Trevor's Climbing Blog

Ice Cliff Glacier to Girth Pillar

2011-07-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I climbed the Girth Pillar with Braden. It was the most committing climb that I have done in the mountains to date. We encountered everything from steep snow and ice to iced up 5.11 cracks. It was a climb that I wont forget any time soon. I would say that this is a route that shouldn't be underestimated. We found the climbing to be pretty darn hard especially given the mixed conditions. I imagine that it would be easier if the route was totally dry. The only problem is that the ice cliff isn't as safe. I read about some people rapping in from the North Ridge, but I don't know anything about that beta. Here are a some pictures from the climb.

Our morning visitors

The girth pillar goes up just to the right of the rock scar above the ice fall

Braden heading up to the left of the ice fall

Heading towards the girth pillar above the bruschrund

Braden following one of the "approach" pitches

Looking up the first hard crack pitch.

A few pitches up the headwall you have the option to go left into the rock scar at a white sling or to go straight up the crack. Go STRIGHT UP. If you go left you get this unprotected OW. Nice lead Braden.

Looking down the OW

Braden getting closer to the top

The view from the top of the route

The summit was oh so close. We opted to pass given that it was getting dark.

Looking down the final snow field

Zion, Red Rocks and Yosemite - 9000ft in two weeks

2011-05-09T17:47:00.000-07:00

I knew that stuff was slowing down at work, but when was I getting the time off. I kept harassing my bosses and finally found out on a Thursday that I had two weeks off starting Monday. Yes, exactly what I was looking for. I bought a plane ticket down to Vegas for Sunday and planned to spend two weeks with my good friends Braden and Allie.

It turns out that we did more climbing than I ever thought imaginable. Over the course of two weeks we climbed almost 9000 feet and never climbed a route that was easier than 10d. Here's what the trip looked like

Day 1. Fly to Vegas from Bellingham. Climb Risk Brothers Roof 11a

Day 2. Challeger 4P 10d and the last two pitches of Jupiter 2 10d. Braden and I climbed this . It was a really exciting climb with 3 pitches of 10d; an awesome roof, a tips corner and an Indian Creek style splitter. I thought this route was really heads up and had one of the most exciting pitches of the trip for me. It had lots of really small gear with some healthy run outs and, for me, a desperate mantel. I committed to it and started to fall and somehow stopped myself with a wild hand slap/palm move up against a blank face to my left. We were both able to onsight every pitch so it was a good confidence booster.

Braden following the tips corner. It really is tips down there.

On top

Day 3. Cloud Tower 800' 11d. Braden, Allie and I climbed this. Since this was my third time on this climb I only led the first two 5.8 pitches and let Braden and Allie lead the rest. Allie took the middle block with the 10a crack and 11+ corner. She did great. Since I have only led the corner I was hoping that maybe I would have the gurr to follow it on top rope. Turns out that was not the case. It was still way hard. Braden lead the rest of the climb after the crux corner. He was able to onsight every pitch of the route. Really burly. I fell on the 11+ corner and on the last move of the 11c last pitch.

Braden starting up the 10c fist pitch

Exiting the roof

Allie enjoying the wide stuff

The chimney pitch

Allie on the final corner.

Day 4. Drive to Zion

Day 5. Shune's Buttress III/IV 5.11+. All three of us climbed this. My favorite route of the trip. It had everything from tips to chimney. Braden led the first three pitches. I thought the 1st and 2nd pitches were especially burly, with the actually crux being on the second pitch. I led the rest. There were three pitches in a row of hard chimney and offwidth climbing. One of which I will not forget anytime soon. Then there was a funky pitch of 5.11 face climbing that resulted in me doing a sideways and downward dyno out of desperation. It didn't work. On my second try I was determined to do something different but climbed myself into the same situation and was able to stick it. From here I had to face climb around an arete and into a crack that started as tips and eventually widened to .75 through a roof. I somehow made it to the roof and finally pumped out as I was trying to pull the mantel. I was so pumped that I couldn't even close my hands. It took a few minutes for me to get it back and I started up again. I almost fell pulling the roof even when I was fresh, still hard, and continued up tight hands. This was very pumpy climbing separated by mediocre rests. The kind that let you get enough back to keep going, but just barely. I wanted to make it to the chains without falling but it wasn't meant to be. I pumped out before I got there. I was a little surprised that the pitch was so hard when I thought it was 5.10. To my surprise Braden and Allie told me it was actually 5.11+. That made me feel a little better. After this pitch we climbed one more hands pitch and we were on top. What a great climb.

Braden on the first pitch.

The pitch that I wont forget anytime soon. I took this off of Mountain Project so I don't know who the climber is or who took it. Sorry.

Looking down one of the upper chimneys.

Braden getting warm in a pod right before the last pitch

Looking down the 11+ pitch. This is after the roof and is another picture that I took off of Mountain Project.

Day 6. Linkup: Sheer Lunacy V 5.9 C2 and Moonlight Buttress V 5.9 C1 2200 ft.
After Shune's we all went out for pizza and Braden and I started to finalize plans for a linkup. After pizza and a beer we decided that Sheer Lunacy and Moonlight were the ticket. We got back to camp and packed until a little after 12 and then went to sleep for a few short hours. The next day we were up bright and early and caught the first bus into the canyon at around 7am. Unfortunately, since the river was really flowing we had to do the long approach from the grotto. This added a couple miles along the river, but wasn't too bad. We were able to make it to the base in an hour. Within a few minutes Braden was starting up Sheer Lunacy. He led the entire thing short fixing the whole way and topped out in 6hrs!!!!!! Wow. I was impressed and a little worried about how long it was going to take me to climb Moonlight. Especially considering that the last time I did it we had a 20 hour day even with the first 3 pitches fixed. Oh well, only one way to find out. We hiked to the top of Moonlight and had a small siesta and enjoyed some water that was left on top. After half and hour I started the first rap down moonlight only to find a photographer and a party just about the start the last pitch. I wasn't real excited about this but knew that a free ascent was way more important than our linkup. I waited and watched the dude send the last pitch. Really inspiring. Here are links to the photographers site and the climbers blog. They are worth checking out. After they made it to the top we continued the rap down and got the the base of Moonlight as quick as we could. I took a peek at my watch right as I left the ground and it read 5:40PM. Well this is going to be exciting I thought and took off up the first pitch. I was able to make it most of the way up the first aid pitch before it got dark and then the rest was by headlamp. After 9 hrs of nonstop climbing I made it to the top. We were definitely feeling it and didn't wait around at the top for very long. We made our way to the road and eventually back to our tents for a 20 something hour day. SWEET!

Looking up the first 5.12 pitch. I took this picture off of mountain project.

Braden on the last 5.12 pitch of sheer lunacy

Looking down Moonlight. You can see the photographer and the two free climbers.

Looking down the first 5.12 pitch on Moonlight. This is where it got dark. The picture is from the first time I climbed it

The next pitch

Day 7. Rest day and drive back to Red Rocks.

Day 8. Original Route 12a 1150'. Me and Braden were still completely pooped at this point but Allie was sick of lounging around and wanted to climb. Since we knew she put up with being our midnight taxi a few nights prior we couldn't deny her what she wanted, Rainbow Wall. We got into the park right as it opened and Allie took off like a bullet while me and Braden dragged ass for hours. After what seemed like a very long time we finally got to the bottom of the climb. I led the first four pitches which clock in at 11c, 11d, 11a, 11b. I pulled on gear liberally to speed things up except for the 11b which I onsighted. I thought my pitches were much more heads up than a lot of the climbing I have done in Red Rocks. Just because there are bolts doesn't mean that the rest of the climbing protects beautifully. There seemed to be lots of mandatory 5.11 climbing. Several times I was sitting there thinking, "Man I wish there was a bolt here" only to look over and see a filled in hole. I think we got the Spicy Original Route. I don't know how often it changes, but I think the climbing would have been much more casual if all those bolt holes had bolts. Allie led the next block through pitch 8 where Braden took over. His lead through the upper dihedrals was proud. Really hard climbing, some of which was over very small or sketchy gear. We all topped out right as it got dark and rapped the entire route in the dark. Then we walked for a very long time and eventually made it back to the car. Somehow we convinced ourselves that a celebration was in order and we cracked open some beers only to discover that one Coors will make you very drunk if you are dehydrated after a long day. Good times.

Looking down the 11d pitch

11a pitch

Braden on the 11a

The 11b pitch I onsighted. It goes out that roof. Really fun.

Allie on a 10c

Looking down the beautiful corner system

Allie following to the base of the dehedrals

Dihedrals

Allie pulling the last couple hard moves in the dihedrals

Day 9. Rest. The battery to the truck dies and we have to walk to a Methodist church camp for help. We get invited inside for coffee and join their chair circle. After a few minutes we realize they just wanted to enjoy our company and weren't going to do anything crazy. Great people.

Day 10. Drive to Yosemite

Day 11. Look at the Nose. It's very wet. Rest more.

Day 12. Rest. Watch rock dry and rest.

Day 13. Rest. Get ready for the biggest day of my life.

Day 14. NOSE IN A DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! VI 5.9 C1 2900 ft.
This has been a goal of mine for the last couple of years. I trained all last season for this climb. I went to the valley for a month with the goal of climbing it in a day. When we were there we figured the best way for us to do it in a day would be to climb it over several to get it dialed, it took us four. We topped out excited, but a little more pessimistic about doing it in a day. We just weren't ready. Fast forward 6 months. New plans are hatched and I start training like I never had before. I was in the weight room several days a week, climbing and running hills. I worked my entire body. I put finger strength on the back burner for better overall fitness and endurance. We had a trip planned for the end of May, but I got laid off a month earlier. I didn't feel ready, I was scared. Oh well, I bought the plane ticket and committed.

We climbed like crazy for a week. Having gone to school for Economics I couldn't ignore the math. If we can climb 2200' in Zion in 15hrs then we should be able to climb 3000' in 24hrs, right? We decided to go for it.

We woke up at 2am with the intention of climbing by 3. Our plan was for Braden to lead the first half of the route(time wise) to camp 4 at pitch 20 and then for me to lead the remaining 11 pitches. He took off and climbed non stop until sickle ledge. When I got there I checked my watch, an hour and fifty minutes had gone by. We were on pace for a little under 20 hours. He kept leading through the stove legs and onto dolt. Then up the next few wide pitches to the Jardine Traverse. Left and up he went where he got surprised by 30ft of 5 inch lie back, he couldn't protect it so he ran it out. We quickly caught up to a party who slept on El Cap tower. After a few minutes they let us pass and we continued up. A few more pitches and a fall later we made it to camp 4 in 9 hours. Braden had killed it.

