire. Their spare was low on air and they were contemplating turning around. I couldn't help them, so I went on. I was driving pretty fast at this point. The gravel was not rutted or washboarded, and it seemed pretty safe. I then passed a truck going the other direction, and the driver flagged me down. They, too, had had a flat and were turning back. Apparently, the road is littered with sharp rocks that are murder on tires. I was over a third of the way (maybe half way?) by this point, so I didn't want to turn around. I slowed it down, and drove very carefully the rest of the way. I passed a sign with the mileage to Gerlach (the closest permanent town to BRC), and started watching the odometer. I felt like I was in a video game, watching the timer tick down to the end of the level, trying to stay alive..... I made it without mishap, but passed another couple in a rented SUV, with a flat tire, probably only 3 or 4 miles from the end of the gravel....

My first view of Black Rock City, from the road on the drive in....

I made it through the entry line, got my ticket from Will Call, and and located my camp, Pandora's Lounge And Fix-It Shop. I got in touch with this group through my friend, Cheryl, from St. Louis. Somehow, though, I neglected to take any pictures of the camp or the people I camped with. In retrospect, this was rather silly of me. Oh well, I'll just have to keep in touch with people and remember them that way, I suppose. :-)

A great deal of my time at Burning Man was spent just wandering the city taking in as much as I could of all that there was to see. It's impossible, nay, even inconceivable to experience all that BRC has to offer, but I did my best. Here's a tiny taste....

The Raygun Gothic Rocketship

The Man

"Portal of Evolution" - The top spins, and you can climb up and sit in it...

I love this piece. It's hard for me to say exactly what it is about it that inspires me...something about the organic lines portrayed so effectively through the industrial medium.....

I just find it beautiful.....

One of the coolest "art cars" on the playa. I wish I had a better picture of it.

There were several "Flintstones" cars running around...

The man at night

Yeah, it's a giant, glowing rubber duck. The surreal is commonplace on the Playa.

Giant Rubik's Cube. The best part is that it really "worked". People were trying to solve it, and you could watch the patterns change.

The Temple at night

Beginning to burn The Man

The Temple burns....

All-in-all, Burning Man was a unique and special experience. I have yet to decide if it's something I will do again, but it's certainly something I'm glad to have done.

Oh, yeah, I did run into Joe. He came by Pandora's and hung out a couple of times. I suspect it's not the last I've seen of him.... :-)

Seattle, Portland, and Smith Rock

2009-09-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

After leaving Squamish, I headed back to Seattle. The day before my temporary tags expired, the dealership finally got the title for my car from the previous owner's bank, so I had them mail it to Tom and Sarah. I spent a night at their house, got the title in the mail to Melissa so she could complete the transfer of my plates for me, and then met up with my friend, Tiffanie, for dinner. After a pleasant evening of sushi, wine, and hanging out with good folks, I crashed at Tiffanie's for the night, then headed on to my next stop, Portland. There, I caught up with Ellen, to continue the catching up with old friends portion of my adventure. More food, more drinking, and another night crashing on a couch, then I drove to Smith Rock, to meet up with another Geoff, who I connected with through Mountain Project.

After we had gotten 3 climbs in, it was starting to look like rain. Geoff assured me, "We're in the desert. It almost never rains here", or something to that effect. So, I started leading a fourth climb. I was glad that I chose an easy, bolted climb, because I was about half way up when the rain hit. It didn't pour or anything, but it was coming down fairly steadily. I finished the route, rapped down and cleaned it, and we packed up and called it a day.

Saturday, we did a fun 5.7 called Spiderman, a fantastic 5.9 called Sundown, and a very challenging 5.10d arete called Moons of Pluto. Then, I decided to lead a "5.8" called Cling-On. I knew before I even got off the ground that this climb was going to be more than I bargained for. The route laybacks up a corner, with slimy hands and slick feet. you can occasionally stem to good feet for rests, but then getting back into the climb is tricky. I fell at the crux when a foot slipped, and an orange alien, which I had placed hastily and blindly, popped. I had placed a lot of gear, so my fall still wasn't long, but, none-the-less, it freaked me out (and the climb had me freaked out to begin with). I got back on the climb, got another (good) piece in, and climbed above it and down-climbed several times. I eventually committed to it and got one more higher piece. Above this, there were two options: pull around the corner into a weird, flaring chimney thing, or run it out up relatively easy face climbing. I tried going straight up the face, but, at the top, didn't want to commit, and ended up down-climbing and lowering off. Geoff finished the route, pulling around into the crack where there was good protection...obviously the right way to go. I didn't even want to top-rope it. I was totally done.

Looking out from the top of Bookworm, I think

Geoff rappelling down Bookworm (I think)

Monkey Face (We didn't climb it. The easiest route is 5.8 A0)

A panoramic view from the west side (I think) of Smith Rock

After Geoff left, I headed back to the campground, where I randomly ran into Joe, a climber who I met in South Dakota. He is also on a hiatus from work, traveling and climbing around the West. What's more, he was also on his way to Burning Man.

Sunday, I got up, had breakfast, organized my gear, said goodbye to Joe, and headed out for Winnemucca, NV, on my way to Burning Man......

Route List for 8/25-8/29:

Pack Animal Pitch 1 (5.8, Trad) (Onsight)
Pack Animal Direct (5.10a Trad) (TR Clean)
Bookworm (5.7 Trad) (TR Clean)
Bunny Face (5.7 Sport) (Onsight)
Spiderman (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Sundown (5.9 Trad) (TR Clean)
Moons Of Pluto (5.10d Sport) (TR Clean)
Cling-On ("5.8" Trad) (DNF)

Squamish

2009-09-11T19:47:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking for weeks about a clever title for my blog entry about my Squamish experience, but finally gave up. That's my excuse for why I'm so late in writing this. :-)

So, after a pleasant visit and lovely dinner (corn chowder and salmon. Yum!) with Tom and Sarah in Seattle, I headed north to Squamish, BC. Once again, I managed to cross the border without incident. This made me 3 for 7 in the last year (2 for 4 entering Canada...). I met up with Tom, who I had contacted through Mountain Project. Tom claimed I was the spitting image of Jeep Gaskin, who he used to climb with back in the day. I think it's just the beard and crazy hair. :)

On Tuesday, 8/18, Tom and I climbed at the Smoke Bluffs, a nice, mostly single pitch, crag north of The Chief (home of most of the long, multi-pitch climbs in the area). We climbed well together, and got several fun climbs in. Regrettably, all of the pictures I took during the first 2/3 of my time at Squamish were eaten by a corrupt SD card. I have not completely given up on recovering them, but I'm pretty sure they are toast. I do have a handful of pics from my second day out that Tom took and sent to me.

So, the following day, we climbed at the base of the Grand Wall, on The Chief. We did a really incredible, 2 pitch finger crack, called Exasperator, there, then did the first pitch of Rutabaga, a really tricky, technical 5.10b. Finally, we headed back to the Smoke Bluffs and climbed Supervalue, 5.10c. Man, is that a climb that keeps coming at you. It starts off with a spooky, undercling slab, pulling around a corner, then throws some tricky face climbing at you, and finishes up on a great hand crack...with some tricky moves at the top, just in case you thought it was over....

Finally getting a rest at the top of the second pitch of Exasperator

On the third day, we got a slow start, and never really picked up. Tom had to leave reasonably early to drive back to Washington, so we headed back to the Smoke Bluffs, this time heading for the Penny Lane area. We ended up doing just one climb, a 5.11a called Climb and Punishment. It was something Tom had been wanting to get back on. He struggled a little, but made it up. After struggling to even get off the ground, I, eventually, flailed my way up it on top rope. There was a really nice looking 8 nearby, but after the previous climb, I was too gassed to want to try it. So, Tom headed for home, and I went to do some shopping and find a new campsite (I spent the first few nights at a commercial campground that Tom wanted to stay at, but which was a bit pricey to stay at alone). I found a site (the last one available at the Chief campground), which I ended up sharing with a Brazilian guy named Philip, who was riding his motorcycle from California to Alaska. It was the same price for 2 people as for one, so I was happy to share.

The next day, I drove into Vancouver. I went shopping for a new pack, as my Osprey that I use for a crag pack had blown a zipper, then went to meet up with a very very good, old friend, Jeff. Jeff works at EA, so I met him at work and he took me for a tour of the campus. I have to say, from what I saw, they have it pretty good there. He seems to enjoy it. After the tour, we went back to his place, had dinner, hung out with his family, played Carcasonne, and generally had a pleasant evening. Jeff is one of those people I always enjoy spending time with. It was great to get a chance to catch up. I hope it's not 8 years (or whatever it was) before we see each other again!

The next morning, I got up early and drove back to Squamish. I got there in time to say goodbye to Philip, who was heading out to continue his journey to Alaska, and managed to hook up with Andrew and Gabe, from the campsite next to mine, to climb for the day. Once again, we headed to the Smoke Bluffs. By this time, I was really aching to get on one of the longer routes on the Chief, but it just hadn't worked out yet. In the meantime, I was happy to be climbing.

We started out at Crag X, near Supervalue. Gabe is a 15 year old kid. He's a strong sport climber (can probably onsight most 11's, and works 12's, and even some 13's), but has virtually no trad experience. Despite this, he was very gung-ho, thinking he should be able to waltz up 5.10 trad routes...after all, it's only 5.10. The crag was pretty busy when we got there, so, for our first climb, we chose one that was open...a 5.9 trad route. It was mostly easy, with a short, overhanging diheral, crux. I led it, taking one short fall at the crux. I lowered off and we pulled the rope, so that Gabe could pink-point it. He got completely stymied at the crux and lowered off. Andrew finished the route and cleaned it. I've got nothing against Gabe. He's a strong climber and a good kid. It just goes to show that not all climbs are created equal.

From there, we walked down to look at Zombie Roof, a 5.13a roof crack. Again, Gabe thinks that because he's climbed a 13a somewhere, he should be able to get on this.... Uh, yeah, think again. So, we looked, instead, at a 5.11 mixed route with a gear protected start that leads to a cruxy, bolt protected, slab. Andrew led the start, amazingly stemming the entire thing, across a stem box that had to be at least 6 feet wide. It was quite a sight. Andrew bailed after the first bolt on the slab and Gabe finished the route. I tried it on top-rope, and couldn't get past the second move. Somewhere around the time we were finishing up on this, Yuji Hirayama showed up, with a small entourage. They warmed up on a 5.12 nearby, then Yuji on-sighted Zombie Roof. It was quite a spectacle, and I deeply regret that my photos of this are among the ones my SD card ate. After watching the show for a while, I decided to climb a 5.9 called Old Age. Really, I think the only thing that would make it 5.9 is avoiding grabbing onto a tree growing out of the middle of the crack at the start, which I failed to do, because I didn't have any gear in, hadn't brought a sling I could sling the tree with, and didn't want to chance a ground fall. Regardless, it was a fun climb with some unique moves pulling out of a chimney toward the top. Some time after this, we watched Yuji red-point a 5.13b which he had tried to on-sight earlier, and then called it a day and headed back to camp.

On Sunday, Andrew and I did our own things while Gabe went climbing with Jesse, a friend that he and Andrew knew from Edmonton, and who we had randomly run into the previous day. I hiked to the top of the Chief, and took some great pictures which no one will ever see thanks to my faulty SD card. Blah. All the same, I had a great hike.

Monday, Andrew, Gabe, Jesse and I set out to do a multi-pitch climb. Finally! We set our eyes on Snake, a 5 pitch 5.9 on the Apron of the Chief. We would climb in two pairs of two, with Andrew leading and Gabe seconding, and me leading with Jesse seconding, since neither Gabe nor Jesse had trad leading experience. I pointed out Sunday night that we should get an early start. We didn't. I think we left camp around noon. Still, it's only a 5 pitch climb, right? When we arrived at the base, there were two parties of three ahead of us. One was on the proper first pitch and one was on the 5.easy approach pitch (climbing it roped). The first party was moving quickly, belaying both followers at the same time on double ropes. The second party...wasn't moving so quickly.

The first pitch was 5.7, but featured a fairly long section of unprotected climbing above a ledge, just below the anchor. It took quite a bit of psyching up, and a fair amount of time working out the moves for me to push through it. The second pitch was mostly easy traversing on large ledges, with a short 5.9 crux near the end. There were a couple of options, but the way I went took good (albeit small) gear. The third pitch had some challenging laybacking, and then, just below the anchor, a freaking hard move, above a ledge, with no gear that would keep you from decking. Kudos to Andrew for pulling it off. Gabe dropped me a sling and I aided through it. I swear it was a solid 5.10 move. Andrew reported that the fourth pitch was even thinner and scarier, and, by this point, light was failing. I brought Jesse up, then Gabe trailed our rope. They then dropped the first rope back down, Jesse climbed on our rope, and clipped the first rope into the directionals for me to climb on. I was happy not to be on lead for a really tricky traversing move, which I fell trying to pull. I led the final 5.7 pitch by head-lamp, and then the real adventure began: getting down. We estimate that we summited around 9:00PM. We didn't make it off the mountain until 2:30AM. Man, what a day! Despite it all, though, I had a fantastic time. Andrew and Jesse were a blast to climb with, and Gabe held up well in his first multi-pitch trad epic.

Andrew and Jesse waiting to start the climb

Andrew leading the first pitch

Gabe following the second pitch

View from the first pitch belay

Jesse following the crux of the second pitch, as Andrew says "Rock on!!!"

Looking up at the fourth pitch

Andrew celebrating at the top of the fourth pitch

Tuesday, Gabe, Andrew, and Jesse all headed out, and I decided to do so as well. After all, it would be hard to top that experience!

Route List for 8/18-28:

Corner Crack (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Flying Circus (5.10a Trad) (Top-Rope Clean)
Neat And Cool (5.10a Trad) (Top-Rope Clean)
S-M's Delight (5.10b Trad) (Top-Rope)
Mosquito (5.8 Trad) (Red-point)
Exasperator (2 pitches, 5.10d, Trad) (Top-Rope Clean)
Rutabaga Pitch 1 (5.10b, Trad) (Top-Rope)
Supervalue (5.10c, mixed) (Top-Rope Clean)
Climb And Punishment (5.11a Trad) (Top-Rope Flail)
Picket Line (5.9 Trad) (Led with one fall)
Old Age (5.9? Trad) (Led, grabbed a tree)
Snake (5 pitches, 5.9HARD, Trad) (onsight pitches 1, 2, 5; aided crux on pitch 3; top-roped pitch 4)

Bugaboo Snafu

2009-08-17T08:18:00.000-07:00

After getting everything in order so that Melissa would be able to transfer my plates for me once I finally get the title for the new car, I was all set to hit the road Friday morning...until I got sick. I spent Thursday afternoon and all day Friday laying on the couch feeling like crap. After some discussion with Eric, we decided that he would fly out as planned on Saturday, spend the night in Spokane, and I would pick him up Sunday evening, and we would continue with the trip one day short. Fortunately, I felt a lot better Saturday morning, and finally managed to eat something. I made the 15 hour drive to Rapid City, SD, where I stopped at Walmart for the night, then drove the rest of the way to Cour d' Alene, ID, where Eric met me, arriving about 7:30 PM on Sunday. As it turned out, Eric's flight out of Denver was overbooked, so he got a free hotel room. Bonus!

