Vid - Fred Nicole

From prana and Chuck Fryberger comes a short, thoughtful vid on the bouldering legend, Fred Nicole. For once, someone with even bigger forearms than that Sharma guy. More seriously, FN has been a bouldering pioneer with serious FA's all over the world for many, many years. Hopefully we'll see more like him someday.


I first saw this vid over at Jamie Emerson's site.

Jackson Falls/The Holies - Day Trip, Dec 2009

So I'm looking at the weather for New Years weekend, and it sucks. Highs are only in the 20's. I've tried climbing in the low 30's and that was a challenge. I think climbing in 20 degree temps is not exactly ideal. Arkansas is the same as So Ill... but HP40 is in the low 40's, which might be good, but is further than we wanted to travel. Unsure what to do.

In other news, Joey K of Team Tuesday is headed up for a brief visit, so we're looking forward to his arrival and heading out for some local climbing while he's around.

Here's a video of Topher's send of Bagpiper V5 at the Falls. Bagpiper has the distinction of being the first boulder problem put up at the Falls (correct me anyone?) and is on the side of the Yosemite Slab Boulder. It's a bit tall at the top. I apologize for the grainy quality, but I didn't realize the camera was at such a low setting. Props to Topher for the only send of the day and for the novel way of warming up his fingers. ;)

From Jackson Falls bouldering 12-7-09

From Jackson Falls bouldering 12-7-09

We messed around on THC V3, which Steve posted in the vid below, then worked on OBD V6, which seems quite difficult. I could do most of the moves and just need a little more work on the transition in the middle before topping out. Here are some pics.

The following weekend, which is last weekend (Dec 20), Steve, Topher, Chad and I headed to the Holies and did some climbing there. We variously repeated and worked on Shadow of a Man V5 and then tried Trillium (sp?) V7 while Topher and Steve worked Jungle Book V8.

I've posted about JB before, and it's a cool problem but my hamstring prevents me from even trying that. Trillium starts with two sloper-pinches and a shoulder level right-heel/toe cam. You bump your right had to a sloper, bump again to a small crimp, then set your left foot and pop your left hand to a decent crimp (couldn't do that move). Steve/Topher did that move nicely. With your right foot still wedged, you then pull hard and go right-handed to what looks like a pretty crappy sloper, then fight your way to the top. None of us managed to latch onto the sloper, so it remains a project. Tough moves and it's nice to have good spotters so you don't biff your head because your foot is stuck. I don't have pics, as the video we took came out pretty grainy. Maybe Steve can salvage something from it.

Finally - there's a trip to One Horse Gap we took a few weekends ago, but that was a rained out disaster. Gotta have one of those every now and then.

From One Horse Gap 12-14-09

While we couldn't climb much because everything was wet, it was impressive to see the amount of boulders and the sheer size of some of them at OHG. Some of the rock is chossy, but with some cleaning and some work, there are lots of problems to establish. Here are some pics from that trip - we ended up working on Drop Zone V6 for a while.

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all our friends and family as 2009 draws to a close. May the new year be full of new and wonderful climbing memories. Climb safe!

Vid - From Jackson Falls

This is from a couple weekends ago. Big Steve Xu put together a quick video. Thanks Steve!

Forearms

There's been a lot of info about Sharma's latest sends in Spain. Congrats. For your review, I post this picture (linked from pranablog). Anyone see anything wrong with this picture?


Also, I'll have a couple TR's posted soon on some recent bouldering trips. Yesterday was pretty friggin' cold.

Vid - Falls at the Red

From Spencer Victory, prolific climbing vid producer. They call it climbing porn. :)

Vid - Paradise Lost, .13b

From James Zanoni, a class project on a RRG classic:

Just Do It from James Zanoni on Vimeo.

Pretty cool. Here's the thread that led me to it.

NYTimes - performance is better later in the day?

This NYtimes article is interesting; it seems to indicate that performance is higher and more efficient in the late afternoon/evening.

"And not only are performances better in the late afternoon and early evening, but, contrary to what exercise physiologists would predict, heart rates are also higher for the same effort."

It seems intuitive to me; that is, I definitely feel more sluggish in the morning than in the evening when working out.There are a couple variables: 1. it only really applies to people who work out regularly and 2. it's unclear if it applies to anaerobic activity (e.g. climbing).

Anyone have clear experience with this and notice that you tend to send harder later in the day? It might be difficult to assess this notion since people tend to climb all day on trips, making late day climbing just more tired climbing.

HCR - Thanksgiving Weekend 2009

Climbers - Josh, Leigh, Morgan, John, Jaime, Conor, Angie & Calvin
Weather - Really, it's November

From

Thanksgiving weekend was a blast. We headed down on Friday morning early and met up with the Krefts and Wilsons to get some holiday climbing in. A 5am start landed us at HCR around 10:30am, and we were on the walls around 11am at the Cliffs of Insanity, by the Roman Wall. There, we climbed some warmups 5.6's and 5.8's with the Wilsons and their extended family visiting from Louisiana. After warming up a little, we headed over to Magoo Rock to sample some of the climbs we hadn't tried before.

Mad props to Jaime for flashing a 5.9+ and .10b on her first outdoor trip, both on lead. Also big props to Josh (aka Big Sexy Daddy, or "BSD") for flashing an .11a on Magoo. All the routes were great fun, although the .11a was more of a short crux; the .10b was more fun and required varied climbing using sidepulls and stemming.

Here's Angie on the 5.9+:

From HCR 11-28-09

We headed down to get comfy in a cabin with daylight failing around 4:45pm, had a couple beers with dinner (thanks again to the Wilson family!) and headed back out to do some nighttime bouldering at the South Idahos. Angie, Josh, John and I climbed on some V1 to V3's, including Crescent, which had thwarted me on the last trip. Topping out in the dark felt a little scary. :)

Day 2 was a bouldering day at the North Forty. We started by the Warmup boulder doing various problems before heading over to the Honeycomb boulder. This boulder has a series of good face problems with a decently high and slopey topout to make you thankful for spotters.

From HCR 11-28-09

At the HC boulder, the quote of the day is attributed to Jaime. John and Jaime worked on the left-most V3 (name?), figuring out beta and trading burns. After John got the send, Jaime immediately said, "Well, I'm not going to be shown up by my husband" and promptly threw down the problem. First V3 outdoors too! Nice job. :)

I sent a V4 two problems to the right of that problem on the same boulder, then looked towards the Leatherface boulder for a good try on the namesake problem, V7. I'd tried this several times on my last trip and felt reasonably sure I could get the send, but it was not to be. I ended up getting very close to making the last crux move and linked it from the middle a few different times, but couldn't pull it off. John & Jaime even tried to motivate me by telling me Big Steve Xu had crushed the problem (not going to let some kid show you up, are you?), but even that wasn't enough to get me up the boulder. Heh.