Now it was all on my shoulders. We took a very quick break and I was off. The first pitch was soaking wet at the beginning, making for some exciting climbing. Within minutes I was at the belay for the great roof and I had to throw on the brakes. We had caught up to another Nose In a Day (NIAD) party. After somewhere between half an hour and an hour I was able to start climbing. I led the great roof in fifty minutes and shared the belay for the pancake flake with the same guy. I talked about passing, he understood. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. It seems that after every hard pitch there are a couple easier pitches where they would speed up. We would only catch them when their leader was part way up a hard lead. This is how it went. I climbed the pancake flake and the 5.11 above it, just to catch up to them at the glowering spot. I climbed the glowering spot (12d or C1) and another 5.11 pitch and caught up with them at the changing corners. This was when we really slowed down. From the ground it looked like the upper pitches might be wet. Well they were. We watched the other guys grovel up the wetness for an hour as it started to get dark. With motivation at an all time low I took off. I was french freeing in the slimy wet cracks as fast as possible, which wasn't very fast. After what seemed like hours I got to the belay. I was feeling a little demoralized. I gave myself a little pep talk and started short fixing up the next pitch. From here I climbed two wet 10d pitches and finally found cold dry rock. I was beat and not moving very fast, but we were so close. I looked at the 10c perfect crack in front of me and said there was no way I could climb it. I aided. Only one pitch to go. I started up the final bolt ladder. My memory of the fall was of me running up the bolt ladder. This time I was barely strong enough to pull myself up the ladders. I almost took a daisy fall trying to hook my fifi. I was exhausted. I finally pulled the lip and got on easier terrain. Before I knew it I was battling the rope drag and fighting for the top. I fixed the rope at the lip and stumbled to the tree. Before long Braden came over the lip. I looked at my watch right before he got to me. We topped out in 23 hours exactly. We gave each other hugs and started ripping gear off and putting more layers on. After a few minute break to get everything ready for the descent we started down. There was tons of running water up on top and all of it was frozen. It made a miserable descent that much worse. After making our way down the frozen east ledges, bush whacking around steep snow slopes and doing the rappels we finally made it to the Valley as it was getting light. We didn't worry about waking Allie for a ride. We just walked the extra 20 or 30 minutes to camp four arriving around 6 in the morning. We had been moving for 27 hours straight. It was a day that I will never forget.

Looking up the stove legs

Sunrise in the Valley

Looking down from the bottom of the stove legs

A couple pitches above dolt tower

Looking back at dolt

Getting close to camp IV

Looking down from Eagle ledge

Lower cathedral

The belay right below the great roof

The great roof

Braden cleaning the great roof

The exposed belay after the roof

Braden a little closer

Pancake flake

We are getting up there

The view from camp V

The glowering spot

The pitch after the glowering spot. The rest of the pics from here on are from last fall.

Looking down the changing corners pitch. The first 100ft was soaking wet.

5.10 wetness in the dark for us

The last real climbing before the bolt ladder and I couldn't bring myself out of my aiders. Way too tired.

Day 15. Sleep until early afternoon. Pack for home. Got out for pizza. Get dropped off at the Fresno airport where I spent the night and slept for less than one hour before I checked in for my flight at 4am.

I spent the next five days trying to recharge. Oddly my muscles felt fine, but I was exhausted no matter how much I ate or slept. A week and a half later I can say that I am finally back to normal and still trying to comprehend what I pulled off.

Colchuck - almost

2011-05-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

This winter Priscilla and I were able to take advantage of a couple day weather window and head off into the mountains to try and climb Colchuck peak via the Colchuck glacier. On the first day we hiked four miles up the closed road and then the rest of the way to Colchuck lake. We were really excited to not sleep in a bed, too much of that lately, and enjoy some fresh air. After a good night sleep we got up early and climbed a little ways past the col between Colchuck and Dragontail. We turned around because of unconsolidated sugar snow and lack of experience with that kind of climbing. I definitely have a lot to learn about winter climbing. Oh well. It will be there for a while. Here are a few pics.

Priscilla happy to be in the tent

Coming up from the lake

Looking up towards the col

Priscilla wearing all her layers

Looking down towards Colchuck

Yosemite Valley

2010-11-24T09:53:00.000-08:00

This September I was able to spend several weeks in the Valley with my good friend Don. We got up a bunch of great climbs and still managed to leave a little bit for next time. Here's what we were able to do.

Muir Wall - First six pitches
The Nose VI 5.9 C1 31P - 4 days
Serenity cracks 3P 10d
Royal Arches 16P 5.7 & Crest Jewel 10P 5.10
E. Buttress of El Cap 13P 10b
Regular Route on Halfdome VI 23P 5.9 C1 - 29 hours car to car

On our first day in the valley we decided to get on the start of the Muir wall. Our plan was the climb the first 10 pitches to Mammoth Terraces, rap down, pack, and finish out the climb. Unfortunately, after a long hot day we had made it only 6 pitches and decided that we would be better off heading down. After much deliberation we decided that we should try the Nose because it would be a little easier.


Big walls = lots of gear

Moby Dick, the beginning of the Muir

Don following on P4 of the Muir

We were able to fix the first four pitches of the Nose and then finish it out in four days. I think that we could have done it faster, but all of Europe was on the Nose. After fixing the first four pitches we rapped down and packed the next day. After packing we jugged our lines in the evening to enjoy the cool hauling temps and get an early start the next day. Much to our surprise we were awoken the next morning by people arriving at our ledge at 4:45 in the morning. Since we were still in our sleeping bags we decided to let them pass. Then out of no where we noticed people appearing in the stovelegs as well. We later found out that they had fixed to Dolt hole P7 and started jugging at dark of thirty. So, despite our best efforts to get an early start we were forced behind several different parties. Other than being a little slow our first day went by smoothly and we ended up staying the night on Dolt tower.

Don on sickly ledge

Traversing into the Stovelegs

Looking down the stovelegs

A little higher in the stovelegs

Getting close to Dolt tower

The next couple pitches from Dolt tower. One of which requires bumping a #4 for a very long ways.

Our second day started out normal enough. We climbed a few pitches and got to El Cap tower, beautiful ledge, when all of a sudden we heard a helicopter coming through the valley. It flew to El Cap and then right below us. Clearly to rescue someone from the Nose. We later found out that a guy had botched his lower out into the stovelegs and broke his femur. Now that my nerves had been rattled I took off on Texas flake, a chimney with 1 bolt in 40 or 50 ft. It was a little spooky, but reasonable. Lucky for us we weren't done with the jitters yet. Part way through the next pitch a massive block broke free and exploeded climbers left of us. Now both of us were even more freaked out than before. Don finished leading the pitch and I quickly followed. I now had the privelage of doing the king swing. This involved Don lowering me 100 ft. down and then me doing a massive pedulum to reach another crack system. Most people have to try this several times before they get it. I was scared as is and decided that I really didn't want to have to try more than once. I just ran as hard as I could to the right and then took off back left. To my surprise I reached around the corner and grabbed a hold and carefully made my way to the crack. What a relief. From here we climbed several more pitches and finally reached the top of P19, an ok bivy for 1. This ledge was just big enough for one person to lay on their back with one shoulder touching the cliff and and other hanging in space. We managed to sleep here by the well known method of spooning. I spooned with the haul bag, and Don spooned with me.

You can see the blade of the helicopter. Very close to the cliff.

Looking down Texas flake

Don on bootflake

The next day we woke up early, which couldn't have come soon enough. I know that neither of us got very much sleep. We decided to climb the first pitch of the day and then eat breakfast and hang out on a much bigger ledge, the one the brits slept on, and watch them climb the great roof. This improved our moods considerably. Basking in the sun for a couple hours 20 pitches up a route is pretty fun. After a while we started climbing again and climbed P21 to below the great roof. On this pitch we got a massive core shot on our lead rope. Luckily, we hauled with a dynamic just in case this exact thing happened. So we swapped our lead line for our haul line and continued on. Note, nerves still on edge. We eventually ended up at camp V, base of P25, and stayed the night with the Brits.

Don on the great roof

Great roof

Looking down from the great roof.

Pancake flake. Beautiful.

After another evening of so so sleep we got up early and the race was on. After a bit of big wall politics we determined that me and Don were taking off first. I started the day off by leading the glowering spot. Don followed quickly and was off on the next lead when all of a sudden I noticed two people climbing like madmen towards us. It wasn't long before I realized that it was Dean Potter and Sean Leary. They had climbed to where we were in 2 hours. I couldn't believe how fast they were. It was nuts. Turns out they just broke the world record on the Nose by climbing it 20 some seconds faster than Hans and Yuji. Incredible. Anyway, the rest of the climb was more of the same. Classic pitch after classic pitch. After four days on the wall we were starting to move better togethor and we topped out right as it got dark. What a great climb.

Dean Potter gaining on us quickly

Don leading up to camp VI

Looking down changing corners.

Me and Don above Changing corners. Photo by Kibum

Don after changing corners.

Looking down

A couple pitches from the top

2nd to last pitch

The tree at the top of the Nose

After several days of lounging around we got on Serenity cracks. A super popular climb as we found out. There were 4 or 5 parties in front of us. We swapped leads up the thing and made it part of Sons of Yesterday before bailing because there was a slide show that we wanted to see. We were both able to onsight every pitch we led. The highlight for me was onsighting the crux 10d fingers pitch. Really rewarding.

Looking down the first pitch

Looking down the crux 10d fingers.

The next day we climbed Royal Arches 16P 5.7 into Crest Jewel 10P 10a, 2400ft of climbing altogethor. We simul climbed royal arches in four hours. Took a little break and then started the hike to the base of Crest Jewel, which is described in the book as the best climb of its kind and grade on the planet. 10P of pure friction slab. It turned out to be amazing. I think that there were less than 20 positive holds in 10 pitches. I really enjoyed it. From the top we hiked 5 miles to tuolomne and hitch hiked back to the valley. All in all a great day.

Don hiking towards the start of Crest Jewel

The view of half dome from the top

After a well deserved rest day we climbed the E. Buttress of El Cap. I had heard mixed reviews about this climb. Turns out I didn't really like it that much, but the setting was spectacular. I did really enjoy the first couple pitches and one of the pitches towards the top that was climbing on chicken heads. We got to the top and made our way down in time to go for a swim in the afternoon sun. We followed it up with a few margariitas and had a great evening.

Don enjoying the chimney on the first pitch

Our route took the line between sun and shade

The highlight of the trip for me was climbing the Regular Route on Half Dome VI 23P 5.9 C1 in 29 hrs. car to car. We started the hiking at 3:30 in the morning. Oddly enough we wasted a bunch of time just trying to get to Mirror lake in the dark. After some confusion, mirror lake was dry at the time, we finally found a trail and started up the death slabs. We thought the trail would be hard to follow but it wasn't at all. A few hours later we got to the base just as it was getting light. Much to our dismay we saw herds of people at the start of the route. Thankfully everyone let us pass once they found out we were trying to do it car to car. After taking a 2 second break we started up the route and didn't stop until we got to big sandy ledge 17 pitches up. We took a 15 min break and watched the sun set before heading up the final head wall. We slowed down substantially here and had some route finding problems right before the top. Instead of taking the undercling bit we took the fourth class traverse to 5.7 slab. What a massive waste of time, oh well. After some shennanagans we finally topped out at 3AM, 21hrs after we started the route and 24 hours after we started the hike. At this point we ate the rest of our food and drank the rest of water and started down the tourist trail. MISTAKE. We were so tired that it ended up taking us 5 hours to walk down 8.5 miles. Next time I will definately take the death slabs down. We would have been down hours sooner. Regardless, we went to curry village and enjoyed the breakfast buffett before retiring to camp 4 and our sleeping bags. This is no speed record, but I had an incredible time and learned what I am capable of. I can't wait to do this route in half the time in the future.

