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.

Day Tripping

I've been climbing a lot in the last week. I haven't gone on any big trips, rather I've been getting out on day trips with different partners who could make it out. I finally checked out a much talked about new crag South of Olympia. I was very impressed, it is a unique crag in that it is unlike any other rock type in the area. The closest thing I can equate it to is Elwah Wall up by Port Angeles. It is a 100ft tall sandstone crag with crazy water sculpted features like huge huecos, pockets and tufa's on a continuously overhanging wall. I went up there with two young psyched guys Nathan and Tom, who I look forward to climbing with again. The photos make it look pretty incredible and it is, but it also suffers from some very sandy holds, questionable bolting, and soft rock in places. Hopefully it will clean up nicely. I'm not sure about access, that's why I haven't included its name or location. The crag is still a work in progress, there is still a good amount of bolting and cleaning to do here. I heard Nathan bolted a sweet looking line the following day.

The Crag is the light colored rock behind me, the approach isn't too bad.

Phew! Its steep and long!

Lots of jugs and rests.

One of the better routes on the wall. A long pumpy 11c.

Fun tufa climbing, the one on the right is a 10c and the one on the left is 11a, but they felt about the same to me.

On Monday I hooked up with Chas and we climbed at a well known crag North of Seattle. This is another crag that has access issues, so I wont publish its name. I was very impressed with the crag, it had similar climbing to Little Si, but the rock had more texture, and was more consistent. I managed to onsight a classic 12a, but got worked on some harder 12's. I really wish this crag was closer to Olympia. Its probably still worth the 3 hour drive a few times more this summer.

Chas working the 12a.

The rock is as good as it looks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I stayed over at Chas' new place in Issaquah which is really nice. What is even nicer was the 20 minute drive from his place to the parking at Exit 38. If I had that commute I would be there every day. We climbed on the Far Side. Did some classics I'd done before, climbed some new routes not in the guide, I think only one was new to me, its so hard to keep track of climbs that I got on years ago.

The next day Austin and Chris were going back up there, so I joined them. We did some new routes, but spent most of the day flailing on an offwidth roof 12a. I had been on it years ago, and had vague recollections of thinking I should never get on it again. Chris seemed to like it though.

Austin climbing, Chris belaying. Can you name the climb?

Austin hanging on a cool (but hard) roof 12a at the Far Side of exit 38.

The following day was Chris' birthday so we got an early start and ticked off a bunch of routes in the Deception Wall area. I redpointed Stick Boy, which is probably the worst 12a I've ever done. Then we checked out the new(ish) Shakespeare Wall further up the hill which was pretty fun. We celebrated his birthday and his 100th route of the year with a few cold beers in the sun. It was a great day out.

I'm finally taking a much needed rest day after six days on. But I'm headed out this evening for a weekend trip to Banks Lake, I'm hoping I don't get burned too badly (by the routes and the sun). I'll leave you with a video of Chris throwing an Ondra-style hissy fit after falling off the 12a roof. (Warning: foul language).

Mazama

I have known about the climbing at Mazama, and have wanted to make a visit for a while now. A couple of years ago I met Bryan Burdo (the developer) at Little Si and he was practically raving about Mazama. The main obstacle to me making a visit was the 5 hour drive from Olympia, the same distance as Squamish and Smith. Laura, Austin, Chas, Cori and I were all able to do a three day weekend, so we headed out Friday night. The drive wasn't too bad and there was plenty of free camping that was easy to find.

Warning, the water is MUCH colder than it looks!

Austin being brave, not only because the water was cold, but because it was only 3ft deep here.

The first morning we climbed at the Rhinozone at Mazama Rocks, the main area. The walk to that crag makes the Quarry approach look tough, it was sweet. The climbing in these areas is moderate and blocky, similar in some ways to Exit 38, but the rock was a little different, more like basalt. To be honest, none of the routes we did here were spectacular, but it was fun getting some mileage in. Early in the afternoon the crags get in the sun, so we retreated to the local general store/cafe, which has a great shaded courtyard where they serve beer and ice cream. The river across the road is really nice as well, the river was a little too cold to hang out in for long, but it did do a good job of cooling our beer. At 5pm the crags come back into the shade so we were able to get a few more pitches in.