Around mid-day, we had to say good-bye to the Krefts. The Wilsons had left that morning to return to St. Louis because of a prior commitment, so it was just Angie and I. Angie was saving skin for the next day and I was wrecked, so we called it an early day.

We awoke to a gloomy Day 3 and hurriedly packed the car fearing rain would shorten our day. Angie had never done the routes at the North 40, so we had a good time running up a 5.7, 5.8, another 5.8 and a 5.10a to the left of Crimp Scampi (name eludes me). Angie did a great job with the send of the .10a second go. I had spied a V5/5.12a/b 30 foot route on the backside of the Warmup Boulder and took a recon burn on that. The V5 has apparently been solo'd several times by intrepid boulderers, but it's a full 35 feet tall with the crux at the very top. I fell at the very end on my second go (roped up), and that would be a very scary move to pull that high up. The fall would almost certainly result in a hospital trip (or worse) because of a large tree directly in the fall zone.

We had to get back to St. Louis early, so we packed it up and called it a day. Nice weekend trip. Here are the rest of the pics.

A Conversation Between Thom and Calvin

From the depths of the depraved mind we call Joey Kreidel (Team Tuesday)... note that Thommy is the one in the skirt. And I somehow have a mustache. Nevermind, it's all about the conversation, right?

The Spot - Vid from some locals

Well, somewhat locals. Aaron's moved back to Cincy now. You may have seen this already, but here's some cool shots of Peter Hill and Aaron Schneider, a local strong kid sending V4-6 and working a V10 at the Spot, So Ill. Got this from Schneider's FB page.

The Roost - Nov 22, 2009 - UPDATED 12-4

Climbers - Topher, Chad, Dave & Calvin
Weather - is it really November?

Here are the rest of the pics. See the new video below. Sorry, no vid of the send - I missed it.

A couple of weeks ago, we headed down to the Falls to do some bouldering at the Roost. I'd been hearing about this spot for a few years, but never got the chance to go. The Roost is a series of small cliff lines jutting out, with few stand alone boulders. This makes some of the topouts susceptible to runoff and dirt accumulation, but the climbing was very fun. I suspect a little cleaning will go a long way.

Warming up was a little hard; the easiest problem we tried was a V3 with a powerful pocket move, but we made do and had great fun. After warming up a little, we met Eric and Greg (or Graham?) - Eric we'd met on a prior trip to the Beach and Greg was cleaning a new problem to the left of the Oriole.

The Oriole V5 is a stand start off two good underclings, to a decent sloper-pinch and a fun topout. The first move is the crux, then it eases considerably. Hard to grade such problems, but V5 sounds good to me. Eric was working on the sit-start that Jason Kehl had put up a while ago. The sit goes at V9 (apparently) and involves falling into an awkward sidepull pinch, pulling through and standing into the right undercling that is the standstart of Oriole.

Here's a vid of Chad working and sending Oriole (nice job!):

The Oriole V5/3 from Chad Tenbroek on Vimeo.

Afterwards, we climbed Cold Turkey V2?, the new problem Greg had just cleaned and climbed and moved to the right into Redneck Swing V5. Not in the book, and not sure if that's the real name, but we have some video to post of it so if you know the real name, let me know. Here's the vid:

Redneck Swing (Really Harvest Swing) V5 from Calvin Hwang on Vimeo.

We got excited about trying Eternal Sunshine V8/9 after that. ES has a really stout side-pull start leading into decent slopers, heel-hooking and using these uber-fun undercling pinches. The crux is falling into the last undercling pinch and controlling the swing into a long move out right. Then topping out is no easy matter either. I couldn't pull the crux at all. Topher did a good job launching for the hold, but no dice.

We finished out the day on a V4 that is the stoutest V4 I've worked in a while. Name anyone? Definitely hard to do at the end of the day, but quality.

I left thinking it was too bad some of the topouts were so dirty, but that also made me think I could contribute a bit of time helping to keep some of the boulders cleaner. I sometimes take climbs for granted and it was good to see the amount of work necessary to make climbing good problems a reality for others. More pics to come.

Last weekend was a trip to HCR; I'll post pics and a TR later.

FIRST FLIGHT

Aeropostale Part 2

A pretty awful story greeted my return to the Southwest of France. After more than 4 hours of train ride, we were 5 minutes from entering Agen's train station, my final destination when we heard a very loud noise as if the train had rolled over rocks. Then the train halted right away. Long story short.... "accident corporel". A very "litterary" way to tell us someone had thrown him/herself under the train. Oh gosh. In hindsight thinking we actually rolled over someone. YUK. We remained at standstill for two hours. I do not have to draw you a picture what the police and firemen were busy doing..... Thanks god it was dark.. Did not have really desire to look out! Sad story.

On a happier note....
While all of you were eating, no doubt, some most excellent turkey and other pecan pies, I spent the day going through a most interesting media marathon. Yes a new one for me.
8 in the morning, Yves (the writer) and I are at a local radio station for a speedy 10 minute interview live. I drove from my parents house about 80 miles from Toulouse that very morning so by the time I get to Yves' house I have had 3 or 4 cups of coffee and little food. I'll let Yves do most of the talking on the interview trying to mute my gargling stomach! Great on live radio. Fine timing! That will teach me to think an overdose of coffee was a good idea!

As we exit from the studio, Yves rushes to a boulangerie thinking he definitely needs to help me adjust my diet! Sweet! One pain au chocolat and all is well.
Then it is on to the newspaper (where one of my brothers happens to work). Interview for an article which came out today, and lunch with my bro and his wife.


An hour and it is on to a small airfield where the official launch of the book will take place towards the end of the afternoon,
which is spent talking to different medias, "playing pilots" in the beautiful replica of a Breguet 14, the only flying replica of that plane specially flown to Toulouse for that event. Judge for yuorself. yes getting in the plane is a V2 in itself, which I am proud to say I sent in a skirt! :)


Being in that cockpit is quite an amazing sensation which gives me a bit more of the measure of these pilots "madness". Once sitting in position, you are so deep in that you barely see anything, not to mention the fairly bare look of the mechanics surrounding you!
Yes Burke I am pretty sure the cabin is a bit different on the MD80! Would you dare?


