Since school has started I have yet to venture out but have finally found some time to finish editing the second of three videos that I've been sitting on. The first was a short of gold bar, this one is of some local stuff and the third is of a trip to Lost Rocks/Yosemite. At the end of summer Kevin Quinn and I ventured on down to Yosemite and decided it was too hot and headed to the coast. More on this trip soon when I finish the third video. Right now I'm in the midst of mid-terms after taking the FE exam to become an Engineer in Training! Enjoy ~
Monday, October 29, 2012
Friday, September 7, 2012
Gold Bar
With the weather cooling down I've managed to get out to Gold Bar twice. The approach isn't as bad as many think but the best solution we found was many people and everyone just caries a double. Less weight and still enough foam. On the second trip we checked out some new stuff by The World's Best V7. The climb was super fun and after a few goes a send train rolled into town. Once it left I began messing around with a low start, pinching and squeezing a sloper. Well with david's kneebar idea, Kevin's footmatch, and my far right foot, it all came together and was sent! Worlds Best Low Start at a V8 or so. Gold Bar West has many cool problems that I'm excited to try over the year!
David crushing Hagakuri V8 up in the Sanctuary
Chase on the V5 left of Road to Zion -super cool pinch hold-
Kevin dispatching World's Best V7 and below on the Warm Proj a super fun eliminate
- no pocket/aretes -
Quinn on Doja V7
Me back on Green Goblin, V11
Crimp, Kevin/Quinn working with the camera
Quinn on Sobriosity V6, me working with the flash
- no pocket/aretes -
Portland II
A couple weeks ago I headed back down to Portland to visit and climb. I like visiting the city once at the beginning of summer and once at the end of summer. I plan on doing this for years to come. On the list this time was Rat Cave, Frenchies, and Sweet Home. Rat cave was fun but I only did a 12c, Fully Warmed, and called it good, saving some energy for the rest of the trip. I look forward to coming back and finishing off the right side of Rat Cave. The following day we invited Joe and Naomi along. It was a fun filled atmosphere with me getting my crimp on and sending a new 5.12, BSD, and then jumping on Psoriasis, a pumpy 12d. With some more enduro it should go. The route consists of tiny crimps then some shouldery throws followed by more crimps, yikes!
On Sunday Lisa and I ventured out to Sweet Home to do some bouldering. The drive is pretty far to be a Portland area but the approach was nil! The area is small but densely packed with many problems. There are still ample unmossed classics that I will have to return for. The problems are fun even though the rock is basalt. All in all it's a nice area, shaded, with swimming minuets away.
Lisa the gimp pre send of Shitfire, 5.13c -notice the duct tape-
Stick Clip!
@ Frenchies on Psoriasis -before-
-after-
Lisa squeezing on a V7 at Sweethome as Eric watches on.
On Sunday Lisa and I ventured out to Sweet Home to do some bouldering. The drive is pretty far to be a Portland area but the approach was nil! The area is small but densely packed with many problems. There are still ample unmossed classics that I will have to return for. The problems are fun even though the rock is basalt. All in all it's a nice area, shaded, with swimming minuets away.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Local Yocal
Recently I have not been able to get out to all the main Seattle climbing areas due to class, weather and other time restrictions/excuses. This doesn't mean that I haven't been climbing though. Olympia has a smattering of climbing areas all within an 1 hour drive and luckily enough I visited a few of them all within a couple of days. The first was the Tenino Quarry on the open day, Wednsday.
Duke on Chip Off the Ole Flake 11b, Nate on Confuisous 11b
This is awesome sandstone sport cliombing on ledges and crimps that offer some good practice on 5.11 for Smith-esc testpieces at other crags.
Next was a mis-adventure to a new bouldering area, the Arrowheads, off of Summit Lake. I ,ah, didn't study the google map quite as intently as I should of and ended up passing the turnoff, sorry Quinn! But after a 45 minute hike we came back to the Arrowhead boulder proper and put up some really fun V2-V3 lines utilizing a lot of heel-hook cranks. I also can't wait to visit the actual boulders and I'm finally getting closer to finishing off the new edition with a tour of Chase's stuff Sunday.
Quin on True Arrow V2 & Narrow Arrow V2 -very similar to the fin in Levy-
Saturday was blazing hot yet I finally managed a trip out to Mineral with Nathan. The hike was long and hot and the flies were swarming but the day got better as it went. The crag is cool sandstone huecos and runnels which produce a lot of kneebars and rest and jugs! Nate sent his project and then I followed by ripping the lip off of a jug and took a nice 16' whip! I also managed a second ascent of Sandy Slap a cool compresiony 11+ and will return to send the half dozen lines left.
