Eastside Climbing

In the last week or so I’ve made a couple of trips out over the mountains to the Eastside. Last week with Laura down in San Francisco visiting her sister, Micah and I decided to have a guys trip out to Leavenworth again. Jimmy and George from Olympia, were already out there so we met up with them at Mad Meadows. I flashed a cool V5 ‘The Undercling’ there, its one of the few things that I hadn’t done already. It was getting pretty warm, so we huddled under the Hanta Man roof in the shade, despite all the heat Jimmy managed to link all the moves and sent Hanta Man (V9). Next at the Sword area Micah got the Prism (V9) pretty fast, we all tried it, it didn’t feel too hard, I just need to grow a couple of inches to make the span. On the second day we played around in the beach area, I did the (shallow) water solo Beach Arete (V2) which was fun, but I guess I was a bit disappointed I didn’t fall. So we all jumped off an even bigger boulder nearby into the river, which was a lot of fun! Micah put together a cool video of the trip here, and here’s one from a couple of weeks ago.

Laura checking out the view at Frenchman's Coulee

A typical bolted arete at Frenchman's Coulee

A few days later Laura got back and the 3 of us headed out to Frenchman’s Coulee near Vantage. Laura and I had been here before, but it had been a while, and it was Micah’s first visit. It was cool to be in the sun in the dusty desert just 3 hours after leaving rainy Olympia. Because Vantage is in the rain shadow of the Cascades it gets very little rain, it feels like a totally different country out there with tumbleweed blowing. We pitched our tents, and got out to Sunshine Wall, where we warmed up on Easy Off (10c) a typical Vantage bolted arete, and one of my all time favorites. It had been a long time for Micah since he last onsighted routes, but proved that he still had it with an impressive onsight an 11c at Jigsaw Wall, it was really fun to watch since it gave good battle. We did a couple more routes there before it got too dark to climb. We returned to the campsite to a good fire and some country music on the radio, it felt appropriate. The next morning we made a b-line for the powerhouse another powerful sport crag, we had a bit of a fright on the way over when Laura came very close to stepping on a rattlesnake. At the powerhouse Micah worked on (and almost sent) a cool 12a, King of the Ruins. He gave me streaming beta and I managed to flash it, and we did a few other things there before we pumped out. We ended the day at The Feathers, a really fun easier area with bolted pillars. That night at the campfire we met Dave another westsider who was out here for a few days working on the only boulder problem here, Merciful Fate, a 30ft long V7. He described it as ‘the best boulder problem in the state’ and got us really psyched for trying it with him. The next day he led us to the boulder problem, which was pretty treacherous just to find in the first place. It was really cool endurance problem starting with a sit-start then went up 45 degrees on slopey holds to top out pretty high above a sketchy landing. After getting the beta from Dave, I managed to flash it to the midway rest, which is given V5 in the guide, but I was too pumped/scared to continue above. It was a cool climb but we all agreed that it probably wasn’t the best boulder problem in the state. With that we headed back over the mountains to Olympia, where we were all looking forward to a well-deserved shower

Sun, Scenery and Slopers

Since Laura and I have been back in Seattle we've had a busy schedule looking for a place in Olympia etc. So we were very excited when Micah suggested a 4 day trip to Leavenworth. We headed out in Micah's new Forester, with a triple pad strapped to the roof and 2 more inside plus all our camping gear it was still very spacious and comfortable. It was a welcome change from trying to squeeze all our stuff in our accord. 3 hours after leaving Seattle we were pulling into Icicle canyon, I had forgotten how beautiful this part of the state was, I can't think of a better place to go climbing. First thing we did was to claim ourselves a campsite at eightmile campground, we knew on the Thursday before Labour Day weekend they would go pretty fast. And the last two times we camped in Icicle we ended up having to share with RVers, not because we turned up late, but because they decided since we were just 'tent camping' there would be plenty of room to share.

