the dea(d)lio...

so it's been a while, don't hold your breath, who knows when the next one of these posts will show up...

but yeah, i've been up to quite a bit since the days of "al's diner"
(i think that was the last thing i talked about...)

mostly, i've spent my climbing time on projects at the fins.

 bolting

(actually, matt bolting)

the triple combo shared first ascent of "huck you", which has become my favorite 5.11 in the eastern idaho area.

three days went into this climb.

back when matt and i did "al's" we hung out for another day with our friend tyson and checked out this line, which matt had scoped a few years ago, but never finished.

by the end of day 1, the route was brilliant, but had a desperate ending that just... well ruined it.

day 2 involved matt and i climbing it to almost the very end, and getting super psyched about putting the anchors at the low spot.

and day 3, matt moved the anchor down, moved a few bolts to accommodate the new ending, then troy neu, myself, and matt all fired it.

kudos on bolting this route matt, it kicks ass!

belaying 

(well, that's actually kenny belaying, but i'm behind the camera here...)

the "pure rock fury"

matt has been looking ridiculously strong this season. and it comes as no surprise that he is right back at his high point working this route. he can repeatedly one-hang this thing. our thoughts on the grade seem to be settling in around 5.13b, which i think is a bit modest. also, these horrendous mono moves terrify me...

the send is near, stay tuned.

projecting

"turbo 900"

after 5 days last summer, another 3-4 this summer, this route is almost at the point of becoming a legitimate project. i've never seriously attempted something this hard, and the only thing that i have sent that comes close is "karma police" (13c) a dean lords route down at crank cave. 

a shot of me on "karma police" from 2007

i'm saying this as a form of scope:

it took a day or two to do each of the moves on "karma" (albeit the first day involved a full beta shake-down from dean), and within a few days i was linking large sections. it took maybe 10 days to actually send.

so what do i mean about a "legitimate project"?

well, i can almost do all the moves... still, there are a few sections that i have yet to understand fully, and the sections i can link are either relatively easy, or very short.

the crux.

this move is driving me a little bit insane. it's not that long of a route, and around the 25 foot mark, there is a long reach off a terrible gaston on the left hand. the feet are actually not bad here, but they are kinda in the wrong spots for me... a bit crunched up, forcing me to really yard off the left hand. it's not much more than a half pad thumb-catch, it has a little ripple on the top that fits two fingertips, pretty awful...
the hold i'm gunnin' for isn't much better.

stay tuned on this one as well...

i feel like i don't want to over-saturate you with my ramblings, so i will leave parts two and three of this update for future posts. (oh, and all future cacti updates have unofficially moved to my facebook page.)

enjoy!

the fins; why climb anywhere else?

actually there a few really good answers to that question, likely why we rarely see other people up there.

-access is a bit rough. without 4 wheel drive, it's a long walk uphill to get to the climbing. 

-the warm ups are 5.11.

once you get past those though, the fins are pretty much utopia for the sei climber. and quite simply, this place is the reason i decided to come back to IF for the summer (too many projects here).

over the past month that i've been back in idaho, i've made it out here for a few sessions, limited mostly due to the access issue (which, in my case, has been taken care of mightily!). we've weathered light snow, a bit of rain, and cold temps, and every bit of it was worth it.

"al's diner" on the headwall (upper area)

ricardo, on "warm up 1", 5.11a

(does anyone know if this has an actual name? if not, may we suggest "the virgins of howe")

ricardo crushed on his second go!

the fins has the highest concentration of hard routes in the area, and the teNgaiolator and i set our sights on the classic "al's diner" (5.13a), which, for our area, is probably the standard for the grade. we're both ridiculously close to redpointing, both slipping off near the very top while looking for a hidden foothold that is pretty vital.

the first crux on "al's diner"

a very long reach off a not-so-good-slopey-crimp with the right hand, and a mono pocket on the left.

teNgaio, fighting the bulge before the second slab-crux(very tricky...)

but don't worry, we're headin back with a vengeance! which means i'll probably have more photos for ya soon.

all photos by ricardo and teNgaio. (ha ha, they probably don't trust me with a camera!) 

ralph and bethel

over the past week i've been down to crank cave a bit. i've had some pretty good days, and i saw some things that kind of amazed me.

i guess the best part of it all was getting onto rock, or just feeling like myself again when i'm climbing. since the injury, a lot of climbing confidence was shaken up, combined with strength loss and boredom(emphasis! and i just ran out of episodes of the office....) basically, been a bit off lately. but i found myself runnin through some of my favorite routes and gettin psyched about friends finding projects to work on.

