Sun @ Smith

 Andrew on Latin Lover 12a

 Nicholas heading up Double Trouble 10a

 Nicholas on Crossfire 12b

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! 

 Ramiero on a V5ish right exit

 Lisa on a V6 dyno

April: FA's and NC3

The quality isn't as good as it would be on DVD but definitely a step up from before!

 Whitman College, all STEEP!

 Colin from UW flying on the dyno prob.

 Unknown almost earning 600pts till he blew the match, so close!

 Unknown on the steep wall, not too bad of lines for the comp, also well set, thanks Mike!

 Chase on The Web, V2, Verde, Cap Forest

 Recently born Verde, Cap Forest, home to a handful of probs V1-V4, bout 13' tall

Summit Lake hot tub sized chunk, where's yo big brotha? 

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...

Leavenworth: Batman

Batman


I finally managed an escape from school and luckily a two day window of good weather appeared as well. So Saturday for my Birthday I did a classic day trip to Leavenworth. There was a lot of snow but luckily after playing this game a couple times I arrived armed with my boots. After a quick warm up it was decided that the goal for the day was Batman V8, a problem I've tried for 3 years now, and after sussing out some new beta I finally managed to send! I was so stoked!
Photo one move in of Brian's send!




While warming up I ran into Brian Smith and Jessie from Stone Gardens Climbing team. After Batman I met up with them and tried the Tornado Project, thing was hard and might go some day. Next up was me watching Brian hike 101 Ways to Fling Poo and then Brian and I tried out the Ladder Project. Can't wait to see that line go down. Well now school has started up again and if I get my shift off it looks like two days in levy with Abstraction and Kobra Con high on the agenda as well as getting some HD footage with my new Nikon D3100 birthday gift(to myself)...

Me being artsy...

Capitol Forest: Winterized

Coming so close on Tigger!

This weekend I took a break form the city for some fresh air and some fresh food. Also, the weather happened to coincide with the weekend! Ketl form climbing team was free too so the two of us headed out to She Bear. My plan was to finish up some of the porjects and Ketl's were to get some new projcets. Well the road to the upper parking was snowed in and blocked by fallen trees so we quickly turned around and headed to the new parking lot. I've wondered for awhile how the approach is from below and it is a hair longer but way less steep! Eventually we made it up the hill.

After a quick warm up I gave Tigger a few burns and came hit the lip but blew right off. The I switched gears and put some goes into D12. The first big lock off went quickly and with some new foot beta I managed a slightly dynamic dead point to the 'tooth'! After blowing the V5 dyno finish, I quickly resussed where the jug was and sent! Finally! This was one of my longer projects and it feels real good when it all comes together and you can finally check it off. It felt only around V9, the problem boils down to a 3 foot lock off on crimps to a deadpoint to a tooth, then a moderate dyno. Three moves, pretty fun. There also now exits a static left exit from the tooth that might earn ten points, we'll see. And then there's tigger, one day it'll go, I'll try this one until I send no matter how long it takes! (I foresee some summer night sessions).

Winter in Leavenworth

Ketl getting to crush a lowball V4.
Kawika sending Drugstore Cowboy V3
A little snow on the top outs...
St. Helens from good ole Cap Forest.
Urban sunrise during finals week. No more 8:30 classes!!!!

Over Christmas break I was able to Escape to Leavenworth and two kids from climbing team tagged along, Kawika and Ketl. This was there first time climbing in Leavenworth Ketl flashed th three to the left of the Shield and Kawika sent Drugstore Cowboy V3! I was just glad to get on some granite and repeated some easy stuff. All in all it was a good break with old time sesions at the Warehouse, Exbouldering, and lots of cookies! Now it's time to countdown the weeks to Spring Break and Joes Valley. Three months to train!!!!

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...