Summer Days

I've been enjoying the summer here in Olympia recently, and with my new car, its been a lot easier getting out on day trips. We've been down to the quarry every Wednesday, and I have revisited some lines I haven't done in a while now that the far left routes are drying out. Jimmy is bolting his first route, which will most likely be a stout 12d, I'm not even close to doing the moves on that one. But there are a couple of other lines at more amenable grades that I've been working on, and would love to bolt one before the season is over.

Jimmy placing his first bolt on his project at the quarry

My new car!

We can rely on Little Si to stay cool in the shade, so we've been getting up there a lot recently. On Monday I headed up with Jimmy, Nick, Micah and Antonio. Antonio is a visiting climber from Mexico who I met at the gym, I've taken him out to the local crags and he's done well, on Monday he onsighted Aborigine at Little Si. I had a pretty good day up there too. I warmed up on Technorigine, which didn't feel that hard, then did Viagrophobia (12d) a mini-project first go of the day, and finished up the session with a 12a and a 12b, to climb 5.12a-12d in a day, I feat I hadn't done before. I'm feeling in pretty good route shape right now, but Jimmy is really tearing it up. A couple weeks ago he hadn't climbed 5.13, now he's done three of them including a 13b. He's overtaken me as the #1 route climber in Olympia, according to 8a.nu rankings, and he deserves it. I could see him bagging some more 5.13's before the route season gives way to bouldering again. Nick has maintained his good route form and sent a 12c on Monday, he has one more week in Olympia before he heads back out east, so hopefully we'll climb a few more times with him, and he'll send his project. The weather for the next couple of weeks looks like it will be more of the same, so I hope to keep getting up to Little Si and work on some new projects, and maybe get out on a longer trip next week.

Jimmy working Chronic (13b) at Little Si before the send

The familiar walk back from Little Si at dusk

4th of July Weekend

Welcome to my new look blog, I thought I'd brighten it up a bit. The banner photo is courtesy of Micah of a 12c that I flashed this weekend, thats right flash! I had a great 4th of July weekend, at one of my favorite places in the state, Tieton. On Saturday after a late-ish start and getting a bit lost, Micah, Laura, Jimmy and I eventually made it out to the sector called The Oasis. There was a 12a I wanted to get on there, after a quick warmup (Laura onsighted a 10d) I got on it, it was a battle fighting the pump and the greasy crimps in the full sun. But in the end I fell off at the last hard move on the onsight attempt. Micah fell on the same move, then with our beta, Jimmy stepped up and flashed it. We also checked out Dream Wall for the first time, I was a bit dissapointed, it wasn't quite up to Lava Point quality, but still had fun routes nonetheless. That night we stayed up late and had a blazing fire, check out the pile of wood we gathered.

The following morning we headed straight to The Cave area, where we climbed in the shade at Oak Wall. I did a few routes I hadn't done before. After onsighting a 12a Jimmy abbed down a 12c there ticked some holds put the draws on flashed it like it was no big deal! It was very impressive, I was psyched to get on it too and with his streaming beta, I managed the flash as well. It was a really fun route, 5 clips up an overhanging wall/arete, on small and sloping holds, I'd highly recommend it. We finished off the day with some really good routes further left. I'm impressed with how well Jimmy is route climbing right now, I need to step it up, otherwise he will take my #1 spot in Olympia. I put our 8a.nu rankings back up on my blog to try to generate some more competition. I'll update it frequently, I can see it changing a lot, especially with Nick coming to town soon and Andrew hot on the heels of Laura for the #5 spot. Below are a couple of shots of Micah working the 12c.