cacti update 3!

all right! my little cacti are starting to look like cacti!

i put the zapdos in the photo for scale. it's roughly 2 inches tall.

i had one suggestion to name them after the seven dwarves... but there are eleven cacti and only seven dwarves, so i don't see that happening. sorry to disappoint.

also, i finally collected 100 jarritos bottle caps! woot!

i'm sending them off tomorrow for my prize, i'm so excited!

ice climbing!

guess what i did today!

ice climbing!

actually, i had a rather epic day.

so i woke up early and was super psyched to get out and climb. hit up the loaf 'n jug (gas station) popped in some daft punk and headed out to hyalite canyon.

epic:
as i was driving up the canyon, and the road was not really a road, just a sheet of ice really. (mom... you might wanna not read this... teehee) but yeah, i was chuggin' along, and while turning a corner the saab did a 360 spin, i was backwards for a while, then spun back around and *whump.
luckily, i got stuck on the side that only had a 6-8 foot ditch, which i was halfway into (other half on the road... sorta). the other side dropped about 15 feet into an iced over creek. would not have been good...
also came close to rolling the car... kinda glad i didn't. i like the saab. and i like not getting hurt.

after waiting for about an hour for the wrecker to come get me out, i continued onward up the canyon. very slowly. annoyingly slow. but, i got to the crag!

then! ice climbing!

IF bad ass Eric Larson tearing it up

strangest thing ever.
(oh, yeah, we're gonna hack at some frozen water stuck to a cliff, and try to climb it! it'll be awesome!)

i guess i did fairly well for my first day on ice, it's really not all that different than rock. many aspects of moving on rock carry over to ice. finding pick placements was difficult. not too sure what is a good hold and what isn't. also, the feet confused me. instead of stepping onto everything with my big toe, i had a big metal spike. so strange to not be able to feel the foot hold. the cool part is that every hold is a jug.

i also tried out some mixed routes, aka using ice tools on rock. hopefully people only do that on choss, that would be super lame if peeps used the axes on the quality stone.
anyway, the mixed routes were even weirder. i was able to use some handholds every now and then, but it was all about camming the tool in the rock in any orientation to get some leverage. i felt so shaky on this stuff. but i got to try a project route, and surprised myself by getting to around where the strong dudes did on the route.

but yeah,
definitely a good day, and hopefully i'll get some more days out on the ice.

dean and me.

(wow... i'm actually taller than he is. we're standing on a hillside. just thought i'd clear that up.)

and, big thanks to dean for the motivation. also mammut, petzl, and la sportiva for letting me borrow some gear and get going.

i'm excited for more ice!

(edit: by the way, a helmet is an absolute must when ice climbing. so much crap comes flying down! and it's all huge chunks of ice... teehee)

Ice Climbing?

first up, a bit of housekeeping:
THE DEALIO upsized a bit (the staff technically doubled!!), and i don't know if everyone knows who wrote the last post...
well, he is none other than my good buddy pedro, or peter, or i think his post name thing is porkins8888. but yeah, he's a total bad ass, and i'm lookin forward to whatever he's gonna share next.

anyways, to my post:

I wanna start off with a text i received yesterday from dean lords. (click on his name for more info on dean)

"Friend and fellow ice climber Guy Lacelle was killed in Hyalite Canyon today. Pray for peace and comfort to be with his family and his many friends."

i don't really understand what happened, but here is my attempt to relay the story.
the bozeman ice festival is in town this weekend, and yesterday was the pro competition. the snow/ice is apparently not of the best quality due to how cold it was the past week or so. while on route, a pair of climbers triggered an avalanche, sending them for a ride, that from what i understand, was several hundred feet. they were ok, and decided to keep going. guy (pronounced "gee") and his partner started up the route a bit after the first group. i believe that the first group triggered a second and smaller avalanche which swept guy off the route.

i don't have anything to say that would be better than what dean said.


things happen when you stick with climbing. one person who spoke said that the beauty of climbing lies in the relationships and bonds formed between you and your partner, that somehow, they are deeper and more meaningful than others relationships. it's important to remember that when the unfortunate happens.

at least on my end, i got to hang out with dean and a few of the other IF area climbers. i didn't formerly meet him, but i kinda hung out with the famous jack tackle, and many other of the elite world class ice climbers. i had no idea who these people were in person, but i have definitely heard all of their names in magazines and such. very cool. plus i got to see a segment of a new climbing film that highlighted a lot of bad ass ice climbing.

cooler still! i may get the opportunity to try ice climbing! woot! although, i'm kinda nervous... it looks insane, it's cold, wet, who knows how stable that ice is... yeah... but i'll be on a top rope, so nothing bad can really happen. should be awesome!

Slacklining

When Tom invited me to contribute to his blog, I wasn’t quite sure what I would write. He suggested I write about slacklining. I haven’t actually slacklined in over a month (because it’s so cold in Montana), but I’ll give everyone a quick break down of what a mental trip slacklining can be. I’m sure most of Tom’s readers are familiar with slacklining. It is when you take a piece of one inch nylon webbing, set it between two trees (usually), tighten it so when you’re on it you don’t hit the ground, and walk, jump, and bounce on it. It is really difficult at first, but it just takes a lot of practice to get your mind and body used to balancing on a moving, one inch line. After enough time on the line, it becomes purely meditative, calming, and euphoric.

I want to focus on the art of highlining. Much like rock climbing, slackliners are constantly pushing the sport to more and more extreme ends. It’s only logical to set up a slackline over a gaping chasm and, eventually, walk it with no harness. Most highliners wear a climbing harness and rope into the line, so, if they fall, they don’t die. But there are a few crazy people out there who free solo highlines. No harness. No rope. Just you and the line. Pure Zen.



This video focuses mostly on BASE jumping (a story for another day), but there is footage of some highlining in Moab at the beginning, including slackliner extraordinaire Andy Lewis free soloing a line. Badass.

It is impossible to describe how meditative and peaceful slacklining is to someone who has never tried it. Once you’ve pushed past the point of fighting to stay on the line, your head clears, your breathing becomes more focused, and you enter a state of pure Zen. Slacklining is the most freeing and calming experience I have ever had. I imagine it’s similar to rock climbers when they are “in the zone” and completely focused on the task at hand.

