New Year, New Beginning

What a fantastic year 2012 was. I made some great climbing memories last year. Some that stand out were Red Rocks with Austin and Kevin, 22 routes in a day with Chris, Leavenworth with Tony, Smith with Austin, and Tieton, Vantage, and Banks Lake group trips, I could go on. What really made these trips so much fun was the great company. I'm realizing my motivation for climbing is changing. I used to be very focused on grades and numbers, sometimes to the detriment of my enjoyment. But what I really value are the experiences, sharing amazing times with good friends. I want that to be the goal of my climbing in 2013. I don't know how hard I am going to climb but I'm really excited about just sharing time outside with friends and climbing whatever looks fun. My perspective has changed a lot in the last couple of months. I have become a Christian and with it I feel a sense of fulfillment that I could never achieve through climbing. I love climbing, but in the past it had become an unhealthy focus. I now feel I have much more to look forward to. I am really excited about where I will go in climbing with this new perspective. I am already planning my spring break trip, thinking about summer climbing plans and beyond, and weekend trips to Vantage are just a couple months away. Bring on 2013!

Where have I been?

Its been a while since I last blogged. The longest time since I started this blog actually. Well I haven't gone away. I just haven't had much to write about climbing-wise. Since last time I blogged about Fossil Rock the weather hasn't really allowed for much climbing. Also this winter I've been doing some other activities. I got a mountain bike which has been fun, I can see myself getting into it. And I've also gotten into skiing, its so much fun! I've got my own gear now and a season pass to white pass next winter, I'm already looking forward to it.

But my psyche for climbing is in full force right now. I was just planning out my last couple of months of lessons at school, and it dawned on me how close summer is! I'm brainstorming trip ideas, I think I'm going to stay stateside, but there are a lot of places to climb within a 1000 mile (or so) radius of here. More on that in another post.

I have been loving my first year of teaching, not only because my students are so awesome! But also because my school is so supportive of me teaching what I want. This winter I taught PE once a week, and took the kids to the Warehouse Rock Gym. It was so much fun! Some of the kids had real potential, I had to try my hardest when we did the toprope races! I tried to get photos of me in teacher mode, but my students aren't the best photographers.

In a couple of days I've got a week off for spring break, the weather looks iffy, but right now I think I may be able to sneak a trip to Vantage and Smith. I feel like I've got a few months of climbing energy stored up in me. Thinking about all the climbing I'm going to do this summer definitely makes the late nights at school so much more worth it. Speaking of which, I better get back to work.

Let Summer Begin!

I've been really busy over the last few weeks. I finished up my student teaching and graduated with my Master in Teaching degree from Evergreen. I was lucky enough to get a teaching job at a great school here in Olympia which I’m really excited about. My parents flew over from Scotland for my graduation and we’ve been hanging out over the couple of weeks so I haven’t been climbing too much recently other than a couple of lazy sessions at the gym, and an easy day at Little Si. I’m not in the kind of shape I was hoping to be at this point in the summer. On Thursday I’m heading out to Tensleep Wyoming for 2 weeks with Chas and Laura. Last summer we had such a good time and vowed to come back, we had hoped to bring more people with us, but it looks like its just going to be the three of us again. It'll still be a lot of fun. A couple of months ago I came up with the goal of climbing 5 routes 12d or harder on the trip. In the shape that I’m in now that seems pretty ambitious, but I’m still going to try. Whatever I end up climbing I know that I’m going to try really hard. I’m keen to see how Chas and Laura get on there, last year they climbed some personal bests, doing a bunch of 5.11’s. This year I think they’ve both got the potential to break into the Tensleep 5.12’s. It’ll be exciting to see. Tensleep will probably be my big climbing trip of the summer, but that’ll by no means be the end of my summer of climbing. I start teaching in September, and in July and August I’ll be doing a lot of planning, but I’m still hoping to get out climbing a lot. So far my wish list is; Infinite Bliss, trad up at Squamish ­­­Index and Leavenworth. Bouldering at Gold Bar, and of course cragging at Little Si and Exit 38, and maybe a trip to Horne Lake. It’s going to be a great summer, I’m so glad to be here.

With my parents at my graduation



Find of the Year

Wow I haven’t been this excited about bouldering in a long time!

Let me explain. So recently a lot of the Olympia bouldering crew (Jimmy, Jeremy, Derik, Miles, David, Kevin, Chase and others) have been scouring the forests around Olympia and clicking through Google Earth in search of rock to climb on. Until recently their search had returned very little worthwhile. Then last week while turkey hunting in Capitol Forest, Chase stumbled upon a moss covered monster boulder. Pretty soon the boulder crew had waged war on the moss and an excellent boulder emerged, they dubbed it the ‘The She-Bear Boulder’. All week rumors have been circulating of a boulder so good it puts the blocs in Leavenworth and Squamish to shame. So today I thought I’d take a break from schoolwork and see what all the fuss was about. Half an hour after leaving downtown Oly I was standing under one of the best boulders I’ve ever seen! The rumors are not exaggerated, this boulder is something special. The crew have done a great job of cleaning it, dragging up their sledgehammers, chainsaws, leaf blowers, crowbars, and machetes to clear away the vegetation and remove the ‘loose’ holds. There is still more work to do and a major tree to take out, but it is very climbable in its current state. Jimmy has snagged most of the FAs, although there are a couple of hard ones and eliminates still to go.

Today I climbed a few of the future classics. Most of the problems I did were graded anywhere between V4 and V7 depending on who you ask. The hardest I did was an amazing sloper problem called Gummy Bears that felt around V6 to me. And I got the first ascent of a fun link-up that weighs in at around V5. I’m sure we’ll get a grade consensus soon. There are about 10 independent straight up problems, most of which have been done at V0- to V7, with potential for another 20 or so link-ups and eliminates. Most of the boulder is slightly overhanging with lots of small crimps so it lends itself to problems in the V4-V7 range, with a smattering of easier warm ups and at least 2 classic HARD lines that will be in the double digits for sure. Its certainly going to keep me busy this summer. I can’t stop thinking about a couple of projects that I need to finish up before someone else does. I’ll be headed back up Monday or Tuesday for an evening session depending on weather if anyone wants to join, as long as you don’t steal my project. Oh and I’ll bring my camera this time.

