Suchers Be Gone!

Above is a picture of the heinous incision that was made to restore my misbehaving tendon. A major milestone in the healing process comes in two days when I get the suchers out. I'm so stoked. Even though my leg won't be recognizable as a 'leg' for a few weeks it will be nice to have these buttons taken off of my skin shirt. So far everything is going well. I've been pretty mobile, getting out on a two mile walk, going dancing, etc. etc. I've tried working out a few times, nothing major yet, just trying to take it easy and promote healing as much as possible. I definitely have days where I feell like this: But, don't let that scare you away. All I need is a little encouragement and a lot more time. The weather has turned amazing lately (amazing for me means it's warmer, not necessarily drier), and when the sun comes out it's like Spring/Summer. The air is different, it's not as bitter anymore, opting instead for a more fragrant garb. The kind newly budding plants wear. March comes to a close and I have a long month ahead of me, with (hopefully) some light at the end of the tunnel. By the end of April, if everything goes according to plan, I should be free of my boot and walking in normal shoes again (hell, maybe even a little light jogging?). In the meantime I have been bombarding myself with the cancerous rays of the television, LOTS of internet climbing porn, and bill juggling. The return to work last week was nothing less than unorgasmic and I have been really focused on what it is I want to pursue after my contract expires. Its hard to focus on those things whilst pining away for normalcy. Anyway, hope all is good with everyone. See you around.

Electric Mayhem

Yo yo yo yo! Wazzzzup to all my dogs in tha’ house?! Throw your hands in the ayer, and wave them like ya’ just don’t cayer! C’mon now, ya’ll know me! Well, I guess it has been a while. All my fans are stark raving mad because I haven’t posted in such a long time, but we discussed this in the beginning. This is a C-L-I-M-B-I-N-G blog, and well, in the last two or three months I just haven’t been doing a lot of the stuff. Inside climbing yes, but I don’t really count that as ‘real’ climbing.

I have finished my first quarter as a true blue grad student, and am currently half way through my second quarter, yet another excuse for not blogging as much as usual.


My professor holding up a dead chinook, god I miss this class


a foot print

I’m trying to remember all the intricate details of the last two to three months in order to convey them in written word so as to entertain any of my ‘readers’. I guess I’ll pick up where I left off. Returning from the year’s last trip to Leavenworth. I couldn’t actually believe we got any climbing in for November, usually a very wet month here in the Northwest. Of course it was the last bit of climbing for me anyway for the last three months. December was a wretched blizzard, more snow than I’ve ever seen here in Washington, or at least this part of Washington. But the sessions at the Warehouse were pretty sweet. Nick came in from the east coast and showed us all why taking three months off to go to nursing school was well worth it by sending problems I could only dream of projecting. He also set some pretty sweet routes before returning in early January to DC to start his second quarter in pursue of his BSN.
Jimmy, well, I don’t really need to say anything about Jimmy, his climbing has done all the talking lately and he and his rock crushing sister are off to Boulder, Colorado to compete in Nationals. I predict they both will do very well and represent Olympia to the fullest.
Dom and Laura both got jobs (finally!) and Dom actually got out climbing on one of the more perfect days a couple of weeks ago in January, due to another bit of odd weather. He managed to tick all the Gritscone routes and solo Rough Cut.
I, on the other hand, have been suffering from old age related injuries (shoulder and finger) and have greatly missed out on some nice weather in January and some good sessions down at the Warehouse. I did however; manage to hike to the top of Little si, a feat I had not yet accomplished. I’ve probably walked half the trail, just to get to World Wall One, 50 or 60 times easily in the past two years but never realized the other half is quite a nice hike. Not to mention the view from the top, pretty amazing. I also grew a crazy beard, shaved it, did yoga for the first time, found a new place to live, finished the first draft of my candidacy paper, rescued my cat from behind a water heater, and scratched my balls.


picture of said 'crazy' beard


picture of the winter wonderland that graced the NW for a few weeks

Currently I find myself sitting in bed writing this blog and bitching and moaning about my damn finger that just refuses to heal so that I can get back to training for the upcoming climbing season. Speaking of which I just couldn’t be more excited about. I had compiled this huge list of tentative goals for the year but I decided that my main goal is just to stay HEALTHY!!! In fact if anyone reading this has any tips for avoiding injuries, specifically finger injuries whilst training for power crimping, please drop me a line. But, I guess I shouldn’t leave you hanging in the goals department, I know Dom is clawing at the screen right about now. I’ll just give you a quick run down: Chronic, Propaganda, PC7, hopefully a trip to Mazama, Sesame Street, Mind Bender, Golden Boy, ATD, The Back Seat, Defenders of the Faith, Droppin’ tha’ Kirschbaum, Lonely Fish, Atomic Energy, Musashi, Batman, Smith Rock (anything), and hopefully, maybe, another trip to Bishop. But this is just a short list, I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of things and I’m sure that a lot things on this list will have to wait for many, many years.