In Cour D' Alene, Eric took over driving. To my surprise, we made it across the Canadian border without being searched or harrassed. This was a first for me. Around 2 in the morning or so, we made it to Bugaboo Provincial Park, and slept in the parking lot. Monday morning, we packed up our gear and, around 11, started the hike in to Applebee Camp. About 4 miles and 2700 vertical feet later, we arrived at camp. In case you are thinking about hiking 4 miles with 2700 feet of elevation gain, carrying a 70 pound pack after being sick for two days and not really eating well for 4 days, I don't recommend it. I was completely wiped out when I got to camp.

The Cruncharu, defended from brake line eating porcupines

Eric on the approach. Snowpatch Spire visible on the right.

Eric again. Unknown glacier in the background.

Applebee Camp

View from Applebee Camp

It started raining when I was about a quarter mile from camp. It didn't really stop until about 2:00PM the next day. About a mile below the campground is the Conrad Kain Hut, a shelter maintained by the Alpine Club of Canada for use by climbers. We weren't staying in the hut because I'm a cheapskate, but we hiked down there Monday morning to escape the rain.

The Kain Hut, from the approach to Applebee Camp

In addition to making us wet, the rain brought mud and rock slides down the Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col. This posed a problem since the approach and/or descent to/from a lot of routes passes through this col, and the rockfall left dangerous conditions there. So much for doing the Kain Route on Bugaboo Spire.

The Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col after the rockslides.

After drying out at the hut, and having a nice hot dinner, we headed back to camp, with the promise of clear skies in the forecast for the next day. Wednesday morning, we woke up early and headed toward our objective for the day: the Crescent Towers.

Looking back on Applebee Camp from the approach to the Crescent Towers

For our first climb of the trip, we opted for a relatively short climb (6 pitches), with a relatively easy approach (about an hour and a half of scrambling from camp), called Lion's Way, on the Left Central Crescent Tower. The climb had one 5.6 pitch and the rest was 4th class or easy 5th class. It was a fun climb, with one of the highlights being an easy, but exposed arete on the second to last pitch.

Looking up the final pitch of Lion's Way

Me and Eric on top of the Crescent Towers.

We summited before noon and were back in camp between 1 and 2 PM. I've never finished a multi-pitch route before noon before. After lounging around camp for a while, we hiked to the toe of the Bugaboo Glacier to check out the approach to Pigeon Spire. It was going to be a long approach, with substantial glacier travel.

After getting all our gear ready for an alpine start on Pigeon Spire, we got the weather forecast. Crap. They were now calling for a 70% chance of rain, starting in the afternoon, and a 70% chance of rain on Friday. Given this, we decided to abandon our plans for Pigeon Spire, and hike out on Thursday. The prospects of a descent and hike back to camp in the rain, and a hike out, with soaking wet gear in the rain were not appealing.

Wednesday night, I woke up to the sound of rain on the tent, then it softened to what sounded like a light drizzle. Later, I got up to go to the bathroom, and the fly was sagging in. Wondering why, I pushed out on it, and about an inch of snow slid off. Great! Snow! By morning, however, it quickly melted off, and the day was remarkably sunny. We dried the tent out, packed up and hiked back to the car. About the time we got there, it started raining.

We drove back to Spokane, again crossing the border without incident, to my amazement. We managed to stumble onto a free, Department of Natural Resources campground outside Spokane, and camped for the night. Friday, we went looking for TumTum Canyon, a climbing area described in Rock 'N' Road. With help from rockclimbing.com, we managed to find it. There didn't seem to be as much climbing there as the book suggested, but we did find some stuff to climb.

A 5.9-ish mixed climb at TumTum

After three climbs, it started raining and we called it a day. The following day, we headed to the Minnehaha climbing area near downtown Spokane. It is a pretty small crag with lots of top-roping, and some scary leads. This time, we managed four climbs before the rain hit.

The Dihedral (5.9+) at Minnehaha

We headed to David's Pizza in Spokane for dinner (awesome pizza!), then got a hotel room. Sunday morning, I dropped Eric off for his flight, got some more sleep, got an oil change and headed to Seattle to visit with Tom and Sarah. Soon, I'm off to Squamish....

Route List for 8/10-17:

Lion's Way on Central Crescent Towers, Bugaboos (6 pitches, 5.6, Trad)
Unknown easy dihedral, TumTum (5.4-ish Trad) (Onsight)
Unknown bolted face climb, TumTum (5.10a-ish) (TR clean)
Unknown mixed climb, TumTum (5.9-ish mixed) (Onsight)
Unknown dihedral climb, right end of main wall, Minnehaha (5.6-ish Trad) (TR clean)
The Dihedral, Main Wall, Minnehaha (5.9+ trad) (Hangdog)
Unknown Face climb, left of The Diagonal, Main Wall, Minnehaha (5.10a-ish) (TR clean)
The Diagonal, Main Wall, Minnehaha (5.8R Trad) (TR clean)

Mt. Rushmore and The Needles

2009-08-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

OK, finally getting caught up on my blogging. I had a lot of photos to go through!

After leaving Devil's Tower, I caught up with Kayte and Jay at the Wrinkled Rock Trailhead camping area for a couple days of climbing on the grounds of the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial. I had fun top-roping some of the hard climbs they put up, leading a couple easier climbs, and watching Jay send Butterfly (5.12), which I didn't even bother trying to TR.

Me trying to work out the move I didn't want to commit to on The Pollenator.
I escaped left and traversed back into the climb.

Shadow of Jay climbing Baba Cool

After two days climbing at Rushmore, I totalled my car, as documented in a previous post. After buying a new car/home and taking a second day off to recuperate, Kayte and Jay left to head home, and I headed toward Custer State Park, in hopes of finding someone to climb with in The Needles.

My new car/home

For some reason, I was under the impression I might have trouble finding partners in The Needles. As it turns out, that couldn't have been farther from the truth. I drove in the Sylvan Lake entrance to the park, parked at the general store parking lot and had met climbing partners within about 5 minutes. So, I headed out for the day with John Biddick and his band of merry men and women. I'm not even sure how many people were climbing with us...8 or 10 maybe. We spent the day at an area called Moonlight Ridge, where John had done a lot of the development.

Top-roping at Moonlight Ridge

After a great day of climbing, I was invited back to Alan's cabin for the annual Sticky Ball game. This rough approximation of baseball played with a stick and a tennis ball on a wooded hill outside Alan's cabin may well have been the most fun I've ever had playing a "team sport." In the words of John, however, "Baseball is about the team...other places. Here, it's all about individual performance." Nobody will remember if you win or lose, but if you get stitches in your face sliding head-first into first, nobody will forget, or something like that. :-) So, yeah, 30 or 4o people, mostly climbers, great food and much hilarity. I had a blast, of course.

After the party, I managed to back into a ditch and get stuck, trying to turn around on a dirt road. From top of the world to frustrated and angry at myself in 5 seconds flat. I slept as much as I could, waited until a decent hour of the morning, and walked a mile and a half or so back to the Sylvan Lake store to use the phone, since my cell phone doesn't get reception pretty much anywhere outside of towns in South Dakota (thanks, AT&T!). I called my auto club and got a tow truck to come winch me out of the ditch. Man, has that Better World Club membership paid for itself.... As I left the store, I ran into Kevin, who I had met at the party the night before, and he gave me a ride back to my car, saving me another 1.5 mile walk.

After my car was out of the ditch, I caught up with Kevin, who was still waiting for other people to climb with. Apparently, people got around a little slowly the day after the party.... Kevin and I climbed Moonlight Rib, an easy romp in view of the Needle's Eye parking lot, then met up with John and others to head back up to Moonlight Ridge.

Alisha following me up a climb I can't recall the name of at the Third Area on Moonlight Ridge

The following day, Kevin, Joe, Dave, and I met up with Alisha and Amanda and hiked out to the Cathedral Spires. We decided to climb two different routes up Spire Two in two teams of three. Joe, Dave, and Alisha headed up the Conn Route, while Kevin, Amanda, and I set out to do Jan And Jane. I'm not sure if that's the route we actually did or not, but what we did was fairly fun. I started on easy climbing then pulled up through an awkward slot and set a gear belay. From here, there was a piton off to the right, and the Jan and Jane route seems to be described as going up the ridge. We didn't use the piton and, instead, stuck to a crack system. The climb is also supposed to be 5.5 but felt like 5.7+ to me. So, I'm not exactly sure what we climbed, but we made it up. :-) By the time we got to the second belay, however, with one pitch to go, it started sprinkling pretty good. Everyone was wet and cold and we decided to bail. We down-climbed to a nearby anchor and rappelled off. As we started to down-climb, the rain picked up, and the thunder was getting closer. Before all was said and done, we got some hail too. The other team, having started a little before us, proceeded to top out, and had to make 2 rappels in the rain to get down. Fun times.

View from the base of Spire 2

Kevin goofing off at the top of the first pitch

Amanda following the second pitch

On my fourth day at the Needles, I set out with Dave, Nick, and Joe to do a couple classics I had wanted to do since I got there: Tent Peg and Tricouni Nail. Both are pinnacles ending in impressively small peaks.

Joe and Nick on top of Tent Peg (taken from Tricouni Nail)

Tricouni Nail (Tent Peg is behind the tree on the right)

After that, we climbed a crack called Dakota-Illinois, and then Sandberg Peak, an impressively thin and improbable looking pinnacle.

Nick on top of Sandberg Peak

At the base of Sandberg, we ran into Paul Piana, who climbed with us for the rest of the day. Dave called a day after Sandberg, but Joe, Nick, Paul, and I headed over and climbed Bloody Spire, and then top-roped a climb on the back of the spire called Beer and Everclear. Well, everyone else did, anyway. I tried it, but fell a couple times on an early move on sharp, painful crimpers and decided I had no interest in trying again.

View from the first pitch belay on Bloody Spire

Paul Piana on Beer and Everclear (5.10hard)

After 4 straight days of climbing, and having done the classics I really wanted to do (there's plenty of great stuff I missed, but I'm sure I'll be back), I took a day in Hill City to do some blogging and catching up on email, then headed back to St. Louis to take care of insurance and car licensing business. On the way home, I stopped for a nice visit with my step-sister, Amy, and spent the night and had a pleasant visit with my dad, as well. Hopefully, I can get all my business taken care of this week, because, whether I do or not, I have to leave Friday morning to drive to Spokane to pick Eric up Saturday night and head to the Bugaboos. Woohoo!

Route List for 7/21-7/28:

All Tuckered Out (5.10-) (TR)
Shady Proposition (5.11) (TR)
The Pollenator Variation(5.10a?) (led with one fall)
Critical View (5.10) (pinkpoint)
Dykes Next Door (5.11) (TR)
The Pollenator (5.10b/c) (TR clean)
Baba Cool (5.9+) (TR clean)
Boxcars and Airplanes (5.7) (pinkpoint)
Unknown 5.10a left arete of 2nd area at Moonlight Ridge (TR clean)
Unknown 5.10a right side of 2nd area at Moonlight Ridge (TR)
Unknown 5.10c left side of 2nd area at Moonlight Ridge (TR)
Waverunner (5.8) (Onsight)
Unknown 5.9 right of Waxing Crescent (5.9, Mixed) (Onsight)
Waxing Crescent (5.10a) (TR clean)
Icarus (5.10b) (TR)
Moonlight Rib (5.4) (Followed clean)
Purple Helmet (5.5, Mixed) (Followed Clean)
Unknown 5.7 Trad route next to Purple Helmet/Darth Vader (Onsight)
Pointless (5.8, Trad) (Onsight)
Unknown 5.8 Trad Route around corner from Pointless (Redpoint)
Jan And Jane Route?, Spire 2 (5.7ish Trad) (Onsight pitch 1, followed pitch 2 clean)
Tent Peg (5.7, Mixed) (Onsight)
Tricouni Nail (a.k.a. Cerberus) (5.8, Mixed) (Onsight)
Dakota-Illinois (5.8, Trad) (TR clean)
Sandberg Peak (5.9) (TR clean)
Bloody Spire (2 pitches, 5.8, Trad) (Followed clean)

A Devilishly Good Time

2009-07-29T16:14:00.001-07:00

Well! This post is way overdue, but the day I planned to post it, I rolled my car, and it took me a while to get back to it.

Back on July 14, after I finally got the new tire for my now defunct car, Jason and I drove to Devil's Tower. We got in late, drove out to the National Forest and camped. In the morning, we headed into the park (or, "National Monument", technically) for our first day of climbing.

It's quite an imposing piece of rock!

For our first climb, we chose to summit via the first pitch of Patent Pending (5.7 or so) to Assembly Line, a 5.9 hand crack that goes on, more or less, until the end of time. I really thought it would never end. It was a major test of endurance. We were both totally exhausted when we got to the top.

Racked up to lead the first pitch of Patent Pending. The pitches are long, so we brought lots of gear....

Jason leading Assembly Line

Jason and Me on top of the Tower

For our second day, we chased the shade, going to the west face in the morning, and heading around to the east side in the morning. In the morning, we climbed a 5.9+ pitch called Man Without a Planet, and in the afternoon, we climbed a classic 5.9 called Soler. The climbing at the top of the tower is less than stellar, so, having reached the summit once, the rest of my stay at the tower, we skipped the final pitches and rappelled off after the good climbing.

Friday, Jason headed home, and I took a rest day. Saturday morning, I met my partner for the weekend, Carl. A bird biologist working in Wyoming to help the power company stop electrocuting eagles, Carl was interesting and a lot of fun to climb and hang out with.

Carl and I also chased shade, climbing McCarthy's West Face Free Variation (5.10a) in the morning, and a route called Broken Tree (5.10b) in the afternoon. I was very pleased to get Broken Tree clean. It had a couple very difficult crux moves which I didn't think I was going to make, but did.

Sunday, we started the day with El Matador. The first pitch is mostly easy, with a short 5.8 crux. The second pitch is the business: A short technical crux in the first 30 feet or so leads to the endurance crux, over 100 feet of stemming between two opposing dihedrals. The crux is keeping your calves from exploding.

Carl following the first pitch of El Matador

The Second pitch of El Matador

After El Mat, I was beat. I just wanted to curl up and die somewhere. We had lots of day left though, so we headed to the East side to to El Cracko Diablo (5.8+). Jason led the first, mostly easy pitch and threw me at the longer, more sustained crux pitch. I whined, cried, complained, sewed it up, almost ran out of gear, walked a piece, back-cleaned pieces, and wanted to quit most of the way, but I made it to the top, and was happy I'd done it. It really was a great climb.

Carl headed home (well, to the hotel he was calling home, in the course of his work), and I drove back out to the National Forest for one more night in the shadow of Devil's Tower.

Monday, I drove to Cook Lake, and hung out by the lake reading for a while, then headed toward the Black Hills. On the way, I got a message from Kate and Jay, two climbers I had met (thanks to Carl, who was super-outgoing and talked to every climber we encountered) at Devil's Tower, saying they had decided to go climb at Mt. Rushmore, so I met up with them Monday evening. Yay! People to climb with. :-)

And so, the sun set on my Devil's Tower experience.....

