cacti update 5/and other things

more in the unfortunate events column...

... there are only ten. (check the bottom left)

one little cactus passed away. i guess there really wasn't that much sun over the two week period where they were left in a windowsill without their artificial sun. in fact, none of them really look all that good(except maybe two of them), and many of the pots have algae growing in them as well, which i've since scraped out. it's a sad day; actually it bums me out more than i thought it would.

----

hardcore crutching. (and andrew checking out flyboy, v8)

during that week in bishop i crutched up and down dirt hills, on uneven paths, over rocks both big and small, and even forded a creek via a few fallen trees. all while carrying my pack, water, and sometimes a crash pad for my buds. pavement and cement were cake after all that.

so i may not have made it all that clear in the bishop post that i was hobbling around on crutches for the past week and a half, but i was (i later added that info in the last post... kinda slipped my mind during the first go around....). so i went to the doc on wednesday, and she told me to start trying to walk normally! yay!

the doctor in bishop told me i had a grade two sprain and that they were surprised i didn't crack my fibula, and the lady here in montana said it could very well have been grade three, based on the amount of swelling, but yet that it would be better to start walking then stay on the crutches; which i found pretty surprising. she gave me a new brace thingy, a bunch of exercises and such to do, and that was that really. she said i'd be good to go once i could start doing one footed hops on my right foot, and that will likely be a few weeks. it's been just a few days, and the swelling has gone down like crazy, and i can pretty much walk like normal with my new fancy brace on.

----

and none of you may care about this, but HC Zapdos lost a super close match against the number one seed FIRE N ICE in the round of four of my fantasy hockey league playoffs, sending me to the third place match for next week. sucks that i was fourth seed and had to face the number one seed, i looked at the match between the number two and three seeded teams and i would have beaten both of them pretty soundly. in the semi finals last week i also had a close match against the sixth seed, but won. i wasn't even there to manage my team... teehee.

(edit: 4/5/10 HC Zapdos won the third place match 5-4!)

bishop round 5

finally! an end to this drought of climbing stuff to talk about!

in keeping with tradition, i headed south this past week to climb at the boulders near the small town of bishop, california. this adventure had all the makings of being a brilliant trip...

andrew crushing "the hulk"(v6), at the happy boulders

i was climbing at the happy boulders on our third day in bishop. my buddy andrew and i had just worked out an amazing v6 called "the hulk", and andrew sent! well anyway, i told him about my favorite problem in the happies, a v3 called "rio's secret arete".

i first found the problem last year when i got split up from carson by accident. it's up on one of the canyon rims, a huge block cracked off and left a 3 foot wide corridor behind it. at the corner, there is a clean, 15-20 foot tall arete, with just enough holds to make a fun little climb. when i found it last year, i was all alone, no spotters, and i climbed it over and over for fun.

this year was no different. andrew and i were rehashing the moves; the most challenging bit is actually committing to the arete. no stepping back onto the side walls. i had a good go, but ended up getting scared and stepped off. on my next attempt, i decided to go for it, to get the high foot and bear down on the crimps. unfortunately...

my foot didn't quite make it to the hold, and i came off. even though andrew did his job as a spotter (to make sure i hit the pads), the pads were slightly uneven, my right ankle rolled off the edge and my 175 pound frame landed right on the side of my foot.

"rio's secret arete" (v3), happy boulders

just moments before a rather unfortunate end to our day...

may i also add, i still hold that rio's arete is my favorite problem at the happies.

we were pretty far back into the happy boulders, a long way from the trailhead. my buddy kingsley (who was up on the rim behind the camera) rushed down, and luckily, he's a wilderness emt. he taped it up, and i started hopping. i made it a ways until i couldn't hop anymore (maybe half a mile?) and kingsley scooped me up and carried me the rest of the way to the car. (by the way, he's a bad ass.)

the next few hours were spent at the north inyo hospital, located in bishop. suprisingly, there was no wait whatsoever, even with an ambulance coming in. the staff was really chill, i'm sure they get this all the time, with all the bouldering around bishop and one of the largest ski resorts in the country (mammoth mountain) only an hour away. plus, i got a nice pair of crutches too!

i spent the rest of the week hobbling around the boulders as best as i could, trying to send positive vibes to my buddies, and taking a few photos too. andrew had one hell of a trip, climbing what are likely bishop's best problems at each grade from v1-v8, including an epic last day, sending both the checkerboard(v8) and soul slinger(v8/9).

here's a few photos (and captions) for your enjoyment: (all these photos are from the buttermilks area)
please click on them to see them full size!

two looks at "the iron fly" (v9)

there are two ways of going about this problem, either dyno (above, one move) or pull a ridiculously high heel hook/mantle move (below, two moves). i came very close on the dyno, but was having much better luck with the heel hook, and i came fairly close on that last move... 

gonna have to go back for this one.

andrew and i working out the "pope's prow" (v6), a problem of entirely core strength and balance. so very ridiculously hard. neither of us sent. 

kingsley, the viking/my hero, sending "hero roof" (v0). very cool, he spent a lot of time working this problem, and unfortunately i didn't get to see the send.

revisiting "soul slinger" (v8/9)

i didn't have much luck on it this time around, but it's such a good problem i had to give her a go.

