6 days in Vegas

I found myself back in Las Vegas last week in a very different mindset from when I was there a couple of months ago. I had got time off work and booked this trip a few weeks ago, but as the date approached I was regretting my decision to book it for that long. In the end though I had an amazing time! I flew down with Austin, and met up with Kevin who was staying there with his Aunt. We had the perfect balance of a taste of Vegas living in the hostel on the strip, and delicious homecooked meals every day after climbing courtesy of Kevin's awesome Aunt. We climbed 3 days on, had one wild night out on the strip, took one rest day, then climbed another two days, it worked pretty well.

I could go into details about what routes we got on each day, but its so hard to capture the feeling, so I'll let the photos do the talking. In summary, I climbed a LOT, mostly steep juggy sport routes which I love. I sent a handful of easy 12's quickly, and worked a few 12c's and d's but with no send. Austin climbed out of his skin, he managed a 12a flash, and gave double digit attempts on a hard 12a and 12b, but didn't manage to get the send. Kevin was climbing strong, and managed to climb his first ever 12a, then his second, then his third! If both these guys build up their endurance they could be sport climbing machines! I'm already looking forward to get back out on a rope with these guys, it was so much fun!

Flashing the Red Rock classic 12a, Fear and Loathing.

Improvising a stick-clip.

Drinking a beer trading beta on a hard project.

Working an amazing 12c roof climb.

Another 12 that got away.

A familiar feeling for Austin, hanging on his project.

A really fun 12b that eluded Austin.

Cool Shadow.

Trying a steep 12b on the last day.

South Sound Pull Down 2012

Its hard to believe this was the 6th annual South Sound Pull Down at the Warehouse Rock Gym. It doesn't seem that long ago that Jimmy and Nick had the idea to put together the first climbing comp in Olympia back in 2007. I've competed in them all, and have even won it before. If you go back through my blog you can read about each one around this time every October. Last year I put up a strong performance in the Men's Advanced category. This year my expectations were low, I can count on one hand the number of days I've climbed in the last month inside and out. I'm probably in the worst climbing shape I've been in since I moved to the US which is a sobering thought. I'm not sure what I'm going to do to change that, but I definitely not a big fan of the title of "the guy that used to climb hard".

Head Route Setters for the Comp, Laura and Nick

On comp day energy levels were high, it was great seeing new and old friends. I climbed with fellow "old guys" Boon and Whitey. We were climbing mostly the same problems, but I managed to do a couple they couldn't. I think the hardest thing I did was probably only V5. I had a great time though, and that is what really matters. I think I ended up in 8th in my category or something like that.

Later that night I redeemed myself with a winning entry in the 3rd annual post comp Chili Cookoff hosted by Boon. I took first place with my delicious slow-cooked beef stew chili! And as a bonus there was a decent cash prize this year.

Me with my winnings!

Middle Fork Bouldering

Throughout the summer a group of boulderers from Olympia have been developing a new bouldering area near north bend. I finally checked it out yesterday with my roommate Jeremy who has done a lot of the fa's there, and Boon. I was impressed, the rock quality is great, and it is in a beautiful setting.

The majority of the developed problems are easy to moderate, which is great for me since I'm not in the best bouldering shape right now. Jeremy toured us around the rat-trap boulders, the cave area boulders, bean slug boulder, roadside boulder and other boulders that I forget the name of. Given its proximity to Seattle, and the quality of the problems, I can see this area getting pretty popular once the word gets out. Chase, one of the main developers put the blog www.northbendbouldering.blogspot.com together which has a lot of photos and gives a bit of the background of the development.

Smokey Leavenworth

I decided to head out to Leavenworth with a big group of people at the last minute over the weekend. I had a good time, checked out a few different crags, and climbed some fun routes. Icicle canyon was eerily quiet because of nearby fires. We saw the flames close up when we were going over Blewett Pass, it was scary how close we got. Throughout the weekend the canyon got more and more smokey, it cast a red hue on everything which was pretty cool. The highlight was climbing Condorphamine Addiction with Tony. Its a 7 pitch bolted 10b, we linked it into 4 pitches and got a crux pitch each, I would highly recommend it.

At the top of Condorphamine Addiction, notice the smoke in the background.

By Sunday it started getting really smokey.

Vegas!!!

I'm In the Las Vegas airport coming back from an incredible weekend. I went down to see a girl I met in Fiji. We had a crazy time, as with any trip there were some setbacks. I missed my flight down, so had to pay for another ticket the next morning, we bought cirque du soleil tickets for the wrong week, and I lost a chunk of money playing blackjack at the $50 minimum bet table, oops!

But we had some really good times as well. We lived it up at a big hotel on the strip and I felt like a baller cruising around in my 2013 mustang convertible rental. Partying all night to Calvin Harris at XS nightclub was incredible! I even got out bouldering at Red Rocks today despite a brutal hangover and 100 degree temps. The Kraft boulders are really good, I got shut down on anything remotely difficult. But it was good to check it out.