Route List for 7/14-7/19:

Patent Pending Pitch 1 (5.7, Trad) (Onsight)
Assembly Line (3 pitches, 350-400 ft, 5.9, Trad) (Followed pitches 1 and 3, onsight pitch 2, 5.7?)
Man Without a Planet (5.9+, Trad) (TR clean)
Soler (Onsight pitch 1, 5.8+, Trad; Followed pitch 2 clean, 5.9-, Trad)
McCarthy's West Face Free Variation (Followed pitch 1 clean, 5.9+, Trad; Followed pitch 2, 5.10a, Trad, with a hang or two)
Broken Tree (Onsight Pitch 1, 5.7, Trad; Followed Pitch 2, 5.10b, Trad, clean)
El Matador (Onsight Pitch 1, 5.8, Trad; Followed Pitch 2, 5.10d, Trad, several hangs)
El Cracko Diablo (Followed Pitch 1, 5.8, Trad; Onsight Pitch 2, 5.8+, Trad)

Death of Crunchinator

2009-07-24T10:11:00.001-07:00

It started like an average rest day...lazily. I got up, made breakfast, and got ready to drive into town to do some emailing and various town things. I have been climbing and hanging out with Jay and Kate, two most excellent human beings I met at Devil's Tower. We were all taking a rest day. I got up earlier, and left for town first.

On the drive to town, everything suddenly stopped being normal. I was coming around a curve, heading down a hill, when suddenly, my wheels started to slide. I tried to react to the fishtail, but things started happening really fast. I tapped the guard rail, and the rear of my truck swung around. I was now sideways, perpendicular to a downhill road, and to my direction of travel, in a top heavy vehicle, with extra weight on top in my gear box. Not good. I felt the car start to tip and there was nothing I could do except wait for the ride to end and hope I came out of it alright.

The truck came to rest on the driver's side. I remember noticing that it was still sliding after thinking it had stopped moving. I guess it must have spun around while it was sliding, because it came to rest with the wheels facing downhill and the front away from the guardrail...definitely not the way it started. I think it rolled onto the top then back onto the driver's side. It probably slid 100 feet after it started rolling.

My first thought after the truck stopped moving was, "I have to get out of here." Then, I calmed down a little, and turned off the ignition, un-buckled my seatbelt, untangled myself from the stuff and started to climb out. I opened the passenger side door and some kind soul held it open for me while I climbed out. Those doors are heavy.

After a while, Jay and Kate came by on their way into town. Seeing me, they stopped. Kate was a complete sweetheart, comforting me and making sure I drank plenty of water. After getting all my stuff thrown into my car at the tow yard (if you can call it that....), we headed into Rapid City. I decided, since the truck is certainly totaled, the most expedient course would be to buy a new car. Since my car was also my home, going without one would be tricky, and I didn't want to impose on Jay and Kate any more than necessary. If I couldn't buy a car right away, I would need to rent one.

Me with the until-recently-trustworthy steed

Inspecting the damage

My life spilled out into the back of a pickup

Jay and Kate, two of the most awesome people in the universe.

I quickly located a 1999 Subaru Outback that was in my price range, and completed the purchase by 4:00 or so. No pics of the new ride, yet. I should have taken some, but I didn't. Anyway, from there I bought a new Yakima box, which mounted nicely on the Outback's factory rack, and, soon was back in business. I headed back to the morgue to pick clean the body of my fallen soldier. It was a long and arduous task, but I got the new car loaded up and ready to go and was back at camp by 10pm. I still need to install my stereo in the new car and finish putting up curtains, and a few other finishing touches, but home is well on it's way to being re-established.

More soon with pics from climbing at Devil's Tower and the Black Hills!

Wy oming? Why Not?

2009-07-14T11:13:00.000-07:00

About a week ago, I left Denver and headed to Vedauwoo, near Laramie, Wyoming. First, however, I re-united with Preston for a day of climbing in Eldorado Canyon, outside of Boulder. We met up two Mondays ago and headed to Eldo for Preston's first multi-pitch climbing experience. We headed to the Wind Tower, a nice easy approach with some fun, moderate climbing. First, we did a three pitch climb called Wind Ridge, 5.6. Apparently, most people walk off after the second pitch, avoiding a weird move at the start of the third pitch. They are missing out! It's funky, but 3/5 of "funky" is "fun"! After Wind Ridge, we climbed the first pitch of Calypso (5.6) to finish on Reggae (5.8). Both were very fun and worthwhile pitches.

Preston follows the first pitch of Wind Ridge (well, OK, we actually did kind of an alternate first pitch. We got to the right place, though.)

Me and Preston on top of Wind Tower

Calypso follows the second dihedral from the left, traverses under a small roof and ends at the ledge about midway up (A climber is visible in the dihedral). Reggae steps about 10 feet right from the top of Calypso and follows another prominent dihedral through a couple of small roofs and a distinct crux section at the top, ending at the broken ledge system below the summit cap.

Upon my arrival at Vedauwoo, I hooked up with Jason. Jason lives in Laramie, where he has been going to grad school, and currently, having elected not to take a summer job, has a lot of time on his hands, which is great for me. :-) We climbed together Wednesday and Thursday. We both took Friday off after taking a beating from the sun for two days (and with Jason still recovering from the flu).

Jason checking out Wild Thing, 5.10b (the crack with the distinct roof in the center of the photo)

On the right-most formation, you can see a curving line on the right side. This is the flake that forms the climb Flake, 5.8+. Inside the flake is a wide crack which you climb to the top, with the crux coming when you have to transition from the outer flake to another crack formed by an inner flake. You can't tell in the picture, but the whole flake leans outward, so the top of the climb is frighteningly exposed. I can't remember the last time I was so scared on lead.

View from the top of one of the day's climbs.

Sunset from near my camp on Friday night

Friday night, after spending some time at the library, and otherwise bumming around Laramie, I had the misfortune of choosing to camp in what ended up being the local party hang-out. About 2am, with a car playing loud music 10 feet from me, I couldn't take it any more, packed up and drove off to find a quieter place to sleep the rest of the night. Despite the rough night, I got up in the morning and went in search of climbing partners. Jason was climbing with another partner who works during the week. I probably could have joined them, but poor cell phone service kept us from hooking up. No problem, though. I went to the Nautilus parking lot and quickly hooked up with a group of three guys from Fort Collins, Matt, Mike, and Nick. We did some climbs on the Nautilus, and generally had a fun, albeit hot, day.

Matt belays Nick on Lower Progressive (5.7+), a stout, sustained, off-width climb. Lower Progressive (5.9 +) in the background.

Slit (5.7) starts up a fun, easy, chimney, then climbs flakes past the off-width at the top.

Sunday, I was kind of sore and tired, and maybe a little grumpy. I drove to the parking lot, but didn't feel like looking for someone to climb with. I ended up driving into Laramie in the afternoon, at which point I blew out a tire. After a bit of an ordeal changing the tire with the help of a friendly stranger with an axe (the wheel was rusted on and we used the blunt side of the axe to beat it off), I got to town and went to Wal-Mart (the only tire place open on a Sunday afternoon). Unfortunately, they did not have the size tire I needed, so I would have to skip climbing Monday morning (as Jason and I had planned) to go into town and get a tire. Oh well, no big deal.

View from near my camp Sunday night

Monday. Monday, monday. Monday the thirteenth, in fact, and more frightful than any Friday I've had. It was one of those days that you know is going to be one of those days from the time you get up, yet, for some reason, you don't have the good sense to say "the hell with it" and go back to bed. It started with little things...dropping things, knocking things over, spilling my coffee beans..... Then, I backed into a tree. Why did I try to drive, again, anyway? I really should have known better. I didn't check out the damage right away, but when I did, it was a lot worse than I had first expected. The bumper was bent up of course, but the tailgate was dented in as well...dented enough that the rear window wouldn't go down, which meant I couldn't open the tailgate...not a huge problem but highly annoying. I made it to town without further mis-hap. The first tire shop I went to, also did not have the size tire I needed in stock. So, I went to the other tire shop in town.... They told me that the size tire I had was a real odd-ball. It was only shipped on a couple of models of car. They didn't have any either. You see, when I was in West Virginia, I needed a new set of tires. The guy at the tire shop there talked me into getting a different size than the original one on my car, to save me a little money. I see now that he scammed me to get rid of 4 tires he was stuck with and couldn't move. Blah. So, I had to order a tire. It should come in today (Tuesday). This, of course, meant that Jason and I would not be able to leave for Devil's Tower Monday afternoon as planned. After venting some frustration and ordering a tire, I headed to a nearby body shop where they said they could pull out the tailgate enough to get the window functioning for $50. That was the best news I'd heard all day. I left my car there, and Jason picked me up and we headed out to Vedauwoo to get a couple climbs in.

Captain Nemo (5.8). Definitely a stout 8, but that goes without saying at Vedauwoo

Grand Traverse (5.10a) We didn't do the "traverse" part. That's pitch 2. The moves getting past the roof at the top are super tricky. You chimney up until you can get a finger lock on the left, then reach over to a flaring hand jam in the right side crack, then have to awkwardly swing your right foot over to a good hold. Crazy!

Today, Jason and I will leave for Devil's Tower, one way or another. If worse comes to worst, I will leave my car here and ride up with Jason, then come back here, and drive back up by myself later. Jason will only be going up there until Friday. Hopefully, they will get my tire in by 3 or so, get it put on, and I'll be able to head out, in my own vehicle, at a decent time. We shall see!

Route List for 7/6-14:

Wind Ridge (3 pitches, 5.6 Trad) (Onsight)
Calypso Pitch One (5.6 Trad) (Onsight)
Reggae (5.8 Trad) (Onsight)
Cold Finger (5.7) (Onsight)
Hole (5.7 Trad) (TR clean)
Flake (5.8+ Trad) (Led with a couple hangs)
Wild Thing (5.10b Trad) (TR, had to aid the crux)
Soft Touch ("5.5" Trad 5.7 is more fair) (Onsight)
Zipper Pitch 2 (5.7+ Trad) (TR clean)
Hammer Pitch 1 (5.7+ Trad) (Onsight)
Nail (5.7+ Trad) (TR clean)
Handjacker (5.7+ Trad) (Hangdog) - I finished the lead of this stout offwidth after Mike bailed. I had to hang a couple times though.
Lower Progressive (5.9+ Trad) (TR)
Slit (5.7 Trad) (TR clean)
Mother 1 (5.7+ Trad) (Onsight)
Captain Nemo (5.8 Trad) (Led with one take)
Grand Traverse Pitch One (5.10a Trad) (TR clean) - Damn proud of this one!

Colorado Climbing

2009-07-05T18:04:00.001-07:00

Colorado: Gateway to the West. Or is that St. Louis? Well, for me, it is Colorado, my first stop on the western leg of my great journey. My base of operations for a little over a week now has been the home of my most gracious friend, Aarrun, in Aurora, a suburb of Denver.

My first foray out from base-camp, was to a familiar destination, Lumpy Ridge, north of Estes Park. I made an alpine start, getting up before the sun to drive to Lumpy to meet my partner for the day, Cameron. Cameron and I climbed a route called The Sorceror (3 pitches, 5.8+ Trad), then climbed the first pitch of Orange Julius, and called it a day. After a beer at Ed's Cantina, I headed back to base-camp.

The Sorceror follows a corner system to the right of the buttress in the center of the photo, then traverses out the roof about 2/3 of the way up and follows the line of the sun up the right-most peak. Orange Julius climbs a corner then traverses out the huge roof visible in the lower center.

View from the 2nd pitch belay on The Sorceror

Looking down the 2nd pitch of The Sorceror

Monday, I met Brian, in town from Dallas, and Ken, from Boulder, in Golden for a day of sport-cragging at Clear Creek Canyon.

Ken leading Muddy Waters (5.9)

Me top-roping Via Comatose Amigo (5.10b)

A view of the High Wire Crag from the road

Monday, after returning from Golden, I headed south to Colorado Springs, met up with my good friends Steven and Stacey, on vacation from St. Louis, and established Advance Base Camp at Steven and Stacey's hotel room. From the Travelodge (or ABC as I like to call it), Stacey and I struck out on Tuesday, to climb several objectives in the Garden of the Gods. The Garden is a Colorado Springs city park and is visited by approximately 4 billion people per second. It has the interesting property of making climbers feel like animals in a zoo. Despite this, it has some fun and exciting climbing on really awful, soft, crumbly rock. It's also awful purdy.

Stacey follows Cowboy Boot Crack (5.6)

Unknown climber standing on top of Red Twin Pillar

Stacey poking her head out around the South Ridge of White Twin Spire

Me and Stacey at the base of the West Face of White Twin Spire

Big-Horn Sheep across from the parking lot at Garden of the Gods

Wednesday, I drove out into the Pike National Forest to climb at a formation called Turkey Rock. My partner for the day was a guy named Steve, from Boulder. We climbed one pitch of a 5.7 called Nighttime Madness to warm up, then rappelled off to try to climb Gobbler's Grunt (5.9), and a grunt it was! Steve led the first pitch, which was challenging, with a distinct crux pulling around a roof (5.9). He then handed me the lead for the sustained second pitch, which had sustained 5.9 climbing up parallel finger to off-finger cracks. This pitch completely kicked my ass. I got up it, but did so in flat-out embarrassing fashion. I essentially aided it, placing gear every 3 feet or so and resting on almost every piece. I also had a lesson in how not to place a nut, when I rested on one and it popped, sending me for an 8-10' ride to where I was caught by my next piece down (a solid cam). When Steve got done laughing at me (OK, actually, he didn't laugh...he got his ass kicked pretty well by this pitch too), he led the final 5.8 pitch, which had tricky moves out of the belay, followed by easier climbing to the summit. Overall, this was an awesome route, with stellar climbing on great rock throughout. One day I will do it again in better style.

The pitch that kicked my ass

On top of Turkey Rock

Thursday, after camping in the Pike National Forest (Steven and Stacey had headed on to Denver to meet up with Aarrun and proceed to Rocky Mountain National Park for some backpacking), I drove back into Colorado Springs and met up with a friend of my sister, Preston. I took Preston out to the Red Rock Canyon Open Space, another Colorado Springs city park (much less crowded than the Garden) for his first day of climbing outside. After some coaching on lead-belay technique, Preston and I climbed several pleasant, mostly slabby, sport routes. Preston did a great job, leading most of the climbs on my draws, and hanging the draws on the last one. For his first time outside, on slab, he did an incredible job. Sprinkling rain and threatening storms cut us short after five climbs. As it turned out, we could have gotten more in, but we didn't feel like risking getting caught in a downpour.

Preston on top of Virgin Bolters (5.9-)

After a rest/travel day Friday, I met up with Steven, Stacey, and Aarrun again at their campsite in RMNP. We made dinner and spent a pleasant evening hanging out by the fire. In the morning, Stacey and I headed for Lumpy Ridge to attempt to climb Batman and Robin (5.6) on the Batman Pinnacle. The weather was nice in the morning, but the forecast got increasingly menacing as the day advanced. We tried to move quickly on the approach, and located what I thought was the route. I led the first pitch, which was supposed to be 5.5. It felt a little stout to me, but not entirely unreasonable. I passed a fixed rappel station and eventually built an anchor in a horizontal crack below a left angling dihedral. Consulting my topo, I decided I had to be off-route. The climbing on the upper part of the pitch and the pitch above me just didn't match what it was supposed to be. I went ahead and started bringing Stacey up. She struggled. A lot. She fell about 10 feet up, and with a little slack out and rope stretch, landed on the ground. She got back on and showed no sign of quitting, fighting her way up the pitch. With me off-route, her struggling, and weather moving in (it was starting to sprinkle), I decided we would bail from the fixed anchor 40' below me. I would have Stacey stop there and set a belay; I would down-climb; and we would rappel off. Some time after I came to this decision, another group which had shown up looking to do the same climb informed us that we were not on the climb we thought we were on. In fact, we were not even on the right formation. We were actually on a 5.9 called Crystal Catch on Checkerboard Rock. Oops.