Duke on Chip Off the Ole Flake 11b, Nate on Confuisous 11b
This is awesome sandstone sport cliombing on ledges and crimps that offer some good practice on 5.11 for Smith-esc testpieces at other crags.
Next was a mis-adventure to a new bouldering area, the Arrowheads, off of Summit Lake. I ,ah, didn't study the google map quite as intently as I should of and ended up passing the turnoff, sorry Quinn! But after a 45 minute hike we came back to the Arrowhead boulder proper and put up some really fun V2-V3 lines utilizing a lot of heel-hook cranks. I also can't wait to visit the actual boulders and I'm finally getting closer to finishing off the new edition with a tour of Chase's stuff Sunday.
Quin on True Arrow V2 & Narrow Arrow V2 -very similar to the fin in Levy-
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Squamish Shade
OK, it might have been the hottest and shortest Squamish trip I've done but we managed a few sends.
Quinn warming up
Kevin on the warm up circuit
Me on sending the Bulb V8
Kevin working the Seam V10
All in all it was a nice trip with Quinn crushing a lot of classics during a night session and Kevin sending some moderates. Also it was nice to hang out with David and Laura in Squamish as well.
All in all it was a nice trip with Quinn crushing a lot of classics during a night session and Kevin sending some moderates. Also it was nice to hang out with David and Laura in Squamish as well.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Sport Trip: Portland
Many people don't consider Portland a sport climbing destination, and for good reason. The rock quality is iffy at best, the length of climbs are vertically challenged and the drive down is too long to day trip. My aunt an uncle live here plus they house Lisa so I like to visit as often as possible(my uncle also happened to be a chef!). Portland is a cool town to visit and more accessible than Seattle, and is the host city to Powells!
Tuesday afternoon was spent at Rat Cave. After a quick warm up I hopped on Dorkboat 13a and slowly worked the moves. Then Matt armed me with the beta and I did it clip to clip. Feeling good after lowering I gave it another go and got all the hands just right and with a little impromptu foot work sent 2nd go! Thanks Matt for the beta, again! Lisa made some links on Shitfre 13c and then four days later onehanged it!
The next two days were rest days spent mowing the lawn and hitting up Powells for the recent Jack Reacher Novel. Nothin' better then reading in the shade/tanning on a sunny day!
Friday was French's Dome, a super shaded area recomended to us by the locals. We drove on out and managed to find it with no problem. The aproach was nonexistent, luckily, since we forgot to bring the rope down. The dome is an old volcanic tube and the holds are not basalt like at all. the climbing reminded me of exit 38 and kinda looked like baslat collums folded over sideways. Regardless the climbing was really good with lots of feet. Guide-less we picked a vert route that happened to be an interesting and technical 10c. Lisa got the onsight and I followed with a quick and pumped send. Next was a cool 11c called Crankenstein that I swear was the hardest thing I did that day! It had cool crimps and was pretty straight forward but was quite unrelenting! Next we peeked at guide book and saw that we were on the left end of the '5.12 wall'. So we migrated up the next level to a 12a called Pump-O-Rama. I guess was nicely warmed up by now because this climb was only more bouldery, making it seam easier to me. Next was an adventure climb by Lisa on a 12c called Darkness. After finding all the holds I gave it a go and almost blew the gaston crux but held on an easily migated the 5.10 climbing to the chains, psyched! Lisa epiced for a little on this one due to her not wanting to be tipped out at the crux, she'll bag it next time. Up next was a cool looking line 3 lines in from the right. I think it was BSD but I don't know yet. It had a V3/4 boulder problem to a Jug then some more cirmpin followed by more crimping. I managed to navigate the sea of mossy ledges. Luckily the importnat ones didn't have moss and I found myself clippin the chains! Another adventure onsite! All in all Frenchies is an awesome summer crag. Sitting only a lil over an hour from Portland and being literally at the base of Mt. Hood makes this a cool stop for anyone headed to Smith.
Saturday was an early moring, arriving, at Rat Cave at 7:30. Lisa did extremely well one hanging Shitfire and I was feeling tired and played on the stiffler .13 and got the beta hardwired. Next I jumped on fully warmed and made it to the last clip but with no finish jug pealed off just below victory. All in all Portland Rock Climbing is adventurous and beats Smith due to it's steepness and tons of pinhes/open handed goodness IMO. Up next is Equinox on Sunday and the adventures continue........
French's Dome
Bad photo of Lisa on Shitfire
Rat Cave!
Tuesday afternoon was spent at Rat Cave. After a quick warm up I hopped on Dorkboat 13a and slowly worked the moves. Then Matt armed me with the beta and I did it clip to clip. Feeling good after lowering I gave it another go and got all the hands just right and with a little impromptu foot work sent 2nd go! Thanks Matt for the beta, again! Lisa made some links on Shitfre 13c and then four days later onehanged it!