I’m going to college in Helena, Montana and it is insanely cold now. Me weather widget’s showing -16. I think the slacklining season is over for now, unless I can find somewhere inside to set up.

sweet jesus!

so, this is just a small random update, but it's totally -20 F outside right now. and it's day time. i guess over the past few nights it dropped to -40 F with the windchill. that's pretty cold.

oh and apparently the huge storm that hit bozeman back in november set a record for the most snow ever in bozeman at 24 inches in a single day.

so it appears that it's winter here.

oh my goodness....

no climbing in like two weeks... Fuck! Oh well, I have a substantial number of papers due these next few weeks, which is better than finals i guess. maybe. probably.


I guess the one good thing that is coming out of these forced rest days is that i have made a pretty bad ass pokemon team during procrastination breaks. (Peter! I challenge you to a battle!)

but yeah! no climbing... oh well...

climbing is dangerous.

(found this video on the climbing narc's website)

climbing in sin city

so yeah, i got ditched by the two indian creek crews, so instead of sitting on my ass, i went to vegas!

the idaho alpine club, based in idaho falls, takes a yearly trip to red rocks, a huge crag near las vegas, nevada. the routes here range from 30 to 2000 feet long. almost seemed to me like a combo of joshua tree and indian creek in a way. lot's of sketchy trad routes, aka my favorite kind of climbing. plus, there was no snow! kinda nice after digging my car out of 2 feet of snow and ice up in montana. plus, with trad climbs, you have to take every route on it's own terms, as 5.8 can be the scariest thing you've ever done, and even though you may cruise 5.10 on a regular basis, you may run into sketchy pro on bad rock and not be prepared at all. the most common accidents tend to be strong 5.12/13 gym climbers fucking up on easy terrain.
(photos courtesy of julie g.)


check out my rad shades! i found these on a rock after crawling through some bushes to the base of the willow springs wall. i kinda got lost... oh, and that's bruce, staring off into the magic that is rock climbing.
there were a pair of sketch fest 5.8 routes here that were really fun. or at least, i thought they were fun. the better of the two is a dead vertical route, with no cracks for the first 30 feet or so. all you get is some big huecos and pods to pull on. i hear you can find a shitty cam placement in these pockets... but the most solid piece i found pulled right away when i tested it... so after thirty feet i found a stopper placement that was pretty bomber, not going anywhere. from here i found 3 more iffy to decent placements to protect the last twenty feet. although the climbing was easy, it was a total mind game dealing with the serious consequences of this route, a game made harder when climbing with a large group watching you. definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but i really enjoy it.


tami-loves belaying at the black corridor. a pretty kick ass little crag in a 8 foot wide corrdor. lots of good easy routes.


julie g. steppin it up and placin' pro! leading a 5.4 at the moderate mecca crag. I hear this route was pretty sketch.
the route directly left was one of the scariest slabs ever, with horrid mank being passed off as bolts (as in a steel bar that had been bent into a hook and riveted to the rock, and there was maybe 3 pieces of protection in 80 feet), loose flakes for footholds, and required creative use of stoppers to add some sense of safety.


dunno what route this is, but the climber is one matt L. who is a total bad ass.
later in the trip, matt and i climbed a route at willow springs called "ragged edges", which is superb. no photos as we were the only two there. i took an alternate start on the first pitch that upped the grade from 5.7 to 5.9+, and it was brilliant, best climbing of the whole extended weekend. anyways, at the top of this pitch, after the finger sized crack died out, is a ridiculously smooth ramp that slants down to the right to join the main crack and the second pitch. not gonna lie, it was pretty tough. matt's limit is somewhere around 5.9 or 5.10, and i was belaying him, standing above on the good holds he was gunning for. he totally pulled it! then he went on to lead the offwidth second pitch, which was really just run out face climbing with a few huge cams plugged in the crack.


jesus, hardest thing ever! i have no idea what this route is called or rated (5.10?), but it was hard. it's an off-hands roof crack, that is, it's too big for solid hand jams, and too small for fist jams, requiring some awkward finagling to find something to pull on. at the lip, you throw a heel over, find a left arm bar, and try to mantle up over until you hit a good hold. pretty burly. the last 70 feet or so is super easy, and due to rope drag created by climbing a roof into a slab, i pretty much soloed the rest of the climb.

but yeah, i also saw the strip for the first time. so outrageous. i've been all over to big cities(mostly in europe), and even with all the pomp and circumstance of those places, nothing is like the strip. crazy taxi drivers that can't do math, huge water cannons in front of the belagio, a courtyard inside the venetian that looks like it's outside... so ridiculous. plus i got to see cirque du soleil preform "LOVE" which is all about the beatles. it was pretty rad, but i think if you were to spend that much on beatles' music from itunes you'd get more enjoyment. still though, it was bad ass. tami-loves even beat vegas on the slots at our hotel, 'the orleans'. she totally won two dollars! WOOT!

turkey day surprise

shafted! no indian creek.

I could emulate stephen colbert, and give a big wag of my finger to two individuals, but hey, hating isn't my game so i'm gonna move on... except, i guess i kinda did some hating by even bringing that up... oh well! :D

...and where am i heading off to?

VEGAS BABY!

stay tuned.

( in case you don't know what ":D" is, it's a big smiley face thingy)

to piggy back an older post

“I can believe that I'm a wizard, that I can do everything with my mind, and I'll be strong as all hell... I just need to be confident.” -Dave Graham

At some point things just click. Specific focus isn’t needed; things just happen. Confidence, weakness, focus, whatever, the brain begins to recognize sequences of movement faster and more efficiently, always looking ahead. When to bear down on that razor edge, reel in, and lunge for that next hold. Pace --rhythmic breathing, anticipation-- comes together, speeding up when the moves are difficult, slowing when they let up, always looking ahead. All parts of the body do exactly what they need to be, “PSAAHT!!!” The difficulties are over, the puzzle deciphered. One last move. Then the mind realizes what is going on. Other thoughts begin to drift in, excitement from climbing through this heinous problem, anxiety thinking that this may just be the day that you send, fear from being so high off the ground... all this swirling round and round, killing your focus, disrupting your breathing, and then, a small error leads to a foot popping off, throwing everything out of balance... you try to correct, but a split second later, you crash into the pads, roll down the hill, and lie huddled in the dirt. Defeat.