Stacey on pitch 1 of Crystal Catch

We got off of the route safely and, with rain threatening, called it a day. We drove back to Aarrun's and showered, in preparation for a fun evening of beer, barbqcue, and watching fireworks from Aarrun's friends' condo balcony.

Today, I took another rest day. I joined Steven and Stacey for the Coors brewery tour in Golden, then spent some time at Bent Gate Mountaineering researching climbs for tomorrow and trying not to buy too much. Tomorrow, Preston is joining me to climb at Eldorado Canyon. Hopefully, I will do a better job of finding the routes than I did at Lumpy on Saturday.

Route List for 6/28-7/4:

The Sorceror on (The Bookend, Lumpy Ridge) (3 pitches, 5.8+ Trad) (onsight 2nd pitch, followed 1st and third clean)
Orange Julius Pitch 1 (The Bookend, Lumpy Ridge) (5.9 Trad) (TR)
The Put-In (River Wall, Clear Creek Canyon) (5.7) (TR clean)
Muddy Waters (River Wall, Clear Creek Canyon) (5.9) (TR clean)
5th of July (High Wire Crag, Cleer Creek Canyon) (5.9) (Pinkpoint)
Deuces Wild Pitch 1 (High Wire Crag, Cleer Creek Canyon) (5.10a) (TR clean)
Via Comatose Amigo (High Wire Crag, Cleer Creek Canyon) (5.10b) (TR clean)
Bypass (High Wire Crag, Cleer Creek Canyon) (5.10c) (TR clean)
Cowboy Boot Crack (Garden of the Gods) (5.6 Trad) (Onsight)
Finger Ramp (Garden of the Gods) (5.7) (Onsight)
Unknown below Finger Ramp (Garden of the Gods) (5.10 hard - 11ish) (TR)
South Ridge of White Twin Spire (Garden of the Gods) (5.6 Trad) (Onsight)
West Face of White Twin Spire (Garden of the Gods) (5.8?? felt 10ish to me) (TR clean)
Potholes (Garden of the Gods, Red Twin Spire) (5.7) (Onsight)
Nighttime Madness Pitch 1 (Turkey Rock) (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Gobbler's Grunt (Turkey Rock) (3 pitches, 5.9 Trad) (Followed pitch 1 and 3 clean, hangdogged pitch 2)
Whale Rider (Red Rocks Canyon, The Whale) (5.6) (Onsight)
Tempest Toast (Red Rocks Canyon, The Whale) (5.6) (Onsight)
Finnacle (Red Rocks Canyon, The Whale) (5.7) (Onsight)
Virgin Bolters (Red Rocks Canyon, The Whale) (5.9-) (Onsight)
Just Happens (Red Rocks Canyon, The Whale) (5.9-) (Pinkpoint)
Crystal Catch Pitch 1 (Lumpy Ridge, Checkerboard Rock) (5.9? Felt easier to me, Trad) (Onsight)

In Denver

2009-06-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

Well, after a caffeine and sugar powered trip to Sedalia, Monday, running on 3 hours sleep, I had a nice visit with my Grandma and Grandpa Smith and my aunt Janet. Grandpa is recovering well from his knee surgery and should be home now. Tuesday morning, I hung out chatting with Grandma and watching an Amish man cut down a tree in their back yard, hoping he wasn't going to drop it on the house. All went well and it came down just as he planned. Phew!

Tuesday afternoon, I drove to Dad's and had him help me drop my car off at the shop again. The temperature gauge had been getting pretty high, and I had to put some coolant in it once on the way to Sedalia. We visited my Grandma Mitchell (Dad's mom) in the nursing home and visited my aunt and uncle, Marilyn and Dean. I took my dad to work and went to dinner with my cousin, Mike, and had a really nice time chatting with him.

Thursday morning, I got my car back. They replaced the radiator *again*. Apparently, when it overheated a couple of times after the radiator was replaced, it damaged the neck of the radiator and the cap wouldn't seal properly any more. They also replaced the fan clutch. So far, so good. It seems to be holding up, and the temp is staying down, so maybe it's fixed for good now. *knock on wood*

I had lunch with my dad and an old high school friend, also named Geoff. It was good to catch up a little. After lunch, I headed out to visit my sister near Omaha. We had a nice visit. Her daughter, Liliana, is quite the cutie. It's crazy how much she looks like Sara when she was young.

Friday, I wasn't sure if I wanted to stick around or head out for Denver. Eventually, around 5:00, I decided to hit the road. By about 12:30, mountain time, I rolled in to my friend Aarrun's place in Denver. Today, I went to the Denver Pride Festival with Aarun for a while. Tomorrow, I think I'm going to drive up to Lumpy Ridge to climb. I can't wait to get back on the rock!

Leaving Again...

2009-06-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

Well, after an eventful week in St. Louis, I'm on my way again. I'm headed to Sedalia to visit my grandpa in the hospital (he had knee surgery a couple weeks ago, and is going home tomorrow), and spend some time with my Aunt Jan and my grandma. From there, I will head to Lee's Summit to spend some time with my dad, and visit other family. Then, I'll be headed to Omaha to visit my sister. After the visiting is completed, I'll be on my way to Colorado to resume your regularly scheduled climbing trip. Can you believe I haven't climbed in 3 weeks? What's wrong with me?

Hockey Hall of Fame, Niagara Falls, and Homeward Bound...

2009-06-18T12:21:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning, I went for coffee with Danielle, then we walked toward the Hockey Hall of Fame, stopping to get some tasty Thai sandwiches for lunch. Danielle left me near the Hall and headed toward work. I spent the afternoon wandering the Hall, taking in the decades of hockey history.

Stanley And Me

After closing down the Hall, I walked back to Danielle's, stopping at a Poutinerie for dinner. In retrospect, I should have photographed my food. Poutine is a quebecois dish consisting of french fries, with cheese curds, covered in brown gravy. How can you go wrong?

Arriving back at Danielle's, I elected to move my car in order to avoid getting a second parking ticket for being parked on her street after 7:00PM. In the process, I noticed a HUGE puddle of coolant under the car, and that, despite re-filling the coolant, the engine just didn't sound or feel right. I decided then and there that I couldn't risk trying to drive home with the car in it's current state. I was going to have to get it looked at in Toronto. After some rigmarole I won't go into, I found, to my surprise, a mechanic open at 7:00 PM in the evening. They looked at the car right away, and traced the leak to the water pump. I left the car there and they kindly gave me a ride back to Danielle's neighborhood. I had been planning to watch Game 6 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. By this time, I had missed the first period, but found a nearby bar where I was able to take in the last two.

Wednesday, I pretty much just sat around waiting for my car to be ready, which it finally was around 9:00PM. Thursday morning, I said my goodbyes and hit the road.

I figured I couldn't be an hour and a half away from Niagara Falls and not go check it out, even though it meant adding a couple hours drive time to my trip home. I'm glad I did, because now I never have to go back.

Seriously, the falls are pretty, but the area around it is a nightmarish tourist hell. If you're in the area, stop by to be able to say you've seen it, but don't plan on spending more than a couple hours. Whatever you do, don't pay the $18 to park in the lot for the day. On the, Canadian side, at least on a weekday, it's no problem to get a metered spot for $1.50 an hour, and you're not going to be there more than 2 hours anyway, remember?

With Niagara Falls behind me, all that lay between me and home was a 12 hour power drive. By 12:30 or 1:00 AM, Central Time, I was pulling into my driveway.

Wow, the last couple months are really kind of a blur. It actually feels weird to be home, to see places that are familiar. Just driving and knowing where I was going felt strange. It's a feeling I've gotten unaccustomed to. It's good to be home and see my awesome friends, but, already, I've got the itch to be on the road again....

Backpacking Bruce Peninsula

2009-06-16T14:14:00.000-07:00

On the Friday after I arrived in Toronto, Danielle and I drove up to Bruce Peninsula National Park, on the Georgian Bay, about 4 hours north of Toronto.

View Larger Map

Well, in theory, it's about 4 hours from Toronto. A few wrong turns and an overheated engine compounded to make it closer to 6 for us. Frankly, though, our "wrong turns" took us on a rather enjoyable and scenic detour, and, while I was pouring water into the radiator, a guy stopped to see if we needed help who was such a perfect Canadian stereotype I really regretted that it would have been such a faux pas to ask to take his picture. Really, my trip would have been less complete without either experience.

As the day progressed, we scaled back our plans a couple times. The initial plan was to hike about 8km to a campsite for the evening. Plan B was to drive to a different trailhead and hike about 3km to a campsite. When we arrived at the park, at 7:00PM or so, we drove to a car camping campground, and decided that would be a fine place to spend the night. :-) Fortunately, during the trip, we also discovered that, due to a mis-communication we had a day longer than I thought we did for the trip, so losing a day of hiking didn't impact our plans. I also had plenty of food in the car, so adding an extra dinner to the trip was no problem. Sometimes living in your car is awfully convienient.

Saturday morning, we decided on Plan B for our route and set out on the trail for a 3km or so hike to a campsite. There is no dispersed camping allowed in the park. All camping is at designated campsites with tent platforms and composting toilets. I'm not a big fan of the approach, but it is, at least, pretty well done. The campsites are pretty well spread out, so you're not camping right on top of anyone or anything, and the locations are beautiful.

There were lots of sea gulls

Some of them flew around

Danielle on the beach near our first night's camp

Geoff on the beach somewhere along the trail

The Massassauga Rattlesnake I almost set my pack down on (double-click to zoom in)

The tent platform

After setting up camp (and laying around in the sun on the beach for a while), we day-hiked up to Indian Head Cove and The Grotto. The unfortunate part of this is that these areas are also easily day-hiked from the car-camping area, so there were about a zillion other people there. The Grotto is a huge sea cave, that is supposed to be really cool, but we didn't really check it out much because it was absolutely swarming with people. Indian Head Cove, by contrast, was not so busy when we were there, and it was gorgeous.

Pac-Man Heart

Indian Head Cove

There was lots of rock that begged to be climbed, though nothing was terribly tall. Much of it looked like it would fall apart in your hands, but was actually more solid than it appeared.

Climbing around near Indian Head Cove.
I found out later that "bouldering" is prohibited in the park. Oops.

The sun sets on our first day out....

The next day, we packed up and headed about 8km down the trail to another campsite. It was a pretty short hike, but, although the terrain was reasonably flat, it was pretty rugged.

This tree fascinated me. It was it's own little eco-system.
It was obviously full of insects, which the woodpeckers had feasted on.
There were numerous fungi growing on it, slugs crawling around.... It was great.

In many places, there were enourmous rock shelters in the sea cliffs. Also, there were frequently these chasms in the ground where the rock had split apart, usually bridged in places by tree roots, and dirt. In one place, there were a couple of these these chasms that opened out into the huge rockshelter below! It was kind of creepy to be like 50 feet from the edge of the cliff, look down, and see daylight through a hole below you!

Loons (I think) hanging out on a boulder in the bay.

The coastline.

Kind of a crappy picture, but the only one I took of Dani and I together.

Sunset the second night kind of kicked the first night's butt

It was pretty seriously awesome.

On the third day, we hiked out in the rain (which, conveniently, didn't start until we had made breakfast and packed up the tent, which had dried out nicely after the first night's rain. The drive back to Toronto was pleasantly uneventful.

Eastern Canada Lightning Tour

2009-06-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been a while since I've posted. Sorry about that. I am writing this from the comfort of my home in St. Louis, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I left Maine June 1st, and drove to Quebec City. Customs had fun tearing my car apart for half an hour. I have my whole life in my car. Searching it had to be a daunting task. By the time they opened the top box, they pretty much gave up. I made arrangements through couchsurfing.org for a place to stay in Quebec. If you aren't familiar with couchsurfing, check it out. It's a cool community. So, I got to Quebec in the early afternoon and called Francis, who I had arrangements to stay with. We met and he showed me his apartment and then we met up with some of his friends and went to walk around old town Quebec City. Quebec was originally a fortified city and the stone wall is still there around the old city. It's pretty cool. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera with me, so do a google image search and pretend I took the pics. :-)

I had a very nice evening hanging out with Francis and company, then got up in the morning and drove to Ottawa, with a brief stop, on the way, in Montreal. I didn't really know where to go in Montreal, and ended up just wandering around the Olympic Park area, because I was lured there by this building:

I only had a couple hours, so not much time to explore. Oh well, I guess I'll have to go back another time.

I arrived in Ottawa around 5:00, and met up with Mike, who, once again, I hooked up with through couchsurfing. Mike had to go teach (he teaches English as a foreign language classes), so his roommate, Scott, showed me around the City. We walked down to Parliament Hill, then met with a friend of his and went to a pub for dinner and to watch Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals, which was great. I hadn't gotten to see any of the playoffs yet, and it was a great game.

Home of the Cats of Parliament Hill

The Library of the Parliament

The front of the Parliament building

Wednesday, I drove from Ottawa to Toronto, arriving at Danielle's in the early afternoon. I spent the next couple days hanging out with Danielle and exploring Toronto (well, more just wandering randomly trying to find my way back to Danielle's, but we'll call it "exploring"). Friday, we would leave for a brief backpacking trip in the Bruce Peninsula National Park, but I will get to that in the next installment....

Mainely Rain

2009-05-31T18:27:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday, I drove to Maine. I was having a lot of trouble finding an inexpensive place to camp in the area where I wanted to be, so I spent the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Bangor. It's not the most scenic, but at least it's free.

Wednesday morning, I got a phone call from a woman named Danielle, who I had been in touch with about climbing in the area. After some discussion, we decided to meet at Acadia National Park and try to get some climbs in. The forecast was indicating afternoon showers, but it looked like they might hold off until late afternoon.

We met up around 10:30 and headed to The Precipice area at Acadia. We started at the right end of the cliff at some short climbs. Danielle led a climb called Wafer Step and then we top-roped Recollections of Pacifica. As we were finishing up the second climb, it started sprinkling. So much for the rain holding off until late afternoon. We stuck around for a while in hopes that it would stop, but it didn't. It was an unfortunately short day, but some climbing is better than none!

Wafer Step, with the rope on it. Recollections of Pacifica follows the crack on the left.

View from the top of the climbs

Before Danielle left, she invited me to "camp" in her warehouse in Morrill, Maine, about 2 hours from Acadia. I was thinking I would just camp in the park, though it is kind of expensive. I spent a little time hanging out in the town of Bar Harbor, and some time driving around the park, then decided that, given that it was supposed to rain for the next couple of days, and, if I climbed, it would probably be with Danielle anyway, there was no point in me staying in the park, so I called Danielle and drove to Morrill.

My home for the last several days

I spent Thursday and Friday hanging out at the warehouse. Thursday, the weather cleared for a little while in the afternoon, and Danielle and I went to Camden Hills, a climbing area about a half hour from Morrill to see if anything looked climbable. Everything was soaking wet. We did get a little hike in, though.

Saturday atarted out rainy, but the forecast was promising more favorable weather in the afternoon, so we were optimistic. We decided we would head to Acadia, because our best chances for quick drying routes seemed to be there. We took our time and got there around noon. We then headed to the local gear shop to inquire about the area with the best chance of dry rock, and kill some time. Around 1:00 or so, we headed to Otter Cliffs, which is an approximately 4o foot cliff right on the sea shore. The routes weren't exactly dry, but the easier stuff at least was climbable, particularly since everything there can be easily top-roped (you have to rappel in to get to the climbs).

