November

Miles off of Midnite, Circuit Comp finals!, Chunk of Granite.

November has been filled with lots of homewrk, writing labs and taking exams. Though the weekends have been filled with other endeavors. Thanks to Miles, I've been able to get out to gold bar a handful of times this fall. I've hit the lip of green goblin a couple times and messed around on Haga for a little bit. Then Jessie showed us Midnite and the Index boulders, they were damp but they are of high quality. Can't wait for spring!

I've also been doing a lot of comps too. Most recent being the Circuit's PBR. The circuit always sets to my strengths and this year was no different. I placed 6th in qualies to make fianls!!!!! Fianlly, a real finals. Lisa, as always, also qualified! Team Chulich! The gym had lights set up and put on a good show. Problem 1 was doable, 2 isnane, 3 hard, 4 fun. I got crushed but had a blast and was just psyched to make it. Hopefully they will take more to finals next year. The red point problems were hands down the funnest I've ever tried in a comp. They were straight forward no trickery 'you can send in 4 goes'. Oh, and very few crimps and lots of Compression!!!!! I'm looking forward to next fall and the BEST comp in the NW!

Back around Olympia I checked out the boulder chase found around Waddle Creek. Short but definitely worth the effort to clean it up. Also, that big chunk was found by a near by gate so there should be some more boulders found over Christmas Break! I also have two summer vid projects, Summer Sendage and 'The Other Boulders'. The first being all the classics of Thurston County being filmed and put together nicely. The later being a compilation of all the boulders Miles has found outside of Gold Bar and Leavenworth. But until Christmas it is finals and then some good old time sessions with Kevin and the gang at the Warehouse before the 2012 climbing season...

October

All Edelrid.
Well with school consuming my life I was still able to get out to Leavenworth and gold bat once a piece. Also, competed in the Tacoma throw down and was one away from finals at sbp, they had long lines and some cool lines...

August and Stuff

WhooWoo Waddle Creek Boulder!
Scary Move, Scary Landing, Trying the side pull project at Cooper Pt with only 1 pad, no go. Probably only round V4 if you ignore the scary side
Me FA Shallow Crossing. A cool V6 that David scrubbed off
Kaleb from climbing team ascending the V2 She Bear Slab!
Colin Migrating his way up to...

Recently I've been fretting about a place to live and getting everything organized for UW. I eventually found a place and began working at Stone Gardens. Prior to this I took Climbing Team out to the local boulders and they did well, crushing 2-4's. Oh, and I stumbled across this boulder a couple of days ago...

I also made a return trip to Kalaloch Beach 3 for the sandstone boulders. The boulders were shorter than what I remembered but the slabs were scary and harder than I rembered. All in all it was a very fun day at the beach, sightseeing with bouldering thrown in the mix....
The Slabs on the right and the cool steep line on the left
A Cool slightly overhanging problem on amazing sandstone!The fun arete!Rose beach?

Squamish: 10 Days!

Tyler on Viper

Squamish was fun, really fun. It had it's up and downs but both David and I managed a lot of new sends. It was a surprise to see Micah as well. He crushed for being out so long and I can't wait to climb with him next summer.

Rosario Beach

ROADSIDE!
Picturesc
Micah on Sissy Boy 12d
Kevin on Sissy Boy
Small but packs a punch. Rosario Beach is by far the best little crag I've been to yet. Roadside with bathrooms and water and swimming all right there! Dom, Micah, Lisa, Kevin and I had a blast trying the routes and interpreting the bolt lines. The routes feature mainly sidepulls and pinches which I enjoyed. After the warm up we got to work on sissy boy 12d and Dom managed a second go send and later I followed with a flash. It's a good route consisting of two boulder problems separated by a bad rest. Lisa and Micah came really close to sending and will no doubt come back and send. Kevin was destroyed from Infinite Bliss but made some good links as well. Towards the end of the day I got on the 13b and can't wait to come back and finish it off. Rosario is a sweet little secret spot that stays shady all day!

The rock was sharp, finished the climb to get draws back. Only a tiny scratch but lots of blood!

Smith: Christmas in July

Pretty! Agro gully
One of Lisa'a P-town friends on the Quickening, one of the 6 climbing it that day
Agro...
Chas on an 11a
Dom on the same problem

Well, not exactly. It was only 70 in the shade and jackets were needed in the mornings and evenings. For this spur of the moment trip, I was accompanied by Dom, Lisa and Chas. Day 1 was sunny and we accidentally went to lower gorge. After going through my options I decided to give Badfinger a burn. It is a stellar 10b crack and I fell at the crux(3rd trad fall ever) and took once more but did all the moves. It was real fun and I would like to come back for the Red point. Next we headed over to the Pheonix Butress and I got destroyed on a techy 11c. I wasn't to psyched on the whole smith rock pebble smeary techy thing...
Day 2 was better and after warming up we headed to agro gully where armed with beta I managed a flash of the quickening, 12c. Then the day heated up and we finished it off watching Lisa hike Henious Cling 12a for the onsight! I might return in fall but we'll see...


In other news I'm almost done with the Olympia area bouldering guide. Turns out there will be aprox 100 problems spread throughout the county with even more rock outcroppings for those willing to hike. If all goes well I'll be attending UW this fall and that will be the guides release date, ideally. Fossil Rock bouldering isn't included due the horrendous approach, poison oak, ect. Here are some pics from the Skookumchuck crag.

Wet, but could clean up nicely, bout 20-25 feet, overhanging basalt, just need to remove grass from top, could also be a high ball wall.
But might just go to the gym...

Rat Cave: Knee Bars and Stick Clips

This past weekend Lisa and I ventured on south to spend a weekend on the steep basalt crag of Rat Cave. We started on Friday and after getting close to onsighting the 'warm up' I tried a couple of other lines. One line I like was Shitfire 5.13b/c. This line starts up a good 5.12a and veers straight up some steep bulges. After going clip to clip I managed all the moves but the route was gonna be a race against the clock. Lisa then sent the 5.12b second go and returned to her propaganda-esc 12c.
We came back on Sunday depumped and armed with beta from the locals. It was nice. The weather was just cool enough and after receiving the correct sequences managed a send of shitfire 3rd go of the day. The route comes down to big moves off of pinches, underclings, and the ocasional sloper and crimp. The blockiness lends itself to many, many drop knees and these were key to the send. Another thing we learned is it is the norm to stick clip the first two bolts here. I also sticked clip a pre placed draw for the first time, on the 7th try! Lisa made great progress on Shitfire and she'll be returning to the crag all fall. I'm planning on returning too later this ummer to finish up some of the other good lines. If you like steep and bouldery, this is the place for you. But there is loose rock, trains yards away, a highway in the background, rats...

Also, Dom, Lisa and I meandered up to Little Si yesterday. Oval was wet so I worked my way up Gerbil Rising 13c and was able to get my beta back and could everything except for the Flatliner crux. I'm psyched to send this by the end of Aug. Dom is also ready for a change so for the next couple weeks we'll be venturing out to some new crags and try some new stuff!