I did the following day, invited to take a stroll! Unbelievable, and exhilarating to think I was flying on a machine held by a few cables and stretched plastified fabric! Any little wind gust was quite effective in giving you a bit of a thrill.
Suddenly the pilot's hand rose up holding a camera pointed back at me. Hummm he is taking photos, who is holding the stick? As far as I know 1914-18 planes had no automatic pilots! Great! I do not have these pict yet but I am sure they will look delightful since these leather pilot hats and goggles look so fashionable! He He.

I did not have th chance to fly the day of the event as the night came quickly and Yves and I started a marathon of book signing. About 115 books within a couple of hours or more I do not know.
I know the cold came as we were in the hanger and I drew the last ones with freezing hands. Ah the road to glory is a hard one!

And this what happens when exhaustion takes over...a blurr


The evening ended in a restaurant (but of course!) with some most delicious French food. Yup. Life is hard.
Tomorrow I leave my parent's house for Paris for another crazy week (I'll be back in Toulouse in 2 days...back in Paris in 5)

ONCE APON A TIME IN PARIS

One member of Team Saucisson leaves the rope in the ropebag for a bit (no no not too long I hope) and embarks in a new kind of adventure:

Aéropostale, chapter 1.
Yesterday night was the first event organized for the launching of my book, my first step in a totally unknown (to me) world of book tour and speed signing, yes an adventure indeed.
The location: Avenue Marceau, 2 minutes from the Arc de Triomphe in a beautiful old Hotel Particulier which was the very location for the office of Pierre George Latécoère, founder of the Aéropostale airline in 1918, of which the book tells the story.



Weather...beautiful. No one told me the Indian summer is lingering here. Yes my down jacket is a bit too cozy!
I arrived early to make sure I would see the book before people started to come in. Indeed this was to be my first look at it...the downside of living so far away!
Emotionnal moment. The real pleasure and pride to see these months of hard and passionate work find their conclusion in something beautiful.
My brother in law Gilles is already there. Then people start pouring in. In 5 minutes...I have the time to see a few pages and Philippe the editor takes me around to shake hands. Smiles....people telling "how beautiful..." more smiles more hand shaking...compliments.... my head is already spinning. I am floating in a semi state of conscious foggy euphoria. The jetlag is kicking in a bit. Nothing a glass of wine will not cure.



After Philippe Terrancle, the editor introduces us and the host of the night, PG Latécoère's grand-son's wife, Yves (the writer) gives a little speech and hand it to me...to talk to the crowd. Oh great. Now it is the time to embarrass yourself Sof, Sweaty palms. Words come out of my mouth..... Do not ask to tell you what I said, no clue. Wonder if few words in English slipped out. People smile, applaud. Good they must have understood most of it!
After mingling a bit more with dear cousins, nephews, sister...friends and total strangers who keep smiling at me, it is time to get busy. Yves and I are invited to sit at a table and the signing saga starts. I do not know how many books came under our pens, that part is a total blur! Finding the words, trying not to repeat yourself too much. Attempting wit or pseudo poetry...and then the first person who comes asks for a little drawing, Ah the trap! Because of course as soon as I did it for one.....the rest of the guests in line want one too.

Jean-Michel, Cecile and Hubert, friends from Art School (...back in the eighties...)



And here I went drawing the little Breguet 14 (the bi-plane which was one of the main airplanes used by the Aéropostale). By the end I was on automatic pilot (ah ah Burke will relate). It was like I was watching my arm draw. My brain was not involved anymore. And my hand was cramping. (Great so I get a tendonitis on my left elbow because of climbing, now a "signing elbow" is looming for the right arm...he he.
And this was the "un-official launch" of the book! The 26 is the actual date of the book release in the bookstores, and the date of a special event in Toulouse with an actual Breguet 14 rebuilt as it was in the 20s. I am "bracing" myself.
26 of November. Thanksgiving day.... A good omen.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I do have a LOT to be thankful for. Indeed.
Till Chapter 2....

Joe Kreidel on Righteous Beast - Tucson

From Team Tuesday - go check out their site!

AEROPOSTALE

Thanks Calvin for the promo!
I made it to Paris and will make sure to update the blog with the stories from the the homeland.
To give a bit more precisions about the book, AEROPOSTALE, les carnets de vol de Léopold, iy recounts the story of the first airmail airline which was launched in 1918 by PG Latécoère, and for which the famous Antoine de St. Exupéry, the author of "the little prince" flew. Yves Marc, a jopurnalist/writer tell the story, I give you the images.... More to come. Here is the cover

Other News - Sophie in Paris

In other, related news, Team Saucisson member Sophie is in Paris for a book opening tour. Sophie is a gifted artist who has recently done the art and design work for a book recounting the start of air travel in France. I've implored her to start posting on the blog so we can enjoy news from the Continent.

Jackson Falls - Nov 15, 2009

Climbers - Angie & Calvin
Weather - a little warm

In other news - found out that St. Louis local Zavi was elected to the ICA (Illinois Climbers Association) board. Also, that starting Dec 1, the rope ladder is going to be removed and bolts installed to create a 5.7 route. The rope ladder by Lovely Tower will stay, which isn't that far from the current rope ladder, so it's not that big of a loss.

Also, news is that a new bill has being introduced to reclassify "recreational use" in the recreational land-use statute in Illinois, hopefully leading to the re-opening of Draper's Bluff in the not too distant future. Please contact your Illinois representatives if you're on that side of the border!!!

I don't think chopping the rope ladder is that great of an idea. But, to be fair, there aren't that many "easy" routes at JF and rumor has it that the Forest Service wasn't happy about the rope ladder because of safety concerns (which doesn't explain the Lovely Tower one staying, but whatever).

On to the Climbing
Angie and I headed out to Jackson to enjoy the weather and do a little climbing. I was planning to set at the gym, but found out we have a charity event lasting most of the night so that idea was nixed.

We started out slow and got to the Falls a bit late around 10:30am. We decided to head over to Cheerio Bowl and met Jon Richards, Jeff, Zavi and (Z's girlfriend? wife?) over there. Angie led Stubborn Swede, 5.8 at the Monument. It's got some nice slabby climbing at the top, very fun. Afterwards, Jon loaned me a couple cams and I put up Unclaimed, 5.9 (mixed). Unclaimed seems hard for the grade, with a couple moves requiring pull-ups and tough smearing, but with rewarding slab climbing at the end. Running it out isn't recommended, but I've runout the top before. Spicy.