With that taken care of we headed to the Forestland boulders where we all had some unfinished business to take care of. I got shut down on The Shield (V7), but Micah showed how his training had paid off with quick sends of Backdoor Ass Attack (V7), and The Drill Sergeant (V8), and Laura also showed her improvement with a fine send of Lovage an excellent V3 that had spat her off in the past. We returned that night to an empty campsite (score!), Laura proceeded to cook us up some fine burritos, Micah provided the beer and I started a campfire to be proud of. There's nothing quite like sitting around a good fire, beer in hand talking climbing. Usually around the fifth beer comes the sweeping generalisations, like Micah claiming that Washington State has the best bouldering in the whole US (despite him only having bouldered at one other place in the US - Bishop). We awoke the next morning a bit later than planned, but hey were on holiday. We switched on the radio to hear McCain introduce a woman as his VP running mate, was I still dreaming? I guess not, but with that in mind we headed to the boulders thinking maybe anything was possible, but grades don't lie and having not trained in months I was finding everything pretty hard. Over the next couple of days we checked out some new areas, The Hueco Crimper, and Machine Gun boulders really good, The Labyrinth boulders not do good. Micah continued his good form with a send of The Cattleguard Arete (V8), and Saturday as dusk approached we returned to The Hueco Crimper (V6) so I could work it some more, and Micah could work the low start that goes at V9. Micah's powerful heel-hook beta wasn't working for me so I figured out a toe-jam and bumped through intermediates to get past the big sloper, it was a very impressive send and one of the coolest boulder problems I've witnessed. With that we headed straight to Gustav's in Leavenworth to celebrate with some fine eating and some local ales (they didn't have PBR).

On Sunday our final day we were all feeling a bit sore and our skin was raw, but nevertheless we headed to Mad Meadows where we met up with Jimmy who had made the day trip out here from Olympia. He was obviously climbing very strong and psyched as he made an impressive flash of The Jib (V8), a one-mover above a terrible landing. I managed to find a problem that didn't hurt my fingers, it just hurt my whole hand instead, a hand jamming roof crack called No Pain No Grain (V5). It was actually really fun, a very unique problem, I'm glad I did it. And Micah finished up Crimpsqueek (V7) and WAS (V8) to cap off a great trip for him. He's done 15 problems V8 and harder in the last 6 months which is an amazing feat. I managed one more V5 The Footless Traverse at Swiftwater before we grabbed some cheeseburgers at The Hiedelburger and said goodbye to Leavenworth. It was another great trip, we all had a blast, I'd be surprised if its our last time here before the end of the year.

For photos check out Micahs blog.

Back to the States (well Canada actually)

Just a couple of days after arriving back in the States from our Europe Trip Laura and I were back on the road again, this time up to Canada. Our good friends Micah and Nick were already up in Squamish enjoying the bouldering, so we decided to go up and meet them. It was to be our last time climbing with Nick for a while since he is moving to the east coast to start a nursing program in Washington DC. The night before we headed off I got a call from Nick in Squamish. They had a pretty bad day, they were working on the Squamish classic Sesame Street (V9) when Nick took an awkward fall and smashed his leg against a rock. They spent most of the day at the hospital where he had to get stitches and because Nick is uninsured it cost him $600 out of his own pocket, Ouch! But that didn't deter him, he was back bouldering later that evening.

Nick on Gull Skull

It was great to see them again, the last time we saw them was in March, but it was like we had never left, except for the fact they had gotten a lot stronger. Nick improved from climbing V6 earlier this year to now having climbed his first V9's over the summer, not to mention his great improvement on routes. And Micah has now climbed 2 V10's as well as numerous V8s and 9s! This was the same guy who at the start of summer last year didn't think bouldering was for him. And only just did his first V6 around this time last year at Squamish! It was clear to see how strong they had become when we met them at Worm World Cave (V9), Nick was really close on it, and Micah was showing him the beta having already done it.

It was great to climb with them again even though I couldn't quite keep up with them on the hardest stuff. We managed to flash Atlas a cool V4 that I had never seen before, it was a really good find, considering I thought I had done pretty much everything worth doing at this grade in Squamish. Laura added it to her growing list of frustrating Squamish V4s. I also showed Micah my beta on Corrupted a crimpy V7 I had done last summer, and he quickly sent it on his second go of the day.

Micah going for the repeat of Tatonka V8

A boulder problem I had thought about a lot since I was last here last September, was Immunity Challenge (V7), a great 12 move crimpy endurance problem. So I convinced the guys to make the trek to the other side of the forest to try it. I had worked on it one day last summer but couldn't link it together , I did however write down move by move beta on a post-it note and stuck it in the guide for the next time I'd try it. It paid off when I sent it second go of the day, I was really proud of this climb especially since Micah and Nick thought it was pretty tough. After this we tried The Fuzz another V7 that manages to be a Squamish classic despite it not being in the guide. Micah sent it quickly with ease while Nick and I just watched on in awe.

The following day we awoke to rain which was a big bummer. We hung out at a breakfast joint until it looked like it would be alright. The forest was soaked but the apron boulders dry very quickly so we headed straight for those. There have been major roadworks all along the Vancouver to Whistler road as they expand it all in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and it has finally caught up with Squamish. One of the best V4's here Shots Fired is slated to be blown up to make way for the road expansion and currently it is right on the verge of the road and literally has gravel piled up to the side of it. Micah and I repeated it and Nick did it for the first time, he may have gotten its last ascent. The road works also unearthed a few other boulders nearby so we played around on them a bit as well which was fun. What looked like a write-off day actually turned out to be quite productive, as we managed to get on quite a few things that day, we capped off the day by catching a movie at the Garibaldi cinema: Pineapple Express, I'd highly recommend it.