I should be climbing right now

Its my spring break, and I'm sitting at a computer looking outside at the rain. The plan was to spend this week climbing down at Smith Rock, but the weather has just been terrible. It looks like Thursday things might get a bit better, so I think I'll head down then, and hopefully get at least a few days of climbing in.

I've only gotten outside climbing once in the last 3 months, and I am missing it badly. I haven't been doing much other than schoolwork and drinking, often at the same time. And its surprising that I'm still in pretty good climbing shape. I've been bouldering well indoors recently. I've probably sent more V6 boulder problems at the warehouse in the last few weeks than I have in the last few years. My finger injury is more or less gone, although I'm still taping it, just in case. I haven't been psyched for getting on a rope indoors, but I'm hoping (perhaps naively) that my route fitness will come back pretty easily as soon as I get outside. I've had fun playing in the snow though, a couple of weeks ago I went skiing for my first time ever. It was so much fun, I know this is something that I will be doing a lot more of in the future. And last week I went snowshoeing, which was less fun, more hard work, but getting to hang out in the hotsprings with friends was worth it. I'm done with the cold wet weather though, I really want to get outside on some rock.

Me enjoying the snow at White Pass

I had a multiple page ticklist for this smith trip, but I'm now having to edit it and decide what I really want to get on. I'd be psyched to get on The Quickening, a route I've often looked at, but never tried. It looks like it'd be really fun , I found what seems like good beta for it online. I haven't done anything harder than 12b at Smith, so it'd be awesome to do this route. I'm also psyched to get on some trad as well. We'll see what happens, right now any dry rock climbing would be awesome.

Ten Years In It: Coming to America 2006 - present

This is the final installment of my recollections of the last 10 years of climbing.

I didn’t know what to expect when I came to the US, but getting out climbing a lot helped with the transition. Laura’s mom got me the Falcon guide to Climbing in Washington. It’s a really bad guide, but it was really useful for us at the time, we used it to find our way out to Exit 38. The first ever route I did in the US was a route there called Glom Job. It’s a route that climbs a crack formed between the concrete foundations of a bridge and a rock, so your essentially climbing on concrete for half the route. It was very bizarre, it probably wasn't the best route to start out on in the US, it made me wonder what climbing was going to be like here. Down in Olympia we didn’t have a car, but I found out about the quarry in Tenino on the internet, and contacted some people and was offered a ride by Doug, a good friend from Olympia. The quarry was another kind of bizarre venue, in someone’s front yard, with benches to belay from, there was certainly nothing like this in Scotland. But the community at the quarry was very welcoming, I met Off, Jimmy, Duke and Ed, the same regulars who climb there today. The first route I did there was Hercules a sandbag at 10b, it didn’t help that nobody gave me any beta, they just watched and sized up the new guy. I made it up it but it wasn't pretty. Every Wednesday Doug would give Laura and I a ride down to the quarry, and that summer we went on longer trips to Vantage, Tieton and Squamish with him. Without Doug we really wouldn’t have gotten out much at all that summer, we really owe a lot to him. I thought the climbing around here was awesome, and there was so much of it. In Scotland because of the strict bolting ethic there was not much sport climbing. Here though it was fair game, it seemed at the time that there were more sport routes than I could ever hope to do.

Getting to know the routes and the locals at The Quarry June 06

Braving the heat at Vantage August 06

Onsighting Flying Circus a 10a route at Squamish July 06

Towards the end of the summer I found a job, which limited my climbing, but we got a car which made us more flexible. We would get out on the weekends and I was getting the hang of sport climbing around here. One weekend I decided to get on a 12a at Exit 38 called Culture Shock, I was pumped out of my mind, but I somehow managed to onsight it! This was a major breakthrough for me and made me wonder what I could do if I found a project to work. Laura was working at the climbing gym at Evergreen where she met another keen climber Micah. We arranged to get out climbing at Little Si the next weekend. Micah looked like a really strong climber, but he spent most of the day hanging on a 10b, while I onsighted another 12a Rainy Day Women. Nevertheless we were to become great climbing partners and pushed each other to climb harder over the next few years. Once winter rolled around I started climbing indoors more at the Warehouse Rock Gym, where I would climb more with Jimmy. Back then he was just a weak kid, I remember thinking I could do any boulder problem he could set, I wish I could still say the same. I also met another good friend there Nick, despite him calling me the wrong name of the first few weeks of our friendship we got on great together. Together the four of us Micah, Jimmy, Nick and I would push each other to climb hard and we all improved our climbing levels immensely over the next few years.

Enjoying the Sun on Ride Em' Cowboy 5.8 at Vantage June 07

On a sweet 10d at Cheakamus BC, June 07

Right after flashing my first ever 12b at Smith March 07

Flashing Rawhide 11d at Smith May 07

Laura and I had plans to move to Portland together when she graduated, but by that point we had made good friends in Olympia, and I was enjoying my job, so we decided to stay. I’m glad we did. That summer George and another friend from Scotland Rob, came over to visit and spent 6 weeks climbing in the NW, mostly up at Squamish. We had a really good time together and shared a lot of good memories. That summer I spent a lot of time climbing particularly at Little Si and pushed my level from 12a to 12d in the space of about 6 months with Micah. My ascent of Psychosomatic (12d) was another big milestone. That was about the same time I started documenting my climbing on this blog. Since I've already covered the rest of my climbing on this blog, I wont go into too much detail. But highlights have been my extended climbing trip to Europe, discovering bouldering at Leavenworth, and getting out to new venues further afield such as Bishop and Tensleep. I've made a bunch of good friends in Olympia through climbing, too many to mention here, but I appreciate how each of them have had an impact on my climbing and have helped mold me into the climber I am today. I’m really glad I have this blog to look back on some of my old trips and good memories.

Flashing Rio's Crack V6, at Bishop December 07

Trying to find out where I am in Fontainebleau, April 08

Negotiating the Steepness of Kalymnos May 08



Bouldering in Ailefroide, France June 08

 As for the future, I discussed my plans for 2011 here. And looking towards the next 10 years, I see a lot more climbing. I’ve been getting in a lot of volume in recent years and hope to continue to do so. I think I’m going to get more into trad routes, multi-pitch routes and perhaps even alpine climbing. I would really like to get a drill and start bolting my own routes in the future. A couple of years ago I got recognized by the website 8a.nu for having one of the most registered ascents on my scorecard. At the time I had a little over 500 routes and boulders combined. I now have over 1000 routes. Over the last 3 years I’ve been averaging more than 200 new routes a year. I plan on climbing as long as I can which will hopefully mean another 30+ years. A lifetime goal I’ve set for myself is to climb 10,000 routes, only counting clean ascents, no repeats. This may sound like a lot, but I’ve done the math and I think it may be possible. If I achieve this it will be a huge accomplishment, it may mean climbing more routes than anyone else in the world, or at least having documented it, which would be pretty cool. If in another 10 years I still have this blog and can write about another great 10 years of climbing I'll be happy.