Little si trail


Fall on the TESC campus trail to the beach


Little si again

So, to end this post I think it would be fitting to re-cap the 2008 climbing season’s achievements to give some perspective to the 2009 goals. Olympia was represented quite proudly by everyone this past year.
Jimmy: Sent multiple .12’s outside, including a flash at Chekamus. Absolutely killed it bouldering, sending a number of hard V.8’s and V.9’s including a V.8 flash, sent his first V.6,7,8 at Squamish plus a stout flash of Tim’s Sloper Problem, and helped establish some nice lines at Rattlesnake lake. Now, he is dominating the comp scene and is off to Nationals.
Nick: Sent his first V.9(Coffee Cup) before sending his first V.8(Resurrection), cleaned up multiple projects at Squamish including Gibb’s Cave and Golden Boy, as well as a sweet send of the Doja at Gold Bar and made an impressive solo pilgrimage to Bishop. On the rope he sent .12’s at Red Rocks including a flash of Fear and Loathing, here at WW1 he cleaned house, Techno, Psychosomatic, Hydro, Viagrophobia, and made some nasty links on Californicator, in one day he managed to send all the letter grades in the 5.12 range.
Laura: while on her Euro climbing tour sent a staggering amount of routes and boulder problems, including numerous 5.11a flashes, as well as numerous V.4 flashes, by far the hardest she has ever climbed. I’m jealous.
Dom: pre Euro trip sent in one day V.4,5,6,7. While on the Euro trip turned into a crazy onsighting mad man with onsights of .11d through .12d, and came back with his first .13a. Post Euro trip came back and quickly dispatched an old Squamish project Immunity Challenge (props), then cleaned up some classics at 38 and 32, Stihl Fingers and Passage, plus Hydro at WW1. Best year on the rope? I think so.
Whitey: Went on the Euro trip as well and came back with a smile and his first .12b’s including a .12b flash (I haven’t even managed that feat), and his first .12c in three goes (!!!). Post Euro trip, came with us to Gold Bar and sent multiple V.4’s and his first V.7, GET SOME!
Me: Became addicted to the Leavenworth day trip, sent 10 V.8’s, 5 V.9’s and an unconfirmed first V.10, and got busy on the rope with Techno, Hydro, and Viagrophobia.

Okay, that’s enough from the master spray lord I have become. I know I have left out many climbers in Olympia that are now stronger than me, but their accomplishments outside are still waiting to be seen. Super duper props to everyone at WRG and a special thanks to the people listed above for setting the bar high, really high! Can’t wait for camp fires at Leavenworth, no hospital trips in Squamish (Nick!), a new generation at Little si, working bathrooms at Vantage, a trip period to Smith, and a chance to blog about it all right here.

The Land of Gnar-Nhia

The land of Leavenworth.

Monday was a great day for sport climbing. My friend Nic and I both made it out to World Wall One where Nic was eager to wrap up his project Viagrophobia(5.12d). A great line that climbs up two bulges and is a good 30 meters long. He got on it first thing and a few minutes later, and a good amount of effort, he clipped the chains bagging his second .12d. I was pretty amazed that he was able to ‘warm up’ on and send his project all in the same swoop, but Nic was not done yet. We moved over to Techno and Psychosomatic and he repeated both first go, not to mention making good progress on his new project Californicator and warming down on Deluge. It was quite the day for him and very impressive to witness 5 hard pitches being climbed in a single session. I just had a lot of fun monkeying around on some of the classics and was just glad to get out and up some great climbs.

The next day we decided to head out to Leavenworth. The weather was pretty sleepy around North Bend but Leavenworth, which is usually hot enough to melt your skin to the rock at this time of the year, was actually boasting highs of 72 degrees. I leapt at the chance to get out to one of my favorite bouldering spots and Nic was happy to come along. The last time we climbed at Leavenworth was supposed to be the last time for the summer, and the last time for Nic period since he is leaving for D.C. in a few weeks, but what the hell, cool temps in late July don’t come around very often. Our friend Jimmy was unable to make it which bummed us out, but he had just returned from a trip to Leavenworth so no harm done. We threw all of my pads in the car and kicked rocks. 2 hours and 40 minutes later we pulled into the pull out for the Fridge boulder and took a deep breath of the fine air Leavenworth has to offer. We were at this particular boulder so Nic could clean up what was left in the fridge, The Fridge Left(V.8). A super, mega, timeless, all around classic problem that involves some serious thug hugging up a fat granite prow. One of my personal favorites in Leavenworth, or anywhere for that matter. We went through the motions of warming up on the other problems on the boulder which are stellar in their own right and were greeted by a local named Dale who joined us in a little early morning session. Nic soon got to work on his project as I lay on top of the boulder trying to get some footage. Here is a video of Nic coming so close to latching the ever elusive victory crimp.