Nick showing us how its done

Sunday was more of the same in terms of the weather, the boulders were still wet in the forest so we made do with what was dry at the apron boulders. We repeated The Cutting Edge (V4), and Micah finished off some old business with a send of Gull Skull (V6). Micah put together some footage, its all new except for the clip of me on Holm Boy from last summer. Although we didn't manage any huge numbers, it was a great to be climbing with Nick and Micah again. I'm sure I speak on behalf of everyone in Oly when I say you'll be missed Nick!

Céüse

Once we got bored of Ailefroide we took a bus a couple of hours down the road to Gap. From Gap we could see the cliff of Céüse, often called the best sport crag in the world. I could see what all the hype is about, perfect rock with pockets everywhere, its like it was made to be climbed. The big drawback of Céüse is that its a gruelling hour and a half walk in (for us) to get to the base of the cliff. The first time we walked in was the worst, maybe becasue we took the wrong way, but I seriously had my doubts if it would be worth it once we were up. But it definately was.



The climbers campsite, Les Guerins, was pretty intense. It seemed like every strong climber travelling around Europe was there. There were climbers from all over Europe, the US and Canada, even Asians and South Americans. It was easy to tell where some of them were from because they were often in teams with matching tracksuits representing their country (i'm not joking). There were a lot of very serious climbers there. It seemed like the average climber was climbing 8b and had about 2% body fat. Laura and I felt pretty out of shape in a place like this which is pretty ridiculous. There were quite a few sponsored climbers there I recognised, and some guys from a couple of the climbing dvd's I have; Underdeveloped and West Coast Gimps, so that was cool. We even ran into Aline a friend from Edinburgh who we had climbed a lot with last summer in Squamish, so it was fun especially for Laura to climb with her again.

Me fighting through the steep crux of Bibendum 7b+

At first it took us a while to get used to the climbing at Céüse, there were often quite scary runouts towards the top of routes. I did a long 6c+ called Mawoi (to the second chains) that had two bolts in the last 20m to the chains, it was vertical climbing on shallow slopey pockets with no chalk on the rock, I was very tempted to bail but I'm glad I finished it off. It seemed that often the worst run outs were on the easier routes, so Laura had a tough time committing to some, nevertheless she still sent some proud routes including a 6b+ flash, and a 6c redpoint. In the first few days I fell off a 7b and a 7b+ that I thought felt quite hard, which got me a bit worried. But then I got on some steeper stuff and seemed to do a lot better. I onsighted Lapinerrie a classic steep 7b, it didn't feel too hard, the crux was probably waiting around it the queue for the route without ruining the onsight. A couple days later I tried Bibendum an awesome looking 7b+ that I'd been told was onsightable and my style, steep and juggy. It was a real fight going through the steep bulgy roof on good (and occasionally not so good) pockets, before I managed to find a rest in a big pod where I could get a half decent knee bar and sideways arm bar that was just enough to de-pump before the pockety headwall. I was really chuffed to onsight this route, I certainly wasn't expecting to onsight a 7b+ in Ceuse. I met Dave Redpath from scottishclimbs.com up there and he kindly sent the photos of me on Bibendum, my camera had broken somewhere between Ailefroide and Céüse so these are the only photos I have from there.


After I did Bibendum I asked Robbie (from Edinburgh) and Eric (from Sweden), a couple of strong young guys who I was hanging out with, for a good 7c to get on. They had both onsighted the classic Céüse climb Vagabond d' Occident, and were always saying how easy it is. I got on it and was expecting a jug ladder to the top the way they were describing it. But I soon found out 7c in Céüse is not easy no matter how easy people make it sound. I got back on it for my 2nd go attempt a couple of days later and this time I cruised it. It made a big difference knowing what to expect and shaking out on the good holds. I was really glad to climb 7c in Céüse and to do such a classic route there makes it all the better. According to the routes database on 8a.nu Vagabond d' Occident is the 3rd most climbed route in the world!

Me on Bibendum just after the rest

I did Vagabond right at the end of our time in Céüse, if we stayed there a week or two longer I'm sure I could have climbed even harder. But I think if we stayed any longer we would have gone crazy, there is only so long we can take living out of backpacks. We're back in Scotland now, its nice to have a warm shower and a comfy bed to sleep in. We fly back to Seattle in a few days. Its been a great trip but I think we're both ready to get back to real life.