Looking up Easy Corner (5.6) at Danielle

View from Otter Cliffs

A sea gull looking for dropped trail mix

We got in 5 top-ropes, then decided to head to the Precipice and see if anything was dry there. It was pretty wet, but we found a couple of routes in the same area we had climbed the other day that were dry-ish. I led Madamoiselle Lebois Troubled Lunge, with a variation finish. I'm not sure what the rating is exactly. I'm calling it 5.7. Everything was a little clammy, and therefore felt a little extra hard. By this time it was about 7:00, but we decided to get one more climb in. I decided to lead a climb called Crack of Senility. It's a 5.7 crack that starts as wide hands, and widens to off-width. It looked like where the crack widened, the climb slabbed out and would get easy. I spent some time comtemplating the wet crack at the bottom, but eventually, with a solid jam and good feet, pulled the move. A couple layback moves above that put me at the start of the wider part of the crack...which I didn't really have gear to protect...and which didn't really get easier like I thought it was going to. I walked up the largest cam I had...which I think probably would have held, though it was really too small for the crack, as high as I could, then started climbing the off-width. I think if the rock was dry, I could have gotten some holds on the face, but it was too wet to trust, so I shoved my calf into the wide crack, stood up on it, and then thrutched up until I could get a heel-toe jam. A bit more thrutching got me to where I could finally get a good hand hold. Phew. That was the hardest 5.7 I've done in a while.

Danielle climbing Mme. Labois

View from the top

We got back to the car about 8:30. On the way home, the engine overheated again. It seems that I have a coolant leak. I'm going to have to keep a close watch on that and get it fixed as soon as I can. Hopefully, I can hold off until I get back to St. Louis. Worse yet, the pizza place where we were going to eat dinner was closed. Oh well, it was a great day of climbing!

Sunday, we awoke to beautiful blue skies, but forecasts threatening of afternoon showers and thunderstorms, so we headed out early to Camden Hills. I led Charlotte's Crack, a cool, 2 pitch 5.7. Then, we top-roped a couple climbs, and finally I led Pandora Freeway, a new 5.7 that's not yet in the guidebook (the guidebook author, however, was at the crag to tell us all about it). After that, it started to sprinkle on us, and we headed out.

On Broadway Ledge

View of Megunticook Lake

Danielle at the top

Danielle coming up Pandora Freeway

Tomorrow, I head out for Quebec City. I'm going to spend the next 2 days doing a warp speed tour of Quebec City, Montreal, and Ottawa, continuing to Toronto on Wednesday to meet up with another Danielle, my very good friend and former roommate for a short backpacking trip before I head home to St. Louis.

Route List for May 27-31:

Wafer Step (5.5 Trad) (TR clean)
Recollections of Pacifica (5.9- Trad) (TR clean)
Easy Corner (5.6) (TR clean)
Wonderwall Left (5.7) (TR clean)
In The Groove (5.5) (TR clean)
Cakewalk (5.7) (TR clean) (I think I did a harder variation on this climb, but whatever)
Crucifix (5.9) (TR clean)
Mme. Labois Troubled Lunge Alternate Finish (5.7? Trad) (Onsight)
Crack of Senility (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Charlotte's Crack (2 pitch, 5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Unknown 5.7 (TR clean)
Charlotte's Arete (5.6) (TR clean)
Pandora Freeway (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)

North Conway - Cathedral And Whitehorse

2009-05-28T06:56:00.000-07:00

Thursday afternoon, I arrived in North Conway, New Hampshire. I stopped by International Mountain Equipment, one of the gear shops in town, to ask about free camping, then, after messing around in town a bit, and locating the EMS store where i was to meet Jan on Saturday morning, headed up to the White Mountains National Forest to find a campsite. It ended up being one of the prettier places I've stayed on my trip. It is also the first time I setup a tent. I didn't sleep in it, though. I just wanted to save the spot.

My campsite on the creek.

Friday, I sat in the park and read, hung out at the library mooching internet, did some shopping, and generally bummed around town. Saturday morning, I met up with Jan. If you rappel from routes at Cathedral or Whitehorse, you need two ropes, so Jan, impulsively, ran into EMS and bought a set of double (a.k.a. half) ropes. Half ropes are smaller in diameter, and, hence, lighter than single ropes, and you lead on a pair of them (tied into both), clipping gear alternately with one then the other (more or less). We then headed out to Cathedral Ledge, and climbed Thin Air, an area classic 5.6. I forgot to bring my camera up on this climb, but don't worry, I got plenty of pictures on everything else we did! I was actually a little underwhelmed with Thin Air. It was fun, but didn't really feel like a "classic" to me. After this, and a 5.8 pitch we did from the ledge above (Pine Tree Eliminate), we decided to try a 5.9 called Recompense. The final pitch of this climb is a phenomenal looking dihedral. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the final pitch. I led the first two pitches (5.6 and 5.7) and Jan was going to lead the last 2 (5.8+ and 5.9). When Jan started up the third pitch however, it looked dirty and vegetated and we weren't really sure of the route, and Jan, feeling a little intimidated, decided to back off. I didn't feel up to trying to fight my way up the crux pitches, so we rappelled from the bolted anchors at the top of the second pitch. Honestly, I never really felt 100% sure I was on route on the first two pitches. The climbing didn't seem to have much to do with what was described in the book. Sometimes, though, that's the way it goes. We did end up at a ledge with bolted anchors, as described, and we could see the perfect corner of the last pitch above us, so we assumed we were in the right place. I will have to go back another day to finish this one.

Jan following pitch 1 of Recompense.

Sunday morning, we headed to Whitehorse Ledge, the southern-most of the two large granite knobs above North Conway (the other being Cathedral).

Whitehorse Ledge from the road. I couldn't get a good shot of Cathedral.

Despite being right next to each other, Whitehorse and Cathedral feature climbs of very different character. Whitehorse is primarily long, featureless, friction slab climbing. Protection is...let us say...sparse, and, sometimes, questionable. No matter how bad the pro looks, though, when you get it you place it, because who knows how long it will be until you get another piece?

For our first climb at Whitehorse, we set out to do Sea of Holes (5.7). After 3 of 4 pitches, it started raining, and we had to rappel off. The rain only lasted an hour or so, though, and good sun had the slaps dry in no time, except for the bottom 30 feet or so, where the tree cover blocked the sun, and, in places, that was dry-ish too. We wanted to do 3 pitches of the Stadtmuller-Griffin Route (to the left of Sea of Holes), then finish the pitch we didn't get to do in the morning. The first pitch of S-G was very wet, however, but the SoH start was mostly dry, so Jan climbed the first pitch of SoH, then linked it over to the first belay on S-G, and from there we proceeded as planned.

Looking down the first pitch of Sea Of Holes. Note the lack of protection. The first pitch is a 45 meter, or so, 5.2 solo. There is no opportunity for gear, that I could see.

Looking out from the first or second belay on Sea Of Holes. Cathedral Ledge can be seen on the left.

Me at the first pitch belay.

Looking up at the final pitch of Sea of Holes. The 5.7 crux is pulling over the bulge to the left of the dihedral in the middle of the picture. It really looks impossible until you get up there, but is actually very doable and well-protected with a bolt (one of the few, outside of anchors, that I saw here).

Looking down on Sea of Holes (center) and Stadtmuller-Griffin (right). I just liked the patterns in the rock.

Monday, we got up early (ugh) to get some climbing in, while leaving Jan plenty of time to drive back to New Jersey. We went back to Cathedral Ledge, to climb Funhouse (5.7), and then topped out on Black Lung (5.8) and the second pitch of Upper Refuse (5.5). It was a fun morning and we were done by 1:00PM or so.

Me and Jan at a belay (on Funhouse, I think). You told me to smile. I aim to please. :-)

Me at the top of Upper Refuse. Jan takes nice pictures!

Jan at the top of Cathedral Ledge. In retrospect, I should have had him pose like he was throwing a rock. Alas, for lost opportunities. I wonder how many thousands of climbers have pictures of themselves posed like they are throwing a rock, next to this sign?

Tuesday, I had hoped to climb at Cannon Cliff, but it didn't work out, so, instead, I drove to Bangor, Maine. More on those adventures in the next installment....

Route List for May 23-25

Thin Air (4 pitches, but we did it in 2, 5.6 Trad, but I may have made it 5.7 :->) (Onsight pitch 1-2, TR clean pitch 3-4)
Pine Tree Eliminate (5.8 Trad) (TR clean)
Recompense Pitch 1-2 (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Sea of Holes (4 pitches, 5.7 Trad) (Onsight pitches 1,3, and 4, TR clean pitch 2)
Stadtmuller-Griffin Route Part of Pitch 1, pitches 2 and 3 (5.5-6 Trad) (Onsight pitch 2, TR clean pitch 1 and 3)
Funhouse (2 pitches, 5.7 Trad) (Onsight Pitch 1, TR clean pitch 2)
Black Lung (5.8 Trad) (TR clean)
Upper Refuse Pitch 2 (5.5 Trad) (Onsight)

Car Trouble, Visiting Aunt Jan, and Sporting It Up At Rumney

2009-05-21T07:09:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, I left New Paltz, heading for Grantham, New Hampshire, where my Aunt Janet lives with her husband, Dean. I was about 16 miles south of Albany, New York, when steam started billowing out from under my hood. Uh Oh. That can't be good. I popped the hood to have a look, and, naturally, the coolant container was empty. I had a large jug of water with me and thought I could fill it up from that to get me somewhere where I could get more anti-freeze, so I lifted the lid on the coolant container. This lid was connected via a rubber tube to the neck on the top of the radiator. When I lifted the lid, the tube pulled with it the neck of the radiator. It was completely detached. Definitely not good. So, I called my auto club (second time on the trip...) and got a tow truck dispatched. A couple hours later I was sitting at a repair shop in Albany waiting for my radiator to be replaced. Much to my surprise, two hours after that I was pulling out of the repair shop and hitting the road again! Many thanks to Better World Club and the guys at Mig Auto Repair in Albany! You all rock!

About 5:30, I rolled into Grantham and met my Aunt to head back to her house. I got a shower, and we went out for dinner, and generally had a super nice evening. Unfortunately, Dean was out of the country, so I didn't get to see him (I think I've met him once), but Janet is awesome and it was fantastic to get a chance to hang out with her!
Me with Janet behind her and Dean's house.

Wednesday morning, I drove about 40 miles from Janet and Dean's to Rumney for a day of sport climbing. I had made contact with Jason online and arranged to meet him there for the day. We had a great day, getting 9 routes in. Rumney is a fun place to climb. The routes range from short to long and easy to insanely hard. The rock is sheist, and is absolutely fascinating. In many places, it has a "grain" to it and looks almost like wood. In one place, it looked almost as if you were climbign tree bark. I really wish I'd gotten some good close-up pictures of the rock, but I kept getting busy climbing and forgetting about it.... Oh well.

Jason at the base of Scene of the Crime, 5.10a, a short route with a pumpy start to easier climbing above.

The Green Mile, 5.9, and interesting slab route, following the crack system.

Obi-Wan Ryobi, 5.9. This was a committing and pumpy route. Very fun! To the left, you can see the base of Yoda, also 5.9. Both of these routes were pretty awesome.

Jason leading up Lonesome Dove (5.10a). This is a really great, technical, thin, crimpy route following the rounded arete. An awesome way to end the day!

Wednesday night, I drove back to Janet and Dean's to spend the night again. I'm hanging out at there house now, taking adavantage of the wi-fi. :-) When I finish up here, I will head out toward North Conway, where I plan to climb at Cathedral Ledge and Whitehorse Ledge. Jan, who I climbed with last Saturday in the Gunks is driving up Friday night and is going to climb with me over Memorial Day Weekend. So, that should be a good time!

Route List for 5/20/2009

Anchovy Caper (5.8) (Redpoint)
Metamorphosis (5.8) (Onsight)
The Green Mile (5.9) (Led with one take)
Scene of the Crime (5.10a) (Led with one take)
Yoda (5.9) (Onsight)
Obi-Wan Ryobi (Onsight)
The Beginning of All Things (5.10a) (Redpoint)
Things I Never Learned (5.9) (Onsight)
Lonesome Dove (5.10a) (Led with one fall/take)

De-Gunked

2009-05-21T06:54:00.000-07:00

Monday, I got one last day of climbing in at the Gunks. I met up with Richard again, and a guy named Phil, who Richard was planning to climb with for the week. Richard didn't want to do multi-pitch with three people, for some reason, so we just did single pitch climbs, which was a little disappointing for both Phil and I, as we would really have liked to get on some of the classic multi-pitch lines. Oh well. Phil has the rest of the week, at least, and I had already gotten on several good climbs. I did get 5 climbs in, mostly top-ropes.

Here, Phil is top-roping Ent's Line (5.11-). The dihedral to the right is Ant's Line (5.9), which was by far the best climb we did on Monday. It was a very fun climb.

After Ant's Line, I picked up my pack, reached back with my left hand to grab the strap to put my arm through and somehow managed to jam my thumb on the strap. It wasn't bad, but it hurt enough that I decided to call it a day. All in all, it was a slightly disappointing and frustrating day, but, none-the-less, I got some fun climbing in, so all was not lost. :-)

Route List for 5/18/2009:

The Brat (5.7 Trad) (TR clean)
Nice Crack Climb (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Raunchy (5.8- Trad) (TR clean)
Gory Thumb (5.8+ Trad) (TR clean)
Ant's Line (5.9 Trad) (TR clean)

Historic Huguenot District

2009-05-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

This is another non-climbing post. On Sunday, I took the day off from climbing and spent some time in the afternoon exploring the Huguenot Historic District in New Paltz. This area has some fantastic old homes from the 1600's and 1700's. Here are some highlights.....

The Deyo House, built in 1692 by Pierre Deyo, one of 12 original patentees of New Paltz.

Dubois House, built in 1705 by Daniel Dubois. This house served as a fort, inn, restaurant, etc. at different times in it's life (now a souvenir store and museum).

Beehive oven in the Dubois house. They would build a fire in here, to heat up the bricks, then scrape out the coals and use the heat retained by the bricks to bake all day long....

The end of the Dubois house. Note the port holes on either side of the windows....

Hasbrouck House. The sign on the left reads, "Built 1712, by Abraham, the patentee, once soldier in English Army, friend of Gov. Andros. Kitchen scene of cock fights." Yep, that's where they had the cock fights. Great, huh?

Reconstruction of the first stone church in New Paltz. I'm not sure what happened to the original structure. I guess God didn't like it or something.

My next post will resume your regularly scheduled climbing updates. :-)

I think I've got some Gunks in my eye....

2009-05-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

So, Monday night I arrived in New Paltz. I found my way to the Department of Environmental Conservation Multi-Use Area (a.k.a. the "Multi-Abuse Area) about 6 miles outside of town, and settled in for the night. Tuesday morning, I drove into town and went to the local gear shop, Rock and Snow, to pick up a guide book, then headed back out toward the crag. On my way out of town, I saw a buy hitch-hiking with a crash pad (actually, 2 crash pads) and stopped to pick him up. His name was Marco, and, after some conversation, he said he would be happy to do some routes with me if he had a harness. Conveniently, I have an extra one with me! So, we climbed a couple fun, easy 2 pitch routes, then a couple of popular single pitch climbs. After that, we top-roped, the Trashcan Overhangs, a short, strenuous 5.11-, then hiked down to a boulder problem Marco has been working. I climbed a few V0's, and spotted Marco as he worked his V8 project. He didn't send it, but made some progress. Unfortunately, I was pretty remiss about taking pictures, but I did get a couple.