Nic gave it a good effort but eventually had to let this one get away. His forearm was getting pretty chewed up from the constant slapping and groveling on the grainy texture of the prow. I managed to repeat it, with a nice lack of style, and was psyched to start the day on a good note, although breathing quite heavily. We were both pretty warm after spending some time in the Fridge and moved on to our arch nemesis The Millennium Traverse. Last time we were here we both got worked on this problem and came agonizingly close multiple times to sending it. The boulder that the problem is located on is a beauty, and can be found in a sparsely populated forest that eventually leads to the shores of Icicle Creek. The setting is awesome and there are a lot of good problems on the boulder that are worth doing.

Millennium Traverse revisited.

I was feeling a little intimidated by the problem after our experiences with it last time but I managed to send it after only a few tries. The last move of the problem that had shut me down last time felt a lot easier and I was glad to have this in the bag early. The texture of the rock can really eat up your skin dollars. Nic was psyched for me and we both felt a little sense of revenge as I jumped down from the top. Nic was climbing the beginning of the problem really well but had some trouble with the cruxy campus moves in the middle. He started to get a little frustrated so we went around the corner to a sweet V.4 called 2001 to release a little sending angst.

2001(V.4)

After doing 2001 Nic assessed what kind of day he was having and decided to just go with it. We were both just happy to be outside in this beautiful place one last time before he left. We packed up our things and headed across the road to a truly awesome boulder called the Lonely Fish. This boulder is home to a few V.9’s, a V.10, and super hard project. It stands about 20-25 feet tall and is HUGE and overhung. There are some really sweet features on this boulder and all the problems on it are stout and worthy of anyone’s time. We had tried the Lonely Fish last time and had some good progress but I was staring down a problem called Dirty Dude that I had seen a video of and was interested in doing. It starts on a low sharp crimp and high gaston crimp. It’s overhung and powerful. You pull on with one foot hold and make a savage lock off and lunge to a high crimp rail above. Part of the crux is just pulling on to the starting holds and then the real crux is the lunge. I wanted to try it so we spread our pads out and gave it a whirl. At first I couldn’t even pull up off the ground. A bit discouraging for sure, but we kept at it. Nic and I both started to begin to understand the kind of body tension required for the first pull off the ground and we got thus far. I finally pulled off and held it together, relaxed and shot up towards the rail slapping just beneath it. That was all the encouragement I needed to keep going. I got closer and closer and more excited. I started to pace back and forth underneath the problem mumbling to myself and looking like a complete loon, but I was simply trying to convince myself to commit. Finally, I pulled on and hit the rail! It wasn’t over yet, I had to get both hands on the rail which required some sketchy foot maneuvering, but once I did I hit a good jug on the corner and shakily slapped up the arête until I was able to stand up and scramble on to the top of the boulder.

Pulling on to Dirty Dude(V.10).

Going for the lunge.

Well, to say I was pleased would be an understatement. I think I remember screeching like a girl but you’ll have to ask Nic. I can’t imagine what the nearby tradsters thought of my victory display(‘Goddamn pebble wrestlers!’). I eventually came down from the boulder, and my sending high enough to complete a full sentence. Nic was proud and we both declared it the send of the day. After that we made our way to a problem that I had never seen before called the Cotton Pony. I was really impressed by the quality of the line and the moves were savage. Two big lunges, the first to a pinch and the second to a notch in the lip, very powerful. Nic managed to latch the pinch from the start while I just flung myself at the ending dyno not really getting anywhere. It’s BIG!

Nick latches the 'star trek' pinch on the Cotton Pony(V.11)

This little guy would not budge, and he was right on a hold we needed.

We both did a great problem right next to it called the Pony Ride and then Nic cleaned up on another problem around the corner called Tampax Arete. If you see Nic in the near future ask him about the mystery substance on the jug.

After gawking some more at the Cotton Pony and low start to it, we walked a little ways down the road and found WAS. A large and looming boulder that has a huge hueco in the center of it’s face that either leads you out right to crimps or up the center of the face pinching an arête to the lip. Nic chose to do IS the problem that goes out right on crimps and involves making a shouldery lunge to a good crimp rail. I watched and had some lunch and after a little while he sent. Nice job Nic!

Nick sending IS(V.7)

I finally put my shoes on and we both started to work WAS. A killer problem that starts by leaping to the huge hueco in the center of the face and then reaching way out left to the arête and then up to the lip. After only a few goes I latched a sloper just beneath the juggy lip but dropped off!! Aaaahhhhh! I guess I’m a little more intimidated by the problem than I thought. I didn’t manage to get back to that spot again but I am really looking forward to coming back this Fall to work it.

From there we walked back up the road to make a quick stop at another crazy good problem called Batman. I managed to snap a couple of cool photos of Nic doing the first move.

Batman(V.8)

It was getting late and we were only here for the day so as a last ditch effort we drove to the Sword boulders to try a couple of problems we thought would go quickly. While it was good to be surrounded by the friendly giants of the Sword the two problems we came to do, Zorro and the Tree Problem, decided to stomp our good intentions into the crash pads. We fiddled about on a few other problems and then hit the road, but not before stopping at the Hiedleburger for a victory milkshake and a damn good cheeseburger. Thanks for getting out here with me one last time Nic, can’t wait for next summer. Gnar-Nhia!!!!!