Not a bad way to wait out the mid-day sun

The next day we checked out Prospector Crags which is described in the guide as perhaps the best moderate sport crag in the state. We only managed to get on a few climbs since once again the sun warmed it up pretty early, but didn't think any of the climbs were worth getting too excited about. Another dip in the river and evening session at Fun Rocks followed, so far I hadn't gotten on any hard routes, or any routes that were worth writing home about, but that was to change the next day.

At 5pm at Fun Rock, right when it gets in the shade.



Austin and Chas on some samey 5.10 slabs

Monday morning we headed up to Gate Creek Crag, which has one of the longest approaches at around half an hour, but its a pleasant walk. When we arrived I wish I had brought more layers, as it stays quite a bit cooler since it gets a lot of shade and has a creek close by. We climbed at Fire Wall which is a very impressive limestone wall that raises up 200ft with some pretty steep angles in places, it reminded me of a mix between Astral Wall at Tieton and the Big Show at Checkamus, but better and on limestone. There are not a ton of routes up there, but whats there is very high quality and there is potential for a lot more. There wasn't many easy climbs but the 11s and 12s were excellent. Austin sent his first ever 11b, a sweet route called Urban Refugee (first half). I went up Firestarter a 12c the guidebook describes as "hard for the grade", I got up to the last move and was staring down a big tickmark, but I pumped out, after feeling the hold I really wish I had committed and thrown for it, because it is huge! I sent it next go, I think its one of the best I've done at the grade anywhere. The extension "The Eighth Rule" is an incredible looking 13a that I definitely need to go back for. Who wants to come next time? 

Limestone 11b at its best!

My 100th 5.12 and Monkey Space

The weather in Washington has been pretty bad this summer so far and I was getting tired of climbing at Little Si. So Chas, Jimmy, Lisa and I headed down to Smith Rock on Wednesday night seeking some better weather. I've never climbed at Smith in the summer before, but this week was unseasonably cool, and in the shade the temps were perfect. I checked out some areas I hadn't been to before; the lower gorge, upper shipwreck, mesa verde, and the monkey face, and was not disappointed by any of them. At the lower gorge I managed to climb the amazing stemming route Pure Palm on my second attempt (note to self don't climb at the gorge in the blazing AM sun). At upper shipwreck I surprised myself with an onsight of Undertow a very fun gym-like 12b. According to my scorecard that route marks my 100th ever 5.12 or harder. Starting with my first one back in September 2005, I've climbed 52 12a's, 22 12b's, 17 12c's, 6 12d's, and 3 13a's. Pretty cool huh?

Lisa manages to climb Pure Palm without all the whining

Jimmy shows us how not to climb Smith 5.11s

Lisa making 5.13 look cool but hard

The highlight of the trip was definitely climbing Monkey Face though. I had often admired the 350ft free standing pillar before but had never gone up it. Chas who had been up via the Pioneer Route, encouraged me to go for the all-free Monkey Space route which is named for the super exposed 11a pitch which traverses out into a scary position high on the face. The first couple of 5.8 trad pitches were a lot of fun, we each took a lead. When it came time for me to go for the airy third pitch I was prepared for the worst. The holds which started out great soon turned pretty bad, but I took solace in the not-too-badly spaced bolts. The crux involves pulling over a bulge on sloping holds with awkward feet, I looked down to try to get my feet placed well, but seeing all the air below me made me a little queasy so I focused on my hand holds and managed to pull through. I guess the pitch is technically mixed, but I didn't read the description very closely so was forced to run out the 20ft flake to the mouth of the cave, since I didn't bring gear for this pitch. It was awesome! Once we were in the cave Chas tried to send me up what he was "sure" was our next pitch. I started up it, but the lack of chalk and crappy bolts led me to think this wasn't it. After checking the guidebook later, we found out the route was a sketchy 5.13 project, I'm glad I didn't get much further up it. Instead I took a look up the other side of the cave where I found a well chalked line of holds that looked a lot more like the 11b that we were supposed to go up. Although the hard climbing on this pitch only lasts for 3 bolts, it packs it in there, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't think I was going to fall. But I pulled it out, latched the victory jug and romped up the final 5.4 section to the top of the Monkey Face. Success! It was a great trip with Chas, Jimmy and Lisa, and it has me excited for upcoming Fall trips back down there now that I know what some of the other areas at Smith have to offer.