10 Years In It - The College Years 2002-2006

This is the second installment of my climbing story, celebrating my last 10 years of climbing.

When I started university at Stirling I immediately got involved in the Mountaineering Club, and met lots of other enthusiastic climbers and found new places to climb. Best of all was finding out there was a cool bouldering spot only a 20 minute walk from campus. That began my 4 year love affair with Wolfcrag, a small but fun quarry with some bouldering and traversing. It has probably had the biggest impact on my climbing than any other venue, I attribute my crimping skills to the chipped holds there. I also made a trip out to the boulders at Dumbarton Rock with Anthony who had started uni at nearby Glasgow. I remember it was a freezing December day and when we got off the train we immediately bought santa hats from a nearby shop for one pound to stay warm. When we got to the boulders the only other climber was the guidebook author Dave MacLeod, he had a good laugh at us in our santa hats. We were really impressed by the boulders there, they were way bigger than they looked in the topo, we were too scared to top anything out, but we had fun messing around on moves low to the ground, we vowed to return in better weather. Soon after I made the tough decision to shell out on a bouldering mat, back then bouldering pads were pretty new and there wasn’t that much choice, but I bought the biggest one I could find which set me back £130. I still have it today, but it looks puny compared to new mats nowadays.



On Gorrila V4 at Dumbarton March 03

 


On White Streak V3 at Dumbarton March 03

Once I had my boulder mat, I used it a lot. I went to Wolfcrag several times a week, and ventured back to Dumbarton in the spring. We slowly worked through the grades at Dumbarton, I did a problem called White Streak for my first 6a (V3) then a few months later managed Gorrila 6b (V4), which was my first ‘hard’ boulder problem, I had been working it for a while, I still think its still one of my favorite boulder problems. At Wolfcrag, I was climbing lots of problems up about V3, but there was no guide so it was all just word of mouth. In the spring of 2003 I sampled some of the best quarry climbing the central belt had to offer going to places like Auchinstarry, Limekilns, Rosyth, and Cambusbarron where I would lead up to VS (5.8 trad). I was still scared to push myself harder on trad, and rightly so given my gear placements. Over the summer I was back up in Aberdeen working and climbing. I got out a good amount with Anthony and Craig, I led my first HVS (5.9 trad) at the Pass of Ballater a great corner route called Little Cenotaph. Then achieved a milestone for me when I climbed my first E1 (5.10a trad), Black Custard. I remember thinking my gear was good for a change, but when I got the crux of the route I hesitated, I could hear Anthony taunting me from below, thinking I was going to bail, but I committed. I think it was the first time I was willing to take a fall on lead, but luckily I didn’t. I it must have been pretty hard since Craig had to hang on the rope seconding it. That was a big step forward for me in terms of my trad climbing, but I wouldn’t push myself harder on trad for another couple of years. Later that summer Anthony and I decided to take a road trip around the West of Scotland to check out some of the new bouldering areas that were just being developed at the time. It was a great trip, we would sleep under boulders and climb in the sunshine all day long, we checked out the boulders at Glen Croe, The Brack, and Glen Nevis. We made a return trip to The Brack, where we camped out for a few days putting up some first ascents, we had the place to ourselves, with a whole hillside of untouched boulders. We climbed up to 6b (V4) and established a bunch of problems up to 6a+ (V3). There hasn’t been much more development there since, I need to go back there some time now that I’m stronger and can try some of the steeper lines we saw. Back at Uni I climbed more trad, and finished up some more routes up to E1. That winter I heard about some new bouldering at Portlethen not far from where I lived. I checked it out, and although it was pretty cold I knew I could spend a lot of time trying some harder problems here.

On my FA 'No Bellylop Required' V0 at The Brack, September 03

Working Vietnam, an awsome but hard V4 at The Brack

Early in 04 I heard about Bennybeg a new sport climbing venue only about half an hour from Stirling. At the time it was controversial to bolt a crag like that since it was all easy routes, and there was very little precedence for easy sport climbing in Scotland. I loved it even though it’s a crappy little crag, I managed to flash all the hardest routes there, which were only up to 6a (5.10a), but at the time it was a big deal for me, this was more than 3 years after I first started climbing. It made me want to search out the few moderate sport climbs available in Scotland so a few months later I checkout Ley Quarry, where I managed to onsight some (but not all) routes up to 6b (10c). I also spent a lot of time working a harder route, which I returned to a few weeks later and finished off. It was __ a 6c (11a), for me this was huge accomplishment, 6c was a big number for me at the time, this was around the time I set up my 8a.nu scorecard.

Discovering the bouldering at Portlethen December 04

At the end of the school year, I was climbing indoors at Glasgow and I was trying a crimpy problem when I heard a loud pop in my finger and immediately had a burst of pain in my finger, I had popped a tendon. I tried denying what had happened at first, but I was seriously debilitated. In one way though it was a good time to get injured, because I was about to leave with my sister to visit my grandma in California for six weeks where I knew I wouldn’t be able to climb much. I think I went a whole two weeks, the longest period in the last 10 years, without climbing at all. Eventually I ventured in to a local gym, with a severely taped up finger, and played around on a little bouldering area near where my grandma lived. When I returned to Scotland my finger had more or less healed, so I got to work on the boulders at Portlethen. I worked my way up through the easier problems, eventually sending The Prow, a powerful short font 6c (V5) my first of the grade. Anthony and I were climbing at a similar level, so there was a lot of competition to see who could do it first.

