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