It's going to be strange going back to normal life after this. I'm seriously considering flying back down this weekend again. I don't think it would be good for my bank account though.

A big day out

I'm back in the swing of climbing after one of my longest breaks since I started climbing. Climbing in the gym last week and hanging on a 10c was discouraging, but my fitness usually comes back quickly and I don't typically perform well in there anyway. Yesterday Chris and I hiked up to Bob's Area at Exit 38 with a plan to climb a lot. I love climbing with Chris, its always a lot of fun and we make a good team climbing really efficiently. We had managed 8 routes each by the time we took a break for lunch at noon. We finished off all the routes at the Peannacle then headed up to Slumbersome Ridge. Not all the routes we did were easy, I climbed an 11d that I had tried and failed on in the past, and I onsighted/flashed a couple of 11c's as my 17th and 18th route of the day. The hardest route I did that day though was the 10d at The Stein. It was really overgrown with moss, and I found myself dynoing between mossy ledges skipping bolts because I couldn't take a hand off to clip, luckily I sent it! We even did a few trad routes despite not bringing a rack. The final tally for the day for me was 22 routes led cleanly which surpasses my old record, only 12 of them were new to me though. Chris led 19 routes, all of his were new. I've now climbed everything at Bob's Area with the exception of an unclimbable overgrown 10b crack. I love big days out like this, it makes we want to do more. I think I could beat this record if I planned it out, but if I want to do new routes I'd have to find different crags. Its something I could see myself getting in to, there are even competitions like this that I know I would love.

A well earned homebrew in a beautiful spot. This is why I love climbing!

Fiji

Fiji felt like a totally different world. I just spent one night on the main island then caught an hour long boat ride out to Mana Island, and small remote island where I spent the rest of my time. I made the right choice heading to Mana, I met some very cool people. All the other backpackers had been travelling for months if not years so they were shocked that I was only travelling for three weeks. I don't know why I didn't go for longer. I made the most of my time though.

A typical day for me went something like this: Wake up at first light and go for a walk/run on the beach for an hour or so with whatever stray dogs wanted to join me. Back to the resort for breakfast. Get my scuba gear set up and on the boat. Go on my first dive at 8:30. Get back change tanks and head out on my second dive at 10:30. Back for lunch. Then in the afternoons walk out to a remote beach with friends. Watch the sun set around 6pm. Back to the hostel for dinner then drinking games with the other backpackers til late. It was a good life.

The scuba diving there was amazing, amongst the best I've done anywhere. The soft coral was incredible, and the sites were teeming with fish, I also saw eels, manta rays and lots of sharks. Each site was different, it never got boring. I did 10 dives total in 6 days bringing my total to around 80 I think. I can't emphasise how much I loved it. I decided I want to pursue my divemaster certification so I can do this and get paid for it during the summers, that way I can stay out places like this for longer. I'm already thinking about where I want to go during my two weeks over Christmas break and next summer. I'm so glad I went on this trip, it was exactly what I needed. Now I better get in to the gym to get back in shape.

This is what a typical afternoon was like, the beaches were amazing and we had them all to ourselves.

Ratu Kini's the resort/hostel where I stayed

Getting ready to enter into another world.

The sunrise on my last morning in Fiji. I made it all the way around the island along the beach in about 2 hours.

It's the water

My last sunset, back on the main island.

New Zealand

I've been back from my trip to New Zealand and Fiji for a couple of days now, I'm excited to get back to teaching, but I'm very sad to be finished with such an amazing trip. The three weeks were action packed, its so hard to summarize everything in a couple of paragraphs, but I'll try. Here's what I got up to in New Zealand.

The trip started out great, Anthony took me to some of his favorite spots around where he lives. I loved surfing on the Tasman Sea at Raglan, it was really hard because of the choppy seas, and I almost got dragged out by the rip tide at one point, but it was a lot of fun. The mountain biking in the redwoods at Rotorua, was also spectacular, nice long runs in a sub-tropical rain forest. A few days in our house got broken in to while we were out for lunch, they took my new iPhone amongst other things, it was a bummer but we tried to forget about it by heading up to Auckland. I went out two nights in Auckland which was really fun, on the second night Melody hitchhiked out to meet up with me. It was great to reconnect with her over a few pints and swap stories from the last few months. The next morning Ant and I caught an early flight down to the South Island.

We spent five days in Queenstown, a popular backpackers/skiers town. We would ski during the day at the different resorts in the area during the days, and partied at night. We had some bad luck down there, I lost my new jacket with my digital camera in the pocket so don't have many photos. One night Ant partied a little too hard and ended up in the hospital. And the day before we were set to drive up to Christchurch we lost our rental car keys on the slopes somewhere. It meant we couldn't climb at Castle Hill, and we were looking at a big bill for a replacement key and new flights, but luckily someone found them just in time so we were able to do the 6 hour drive at dawn to catch our flights back.