Having fun at the Bowderstone in the Lake District November 04

Doing laps on Malky the Alky a fun E1 at Cambusbarron, November 04



Making the most of some winter sun while belaying on some easy trad at Rosyth January 05



Messing around on some beach boulders in the South of Spain while on a Science Field Trip February 05

Back at Uni, I started climbing with some guys who pushed my to try harder, namely George and Paddy. They were hot on my heels working the same hard boulder problems at Wolfcrag and Dumbarton. In early 2005 we decided to try some harder routes on trad. At limekilns I went for the onsight of an E3 called Grasp the Nettle, in reality the route was no harder than 6a (10a) but run-out and on bad gear, physically this route was well within my limits, but I had to push my limits mentally. I managed the onsight, which made me wonder what else I could do on trad if I tried harder. George climbed it straight after me, it was only his second ever lead climb! George and I got out to the local crags and worked some harder trad routes, we would practice them on toprope figure out all the gear, then lead it placing all gear on lead. Some memorable routes we did were Gobi Roof E2/3, (10c trad), Looney Tunes E4 (6c trad/solo), Chisel E4 (6c+ trad), often these routes were quite dicey, but we had practiced them so much our margin of failure was small. These routes culminated in my boldest route to date Nijinski an E5 (6c+ solo) at Auchinstarry, this route was different from the others in that I opted to solo it, the gear was worthless, and it was outside of my comfort zone. I managed it, but it was very scary, a fall from the crux, would have meant broken legs or worse. I got away with it, but I’m glad I didn’t continue to do hard routes like these. Ironically these trad routes and solos were physically harder than anything I had done on bolts at the time. Over that summer I climbed more at Portlethen and did Lurcher a 6c+ (11c) sport route there, which was my hardest sport route to date. Then in September 05 I got out to Ley Quarry with Kris a new member of the Mountaineering club, he was a strong sport climber and showed me a hard route there called Nirvana it was really hard for me, but I managed it by the skin of my teeth. It was my new hardest route.

Yet to place any gear, onsighting an E3 at Limeilns, April 05

On Hard Cheddar an awesome V2 at Dumbarton on my 21st Birthday 05

In 2005 had another big change I started dating an American girl called Laura who was studying at Stirling for 9 months. I got her into climbing and she got good pretty fast, achieving what took me a few years in less than one. That last year at college I visited more areas around the UK, including Reiff, Northumberland, the Lake District, and The Peak District. Mostly just bouldering, and doing some easy trad, towards the end of the year I did another E5 (7a trad) Purr-Blind Doomster which was a great climb, bold but safe. I also ticked a couple more 7a+ sport routes at North Berwick. A dozen or so of us from the mountaineering club took a trip to El Chorro, Spain to sport climb, it was an awesome trip, it was almost overwhelming being surrounded by so much climbing. I only managed routes up to 6c (11a), the heat and unfamiliar rock type made it hard, but I had a blast. I graduated in June of 06 with a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science, but didn’t go to my graduation because I had already left to start a new chapter in my life in the United States.



Climbing in El Choro, Spain April 06

 

Enjoying the awesome trad at Reiff April 06

On a 7a+ at North Berwick, April 06 

10 Year In It - The Early Days 2001-2002

This week (give or take a few days) marks 10 years since I first started climbing. Since then barely a week has passed where I haven’t climbed. Getting into climbing has been the best decision I’ve ever made, it has taken me to some amazing places all over the world, and I have made a lot of great friends through climbing. I’ve decided to recount the past 10 years of my climbing here with some old stories and photos to accompany them. Sure it’s a little self centered, but it feels great to look back on it all.

I started climbing back in my hometown of Aberdeen, Scotland in early 2001, I had already been into outdoor activities, and I’d done a good amount of hillwalking, in fact my dad and I had just gotten back from climbing Mt Kilimanjaro. My good friend Anthony asked if I wanted to check out the climbing wall at the local leisure center, he had checked it out for the first time a few days earlier. I was 16 and didn’t have much to do, so it sounded like fun. The wall there is typical of the early 90’s style climbing walls, it’s completely molded (no bolt on holds) with real pieces of rock glued in to the wall. My first time out there I was in my sneakers and somehow managed to climb to the top of the 20ft wall, Anthony was impressed since he hadn’t managed that yet, but when I got up there I was so gripped that I couldn’t come back down, I spent about 10 minutes hanging on before my arms eventually gave up and I jumped/fell back down. Despite this I was hooked, and went straight to the climbing shop in town (where I was to work a year later) and bought my first pair of climbing shoes for £25. They were the cheapest I could find, pretty old school with a high ankle, but at that point any climbing shoe would have made a huge difference. Anthony and I went down to the wall every chance we had, it cost £3.25 to get in, but we became pretty good at sneaking our way in. A month after I started out climbing for my 17th birthday my dad bought me a harness, I had no idea what to do with it though. So for a while I would just wear it while bouldering at the wall.

Then at the beginning of the summer my dad thought it would be a good idea if we got some formal instruction. We hired an instructor for a few days, to show my dad and I how to belay and climb on rocks. We climbed a bit on the sea cliffs and at the Pass of Ballater where we mostly just toproped easy routes. After that intro I had a much better idea of what climbing outside was really like. We bought a rope and a few pieces of gear that we used to set up topropes. Me and Ant would get out and explore the local cliffs with another friend Craig who had just started climbing as well. Looking back on it now some of the stuff we did was really sketchy, we would swing about on a toprope that was set up with only a single nut. But we had a great time exploring new areas and being outside on rock. One of our first times out, we were climbing on some seacliffs just outside of the city and a pod of dolphins swam right into our little inlet and watched us climb, it was a perfect moment. Over that summer I added a few nuts and slings to my rack and started leading some really easy routes, my gear placements were pretty bad though, and we were climbing slabby routes where a fall would be messy. I’m lucky I didn’t have an accident back then, as it probably would have scared me off climbing, and I wouldn’t be where I am today. I didn’t really push myself, so I progressed pretty slowly, a year after I started climbing my hardest leads were V.Diffs and Severes (5.6 and 5.7 trad).