We should have read the description a little closer before heading up

The view looking up from the base of Monkey Face

Chas getting sunburned while waiting for me to follow him up pitch 2

Starting up the airy 11a pitch. Its hard to tell, but I'm actually very scared.

After the crux, holding on to a huge jug.

Chas following the 3rd pitch. This photo doesn't do the exposure justice.

Chas and I on the summit of the Monkey Face.

Two Weeks in Tensleep

I’m back from Tensleep Wyoming, it was such a fun trip, I feel that I can’t do it justice by just writing a few paragraphs about everything we did here, but I’ll try. We took our time getting over there, stopping to climb at Post Falls Idaho and in Montana so Chas could attend a wedding. On the way over we could see the extent of the flooding that has affected large areas of the country, the raging rivers overflowing onto the floodplains were pretty incredible.

This is real America, the Tensleep (pop. 304) 4th of July rodeo



Chas on a 10b at Post Falls Idaho on the way over

In Tensleep we checked out some new, and new to us areas. Home Alone, Hound Dog Crag, Downtown, and the Godfather boulder amongst others, and to be honest we didn’t climb at an area we didn’t love. The first day there I wasn’t sure how I would do, since I hadn’t been in the kind of route shape I was hoping for. After warming up, I managed to onsight a 12a, then I sent a 12d on my second go. I wasn’t expecting such a quick send, and to be honest it didn’t feel that hard. The next day I onsighted a 12a, then tried another 12d, hoping to start a trend. This one however felt really hard. I didn’t really like the pressure of redpointing, and I could tell Laura and Chas were bored as I dangled on the rope trying to figure out moves. I decided that for the rest of the trip I would focus on onsighting easier 12’s. I loved the fight of a good onsight attempt, although I managed to pretty much onsight all the 12a’s I tried (there was one route I technically redpointed because a hold broke on me) each one of them gave me a good run for my money. I also managed to onsight a couple of 12b’s, and a 12c although I think the later was pretty easy for the grade, and got another 12c second go. In total I sent 15 5.12’s.

Laura negotiating the cruxy start of Moltar (12a)

Laura higher up on Moltar

Chas blew us away with his improvements this year. While last year he was struggling on 5.11’s here, this year he looked like a different climber cruising up 5.12’s. His training and traversing has certainly paid off, he flashed or onsighted a handful of 12a’s, redpointed his first 12b then got his first 12b flash! Laura was climbing really strong as well, she came within a couple of moves of sending a 11d/12a and looked really good toproping harder routes than she normally gets on.

Chas goes for the flash of a 12a at Home Alone

We met a lot of really friendly climbers from all over the US. In general we found that the further people had travelled to get there, the friendlier they were, although the Wyoming and Colorado climbers were also very friendly. We also got to meet a couple of the route developers, Aaron Huey and Mike Decker, both of whom were very nice to us, it was obvious they were both very passionate about Tensleep.