Don on the Robbins traverse

Looking up the chimneys

Looking down the chimney

Mt Watkins

The valley at sunset

Thank god ledge. Very cool.

Turns out we climbed Half Dome just in time because the next day the weather changed and there was thunder and lightning everywhere. We decided to head to Red Rocks for a few days. Unfortunately, we found more of the same weather there and decided to just head home a few days early. Overall it was a great trip. I can't wait to get back and spend more time down there. It is truly a magical place.

W. Face of Colchuck Balanced rock

2010-11-06T16:23:00.000-07:00

This summer I climbed the West Face of Colchuck Balanced rock with Don in 18hrs car to car. I think it has the best rock climb I've ever done in the mountains. There is already a ton of beta out there on this climb so I'll keep the report short and let the pictures do the talking.

Goats down at the bivy


The first pitch

Looking up the beautiful 11a corner.


Looking down the money corner pitch. I was just able to onsight this beautiful pitch		.

Looking up the "crux" pitch. 5.10 to a 11+ roof exit.

Looking up the final chimney pitch. I was able to onsight this bad boy, which came as quite a surprise after all of the trip reports that I'd read before hand. It was hard, but no harder than the rest of the climb. Please don't avoid this climb because of this pitch. It is actually really fun and has good gear.

Acid Baby!

2010-09-02T20:24:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer I climbed Acid Baby with Chris Wheeler. This climb wasn't really on my radar, but I kept hearing about its epic status and decided to check it out. Once I looked at a topo I knew that I was in for an adventure. It didn't disappoint. It is sustained, the pitches are long and it has some quality climbing.We followed the topo for the most part except for breaking the first pitch into two. We topped out right as it got dark and instead of scrambling to the top we went down the gulley. It didn't look like you could scramble to the top, but apparantly you can. There are fixed stations all the way down, but if I had to guess I would say that the scramble is probably better. Overall, this is a great route and a must do for anyone who wants a sustained 5.10 alpine route.

Chris at the base. It is roughly three quarters of the way up Aasgard pass on the left.


Looking up the route. You can see the first 5.10+ corner in the middle of the picture.

The 10+ corner. Beautiful.


Chris following up higher on the corner pitch

Looking up the second 10+ pitch. Sorry about the finger, but this was the only picture I had of the corner.

The view of Dragontail

Chris following pitch 5

Higher up on pitch 5 with some good exposure

The last bit before the summit. Very cool!

Four to the top of the Chief

2010-08-31T17:54:00.000-07:00

This summer I spent a lot of time in Squamish and was able to get up four different routes that go to the top of the Chief. They were all great, but some lived up to the hype more than others. I was also able to climb Sunblessed and send a three year project of mine Crime of the Century.

Grand Wall 5.11a AO
I climbed this with Don as training for an upcoming Yosemite trip. In my opinion it is one of the best long climbs I have ever done, anywhere. It is sustained, protects well and provides pitch after pitch of perfect cracks and run out slabs. You can't beat it. This was my second time on it and I know that I'll be back for a third.

The split piller. I don't know why it's crooked. It uploaded like this. Sorry.
Looking up the Sword pitch.

Don traversing out bellygood lodge

Angels Crest 10c 14 pitches
I climbed this with Priscilla. It was her first time swapping leads up a long climb and she loved it. This was my second favorite climb up the chief. It was adventurous, long, and climbed mostly good cracks the whole way. I thought the route finding was pretty straight forward. I can't remember exact beta for the approach trail, but using the Squamish select book I was able to find it first try and you know when you are on the right path because there are reflective diamonds on the trees with "AC" written on them. It even had a great chimney finish.

The first 10a pitch on AC
The beautiful OW part way up. It can be bypassed on the right.
The random totem pole towards the top
The second to last pitch
The final chimney

Ultimate Everything 5.9 A0 10 pitches, plus apron.

I climbed this with Priscilla. She took us up Bannana Peel on the Apron and then I took over and lead Ultimate Everything. This climb was a little different then the other three because it had much less crack climbing and a lot of bolted face climbing. None the less it was a lot of fun and a must do. Oddly enough I always thought that this was the easiest route up the Chief but I think that it is harder than Squamish Buttress because it is much more sustained.

A short but sweet crack
Looking down the 11b or 5.9 AO last pitch

Squamish Buttress 10c 7 pitches, plus apron.
I also climbed this with Priscilla. It was my first climb to the top of the chief several years ago and it was me and Priscilla's first climb to the top of the chief this year. It is a fun climb, but not as good as the other three. It has more walking and approach pitches to reach the final headwall. The crux 10c pitch is a butt kicker, but apparently Sonnie trotter just put up a 5.9 variation that goes around it. You can find a topo of it on his blog under the title "The Ambitious Foreigner." Unfortunately, the batteries on my camera died so I don't have any pictures from our climb.

Here's one of the crux pitch from a few years ago

Sunblessed 10b 4P
I did this line with Don. We swapped leads up it and had a great time. It is a little adventurous, but well worth it.

The money pitch
The last pitch

Crime of the Century 5.11c.
After three years of projecting this climb I finally sent it. The main reason that I was so excited was that it shows the amount of improvement that I have made over the last three years. I tried this climb my first time in Squamish and got pulled up the entire thing. I wasn't able to do even a third of the moves. I remember falling trying to lead 5.8s that same trip. Now, after several years, my experience and strength have improved enough to send the thing. It was a wonderful feeling. Here's a video of some guys doing it on Vimeo

Crime of the Century

South America

2010-08-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

Me and Priscilla had the amazing opportunity to spend January and February in South America. Here's a report from our time there.

We started our trip by spending a week with her family in Mexico city. This was my first time being in another country that doesn't speak English. It was harder than I thought it would be, but her family was wonderful and treated us like royalty. I'd like to say thank you to everyone who made our stay so wonderful, the only person that might read this is Juan Carlos, so thank you Juan Carlos.

Me and Priscilla at Sea Tac
Priscilla and her cousins
The crazy buildings in Mexico City. The city was built over a lake and is sinking.

After Mexico City we flew to Santiago for free in first class thanks to Priscilla's uncle who is a captain for Aero Mexico. We arrived in Santiago in the middle of the night and spent an evening in a hotel that charged by the hour after a very expensive taxi ride. It was disgusting to say the least.

The next morning we got up early to take a bus to Bariloche only to find out that the bus didn't leave until the evening. So we spent the day hanging out with our 70 pound packs until we were finally able to take the 12 hour bus, followed by a several hour layover, then a five hour bus. After all this travel time we were really excited to chill for a few days in Bariloche before heading to Frey for a week.

The wonderful hostel we stayed at for a few days
Lake Bariloche

We spent a week in Frey and got on a bunch of great climbs. This was Priscilla's first time climbing routes in the mountains and she loved it. The highlight for both of us was climbing Aguja Principal, the tallest rock in the area. The views were incredible, the climbing good, and the giant birds were pretty cool as well.

Priscilla about to shoulder her giant pack for the hike into Frey
Frey
The first climb we did. Diedro de Jim
Priscilla on Sifuentes Weber/Monti 100m

At the top
Looking up what we just climbed
Bouldering
Looking back towards camp
Aguja Princiapal
The crux slab pitch at the top
Enjoying the summit crest and views
Looking back towards camp
It was someones birthday at the hostel so the caretakers made a wonderful meal for everyone

When we were in Santiago we met some guys who told us to check out Cochamo, the Yosemite of South America. After we got down from Frey we started looking and were blown away by what we saw. Huge granite cliffs set in beautiful valleys. We had to go.

We left Bariloche and made our way to Puerto Montt where we spent a few days getting ready. We started our journey with a several hour bus ride that dropped us off on a gravel rode in the middle of no where. We did happen to have a map, the only beta we could find, and it appeared that we were in the right spot and 20 kilometers away. Normally, this wouldn't be too far, but with almost two weeks of food and all of our gear it seemed much farther. We figured all we could do was walk so that's what we did. It wasn't long before we realized that there were dinosaur sized flys that were determined to make our lives hell. We spent the next several hours slogging down the road swatting giant flys until we finally broke down and asked some farmers to carry our stuff up on horses. Everyone else does it, why not. We spent the rest of the evening killing bugs down by the river and relaxing before making the hike, without packs, the next morning.

Giant flys
Camp in the farmers yard
Having some tea with the farmers and some people from Spain
The muddy trail on the way in

Our time in Cochamo was interesting. We spent some time climbing and a lot of time hanging out in our tent while it rained. When we weren't reading until our brains hurt we spent time bushwacking thr0ugh the jungle to find crags, climbing on overhanging cliffs, gardening up 1000 foot lines in virgin valleys and enjoying the adventure that is cochamo. The climbing here was certainly adventurous, but most of the stuff has seen very little traffic. With a few more people this area could become classic. Also, the guy who opened the refugio is a great guy from the states and he goes out of his way to make your experience enjoyable. Here are some pics of what we did there.

Priscilla on Apnea. Classic.

The hut where everyone eats and escapes the rain
Priscilla at Pared Seca trying to avoid the rain
Our campsite at La Paloma
Looking accross the valley at Trinidad
Looking down a 10 pitch 10c we did called Fiesta do monos
Fiesta de monos

After Cochamo we headed down south to Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. Our time there consisted of intermittent glimpses of beautiful mountains, extreme wind, some ice climbing and lots of vomiting. Priscilla spent her first night there puking her guts out all night. After a long and exhausting night she took all day to recuperate. All the while I was thinking "how bad could it really be." Well, I got to find out. The next day we moved camp to the climbers camp below cerro torre and I spent the night throwing up. I can honestly say I don't ever remember blowing chunks like this. Every time I felt like I was going to puke up my small and large intestine. I would finish and be covered in sweat from head to toe and tears and snot would be flowing at max volume. I now understood what my poor girlfriend had experienced a few nights prior. It took me an entire day to recuperate as well. After another day spent in the tent we decided to move camp to the cerro torre camping area. Luckily the weather was finally blue bird and we got the see the mountains for the first time in 5 days. Unluckily we only had one more day before we had to leave and the mountains looked like they were covered in ice. No climbing the big stone for us. Instead we went to the glacier and did some ice climbing with the tools we had been dragging around for the last 6 weeks. It was Priscillas first time and she loved it.

Fitz Roy
Fitz Roy again
Cerro Torre
Tyrolean traverse to get over the river
Priscilla swinging the tools

After Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy we started our journey home. It took us a couple weeks of travel intersperced with "we don't have room," "the next plane doesn't leave for three days" and "you can't carry your rope on, actually you can't even take it on the plane." By the time we finally made it home I was glad to be on American soil.