I would read everything about climbing I could get my hands on, mostly climbing magazines and websites. I found out that there were climbing competitions down in Edinburgh, three hours drive away, so over the winter Anthony and I would make the drive down. It was a reality check, I realized how much of a beginner I really was. At one of my first comps, a professional climber, Ben Moon, was there to hand out prizes and sign posters. I remember being in awe seeing how effortlessly he climbed, it made a big impact on me. To this day I still have his signed poster hanging on my bedroom wall. I really wanted to try bouldering outside, I saw photos in magazines that made it look really fun. But back then bouldering wasn’t nearly as popular as it is now (especially in Scotland). There were no established bouldering areas nearby, and barely any sport climbing so I just had to make do with what I had. In the summer of 02 I found out about a new bouldering spot that was being developed just 10 miles from my home, so I checked it out with Anthony. It was a cool place, the boulders weren’t too big and there were nice grassy landings, which was good since we didn’t have any mats. We managed a few problems up to 5b (V1), and a 5c (V2) that was probably soft. We even put up a FA of our own, its in the guidebook as 4b (V0-), but its still pretty tricky. The summer of 2002 we spent lots of time there as well as doing more easy trad, we also checked out a place called Cambus O’May which had the only sport climbs in the area, but most of the routes were too hard for us to try. That summer I worked in a climbing shop, which was great since I could get a good deal on more climbing gear, but ironically it also took away from my climbing time. I was to be exposed to a whole lot more climbing soon though, at the end of summer I moved down to Stirling about 3 hours from home to go to University. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos on my computer of my earliest climbing adventures, but maybe I can get my dad to scan in some old photos of me soon. Here are a couple from a bit later that’ll give you a taste of the next installment coming tomorrow, The College Years 2002-2006.

My first project 'The Crack' a V1 at Wolfcrag, November 2002



Working an awesome V2 at Wolfcrag, February 2003



2011

Well it’s another new year, and that means I need to post my goals for the year. Looking back 2010 was another great year from a climbing perspective, I got out to new places, climbed hard and had a lot of fun. I climbed 191 new routes, which was less than what I’d done the previous two years but its still a good amount considering it rained for half the year. My 8a.nu route score went down a little, but I still had a pretty solid base of 12a onsights, and I managed to redpoint a 5.13a for my third year running which I’m really proud of. I got out bouldering a few times, and even though I wasn’t taking it as seriously as in previous years I still managed two (albeit soft) V8’s in Leavenworth. I did a handful of trad routes, but didn’t really get into it until towards the end of the year, my flash of Wartley’s Revenge at Smith has really got me psyched for getting on harder trad this year.


2011 is going to be a big year for me, I predict a lot of changes in my life. I graduate in June, and I’ll be looking for a teaching job. Where I end up will have a major impact on how much I climb and what kind of climbing I do. I would love to land a job in the Olympia area, but with the way the job market is now, that looks very unlikely. I will most likely have to move to get a full time teaching job, I’m just not sure yet how far I’m willing to move. One thing I know though, is that wherever I go there must be good climbing close by.

I know where I’m going to be the first half of this year though, and while I’m here I want to make the most of it. I hope to get out on some early season trips out to Vantage and Smith Rock focusing on trad. I’m planning a week-long smith trip for spring break, where I want to get on some harder trad routes, like Sunshine Dihedral, any other trad recommendations? Then once the weather gets better I can see myself spending a lot of time up in Squamish, goals are to get more efficient climbing longer trad routes, like Angel’s Crest, Squamish Buttress and The Grand Wall. And try to improve my trad onsight and redpoint levels. Over the summer I’m also keen to get on some big mountain routes in the Cascades, something I haven’t really done yet. I’m also really excited about going back to Tensleep WY, the climbing there is so much fun. I think the style suits me, and if I am in good shape going into the trip and spend a good amount of time on a project I think I’ve got a good chance of climbing my first 8a (5.13b) there. I think the theme for this year is to push myself mentally and physically to break boundaries. Here are a handful of my goals for this year, I think they are pretty ambitious.

1. redpoint 5.12c trad
2. onsight 5.11d trad
3. climb 5.11 trad multipitch
4. onsight 5.10 trad mountain route
5. redpoint 13b (8a) sport
6. climb 300 new routes clean
7. climb 30 pitches in a day
8. have fun bouldering with friends

What do you all think of my goals for this year?

Injury Frustration

Since getting back from the Dominican, I've had a lot of free time, and I've been trying to focus my energy on climbing. I've been in the gym every single day since getting back, and would love to climb more and and for longer, but I've got a really annoying finger injury. The pulley in my right hand middle finger is inflamed. I think I picked it up in Smith, but it didn't seem too bad at the time, pocket pulling in the Dominican didn't help, and now that I'm climbing in the gym all the time its gotten a lot worse. I've applied an anti-inflamatory gel to it, and have been icing it and taping it when climbing. I know what I really need to do is rest it, but not climbing right now doesn't seem like an option. I'm in a time crunch because I'm headed on a trip down to Bishop with friends on the 26th-3rd, and really want to be able to climb hard without the pain then, but its asking a lot to recover from this in such a short period of time. Thoughts?

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.

Countdown to Bishop

There's only 3 hours of class standing between me and the road down to Bishop. Micah is picking me up from Evergreen at 4pm today. Right now I'm trying to think of all the things I might have forgotten, but I think it might be to late for that. I'm really psyched for this trip, but part of me is going to miss my classes, sad I know.

I haven't been preparing at all for this trip. The last month I've spent far too much time sitting on my ass studying and drinking beer (not at the same time usually). I've only been going to the gym once a week, and havn't climbed outdoors since Smith. I feel really out of shape, and have probably put on 10 pounds since my peak in late summer. So basicly what I'm saying is I'm praying for a miracle to be able to climb anything hard in Bishop.

Nevertheless I'm going to try hard, and maybe with a bit of luck I'll get up a few things. Two years ago when I was there I climbed a V7 and flashed two V6's, I'd love to repeat that performance. I really want to climb 5 problems V6 or harder since my top ten bouldering score on 8a.nu is pretty weak. I have 5 hard problems on it that I did in Spring of this year at Leavenworth and Castle Rock. But since then I haven't really bouldered at all.

Here's my ticklist:

V6

Cave Route

Shelter from the Storm

Pope's Prow

Saigon

The Hulk

Seven Spanish Angels

Fly Boy

V7

High Plains Drifter

Rave

V8

Disco Diva

Gleaming the Cube

Fly Boy Sit Start

I have some reason for optimism, George who's been down there for a few weeks now, texted me saying he's done Cave Route, a V6 on my tick list, and says its piss and I should flash it. That sounds good, but then again George is climbing strong right now. Micah has a pretty ambitious tick list, he's been training a lot more than me, so hopefully that'll translate to some hards boulder problems down there for him. I also want to check out some other places like the Druid Stones, so maybe I'll find some stuff worth projecting there. And I'm also quite keen to get on some routes at Owen's River Gorge, hopefully I'll get up some 5.12's. I might have the chance to update the blog while I'm there. If not expect long blog here in about a week and a half.