A patriotic American on an excellent 11d at Hound Dog Crag

Hound Dog Crag was one of my favorite areas

We were there over 4th of July Weekend, easily the busiest few days of the year there, compared to last year it was crazy. On Saturday night there was a big bonfire where about 80 climbers turned up. We talked to a ranger who estimated there were about 400 climbers that weekend, which seemed like a bit of an overestimation to me, but there were certainly a ton of climbers. The forest service are coming up with a plan for how to manage the influx of climbers there, pit toilets are needed to mitigate the effect of climbers on the environment. We did our part by leaving our campsite cleaner than when we arrived, and picked up three large black bags of trash from the main climbers parking areas on a rest day.

Laura on Cocaine Rodeo one of the best routes I've ever been on

Chas at the bottom of Cocaine Rodeo

I know that this will not be my last trip to Tensleep, there are still hundreds of routes I want to get on there, and at the pace that new routes are going up its hard to imagine running out of routes to try there. After talking to some other climbers there I’m looking forward to checking out some different climbing areas as well. Right now I’m really psyched on climbing, so if you want to get out climbing with me drop me a line, I’ll drive!

Chas on a fun challenging 10a on the Godfather boulder

Me flashing As Wicked As It Seems (12a) on our last day



Trad is Rad! Sport is fun too.

Trad climbing is awesome, especially the next day. Yesterday Chas and I tradded it up at Vantage. We started out at Sunshine Wall which was a circus. It seemed like every climber in seattle and his girlfirend was out there. Chas and I both led the classic Party in Your Pants 5.8, then I did a good 10b crack. I felt good on it but there was a lot of loose rock in the crack so I wasn't to confident in my gear. It was pretty hot out in the sun and the crowds were rediculous, so we headed to Middle East Wall. I'd never climbed there before, but its a sweet wall, stays a lot cooler since its north facing, and there was barely anyone there. We led an awesome 10b finger crack called slim and curvy, we both loved it. I did a 10d trad route next, it was pretty tricky. The crux was in a shallow corner double gastoning in tiny crack that was just big enough for a size 1 nut, but not for my fingers, I was ready to take a whip, but I held it together and somehow made it to the chains. I wasn't having fun at the time, but thinking about it now my hands sweat and I want to do it again.

Today Chas had to be back in town early, but we still got out and did some fun sport routes. We did 5 routes at Moonshine Wall and Fat Man Wall and made it back to Olympia by 2. They were all really fun routes, it was a totally different feeling from climbing trad though, I actually enjoyed myself while I was on the route. I have another spring break this week, so I'm hoping to get out on another short trip later in the week, I'm psyched to get on more trad, but I'd happily settle for sport. And maybe this time I'll remember my camera.

NC3 WWU

Yesterday I competed in the first Northwest College Climbing Competition (NC3) of the year up at Western Washington University up in Bellingham. I’m not climbing really strong right now because of my lingering finger injury, but a group of guys from Olympia were headed up so I tagged along. Chas, Morgan, Micah and I represented Evergreen. Jimmy and Kevin climbed for SPSCC, and Andrew came up with us climbing for UW. The gym up at Western is not the biggest, so it was pretty crowded with a couple hundred students from the major colleges around Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The comp reminded me a lot of the university climbing competitions I went to in the UK, there was the same excitement, team outfits and fancy dress. But in the UK there was a lot more money in it, back then our university sports association would pay for our flight and accommodation and we weren’t even that good. I think if the NC3 comps stay this well attended, they should move them to bigger gyms.

