Mileage

Last weekend I went climbing at Tieton and Vantage, putting a lot of miles on my car driving solo. I've added 15k to my car since getting it in August. The climbing trips have been worth it, but at current gas prices I'll need to carpool more. On Friday I drove down to Tieton and met up with a couple of Olympia old-timers Doug and Duke. It was a lot of fun climbing with them, and we got a lot of routes done for climbing in a threesome. They showed me Moon Rocks and The Chunkyard, both nice little crags which are definitely worth a return trip. I cruised a fun 10a trad route at The Cave, and sent another 10a crack at Moon Rocks with a lot more effort. I’m loving trad climbing right now, but its nice to mix it up with sport routes as well, which seem so much easier in comparison. Having said that I did fall off of an 11b at The Cave called Casting Stones. I don't normally fall off routes this grade but this one was pretty tricky, I had to do a full-reach deadpoint to a mono at the crux. Felt at least 11d to me, but it was nice being challenged and good for me to clean it up on my second go. Friday night a group of Olympia folks were headed over to Vantage, and the weather was looking a lot more promising there. So I said bye to the guys and drove the hour and a half up the road to meet everyone.

A few moments before falling off of Casting Stones, 11b

A 60m isn't quite enought to toprope Moonstruck (10a trad) so I had to belay from this tree. The jacket is Duke's.

At Vantage on Saturday we climbed at Fat Man Wall and M&M wall which were not nearly as crowded as some other areas. It was me, Sierra, Melody, Laura, Gretchen, then Shannon and a couple of her friends joined us out there, then Micah and Steph met up with us later that night. Despite waking up with a bit of a cold, I got a lot of routes in. Some of my favorites were The Pod, Cold Cut Combo, and Ridin' Sidesaddle. Although a lot of the routes at M&M seemed pretty tough for the grade. I finished up the day with a smooth send of Snake Crack a fun short 10c layback crack. 

Sierra, Me and Gretchen having a good time at M&M wall.

Sunday we weren’t sure what the weather was going to do so we headed over to Zig-Zag Wall in case we had to make a hasty retreat, but the weather turned out to be perfect all day. Zig Zag doesn’t have the most solid rock at Vantage, but despite this there are a few worthwhile routes. I got 10 routes in that day including all the bolted routes at the crag that were in my guide, and one that wasn’t. Nothing hard, but it was nice to get a lot of mileage in. Special mention should go to Micah who managed to get up quite a few routes, despite having to climb in a hefty boot because of his injury. It was a fun first big group trip of the year, I’m looking forward to more to come. This weekend I had to stay home and get school work, but I’m hoping if I pull 12 hour days this week I should be able to get out next weekend. Its only 7 weeks til I graduate, then I’ll have a lot more time to climb. I’m feeling pretty strong right now, which can only mean good things for the rest of the season.

The obligatory group shot

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.

Quick Trip, Quick Send, The Quickening!

What was supposed to be a week-long spring break trip to Smith turned into just a 3 day trip, but despite the occasional hail storm I still managed to get a good amount of climbing in. I got down there Thursday morning and joined Nick, Andrew and Scott. It was pretty chilly so I warmed up on a route with lots of ledges to defrost numb hands, Middle Aged Vandals (11c). It’s a fun route that I’ve overlooked in the past, but its definitely worth jumping on. I then did a couple of nice easy routes with Scott to keep warm. Then within about an hour, we went from shivering in our down jackets to sweating in t-shirts when the sun came out while we were on Morning Glory wall. I wanted to try some harder routes out, so hoped on Churning and Taco Chips, both 13a, but I got shut down hard on them. Nick made really good links on Churning, and it was obvious that it would just come down to whether he would have enough time this trip to link it all.


Warming up on a fun 10b. There's still plenty of these left in the park for me to do.



