Climbing outside again!

I got outside climbing yesterday for the first time since November. The weather in Olympia has been beautiful for the past few days and Little Si was no different. It was sunny and the temps got up to the mid 50s, we were climbing in t-shirts, Micah even went shirtless. It felt really good being back on rock and getting some long routes done. We managed to warm up on Rainy Day Women, I was pleased that I didn't get too pumped, but my movement and footwork was very rusty. It was pretty busy at the crag, so we decided to hop on Graven Image, instead of queuing for one of the more popular climbs. There's a reason Graven Image doesn't get climbed much, cause its a big choss pile and not very fun to climb, but it is 12c and I hadn't done it before so we got on it and tried to climb it without knocking too many holds off. Micah had done this climb last year, so he worked on linking the start of Jealous God (12a) into Graven Image. After a couple of go's figuring out the crux he managed to send it, followed by me sending Graven Image. It was a good confidence booster knowing we could still send 12c pretty quick. I just wished we had called it a day then. We finished up with some of the worst displays of climbing we had ever done on Psycho-Wussy and Aborigine, I don't know why we struggled so much on them, but it felt like we were climbing them for the first time, except I think the first time I did them I found it easier. Hopefully the weather will stay good, and we will make it outside more and get more comfortable on the rock, but regardless of our performance it was still a great day out climbing.

New Year, New Goals

I've putting off writing a blog post about my goals for the year, partly because I haven't had the time, but mostly because I'm not sure about what to say.

2009 was a great climbing year for me, although I didn't break any new personal barriers I still maintained a high level of in both sport and bouldering and got a lot of volume in. I didn't boulder much throughout the year, but I started and finished the year strongly. In March I managed to finish off Busted (V8) a long term project of mine at Leavenworth, as well as doing a few 6's and 7's. But I didn't boulder again much until November when I took a trip down to Bishop and to my surprise was still able to get up a V7 and a few V6's. Most of the year was spent sport climbing. I got out to a few crags in Washington that I hadn't visited before, such as, Fossil, Index, Ozone, as well as the usual spots namely Little Si and Exit 38 and longer trips to Smith and Squamish. Highlights for me were Crawling from the Wreckage a sweet 5.13a, a couple of 12d's at Little Si, as well as a 12b onsight at Ozone. And an 11a trad onsight and a 23 pitch climb up at Squamish which was my longest to date. According to my scorecard I climbed 207 new routes in 09 from 5.5-5.13a, which doesn't beat my 2008 tally when I went to Europe, but I think that's pretty good for just sticking around the northwest.

For the past couple of years my goal has been to redpoint an 8a route, but it hasn't happened yet. So maybe if I don't make that my goal this year it'll happen? Who knows, but to be honest I'd be happy if I achieved the same level as I did in 09. I hope to get out to more new crags throughout the state and beyond. We are already planning our spring break trip which should be good wherever we go. My masters program has taken a lot of my time away from climbing, which is ok now that its terrible weather out, but I'm sure it'll be a lot more difficult when its sunny outside and I'm stuck inside working on a paper. How much I get out this year and how hard I climb really depends on what I end up doing over the summer. If I get a job that takes up a lot of time, it'll be hard to keep up my level of climbing. But if I just climb over the summer I'll be able to really push myself and check out other crags. So its really too early to tell. But I'm sure whatever happens it'll still be a great year.