In the meantime, Jon tried Space Cowboy, .12b a couple times and Z redpointed Detox Mountain, .12a. nice job! Described as a "tendon-friendly" route, DM is a classic enduro-climb, with good holds most of the way and no real definitive crux (unless you're really short). I hadn't been on this route in 2.5 years or so and didn't really remember the beta, but I sent it hanging the draws. It was getting somewhat damp and my foot skated off between bolts 3 and 4, eliciting a giggle (you know, the "wow, I should have fallen, glad I didn't" chuckle). I also completely missed another hold and re-fired just in time... all in all, a pretty ugly ascent.

Afterwards, Angie worked on a .10c (name?) right before the Town Square wall. Soph, we've climbed this before... it's before we get to that short wall of three 5.9's and one 5.10b across... Angie got to the last bolt but didn't pull the crux. She's psyched about the climb and has added to the project list. The best news is that her finger seems almost completely healed.

At this point, it was around 4pm, so we started hiking out. I looked for Iniquity, .12a, which is to the right of Aggro-Sheen, but when we finally located it, we saw that a tree had fallen directly over it. I'm not sure what the solution is, but it looks like you'd have to rap in with a chain saw and cut the tree away (it's a pretty big tree). Until then, no climbing.

That made me opt for Hidden Treasure, .12a at Lovely Tower. I think this is a really good climb. Fun opening moves, with good rests lead into a sustained, crimpy crux of about 15 feet. I worked the sequence a couple times and felt confident and came down to rest. Of course, I forgot how fast the light fails around 4:45pm these days... and started getting nervous 2 minutes later when darkness literally fell around us. I hurried up and tried to climb it but one-fell it. I actually felt nervous about even finishing it because it was getting dark enough I though I'd have to pull out the headlamp to see the holds. They're definitely small and a bit tough to use. I felt thankful just to get my draws back (although I was probably being a little paranoid) and we called it a day.

Very nice way to spend the day. Hope your weekend was great!

Panther Peak Bouldering - Team Tuesday, Tucson, AZ

In news from Team Tuesday and Chris Prewitt, a new area is going up around Tucson. It's relatively close, with a decent hike (45min?), but with lots of good potential. Given the paucity of good bouldering close to Tucson, this seems like a great find.

Check out Team Tuesday and a new site about Tucson bouldering put up by these guys (under construction). They've also opened up information on mountainproject.com.

Good luck with the discoveries, cleaning and rewarding FA's!

NIAD - Nose in a Day

By Mark Hudon, age 54, and apparently quite the climber back in the day.

Read this excellent TR if you have a few min.

The Red, November 6 - 8, 2009 (UPDATE - Day 3)

Climbers - Yusuf, Little John, Calvin
Weather - Crisp, Clear and Cold... and then a bit warm

It was a weekend of fun tries. Sometimes, you don't send. John and I drove down to meet Yusuf at the Red. Yusuf had already been there for several days and had already sent Tuskan Raider .12d at The Dark Side. We got there at 2am Friday morning, setup our tent and quickly crashed for the night. A few minutes later, I heard a car approach; little did I know it was Yoli and Christian, freshly married and returned from a honeymoon/wedding in Hawaii. Congrats!

Day 1 was Friday. We awoke to a brilliant blue sky, but very cold temps. We ate breakfast quickly and headed to the Sanctuary in Muir Valley. John's project was Jesus Wept, .12d, a brilliant climb starting on a slight overhang and moving into precision vertical climbing at the crux.

Yusuf started with a beta run on Prometheus Unbound, .13a, one of his mini-goals for his trip. PU starts to the left of JW, but looks heinous, with a variety of difficult pockets, sidepulls and devious cruxes. After sussing beta, Yusuf lowered and John gave a strong attempt on JW. Our plan was for a beta run, but he felt good and progressed through the lower crux to the high crux that involves moving from a right two (or three) finger pocket, a left 1 pad crimp to stabbing to a right mono. Yusuf claimed you could stack your fingers into this mono, but I couldn't manage that. John fell at the high crux, but felt pretty good.

I then tried JW (what the eff, the draws are already there, I thought). The lower crux involves a good left-handed crimp, and a pretty small right-handed crimp, angled the wrong way (to the left). You step both feet pretty high, and swing through to a hard deadpoint to a good pocket with your right hand. If you're not careful, your feet cut, but it's a good hold. After this, it's moderate .11 climbing to a very good rest, then .10 climbing to the high crux. I basically climbed it bolt to bolt, and thought, this is a bit beyond me.

Yusuf then promptly sent PU, skipping a high bolt for some spicy climbing! Nice job dude. That inspired John and I, so we geared up for a strong burn. John fell at the high crux again, after looking very strong. I surprised myself by climbing almost to the high crux, then finishing the climb after a brief rest. 1-hang on my second try, I thought I might have a chance to send that day.

Well, I thought. John looked strong on his third try, but fell at the same spot. I fell at the low crux a few times, and knew I was out of gas. Yusuf then worked on Triple Sec, .13a (soft?) to the right of JW, and we called it a day.

Day 2 started as another brilliant day at Solar Collector, a popular winter crag. Solar is studded with massive huecos throughout the wall, which is really weird looking, but striking all the same. It's also gang-banged by all the climbers looking to warm up for the Gold Coast and Dark Side climbs. It was a bit too hot to be there, but we had a good time, starting with Super Pinch, .10d (hard?), and moving steadily to the right. Solar is home to some of the best .11's in the Gorge - see Ethics Police and Buddha Hole, .11d. Our intent was Blue Eyed Honkey Jesus, .12c, but I knew very early on that was out of the question. You know those days where your arms tell you ahead of time that you're not sending anything hard. No sir.

John and I both sent BH, which has some great climbing. Yusuf got a bit of beta on BEHJ, fell early by accident, lowered, and promptly sent. Nice. John then flashed Supafly, .12b (soft?), making it look like a stroll in the park. Very nice! I biffed somewhere in the middle, and struggled to finish, gasping for air.

We then headed to the Darkside for a bit of reconnaisance; John worked Tuskan Raider, and I decided I was recovered enough to try Mama Benson, .12a, something I'd tried a long time ago. The high crux is a couple of long moves to small crimps, and I predictably fell there. Still, it was fun to try. :)

Day 3 was our last day. Another fine start, with temps even warmer than before. Yusuf took a rest day in preparation for an assault on The Force, .13a for Monday. We headed to the Gallery to check out Mosaic, .12c. After warming up a bit, I gave it a recon burn and hung draws. The route starts with a small scramble, then a minor crux leading into an overhung but moderate, say .10+ section to the 5th bolt. You get a great rest here.