Rhododendron, a fun 5.6 crack in the Uberfall area at the Gunks.

Marco sitting below the Trashcan Overhangs. The route traverses left under the roof, then pulls over the lip on the left side. Coming off early on TR makes for a fun swing!

It was nearly dark by the time we finished climbing. When I went to take Marco back to the bus station (he had taken the bus up from New Jersey for the day), we found that the road back to New Paltz was closed because a tree was down on some power lines, and had to detour through Gardiner, another small, nearby town. After, I dropped Marco off, it was about 9:00PM, and I headed back to the Multi-Abuse area. I was driving slow looking for my turn, and a truck was tail-gating me. I missed my turn, and went to turn left into a driveway to turn around. The truck chose this point to try to pass me. He clipped my left front fender and kept going. I stopped to inspect the damage, and it wasn't significant, but it was noticeable, so, knowing that he couldn't go too far, since the road was closed a half mile further down, I took off after him. I honked frantically, but he showed no interest in stopping. I got his license plate number and proceeded to where the firemen had the road closed. They radioed the police, and I sat around waiting for them to come out. By the time they had taken their report and everything, it was about 10:15 and I still hadn't had dinner and was totally famished. They said they would call me if they found the guy who hit me. So far, I haven't heard anything.

The Crunchinator's first scar from the trip.

So, Wednesday, I didn't wake up until 9:00AM, and still felt tired. Despite beautiful weather, I opted not to try to climb. I did drive around a little, and walked down to Split Rock, a.k.a. "the swimming hole". It was a little underwhelming, but would be a decent place to take a dip. Thursday, it rained, so I did more not climbing.

Friday, I had plans to climb with a guy named Richard, who I'd contacted through rockclimbing.com. We met up around 8:30AM, and he had two other guys, Tom and Jonathan meeting him as well. We hiked into the Trapps, and it was wet...very wet. So, we kept walking over to the Near Trapps, a.k.a. The Nears. We eventually found some almost dry rock, and I top-roped several routes, then went off with Tom and led Disneyland, an area classic 5.6. While we were climbing, Richard and Jonathan headed out. It was still early, and we had a little gas left so we went back to the Trapps (it was on the way to our cars anyway), and climbed a link-up of three short pitches that Tom had not done and was interested in trying. It was a fun conclusion to a solid day of climbing. Regrettably, I left my camera in the car both Friday and Saturday, so no pictures. Sorry!

Saturday, I met up with Jan, yet another guy I met through rockclimbing.com. I was supposed to hook up with Jana and Jason, who I met at the Red, as well, but my phone battery died and we failed to connect. Anyway, Jan and I got three good routes in, had a fun day of climbing, and I finished the day feeling nicely worked over. I decided I deserved dinner out, so we went out for Indian food in New Paltz. Yum!

It rained like mad Saturday night. Jan stayed the night, and we were going to climb, but between feeling a little sore from the previous two days, and not really wanting to pay $15 for a day pass to climb wet rock, I was feeling like a rest day was in order. Fortunately, an acquaintance of Jan's happened by, and his partner had opted out on him, so he and Jan were able to hook up to climb. This made me feel much better about bailing on Jan.

So, that's it for my Gunks experience so far. A good deal of the climbing here is steep and quite strenuous, even at the "easy" grades. My shoulders (deltoid muscles, I guess? The muscles in the back of the shoulder?) are getting apretty good workout! I think I'm going to stay here a couple more days. I should be able to climb with Richard again tomorrow and Tuesday. Then I will probably head toward New Hampshire, perhaps with a detour through the Adirondaks. Other than an unfortunate brush with a truck, it's been a good stay so far!

Route List for 5/12-16:

Dennis (2 pitches, 5.5 Trad) (onsight)
Jackie (2 pitches, 5.5 Trad) (onsight)
Rhododendron (5.6 Trad) (onsight)
Laurel (5.7 Trad) (Led with one fall on a polished hold at the start)
Trashcan Overhangs (5.11- Trad) (TR, flailed a bit)
Birdland (5.8+ Trad) (TR)
A Farewell To Arms (5.8 Trad) (TR clean)
Bird Cage Traverse Variation (5.9 Trad) (TR)
Transcontinental Nailway (5.10 Trad) (TR)
Disneyland (2 pitches, 5.6- Trad) (onsight)
Oscar's Variation to middle of Strictly From Nowhere to top pitch of Travels With Charley (3 pitches, 5.7+ Trad) (Followed pitches 1 and 3 clean, onsight pitch 2)
Son of Easy O (5.8 Trad) (Onsight pitch 1, followed pitch 2)
Three Doves Pitch 1 (5.7 or 8-ish Trad) (Onsight) to Annie Oh! Pitch 2 (5.8 Trad) (Followed clean)
Directissima With Leftmost 5.8 crack variation ot last pitch (4 pitches, 5.9 Trad) (Followed pitches 1,2, and 4 with one fall on pitch 2, onsight pitch 3)

And Then The Sun Came Out!

2009-05-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm behind on posting! I've been busy since the weather stopped sucking.

So, Thursday, the weather was supposed to be good, but it was a little wet in the morning. Eventually, things started to dry out, but we kept getting passing showers, and Massey didn't feel like walking to the cliff just to get rained on. I got tired of sitting around, and decided to look at doing an easy solo. I hiked out with a rope for rappelling, my harness, and a rack of nuts in case it started raining and I needed to bail, and sized up Old Man's Route (5.3). Most of the route is very easy and you are climbing from one big to another, which gives a pleasant illusion of safety. About the only times I was uncomfortable were when I was climbing a couple of chimneys dragging my pack (with the rope, water, etc.) below me, and then, at a steep inside corner at the top. The corner is only about 20 feet tall above a large ledge, and has huge holds, but it's a little intimidating! I found it exhilirating to reach the summit alone, via a technical (albeit easy) route. It felt very good.

Me at the top with the north summit in the background.

The summit register box.

Looking up the crux corner (taken on rappel).

Thursday night, I hung out with Mike, Justin, and Sarah at Seneca Mountain Guides (across the street from the Gendarme), and Mike invited me to climb with them Friday. We went to a crag south of Seneca Rocks, above the town of Riverton, where Mike wanted to put up a new route. We hiked up and checked out a few existing lines. Sarah led a 5.10b/c sport route which Justin had recently put up, and then Mike top-roped the climb he wanted to put up (a thin seam to the left of Justin's route), and installed a bolted anchor for it. I got to do the 2nd top-rope ascent of the route, and the first ascent of the direct start, which was kind of cool. It was pretty fun climbing. Mike ended up installing 3 bolts to protect the direct start and a section of the seam that was not protectable on gear, and making the first lead ascent later in the day. I think the concensus rating was 5.10a. I also top-roped Justin's route, and a cool 5.9 dihedral called Cornerstone.

Friday night, I hung out at Seneca Rocks Mountain Guides again, ate some awesome pasta and salad that Mike made, and met a fellow named Dan Mitchell, who I ended up climbing with on Saturday. I think Dan was the perfect partner for me to hook up with. I was looking to do a couple of the moderate classics in the area, Ecstasy (5.7) and Triple S (5.8). Dan had done Ecstasy once and had never been on Triple S. We got both routes in and had a great day. Triple S was a good challenge for Dan, and a lot of fun for me.

Dan coming up the last pitch of Ecstasy.

Looking down the beautiful corner of Triple S.

Dan at the top of Triple S.

Sunday proved to be a bit of an adventure. I initially planned to climb with a guy named Adam who I met at the Mountain Guides. Then, a guy named Daniel showed up looking for a partner, and I told him he could climb with us as a threesome. It was bound to happen eventually: I ended up climbing with someone I didn't really like. The three of us hiked up to the south end and we decided to climb The Burn (5.8) to get to the West Face (you can hike up a set of switchbacks and stairs, but there are also a number of technical routes you can climb to get to the same point). Daniel took the first lead, and then Adam went to follow, and struggled pulling a bulge below the crux. He took a couple of top-rope falls and ended up twisting his ankle, and calling it a day. I felt really bad for him. If I hadn't invited Daniel along, we probably would have done something easier and he wouldn't have gotten hurt. Still, there was nothing I could do, so I went ahead clibed with Daniel. It's not that Daniel is a bad guy. He's just irritating. He kept spraying about the 5.12 he had done the first ascent of, and such, then crying and whining on 5.9. Oh well. I was climbing, so I could put up with him.

So, I finished the first pitch of The Burn (I fell at the crux which I blame entirely on the pack I was carrying since we were using this as an approach to do other West Face routes and weren't immediately coming back to the base), and went to lead the second pitch, which, according to the guidebook, is seldom done. So, I started up the crack above the belay ledge. I got a good piece in low, then climbed to an awkward stance and threw in another piece...which was clearly not secure. I tried to look around for another placement, but was pumping out on bad holds and decided to pull a couple moves up to a better stance, then get a better placement. So, I good a high foot, stood up above the questionable piece...and fell. Visions of the piece popping and me decking flitted through my head, but, miraculously, the piece held. I climbed back up to the piece and saw just what a miracle it was. The cam (#1 Camalot) had pulled out of the crack, but caught, statically, in a constriction, completely tipped out. That's what held my fall. Yikes. I got a better piece below that one, cleaned the bad one, considered bailing, then found a good hold and cruised the rest of the pitch.

So, we finally made it to the West Face. Daniel wanted to try Crack of Dawn (5.10a) on the Face of a Thousand Pitons. It looked like fun, and I was happy to get to top-rope it, so we went for it. To get top CoD, you climb a 5.9 called Marshal's Madness, through an optional belay 40' up, then step right to a small roof with a perfect hand crack above it. Daniel, despite the whining, did fine through the roof (he did stop at the belay...he was sewing it up and wanted his gear back), then the crack gets thin (the crux) and he took a hang. After working through the crux, he decided he didn't have the gear to finish the pitch, so he set a belay and brought me up and I led the rest of the pitch.

Despite the less than ideal climbing partner, the brush with potential ledge fall, and losing a partner to injury to start the day, I had a fun day of climbing. As the say, a bad day climbing beats a good day at the office. :-)

Route List for May 7-10:

Old Man's Route (5.3 trad) (on-sight solo)
Unknown 5.10b/c (TR)
Unknown 5.10a mixed (TR clean)
Cornerstone (5.9 trad) (TR)
Ecstasy (3 pitches, ~200', 5.7 trad) (onsight)
Triple S (5.8 trad) (onsight)
The Burn (2 pitches, 5.8 trad) (TR first pitch, led second pitch)
Crack of Dawn (2 pitches, ~160', 5.10a trad) (TR clean)

Next Stop The Gunks

2009-05-11T06:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been too busy climbing the last few days to post, so suffice it to say, it finally stopped raining! I've got pics to post and adventures to share, but right now I want to get on the road. I've got a long drive to New York ahead of me today. I just wanted to post this to let everyone know I am leaving Seneca Rocks to head to the Shawangunk Ridge, a.k.a. The Gunks, near New Paltz, New York. I will get another post up when I can...maybe this evening or tomorrow.

Hmmmm... Forgot to post this before I left. :-) I've been on the road for a couple hours now. Just found a free wi-fi hotspot and thought I'd post up while I could.

Yep, Still Raining

2009-05-07T06:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been at Seneca Rocks for a week now, and have spent the majority of that time sitting in the rain. Despite that, though, I'm enjoying myself. I've managed to get a little climbing in, score some free beer and food, win some stuff in a raffle, and hang out with some great people. A little more climbing would be nice, but, all in good time, right?

So, Saturday morning, it rained again, but, in the afternoon, it cleared up and I went out with Ak (the owner of the Gendarme), Alan, Massey, and Elena. We went to the South Pillar again, which was a little disappointing since I was there the day before, but beggars can't be choosers. :-) Anyway, I redpointed Block Party, top-roped Disco Death March again, and got it clean this time, and onsighted Climbin' Punishment, which is a really cool, long climb with sustained moderate climbing to a crux move pulling around a roof. I was climbing on Massey's rack, which was a lot lighter than I'm used to, and was really running out of gear at the top. I ran completely out of draws and had to get a bit creative. I used a nut to extend a piece, and was scavenging every spare biner on my harness. I placed every cam I had on me. It was great! :-)

Ak belays Alan on Ambush (5.11a).

Block Party (5.8) goes up the corner system in the center. The business is the steep stuff at the beginning. Ambush is the line to the left.

Climbin' Punishment follows the dihedral, then steps left into the higher dihedral, continuing through small roofs and a larger roof out of sight (crux). It is sometimes done in multiple pitches, but I did it in one long pitch (probably 50-55m).

Saturday night, there was a Cinco De Mayo party at the Gendarme (3 days early, but who's counting). There was beer from a couple of area breweries, all kinds of great food, and a raffle. I decided to splurge and by $10 worth of raffle tickets. I ended up winning twice! Winners got to draw for a random prize. My first prize was an ATC-guide...nice, except I already have one. They generously allowed me to swap it for something else from the shop so I picked up a black tri-cam (one of the new ones...the size smaller than pink). My second prize was a Gendarme shot glass. All in all, a fun evening.....

Sunday, it rained. And rained. And rained. I read and napped and read.... Sunday evening, I hang out with Alex, Dan, and Dan, three Canadians in town from Kingston, Ontario. We had a few beers, they fed me, and we played Scrabble and nerded out. It was good, clean fun.

Monday and Tuesday, there was more rain. Alex and the Dans left town on Monday. I bummed around, read, slept, messed about on the internet....

But, Wednesday, there was sun! Around noon, Massey (who works at the Gendarme) and I headed out to the East Face to get some climbing in. We intended to climb a route called Soler, but there were people on the first pitch of Conn's East, which we were going to do to get to Soler, so I ended up leading the first pitch of Conn's East Direct, from which Massey led Alcoa Persents. Conn's East Direct has a low crux that it took me a couple tries to work out. I got it, though, and from there, it was cake.

When we got down from Alcoa, Conn's East was open, so I led that, taking the 5.7 variation (the main route goes at 5.6, but there is a great 5.7 corner you can take instead), then led Soler, which finishes at the top of the South Peak of Seneca Rocks. Both were fantastic climbs. Soler has some really committing moves and great exposure, and it's fantastic when you pop up over the summit and look out across the other side. The ridge is probably only 6 or 8 feet across here, so it's pretty crazy!

Just as I was topping out, it started to sprinkle, and it rained on us all the way back to the shop, and most of the rest of the evening. At least we caught enough of a window to climb!

Me at the top of the south peak. This self-photo thing worked out better last time.... Oh well.

View of the north peak, from the top of the south peak....

Looking down into the valley at the town of Seneca Rocks, through the rain.

Route List for 5/2-5/6:

Block Party (5.8 trad) (redpoint)
Disco Death March (5.10b trad) (TR clean)
Climbin' Punishment (5.8 trad) (onsight)
Conn's East Direct Pitch 1 (5.8 trad) (redpoint)
Alcoa Presents (5.8+ trad) (TR clean)
Conn's East Pitch 1 5.7 variation (5.7 trad) (onsight)
Soler Pitch 2 (5.7 trad) (onsight)

Leaving The New

2009-05-01T09:08:00.000-07:00

Monday, I thought about trying to climb, since the good weather only seemed destined to last through Tuesday, but I was just worn out. I got up late, and definitely felt drained from all of the hiking and sun of the last few days...and the climbing, too, I suppose, but mainly the hiking and sun, I think.