This failure is all too common in climbing. Falling is part of the process. If you never fall, you aren’t trying hard enough. Like any orchestration, it’s nearly impossible to play the notes right on the first go. The process of projecting a climb, working it over and over to figure it out, can be the most frustrating yet rewarding experience for a climber. You see, when you do figure out the individual pieces, when you figure out the very best way to do something, when you can finally sustain sound focus, strength doesn't seem to matter as much.

The notes are there for all eternity, and the musician has to unlock them perfectly to make music. There is a path in your mind that shows the sequence, the moves, and what to do to adapt to each movement. When things move perfectly in motion there is brilliance to it. Climbing is a strange game of body positions. A game of engrams, of muscle memory. It’s a game of occupying space, keeping everything together, feet, hands, fingers, core, whatever... you need it all together. There is a kind of fluency, and the climbing language develops. With dissonance gone, harmony follows. It takes a strong body to pull the moves, and a stronger mind to ultimately realize success.

The sun falls behind the mountains, the rock cools down, and you’re back, walking the trail you know so very well. That boulder is still there; this time, it’s revenge. The breathing pattern begins, steadying on the inhale, executing on the exhale.You reach for that tiny quartz crystal. Then the physical disappears. You grab the sharp grainy hold, set your feet, move your hips, slap the pinch, bump your hand again, inhale, then “PSAAHT!!! AHHHAAAH!” Keep it together! pull the lip, and bam! you’re sitting on top just as the last light fades and stars appear. The cadence dies down, the number fades. Victory.

------------------

earned myself an A with this paper. not too shabby. needs a better title though, the original was "Strength Of Mind vs. Strength Of Body", apparently that isn't lyrical enough to fit with the paper. i agree.

but yeah, i'm happy with it.

and upcoming....

we got like 18+ inches of snow over the course of 12 hours on thursday.

totally going cragging tomorrow.

should be way bad ass.

also, plenty of dorm shenanigans and pokemon madness.

stay tuned.

climbing and dancing in the rain

due to it's awesomeness, i'm surprised this crag is so quiet.

natural bridge and falls

about an hour and a half out of bozeman, down a long and windy dirt road, there is a humongous waterfall and a raging river. At least in the summer, that is. during the fall the water level drops, and a jumble of boulders appear. The walls on either side are 90-100 feet tall, and along one side where the river still flows is a massive, maybe 200 yard wide cave. pretty damn impressive. there is so much rock in this canyon. so why is it so quiet?

well, everything is so damn hard. at least all of the good stuff anyway.

in the riverbed there is a giant 50 foot boulder with bullet proof limestone. i believe the easiest route on it is 5.12d. the bottom 10-15 feet of this boulder are under water for a good portion of the year, and the rock looks like all the crazy shit you see in pirate movies. in fact, all the routes on the boulder are named after sea type things.

further down, there is a 20 foot bloc. no, not a typo, bloc, no 'k', is another word for boulder problem. anyway, this has one line on it, a 3 bolt 5.13b which should probably be rated V8 or so.

and then, the madness.

along the other side of the river, the side opposite the huge cave(choss), is a massive wall that holds a single route, which just happens to be the hardest route in montana, as well as a project put in yesterday that is likely to run 5.14/+.

so very good. i wish i had some photos to share. don't despair! andrew has a friend that really enjoys hanging in a harness taking pictures(weird huh?), so i'm likely to get some cool photos on here.

oh yeah! why the title? you can climb here all day while it's raining, and raining hard. so good.

cacti update

remember back in late september i showed a picture of my "Veggie Tales: The Ballad of Little Joe Cactus Kit Learning Garden"?

planted on 9/25/09, the box said that seedlings would appear in 7 - 56 days. i had 5 seedlings after 5 days... and now:

11 little beauties after 38 days!

still no idea what types they are, or when to take them out of their little green house thingy. plus, they have spines now! haven't watered em yet, it's still pretty moist in the green house.

but yeah, if anyone has any ideas or knows more than i do about cacti, let me know.

oh and don't you worry one little bit, i plan to keep you updated on these babies.

(edit: it'd be super ridiculous if these were peruvian torch cactus... i'd have to wonder about the veggie tales people and what message they are sending to kids... maybe.... we'll see...

oh and if anyone wants to see the TeNgaiolator in a gorilla suit. look no further)

Eric Cartman Vs. Lady Gaga

so brilliant.

cartman, why don't you sing more often?

(both clips are from southparkstudios.com)

also....

i also want to draw some attention to a very good article i found.

"A Steep Learning Curve" by Max Zolotukhin

some bad assery

charlotte durif on the first ascent of some crazy 14c in france

a triple threat (kinda sorta)

three fun anecdotes from the week

1. climbing gym fun

like any new member of a climbing gym must do, i had to take a belay test. I was all, "Oh, not a problem, i've been teaching people how to do that for years. I know how to work a gri gri, and i know how a gri gri works." little did i know...

a belayer can get away with a lot using a gri gri(that's why stonewalls has them!), it auto locks, nd as long as you don't interfere with the lever, you aren't gonna drop anyone. sure they arguably aren't as soft of a catch as a reverso, but on top rope, in a gym, i think a gri gri is safer.

so this lady that runs the gym up here has her own special way of doing everything, and if you dont follow her to the t, well, sucks to be you. it took her forever to finally pass me off. she kept freakin on me for not having her exact hand positions when i belay, and it's always fun explaining to someone that what you are doing works just as well if not better than what they are doing. so sorry to all you folks whom i've caught quite safely on a gri gri, apparently i'm not up to snuff, and i need to hone my technique. :D I didn't even want to bother with passing off for lead belay. which sucks, because half of the gym is lead only. wow... what a bitch she was...

the only good part of this gym is the bouldering area, which is quite large and the creepy lady doesn't watch you the whole time. it has a plethora of problems ranging from v0-v10, most between v0-v6, and a lot of strong bad ass climbers.

but it's no stonewalls.... i miss it there... teehee. actually the cave at stonewalls is far better than anything the spire has, and if you were to compare it with supy's garage, the spire sucks.

overall it's a good gym, and i'm happy that there is a nice gym so close to campus, but it definitely could be better.