Back up on the North Island I rented a car and drove out see Melody again. she was wwoofing at a very hippie farm on the Coromandel Peninsula. It was cool seeing what see does there, I really admire her courage to go off on her adventure. We had a great time together. We checked out the area around her farm, surfed on some much more friendly waves on the East Coast, and hiked up to the Pinnacles hut in Coromandel Forest Park. I made it back down the next day to catch my flight to Fiji. I've got to say I was very impressed with New Zealand. I just wish I had more photos, here are some from my iPhone before it got stolen and a couple from a disposable camera I bought later.

Getting ready to go surfing at Raglan

Ant taking a break from mountain biking.

Relaxing in a natural hot spring after mountain biking.

Mel and I wet but happy after surfing.

Melody and another friend Ffion at The Pinnacles.

Stoked for my Big Trip

I leave on my New Zealand/Fiji trip in a couple of hours, and I so excited!

In the last few weeks I haven't done too much climbing. I've been getting in to other things, preparing for this trip and making the most of the nice weather. I went scuba diving with Tony in the Sound, mountain biking with Chas and Tyler, fishing with a bunch of guys for Chas' bachelor party. Anthony a good friend from Scotland visited recently which was a lot of fun. I've even started running regularly, I feel in great shape, and its helped me shed 9 pounds in the last two months. Here are some photo's of what I've been up to recently.

I got out climbing at Nevermind with Chas and Tyler, I repeated a bunch of stuff.

Tyler and Chas cruised the classic Steep Street, and the both came close on Culture Shock.

Getting ready to go spearfishing!

No cabezon or crab, but it was still a fun dive.

It took some goading to do this jump, but it was worth it.

Salmon fishing off the coast on a charter boat.

Fishing for rockfish at the Westport jetty.

In New Zealand I'm visting Anthony who lives there now. We're adventuring around the North Island, skiing, surfing and mountain biking before flying down to the South Island for more skiing and partying. I'm hoping to boulder at the awesome Castle Hill, its somewhere I've wanted to climb at for a while, and the friction should be awesome right now. I'm also looking forward to seeing my friend Melody who is on the North Island. After a couple of weeks there, I'm flying up to Fiji for a week. I think I'm the most excited for this part of the trip. I booked a week at this dive resort including 10 dives. The area is world famous for diving, there's tons of different dive sites, from wrecks to shark dives, and soft coral, all with 100ft+ visibility this time of year! I'm really excited just to be around the traveller/backpacker scene, its been too long since I've done a trip like this. Hopefully I'll be able to update my blog mid-trip through my iPhone, I'll definitely be taking lots of photos. Well I better get on my way to the airport.

Deep Water Soloing at Banks Lake

I had a great time climbing with a bunch of friends at Banks Lake over the weekend, we headed out there to check out the deep water soloing. I had been out there a couple of years ago, and was impressed with the climbing but hadn't checked out the climbing out of the lake. Tony and I made the fun drive out there and met the rest of the group at a cabin we were renting for the weekend. It was a pretty big group there were 14 of us in total, we had enough canoes, kayaks and inflatables for all of us plus 3 dogs. We used the Washington Weekend Rock to find a couple of cliffs that looked good. The first place we climbed was on The Bunker a small rocky island near Roadside rock. We warmed up on a fun 15ft cliff that most people were able to top out. It was probably a V1 or so. Next I scoped out a sweet line close by on the Roadside Rock side of the Lake that started up a hand crack and topped out at around 30ft to a popular jumping spot. It was really fun, a little scary, but a fall anywhere on the route would be totally safe. Its hard to say how hard it was, everyone else got spat off by the tricky crack down low, probably 5.10-ish. Next we paddled out to the Tent and Awning Rock to do the 2 bolted routes there, you could climb them with a rope straight out of a canoe, or deep water solo them safely. I opted to rope up for the 10b, it was a pretty cool experience to be belayed out of a canoe. A bunch of people got up this one either on a rope or solo, it was really fun.  After that we canoed back to shore and headed back to the cabin for the usual climbing trip antics. On Sunday we were feeling like getting on some longer terrestrial routes, so I took the group up to the beautiful Northrup Canyon. Everyone seemed to have a good time, especially Rachel who couldn’t stop raving about Dr. Ceuse, one of the most picturesque 5.10’s I’ve done. This was the perfect trip for the summer. I’m definitely interested in heading back to check out more potential for deep water soloing there, it is a big lake and there is lots of rock! Here are some of my friends photos that I stole that will give you a better idea of the climbing.

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Jumping off the little cliff on The Bunker that we bouldered up.

Justin bouldering around

Starting up a sweet line. It may be an FA, we broke off a good amount of rock down low. Its really good though.

Good holds mid way lead to a balancey top out.

I was really hoping I wouldn't fall here. The scariest part was probably jumping off from the top.

Sara soloing ground-up (or should that be water-up) on After the Gold Rush a fun bolted 10b.

Rachel at her high point.

I opted to have Tony belay me up it, it felt much safer.

The cabin we stayed at, it was pretty nice.

Me climbing a longer route at Northrup Canyon. Next time I'm bringing a spare chalk bag.

Rachel reaching the top of Dr. Ceuse an amazing 10b.

The whole group at Northrup Canyon.