"soul slinger" (v8/9)

andrew crushing/sending on the last day of the trip!

our female companions on the trip, kayla (above) on "west corner" (v3/4), charlotte (below), the definition of muscles, on "go granny go" (v5). i can't lie, they didn't mesh well with us, and unfortunately we didn't get along very well. the two are comp climbers, and that attitude was hard to adjust to. 

that said, charlotte has a lot of potential, and it was really cool climbing with her, she just needs to climb outside! she told us that she's been climbing for seven years, and this was only her third time climbing on real rock!

andrew sending "the checkerboard" (v8)

likely the most brilliant boulder problem in bishop. and part one of his epic last day of sends.

andrew, trying "saigon" (v6). 

such a brilliant looking problem, and a good reason to come back to bishop, as if we need another. 

"high plains drifter" (v7)

andrew crushed, and it is probably the best v7 i've ever tried (i came super close two years ago). unfortunately, i didn't get my chance at revenge this trip, stupid ankle...

my buddy nate, "the iron man traverse" (v4)

it's amazing who you run into at climbing hot spots. it just so happened that one of my best friends, who i've played soccer with since i was ten years old, was camped right down the road from us at the buttermilks. neither of us knew the other would be there, and it was really cool to see him again and to share a campfire with his crew of friends.

always psyched. even with crutches...

(all photos by kingsley and myself, he's posting the whole 1,200 or so pics from the trip on flickr.com. i'll update with the link once they are up)

the finger maester

over the past few years i've had one constant occurrence.

it seems that every time i start feeling strong (usually around fall) i end up wreaking havoc upon my beloved digits. this has led to countless hours of study of the finger and its functions, as well as me becoming an advocate of finger safety.

i would like you to draw your attention to a badass scottish climbing dude.



i guess it works as a poor man's e-stim machine. I have been using this treatment off and on for the past few years, and have found it to be very beneficial with swelling/tendon issues. In further discussion, he finds that this treatment works quite well with elbow injuries as well.

so my friends, our fingers are our best friends, and we must be nice to them!
i hope this video works, and i apologize if this treatment causes anyone to wet their pants...

(for more info, as well as other topics check out http://onlineclimbingcoach.blogspot.com/)

it's been a while

i had an internet crisis when i returned to idaho, and as such was without internet for a good two weeks. i decided to just hold off until i got to montana.

but anyways,

the holiday break was all over the place. revisiting stonewalls, meeting up with friends, yet another cancelled indian creek trip... basically shenanigans galore.

-stonewalls (the IF climbing gym) is always fun to come back to. before bozeman, that smelly building was like a second home of sorts, i used to spend so much time in there. but yeah, mostly i just wanted to see how the finger is doing. i don't feel the need to tape my finger anymore when i climb, definitely a good thing, and it no longer takes 3-4 days for my finger to recover from a 2 hour session! very good. actually i climbed a good 4 days in a row without really noticing any pain.

i also set some new routes, some of which got mixed reviews, but whatever, the gym needed some new lines, and i liked all the routes i set.

(so to all who may go to stonewalls: if you see any routes in there with "ninja" names, let me know what you think, i hope you enjoy them!)

also, i was meaning to do some sort of deep reflection on some of my favorite climbs of the past year... oh well. but here is a small piece of that.

my favorite climb of 2009:

soul slinger, v8/9, the buttermilks (near bishop, california)

"wave-police" down at crank cave came in a very close second. both climbs are pretty brilliant in their own ways, but soul slinger is far more aesthetic, both in rock quality and scenery.

-on to other news, because as this is a climbing blog at heart, and as one cannot climb all day, every day(although i did try).

i did manage to see most of my friends over the break, some a bit too briefly to really catch up, but it was definitely good seeing everyone.

i also played 5 games of risk over the break. it was almost like too much of a good thing in a way. i found myself thinking in terms of moving armies via dice rolls, among other strange things...

the seeds of an epic were planted as well. pedro and i are planning a huge peak bagging trip across 4 states that will take roughly 2 weeks to complete. more on this coming in the summer time.

i feel like this was kind of rushed, but it'd be hard to sum up in a single post. anyways, i'm heading off to montana tomorrow, or actually later today i guess, ready for another fun filled semester! (or something like that)

cheers,

tom

also....

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

"A Steep Learning Curve" by Max Zolotukhin

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!

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)

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.