(or, i'm just being a negative nancy because i'm not very good at climbing. teehee)

2. some drunken stupor

so the residence hall association, or RHA, puts on a little get together every week. usually it's a fun activity and it lets ya meet people from the rest of the building.

thursday night's was pretty ridiculous. they gave a demonstration of drunkenness. Many of the RA's (resident advisors) are over 21, and therefore it's ok for them to have alcohol in their rooms. so the RA on my floor was part of this demonstration. he's a super classy guy, always a snappy dresser, ripped as all hell, and has a bad ass back piece tattoo. but the guy can't drink very well. poor garrett... (that's his name)

so around 11pm i roll out of bed to use the facilities, and i found him passed out lying next to a toilet, clearly not feeling well. it turned out that i was one of maybe six people that stumbled across him, and we all kinda baby sat him for the rest of the night. we gave him a brownie, some crackers, and water, and checked in on him. we eventually turned on a movie for him, 300 of all things...., to get his mind off feeling like shit, and he fell asleep soon after. some things ya just gotta ride out.

gotta feel bad for the guy, he's the authority figure on our floor, and he was in no shape for that. plus, he had calculus at 8 am this morning. not gonna lie, it made me laugh. knowing the nature of this dorm, i'd assumed he could handle himself. plus, it was thursday night, and he was drinking for what was supposed to be a fun, harmless demonstration.

but, in good form, he went to class friday morning.

3. possibly the best story of the week!

so i went climbing on real rock for the first time since august! weoohoo!

i've been climbing with this kid from ketchum named andrew. he's a total bad ass. however, we are both working through recovery from substantial finger injuries, so we aren't super bad ass, but only slightly bad ass.

we did have a dog that followed us(we called him 'rover') to the crag from the parking area(located at a big game butcher shop, as in, we saw a pair of buffalo heads lying on the ground.) this dog followed us all day, and eventually some people came up to us and told us some lady was looking for it. as the rain rolled in and we had to skidaddle, the dog was reunited with it's owner(turns out his name was really 'cash'). and his owner coincidentally sits next to me in one of my classes... weird huh.

but yeah, saw lot's of cool routes, tried a few, and am psyched!

quite possibly the BEST thing ever!!

guess what i did today...

I WENT CLIMBING!!! weoooo weooo woot ya alright!

yeah, i sucked it up royally, but you know what, rock climbing is so awesome! because the best day someone can ever have is a day of rock climbing, even if you just go to the gym (i think that is a proven fact by the way). and actually i think i didn't do too bad for two months of doing nothing with my right hand, and i mean nothing, like, not even moving it for about a month solid. actually, i'm two days short of not climbing for two solid months, but yeah, i did a v5 sloper problem in like 10 mins, that's pretty cool. and to cap it off, i got a massive bloody flapper on my pinky, for you non climbers, that means a huge flap of skin got torn off, like dime sized at my big knuckle on my right pinky.

so yeah! i'm gonna revel in the glory of rekindling an old flame.

I LOVE ROCK CLIMBING!!!!

the bozeman police reports

so the best part of the local newspaper has to be the police reports. here are a few from today, as well as one from a while ago:

- A resident on south black avenue reported that his home was broken into by someone cutting through a screen window. nothing was taken, but the thermostat had been lowered. 

(take in mind, it's winter here, fall lasted for like two days, and we have a lot of snow)

-a caller reported that a man had broken into his home on north 5th avenue through a sliding glass door and then fell asleep in the house.

- a caller said there was a "kid yelling for help making a lot of noise" in a moose ridge road apartment around 4:30 am. the caller cut his finger breaking a window to get into the apartment because no one answered the door when he knocked. he told officers that the person inside had overdosed on hallucinogenic mushrooms.

(as far as i know, and don't take me as an expert, it isn't possible to overdose on hallucinogenic mushshrooms)

my veggie tales cactus kit

Veggie Tales "Ballad of Little Joe" Cactus Kit Learning Garden

so i was uber bored, and found this ridiculous kit at lowe's. i planted all the seeds last saturday, and the box says it should start to sprout in 7-56 days. teehee.

so it has now been 5 days, and as you can see there are 5 sprouts already! 7 days my ass. but then again, they are kinda puny. But it's freakin veggie tales man! the most ridiculous thing ever, and the creators of the "where is my hairbrush" song.

teehee

if i were a fourth grader in south park....

happy change

HEY!! Hey! lookie!

(9/18/09)

as opposed to:

(8/21/09)

soo much better, let me tell you. I still have the damn turtle shell thing, but god, i am glad i don't have to wear it anymore. and peeps are just gonna have to deal with me flipping them off for a while. (thinkin' maybe i'll write in big red letters, "FUCK YOU" on it, just to drive the point home)

 oh, and i had another turtle shell thingy before my current one... my sista and i decorated it with rhinestones. the current one isn't decorated. thank goodness. and holy crap, my right arm is ridiculously sore... moving a whole slew of muscles i haven't used in a while.

oh, and mom, i finally found some french musicians that i actually like. (not quite charles trenet)

shit! i thought this was impossible!

ok, something for the climbers out there.

read this

ok, i don't know anything really about aid climbing, except that it can be the scariest shit in the universe, but i thought A6 was a theoretical grade. that it can't get worse than A5. that A5 equals imminent death, and here are some dudes claiming A6+!!!!

i once saw an interview that said for some route to truly be A5, someone has to die on the ascent. yeah that's right, die. in comparison to sport climbing, or trad even, there is no redpointing in aid climbing. redpointing is the method used by everyone to climb their hardest. how do you redpoint something where a fall equals certain death to you and your partner? 