Project Frustration

Q. Why haven't I written a new blog in a while now?

A. Becasue I havn't climbed anything new, I keep falling off the same climb over and over and over and over.

If you got shut down by a love interest time after time would you still go back for more? Probably not, neither would I, at least I hope I wouldn't. Then why do I keep getting back on my project at Little Si over and over again even though it keeps shutting me down?

Ever since I sent Californicator about 5 weeks ago (although it feels like 5 months) I have been trying (either literaly or in my mind) its extension Californication. On paper it doesn't sound too hard, 12d climbing that I have dialed to a great shake out at the chains then you head into the extension of Technorigine which is 12c climbing that I've got pretty wired, in fact I've warmed up on Techno couple of times this week. Add to that the fact that that when I sent Californicator I continued and got through the Techno crux and fell off just before the chains of Californication, I should get it done pretty quickly right? Wrong! I've repeated Californicator more times than I'd like to count, well I might not like to count it but I do - 5 times. And I've fallen off trying Californication over a dozen times. I was hoping to write a blog post today celebrating my successful ascent, but now I just have to wallow in my self-pity. Yesterday I got on it for the 3rd day in a week, I got to the Californication chains rested up then went for the crux move, which shouldn't be that hard, missed the hold but managed to catch my fall on the jug, I went for the hold again hit it and came off! I had a mini-tantrum hanging from the rope to let off some frustration (sorry guys). It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't do the exact same thing on Sunday and then again on Wednsday of last week. What makes it worse is that I feel like I have a lot of pressure to climb it soon, school starts up in a week and I don't think I'm going to be able to make it out there as much. When I send it (not if but when) it'll be one of the most gratifying climbs I've done, its easily now the most effort I've put into a project.

I just got a text from Micah asking if I wanted to get back out there tomorrow, I want to but I don't know if I can take the rejection again, I feel like the victim of an abusive relationship. What do I do?

Me on the cruxy cross through move to the typewriter hold at the seventh clip of Californicator, a move I am now far too familiar with.

Back on Top

Yesterday I had a great day out at Ozone. It was hard to find partners to to go with, so it ended up just me, Jimmy and Eric, from the climbing team. It was Eric's first time doing routes outdoors, I kind of felt bad for him knowing that most of the day was going to be me and Jimmy projecting 5.12s. But he had a great time, he got on quite a few routes including his first lead, a 13 clip long 5.8 called No Nuts, and got a taste of some cracks on toprope.

My main objective of the day was to go for the onsight of Grace the 12b there. On my last trip there I had gone around the corner when Jimmy was working the 12d which shares some of the same moves so I wouldn't see any of the beta. I'm glad I did because I managed the onsight! It was a battle, the first part took a lot out of me then I figured out an opposing heelhook sequence to get through the main crux, and from there I was able to keep the pump at bay before I clipped the chains. It was a really good route, maybe the best I've done at Ozone so far.

I also tried the 12d, which isn't too bad, but has a very powerful crux that I couldn't do. And I went for the onsight of Angle of the Dangle, the 12c roof crack. I got up to the the crack and was feeling good, but at that point there is a fixed micro cam that you have to clip that protects the crux. I was very weary about falling on the cam since it looked pretty frayed and unsafe, I ended up just pulling on the gear to get past this part, and I got to the chains. Its a shame there isn't a bolt on the roof instead of the fixed cam, cause I felt I could have committed and really gone for the onsight. Jimmy decided to go for the flash since he saw me manage all the moves. He got up to the roof clipped the fixed cam, but couldn't commit either, he decided to just lower off the cam and clean the draws below. Just as he cleaned the last draw and was about ten feet off the deck the cam snapped! He landed on top of Eric who was belaying him, luckily they were both fine, but I'm glad I didn't commit to the crux and fall on that cam. I inspected the piece that broke and it was actually the wire stem that severed, I guess it was rubbing against the edge of the crack, it didn't look in good shape when I saw it up close on the route. The head of the cam is still stuck up in the crack, which blocks any other gear from going in there, I hope someone just sticks a bolt up in the roof, fixed gear on routes is whack.

Me on Angle of the Dangle

What was left of the cam after Jimmy decked on it

After that our motivation was pretty low, but I led a fun 5.9 trad finger crack, and Jimmy flashed Grace the 12b, and gave the 12d another burn. The 12b flash for Jimmy will help his score on 8a a bit, but my onsight of that route, and with the 12a onsight I got at Little Si on Sunday and the 12a I onsighted at Squamish last week has put me back at the #1 spot in Olympia in the route rankings on 8a.nu. We both still have some room for improvement, so we'll see what happens between now and the end of the year, no doubt it will be close!

Slipping on a Banana Peel

I started writing about my accident on the route Banana Peel (8 pitch 5.7) at Squamish on my last blog, but it took up most of the post, so I thought I write about it separately, so it doesn't overshadow the rest of a great trip. I was climbing the route with Sarah, and we were making good progress, Sarah was doing great considering her lack of experience on multi-pitch routes. We were about half way up the route and I was linking the 5th and 6th pitches together. I figured I could just about manage to link them with with a 60m rope, but I didn't quite make it. At the top of the 6th pitch after some 5.7 climbing I placed a bomber hex under a flake then ran it out up a blank slab. I was almost within reaching distance of the big tree on a ledge to belay from but I ran out of rope so I put a sling around a tree root and decided to belay from there until I could climb up a few feet higher to the more secure tree. Sarah took me off belay and started climbing up. When I had a few feet slack I pulled up on the tree root (which was about the same thickness as a steering wheel, so pretty chunky) that I was slinged into to get up to the tree. One second I was pulling on this seemingly solid root, the next I was flying backwards down the slab, the root had broken off in my hand! I wasn't clipped into anything now, and I wasn't on belay but I was still tied in. I didn't have much time to react, my instinct was just to reach my hands out and try to catch on to something, and luckily the angle of the slab wasn't too steep and I was able to create enough friction to stop myself on the slab, I fell about 20 feet total. If I hadn't been able to stop myself, I would have kept on falling past my last piece of gear, another 10ft below when the rope would go tight on Sarah, for a total fall of something like 60ft. I probably would have been fine, but it would have been very scary. As it happened when I came to a stop my right arm was scraped up and I had a nasty flapper on the tip of my thumb that was bleeding a lot, but other than that I was fine. I regained my composure, assessed my injuries and figured the best plan was to try to get back up to the tree ledge and continue up the route, there were just two 5.4 pitches left. I belayed Sarah up from the big tree, and when she got up to the ledge, she could see all the blood on my hand and my spooked expression. I didn't explain to her exactly what happened then, I figured it would be better to explain when we got off the route. I think she could tell that I just wanted to get up and off the climb at that point. The next two pitches were fine, I was able to climb them without really having to use my thumb. When we got to the top, Nick and Erica were up there, having just finished their adjacent route Diedre, so I filled them and Sarah in on what happened.