johann on 'riff raff' (12c?)

this past sunday, i was out there with my friends johann and tyson, and while we were trading laps on the routes, 'el jefe' and 'riff raff', i looked over and noticed two owls watching us, a good day to have brought my camera(sorry about the low quality). they were just chillin in the back of the cave. just watchin. at times we got within about 15 feet of them, screaming, grunting our way up climbs, and they still just watched us, all day. i've seen these owls during various trips down to the cave, usually flying in or out, rarely stationary, and never together (i believe most of us thought was that there was only one left out there).

 just one of those brilliant moments.

guess what happened one year ago...

---

4/23/09:

the beginning? 

hey, so i decided to start this blog deal and we'll have to see what becomes of this. hopefully there will be plenty of good stuff here, and mostly it's going to be climbing oriented. 

so yeah....

cheers,tom

---

and now! 4/23/10!

as i've been a bit laid up from my recent ankle mishap, i have no new material... except that i'm upset about the avs losing last night. and for good news, i got the go ahead from the doc to try climbing next week! about time! here's to not getting injured! (*knock on wood)

but, i guess i could do a year in review type thing?

hmm...

ok! so here's a photo tribute to some of the raddest people i got to climb with over the past year (the rest of you need to bring a camera climbing!):

kenny

spiderman (10a), joshua tree, california

3/09

mr. fresh

carrot top (v3), happy boulders, california

4/09

the teNgaiolator

the mothership (12c), the fins, idaho

6/09

clint

crate stacking comp, lander, wyoming

7/09

neil

powder finger (8/9), crank cave, idaho

8/09

the dealie bob, aka johann

riff raff (12b/c/d?), crank cave, idaho

8/09

tami-loves, and the alpine club crew (represented by my dad's back. teehee)

red rocks, nevada

11/09

eric larsen

bozeman ice festival, montana

12/09

pedro

the highline, near helena, montana

1/10

andrew

flyboy (v8), buttermilks, california

3/10

and i didn't have a photo of this dude from the past year, but...

herschdog, my pops

 the "creative belay" in lander, wyoming (7/07)

basically, this is dedicated to the few people that actually give a shit about this site. most of the time i feel like i'm ranting to no one on here, and it's nice to hear from you peeps.

cheers,

tom

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)

cacti update 4! (part 2)

alright, so upon suggestion from a few concerned readers, my lovelies got a nice treat!

yep! artificial sun!

it's one hell of a light bulb. a 42 watt monster CFL that is equivalent to 200 watts.

it did not fit into the one lamp i have, so i had to borrow one from my good friend robbi.

 however, the bulb is so big that it stuck out the top of the lamp, which was far too much light to handle, so i decided to invert the lamp and lampshade, and anchor the thing to the pipes for the sprinkler system.

as you can see from the photo above, this thing is really, really bright. i have attached a piece of cardboard as an auxillary shade (which is definitely needs to be expanded... oh my goodness this light is bright....)

and yeah! here they are! 

(just gave em a smidge of water)

the highline project

this past weekend i headed up to helena to visit peter and check out his crazy high line project.

the line: roughly 110 feet across and 100-120 feet off the ground

the anchor!

the black/yellow cord is attached to a pulley system and used for tightening the line. after the line is tight, the load is shifted to the black/orange rope and a hefty steel chain. the blue webbing is then brought in to back up the orange rope and prevent shockloading if one of the bolts fails. (the orange is set up using a "magic x", which equalizes the anchors nicely, but if one fails, the other three take huge loads that can rip them out.)

due to the intense forces exerted while slacklining, these fools used amsteel as a safety line for the system. the stuff is thinner and lighter than climbing rope, but ridiculously strong in comparison. also, amsteel cannot be knotted due to how slick it is. to overcome this, it is woven loosely and one has to splice the ends as in the photo. basically just threading it back through itself.

i believe the weakest links in this anchor are the steel carabiners, rated to 60 kN. roughly 13,500 lbs. seems like overkill to me, as that would be far and beyond the strongest piece in any rock climbing situation. but then, better to be safe than sorry!

"Highlining is like completely starting over slacklining. Every step is a fight to stay on the line, calm your nerves, and remember to breath. Looking out, trying to focus on the line over the abyss, and fighting back any fright is nearly overwhelming. This line was extreme. It will be conquered."

-peter

still a project...

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)