Tuesday, I felt more energetic, and got up early to go look for someone to climb with...which didn't help much. I ended up going to Kaymoor and hiking down the Butcher's Branch trail, because there were a couple of cars in the lot there. I hooked up with Lewis, Lori, and Don, from Chattanooga and top-roped two routes with them. After that, they decided to head out to drive to the Red. I guess that was all they could take of me. :-)

We also watched another climber soloing one of the routes we wanted to get on, but he was moving slowly, and we didn't want to try to climb past him.

Sammy the Snake on Flight of the Gumbies (5.9). He's only 3 feet long, but he can hold onto things I could never even dream of. Snakes were something of a recurring theme at The New.

Tuesday night, the rain came. Wednesday morning, I woke up with it sprinkling off and on...not a serious rain, but enough to make you wonder if it was going to do something more. So, I went and did laundry. When I got done with laundry, it was starting to look like it might be clearing up, so I called Matt to see if he wanted to try to climb. He was doing laundry, too, but said he'd love to give it a shot when he was done. So, I did some quick shopping, then we met up and headed out to Beauty Mountain. The rock looked mostly dry, and when we found the routes I wanted to do, the sun was shining, and the routes were in great condition. Awesome!

The line up the center of the photo is Journey to the Center of the Brain (5.7). The top looks low-angle and juggy. Don't be fooled. It's steeper than it looks, and most of those things that look like jugs are slopey. It's tricky climbing, with wierd gear up there.

Matt spotting the Invisible Man. OK, actually, he was pulling the rope.

The line to the left of the arete is Brain Wave (hardest 5.7 ever). This climb is steep. The holds are mostly big, but it is still pumpy, and then you get to a section that makes you say "WTF? How is this 5.7?" Well, at least that's what I said. When you find the secret hold around the arete and combine it with the right footwork, the move isn't bad, but it is committing as hell.

I've got a little Captain in me at the base of Journey to the Center of the Brain. :-) I thought I was going to sit down up there for a photo, but it didn't seem like such a good idea when I got up there.

Thursday, I got up and drove to Seneca Rocks.

This is the view from "town" (there's a climbing shop, a coffee shop, a couple general stores and a couple guide services...and that's about it).

I got in a little after noon, and went for a nice hike to the top of the cliff. I forgot my camera, though, so no pictures from the hike.

Today, it rained in the morning, but cleared up in the afternoon, and I got out with a guy named Mike and got five pitches in. Sweet! Again, I forgot my camera though. I'll bring it next time, I promise.

Route List for 4/28-5/1

The Green Piece (5.10b) (TR)
Sancho Belige (5.11 b/c) (TR flail)
Journey to the Center of the Brain (5.7 trad) (Onsight)
Brain Wave (5.7 trad) (Led with a couple takes in the same blasted spot)
Block Party (5.8 trad) (TR clean)
Ambush (5.11a trad) (TR)
Electric Chair (5.9 mixed) (TR clean)
Judgement Seat (5.10a trad) (TR)
Disco Death March (5.10b trad) (TR)

Kaymoor Mine Ruins

2009-05-01T08:18:00.000-07:00

OK, this is a non-climbing post. :-) A few days ago, after getting a couple climbs in in the Butcher's Branch area, I decided to hike down to check out the ruins of the old Kaymoor coal mine. Here are some pictures.

Entrance to the mine area.

Safety board ("This mine was worked ___ days without a lost time accident", "Accidents choose no person, no time, no place", "A small scratch can kill a large man", "A good workman is a safe workman", etc.), with a mine entrance and an old mine structure (the lamp house and office, I think) in the background.

Another mine entrance.

The powder house, where they stored the dynamite. This structure impressed me. It was the only building on the site that was completely intact. You could tell it was built to last.

The heavy iron door of the powder house.

I took a bunch of other pictures, but these where the ones I thought were most interesting....

New River Gorge Update

2009-04-27T12:51:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been at the New for almost a week, now. I spent the first two days sitting in the rain. Well, actually, it mostly cleared up in the afternoons both days. Regardless, though, there weren't any climbers around that I could find.

This is Rain Shelter 2.0, now with Water Resistance!

I spent some time hiking around, looking at climbs, and generally checking out the area.

It's a little hard to tell what is going on here (there was no way to get a good angle to photograph it from without being able to fly...), but it appears that this tree fell over and hit an overhanging sheet of rock, which had previously formed a sort of cave, or rock shelter, knocking it backwards and exposing the dirt and roots underneath. I was just amazed by this sight. It really gave me an appreciation for the massiveness of the tree and the sheer power of the force that knocked it over. I only wish I could have captured it better to share with you.

This is the New River Gorge Bridge, the world's second largest single-arch bridge, and second highest vehicular bridge (perhaps number one in one or both categories in the U.S.). One day a year, they close the bridge to vehicular traffic and people BASE jump off it and stuff (Bridge Day).

Thursday evening (the first nice day I was at the New), I drove by Bridge Buttress, and, lo and behold, there were actually people climbing! I stopped to talk to them and they offered to let me climb with them, so I took them up on it, of course. Laura, Karen, Kristen, and Jay (who, it turns out, is j_ung of rockclimbing.com...he writes reviews and articles for them, and was running the site for a while) were super-friendly and I had a great time climbing with them. I managed to get four climbs in despite not starting until 5:30 or so.
This is Bridge Buttress. The crack up the middle of the face is Zag (5.8 trad), and the arete on the right is Angel's Arete (5.10b trad).

Friday, I climbed with a guy I met through rockclimbing.com, Matt. Matt had only top-rope climbed before, so I taught him to lead climb and lead belay. He was a quick study and did a good job...though I didn't test his belay too thoroughly.... My only fall on him was deliberate, and he was expecting it. Still, I felt safe with him, and will climb with him again if I get the chance. We climbed at an area called Bubba City which has a lot of moderate bolted routes. Unfortunately, I failed to get any photos while we were out. It's hard to get pictures in a group of two...one climber and one belayer means no photographer....

Saturday, I climbed with Jay and his friend, Bryce, who was in town from North Carolina. We ended up climbing at Bubba City again, but I got to get on some different climbs from the day before, at least. In the course of the day, we saw a baby copperhead, and two black snakes...one of them in the crack I was about to hand jam in! I saw him just before sticking my hand in the crack and hand to change plans and do a long reach to the next pod where I could get a jam. Good thing that hold wasn't critical!

Here is Bryce belaying Jay on Cerveza Verde (5.8), which is one of the climbs I did on Friday.

Sunday, I climbed with Jay, Bryce, and Jay's wife, Wendy, at Fern Butttress, in the Star Trek Wall and Orchard Buttress areas until Wendy aggravated a shoulder injury, and she and Jay headed home. Bryce and I got a couple more climbs in before calling it a day.

Here is Wendy near the top of Transporter Crack (5.6 trad) at Star Trek Wall.

Route List for 4/23-26:

Zag (5.8 trad) (TR clean...well, technically, I hung to remove a stuck cam, but I would have gotten it clean!)
Angels Arete (5.10b trad) (TR)
Butterbeans (5.10a trad) (TR clean)
Chockstone (5.9 trad) (TR clean)
Near Beer (5.6) (Onsight)
Cerveza Verde (5.8) (Onsight)
Gilded Otter (5.7) (Onsight)
Daisy Cutter (5.7) (Onsight)
Wunderkind (5.6) (Onsight)
Beer Wench (5.8) (1 Take...the start was pumpy!)
Werewolf (5.10a Mixed) (TR)
Peanut Bubba And Jam (5.8 Trad) (Onsight)
Transporter Crack (5.6 Trad) (TR clean)
Crack of the Klingons (5.6 Trad) (TR clean)
Hysteria (5.8 Trad) (Onsight)
A Wild Hair (5.6 Trad) (Onsight)
Beech, Beech, Beeeech! (5.6 Trad) (Onsight)

Out with the old, in with The New!

2009-04-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

OK, I changed my plans a little and left North Carolina yesterday to head to the New River Gorge in West Virginia. I decided I didn't feel like making the 3.5 hour drive back to Table Rock, especially considering that the weather there looked to be a little spotty...chilly, with non-negligible chances of rain.

On the other hand, it was almost certain to be rainy today, here, but I kind of liked the idea of another rest day, anyway. It looks to be cold and rainy again tomorrow, so I think yet another day off is in my future. Maybe I can actually get my fingertips mostly healed!

I guess that's it for now. I think maybe I'll do some hiking, tomorrow....

More NC Cimbing

2009-04-19T13:42:00.001-07:00

I spent all day Monday and Tuesday morning hiding out from the rain in Brevard. I did a little shopping and spent a lot of time hanging out at a coffee shop with free wi-fi.

This is my awesome, but mostly ineffective rain shelter. Who would have thought that my old tent groundsheet was water permeable?

Tuesday afternoon, the rain cleared up and the sun came out and it was beautiful! I hiked up to Looking Glass Rock to see how wet the rock was. To my surprise, it was almost entirely dry! It hadn't rained too heavily and I guess the wind and sun of the afternoon dried the slabs out quite quickly.

This is the really unique looking face of Looking Glass. The eyebrow formations are quite bizarre. They are mostly slopey, but often make good foot-holds and sometimes have cracks that will take gear and occasionally even a hand jam, or a lip on the top that is a good undercling. Mostly, though, it is friction climbing. Slabtastic.

Since the rock looked dry, Kent came to Brevard on Wednesday, and we climbed Sundial Crack at Looking Glass. I was pretty scared leading the first pitch, even though it was supposed to be only 5.5. Route finding is rather interesting here. There isn't a really clear line. You just have to look around and figure out where you might be able to get gear, and where the holds (kind of a mis-nomer since you are rarely able to hold onto anything...) look best, and climb in that general direction. I didn't do such a great job on the first pitch and ended up with some pretty long runouts...and every move is delicate.
Here is a view up the second pitch, I believe.

The third pitch starts up the name-sake crack (really a water groove, I believe). It was my lead again and I was thrilled to have a crack to climb. Finally, something familiar! The crack was somewhat flaring in places, but took some good hand jams, and some fantastic foot jams. It's a shame it only lasted 30 feet. After that, it was back to the slab. By this time, I was feeling more comfortable on the slab, and did a better job of finding gear placements. I felt much stronger on this pitch.

Kent led the last easy pitch to top-out.
Here I am at the top. It was a beuatiful, sunny day, but a little bit windy, and cold until the sun came over the top of the rock.

Wednesday night, we drove to Shortoff Mountain, in Linnville Gorge, and camped there for the night. Thursday, we climbed Paradise Alley (5.8+) at Shortoff. I forgot to take my camera on the route, and, therefore, didn't get any pictures, but the first pitch of that climb may be one of my all time favorite pitches. It was absolutely stellar climbing. The climb tackled a steep, juggy start, then pulled up onto a ledge, from which it followed easier dihedral climbing to another ledge under a steep, pretty clean face, with a more featured face on the left side. The crack in the dihedral was mostly thin hands with some great pods for hand jams. I mostly lay-backed, using good feet on the left wall, resting on bomber hand jams, and occasionally stemming out to good feet on the right face. Several times I thought about calling for a take (resting on the rope), but each time I pushed through it and, shortly, found a good rest. It was some of the most fun I've ever had climbing...and that's saying something! The next three pitches were less exciting, but still fun...a blocky dihedral followed by a couple of slightly steep, juggy faces.

Thursday evening, Kent headed out to go visit some family for the weekend, and I drove up towards Table Rock, and slept in my car at a trailhead parking lot. Friday, I drove into Linville Falls, checked out the falls (a 0.4 mile hike from the parking lot), which were not really all that impressive, and got my mail. I had had Melissa send me some stuff general delivery, and was pleased to find that it had arrived. After that, I drove to Winson-Salem, did a little grocery shopping, and hung out at a coffee shop journaling for a while, then drove up to Hanging Rock State Park, home of Moore's Wall, and ended up paying way too much to camp in the state park campground.

Saturday, I met up with Jeff Dillon, who I had met through rockclimbing.com, his daughter, Phoebe, and some friends of his, Kristie and Heath, plus a friend of a friend of his, Jonathon, and climbed at Moore's Wall. We climbed at a small crag above the Amphitheater area. I don't know the names of any of the routes. I led a fun 5.8, and TR'd a couple of 10's.

Here is Kristie, pulling through the initial, not very 5.8-looking moves of the 5.8. Very fun moves!
And this is Jonathon trying to pull through the crux of one of the 10's (the harder of the two).

After that, Jonathon and I went down to the Circus Wall and climbed Zoo View (5.7+), one of the area classics. A 5.5 first pitch leads to a belay at a large ledge. You then traverse left, past a bolt, to a crack system, getting some magnificent exposure, then climb up to a huge, super intimidating roof, which you pull through on giant, juggy horizontals. Truly a great climb.

Here is a view from the first belay.

We finished up and got back to the car with the sun going down, and headed into Winston-Salem for dinner and some well-deserved beers.

After dinner, I drove to Chapel Hill, to visit my friends Jae and Tracy. Today, the three of us went for a hike in a nearby state park. I'm going to sleep here again tonight, then, tomorrow I will head back to Table Rock to climb with Kent on Tuesday. Thursday, I plan to head on to the New River Gorge in West Virginia. Should be fun!

Route List for 4/15-18:

Sundial Crack (4 pitches, 5.8) (Onsight pitches 1 and 3, followed pitches 2 and 4).
Paradise Alley (4 pitches, 5.8+) (Onsight pitches 1 and 3, followed pitches 2 and 4).
Unknown 5.8 (Onsight)
Unknown 5.10a (TR clean)
Unknown 5.10 (TR)
Zoo View (2 pitches, 5.7+) (Onsight pitch 1 (5.5), followed pitch 2)

First taste of NC

2009-04-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

Well, my first taste of this trip anyway. I climbed in Linville Gorge with Eric, Bobbi, and Bev a couple years ago and had a great time. So far, I've climbed at two areas I hadn't been to before and had a great time at both.

But, before I get into that, I promised some pictures from my last couple days at the Red.

Jason belaying Jana on Fuzzy Undercling (5.11a). A strong lead! I was tired at the end of the day and didn't get much past the first bolt on TR.

The beautiful dihedral of Cheaper Than a Movie (5.8). Cool route, with some pretty strenuous laybacking, but great rests.

So Friday, I drove to Asheville, did some laundry, and camped out in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I was surprised but he number of RV's, vans, etc. camped out there. There must be a whole sub-culture there I didn't know about. Anyway, Saturday, I drove to Chimney Rock, and met Kent to climb at Rumbling Bald. We did three routes at Cereal Buttress, then went to the Comatose area, but most stuff there was wet. We ended up top-roping a 5.11a slab route that I'm not sure of the name of. It was fun and I felt pretty good on it, despite a couple falls. I took about a 10 foot lead fall on Frosted Flake at Cereal Buttress. The route ascends easy climbing to a roof, which you traverse out, then goes up a flake with a 3" or so crack. I pulled around the roof into a layback, moved up a few feet and got a piece in, moved above my piece a ways, and my left foot spit out. Oops. :-) It was a good, clean fall, and I got right back on it, and finished it out. Fun climb!

Here are some pictures from Fruit Loops (5.7, also at Cereal Buttress, if you couldn't guess).

Looking down the first pitch.

Looking up the second pitch chimney.

Looking out from the top at Lake Lure (I think).