i am confused as to how this is possible. please enlighten me.

my birthday (!)

so guess what, today is my birthday!

yup, no longer a teenager anymore, but still definitely a child. 

no big plans for today, but that's ok. my birthday often gets lost in the throes of school, and whatnot. in fact, it has happened that my b-day has been the first day of school a few times (8th grade, and last year, at least that i remember). 

i already had class today, have one more at 11, and then an appointment with my physical therapist later on. (by the way, i have the best luck with p.t.'s... first a wildly outrageous lady in idaho falls, now its this upbeat younger chick that is really, really beautiful. just thought i should throw that in.) 

and there have been two kinda crazy things that have happened while here.

first, there is this kid from ketchum that i met over the summer at the fins, and as luck would have it, he and i have the same literature class. so, when i am all healed it's lookin like i've got a climbing partner! and he's pretty strong too, he was rollin through a few of the lower end 5.12s at the fins the day i met him.

second, and possibly the strangest thing ever.... really.... strangest ever.....

i'm becoming a vegetarian.

yeah....

let that sink in....

strange....

it's not really by choice though, it's because my stomach just can't handle most of the meat they serve at "the schwag", the dorm cafeteria. so spinach has kinda become the staple of my diet. i dunno.... i could eat all that garbage last year... but this year, it just makes me sick to the stomach, which is a bitch, cause, well, it's hard to eat enough bagel sandwiches and salad for me to be full. i did have a muenster/spinach omelette this morning, and it was pretty good.

so yeah. 20th birthday! woot!

the land of the mountain hippies

i once heard montana described like this:

all the hippies live in missoula, and all the rich hippies live in bozeman.

so true. at least the bozeman part... i've only been to missoula once, and it was for an impromptu soccer practice a few years ago before a state cup in coeur d'alene. i do know a girl from missoula, and yes, she is a hippie.

i pretty much did nothing today, except move 300 or so miles to the north, to a strange land, where things are open on sundays, there is no sales tax, and no grocery stores stock jarritos (don't worry, i brought quite a lot with me). i guess the best way to describe bozeman, is that it's jackson hole, but bigger, and less tourists/art galleries, oh and it has a university. plus i do not live in a rectangle anymore, and i also sleep roughly 100 feet off the ground. yup a strange place.

i also learned it is very difficult to take an empty space, and make it seem full. interior decorating is an art, and i am definitely not an artist. 

5 months in the works... and a ukranian rap song

so not a lot goin on right now, with broken fingers and all. i did some hefty work on my beloved saab, well actually i just used a zip tie to put my car stereo back together, my pops did the bulk of the work, like changing the oil, fixing fuses, lubing gears, and trying to fix my parking break. the car's runnin like a champ! and is comin up on the 25 year mark! maybe i can get classic plates for it?? do they do that in idaho? (montana?)

but yeah, let's go back to happy times past, with a nice trip down memory lane. turned out to be kinda long, but what evs.

the road to the buttermilks, one of the worst roads ever, one of the best climbing areas ever.

so this post has been in the works for nearly 5 months... and i told all you peeps i would post these photos once i got them. well, mr. fresh disappeared for a while, and i didn't get these until a couple weeks ago. 

we didn't take a lot of photos on this trip, there were just the two of us, and being climbers, we wanted to climb more than take pictures. plus, when bouldering, having a spotter is kinda nice.

also for you peeps that don't boulder, here is a rough explanation of the ratings:

a v3 is roughly equivalent to like 5.11+, and v9 is roughly equivalent to 5.13+

but a 5.11 and a v3 are usually very different from one another, so you can't really draw a level comparison.

please redirect to an earlier post, the one about this very trip. then come back and look at the photos! ya know, just in case you don't remember reading it, or you are a new subscriber. (which i know i've picked up at least three new ones!! you rock!)

attempting the "iron fly" (v9) at the buttermilks

this boulder is home to the bishop classic "the iron man traverse" (v4) that follows the 20 foot long rail in the middle of the wall, then has a cool left foot heel hook on the rail to jump up to the sloper over the top on the far right side. the iron fly, however, is a one move dyno(jump) problem that starts where i am standing on barely visible little flakes, then one long move to the lip, pull the lip and you are done. i came very close to sticking the dyno, but could spend days trying it without success, and say the same thing. i climbed up on top of the boulder via that ramp on the left to scope the hold over the lip, it's a really good crimp, but oh well. the two kids behind me are from norway, we didn't spend much time with them, but they were pretty cool.

the bureau of land management owen's river climber's campground, or put simply, "the pit".

our home for two weeks. rest days here suck, mostly we would go to coffee houses in the nearby town of bishop, or rig up a lean-to against the jeep, and play mario kart on our nintendo ds handheld gameboy things. then we took the grill from my coleman stove and cooked by fire every night. you can see the communal bonfire ring and the bathroom in the picture, and for water we had to drive down to the rv campground down the hill. we did have a two man tent set up the whole trip, but for the most part we slept out under the stars, using our crashpads as mattresses. also, the big mountain in the distance is mt. tom, roughly 14,500 feet tall. 

not bad for $2/car/day.

"carrot top" (v3)

this was carson's big project for the trip. he and i got split up in the happy boulders one day, and as i went off and climbed, he found this problem and worked it with some pretty rad dudes, whom i eventually met when i found carson. we came back a couple days later with our friend J, and carson crushed it. way to go carson!

"soul slinger" (v9)

this was my goal for the whole trip. i had tried it 5 years ago when i first came to the buttermilks. before the trip i watched the section from dosage 1 with lisa rands over and over to get the beta for the climb. the holds at the top are pretty terrible, and just barely enough to hold on to. and there is a huge jug over the lip. such a brilliant boulder problem, if i were to make a top five list of routes and boulders i've climbed, this would be on that top 5 list. i gave it a much better description on the first post. so please read that. i think i even made up a little song about this climb... how did that go??

one day while carson and i were playing hacky sack in the pit, shirtless of course, we came up with a pretty neat little ditty. this couple moved in next door, euros, and were ridiculous. the dude was always shirtless, and ripped as hell. the chick was golden tan, pretty thin, and rather well endowed (emphasis on that) and always wore a yellow bikini. so he would exercise, and she would take pictures. of pretty much everything he did. so we started pretending to be him, and talk with a bad ukranian accent. "quick tom! take picture while i flex my bicep!"(but with that accent) then we made up a rap about a group of ukranians that lived in idaho under the ground. so good.