My thumb, the next day after I cleaned it up.

I learned a few things from this accident. 1) Don't be so complacent on easy routes, most accidents happen not from the difficulty of the climbing but from other factors. 2) Place lots of runners even on easy terrain. Luckily I was climbing with Sarah and I placed lots of runners to protect the second. When I did the same route the day before with Nick I placed a lot less gear, including the bomber hex I would have fallen on. If I had fallen all the way with the gear I had in the day previous it could have been a 100ft fall. 3) Don't trust tree roots so much, especially after a record breaking dry summer. 4) Don't try to link pitches to save time, when your not sure if your rope will make it.

I also think I made a few good decisions on this accident that are worth mentioning as well. When I fell I instinctively tried to reach out and grab anything to stop the fall, that was a good reaction that saved me taking a much bigger fall. After the fall I was able to maintain my composure and think through what to do next rationally, I think a common reaction after taking that fall would be to panic which wouldn't have helped in this situation. And my decision to continue up the route was the right choice, rappelling off from this high on a route with two other groups below and with another climber inexperienced in rappelling is just asking for another accident to happen.


In retrospect I'm almost glad I had this accident, I have climbed for a long time without any serious mishaps, it reminds me that I'm not invincible. I feel liked I learned a lot more from falling on this route, than I would have had I climbed it without incident. Here is an quote I heard recently that seems appropriate: 'Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment' - Fred Brooks.

The end of an era

Today July 16th 2009 marks the end of an era for climbing in Olympia as we know it. Today is the day I loose my status as the #1 route climber in Olympia. Micah, Nick and Jimmy have been biting at my heels since I moved out here and took the Olympia climbing scene by storm in 2006, and I've managed to keep them at bay over the last few years. But as of midnight tonight Jimmy will officially be the #1 route climber in Olympia according to his score on 8a.nu. On this day last year I did one of my proudest onsights Bibendum a 7b+ (12c) at Ceuse France. Now it will expire from my scorecard to be replaced by a 7a onsight, dropping my score down to 8,767 points. Jimmy has had a great year so far with 2 7c redpoints 3 7b+ redpoints and 5 7a+ onsights giving him a very strong score of 8,825. He deserves it, he has been on fire this year and has proven himself as a strong route climber as well as a boulderer. That's not to say I'm not going to give up without a fight though. The year is not over til the fireworks go off on Dec 31st, so I have time to come back and retake my title, and I'm going to try my hardest to do so.

Whats even more impressive is that in 4 days time on 7/20/09 Worm World Cave a V9 Micah did in Squamish last year will drop off his scorecard and Jimmy will take the #1 boulderer in Olympia title away from Micah. This will be the first time in about 2 and half years (when I first lost the bouldering title to Jimmy) that the same person will hold both the #1 route climber and #1 boulderer in Olympia title at the same time. Only time will tell if he will still hold both titles at the end of the year. I for one am going to do all I can to take back my #1 in routes title.

Psyched for Smith

This Friday we’re heading down to Smith Rock in Oregon for our first overnight climbing trip of the year. Its been a while since we were last there. In 07 when we discovered it we probably went 4 or 5 times, but last year we didn't make it out there at all. I really like Smith, but its old school bolting can give it a fairly intimidating feel and there is not a lot of moderates to warm up on. I haven't really done anything hard at Smith, I've onsighted or flashed a bunch of 12a's there and flashed a 12b, but it seems like anything harder than that seems really intimidating. I would like to send some 12+'s, but this is probably asking a bit too much for a weekend trip. We’ll meet Nick and Scott down there and Jimmy, Jared and maybe Jeremy are coming down as well (anyone else from Olympia want to come?). Unfortunately Micah can’t make it cause he has to move that weekend. I really want to get on some new routes so I've been doing a bit of research on areas at Smith that I haven't really explored yet. Here's a few areas I'm keen on checking out:

Picnic Lunch Wall - This was the last area I climbed at at Smith, I only did one route, Five Easy Pieces, which was really good, and had really interesting rock. I remember the routes to the right looked really fun. This online guide shows there being a few good looking 10's and 11's there to the right of it on big heucos, so I definitely want to go back here.

The Red Wall area is up the hill and to the right of Picnic Lunch Wall, away from the main areas, I found this updated topo online. It looks pretty good, it has a bunch of good 5.10's, and I might even bring my trad gear to do Super Slab, which is supposed to be an amazing 5.6 multipitch trad route. It also conveniently tops out at another crag I want to check out Easy's Playhouse.

Easy's Playhouse (pg 178 in the guide) is somewhat of an obscure crag at Smith but it sounds really good, the guidebook describes it as 'overhanging, closely spaced bolts and athletic moves'. It has an 11d, 12a, 12c and 12d. My friend Daniel has done the 12a here, which he described as a 'bolted pull up contest' which sounds pretty good to me.

Another area I'd like to check out is the upper area of Shipwreck Wall, there have been some (semi) new routes put up there, including Tsunami a 15 bolt 12c jug haul that goes through 3 different roof systems. Sounds like an amazing route, and the type of route I did well at in Europe over the summer, there is also some 10, 11's and easier 12's to try there as well.

As well as these new areas, I'm sure we'll end up at the dihedrals like we always do. If I'm feeling brave I might try Full Heinous Cling, I've flashed it to its first chains which is 12a, but its a long way to the second chains and its run out. While I'm here I might try Chain Reaction again, its THE classic route at Smith, I've tried it before but it felt really awkward then, so we'll see.