We made a quick stop at Perrito Moreno

My beautiful girlfriend in Santiago
We spent a couple days in Mexico city as well. Priscilla's family

Red Rocks

2010-07-17T12:11:00.001-07:00

After the Bugaboos I took about a month off of climbing. Sometimes when you aren't motivated the best thing to do is take some time off. Eventually motivation comes back. In the mean time I started working again at Emerald Builders, the custom home builder I worked for before my trip. I commuted 40 minutes for a little over a month and then an hour and a half for a few weeks. By this point I was climbing again and a few of us started talking about a trip to Red Rocks. That was all I needed. I quit, again, and hit the road for another month.

This trip was a little more casual. At the beginning of the trip there was four of us; Jeremy, Stephen, Don and me. After a few weeks Stephen left and then it was three. After another week Don left and then it was two.

We got on a bunch of classic climbs, did some sport cragging and just generally had a great time.

Some highlights for me were.

Climbing Ixtlan 11c and Triassic Sands 10b in a day
Climbing Levitation 29 11c
Climbing Cloud Tower 11d (again)
Sending Yin and Yang 11a
Sending my first 5.12 sport route Tortuga 12a.
Watching Jeremy send over 10 5.12s and send his project The Gift 12d.
Climbing Epinephrine (again)
Spending thanksgiving in Indian Creek

Birdland 5.7. This trip was Jeremy's first time leading on gear.
Jeremy working The Gift 5.12d. He sent after a couple days of work.
Looking up Ixtlan
The offwidth on Ixtlan
The 10a pitch on Ixtlan. Big runout in a chimney. The kind that is secure while you're in it, but can't move in while you're secure. You have to let yourself out and shimmy and then dive back in. I was very scared and considered downclimbing, but I went for it.
Here's a better shot of the chimney/slot thing
Looking down the handcrack that went for days on Triassic Sands
Jeremy on his first 10a trad lead
Don on Yin and Yang. I sent this first go this trip.
Don on the Epinephrine chimneys
Looking down the last chimney
The second pitch on Levitation 29. We all had 5.11 leads and we all onsighted them. The only pitch that I fell on was the crux pitch. Jeremy onsighted of course.
Looking down levitation 29
Jeremy leading the 5.10 pitch before the 11+/12- crux pitch.
Jeremy at the start of the crux pitch. I led this pitch and was able to do all the moves, but didn't send. I think it's possible with some work. You can see the fist crack above, which he also led at 10c. Great progress for someone who just started climbing on a gear a few weeks ago. His final lead of this climb was the last 11c corner.
After lots of stuck ropes and long climbs in Red Rocks we were ready for a change and decided to head to St. George Utah to check that out. Here's a crag 5 min. from town.
A really cool feature in St. George.
I sent the 11d on this called Banana Dance and then sent an 11c on the other one called Pinching Bird Shit. After these I decided to try and lead a 12a around the corner called Tortuga and after a bunch of goes I send it as well. The best day of sport cragging I have ever had. I guess climbing with mutants does pay off.
After our sending spree in St. George we headed over to Indian Creek for Thanksgiving where many a good climb was done and I took part in the best thanksgiving party ever. Dance offs, good food and great people. Here's Incredible Handcrack.
Here's a guy we met on my project X-tra lean 12a. I was close to sending but hurt my finger. This was the end of November and as I write this in August my finger is still not at 100%, but oh well. Tape does wonders.
After Indian Creek we went to Joes Valley for a few days. After a few days of Jeremy bouldering and me watching (hurt finger) we packed up and headed home. What a great trip.

Bugaboos

2010-07-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

Well this is a little late, but I figured I would write up a trip report for my trip to the Bugaboos last summer. I was there with Josh and we did a couple climbs; Energy Crisis and the Northeast Ridge of Bugaboo Spire.

On our first day we climbed Energy Crisis 5.11c. I first saw this climb the year before when I climbed Mctech Arete and noticed the beautiful corner next to it. It looked so hard and intimidating then and now I was about to give it a go. It is always cool to see progress. I wasn't able to onsight the crux pitch, but with a couple small falls I finished it out and from there it was smooth sailing. What a great climb.

The gear pile

Looking up Energy Crisis
The first pitch (Also really good)
Down low on the second crux pitch
Higher up
Snowpatch & Pigeon from up high
Josh rapping off the top

The next day we decided to climb the Northeast Ridge of Bugaboo Spire. I know that this is one of the 50 classic climbs, but I didn't think it was that great. There was very little good climbing and a lot of loose rock. Having said that it is worth doing just for the adventure. The climb is long and it's on a beautiful mountain.

For this climb it was me, Josh and a guy that we met in camp. To keep a long story short we took a little longer to do the climb than I would have hoped, but eventually made it to the top and back down to the col right as it was getting dark. This is where the real story starts.

Early morning light on Snowpatch

The gully you have to climb to reach the ridge
The best pitch of the route
Snowpatch
Summit ridge
Pigeon at dusk

From here we couldn't descend down the pass between Snowpatch and Bugaboo because all the snow was melted out, which left big rocks just sitting in sand. A definite bad idea. The other option is to rappel next to the icefall on the backside of Snowpatch. This isn't too bad. It is something like six bolted rappels. The only problem is that now you have to walk all the way around Snowpatch and pick your way back to camp. It adds a couple hours to the adventure, but it's still better then knocking giant rocks onto each other.

So off we went on the rappels. We made the first 5 without incident, but this all changes when we get ready to make the sixth rappel. We already have the rope strung through the anchor and I'm about ready to leave our little ledge when all of a sudden we hear this super loud roar above us. Not only does it sound like we are about to be killed by rockfall, it looks like the cliff is about to fall apart with us on it because the entire thing is shaking. It actually looked like when you throw a rock into a perfectly calm lake and it creates ripples. That's what the cliff was doing. Shaking back and forth. I've never been so scared in my life. I actually though I was dead. In that second I believed that was it.

At this point we were hugging the wall and hoping that the rocks wouldn't hit us, but they never came. The roar didn't stop, but there were no rocks. After a couple seconds of confusion we realized that the noise was actually a little climbers left. We looked left just in time to watch a rock the size of a small school bus fly through the air. It was so weird to go from complete chaos to dead silent as we watched this massive rock silently fly towards the glacier. Within seconds it smashed into the glacier throwing September snow 50 feet into the air like it was Utah powder. It then careened down the glacier and finally stopped a long ways past any of the debris from the icefall.

Needless to say we were a little surprised by what had just happened and decided to make the rappel and get the hell out of there. After a long walk around Snowpatch and another rappel we were finally back at camp 18 hours later.

This is a picture from a previous trip of the icefall. We were rapping just out of the picture to right when the block rolled off the rock where the icefall meets the rock at the highest spot. Our guess was that the rock was frozen in place for a long time and finally melted out and slowly slid down the shelf, which is why it shook for so long.

I learned a lot of lessons from that climb. The most important being that the mountains really can kill you. You read about people getting hurt and dying and you always think that it wont happen to you. You know enough, you are careful enough, but the reality is that we are fragile in the alpine environment and things out of our control can end us in the blink of an eye. Am I done taking risks in the mountains, no way, but am I more aware of my surroundings and what I'm doing. I sure think so. I've always read that young climbers take risks early on and it's not until they experience close calls that they fully realize what they are getting themselves into. I always kind of laughed at this and said that I had my stuff together, but I didn't fully comprehend the situations that I was putting myself in. Climbing is a sport that can kill you. It can happen at the crag or in the mountains, gravity works the same everywhere. Have fun, but more importantly be safe. The whole point is to come back and climb again tomorrow.

Squamish!

2009-08-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

I've been in Squamish for a week now. Here's the breakdown.

Day 1
Get on two of my projects; Crime of the Century 5.11c and Baba Hari Daas V7. Turns out it wasn't my day and I didn't send either of them.

Baba Hari Daas

Day 2
Boulder in the morning and then climb Peasants Route 5.10c 6 pitches. The book gave it 5 stars and it deserves every one. Excellent climb. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera so we don't have any pictures.

Day 3
Rest and swim at a lake in the Squamish area

Day 4
Climb Birds of Prey on the Squaw 5.10b 6 pitches. We were on route for the first four pitches and then took a 5.10 variation in a cool dihedral for the last couple pitches.

The second pitch of Birds of Prey
The dihedral up top

Day 5
Sport climb at Chek Canyon with Josh's fiance Krista . We got on a bunch of climbs for Krista as well as a handful of 5.10's and 11's. I didn't really like the place that much the first time I went there, but now I'm a new man. I really enjoyed the climbing. I'll definitely be back.

Krista on a 10c

Day 6
Back to the lake for more swimming and rope swing action.

Josh getting some hang time
Krista celebrating b/c we found a small rope swing

Day 7
Climb the Grand Wall 5.11a 10 pitches into Black Dyke 5.10b 4 pitches. This was one of the coolest climbs I've ever done. It follows incredible features right up the middle of the face. Several classic pitches are on this climb including the split pillar, the sword and perrys lieback. After seeing posters of these it was really rewarding to finally be able to climb them. I was able to onsight all the pitches except for the two 11a's. This isn't too bad considering that 11 of 14 pitches are 5.10 or harder and I still went for it and took some decent whippers on those two pitches.

The Grand Wall is on the left and goes to the top and Peasants route is on the right

The first pitch on the grand wall
The 2nd pitch
The split pillar
Josh pulling through the crux on the Sword
Perry's Lieback
The ledge we had to crawl accross when we were done
Josh enjoying the view from the top

We've had a great time in Squamish, but we are ready for the Bugaboos. The forcast is for sunny skies so we are heading there for the next week or so to get on some classic climbs in the alpine. Check back in about a week for an update.

Back on the road!

2009-08-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

It's official. I am back on the road. I'm going to be traveling for an an undetermined amount of time with Josh. While I was back in Washington a lot happened. I climbed a bunch in the Seattle area, went on a week long surf trip and met an amazing girl that I am now dating. It's weird how things work out.

Right now we are traveling in my 1993 Subaru Loyale that has 280,000 miles. I loved the RV, but there was no point in keeping it if there was only going to be two of us. It worked out alright though, we did sell the thing for $500 dollars more than we bought it for.

Currently we are in Squamish climbing routes and bouldering. Check back in a few days for a full report with pics.

The Pickets

2009-07-06T13:48:00.000-07:00

Miles and I just spent four days in the Southern Pickets. Here's the breakdown by day.

Day 1
Do the 500o something foot approach via Goodell creek in nine hours and pass out.

Miles on the approach
We went up W. McMillan on the first day and then up the left side of Inspiration and down the right on our second day.

Day 2

Climb the West Ridge of West McMillan Spire. The climbing wasn't technical, but it was still fun to spend some time in crampons and climb up some steep snow. After a short nap on the summit we made it back to camp by mid-day and spent the rest of the day lounging around camp on the rocks.

Miles enjoying the snow on W. McMillan
Getting to the top of the snow section
Scrambling to the summit

Lounging around camp

Day 3

Climb the West Ridge of Inspiration Peak and descend down the East Ridge. The climb up the W. Ridge went off without a hitch, but the descent down the E. Ridge was much more of an ordeal than we anticipated. Our climbing Bible said that we should descend down the E. Ridge and I assumed that there would be rap anchors all over the place, but that wasn't the case. We ended up having to leave stuff for four anchors and doing a bunch of sketchy down climbing to get to the glacier. All in all it took us 14.5 hours to do the climb, despite the fact that we reached the summit in only 5 hours.