Moving out of this, you criss-cross left-right, from a good sidepull to a bad right hand, move up to some bad slopey crimps (clip), then move hard left to a very good finger-sized sidepull (left). It gets both delicate and powerful here: you have to grab a bad right hand hold to move your left hand up to the positive top of the sidepull, and stab to a good two-finger pocket. Good footwork really helps. From here, it's a hard clip, then two worse holds lead to some high stepping into a left-hand undercling, which is the so-called crux. I think everything from the 6th bolt to the end is one big red-point crux, with no super hard single move. It really burns your forearms to make it though. I made good progress and one-fell on my third try. John manned up and hiked it second go!

That was a common theme for the weekend; I struggled with endurance and power. John simply got stronger and stronger as the days went by. After encouraging me on my 3rd try, he hopped on the .11d left of Mosaic and flashed it as a parting gift to himself. Nicely done.

We got back late to St. Louis Sunday night, happy the weather was so great and thankful to be outdoors for another great fall weekend. I took away a couple lessons: 1. I need to train more to do well at the Red if I expect to do better on mid-hard 12's and 2. Training is no longer just climbing a couple hours at the gym. I need to work on finger strength (read: hangboard) and forearm endurance, no easy thing in a gym only 32 feet tall. At the end, I'm still having great fun, so I'm looking forward to more great times outside!

Progression Video - Demencia Senil

OK, so BigUp pulled the video by complaining about copyright. Reasonable, I guess.

In the spirit of Progression posts, here's an extended video blog of Patxi Usobiaga - there was a clip of him doing his crazy training in Progression (from Bjorn Pohl's website):

VIDEO BLOG2- del panel a Mugarra from patxi usobiaga on Vimeo.

Via Videoclimb and from BigUP, Sharma on a 40-50 ft 5.15a route (short clip from the new Progression movie). I saw this at the Reelrock Film Tour at the Red a few weekends ago. Horrible two-finger pockets and mono's, that remind me of Action Direct (Gullich's .14d masterpiece):



Speaking of AD, here's a brilliant video floating around the interwebs of Rich Simpson training and climbing it:

Obsession from Chris Doyle on Vimeo.

It's the Fall!!!

I have some pics to come. Just got back from the Red and I've gotten some pics from our recent bouldering day at the Beach and Graveyard.

A thousand thanks to the organizers of the Rocktoberfest at the Gorge. Facebook the RRGCC and donate to the cause!

Bouldering at HCR (& the 24HHH comp)

Climbers - Yusuf, Chad and Calvin
Weather - fantastic


In other news being posted around the web, the 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell 2009 edition has come and gone. Congrats to all the participants and thanks to all the volunteers (I guess I'm thanking myself). This is Jon & Russell, who both did great at the comp:

I had a good time volunteering and want to compliment Andy Chasteen and Beka especially for putting on a great event and staying up to make sure it ran smoothly. By the way, the new Arkansas guidebook by Cole Fennel is just fantastic. I got the chance to look through one and highly recommend it. I'm going to buy one soon and hopefully go to some other areas I had no clue existed (maybe the locals won't be so happy about the book).

We arrived a day early on Thursday night and decided to get some bouldering in. Friday morning started as a brilliantly blue day and we made the most of it. I even got to break my streak of bad climbing weather (finally!). We started at the South Idahos, and my lack of a climbing book is going to hinder me, but we started at the big boulder which I'll call the Dig Dug boulder, for lack of a better name.

The far right holds a warmup V1, the far left a warmup V2. To the left of the V1 is a V3. Here's Chad working on it:


To the right of the V2 (this is on the left side of the boulder), is Dig Dug, a "classic" V4. DD is very fun and I enjoyed it. We tried a couple variations and V4 seemed right on. Afterwards, we moved on to War Bonnet V5, which is a great problem. I heard War Bonnet used to be V4, but the new guide has it at V5. I'm shitty at grading, so either seems right to me. Yusuf and I sent this after working out some beta (go left? go right? try both?). It has a nice overhanging crimpy start, with a strong move to some good slopers and has a satisfying topout. We then tried Crescent, a tricky slab V3. Noone got an ascent and we all blamed the weather. Works for me. Yusuf found a cool variation starting from the right of Crescent and leading into the big sidepull; also no sends, and seems about the same grade. Anyone try it? Yusuf on Crescent:


From there, we did a very nice V2 just down from Crescent; it starts low on crimps and has a couple long moves - the holds almost look manufactured they are so nice! I don't know the name of this one either, sorry. From there, we looked around for some climbs and decided on the Idahos. We had trouble identifying the climbs and did a weird V4 variation to what we thought was a V7, then did the standstart on Moondye V5 on the left side of the boulder. The full Moondye is V9 and looks cool but incredibly difficult. The standstart alone took Yusuf multiple tries to send (no sending from moi) and involves some compression moves on sidepull crimps. Whenever I think a gym problem is too weird, I always have to remind myself that problems like Moondye also exist outdoors.

That pretty much ended the day. Saturday morning found us at the North Forty. We started at the Warmup boulder on a highball V0, which was fun but a bit scary. After that was the Tang (?) boulder, home to Orb Weaver V7. Described as solid for the grade, OW starts on a layback flake, moves right into a crimpy undercling, and requires a strong core and good footwork to traverse right into tough crimps before topping out. I got to the undercling but couldn't make it past into the crimps. Yusuf fell going into the crimps multiple times. Tough but very cool. We tried a V2 warmup variation to the left and Yusuf worked on some heinous compression problem with bad slopers to the right along with some dudes already there. We had full sunlight by then, and that made it hard to stick some holds.

I talked Chad and Yusuf into going to the Leatherface boulder (I it has another name) where I hopped on the V4 and then worked on Leatherface. Me on Leatherface V7:


Leatherface is a horizontal crimp climb that demands good footwork and some dynamic movement. I pieced all the moves together and made a valiant effort on my one send attempt, but didn't have time to try again before needing to leave for my first volunteer shift that night. Fracknabit!! It'll wait for a return trip. Yusuf finished by working on the Honeycomb Traverse V6 - which is quite long and we called it a day.

After watching and interacting with several climbers from other states (I even met some from the DC area), I think I'm getting the itch to try the comp again next year. We'll see. The rest of the pics are here.

The Red (River Gorge) - Labor Day weekend

Climbers - Tall Tim, Carine, Doug, Angie and Calvin
Weather - good, bad, then ugly

First, a big shoutout for Deb's awesome power cookies. Doug also makes a mean banana bread. That couple can flat out bake, yo.