"Deez Ukraines Rappes"

by myself, and mr. fresh

we ukraines lives unders ze grounds

wez lives by ze lava all years rounds

whenz weez go huntings

we use lots of rounds

we misses lots which makes us frowns

but not as bads as the scary clowns

dis is de ukraines rappes

that's going downs

that's number ones rappes

in all of ze towns

peoples says "heys, ho's, heys, ho's"

yeah, you're welcome.

symmetry spire, a rafting epic, and the broken finger fiasco

so with all this business of breaking bones and whatnot, i forgot to describe a few of my latest wild and wacky adventures. yeah, this entry has a lot of text, and no pictures, but it's kinda epic in a way.

last friday, my good friend patty and i went and climbed symmetry spire in the tetons. the spire tops out at 10,560 feet, and includes 5 full rope length pitches of technical rock climbing up to 5.7.

now, 5.7 may not seem like a big deal, considering my recent 5.13b/c(?) ascent, but in the mountains the game changes completely.

we started around 5:15 am and drove to catch the 7:00 am ferry at jenny lake to access that area of the tetons. we hiked in 2+ miles, a good portion up steep rocky slopes. as we hit the base, patty thought she spaced her belay device!!! that would have made for some tricky ropework, but thankfully, she did have the thing. whew! patty also said she didn't want to lead any part of the route, which would make this the first time i lead in the tetons.

the first pitches were confusing to lead, mostly just scrambling trying to find certain features outlined on my pocket route topo. and yeah, i got lost a few times. we reached the crux pitch, and it was stunning. a beautiful dihedral, the rock was super polished, and in many places i had only 60-70 year old rusty pitons(iron wedges) for protection(the first ascent was in 1938... i assume they put in the pitons). the last three pitches were all stunning, and were so much fun. but, an ominous rain storm was fast approaching and threatening our summit plans. somehow, it hailed and thunderstormed all day in jackson hole (the town right outside the tetons), but as the weather hit the grand teton, it was like moses parting the red sea, and we had nice sunshine. it was extremely windy, but no rain. no hail. and luckily, no lighting. all those things can mean certain doom if mother nature decides it's your turn. it doesn't usually happen that way, but sometimes it does.

we summited, i ate my sandwich, and we hauled ass to get to the last ferry (7:00 pm). we made the 6:30 one, and were quite pleased. we had dinner with patty's friend, and renowned mountain guide,  rob hess, a dude i met earlier this year in city of rocks. then drove home.

definitely took one step higher on the mighty staircase of bad-assery.

then the next day i broke my fingers... but more on that later...

so i decided to go rafting with some friends of mine yesterday. yeah, i was wearing a hand splint thing, i couldn't hold a paddle, and i probably wasn't supposed to get wet. little did i know...

it was generally warm, with mild rapids in the hoback section of the snake river. (i believe) 

the rapids weren't really too bad, except one. "kahuna" was very gnarly. it was huge! like, we went into the rapid head on, and next thing we know, the raft flipped, dumping all 7 of us. several of us got caught under the raft, and fought for the surface. my friend bailey was under the longest. it was scary. my bud peter got on top of the flipped over raft and started pullin peeps up, but only four managed to get on the raft before the next rapid. "lunch counter" wasn't particularly big, but after you're all shaken up from bein tossed out, frantically doing a head count, yadda yadda, the story kinda changes. i did not get pulled up, and had to ride the next rapids solo. in the end, we were all ok, shaken up, but ok. i lost a flip flop, and somehow my glasses got caught on my life jacket and i didn't lose em. we were all freezing. and i got my splint wet....

ha! it was such an adrenaline rush, and actually was my favorite part of the day.

and with the fingers... ugh. i probably sound more bitter than i really am. i finally got to see an xray today. i have a fracture at each of the middle knuckles on my right index and middle fingers. tomorrow i get a cast/splint thingy put on, and in 4-6 weeks, it should be mostly healed. so no climbing for a while. but i think that's kinda ok. i've been goin full tilt since january, climbed a bunch of hard and beautiful routes, and most importantly had a blast. 

plus, gotta settle in to school, and at least mentally, i kinda needed a break anyway. this year was always supposed to be a rebuilding year of sorts, and what a year it was! 

so two parting thoughts:

- do not go to idaho urgent care. they don't have a clue, they were slow, they misread my xray, and frankly, i didn't feel comfortable around their staff, and barely spoke with the "doctor". i don't even remember his name. no clue. 

however, the specialist they sent me to has his shit together. thank god.

-also, i turn 20 in like two weeks! woot! 

cheers,

tom

a small update

so hey! guess what i learned:

  the peeps at idaho urgent care have been a real pain. they are sure taking their sweet time telling me what is going on. all i know is that i fractured my right middle finger in 2 spots and one is an avulsion fracture. and i don't know what that is. i'm getting set up with a specialist, and we'll go from there.

so yeah... maybe i'll be healed and sending 5.13d before i even get to see an x ray of my hand. hopefully they tell me what's what before i leave in a week or so... 

fuck. injuries suck...

so i thought about titling this with much stronger language than just "fuck", but my mom doesn't like me swearing.

it's so horrible when you're just dickin' around and get hurt.

i injured my hand....

the docs don't know for sure what all is damaged, but it is likely that i have broken two of my fingers, and possibly hurt some tendons in the process. 

while tightening a fucking slackline.  not from an semi-epic day in tetons yesterday when i almost got caught in a huge hailstorm... no... from a fucking slackline in tautphaus park.

i'll update when i learn more.

ascend and conquer/crank cave update part two

today was brilliant.