The Terror glacier
Gaining the gully on Inspiration
Part way up inspiration with Terror glacier in the background
Traversing across the summit ridge
Down climbing the East Ridge
Making the final rappel onto the glacier
Looking back up what we rappelled and downclimbed

Day 4

Hike out in significantly less time than it took to go in.

As always check out Miles website for some of his pics.

Back to Washington

2009-07-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened since my last post. I'll try to keep it short and let the pictures do the talking. First we left Joe's Valley to go climb in the La Sal mountains of Utah. We climbed there for a day before moving on to Moab. Once in Moab we climbed the North Face of Castleton Tower 5.11a. After Castleton we went to a local swimming hole and did some cliff jumping and slacklining over the water. From here we decided to head back to Washington to see friends and family and do some climbing around home. This involved a stop by Arches National Park and then 28hrs. straight of driving with a stop in Yellowstone to see the Geyser go off. Now that I'm back in Washington I spent a day aid soloing City Park in Index and just got back from four days in the Picket Range with Miles, that will be in the next post.

The first pitch on the North Face of Castleton

The route goes up the crack in the middle of the face

Josh slacklining over the water. He and Miles made it half way, I took two steps and jumped off (super scary)
Delicate Arch
Sunset in Arches National Park
The Tetons
Old Faithful in Yellowstone
City Park
Looking down City Park

It's sending time!

2009-06-15T13:04:00.001-07:00

The last three days have been amazing. We have done a ton of climbing with a bunch of incredible people. I have sent the three hardest boulders of my life; Pocket Rocket V6, Chips V7 and Team Effort V8. It feels great to brake into new levels of difficulty that have seemed so distant for so long. The best part is that not only did I send all of these problems, Miles did as well. I think all the climbing we've been doing for the last three months is finally paying off. Here are some pictures courtesy of Miles.

Sticking the dyno on Pocket Rocket V6
Topping out
Sam sticking the dyno on Chips V7
Chips
Chips
Contact v5
Big Joe V7
Team Effort V8
The view

Back to Utah

2009-06-11T13:10:00.001-07:00

The original plan was to stay in the valley for another week or so and then climb Mt. Whitney. The only problem was that the weather sucked and I had no intention of getting struck by lightning again. After discussing it for a little bit Miles and I decided to head to Utah where we would be meeting Josh on the 16th.

We spent the next day driving from Yosemite to Joe's Valley in Utah and pulled in at 11 at night after 14hours of driving. The next morning we met up with Josh and Jana, it was their off week, and we did some climbing in the morning. Shortly afterward we packed up Jana's truck and took off for Escalante in southern Utah to go play around in some canyons.

Once in Escalante we decided to do Neon Canyon. The book said there would be swimming, rappelling and tight spots. It sounded great. We ended up having an amazing day and weren't disappointed. There were several long swims, made interesting by having a heavy rope strapped to my back. As well as an amazing final rappel into Golden Cathedral. After spending some time warming up finished the hike and made it back to camp. All in all a great day. Unfortunately, I don't have any of my pictures because I left my camera in Jana's truck. Oops.

A picture I found on the internet of someone rappelling into Golden Cathedral.

The next two days we spent exploring Escalante. The first day we drove to hole in the rock, which is 60 miles down a gravel road. By the time we finally made it we were all irritated and in a bad mood after bouncing around for three hours on the road from hell. It was only made better by the fact that we were able to swim in lake Powell. Warm water for once. It made up for the drive, but not entirely. The next day we checked out a petrified wood forest and made the drive back to Joe's Valley.

Miles and I have spent the last two days climbing in Joe's Valley. I wish that I could report a sweet send, but I can't. We've just been working harder lines, atleast for us, and climbing with an awesome couple that we met; Ryan and Kelsey. I think that we are going to hang out here for the next six days until Josh gets off work and then we'll be off to Wyoming. I can't wait to spend some time there. Everyone that I've met from Wyoming loves it. It should be good. Stay tuned.

My first El Cap route

2009-06-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

I just finished my first route up El Cap. I climbed the Shield (VI 5.9 C4F or A3) with a guy named Charlie that I met in Camp 4. We did the climb over six days and got stormed on, took whippers, ran out of food and got struck by lightning. Here's the breakdown.

Day 1: Haul our bags up to Mammoth Terraces (pitch 10), our high point when we climbed the freeblast a few days earlier. From here we fixed a pitch and called it a day.

Our route up El Cap
Jugging up the first pitch with all of El Cap above

Charlie high up on the first day

Day 2: Jug the fixed line and lead three more pitches (11-14). From here we were originally planning on climbing Sunkist A4, but decided that we were way too slow and that we'd be better off going for something a little easier. The Shield seemed like the perfect alternative and we decided that we would start up that the next morning.

Our bivy

Day 3: Climbed three pitches (15-17) and camped below the Shield roof. I placed my first pitons and slept in a portaledge in the middle of a vertical face for the first time.

Looking down pitch 15

Pitch 16 with the next pitch going out left

Pitch 17. My first nailing lead
The view from our portaledge

Day 4: Charlie led the pitch over the roof and gained the headwall (P18). From here I led an awesome pitch at the begining of the headwall and then Charlie led the technical crux of the climb, the groove (P19-20). We camped at the base of the triple cracks. The most exposed and amazing place I've ever been. There was almost 2000ft. of air below our portaledge. Incredible.

Charlie leading out the roof
Charlie above the roof. Photo by Tom Evans
Charlie giving me a belay after the roof. I gained the headwall on this pitch
This pic is at the same spot as the one above just from the Valley. Photo by Tom
A little higher up on the same pitch. Photo by Tom
Charlie leading the groove
Another view of the groove

Day 5: I led the triple cracks and pretty much nailed my way up the entire thing (P21). We led three more pitches and finally broke away from the headwall after a couple days (P22-24). After all the climbing we ended up on chickenhead ledge. It was great to finally have a ledge after several days without. Everything is easier when you can walk around.

Charlie giving me a belay on the triple cracks

You can barely see the triple cracks above

Me on the triple cracks. Photo by Tom
A little higher. Photo by Tom
The view from the top of the triple cracks pitch
Charlie on pitch 12
Higher u p on pitch 12
Looking down pitch 13, this was the last that we saw of the headwall
Our bivy on chickenhead ledge

Day 6: Our plan for this day was to climb the last six pitches (P25-30) and top out no matter how long it took. We started the day by finishing all of our breakfast food and dividing up the rest of our bars, 2 a piece at 120 calories a piece, not enough. From here we took off for the top. Charlie led the first pitch without incident. I led the next pitch and took my first aid fall, a solid 20 footer. When I started climbing again I noticed that bad weather was on the way, just like it had been every day between 11 and 4. The only difference is that every other day it only got windy and a little rainy. This time mother nature was not going to be so kind. Within a few minutes I was completely engulfed in a watercourse high up on El Cap. It actually felt like I was in a waterfall. I was just standing there with no where to go when all of a sudden I saw a bright light and got instantaneously shocked to hell. At first I couldn't believe it. I got shocked by lightning. It wasn't a direct hit. The lightning hit the top of El Cap and traveled down the water to me. I stood there in the waterfall tingling all over for around ten minutes waiting for it to finally calm down. When it did I called down to Charlie and asked if he was OK. He said that he was, but that he had been shocked by lightning. I quickly fixed the line now that I could move and rappeled down to Charlie where he told me that the blast threw him on his back and he blacked out. We just stood there tingling for around an hour in disbelief as to what had just happened. At this point we had to make a decision. Do we stay here and climb another day without food or do we go for the top and hope that the weather doesn't come back. Within an hour most of the big clouds over El Cap had dissipated and we decided to go for it and make it to the top. We quickly ascended the fixed line and started up the rest of the climb. Charlie led the first pitch after the storm and took a 30 foot fall, as if being struck by lighting wasn't enough. Once he finished up the pitch. We climbed one more aid pitch and then two 5.7 pitches and finally topped at 12PM after 6 full days on the wall. We celebrated by eating the last of our food, a bagel a piece, and making a fire to dry all our wet clothes.

Pitch 15

Charlie looking spooked after getting struck by lightning
Charlie about to take a 30 footer
Charlie on pitch 18 at sunset

Day 7: We slept in till around 9 and hiked back to the Valley arriving around two in the afternoon. The first thing that we did when we got to the Valley was go to the store and buy everything that we needed for a massive salad and a six pack. We spent the next several hours eating our first meal of the day. enjoying our beers and telling stories with a couple other climbing bums that we met. The perfect way to end my first big wall.

Charlie looking a little skinnier than when we started

Rappelling the E. ledges on the descent

Back in the Valley after the send. Photo by Tom

From here I think that Miles and I are going to spend another week or so in the Valley before heading down south to climb Mt. Whitney. Stay tuned.

Yosemite

2009-05-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

The last week and a half has been an adventure to say the least. After leaving Owens River George Miles and I decided to take Sonora Pass to Yosemite. Apparently the pass is very steep, 26% grade, and our little four cylinder RV couldn't make it. After stalling out on the first steep corner we backed down and tried again. The only difference is that this time I was not in the RV, I was behind it and pushing with all my might. Turns out that was all we needed to make it up. After this corner I decided to just ride up the rest of the pass on the back bumper and get off on all the steep sections and push. The crux was the last few hundred feet that were very steep and at 9500ft. I felt like passing out by the time that we got to the top. It sounds ridiculous that pushing actually got us up the pass, but we're convinced that we wouldn't have made it otherwise.

The last corner on Sonora Pass

The next day we rolled into Yosemite early in the morning and secured a campsite at camp 4. Camp 4 is nothing to call home about, but it is cool to finally stay in the climber campground in Yosemite. There are people from all over the world that come to stay there. It is pretty cool. After getting a spot Miles and I decided to do a short climb and got on Nutcracker 5.8 6 pitches. It was my first climb in the Valley so it was fun getting on something that I didn't struggle too much with.

Miles on the last pitch of Nutcracker

On our second day we climbed the NE Buttress of Higher Cathedral Rock 5.9 900ft. It was an awesome climb and by far the hardest 5.9 I've ever done. It had several sections of hard chimney/offwidth that kicked our butts. I was able to climb everything clean but was completely drained after all the strenuous climbing in the 100 degree heat. We finally topped out at around 9pm and didn't get back to the car until almost 12.

NE Buttress of Higher Cathedral

Miles on pitch 6

A little higher

After our butt kicking we spent most of the next day resting until the afternoon when we went to the cookie cliff. We had been told that it was awesome and our guide book seemed to agree. The only climb that I got on there was Outer Limits 5.11a and I was able to onsight it. I was blown away that I actually climbed it clean first try, especially after getting my butt kicked on 5.9 the day before. Lesson learned; Chimneys and offwidths in the valley are HARD!

