i think it may have rained.../some pure rock fury

the aftermath of the hailstorm last friday

(edit: also, matt almost sent his project up at the fins last week!!!)

the mono to mono crux of "pure rock fury"

that right hand mono scared the bejeezus out of me when i tried it. matt has more cojones than i do! the route is likely 5.13b, but matt disagrees and keeps thinking it's 5.13a. HA! stout grades are so the best thing ever!

ivo ninov is a bad ass mutha

inhale.... exhale....

relax, breath...

i went climbing today at a local crag called paramount. the place is a choss pile(meaning, loose/heavily fractured/blocky rock. emphasis on the loose!), but it holds some lengthy easier routes. I was climbing with the idaho alpine club, a group of mostly older folks, but they are awesome to spend time with. (and by older, i mean i am usually the youngest one there by 25-30 years!!!!) they have a very different take on climbing than i do, they are just lookin' for fun, to be social, and stay in shape. but a few of those old ladies can really pull down! i dunno, i guess it's not all that different, but i usually just treat days out with them as my rest days, relax, have fun, and well, free dinner! (thanks dad!) they always go out to a good restaurant afterward.

 anyways, the crag was over crowded, and at one point, there were three of us on three different routes, but all above one another... choss + climbers above ya = you guessed it, i got beaned in the head with a rock. my dad told me it was probably 2 or so inches long.... omg, i got lucky, any bigger and well, it could've been over and done with. i was about 10 feet above my last bolt when i got hit, i stood there for a bit, then slowly continued on to the anchors. i lowered off and just sat off to the side, quite dazed. after a while, i started feelin better, and i feel fine now, except for the bump on my head. it was my own damn fault, i should've waited.

anyways, here's a quote and a few photos. 

"... no matter what time of day... you always have to treat it like it's the best time of the day. that's the only way to keep going. If you don't think you are going to get cold or thirsty, what do you have to fear? when it gets dark everyone wants to go inside, be warm, and eat, but if you say, 'Fuck that... the thing that i love to do is rock climb, and i'm here and i'm doing it,' and this is the best time of your life, then you shouldn't care if it's dark. you just keep going."

-ivo ninov

discussing a speed ascent of "native son" (5.9 A4) on el capitan in yosemite in 23 hours, 53 minutes.

this quote has been said many times, in many different ways, but this one seems to make more sense somehow. i don't think it's really that it needs understood, that's not the difficult part, but it needs to be said, reiterated, and spread around. 

myself, "the mist", and the fuckin humungous move that opens the massive crux section

(yeah, i'm totally at full extension there, and i have about a 6'8" wingspan!!! and the pocket my right hand is on really isn't that good)

my friend katie redpointing her first 5.11!

"yellow man" (5.11a/b)

the fins

(oh, by the way, the rock in these photos is the polar opposite of choss, it is pretty damn good, and some of the highest quality limestone i've ever climbed on)

somethin' deep... ?

hmmm, well hey, my readers, my peeps! yeah i think there are really only like 2 people i know who have said they read this thing! big up to you two!

anyways, a deeper look into climbing:

it's a strange thing that someone would devote so much time and effort into something that can at times seem so meaningless... or is it? i've been thinkin' about that a bit lately, ya, i climb, ya, for where i live, i'm one of the best around, but really i'm not all that great. but then, someone doesn't have to be the best to do something they love, do they? 

i've seen tons of peeps out climbing that can't pull 5.12, but yet, i have a great respect for many of them. that thought is hard to explain. 

then of course one ends up with the oddities of the public nature of this blog thing, who knows who is reading this, (but like i said, it doesn't seem like anyone does read this! ooh, if peeps are reading this, can you find a way to contact me? to let me know) and who knows what thoughts should be shared, how they will be received, or how to explain things without having the personal stuff get out there...

so maybe this won't be that deep or philosophical.

ha!

i guess this is the bottom line:

someone very dear to me once told me that life travels to the highs and lows, and at the time, i was naive enough to disagree with her. as the summer ended, things changed for better or worse, then winter came, things changed again, now another summer.   

looking back over the past year or more, i think it's pretty damn impressive that i'm on track for the best climbing year i've ever had, and it's awesome to think that i'll only be getting stronger, and maybe i'll end up learning something after all? 

and i think dave graham(pro climber) is onto something, maybe the climbing lifestyle is one that will save the world. 

stay tuned! i had another session on "the mist" yesterday, and probably will have some photos to post shortly!  

(edit: i just added a ten person contact email list thingy. so next time i post it will send an email to you ten luckies! enjoy!)