Day 1, Saturday. Weather: Good.
We made good time Friday night to get to Lago Linda's around 1:30am local time. The highlight of the roadtrip was passing a burning van; literally engulfed in flames, with people standing not 20 feet away and the cops just sitting there letting cars go by. The gas tank looked ready to explode in about 30 seconds, but I guess the cops had it under control.


Saturday morning we headed to the PMRP, parked at Sore Heel and headed to Rival Wall. Doug and I started on Days of Thunder 5.9, while Carine, Tim and Angie put up the draws on Rorschach Inkblot Test 5.8+. It gets the '+' for having an awful waisthigh shelf-start. Other than that, fun 5.8. Next to RIT is Monobrow .10a, which climbs crimps and uses an arete. Deserves at least 4 stars for tricky and intricate climbing. Tim did a great job leading and Angie and Carine TR'd. Doug and I also tried Lobster Claw, .12a. LC is a heavily pocketed vertical wall. It had a bail biner at the third draw, so we figured what the heck, if we can't send, then at least we have an easy way down. Turns out it was way fun; we both sent second go after beta burns. I think Doug could have flashed it but decided to 'fall' in the easy mid-10 part just to make me feel better. Thanks Doug!

Rival also has two long and fun .10c's: Delayed Gratification and Hatfield. Both are about 80 feet long and 'slightly pumpy.' Slightly my arse. After we put the draws up, Tim, Carine and Angie had fun climbing these.




















Day 2, Sunday. Weather: Bad


Sunday we headed over to the Gallery. The Gallery is home to 27 years of climbing 5.8, described as 'the best 5.8 in the Gorge.' Bold claim. I can't really evaluate it because I had to clean it in the rain. :) Angie and Tim took turns leading it, but Carine didn't get a chance due to sore fingers. We had enough time to also put up Murano .10b and Johnny B. Good, .11a (very soft), but the heavens opened right around noon. We sat under the cliff getting soggified until we decided on a dignified exit.

After heading back to the campsite, we talked over our options and decided to stop by Roadside (yes, our old rainy day standby) for a quick burn on Tic-Tac-Toe, .12b. Tim, Carine and Angie had declared themselves climbed out, so Doug and I tried this one.

TTT is a 4 bolt 60 foot climb, so it feels a little heady, but the climbing is juggy and pumpy and not too bad until the last bolt. Here, you probably have something like a V3/4 crux guarding the anchors. Doug returned the favor and worked beta out until finding a sequence and shared with me. Pumpy bastard (the climb, not Doug). We tried for a redpoint second go, but we didn't make it. Miguel's pizza afterwards made up for the lack of sending. :)

Day 3, Monday. Weather: Ugly.
Monday, we headed back to the Gallery to try and give Tim and Carine another chance on 27 Years. I didn't mention that the lines had been awful on Sunday. The word is out on 27 years, and however the climb actually is (it's good, but I didn't think it was I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E; okay, maybe I'm a cynic), people want to try it because it gets 5 stars in the guidebook. While that was being climbed, Doug and I put up A Brief History of Climb .10c and The King Lives On, .10b. Click on The King and check out the picture - I swear it looks right out of Jackson Falls. Climbs like it too. Me like. Very much. Doug too.
Look:


Angie decided to lead Murano, .10b and was having a great time until the heavens decided to open back up. That effectively ended our day. Carine and Tim both tried A Brief History of Climb on TR, and Doug graciously cleaned it. I used an existing bail biner to clean Murano and we packed up and headed out.

It was a partially soggy weekend, but we had a great time nonetheless. I hope to get back soon and try Different Strokes, .11c (supposed to be very atypical climbing for the Red and Mosaic). Here are the rest of the pics.

The Beach - Sept 13, 2009

Climbers: Chad Tenbroek, Calvin
Weather: Breezy and Nice

I forgot to update the blog on our recent trip to the Red 2 weekends ago. I'll get that up soon.

Yesterday, Chad and I drove down to "The Beach," a little collection of isolated boulders on the Illinois side of the Mississippi. It's not far from The Holies (which are now closed for the same reason Draper's Bluff got shutdown) or some other local bouldering spots.

We didn't climb at the Gallery, which is about 10 minutes away up the banks, but spent most of our day on the Sex on the Beach boulder. This is a house-sized boulder with problems all along the edges. Due to shifting water and sands, the starts were several feet higher than listed in Matt Bliss's guidebook, but we managed. :)

On the side facing the water are two face problems, the one on the left V0?. You start on a left pocket and jump to get your right hand into a crack/side-pull feature. I understand that higher sand makes for an easier start. To the right of this problem is a V1/2(?) with good face climbing moves. It's to the left of Jimbo and I understand it's not in Matt's book. Both had fun topouts.

Immediately to the right is Jimbo, V4. Probably the most fun I had. You start on good crimps, work your way up out a small roof and have to dyno (not really dyno, but definitely a big move) to a hard to see right-handed incut on the lip of the quasi-roof. Get your feet back on, move your left hand up and match on a slopey rail. Also good. Here, it gets a little harder: you bring your feet up and deadpoint to a right hand feature. The rock is rounded here in classic So-Ill style so you have to figure out blind feet placement, match and fight your way up a little. The second time was much easier than the first. Chad and I worked on this problem and had great fun.

Next was Sex on the Beach, V6 (soft?), to the right of Jimbo. Following a slightly steeper part of the roof, it's almost like Jimbo, except with longer moves and a couple harder to use holds. I got my beta wrong the first few times, then used a nice righthand hold I'd missed (assumed it was for the next problem since it was kinda far away) and sent it. There's a similar deadpoint move up top, but it's a bit further away albeit easier to use once you latch on to it. Chad skipped SOTB because of a left arm injury, and we had fun climbing Jimbo.

I don't have any pics b/c I forgot the camera, but the Beach is pretty scenic for So Ill. The river didn't smell too bad and a constant breeze kept things nice and cool. We got to wave at barges going by and the view from the top of the boulder is cool. We'll probably head back someday to check on the Gallery area, but this was a nice, short day.

The Joy of Climbing

Sometimes, when climbing, you get that inexplicable joy. That feeling of contentment, accomplishment, thrill of completion, sheer happiness, whatever you want to call it. It doesn't matter if it's easy or hard; sometimes, it's just great.

Here are two videos that show that joy. The first is a nice 2007 video of Ethan Pringle on Iron Resolution V13 in Joshua Tree. You get the added bonus of a Michael Reardon showing (although he yaps a bit too much). I first got clued in to this video via the Narc's site.