I'd also like to go back to Cocaine Gully to do the classic route 'Vomit Launch'. At 11b this is one of the few moderate classics I've yet to try. Right next to it is Chicken McNuggets a 10b that everyone says is really good, so I've got to get on it. And to the left of Vomit Launch is a 12a called Freebase, which I've never really looked at but the guide makes it sound pretty good, so maybe if I have time.

And if anyone else has any recommendations for routes I should try, especially 10's and 11's I'm open to suggestions. The ticklist above is pretty ambitious, but I'll just try to do as much as possible. Even if I don't get around to trying many of these routes I know I will have a great time just being there and hanging out with friends. I'm sure I'll get on a lot more different routes than these, it seems like each time I go to Smith I end up on coming back with more projects than I left with. Below are some photos of past smith trips to whet the appetite.

8a.nu Trends

As some of you probably already know, I'm pretty much addicted to the climbing website http://www.8a.nu/. It combines two of my favourite things; climbing and numbers. I like how it attempts quantify climbing by attaching a score to the routes you've climbed. It does a fairly good job I think, there are some things I would change like making trad climbs count more, not weighing onsighting quite so highly in routes, and eliminating onsighting all together from boulders. But despite this I think its a cool way of charting progress over time, and also making comparisons with friends. 8a.nu gets a lot of criticism for trying to rank climbers on a national and global scale, which is never going to be accurate since not all climbers are registered on 8a.nu, although it is getting more and more popular by the day. One of my goals for 2008 was to finish the year in ranked in the top 50 combined, but that didn't happen partially because I didn't improve my bouldering as much as I wanted, a lot of good new climbers joined, and already registered climbers like me improved their level. I think I finished the year in 86th, 1 spot ahead of Micah! As fun as this is to compare with other climbers I know its not really accurate. What I really like about the site (apart from their awesome database of crags and climbs) is being able to see the routes I've logged in the past. Now that I've had my scorecard for a few years its really cool to see my progress over time. Recently I retroactively added some routes and boulders to my scorecard (that I kept record of separately) from 2002 and 2003, before I started my scorecard so that I'd have a more representative trend over time graph.

Below are my trends for routes and bouldering.

ROUTES

I like how it shows a gradual constant improvement each year. This level of improvement is not really sustainable though. For example if I were to improve at the same rate I did from 2007 to 2008 withing three years I would be ranked above Adam Ondra #1 in the world. What I hope is that that I'm still be able to improve a little bit more in the next few years and maybe level out above the 10,000 level and stay around that level for a long long time. The reason I have the same points today as I did in 2008 is that I haven't logged any climbs in 2009 yet that would rank in my top 10, and none of my 2008 top-10 climbs have expired yet.

BOULDERS

The bouldering trend tells a much more interesting story I think. I shows a lot more variation from year to year, that I think reflect changes in my personal circumstances. For example my score goes way up in 2003, this was the year I started Uni at Stirling and had a lot more access to bouldering spots, Wolfcrag was walking distance and Dumbarton not too far away. Then in 2006 my score actually dips a bit. This was the year I moved to the US and climbed a lot more sport routes. I didn't have any local bouldering areas anymore and only got out bouldering 5 days at Squamish after I arrived at the US that year according to my scorecard. Then the following year we discovered Leavenworth bouldering, I spent a lot more time up at Squamish over the summer and made a trip down to Bishop and my score goes way up.

I think I've still got a lot of room for improvement when it comes to bouldering, but right now I would say I'm more excited for route climbing. I think if I keep trying to improve in bouldering in a few years I could definitely break the 8000 point barrier and maybe even 9000 points, but it really depends on personal circumstances where I live, how much time I have for climbing etc. Having a scorecard definitely feeds my excitement for climbing and improvement, but sometimes I do have to question whether I'm climbing for the fun of climbing, or just climbing for points?

End of Year Wrap Up

(warning there will be lots of nerdy climbing grade talk)

2008 has been an awesome year for my climbing. I travelled to some of the best spots in the world for climbing, met some cool people along the way and climbed hard! In fact this year I feel like i've taken my level of climbing, especially route climbing far higher than any other year (I think I said the same thing last year). Last year I improved on my highest redpoint from 7a+ to 7c which is huge, and although this year I only took it one notch higher to 7c+, I feel my route climbing has impoved so much more. I have consolidated my status as a 7th grade climber with 16 routes this year graded 7b or higher, 9 of them onsight, last year I had only done 11 routes 7b and up and none of them were onsight. Bouldering-wise although I didn't break into any new grades, I think maintained a fairly high level. My bouldering send of the year was probably Immunity Challange a V7 at Squamish which I couldn't do in 07 but did quickly this year. I think if I spent more time bouldering as opposed to route climbing I could have bouldered even harder. My proudest route of year is probably one that doesn't even count on my scorecard as one of my hardest of the year, my 2nd go ascent of Vagabond d'Occident at Ceuse. Vagabond is known as being one of the best and most popular routes in the world, in fact I just checked 8a.nu and it is has more ascents registered than any other in the world! It was a dream to climb, nice big heucos and pockets on a steep wall that seemed to go forever and challenge you the whole way. And the fact that I got it on my second attempt shows how much my level had improved on last year, having only done one 7c in 07 after working it to death.

Right now I feel in good shape for the year to come, I probably couldn't step out my door today and onsight 7b. But thats probably got more to do with the 7b's in the area to try rather than my ability, and thats a whole other topic. But if I could predict anything I would say if 08 was the year of onsighting, then 09 will be the year of redpointing. My main goal for 09 is to climb 8a, and I think I am in a better position than ever before to do so. I even have a route in mind, which is half the battle, the route is Chronic a 5.13b (8a) at Little Si. I've got on it before and struggled a lot, but I feel if I am able to train on it and work out the moves, I can use seige tactics and eventually it might go. What also helps is having other friends to work it with, and create a bit of friendly rivalry. Jimmy, Nick and Micah are all capable of climbing it this year as well. We've all tried it, and get to a similar point, Nick is probably the strongest on it out of all of us, but he won't be back here until the summer, so we'll have a couple of months to catch up to him.

Other goals for 2009 are to do more V7's and 8's at Leavenworth and Squamish. Discover other climbing areas in the US for both bouldering and routes. I want to get back into trad climbing, maybe do 5.11 trad again. And also non-climbing goals are to work more than 3 months of the year this year, and not travel so much, 25 flights in a year is not sustainable. And be a stronger climber and person in general. I'm feeling good about 2009, bring it on!