Outer Limits

After a kinda rest day we we decided to do Lost Arrow Spire. To do this climb we had to hike 3200ft. to get to the base, do a long rappel, climb a couple pitches and set up a tyrolean traverse between the spire and the base of the cliff. It was an incredible experience and we pulled it all off before a crazy thunderstorm hit that soaked us from head to toe on our way down.

Lost Arrow Spire. We rappelled the dotted red, climbed solid red and traversed yellow.

Miles rappelling into the notch

Miles on the tyrolean traverse

The thunderclouds that chased us off the spire

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing until my dad rolled into the Valley. He drove his motorcylcle for 1100 miles to see me. He most love me or something. The next day and a half I spent with my dad. We ate lots of great food, did a climb on glacier point apron and spent time catching up. It was great to see him after two months. Thanks for coming down dad I love you.

My dad

After my dad left I climbed Freeblast 5.11b or C1 with a guy named Charlie. It goes up the first 10 pitches of Salathe on El Cap. It was my first time on the Capitan and we flew up the climb in 8 hrs. Since we worked so well togethor we decided to do a route all the way up and we'll be starting that tomarrow.

Charlie following pitch 1 & 2

Charlie on pitch 5

Looking up El Cap from where we stopped

When I got back to camp after Freeblast I spent the rest of the evening packing for my first big wall, the W. Face of Leaning Tower V 5.7 C2F. Miles and I spent two days on the route and everything went perfect. We spent the first day climbing to pitch four, where we would stay the night, and fixing to pitch 6. The next day we jugged our lines and climbed four more pitches to the top. All in all it was a amazing climb and an incredible experience.

Big Wall gear

Miles on the first pitch

The haulbags maiden voyage

Looking down at the bivy ledge from pitch 6

Miles in the morning

The roof on pitch 9

Looking down from pitch 9

Miles on top

After I finish this post I am going to spend the rest of the day packing for El Cap. I'm going to be climbing FreeBlast to Magic Mushroom to Sunkissed. We'll be combining these three climbs to get to the top over 4 or so days. I can't wait.

Owens River Gorge

2009-05-13T12:30:00.000-07:00

Since my last post I am proud to say that Miles and I both sent Iron Man. We spent the day in town taking care of errands and then went to the Buttermilks in the evening and sent the thing. It felt great to send it after three days of work.

The next three days we spent in Owens River Gorge with old friends and new. The first day we climbed with Roxy who was in the area for a few days and two guys from Tahoe; Andrew and Borja. We got on a ton of great climbs. Unfortunitely, I don't have the guide book with me so I can't tell you the names, but oh well. I started out the first day by leading a cool 11a crack that kicked my butt. After that we went to another area and climbed a bunch of climbs between 5.9 and 5.10c. My highlight was onsighting the 10c.

Roxy on a 10a

A girl from New Zealand on the 10c

The next day we started out the day by going to the Eldorado roof. All of the climbs there are 5.12 or harder. I tried to hop on a 12a and got destroyed. I made it a few bolts up and took some falls before deciding that I didn't want everyone to have to wait all day for me to get up the thing. From there we went to another wall and got on a bunch of great climbs. The one that I enjoyed the most was a super thin crimpy climb that went at 11a. I'm not the best at thin balancy climbs and I've been working on getting better at them. Turns out that I was able to onsight the thing, my first 11 at the gorge. Unfortunitely, I don't have any pictures from this day.

Our third day was one of the best days that I've had sport climbing in a long time. At the beginging of the day I was tired and not really feeling it, but I figured that once I started to climb I would calm down and boy was I right. The first climb that I got on was a beautiful 10a that I onsighted. Next I got on an incredible looking 11b and almost onsighted it. I made it through the crux throw and fell above on a balancy move. After the fall I tried a different sequence and sent the rest clean. From here we went to another wall and I onsighted a two 10a's, a 10b, an 11a and almost an 11b. I was able to climb the 11b clean, but accidentally stood on a bolt, bummer. It was an incredible day. Every climb was awesome.

Roxy on a 10a. I climbed the 10a to the right of this one. It follows the crack.

Miles following the first 11b of the day

A 10a chimney that turns into a slippery lieback

Roxy following the 10b, I also climbed the 10a crack to the left

Roxy redpointing the 11a lieback

The 11b goes up the middle of the face

Roxy & Borja at the end of the day

After three days we decided to take a rest day. Currently we are hanging out in Mammoth Lakes and are planning on heading to check out some hot springs in the evening. I think that Miles and I are going to make the trek to Yosemite tomarrow and get there real early the next morning so that we can get a spot at camp 4. I can't wait to climb in the Valley. I actually just bought a haul bag and now I have everything that I need to climb a big wall. It's going down. Expect a good post in a week or two from the Valley.

Also, check out Miles' website. He has some absolutely incredible shots from the last few days.

Hermosa Beach and Bishop

2009-05-09T12:36:00.000-07:00

After Joshua Tree Miles and I decided to take a break for a few days and do some surfing in Hermosa Beach with Miles' uncle Bennet. We had a great time, but after three days we were more than ready to get out of Southern California and hit the open road. Here are a few pictures from our time there.

Bennet's back yard

A killer steak dinner

From Hermosa beach we had a six hour drive to get to Bishop. As usual we couldn't make it all the way without something going wrong with the RV. We were driving along when all of a sudden we heard a crazy flapping sound coming from the side. Turns out the skin on our door had ripped off and was flapping in the wind.

Our stupid door

The fix

After the episode with our door we finished the drive and spent the night in Bishop. We woke up the next morning and climbed at the Happy Boulders. We had a fun session before the heat forced us to find shade. The rest of the morning was spent doing errands in town before heading to the Buttermilks for the evening. We spent the night by a mountain stream, our first since we left Washington. It even had some fish that I caught for dinner. Protein that we didn't have to pay for. We were pretty excited.

Miles building a fire at camp

The next two days we climbed in the Buttermilks. We got on a few warmup climbs and then got on Iron Man, a cool traverse. As of right now we are both close to getting it and can't climb anything else until we get it. Hopefully, tonght will be the night that Iron Man releases its grip on us so that we can blow skin on other climbs.

Miles on Iron Man

After three days of climbing we felt that it was time for a rest day. In the guidebook there's a painting of the Bishop area and it shows that there are some lakes up above the Buttermilks in the mountains. We decided to check it out and it ended up being a great day.

It took us three hours to make it to the lake. It was still partially frozen over, but incredibly beautiful. We relaxed and ate our sandwichs before deciding that we had to go for a swim, naked of course. It took all my strength to make the dive and I screamed like a little girl afterward, but it was so much fun. To see some great pictures check out Miles' website. After our little swim we hung out for a little bit before heading back to the RV and making a big dinner.

A mountain above the lake

Now we are hanging out in the town of Bishop until the evening when the temps are better. We'll be here for a few more days before we head to Yosemite. I can't wait. We have been doing tons of homework on the Nose of El Cap and are ready to tackle it. It should be an experience that's for sure. Stay tuned.

Joshua Tree

2009-05-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

Miles and I just spent three days climbing in Joshua Tree. We had a great time, but we were not motivated to get on lots of climbs. I for one am sore and my fingertips are raw and blistered. After a few days we decided that we wanted to take a little break. Now we are hanging out in Hermosa Beach at Miles' uncles' house and doing some surfing. We will be here through Monday morning and then we'll be off to Bishop and then to the Valley. Here are a few pictures from Joshua Tree.

Our campsite in J-Tree

Miles on top of Sail Away

The very runout traverse on Figures on a Landscape

The view from the Astro Domes in the Wonderland of Rocks

Red Rocks

2009-04-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

I'm just finishing up ten amazing days in Red Rocks. On my first day I climbed at Cannibal Crag with Roxy. We got on a bunch of climbs, but the highlight of my day was redpointing this really cool arete Caustic (5.11b). Later that night my buddy Ryan flew in from Bellingham for a few days so I went and picked him up at the airport.

Caustic (5.11b). The line goes up the arete in the middle of the pic

The next day we did some cragging at the Sunny and Steep wall and the Yin and Yang wall. At the first crag we got on a few great climbs. The first was Mr. Choads Wild Ride (5.11b). I led this and took one fall, but I think that it was one of the coolest climbs I did in Red Rocks. From here Jessee and I worked Steep Thrills (5.12a). We both took a bunch of falls, but it was fun getting worked.

Steep Thrills

At the Yin and Yang wall I led a few climbs. The first was Atman (5.10a). It was a perfect number 1 crack. It wasn't too hard after a couple weeks at the creek. The next climb was Yin and Yang (5.11a). This was such a cool climb. The crack does a giant C on the wall. I took one fall and finished it out. Really fun.

Me on Yin & Yang (5.11a) with Atman in the background

The next day we decided to get on Solar Slab 5.6 1500ft. Roxy and Ryan led the whole thing and I just came along for the ride. It was a great climb and before we knew it we were doing the last rappell in the dark. Lucky for us we met some really nice guys who actually brought headlamps, oops, and they helped us get back to the car.

Roxy leading a pitch on Super Slab

After our long day we decided it was time for a rest day and went to lake Mead for some swimming. Turns out lake Mead is absolutely disgusting and the beach was a combination of rocks, mussles and silt. We were there for only a short while before we left to find a park to hang out in. When we got back to the campground we spent the rest of our evening getting ready for our climb the next day.

The next morning Ryan, Roxy and I were up at 4:30 in the morning to climb Epinephrin 5.9 2240ft. This is one of the classic climbs in Red Rocks. It is well known for its three pitches of chimney climbing, but it turns out that the rest of the route is incredible as well. The climb is 12 pitches of belayed climbing with several hundred feet of scrambling at the top. Definitely one of the most enjoyable long climbs I have ever done. We finished the climb in 11.5 hours and it took us around 14 hours car to car. Another long day but well worth it.

Ryan on the approach to Epinephrin. The route goes to the top of the peak on the left.

Looking down towards the second chimney pitch

The elephant trunk somewhere way up the route

After our long day Ryan and I felt like taking it easy, for the most part. All I wanted to do was get on Risk Brothers Roof (5.11a). Turns out it was a little harder than I thought it would be. After flailing, yelling and bleeding I eventually gave in and aided through the roof. I was disappointed and exhausted by the time that we finally left. At this point we wanted to get the heck out of red rocks and went to the closest cookie cutter housing development and found a cool park to hang out in for the rest of the afternoon until it was time to pick Miles up from the airport.

Risk Brother's Roof

The next morning I had to drop Ryan off at the airport in the morning. It was great having him along for a few days, he'll be missed. After we dropped him off we raced back to red rocks so that Miles could do his first climbing there. We ended up spending the rest of the day at the Sweet Pain wall. We all led Glitter Gulch (5.11a). Then Miles faught his way up Sweet Pain (5.11d).