Iron Resolution w/Interview Video by Cary Carmichael - MySpace Video

Shared via AddThis

The second is great video of a dude on The Power of Landjager V11 in Hueco Tanks. I've embedded it here. This guy's reaction is much simpler: a quiet sigh and look of contentment crosses his face upon the send.

Power of Landjager from Joshua Haynes on Vimeo.

Both reactions are priceless and both brought a smile to my face. Hope you like them as much as I did.

Jackson Falls - August 29, 2009

Climbers - Tony, Calvin
Weather - Superlative-inducing

In other news, Rob Armstrong captured the Second Annual Chili Cookoff (tm), hosted by Josh Behrends and Catherine Walsh. Rob placed first among 8 entries. There were rumors of a vote-counting controversy, but I didn't see any hanging or pregnant chads. Nice job Rob!

Also, Team Saucisson member Tony is headed back to grad school for a year of intensive study. We wish him luck as he starts on Wednesday and hope he can find some time to get out on the rock.

Early day. We saw that the weather was going to be a high of 79, with zero chance of rain, so we bolted for a day of climbing at the Promised Land. 4am had me swearing at the alarm clock, but I was packed the night before and made it to Tony's by 4:48. 5 minutes later we were on the road. 7:30 found us at the parking lot and by 8:15 we were at the Promised Land. Good start.

It was a bit humid, but I knew that moisture levels were supposed to drop throughout the day and they did. We warmed up on XOXO .10b, then moved over to Fashionably Late, .11a. I'd TR'd this years ago to clean it, and it was a very enjoyable lead. Very crimpy, a bit sustained through the crux, and a good way to wake up your forearms.

A few minutes later, we moved over to Hubba Hubba, .12a/b (sandbag?) which had thwarted attempts on our last trip around bolt 6 for Tony. Tony put up the draws, cleaned the route and polished beta. Thanking Tony, I tried the route (last time I did it bolt to bolt after bolt 3) and made it to bolt 5 before whiffing. The climbing is nice and intricate; you climb three bolts to a sidepull rest, clip the fourth bolt out right, where it begins to move diagonally right for the rest last 4 bolts. The last 4 bolts are progressively more difficult simply for endurance reasons... they're all probably V2/+ '-ish' boulder problems, albeit on a slightly overhung face and on sloper holds.

Tony redpointed it very nicely on his next try. Right before bolt 7 is a semi-good finger rail. He pulled the second-to-last crux and rested there for a few minutes. It looked like such a great rest, I thought all I had to do was make it there and recharge like Tony. Funny thing is, I didn't remember it being that good of a rest, but I figured Tony had found a better grip or foot placement. Nope. Turns out he just has more endurance and finger strength than I do. I couldn't rest on that piece of shit finger-rail to save my life.

I fell right before that bolt, and again right after, for a 2-hang try. So it went on the next try as well. Better luck next time, I suppose. Meantime, Tony tried Poseur, .12b (definite sandbag), the first route to the left of Team Honda. Poseur and its 2 brethren are on a band of striking orange rock, increasingly overhung as you negotiate the 7-8 bolts. They're also extremely dirty from lack of traffic. Tony found this out to his woe after grabbing dirt and sand bolt after bolt. With some cleaning, it looks to be a classic Promised Land route, but has several cruxes; I tried it on TR and there is a powerful crux at bolt 3, some strong moves, then a moderate crux leading you into another very powerful/balancey crux at bolt 6 or 7 (not remembering too well).

We only climbed 4 routes for a total of 6 laps, but that was enough to fry us both. Tired, but happy, we left around 3:45 and got back to St. Louis around 7:15, in time for the party at Josh's and Catherine's. Hope you had a great weekend as well!

Exercise (Cure?) for Tennis/Golf Elbow - Lateral (Outside) & Medial (Inside) Epicondylitis

If you've climbed for any length of time, you've experienced elbow problems. As a group, it's no surprise to us that we're particularly susceptible to overuse injuries; think of all the finger pulley problems, wrist/ankle and shoulder issues, etc.

A NYtimes article has shown demonstrable success by researchers from the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

"After less than two months of treatment, the researchers terminated the experiment. The early results had been too unfair. The control group had showed little or no improvement. But the rubber-bar-using group effectively had been cured. Those patients reported an 81 percent improvement in their elbow pain and a 72 percent improvement in strength."

The best part? It's "effective and supremely cheap."

Check out this vid on how to perform the exercise (lateral epicondylitis):


Here's a link to purchase the Theraband Flexbar. I think I'm going to buy one soon.

Here's an updated vid for medial epiconylitis "Golfer's Elbow"

Yosemite Trip Report

A quick read through Team Saucisson and you can tell Calvin had Yosemite on the brain... I didn't climb El Cap in a day, I didn't dislocate a wrist with a finger lock, and I didn't climb A5, but I did manage to have an incredible trip. First things first - thanks to all of the St. Louis climbers who helped me train this summer, offering up countless belays and pushing me on harder routes. All of the work paid off; we managed to climb some 7000 vertical feet in our 10 days in the park, climbed a few 10's on gear, and learned how to aid climb. Yosemite definitely opened my eyes to what is possible in rock climbing. I'll organize this post by route, since nearly everything we climbed was a great suggestion from someone in St. Louis. Every day we tried to push ourselves with a longer route, or a more difficult route. Every day we came down swearing it was the best line we'd ever climbed. That's a good way to finish a trip.

Our first day out we climbed Nutcracker (5 pitches, 5.8) on Manure Pile Buttress. This route warns of a 'difficult mantle' on the fourth pitch, but Jackson Falls had us well prepared. I led the odd pitches, starting with a thin crack 5.9 variation. The crux move is a high foot on 'polished stone'. The crux occurred on the first move and I definitely learned the definition of polished! A two foot fall onto a yellow TCU and I was in the business. Thankfully, this would be one of only two minor falls all week long. The route featured fun moves, a two minute approach hike and an easy walk off. A great introduction to Yosemite.

The next day we climbed Central Pillar of Frenzy (5 pitches, 5.9) on Middle Cathedral. This route offered super consistent 5.9 crack climbing, with everything from fingers to chimney moves. I led the even pitches, which offered lots of fingers and small hands, a few lieback moves and a perfect double crack system. For the second day, this climb felt hard, but it was perfect to help us get more comfortable on the granite and the small and big stuff alike. Central Pillar also sits across the meadow from El Cap, so the entire day we looked out and saw tourists like ants photographing climbers. We also drooled over ourselves staring at El Cap.