Ailefroide

From Istanbul we took a cheap easyjet flight to Switzerland, and from there a train over to France. Ailefroide is in the Ecrins National Park, the southernmost tip of the french Alps. Its not much of a town, but in the summer it gets really busy with climbers and campers. It was nice to be camping in cooler temperatures again, during the day it could get quite warm in the sun, but nice and cool in the shade, and at night we'd have to wrap up warm. We were there primarily for bouldering but we also got some routes in. The rock there is granite, similar to Squamish granite, but with more featured boulders. I had the Blocheart bouldering guide to the Alps, and I bought the local Ailefriode bouldering guide, neither of which are very good, but together we just about figured out what was what.

Laura in a fields of wild flowers

On our first day there we made the most of our fresh skin and went to the main sectors 'Surprise du Chef' and 'Cahutes'. The first problem we got on was a font 6b on a slightly overhung boulder with positive but very small crimps. I managed it in a couple of go's using big moves between the good crimps. Laura was also trying it as well since it suited her style, powerful small holds. She worked it for half and hour figuring out a different sequence, and eventually got it using a completly different but just as hard sequence, doing 7 moves where I took 3 to get to the top. Previously she had done one V4 (font 6b) in Squamish (and came very close on a few others), so this equalled it, and it wasn't to be her last one here. Later in the day, I managed a 7a+ in the Cahutes sector which i was really pleased with cause it felt quite hard. It was a sit-start on a small boulder to a couple of crimpy sidepulls then a snatch to the slopey top and mantel. I didn't manage anything harder than that in Ailefroide.

Dom on a 6b at the reception boulder

As the time went on we checked out different sectors, I was actually a little surprised how few good boulders there were, considering the popularity of the area. There are 7 or 8 different sectors spread out within walking distance of Ailefroide, but at most of the sectors there was just 1 or 2 worthwhile boulders to climb on. Maybe it was becasue the last place we bouldered at was Fontainebleau which is huge, but this seemed like quite a limited area. As for the grades I found the 7's to be really hard, even compared with font, I tried a lot and failed a lot. The 6's seemed a lot more doable than the grades in fontainebleau though. Laura managed five 6b's in total, which was an amazing effort by her. Maybe one or two of them were soft, but for the most part they seemed about right.

Dom on Rocco's Dino 6b

The routes were a fun diversion from bouldering since they didn't really hurt our skin as much. I was surprised to find everything was bolted, the gratine on the cliffs is quite compact so theres not many cracks for gear, but even where there are cracks theres bolts everywhere. Although the routes are bolted they didn't really have the feel of sport routes, bolted granite was very different from what we were used to so we stuck to mostly easier stuff. One day we hiked up this gully full of loose blocks, which was quite scary to do some routes, but all the easy stuff was already taken. I didn't want to walk all the way down without doing anything so I got on the easiest available route which was a 6c+. It started out alright, but where the route goes out of sight there were 20ft runouts between the bolts and I was breaking off footholds with every other step. In the end I got it clean, I think I was crimping to hard to fall off, but needless to say after that we just stuck to bouldering.

Laura sending Yougo Slab (font 6b)

After almost 2 weeks there we had climbed pretty much everything we wanted to, laura was pleased to have done so many hard bouler problems, and I was just happy to be back bouldering on granite again. But we were ready for more limestone sport climbing, and what better place than Ceuse, probably the best sport crag in the world just a couple of hours down the road.

Dom on a hard 6b in Ailefroide

Turkısh Delight

From Kalymnos it was a surprisingly easy to make our way to Turkey. Just a quick boat rıde to Kos, then another quıck (20 min) boat rıde to Bodrum. From Bodrum we got on a bus for the 8 hour journey to Antalya, the ticket was surprısıngly cheap consıderıng Turkey has the most expensıve petrol prıces ın the world. We went to the main clımbıng area in Turkey which is Geyıkbayiri, just 30 km outsıde of Antalya. We stayed at the very nice clımbers campground JoSiTo. The only problem was that it ıs ın the mıddle of nowhere ın the hılls, and we had no food. Luckıly for us ıt was a Sunday and the local market was on, so we hıtched to that ın the back of a pıckup truck full of trash. It was a big market, but we dıdnt know what most of the stuff was, so somehow we ended up eating potatoes, onions, cucumber, and egg plant (all mıxed together usually) twıce a day while we were there. It got pretty disgusting very quickly. As for the climbing we were a bıt dissapointed with the first place we went (Trebenna). The rock was basicly conglomerate limestone, i.e. choss. It was very different to what we were used to on Kalymnos. But as we explored different areas the quality improved. The area prides ıtself on having great tufa climbing, but ıt couldnt really hold a candle to the stuff in Kalymnos. We mostly clımbed easier stuff, it was nıce just rolling up to a crag having not don any of the routes before. I managed a 7a+ onsight, and laura a 6b+ flash here so ıt wasnt all easy stuff. The nice aspects of the area was that it was cooler that Kalymnos (at least for the first few days) there was a lot more cloud cover and more variety of when different crags were in the shade. Also the crags we literally on our doorstep, the walk ins ranged from 1 minute to 20 minutes at most, which was nice.