"wave-police" (5.13c)

second ascent

i got the second ascent of "wave-police" (5.13c) down at crank cave! i've been trying the route over the past 2 years, maybe only like 5 days total though, and spread out, to where i would forget little nuances of the route each day. today went very well. it was really hot, i was nervous, tried it once, fell at the lip of the overhang, sat and had a little heart to heart with neil (yeah it just kinda happened... i don't really know why), and after our conversation i headed down to belay her on her project, "powder finger" (5.8), then after seeing her send, i just knew i could climb the route. we headed back over to it, i tied in, and bam! send. 

very good. 

(yeah i stole the photo from last week's session, there were only two of us down there tonight.)

crank cave update

the mighty crank cave

my plans for workin "900 S" fell through, and johann, neil and i headed down to crank cave. we met up with jerry painter later on, and we had one hell of a good evening climbing...

neil b. on "powder finger" (5.8)

johann workin the no hand rest on "riff raff" (5.12c/d)

the dealie bob found a new project!

painter, fresh off his redpoint of "bride of crankenstein" (5.12b), givin some beta to johann, who came close to gettin through this route.

 i wanted a pic of jerry, but no one was around, i was belayin', and he fired it way easy on his first go! total no anticipation send, well done jerry!

 and yours truly coming very close to the second ascent of "wave-police" (5.13c). 

the route climbs the bulk of a project called "wave of mutilation" then moves right into the ending of "karma police". "wave" may very well be the best route in the area when it's done, and certainly is the best route in crank cave. (dean, if you're reading this, i'm very excited about this route!!!) but since it isn't complete yet, i've been working on the link up, which is super fun. my time in idaho is coming to an end soon, and i've been very lazy about projecting this route... kinda have to re-learn the beta every time i get on it... hmm, time to put it away!!  johann found two good routes to work on, neil continued to work through the mental barrier of leading, and jerry painter got his project! 

all in all, a good day!

a hard earned jarritos/ aka FUCK YEAH!

i had kinda a bad ass day yesterday. instead of sittin on my duff, i headed out to the fins, solo. i guess technically i was going soloing, but i was on a rope the whole time. i figured out a top rope solo system that works nicely.

the fins is an oasis of sorts. beautiful rock, and shade, all afternoon. but to get there, one must arrive at the base around 12:30 or 1:00 pm. the hike up has no trail, and my car will not even make it up to the low parking area. (the rains in june carved a deep, one foot plus, rut/gash in the road on a hill part....) so anyways, one has to lug all their gear up a hill for quite a long time, in the sun. 

i got up there, and proceeded to stick clip my way up the route. i felt it would be easier than walking/soloing up the back side and dropping a rope in. when i got to the top, i realized i had forgotten something at the base... my belay device. my shiny new reverso was sittin right on top of my pack... 50+ feet below me. i was using an ascender type device called a shunt, and a prusik, to get up the wall, and then i had to inch my way down, using these primitive ascenders. it was kinda freaky.

but yeah, i got down, loaded up my pack with the rest of the rope, my water, anything with significant weight, tied it off a foot of the ground on the rope, clipped the shunt to my belay loop and headed up. the shunt is a strange looking device that works with double ropes, and works like an ascender.  it can also be used in this manner to self belay. one just has to keep the rope tight to make sure the shunt slides up the rope. this gives a great amount of freedom to work routes, but unfortunately the route must be pretty close to vertical. that works well in this case, as my route is barely overhanging.

i got up to the crux moves, and sat there for a long time. one move had stymied me on every other attempt, and today i was gonna do this move, i didn't know how, but i could feel it was gonna happen. 

the crux sequence starts off a pretty big left hand crimp. high step, then reach above to an undercling crimp, step to bad smears, then reach up left to a really terrible crimp that is very small, and very sharp, and i can really only hold it with a half pad thumb catch on a small edge under it. then step the right foot way high into the good left hand crimp, back step the left foot on a tiny edge, and gun up right to a shitty half pad two finger side pull. i found a few intermediates that helped a lot, and with some outrageous and furious yells/screams i stuck that move! (hence the jarritos!)

no... i didn't link the crux together... and i tried the upper bit, which may be 5.13b/c on it's own, figured out some better beta, but i had to stop when my left index finger started bleeding. (i told you that small crimper is sharp!) but yeah, the battle is going well. now i know what to do on all the moves. it took 5 days to figure the sequence out, which is the longest it's ever taken me. now it's on to step two, linking all the moves, then send!

daniel woods topping out men's final #4

oh and on tuesday i went to the mammut bouldering championships in slat lake city (on top of the shilo inn parking garage) and watched some amazing climbing. daniel woods owned the men's comp, and flashed almost every problem, and did the other 2nd go. most of the field didn't do a single problem! on his flash of the last problem (picture) he was doing the campus sequence to get around the big red eye, which involved a few 180 spins arms only, anyway he swung around, almost caught the next hold, sat there locked off on his right arm for a second, then busted out a one arm pull up, stuck the hold, and did the rest super easy. amazing. that kid is so fucking strong.

oh, and my cactus that i thought died seems to be doing better now. i put it in a spot with more sun, gave it a little miracle grow, and it's spines are starting to stick up again. poor shriveled up cactus...

climbing in the land of the cowboys

the 16th annual international climber's festival

lander, wyoming

clint showin peeps what's what in the crate stacking comp. yeah, you need climbing shoes and a top rope.

bad ass. the winner this year stacked 22 crates. beating clint this year and his record of 20 set last year. 

mmhhmmm.

anyway, i had an eye opening trip.

i set three goals for myself on the trip:

-try a 5.14

-onsight 3 5.12s in a day

-send a 5.13 in one session

basically, i would've been happy with doing just one, and in all actuality, i almost did two of them!

the first day, went to wild iris, i pulled out a pair of 5.11d onsights, and came super close to onsighting a 12b. i missed a foot and well, fell off. then pulled the rope and climbed it pumped(for the non climbers, by pumped, i mean that my arms were full of lactic acid. the route was like 80 feet long, and the crux was the very last move! and i fired it way easy on the 2nd go.

the next day was really chill. i tried the infamous 'killer', the classic 5.12c at sinks canyon... somehow (well, a conscious decision really) i got onto 'mr. majestic', which is in fact, not 'killer', not a 12c, but is 5.13a. yeah... i didn't have a guidebook, nor any motivation, and a 5.13 is kinda rough for a warm up. the combo of those three didn't go over very well. (serious, i tried to warm up on that, i had no idea what else to go for.) ha, what evs.