The next two days were rest days spent mowing the lawn and hitting up Powells for the recent Jack Reacher Novel. Nothin' better then reading in the shade/tanning on a sunny day!
Friday was French's Dome, a super shaded area recomended to us by the locals. We drove on out and managed to find it with no problem. The aproach was nonexistent, luckily, since we forgot to bring the rope down. The dome is an old volcanic tube and the holds are not basalt like at all. the climbing reminded me of exit 38 and kinda looked like baslat collums folded over sideways. Regardless the climbing was really good with lots of feet. Guide-less we picked a vert route that happened to be an interesting and technical 10c. Lisa got the onsight and I followed with a quick and pumped send. Next was a cool 11c called Crankenstein that I swear was the hardest thing I did that day! It had cool crimps and was pretty straight forward but was quite unrelenting! Next we peeked at guide book and saw that we were on the left end of the '5.12 wall'. So we migrated up the next level to a 12a called Pump-O-Rama. I guess was nicely warmed up by now because this climb was only more bouldery, making it seam easier to me. Next was an adventure climb by Lisa on a 12c called Darkness. After finding all the holds I gave it a go and almost blew the gaston crux but held on an easily migated the 5.10 climbing to the chains, psyched! Lisa epiced for a little on this one due to her not wanting to be tipped out at the crux, she'll bag it next time. Up next was a cool looking line 3 lines in from the right. I think it was BSD but I don't know yet. It had a V3/4 boulder problem to a Jug then some more cirmpin followed by more crimping. I managed to navigate the sea of mossy ledges. Luckily the importnat ones didn't have moss and I found myself clippin the chains! Another adventure onsite! All in all Frenchies is an awesome summer crag. Sitting only a lil over an hour from Portland and being literally at the base of Mt. Hood makes this a cool stop for anyone headed to Smith.
Saturday was an early moring, arriving, at Rat Cave at 7:30. Lisa did extremely well one hanging Shitfire and I was feeling tired and played on the stiffler .13 and got the beta hardwired. Next I jumped on fully warmed and made it to the last clip but with no finish jug pealed off just below victory. All in all Portland Rock Climbing is adventurous and beats Smith due to it's steepness and tons of pinhes/open handed goodness IMO. Up next is Equinox on Sunday and the adventures continue........
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Little Si photos
About a week ago Lisa, Climbing Team, and myself headed out to a seeping WWI for some sports action out of the gym. I brought my camera along and managed to snap some photos of Lisa on Chronic 13b.
And there is shot of me on Californicator 12d :)
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Sun @ Smith
For a little post school break Andrew Nicholas and myself skipped out on the rain and headed south to Smith Rocks for some sun and fun, cliche I know. The trip was pretty chill with just a handful of limbs each day. I hopped on Churning 13a and have a rekindled liking of Smith, can't wait till fall rolls around. I also gave Latin Lover an onsight burn and took a nice whip around the second to last bolt. Nicholas made an impressive go at Crossfire 12b that I took lots of pics on. Monday Lisa came and corrupted me. Ramiero, an awesome guy from Portland, took Lisa and me on a tour of Squaw Creek of the sisters bouldering. We only got to sample but I will definitely be back for more!
Monday, April 30, 2012
April: FA's and NC3
The quality isn't as good as it would be on DVD but definitely a step up from before!
5 weeks deep and still can't wait till the next 5 are over. Time flies when you're busy every single day of the week! April has been composed of a lot of labs, HW, labs, quizzes... Through all of this exciting educational experience I still managed to come check out the Verde boulder Chase unearthed and help put up a few lines! The following weekend was the NC3 series wrap up. For season points me an fellow team mate Karl were tied! It all came down top the last 10 mins of the comp to whom was the series champ and I managed to send a problem that sealed the deal in those last 10 mins! I was reaaly sore from this one due to the steep walls or giving it my all. Series champ 2 years and running, though this year by one tiny point, yikes! Hopefully Memorial Day Weekend will be spent on some granite, preferably a hard problem in a forest. Also, some updates. I plan on releasing Olympia Area Bouldering II on August 1st. This will contain atleast 2 new areas and 6+ new boulders with ~30 new problems to be added! Along with all the new scrubbing I want to make another summer video. This year will be Summer Sendage, an HD vid about all the cool BP's in Olympia and the surrounding area. With a handful of HD cameras and tripods floating around Oly I expect a nice vid and some log hours in front of Final Cut! Till then it's back to the books, earthquake loadings, soil compactions, open channel flow, sola...
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