Scott giving me a solid spot on the start of Taco Chips (Thanks Nick for the photos)

The hard route I really wanted to get on was The Quickening in Agro Gully. I got on it the next day, it is a really fun sport climb with two distinct cruxes. The first is pulling over a roof making dynamic moves off of 2 two-finger pockets. I love two-finger pockets so had no problem with this crux once I figured out the beta. The next crux comes midway up the head wall where you have to bust out left to a very small, but very good crimp, get your right foot up high in a pocket then lock-off and make a huge reach with your right hand to a slopey pocket. I couldn’t make the span, but I was able to reach a tiny triangle pinch just below it to lock of on and reach through to the pocket with. It was an unlikely looking move, but it worked for me. After that the route eases up and finishes on some fun 5.10 climbing on good holds. I had pretty much sussed out the all the beta, so got Nick to go for the flash attempt, unfortunately after a hard day of projecting he got spat off at the first crux, but dogged his way to the chains, and confirmed the quality of the route. I was psyched to give it a good 2nd go attempt, but a snow storm swept in so we made a hasty retreat to the campsite.

The start of the first crux of the Quickening

Setting up for the throw.

Latched it!

Ahh Jugs! (Photo sequence courtesy of Andrew)

Saturday was a beautiful sunny morning and I was psyched to get back on The Quickening, but had to warm up and wait for Andrew to get done stalking Paige Claassen (a hot 5.14 female climber) to get a belay. I felt really confident going for it, which is a nice feeling to have before a hard climb. I sailed through the first crux, got a bit of a shake, then nailed the second crux sticking to my beta. I was climbing great, then the flash pump hit me, my forearms were bulging, I couldn’t close my hands to chalk up, but I knew I couldn’t live with myself if I fell off the 5.10 jugs. I barely managed to clip one of the anchor draws before my hands opened up. Phew, I did it, just! I was stoked to have sent this Smith classic so quick, it gave me renewed confidence in my ability after a spell of not climbing outdoors. In my guide The Quickening gets 12d, but in the new one its 12c. And if I am being honest with myself there is no way I am in the kind of shape to be sending 12d so quick, so I’ll take the 12c grade. For the rest of the day I was content giving Andrew belays on his 12a project which he sent! I drove back up to Olympia that night with a huge grin on my face. You know it’s a great trip when you’re already planning out your next one.

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.

NC3 UW

I'm back from awesome weekend up in Seattle. I went up to compete in the University of Washington climbing competition ‘The Rain City Send’. It was the 3rd round of the NC3 competition series (my 2nd). I was feeling more confident this time, my finger has gotten a better recently, I only have to lightly tape it now. And just a couple of days beforehand I flashed a V6 and got another one really quick at the WRG, it was the first time in a while that I’ve bouldered that hard indoors, so I was feeling confident. I started out the comp strongly flashing a 910 and an 860 point problem. I then spent the next hour working some other hard problems, but to no avail. It got down to 40 minutes left, and I still only had 2 of my top 5 problems done, so I lowered the bar a bit and flashed some easier problems that probably weigh in at V4ish. I ended up with a decent top 5, but I always feel I could have done a little better. When all the scores were tallied I ended up in 8th place in Men’s Advanced. I was surprised not to finish higher, but there was a lot of strong competition. Jimmy ended up taking 2nd overall, Morgan just missed out on open finals in 4th, Kevin took 5th (I think), Sergio a new strong climber who is at Evergreen for a semester from Spain came in right behind him in 6th (I think), and Andrew put in a good performace in Men's Advanced as well. It was a really good comp, well organized with excellent setting. And best of all they had tons of prizes. I walked away with a baseball cap, a jansport backpack and pair of evolve flip flops as well as the comp t-shirt. And today amongst other purchases at REI, I scored a pair of almost new Anasazi Slippers for under $20! I’m looking forward to the next few NC3 comps, I’m hoping to compete in the one in a couple of week down at OSU.

My photos turned out pretty bad, but here’s one of Jimmy, and a video of him on the last problem in open finals, nobody got it.

Jimmy flashing the first problem in Open Finals

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