"rodeo free europe" 5.14a

the third day was strange, but in a good way.

so if you noticed, my main goal was to try a 5.14. well that seems simple on paper, but in reality, is not at all. i was very nervous. the crag was very crowded, and well, i didn't wanna feel or look like a punter, up there way over his head... plus, legitimately attempting something of that difficulty is very intimidating. like climbing in killer cave, trying evilution to the lip(v10) or the mandala( v12) in bishop, climbing indian creek in general, or the first few times i went to the fins. i don't really know the best way to describe that feeling. i guess, well, it feels like such a huge thing, something i have dreamed about for a long time, and all of a sudden, this year, i felt it was time to go for it. a big step.

the night before, i thought a lot about it. i decided to kick my ego and just go for it. fuck that shit, i came here to try an established 5.14. i wanted to know what it takes to climb the grade. one of my biggest goals in climbing has always been to climb 5.14, and it's beginning to feel like that could happen, but how am i gonna know in an area where the hardest established route is 5.13c (karma police, which i climbed in 2007), and where the only things that are harder are projects.

i picked a route at the rodeo wave wall in wild iris called 'rodeo free europe' (5.14a).  in an old edition of the guidebook it is called 5.14b, and in the new edition it is called 5.14a. what does that mean? well, it means it's solid at 5.14a, if not hard for the grade. the route doesn't suit me very well either. i believe it would be easier for a shorter person to do the moves, based on the foot holds available, plus it is very power intensive. basically a boulder problem (it's like, 35 feet long), the moves are all way physical, and the holds are all really bad, with monos and desperate pocket stabs in the crux, pretty much scaring the hell out of me. i've had three tendon injuries in the past two years... yeah, what was i thinking.

the setup for the crux. the two moves after this shot shut me down cold....

so having chosen a hard route that doesn't play to my strengths but probably to the polar opposites, aka my weaknesses, here is what i learned:

i tried it 4 times on one day.

i managed to do all of the moves except for 2 or 3. which i came close on! amazing!  

i did not link very many moves together, but i did make links.

i could hold every single one of those horrid little pockets, not weighting the rope!!!!!!!

the crux of this route is not mental, but very much physical.

now to apply what i learned:

-my first day on 'rodeo free europe' was much more inspiring than my first days on either 'unagi' or 'the mist project'.

-'ueber unagi' is way harder than 'rodeo free europe', and in similar style. 

-'the mist project' is not quite as physical, but almost twice as long, and so it is hard to say which is harder, as they are in different styles, and 'the mist' is more my style(big reaches on small holds). but you know, it could very well be 5.14a, i'm hesitant to say that, and kinda doubt it. one day on 'rodeo free' was not enough for me to tell. we'll just have to see.

-i make an annual trip to lander, and i believe i can do 'rodeo free europe', and that i will do it. no way have i peaked yet. and it allows me to use this route as a yardstick of sorts, to measure my progress every year.

so yeah, a productive trip.

i'm still waiting on a photo, so once i can contact jerry painter, i will get one.

 i'm glad to be psyched about wild iris. cause i kinda hated that place, like it's super pretty, mountains, trees, flowers and all, but yeah, i hated it... now i have a reason to go back there! and i actually am starting to like it a lot! (still workin' on liking sinks....)

well, hmm, i only told my highlights for the trip, but i believe every one had a good time, and it was super inspiring to see supy and clint pushin' their limits and trying to onsight every route they climb. i dunno if either has climbed 5.11, but they are both onsighting solid 5.10 pretty frequently. also, the local swimming pool was a lot of fun, as usual, and has a climbing wall above the deep end! not to mention the only place to get a shower for under 5 bucks.

and a parting shot for peter:

this dude dominated the slackline comp. 360 spins, jumps, yoga poses, and the best of all,

 he downed 2 beers while on the line. 

this is why people should only ever watch 'king lines'.

something political??

a film review of sorts.

so today i watched a film entitled "a divided state" or something like that. yes michael moore is a main character in the film, but he did not make the film. it documents a university whose student government decided to have moore come speak before the 2004 presidential election. 

wow... trying to stay neutral in that last paragraph was rough. so change of dynamic right here!

i was disgusted by this film. yep, kinda lost a lot of faith in humanity after watching this.

 why? no, not because moore is evil, but because people don't think, and then act like total ass holes to peeps who call em out on it. two guys asked a high profile person to speak at a college. bottom line, right there. but since he is liberal, and he was going to orem, utah, he was evil and wrong. i do have a lot of respect for three people in the film. no, michael moore is not one of them. in fact, all three of them are conservatives, i know two of them are returned missionaries, and these three people encouraged the free market of ideas. one is a soccer player interviewed early in the film, and the other two are the student body president and vice president. and unfortunately the two student body reps sell out their ideas, and aren't friends anymore. so i guess, so much for respecting them....

i recommend watching this entire film at least once, i think it would be overkill to watch it more than once... but if you want to, go for it.

so yeah, i'm fairly liberal, but i don't fit obama's ideals to the t. i dunno, i had some ass hole friends in high school that made everything in life a political issue, and i was dumb enough to go along with it. hence why i said had, not still have. total burn out on all that shit. i know how i feel, i'm open to new ideas and change, i hope others can say the same, and i hope i'm not secretly lying to myself when i say that.

 mad props to dean lords by the way. that may not really make sense to a lot of you peeps, but i have a lot of respect for that dude, and a lot of that comes from discussions he and i had about our differences.

yeah, that is an attempt at some substance! ha! hope peeps enjoy! but remember, this is a climbing blog! not a political forum! and, this is what happens on rest days... beware. and yeah, right now i'm watching "king lines" again. no rest day is complete without that movie!

oh and a trip report from last week at wild iris is in the works, i just need to get some photos. so stay tuned. plus, i'm hopin to head out to the fins again on wednesday. another session on the proj!