Feeling confident on 5.9 cracks, we wanted to push our endurance, so we returned to Middle Cathedral to climb the NE Buttress (11 pitches, 5.10a A0). Pitch 5 features amazing variety. A slabby face goes 5.10c or A0 as a bolt ladder. I gave the onsight a try, clipping the first two bolts before falling. In the interest of time, I started pulling on draws and moving through the ladder. From there, the pitch traverses left into a 5.9 trad roof that offered a mental crux, and then a long section of 5.6 hands in a large flake. I love how hard pitches yield the best belay ledges: suddenly we had huge exposure and long sight lines far into the valley. A sea of pine trees and granite, plus the silence of having the wall to ourselves.

The rest of the climb passed quickly, with Justin taking some awesome leads, and then graciously letting me take the last three pitches (which link into two, with one 60 m rope). A steep two hour hike home, but we were resting in camp by 4 pm, feeling great about our adventures.

The middle of the week was enjoyable, but slow climbing wise. We took a rest day and headed down to Mariposa Grove and the Giant Sequoias. The craziest part of the day was the crowds. Hundreds of people swarming 200 redwoods, but if you are willing to hike 20 minutes uphill (on a huge trail) you have the entire grove to yourself. Rain threatened on and off for the next two days, so we stayed close to the ground. We got in several single pitch climbs, including several aid leads, chimney sections, and my first 5.10c: a long offwidth flake (5.9) to a finger sized roof, about 6 feet in length (5.10c). The roof featured great pro and excellent feet; for my money the squeeze climb was much harder. Learning to aid climb was... not fun. Justin and I both agreed that it was a means to an end, not an endeavor to enjoy in its own right (at least for us). We stayed on easy C1, hammerless, terrain. Plugging cams and nuts in seams that we could free climb, just working the movement out, and keeping the triple racks and etriers organized.

By now, our spirits were soaring, the climbing had been amazing, the weather perfect. It may be hot in August, but if you can climb at Jackson, then you can definitely handle the 90 degree sun. We had two big goals/dreams left: El Cap and Half Dome.

We headed out to climb the East Buttress of El Cap (14 pitches, 5.10b), which even though its not on the head wall itself, still has several super exciting pitches and great views. The route starts hard, with a long 5.9 chimney. Thankfully Justin led up, and offered up (in my mind) the much more manageable pitch 2 - a 5.10b face move protected by small nuts and then a 5.9 finger groove. The next few pitches went quickly, including a bit of route finding and ant smashing. Pitch 8 offered one of my favorite 30' of climbing all week: a slightly overhanging 5.9 lieback, with smears and edges down low for your feet. I used my first ever heel hook on a trad line, hugging in close to put in the finger sized pro.

From Yosemite 2009

Some more 5.9 chimney and 5.9 face climbing above, then Justin led the strangest 5.8 of polished, pancacked face holds ever, before we made the long stretch to the top. We took the tourist variation descent by hiking to the summit of El Cap

From Yosemite 2009

and then nine miles back down, pausing to stop and see the Upper Yosemite Falls, which actually stopped flowing for the summer on our last day! Our longest day of trad climbing ever, coupled with a long hike, and we were exhausted. Fortunately, we were sharing our site in Camp 4 with some nice people (including a professional surfer) and enjoyed a good dinner.

Next, we debated. Were we ready to climb Half Dome? Were there other routes we would enjoy more? Half Dome sits at the far eastern edge of the Valley, looming over everything else. Its almost always visible, and as for many others, just begs to be climbed. After carefully considering the topo (almost nightly), we decided we could handle the 23 pitches at the 5.9 Aid 1 grade on the Regular Route.

From Yosemite 2009

We didn't have a haul bag, so the second would carry a backpack with all the water and bivy gear. Little did we know jumaring the rope as a second would be the mental and physical crux of the route!

We climbed the route in three long, enjoyable days. Day 1 we packed and hiked to the base of the climb, then fixed lines on the first three pitches of the route. We rappelled and slept/laid awake that night at the base of the cliff. A few other parties showed up, and everyone was nervous about sharing the wall. We 'woke' up at 4 am and started jumaring the fixed lines. Good decision - with one jumar and one prusik apiece, it took over an hour to get to the top of pitch 3. Regardless, we were on our way! Justin and I decided to block lead the climb, since transferring the pig and aid gear would be terribly time consuming. I took the morning shift, leading several long 5.9 pitches, a short 5.11c section (on aid) and the Robbins Traverse bolt ladder. We reached the top of pitch 11 at 1:30, fully committed now to the summit. Justin led the afternoon shift and did a remarkable job starting up three long chimney pitches (5.6, 5.9, 5.9). I stayed behind with the haul bag, cursing the pig at every possible chance.

From Yosemite 2009

We made Big Sandy Ledges and our dinner/bivy at the fading rays of 8 pm. I couldn't believe how well I slept, on a bed of climbing ropes, rocks and backpacks. We woke up to a cold morning, and a red and black sunrise far off in the valley, with just the leftover light reaching us. I'm sure the 11 California wildfires gave the sunrise its tint. The top seemed close now, but it would still be another 9 hours of slow work. We aren't incredible seasoned aid vets, and the next three pitches of Aid 1 (or 5.11 fingers to 5.10 roof) took us 6 hours to complete. No problem, since we were in the shade all morning, slowly sipping our liter of water apiece. I then led the final three pitches, each with more enthusiasm than the last.

First up, Thank God Ledge. A 40' traverse on a twelve inch shelf, with 1800 feet screaming below you. A real mental crux, followed by an exciting 5.8 squeeze section to anchors. I was pumped, since this was my first real chimney/squeeze lead with any sort of exposure (and since I dind't have to carry the pig -- thanks Justin!). Then, another bolt ladder with a tricky gear traverse. And finally, nearing on 3 pm, the final pitch of 5.7 slab/finger crack and then a blocky 5.5 section of mantle moves. Then we're standing on the summit!

The experience of climbing Half Dome was incredible. What I enjoyed most was that it took all of our experience to date with long free routes, aid climbing and lightweight backpacking. No one part was more difficult than anything we'd done to date, but in totality, gave us a chance to see ourselves in new situations with new challenges. The hardest part was keeping the energy up after a long day of hauling, but the excitement and adrenaline of the exposure and route helped us push through.

Thanks for reading this far. Yosemite was a great two weeks of climbing, friendship and scenery. I know I'll be heading back, and I hope you all will be joining me! More pics from the trip can be seen here.