Roxy leading Glitter Gulch (5.11a)

That night Miles and I decided that we were going to try and climb Cloud Tower 5.11d 800ft. We racked up and hit the hay early. The next morning we were up at 5 and at the gate for the park when they opened at 6. We did the approach in a little over an hour and were racked up and ready to go in no time. Miles led the first two 5.8 pitches. I took over from here and led a 10a pitch to the base of the 11d crux pitch. Once on the pitch I quickly realized that I didn't have the right gear. The book didn't say that we needed a bunch of tcus (really small cams) so I didn't bring any. Turns out that I didn't have any gear to protect the entire crack. Miles lowered me off an old bolt and we rapped back to the ground all because I didn't bring a few small pieces. A really stupid and easily avoided mistake.

The crux pitch on Cloud Tower

We decided that we would come back the next day and redeem ourselves. Now that we were loaded with tcus we were confident that cloud tower would be ours. In no time we were at the base of the climb and ready to go. We quickly got up to the crux pitch, which I ended up french freeing. From here I led a 10c that was incredible. It started out with a perfect hand crack that went through a roof and into another perfect hand crack. After a little ways I came over a bulge and just about died when I looked up. A perfect #4 fist crack for 30 or so feet. I only had one number 4 cam, thanks a lot guide book, so I had to slide that cam up with me for the entire way. After this pitch I led a 10c chimney that traversed behind a tower and through a hole onto the other side. At this point all we had left was an 11c handcrack leading to the top. I took off on this and made it most of the way before I fell. After several more falls I was finally on top. I belayed Miles up and enjoyed the excessive grunting and screaming as he came up the pitch. Once on top we made 6 rappels to get down to solid ground. Excited about our climb we rushed back to the campground and made a big dinner to celebrate.

Red Rocks in the morning
Miles coming through the hole from behind the tower
Miles following the last pitch on cloud tower (5.11c) & trying really hard
A little further up

Miles about the pull the crux move

On our last day we decided that we would do some more sport cragging. I started out the day by onsighting Running Amuk (5.10c). Then I got on Yaak Crack (5.11c). I took a bunch of falls on my first attempt, but only one on my second. Happy with the progress we decided to move on the the Black Corridor where we would be in the shade. The first climb we got on there was Crude Boys (5.10d). I led this incredibly thin climb and took a bunch of falls at the finger destroying crimpy crux. Miles then led it and sent it clean first try. After making it through this I wasn't sure if I wanted to get on anything else, but I couldn't help but get lured in by the proud looking line at the end of the corridor. The climb was Rebel Without a Pause (5.11b) and with a description and said bouldery moves I was stoked to get on it. Turns out it was an awesome climb and I was able to send it clean first try.

Miles on Yaak Crack (5.11c)

Rebel Without a Pause (5.11b). It's the route all the way in the back.

After our last day of climbing we decided that a legit feast was in order. We went to the store and loaded up on supplies. We ended up making steak over the fire with pototoes, asparagus and garlic bread. By far the best meal that we've had yet. We spent the rest of the evening just hanging around the fire and enjoying Roxy's company for the last time for a while.

Today we said our goodbyes and now Miles and I are heading to Joshua Tree for more amazing climbing. With a forcast that is only in the 70s and low 80s I'm really excited to get there. Stay tuned for more updates and as always check out Miles Website for pics.

Zion & Moonlight Buttress

2009-04-17T09:44:00.000-07:00

It's official. Miles and I climbed Moonlight Buttress. It turned out to be an epic two day event. The first day we climbed with a guy named Brenden that we met at the climbing shop. We showed up at around 8PM on Easter Sunday and figured there would be no way that they'd be open and we were right. Except that there was a dude just hanging out in the shop. He let us in and we started talking about our plans. Before long the three of us agreed to climb the buttress. He also didn't have much aid climbing experience, but we figured that the three of us could figure it out. We spent the rest of the evening eating dinner, turbo reading John Long's Big Wall book and sorting gear before hitting the hay right around 12.

Moonlight Buttress (IV 5.9 C1). Route is in red

The next morning we were up at 5 and ready to do the buttress in a day. We had a few things to take care of before we left and were on the shuttle into the canyon at 7:15. The crux of our morning was figuring out how to get across the river that runs in between the road and the base of the climb. We ended up getting off the bus early so that we could cross a bridge, hopefully avoiding a crossing that would be too deep. We spent the next hour walking cross country to the base of the climb. Once there we realized that we were behind four people who had manned up and crossed the river. Now we were in a big traffic jam and we walked an hour for no reason. Oh well.

After everyone started up the route Brenden took off on the first pitch. Once on top he belayed Miles and I up to his spacious ledge. From there I led the second 5.10a pitch and fixed lines for Miles and Brenden to jug up. Miles then led the next C1 bolt ladder to the base of the real aid pitches. At this point we were caught in a traffic jam and it became real apparent that we weren't going to be able to climb it in a day. We decided to fix lines down to the ground and come back the next day to finish it up.

The next day Brenden had to work so Miles and I went back to the base of the climb alone and were ready to finish it up. We started by ascending 350' of ropes back to the top of the third pitch. Once there I geared up and took off on my first real aid pitch. It was so much fun. I didn't think that I would like aid climbing, but I really enjoyed it. It took me a couple hours to lead the pitch and once at top I fixed the lines for Miles and tried to get comfortable at the hanging belay.

Miles crossing the freezing cold river on the second morning

Looking down from the hanging belay at the top of pitch 4

Miles led the next pitch through a roof and chimney. Needless to say he struggled a little bit, but he still reached the top after a several hour battle. I jugged up the lines and was excited to lead the next pitch when Miles told me that he wanted it to redeem himself after getting his butt kicked by the chimney. I obliged since there was a ledge for me to stand on and I wouldn't be at a hanging belay.

Miles getting to the roof on pitch 5

The view of Angel's Landing from the top of pitch 5

Miles led this pitch in much better style and before long I joined him up at the belay. By now it was dark, yes we were very very slow, and I quickly took off on the next pitch. I led this pitch with only the light of my headlamp. I enjoyed every minute of it. I got to the top at 12:30AM. I fixed the lines and Miles was up right before 1.

We quickly packed up our gear, ate the rest of our cookies and took off for the RV. We ended up walking a total of 6 miles. 2.5 to get to the road and 3.5 on the road. We got the the RV just after 3AM and didn't hit the hay until 4. It ended up being a long 22hr. day. Needless to say we are not efficient aid climbers yet, but the only way to get better is to get after it and do it and we sure did that.

Now that it has been a couple of days and I've had some time to reflect on our experience I can't wait to do more big walls. It was so much fun getting that high up on a sheer rock face. I didn't want to climb El Cap until next fall, but I've changed my mind and now I'm going to do it this spring.

As of now we are going to be spending the next week or so in Red Rocks, just outside of Las Vegas. Stay tuned for more updates.

Our last week in the Creek

2009-04-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

It has been an exciting few days. When I last left off we were taking a rest day in Moab after three days of hard climbing. After spending the day in Moab we drove back to the creek just in time for it to start snowing again. Another forced rest day was in store for Miles and I.

The next day we woke up to beautiful blue bird skies. We spent the day climbing at Cat Wall. There are so many amazing climbs there. I started out the morning by leading Trip to the Vet. Then I followed Kevin up Choke Chain, a really really hard climb. After a few goes he sent it clean. I couldn't figure out the crux, but still enjoyed it. Then Eric #2 led Dead Crow (5.11+). This beautiful 130ft. line started out with thin hands and then turned into a loose hands traverse to the chains. Amazing. I followed it clean and can't wait to go back and try to lead it.

Looking up Dead Crow. You can see the traversing crack on the roof

The following day we decided to go back to the Battle of the Bulge area. I was stoked for this since it is right by my project Dos Hermanos. I figured I could drag someone over to the climb to give me a belay. Turns out Miles was more than willing and we spent pretty much the whole day there. It took me three tries to finally get the climb. I was pretty ecstatic. It was exciting to finally send a trad line that was really hard for me. Eric #2 even filmed it. You can watch the video here. After the send we went back to the campsite and made a huge dinner. Three potatoes, an onion, a green pepper, tuna, and refried beans all mashed together with rice and put in tortillas. Delicious.

Alex leading Cave Route right before we went to Dos Hermanos

Dinner after the sendAfter sending Dos Hermanos I was ready for a change of pace for a couple days. One of the girls that we've been climbing with, Roxy, suggested that we go to Moab and do some sport climbing and take her dog to the vet. Miles and I quickly jumped on the idea and volunteered our RV for a few days. The next morning we got up early to try and make it to the vet on time. Turns out we could have slept in because 20 miles into our 60 mile journey we heard the familiar noise of rubber smacking our floor. We blew another tire. Great. The next hour was spent trying to unwrap the tread from around our axle. After failing miserably we decided to just drive the remaining 40 miles on the shoulder with the tread hanging out from under the car. Needless to say we didn't make the vet appointment. It was a bummer, but nothing that a little money couldn't fix. Once it was taken care of we didn't have time to go sport climbing so we went bouldering at the Big Bend boulders for a little bit. Once we were totally beat we headed back to Moab for all you can eat pizza.

Miles bouldering at the Big Bend boulders

The next day we decided to climb Ancient Art in Fischer Towers. I was told by a guy from Bellingham named Steve that this was a must do. Turns out he was absolutely right. Standing on top of that tower with insane winds was one of the biggest rushes I have ever had. I think that I'll just let the pictures tell the story on this one.

Ancient Art goes to the top of the corkscrew looking rock

Miles crawling across the sidewalk

Miles doing the belly flop

Miles on top

Looking back up the route

After climbing Ancient Art we went back to the creek for two more days of climbing. The first day we went to the Scarface wall and got on a couple classic climbs. The first one was Wavy Gravy (5.10-). Both Miles and I led this one. After that I led an unnamed offwidth around the corner. I had to take a few rests, but at least I got to scratch up my new #5 and #6 camalots. Then we went all the way to the other end of the wall and got on the mega classic Scarface (5.11-). I have wanted to get on this for a while especially after seeing it on the cover of my climbing Utah guidebook. It starts out with ring locks, then goes to thin hands and finishes with perfect hnads as it arches right. Incredible.

Roxy on Wavy Gravy

Miles on Scarface

Some guy leading Scarface after we finished

On our last day in the creek we went to the second meat wall and I got on as many hard climbs as we had time for. I started out the day by onsighting Tube Steaks Tomorrow (5.10+). After I climbed this I watched Kevin put up Humble Pie (5.12+), pretty amazing. Then I followed T-Bones Tonight (5.12-), this beautiful left facing corner that goes from ring locks to wide hands over a roof. From here Renee wanted to lead Top Sirloin (5.11) and while she was scoping it out she found the perfect climb for me. I should let her choose all my routes from now on. It’s called X-tra Lean (5.12-). It is a super powerful climb with several cruxes. It starts out with perfect fingers to gain a ledge. From here you climb tight fingers to a precarious mantle. At this point you layback a tips crack and throw for a jug and then throw for a sloper that you yard off of to gain a small ledge. Then you finish with easy face climbing to the anchors. I gave this two goes on lead and took a bunch of falls the first time and only one fall the second time. I was really excited to get up a climb that hard and beautiful with only one fall on lead. I can’t wait to go back some day and lead that thing.

