Two Weeks in Tensleep

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

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



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

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

Laura negotiating the cruxy start of Moltar (12a)

Laura higher up on Moltar

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

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

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

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

Hound Dog Crag was one of my favorite areas

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

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

Chas at the bottom of Cocaine Rodeo

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

Chas on a fun challenging 10a on the Godfather boulder

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



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



She-Bear Photos

Got out to the She-Bear boulder today again to do some more scrubbing and work on projects. I cleaned up a few good moderates. Snapped a few photos, I'll let them do the talking.

The She-Bear boulder from the parking, its about 20ft tall

The She-Bear Slab an awesome tricky V1

A welcome jug high on the slab

Kevin on a crimpy V8 on the main face

Lots of good crimps

The stand start here is an amazing V3

The top out is perfect, but not the way Kevin does it

Working a tricky arete, will probably be V6/7

 

Yes the rock is that good! This is starting hold to an amazing V6 sloper problem.

Kevin on Pooh Bear a fun V8, he sent it next go

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.

Working on my tan at Tieton and Vantage

For the last few weeks I’ve been super busy with school work, but I’ve still managed to make time for climbing on the weekends. Two weeks ago a group of 10 of us made our way down to Tieton, and last weekend we rolled 14 deep at Vantage. It was actually really nice hanging out in a big group, there were plenty of ropes to hop on and lots of wood to feed to the fire.

Joe flashing a really good 10c at Vantage

In Tieton I definitely felt like I was filling in the gaps in my guidebook, doing the climbs I’d overlooked before. At Lava Point I finished up a couple of routes I’d skipped over in the past, so now I have the crag ticked which is a little sad knowing there’s no new routes for me to do on this awesome wall, dream wall nearby just doesn’t compare. I also climbed at The Chunkyard for the first time, a crag so new it there were some guys bolting a route on it out left as we were there. The rock doesn’t look the most appealing but it is actually pretty fun climbing. I’m getting to the point at a lot of crags in Tieton where I’m running out of new routes to try. I repeated a few routes, but I don’t get the same enjoyment from repeating routes as I do from climbing something for the first time, partially because I know its not contributing to my long term goal of climbing 10,000 routes. But its something that I probably have to get over if I’m going to climbing at the same crags in Washington. I actually think there is a lot of potential for new routes at Tieton. There is so much rock there, not all of it is solid, and some of it would be a bit of a hike, but I’ve got a feeling there are a few quality crags still waiting to be discovered there, particularly sport routes. Just walking around the Cave area, which is one of the more popular areas I could see potential for new routes. I would love to get a drill and put up my own routes sometime, for now the cost of it and the time involved seems prohibitive.

Not sure what climb this is, they all seem to blend together

At Vantage there are a lot more routes to get on, so even though I’ve already done a lot there, there is still plenty to get on. On Saturday I teamed up with Joe, we got an early start and before we knew it we had climbed 6 routes and it was only 10am. We figured we’d try to keep up the pace and see how many we could rack up. Fatigue caused by the blazing sun and running out of water slowed us down towards the end of the day, but we still managed 19 routes that day, 16 of which I had never done before, I onsighted or flashed them all including a few trad/mixed routes. My previous record was 13 routes in a day at Post Falls last year. It was one of my best climbing days in a while, Joe and I seemed well matched in terms of our drive to get a lot of mileage in. We were talking about how at the right crag, and with the right preparation 30 routes in a day is probably possible. Laura had a pretty good day flashing another 5.11, to add to her long list, she did a couple in Tieton the week before as well. We topped it off with a big fire, some music and a lot beer. Sunday was understandably a little more subdued, but I still managed to get a good amount of climbing in, including a few 5.11s at the awesome Jigsaw wall. The warm-up Jigsaw Direct may be the best route I’ve done at Vantage, I’d highly recommend it. On the way back we stopped by a brewpub for a well deserved meal, we were all glowing from a great weekend outside in the sun. I tried to absorb as much sun as I could that weekend since I don’t think I’ll make it outside climbing for a few weeks, I’ve got way too much schoolwork to do. But in just a month I’ll be graduating with my Masters degree which is pretty exciting/scary.

About to head home after an awesome weekend at Vantage

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.