A waterfall in the distance (near Chimney Rock, I think).

Apparently, Dirty Dancing and Last of The Mohicans (I think) were shot in this area....

Anyway, Saturday night we drove to Laurel Knob. Kent had never climbed there before, but wanted too. We drove up the steep, twisting mountain roads and got to the trailhead camping area well after dark. Kent set up his tent, and we both grabbed some food and hit the sack, preparing for an early rise in the morning, since the approach can take 1.5-2 hours, and the climbs are long.

Our objective was Groover, a 6 pitch, ~900' 5.8. We knew there was another party that was going to be on it, and they left 20-30 minutes ahead of us. When we got there, they were still leading the first pitch, and moving pretty slowly. Kent led the first pitch, and then we sat for a long time at the belay. After the other party started leading the third pitch, I started the second. I finished it, establish a belay and waited about 20 minutes before the other party's leader finished the next pitch. This had to change if we were to have any chance of hiking out in daylight. I talked to them and they agreed to let us pass at the third pitch belay. I led the third pitch and shared the other party's anchor, brought Kent up and led out on the 4th pitch. Of course, after asking to pass the other party, I had to make a fiasco of it. You climb up high and get a piece, then down climb to where you can cross a water groove (running with water), then climb over to another water groove, which you climb up. Crossing one of the water grooves, I lost my balance and took a little fall. I was basically on TR off of the high piece, but there were several feet of slack out that Kent had not taken up. Anyway, it was no big deal, and was easy to get back on, but I felt stupid. Then, I climbed to wrong water groove (because it had a crack with gear, which seemed like a good idea to me, since my last piece was like 30 or 40 feet away). I started up it and got a few pieces in before Will yelled to me that I was going the wrong way. So, I had to down-climb and traverse (with no pro) back to the correct water groove. It was easy climbing, but the gear was extremely sparse. I missed the belay ledge and climbed to the end of the rope, then had to down-climb to a decent stance. All this after we had passed the other team. Boy, did I feel like a dufus. Oh well. They didn't seem to mind. I finally set a belay and brought Kent up. I was a little flustered, but he was very positive and was not bothered with what I considered to be a poor performance on the pitch. So, that made me feel better. I took the next pitch, which continued up a crack system then traversed across a slab to a bolted belay. It had some runout and committing sections, but wasn't too bad. I also led the final pitch, which was quite a fright-fest. I traversed a slab to a water groove, which I worked up a bit, getting one questionable piece in (20-30 feet out of the belay), then continued up the groove, finding no gear. Before long there was a sopping wet section that I didn't want to try to pull through unprotected (and with one questionable piece far below me), so I pulled out of the groove, onto the face, and looked for gear potential. I saw something I thought would take a #3 Camelot and climbed toward it. It was flaring garbage. I placed a #3 with 2 lobes making good contact, and two completely tipped out, because it was that or nothing, then continued up to a crack that took a bomber number 4. What a relief! Gear I could trust! No more fear of a 100 foot factor 2 whipper (if neither of my pieces held, which seemed likely)! Yikes. More poorly protected slab climbing led me back to the water groove and easy, but runout climbing to the anchors. Wow. I was done and lived. Awesome. Six miserable raps, with the rope inevitably falling down groove after groove running with torrents of water, getting completely soaked, got us back to the ground. There's nothing like rapping on a soaked rope with your rappel device wringing cold water onto your groin. At least it was a warm, sunny day. I got back to camp as final light was fading. Kent was about 20 minutes behind me. I made chicken stew for dinner and Kent was grateful. Hot food and cold beer. Yum. Checked the weather and forecast was for 70% chance of rain over night, and 80% chance today, and cold, with highs in the 40's. They were also calling for a 50% chance of rain, Tuesday. Kent decided to head back to Charlotte, and plan to meet up with me again Wednesday, when it is supposed to be nice again. I need the rest anyway. My fingertips are shredded from over-gripping on sharp granite. What a great adventure.

Here are some pics.

The first pitch goes to the tree. It's further than it looks. The tree is huge.

The second and third pitch follow the crack system behind the tree. The fourth pitch goes around the corner at the top right (I think).

Looking down from my second pitch belay at two members of the other party (of three) at their second pitch belay, and, in the distance, Kent, at the first bitch belay.

Kent coming up the water groove of the final pitch.

That last pitch made my hair stand on end. Kent, you could have told me my hair looked like that, and I would have put my helmet back on for the picture. :-)

Route List for 4/11-12:

Fruit Loops (2 pitch 5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Granola (5.8+ Trad) (Onsight)
Frosted Flake (5.9+ Trad) (Led with one fall)
Unknown 5.11a bolted route in Comatose area (TR)
Groover, Fischesser Finish (6 pitch, ~900' 5.8R Trad) (Followed pitch 1, Led pitches 2-6)

On the road again...

2009-04-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

I'm heading to North Carolina tomorrow to meet Kent, who I met through rockclimbing.com and plan to climb with for the next week or so. We plan to climb at Rumbling Bald Saturday, because it should be dry there after the rain tomorrow, and go from there.

I've climbed the past two days with Jana and Jason, from Philadelphia, and had a great time. We climbed at Left Flank and Military Wall yesterday, and at Chica Bonita Wall in the PMRP, today. I have some pictures, but left my camera in the car, so I'll post up later.

Route List for April 8-9:

Fast Food Christians (5.10a) (Led with one take)
Maypop (5.11a) (TR)
Brother Stair (5.9) (Pinkpoint)
Sunshine (5.9+) (Hangdog)
Cheaper Than a Movie (5.8 Trad) (Onsight)
Brown Eyed Girl (5.10a) (Pinkpoint)
Be My Yoko Ono (5.8 Trad) (Redpoint)

Round 2 at the Red

2009-04-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

Wow! More great climbing at the Red. Only one full day off out of the last 9 is wearing on me though, so I'm resting today and tomorrow, at least. I'm not sure yet, if I will stay here tomorrow or head out. I think I'm going to head toward Atlanta, soon, and try to find a partner for Talulah Gorge.

So, last Thursday, I climbed with a woman named Ann, who was also here without a partner. We went with a couple of other guys to Torrent Falls. We climbed a couple 5.8 sport routes and a 5.9+ sport route, then I wanted to go look at a 5.9 trad route at the end of the crag. When we got all the way down there, this is what I saw...

The overhanging dihedral scared me a bit, but I figured since we had walked so far to get to it, I should give it a try. I got up it, but it wasn't pretty.

This is Ann squeezed under the roof on the first ledge. You have to pull up on big jugs then mantle onto the overhanging ledge. It took me a few tries, and backing up my protection under the ledge before I convinced myself to pull it. Heel hooking out right helped a lot too. In case you are wondering, the rope looks screwy because Ann came off and I had to use the other side of the rope to help her get back on because she swung out to far from the rock. When, I did, the belayer side of the rope clipped itself into the carabiner on one of my cams. No harm done. Just looks weird.

Here, Ann is in the dihedral. Things got easier there, as the right wall is pretty featured, and you could get an occasional hand jam. You can also see the short chimney at the finish. A really cool route. I'd like to go back and red-point it some time.

Bev and Jeff got in around 5:00 Friday morning. It rained all morning, so we went into Stanton for some groceries. By the time we got back, it had stopped raining and warmed up some, so we went to Global Village to try to get some climbing in. We ended up doing 5 routes before dark. Not bad!

When we got back to Miguel's, Eric was waiting for us. A short while later, Jeff's friends Jeff and Meredith showed up. Saturday, we climbed at Muir Valley.

Eric at the start of Tradisfaction (5.10a Trad).

Me top-roping Tradisfaction with a good view of the whole route.

Me on the crux layback section at the top.

A pretty waterfall.

Sunday, Jeff and Meredith left and the rest of us went to Long Wall, because I wanted to lead Autumn (5.9- Trad).
Me at the start of Autumn.

Me on lead.

Finishing up the route. I was so psyched to get this clean!

Bev was so excited for me, she almost got out of her hammock. Almost. :-)

Bev belaying Eric on Autumn.

Eric doing the crux overhanging hand crack the hard way (it's much easier to use feet on the left face) and making it look easy.

Jeff leading on Mailbox (5.8 trad), with the fat crack of Yuk (5.9 offwidth) in the background.

Eric and I put up a top-rope on Yuk and thrashed on it after Jeff and Bev left. Offwidth is hard! Eric figured out the technique and was able to thrash his way up it, with periodic hangs. I got the technique, but couldn't sustain it for long, and ended up giving up and jugging through about 10 or 15 feet of the offwidth, until I got to the squeeze chimney at the top. I could do that.

It started raining last night, and still is sprinkling off and on. It was around 70 degrees yesterday and is 39 today. Apparently, Missouri isn't the only state with crazily fluctuating weather. Eric left this morning, with the prospects of climbing pretty slim and unappealing. I think tomorrow, it is supposed to be colder, and, possibly, snow. Good thing I was planning on a couple of rest days anyway. Now, I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of my week.... Do I stay here, or move on. I think I'm ready to move on. I need to try to get some leads on partners for Talulah Gorge, though. I did talk to one former Atlanta resident who suggested that I go to a gym in Atlanta called Wallcrawlers. He said the people there were friendly and I should be able to find someone to climb outside with. I'd like to find someone online before I leave here, but, failing that, I'll hit up the gym and see what I can come up with.

Route List for April 2-5:

Cordelia (5.8) (Onsight)
Dream Of A Bee (5.8) (Onsight)
Wadcutter (5.9+) (Hangdog)
Retroflex (5.9 Trad) (Hangdog)
Father And Son (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Vision (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Kentucky Pinstripe (5.10a) (Lead with one take)
Jake Flake (5.8 Trad) (Onsight)
Loosen Up (5.10b) (TR clean)
Tradisfaction (5.10a Trad) (TR)
ED (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Scrumblglazer (5.10c) (TR)
Cruisin' For A Bruisin (5.10c) (TR)
Autumn (5.9- Trad) (Redpoint)
Mailbox (5.8 Trad) (TR clean)
Yuk (5.9 Offwidth Trad) (TR flail)

Welcome to Ol' Kentuck...

2009-04-01T16:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been at the Red River Gorge for six days now. I've had 4 great days of climbing and a relaxing rest day, met some great people, and, tomorrow night, I have 3 great friends coming to visit me. Awesome.

This is Miguel's, my home right now. In the back, there's a huge tent city of climbers. In the parking lot, I'm probably one of at least a dozen people sleeping in cars. It can be a crazy party on the weekend, but the great thing is it's almost all people with at least one common interest: climbing.

Friday, I hiked around, and messed around on this awesome boulder. I love this boulder on so many levels...you look at it up close and it is fascinating and beautiful rock. You look at it from a distance and it is a fun, pocketed face to climb on. The bottom was easy (think 5.5), but the top-out moves were committing. I didn't want to break an ankle, so I didn't try them.

I forgot to bring my camera Saturday. One of the guys I coimbed with is supposed to send me some pictures. Hopefully, he will.

This is Mr. Bungle, a kind of fun 5.8 bolted route up the arete, and one of the two climbs I did (and the only one I led) on Sunday (a cold, wet, ugly day).

This is Mike and Dillon, two of the guys I climbed with Saturday and Sunday.

This is me on To Defy The Laws Of Tradition (5.10a), the other route I climbed on Sunday.

This is just cool. :-) I love the rock here. It's fascinating to look at as well as too climb.

Monday was a lovely, warm, sunny day, and I climbed with some really great folks from Michigan.
This is Five Finger Discount, a cool 5.8 trad route that Doug and I led (Grace's head in the corner).

We did a few other climbs at Roadside Crag, and a couple of climbs at Emerald City.

Tuesday, I went to Bruise Brothers Wall at Muir Valley with Doug's friend Matt and a couple friends of his. I forgot my camera again. I also regretted not bringing my trad rack as there were a couple decent looking trad routes I missed out on. Oh well, I had fun anyway, despite the constant threat of rain all day. At least it never quite materialized.

Today was a rest day. I drove to Winchester for shopping and oil change fun.

Now to see if I can find someone to climb with tomorrow. If not, I'll have a full weekend with Eric, Jeff, and Bev visiting anyway.....

Route List For Saturday - Tuesday:

Slow Jack (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
Norway On My Mind (5.8) (TR clean)
Broken Chicken Wing (5.9 trad) (TR clean)
On The Prowl (5.10a) (TR clean)
Greenhorn (5.11a) (TR)
Mr. Bungle (5.8) (Onsight)
To Defy The Laws Of Tradition (5.10a) (TR)
Crazyfingers (5.10c) (TR)
AWOL (5.10a) (TR)
Five Finger Discount (5.8 Trad) (Onsight)
Motha (5.6 Trad) (Onsight on all tri-cams!)
Yellow Brick Road (5.11b) (TR)
The Shining (5.8+ Trad) (TR clean)
Little Viper (5.10a) (TR clean)
Critters On The Cliff (5.11a, but not really...) (TR clean)
Rat Stew (5.10a) (TR clean)
Workin' for the Weekend (5.10c, but not really....) (TR clean)
Send Me On My Way (5.9-, but maybe more 8ish) (Onsight)
Rising (5.11a) (TR)

The rubber hits the road....

2009-03-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I wasn't planning to leave at 6:30 in the evening, but things took a little longer than expected. I guess I should have expected that, but...well, you see the Catch 22....

Packing up....

Making sure I'm adequately supplied in essential provisions...

Building a comfy nest....

But, I'm finally ready to go.

Anyway, I'm about to head out for Kentucky. We'll see how far I get. I may just hit a rest stop for the night. Sure, I could wait and leave in the morning, but I really just want to get some road behind me, so I can start to relax.

Itchin' to go....

2009-03-24T06:49:00.000-07:00

Well, FOMO is done. I had an awesome time hanging out with a bunch of my wonderful friends. Melissa made me a fabulous cake. I think a good time was had by all.

I wasn't going to update this until I knew exactly when I was leaving and where I was going, but I got tired of seeing the two weeks out-of-date post.

I've started photographing and cataloging all of my gear for insurance purposes. Hopefully, I will finish that today and be mostly packed by tomorrow. Ideally, I'd like to hit the road Thursday. We'll see how that goes.

The plan is to head to the Red River Gorge for a while, first. I don't know, though. The weather Friday and Saturday looks awful...pretty much everywhere. I suppose if I'm going to sit around in the rain, the Red is as good a place as any to do it. Next weekend, Eric, Bev, and Jeff are supposed to come out and meet up with me...either at the Red or in the Chattanooga area. That will be cool.

OK, more to come when I hit the road.

First Steps....

2009-02-25T20:40:00.000-08:00

Well, I took the plunge. Yesterday, I handed in my letter of resignation. Today, it was publicly announced. In just over two weeks, I'll be unemployed, for the first time in over a decade.

Granted, I'm pretty well prepared, I think. It's still scary, though.

It's both fulfilling and daunting to see what started as a pipe dream over three years ago coming to fruition. I remember thinking "If this still sounds like a good idea in 6 months, maybe I'll actually try to do it." Here I am three years later, doing it.

I'm so overwhelmed with things to get done, it's hard to know what to do first. I've got to get a few things fixed up around the house before I leave it in Melissa's hands. I've got to get the FOMO invitations out. I've got to get my finances squared away, bill pay set up, etc.... I've got to get the word out and start hunting for climbing partners. And I know I'm just scratching the surface.

OK, enough random blathering. There probably won't be anything else here until I hit the road....