Laura joining in with the fun with the Hot Rock crew at the JoSiTo campsite



We shared the campsite with a few other independent climbers and a big group of Hotrockers. They are basıcly a group of mostly British clımbers who travel around the world in a huge truck and climb along the way. They were on there way from Africa, to eventually eastern Asia. If anyone readıng thıs ıs ınterested ın clımbıng ın more exotıc parts of the world, ı would hıghly recomend them to check them out, they seemed lıke a really cool bunch of people. They were a lot of fun to hang out with, and they ıncluded us in a lot of their activities, so we had a blast. They recommended to us the nearby climbing area of Olympos of the coast about 90km south of Antalya. They had been there and really liked ıt and were planning on returning in a few days as well. We were getting pretty sick of the food by this point so it was an easy decision to move on to another area.



Laura warming up on a 6a+ in the Horguc Magara Sector



In Olympos we stayed at kadirs treehouses which is the 'climbers hangout' ın Olympus, but ıt seemed like most of the climbers there also worked there taking backpackers out for a intro session. There were a lot of backpackers from all over, we seemed to meet a lot of Canadians. So it was cool to meet more normal backpacker tourısts. We didnt stay in a tree house instead we got a specıa clımbers deal campıng for 15 lira a night ın a rıverbed, including buffet style all you can eat breakfast and dinner. Maybe it was because we were starved of good food for the past week, but the food at kadirs was delicious, but I soon learned all you can eat doesnt necessarily mean all you should eat! The climbing in Olympos is less extensive, probably only a hundred or two routes to choose from ınstead of 500 or so at Geyıkbayiri, but it still had plenty. The style ıs a bit different, there is less steep stuff, but more crımpy vertical walls which I like. It was a bıt warmer than at the other place, cause ıt was a sea level, but ıf we stayed ın the shade ıt was ok wıth a breeze. Towards the end of the trıp (today) ıt got pretty hot up to 35 (mıd 90s) so we were glad to be movıng on.
Dom enjoying a steeper climb in Olympus

Overall I thınk laura and I enjoyed the clımbıng ın Olympus much better, probably becasue of the atmosphere of the town and the dıfferent style routes. The hıghlıght of my trıp here was onsıghtıng a 7b+, my second hardest onsıght after the 7c ın Kalymnos. It was a 28m vertıcal wall wıth fıngerlocks, laybacks, hıghsteps, very technıcal. I kept on expectıng to come off but ı kept on pullıng hard and got the onsıght. At the chaıns ı had a great vıew over Olympus Bay and the shıps ın the sea, ıt was a moment to remember. Laura also clımbed hard, onsıghtıng a tough 6b whıch equals her hardest onısght on the trıp so far. I thınk both of us are ın really good route clımbıng shape rıght now, our confıdence ıs hıgh and were eager to get on more hard stuff, but maybe were the clımate ıs a bıt cooler.

Dom on a rest day at the Olympus beach

I,m defınately glad we came to Turkey, ıt has been very dıfferent to what I was expectıng, but ı have grown to really enjoy ıt hear. Were takıng a bus up to Istanbul tonıght for a few days sıghtseeıng, then we,re headed back to central europe ın search of some cooler clımbıng, and were lookıng forward to fındıng some chıllıng.

A couple of Kalymnos videos

Im not in Kalymnos anymore, but I still can't stop blogging about it. I've found a good cheap internet connection here in Turkey so here are a couple of videos I took ın Kalymnos that İ wasn't able to upload there.

The first one is of the Deep Water Soloing Whitey and İ found near Dolphin Bay in Kalymnos, its just a small area, not too high, but we found some good hard climbing there. Did I fall or jump? You decide.

This is a video of the very last climb I tried in Kalymnos on my last day. Its a 7c roof climb thats only 6 bolts long or so. I managed it all except for this one crux move, I've never done a route like it before.

Turkey is a lot of fun, i'm glad we chose to come here, we,ve done a lot of routes, but mostly easy stuff, but we've stıll got a few days of clımbing left. I'll blog agaın soon...