Micah deafens onlookers with his power scream



Chas almost sticks the second dyno

Morgan respresenting Evergreen in Men's Open Finals

I climbed alright, I had good strategy and got in 5 kinda hard problems. I liked the fact that they had a 30 point bonus for flashing problems, I think 4 of my top 5 were flashes. But a major criticism a lot of people had with the comp was that they didn’t allow any smearing at all! This made the problems really awkward and contrived, and the rule was really hard to enforce. I ended up taking 7th in advanced, if I were in better shape, I think I could have challenged to get top three, the standard wasn’t all that high. Chas and Andrew climbed well in advanced category as well. Micah climbed strongly but struggled to finish off the hard problems and ended up ripping up his scorecard and just climbed for fun. Jimmy, Morgan and Kevin climbed awesome in open. Jimmy and Morgan got 2 of the 3 spots in the open finals, a guy from the UW took the third spot. While they were in isolation there was a dyno comp, I entered and made it past the first round, but the next dyno’s were huge, it was really fun to watch though. Then open finals came, they were closely matched until the steep and slopey final problem, which I knew would suit Jimmy’s style. And sure enough he flashed it to win! Here’s a really badly shot video I got of it.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday, and I think I’m going to compete in some other ones throughout the NW in the next couple of months. I missed the pre-registration for the one in Spokane next weekend, but I heard from a guy from Central that Vantage is dry, so I think I know where I’m going to be next weekend if the weather holds.


Team Oly (minus Chas) at Boomers in Bellingham afterwards

Bishop over New Year

Just after Christmas Chas and I headed down to Bishop California for a week of bouldering. It was a cold week to be down there but we still ended up getting a lot done. We set up camp at the Pit, and ended up climbing only at the Happies all week, the Buttermilks were snowed out. I was worried about my injured finger, but I taped it up pretty good, and tried to avoid anything crimpy. Hanging off pockets didn’t hurt it, which was good because the Happies are all about pockets. On our first couple of days we managed a quite a few V4’s and V5’s pretty quickly. Chas was climbing really well for his first real bouldering trip, we didn’t find anything project worthy though. The temps were chilly, it was nice in the sun, but it was really tough when a strong wind was blowing. The forecast looked called for very cold temps and strong gusts, so we thought it would be a good chance to drive up to Mammoth to visit and old friend of Chas’. It was nice to sleep indoors and have a hot shower, but Mammoth was a little too crazy for me, and I was glad to return to Bishop the next day.

Chas sending a V4 "one finger!"



Me pulling on pockets on the west rim

We returned to the Pit to find my tent missing! It had blown away and was lying in a heap a hundred yards away, some people had pinned it down with big rocks. Apparently there had been crazy gusts and lots of people had lost tents, boulder mats and other things during the night. We decided it would be a good call to go in for a motel for the next couple of nights. It was definitely worth it. With a rest day behind us we were climbing really well, at least we thought so when I thought I had flashed a V7! And Chas was close on sending it too, but after about an hour of effort he checked the guide again and it turned out what we were doing was a undocumented traverse into a V2 that probably only clocked in at about V4. We were pretty bummed, but I did manage to flash a couple of V5’s afterwards and then we found a sweet V6 to work on. Its called WORK is a four letter word, up on the west rim. It starts with a powerful  steep move off small pockets to a left hand sloper, then you work your feet over and slap again to a slightly better sloper, hold the tension and bring your right hand up to a slopey dish then slap up to better holds. It was really sweet sequence with each move close to our limit. Chas came the closest to sending, but as dusk approached and the temps dipped below freezing , we knew we’d have to wait on it. That night for new years eve I enjoyed a couple of beers in the motel room and we watched a climbing movie, it was pretty low key, but we knew we had to save ourselves for the project.

The first powerful move of WORK is a four letter word

The next day we had one goal in mind, and after a quick warm-up we headed straight to it. With the beta wired, I knew all I had to do was execute the moves, on my first go I got to the last hard move, then on my next go I got it! I was pleased to have done it quick so I could try some other things. Chas however was getting frustrated on the problem. He worked it for a couple of hours with not much progress. Eventually, much after the point at which I would have given up, he summoned all his strength and got up the thing! I was just as pleased for him as he was. With not much time left in the day or skin left on my fingers, I taped my fingers all the way up and worked on pulling on the pockets as much as I could. I had a ton of fun working a V5, but I couldn’t link it all together (see second video). With another storm forecasted to be on the way, we decided to hit the road that night. We were both really satisfied with our sends. It was just exactly what I needed to get out for a quick trip before school starts up again, thanks Chas!

Me thinking I flashed a V7!

Almost sending a V5

The end of a good trip!