Tube Steak Tomorrow

Kevin enjoying a slice of Humble Pie

Renee on Top Sirloin

Further up on Top Sirloin

Me on X-tra Lean

After my battle with X-tra Lean I lead Low Cholesterol (5.10). This would be my first legit offwidth. It is perfect number 5’s and 6’s all the way to the top. I groveled up this thing for what seemed like forever before I made it to the top. I don’t really know why I liked climbing it, but I kinda did. It doesn’t make much sense, but I don’t think that most people can explain why they like offwidths. Or I just haven’t met very many people that like them.

Renee on Low Cholesterol

The next morning we said our goodbyes and took a few cheesy group photos. It was sad leaving, but I think that we'll see most of them again. Either in Red Rocks or Yosemite. They are all climbing bums, just like us.

Me, Tim, Roxy, Eric & Alex

Now we are in Page, Arizona right by Lake Powell. Our plan is to leave here today and head for Zion to climb Moonlight Buttress. Both Miles and I haven’t done any aid climbing, so we might do a warm up before we get on the big guy. Either way it should be an interesting experience. Stay tuned, more to come soon. As always check out Miles' website

The Creek

2009-04-03T12:34:00.000-07:00

I am falling in love with Indian Creek. This place is amazing. The people are amazing. The climbing is amazing. Our little posse has grown from four people to almost ten. We climb together everyday and then come back to camp and make dinner, sit around a fire and drink together. It is pretty much perfect. I don't have a ton of pictures from the last three days and the ones I do have don't do this place justice. Here's the few that I do have.

Eric about to tackle an overhanging fist crack

Me struggling up an offwidth

Eric leading Warmup Handcrack (5.10+) with Eric #2 filming. I led this earlier in the day and it was really really good.

Miles following Dos Hermonos (5.11+). I led this one and it is my new favorite climb. It goes from fingers to loose fingers to perfect hands to wide hands over the roof. I have the crux figured out and have done the roof clean twice now. Next time we go to this area I think that I'll be able to lead it without falling.

Alex going for it on Drain Pipe (5.10)

Eric leading Chocolate Corner

Petroglyphs near Indian Creek

The view from the Reservoir Wall

That's it for now. More to come in a few days. If you want to see some more pictures, all of which are better than mine, check out Miles' Website http://milesmckeephotography.smugmug.com/

Moab & Indian Creek

2009-03-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

When I left off we were in Provo, Utah and we were heading to Pleasant Grove to visit Dianne, a family friend of Miles. Our time there was great. She let us take showers, do laundry, bought us lunch, made us a steak dinner and let us sit in her hot tub. She was a wonderful host and we all really appreciated her hospitality.

Trevor, Dianne, Miles & Dave

The next day we dropped Dave off at the airport in Salt Lake City and drove straight to the Moab area. Our plan was to climb Castleton tower so we stayed the night at the base.

Castleton Tower

We did the Kor-Ingalls Route (5.9). It was a great climb and my first on desert sandstone. The climbing itself was pretty straightforward except for a few slippery chimneys and frozen hands. We did all four pitches in a few hours and once on top our plan was to rappel off the N. Face. The book said that it took four 100' rappels to get to the ground. Well, turns out that the book lied and our first rappel put us about 25 ft. short of the anchors. Not exactly what I wanted to see after I went over the edge. Luckily there was a bolt at the end of our rope and we just clipped into it and down lead to the next anchor. It wasn't that big of deal except that it was blowing at least 40 or 50mph and we were frozen and wanted off the rock. After a few more rappels we made it to the ground and bolted to Moab for pizza and beer. We ended up finding an all you can eat pizza joint and we took them for all they were worth for about three hours.

Looking up from the top of pitch 1

Miles enjoying the last chimney

Miles rappelling down the N. Face

After this little adventure we were ready to be warm and enjoy the sun so we decided to call it quits with the towers and head for Indian Creek where we figured we could enjoy some warmer weather.

We have now spent three days in the Creek and have got on a bunch of classic climbs and have met some amazing people. The first day we met up with Josh and Krista and did a few climbs. The highlight of my day was leading Fingers in a Light Socket (5.11d). I definitely took a bunch of whippers, but it was still fun. After this climb we got on a (5.9) for Krista and it started to snow. We thought we were going to enjoy some warmer weather, but we were wrong. It really just gave us an excuse to make dinner with Josh and Krista and enjoy the evening with them.

Me on Fingers in a Light Socket

Taking a whipper & having a piece of gear pop

A little further down

Krista climbing in a snow storm

The next day we met a guy named Greg and did a bunch of classic climbs with him. He even helped us with some problems that we’ve been having with our RV, great guy. After that we went to a hot dog feed put on by Trango. We enjoyed lots of free hot dogs and met some great people.

Two of them were Eric and Alex. We climbed with them the next day and had one the best days that I’ve had in a long time. We started out the day with Supercrack (5.10+), which I onsighted. Then Eric led Incredible Handcrack (5.10c) and Alex followed it clean. She was so excited that she giggled for half an hour afterward. After that we climbed Fingers in a light socket again and worked Coyne Crack (5.12a) on top rope. We all felt completely worked afterwards and retreated to the campground to make dinner and sit around a fire.

Miles following Super Crack

Super Crack

Eric leading Incredible Handcrack

Coyne Crack

Now we are sitting here in a coffee shop in Montecello, Utah. We needed to come into town for food and gas. The sad thing is that it’s Sunday and the grocery store isn’t open on Sunday. We keep forgetting that we’re in Utah. Oh well, we were at least able to get some bread from a gas station. As of right now the plan is to stay in the Creek for about a week and then head to Zion for more climbing. Stay tuned.

Week 1

2009-03-22T16:39:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to begin. It has been such a crazy week. Me, Miles and Dave Yousling left Washington last Monday and drove 500 some miles into Idaho. It was pretty uneventful. Spent most of my time trying to wrap my brain about what were about to do. The next day we were planning on driving to City of Rocks in Idaho to do some climbing for a day or two. Unfortunately, it took a lot longer than anticipated because we blew the tread off one of our duallies. After trying to fix the tire ourselves and realizing that our jack will not lift the RV high enough we called Good Sam Club, the equivilant of AAA for RVs. Some guys showed up after an hour and told us that we didn't have the right spare tire. Of course. So, we end up driving along the freeway for a few miles until we got to the nearest town. The guy who owned the repair shop that we went to was so nice. He gave us a new tire, put it on and fixed one of our belts for $75. Once the tire was fixed we were back on our way. We arived at city of rocks sometime later that night just before it got dark. That place is beautiful. There are granite spires everywhere.

The next day we got on a few different climbs. Unfortunately, we didn't have a guidebook so we were just wandering around in the snow looking for routes that looked cool. Our first climb was a crack on Elephant rock. The second was this cool looking slab that went up this arete. I for one am not a huge fan of slabs, but I was in the mood to get scared, and boy did I get what I wanted. I have no idea what this thing was rated, but the huge fall potential combined with tenous climbing scared the poop out of me. When we finished this climb we decided that we were over wandering around in the snow and decided to take off for Joes Valley In Utah that night.

We arrived at Joes Valley midday and starting climbing right away. I absolutely loved the climbing. I don't want to say for sure that it is my favorite bouldering destination, but it might be. We got on a handful of V3s, V4s, and V5s over the next couple of days.

Towards the end of our second day at Joes we decided to check out Triassic. It involved driving for half an hour on a washboard gravel road, which had me convinced that our RV was actually go to shake apart and end up in a bunch of pieces in the middle of the road. Lucky for us it didn't and it took us all the way to the closed gate that blocked us from the area. We were disappointed to say the least. Now we were out in the desert with our big stupid RV and it was going to be dark in half and hour and we had to come up with a new plan. Since we were planning on heading to Maple Canyon the next day we decided to just take off and head there right away.

The drive was uneventful for the first hour and half until we all smelled something burning. We pulled over right away and saw smoke billowing from what we thought was the engine. Turns out our brakes had overheated heading down the pass. It provided the perfect oportunity to take a break and make some dininer, so that's what we did. Chili with onions and peppers. After letting the brakes cool down for an hour we finished the drive.

Our first day in Maple we spent as a rest day. It started with a hike and then went pretty much as I expected it to. Eat, read, nap, read, journal, fire, eat and sleep. A perfect rest day if you ask me.

Today we got on a couple routes in Maple. The first was a 5.13a that we watched some people working on the day before. I have never done a climb of this grade or even worked one, but I figured why not. Turns out I was able to do all of the moves. I was just stoked to be able to work my way up the thing. After Miles and Dave gave the thing a go we headed in to Box Canyon to do some climbs in there. Miles led a 5.10d right at the base of the Canyon. After he finished, it started to snow and then it started to snow harder. I quickly ran up it and cleaned our gear and we got the heck out of there.

Now we are sitting in a coffee shop in Provo, Utah and are on our way to visit a family friend of Miles tomarrow and then drop Dave off at the airport in Salt Lake. After that our plan is to head for the Moab area to meet up with some more friends and climb at Indian Creek. Stay tuned, more to come soon.

Saying good bye to the parents

The blown tire
Repair guy

City of Rocks

First climb in City of Rocks
Miles on top of the slabV3 in the Closet area of Joes Valley

Miles on a V5 on the UMWA boulder

Miles on a V4 on the warmup boulder

The 5.13a goes up just to the right of the black streak

1 week left

2009-03-07T13:04:00.000-08:00

It's official, we leave in just over a week. I can't believe it is almost here. To think that three guys could actually come together and plan a trip like this and make it happen blows my mind. When we first got the idea we still had two years of school left. I was studying economics, Miles was business and Josh was recreation. We finished our studies and started working a variety of jobs. I have been working for a custom home builder for the last year and loved every minute of it. Miles worked for a photography studio for a few months doing school pictures and then moved on to become a flight attendant for Allegiant. Josh took a job at an oil refinery for a month and then moved to Utah to work for Elements, a Wilderness Therapy program for troubled teens. Somewhere along the way he also managed to fall in love. Of course. To make a long story short I think that we might be seeing a lot of his girlfriend, Krista. They will both be joining us sometime in May after she graduates. At first I wasn't incredibly excited about having her travel with us, but after meeting her I have no doubt that she will only make the trip that much better.

As of right now Me and Miles are leaving on the 16th of March with our friend Dave Yousling, he'll be joining us for the first 9 days or so. The tentative plan is to head for southern Utah where we'll climb in Moab, Indian Creek and Zion. After that we'll most likely head north and climb at Joes Valley and Maple Canyon. From there we'll go to Red Rocks in Nevada and then to California to climb in Joshua Tree, Bishop and Yosemite. I can't wait. We'll be leaving in no time. Only one more week!

My first post!

2009-01-24T11:30:00.000-08:00

Well since this is my first post I'll start by explaining the purpose of this blog. As many of my friends and family know I am going on a year long climbing and surfing adventure. Me and two other awesome guys, Miles and Josh, have been planning this for almost three years and it is finally almost here. I have made this to tell friends, family and hopefully others about our travels and adventures as well to keep my poor mom from worrying too much. I hope that you enjoy the stories and pictures that I post here over the next year.