"uber unagi" and "the mist"

over the past few days, i've slogged through the wetness that is the local climbing areas. (i'm not a fan of rain!)

anywho, i've bolted two new routes that are by far some of the hardest in south eastern idaho. one out at palisades(uber unagi) and the other at the fins(the mist). yeah, the first ascensionist(sp?) is supposed to get naming privileges, but i gave them names already so i can have something to call them. i could've just called 'em uber proj 1 and 2!

so a little about the routes:

"uber unagi" is ridiculous. it starts off some crazy tufa features(they look like big worms, eels, or unagi in this case), then goes out this ridiculous roof. the moves are super powerful and tensiony, two very hard pulls on underclings, horrid feet, and after that bit, (easily V10?!?) there is a good right hand 2 finger pocket. and that is just the first 20 feet. then it links up with my broha matt's route for some insecure choss pullin' capped by what looks like a very large pull off bad holds, then 20 feet of "easier" climbing to the top. i haven't tried the top because it's always rainy out there... and the top gets soaking wet. the route very well could be 5.14, or even harder. i really do not know.

"the mist" is very different. it starts off with some easy 5.10 or 5.11 moves for the first 2 bolts, 15 feet or so, then the business starts. the marathon power-endurance crux kicks off with a full extension reach(that is, full extension for me, with my 6'4" height, and +4 or 5 inch reach) to a decent hold. it might be possible to dyno that move, but good luck with that. then, the hardest moves, micro crimps, a high step and an undercling, lunge for a shitty 2 finger side pull, then lunge for a slopey pocket(another full extension!!). a few more hard moves to gain a jug, then launch into another hard section on two sets of sidepull rails to another decent crimp, then another hard section to a big pod and the anchor. i did most of the moves on top rope first go, but linking them will be a whole different story. the route is pretty short, maybe like 50 feet, but the crux section is easily 35 to 40 feet long, and the buildup will prove a huge challenge. 

(for a bigger challenge, the route may go to the top of the wall for a full-on 120 foot route. with the exception of like 10 feet in between the anchors on my route and the top, i saw a sequence of holds... and not an easy looking one! the super project for someone stronger than me???)

the route gets it's working name from a really epic day(yesterday) bolting the thing. the entire discovery wall(a humongous wall) was completely inside a cloud, and i was rappelling off the top into the fog(or, "the mist", which sounds much better than "the fog"), i couldn't see the ground, let alone anything else more than 20 feet away. my rope also didn't reach the ground, so i had to find my anchors or i was gonna get stranded, dangling from a rope 40 feet off the ground...

of the two "the mist" is higher quality stone, and a beautiful line, but "uber unagi" is far and beyond the harder route. i did most of the moves on "the mist" first go, but i couldn't do three out of four moves on "uber unagi". matt, aka the TeNgaiolator, said he was planning on bouncing back and forth from palisades and the fins all summer to work on projects, well, now so do i.

a teaser, a terror, and the best album ever?!?

k, trying to add an image... ha! it worked!! here is a little teaser i stole from seiclimbing.com

this is one of the caves that is being developed! too bad it's so damn short, but check out that angle!!! this is my friend dean's route(and that's dean in the photo), which i believe is called "conspiracy theory", and i don't think it's quite finished yet. definitely potential for 5.14 in this cave, but it'd be more like V10 or V11(or harder?!?) i think. (very bouldery and short, but super exposed, i do not recommend bouldering here)

 this is "the terror of tiny town". the crack was totally too small for me right here (00 tcu), so i had to detour out right. those holds i'm on are not good by the way. and the feet are even worse.

also, if you are around IF, the best kept secret in the whole town is a cd at the public library:

"might as well... the persuasions sing the grateful dead", but you'll have to wait, cause i have it checked out right now! not kidding, it's fuckin' rad! and you can't get it anywhere else, believe me, i looked... a lot, and the cheapest/only place i found it was amazon for $60!!!!

ok, so i don't know how to work the photo adding thing, but the cover art for the album is at the very top. kinda spoils it, but whatever.

also shout out to the dude who posts the pokemon of the week on serebii.net

but please start picking cooler pokemon man!!

p.s.

i don't think i'm gonna get any photos from bishop... sorry, but mr. fresh must've skipped town or somethin', and he had the camera.

a quick google search should get ya photos of soul slinger. it's one of the uber classics in the buttermilks.

projects....

wowow!

so i'm becoming a route developer. ha! and quickly my list of projects is growing. there is a very amazing link up down at the cave i've been calling "wave-police". it links the bulk of "wave of mutilation"(13b/c), into the redpoint crux of "karma police"(13b/c). i'm not super serious about it, but it's something to get on when i'm down there. (aka, i'm super close to sending! 2 hangs!) my bud dean is still working on the direct finish part of "wave of mutilation", and it's lookin' super amazing. that dude has an eye for brilliant lines.

i've also stumbled upon 4 caves that could produce some super hard routes, and another stout lookin line out at the fins. started bolting a line out at palisades. it's wicked hard. (note: to everyone who bolts/bolted cave routes, you are the burliest mutha's, and heros to the world of sport climbing.) 

yeah, feelin' strong, and well, that is a good thing.

and, my internet sucks, so i'll have to put another rain check on the pictures.... sorry