The FEAST

5/22/09
For the past 4 days I have been feasting on good food, laughter amongst friends and family, sunshine, sweaty hiking, and most important of all the top notch rock located some 30 minutes from my mom’s doorstep in Seattle. I set off on my adventure last Friday where I met Dom and Laura at the Farside parking lot. They had both taken their friend Sarah up here a week ago and were eager to get back. The Farside sounded like a great place to get some new pitches in and it was. We played around on some classics all day long and took in the beautiful scenery and enjoyed the amazing rock quality and sheer awesomeness of the routes.



Laura making the first airy clip on Space Face(5.10c) at Interstate Park.


Laura reaches past the crux on Space Face.


Laura onsights Lip Service(5.10b) at the 'block of doom' cave.


Laura on Girls Rule(5.10a).


Paintbrush.


Laura on November Glaze(5.9) at Squishy Bell.


Squishy Bell.

It was nice to have only a 30 minute drive afterward, and as I pulled into my mom’s place I realized how tired I was and that I was going to do it all over again the next day.


5/23/09
Saturday I had agreed to meet some friends from the Evergreen Rock Gym at Exit 38 to show them around so they could get acquainted with the nearest crag to Olympia. My plan kinda’ sank to the bottom when we showed up to Deception Crag and realized EVERY line was spoken for. No worries I told them, there is a stellar 5.10 we can do at Nevermind. Upon showing up to Nevermind I realized that everyone was ON the 5.10(Nevergine) so I put draws up on Steep Street so they could top rope it. That didn’t go over so great either but I got a chance to repeat Culture Shock in the meantime. After a near ground fall at the first crux jogged my memory I got back on and linked the beast. It is a great climb for anyone who hasn’t done it yet, super steep but friendly holds. I was glad to have a few hard ones in the bag especially since I was only counting on doing routes no harder than 5.10 on this day. The girls decided to try their luck at Write Off Rock and managed a nice lead of the 5.7 there. We moved on after that. Heading up the road a bit we stopped at Gritscone, where we did the 5.7, 5.9, 5.10c, and 5.11. A few more steep minutes of hiking and we finally ended up at Interstate Park. We did this cool 5.8 that I had done the day before, a really nice line on good stone that traverse right and up. It was nice to lay around in the shade and talk it up. We soon found ourselves at Squishy Bell, where a few dudes had made it their temporary hang out. Needless to say the ground was covered in bags of weed, glass pipes, munchies, and the random bits of clothing and oh yeah, climbing equipment. They were on the route I wanted to do, a sick 5.9 and also a 5.8 that shares the anchors so we waited. And waited, and waited, and waited. We watched all three dudes sketchmaster their way up the 5.9 on top rope and they seemed quite content to do this over and over again. We sat on the flat look out up and left of the crag soaking up the sun and even more good conversation and a nice view. We finally gave up waiting for them, did the short 5.5 and headed back down the trail to home. After a quick stop at the bridge to see if anyone wanted to take the plunge I was homeward bound once again, or should I say my mom’s home.


The trellace.


The view from above.


Seeley, the crag mother.



Gabby TR's Bottoms Up(5.7) at Write Off Rock.



A river runs through it. Or maybe a creek, I forget.


Shanti leading Pete's Possum Palace(5.7), at Gritscone.



Some rough and rugged flowers on the mountainside.


Gabby at the chains of Catatonic(5.6)at Squishy Bell.


To the right of Squishy Bell.

5/23/09
Sunday was a nice day to catch up on some ‘chill’. I visited my bro who I hadn’t seen in a matter of months. Took in some good convo’ there while gorging myself on Lasagna and garlic bread. Then headed back home where I napped, helped mom in the garden and feasted on more pasta(Wild Mountain Café is tha’ bomb!! Lemon chicken pesto pasta!!! WORD!!!) Anyway, it was a good day to kick back and take in the finer things of life.


Garden.


Garden.


In the garden.


Murphy.

5/24/09
Monday, Memorial Day brought more climbing, YES!! I met Dom and Laura up at Little si, where apparently they were giving away a new car to the first thousand people who made it to the summit. In other words the trail was PACKED. I waded through the masses, sweaty overweight suburbanites, somewhat in shape couples drenched in Nike and ACG gear, and herds of little children. I finally made it to World Wall where Dom was 90 feet up on Voodoo Guru. Laura was chattin’ it up with a guy named Ryan Palo. I dabbed the sweat off of myself and did a lap on Psychosomatic, well falling at the crux anyway, still a pitch of 5.12 at least. Next up was Bust Tha’ Move, a route I hadn’t done in 2 years. All I can say is I had no business doing the crux the way I did, yikes!! I was glad to have not fallen but it was an ugly maneuver everyone. Recovering from that trauma we stepped over and did a nice line, Mega, Mega, Megatherion. I even managed to foul up the sequence on that beauty, what the hell?!! Dom gave Sluglover a go, psyched to work on this one. Then we stepped over to the Rainy Day corner and did a lap on the old girl before wrapping it all up on End of the World. Another route I hadn’t done in ages. Man, Dom laced up the gear making it sound intense, Laura did the bottom on TR, and then I shakily pulled through the crux and managed to link it. I think my favorite part of this day was getting on old routes I hadn’t done in ages. It is so easy to get sucked into a routine of Abo, Psycho, Rainy Day, repeat as needed. I need to start working in multiple 5.12 pitches into my circuit here in order to really step up my training. I was psyched the most about getting End of the World at the end of the day, one of my favorites; I just hope the rock doesn’t crumble away at the bottom. Here are some photos:


Mega, mega, mega. World Wall in the background.


One of Ryan's friends working Chronic(5.13b)


Chronic.


Ryan Palo working his way into Pornstar(5.13d)


Ryan on Pornstar.


Ryan off Pornstar.


Dom on the start of End of the World(5.12a)


Dom sticks the committing lunge on End of the World.


Aahhh, the end at last.

Heading back to Oly was a bit of a bummer. I wish I could go on eating mass amounts of god food, climbing everyday with interesting people, seeing my family, and partaking in good weather, but until this becomes a job(oh yeah it already is, if you can climb 5.15b!!) then I’ll just have to take these kinds of four day weekends as they come.


Finally, at peace.