More linkups in the cave!

Last week, with imposing clouds hanging over the Gallatin Canyon, Jess and I jumped ship on our plans to climb at the Cube after work and headed to the cave instead.  Since it's been raining so much this spring, we've been climbing at the Cave a ton and I've repeated everything there multiple times.  This time I wanted to do something different.  Certainly there must be another linkup to do!  As it turns out, climbing Weapons into Hantavirus is a pretty fun route.  I climbed Weapons to the third bolt and then headed left to the fourth bolt on Hanta.  It feels harder than Weapons and definately easier than Hanta, so I think it probably comes in around 12d.  I've never heard of anyone climbing this linkup, so I'm going to go ahead and call it Influenza.  A couple nights ago I was able to link it into Bi-Winning.  I'm still trying to figure out what to call it.  Maybe Droopy Eyed Armless Children? 

I've also been bouldering some more.  I headed out to Whiskey last week to try and finish off Boogey Monster, which I'd put some work in on a couple weeks ago.  It took a little figuring out, but I was finally able to put it together and send.  I also did a little wandering around and found a new boulder and put up a V5 called Redneck Yacht Club.  There's a cool problem with a two finger pocket next to it that I need to go out and finish off as well.  Here's a video I made from the day.  Enjoy!

Bouldering!

Well, it has certainly been a while since I posted last.  For all two of you out there that noticed, my appologies.  Jess and I have been getting out to climb quite a bit no thanks to all the rain we've been getting.  Lately, with the colder temeratures and the threat of rain pretty much every day, we've been doing some bouldering, which is not our typical routine.

A few weeks ago we headed down to Cody, WY to check out the bouldering there.  We had a really good time and climbed a lot of great problems.  I was able to tick off a couple of V9s at the Antelope Boulder, but the highlight of the trip was sending a V5 on the UFO boulder.  A normal strong-guy boulderer could have pulled hard off the starting holds and tossed for the lip and topped out.  I however am not a strong-guy boulderer, so my sequence involved tossing my foot up first, matching with a double toe hook and THEN bringing my hand up.  Super weird and super fun!

On Friday, I headed out to Whiskey for a little solo session.  I was able to finish a crimpy traverse problem on the Wave boulder that has taken me forever and then I moved on to the Green Monster (V9).  I've put a few days in on this thing so I wanted to see if I could finish it off.  After a little while, I managed to finally stick the crux and finish it off.  I am really psyched to have done that problem, it's classic!  Jess and I went out to Whiskey Saturday as well and had a good time.  Jess did a V4 on the Wave boulder and came really close to doing Opiate of the Masses (V4) on the Pope's boulder.

On Memorial Day, we decided to brave the horrible weather and see if we could get any climbing in at Yankee Jim.  Most everything was wet, so we got pretty shut down, but I was able to climb Sir Moves a Lot (V4) and the variation to the sit start to Way Out (V6).  The variation to the sit involves starting on a sloper for your left hand rather than an undercling.  The difference is pretty minimal, but the undercling way felt utterly impossible, while the variation wasn't so bad.  Funny how one slight difference for one hand can add two whole number grades.  I decided to mess around with shooting some video, so here is a quick one I put together.

Indian Creek!

Jess and I and our friend Ryan headed down to Indian Creek, UT last week for some sunshine, beautiful scenery and of course, the most amazing splitters to grace the surface of this glowing blue orb we reside on.  Climbing at the Creek is so amazingly different and humbling from any other climbing out there Jess and I can never resist heading down there for our annual spring trip.  There are plenty of other places we'd like to check out, but the Creek keeps calling.

During our week of climbing, we sampled the goods at Broken Tooth Wall, Second Meat Wall, Battle of the Bulge Buttress, Supercrack Buttress, Pistol Whipped Wall and Scarface Wall.  Highlights for me were Rock Lobster (5.11), Top Sirloin (11-), At Your Cervix (11), Supercrack (10), Incredible Hand Crack (10), Spaghetti Western (11), an attempt on Extra Lean (12-), and onsights of Sig Sauer (12-) and Not That Funny (12-).

Giving Extra Lean a go.

Ryan throwin' the gangsta' lean on Supercrack.

Crankin' on Scarface.

Jess heading up Battle of the Bulge.

Getting shut down on Swedin Ringle.

Jess on just another amazing unnamed climb on the Scarface wall.

Probably the biggest highlight of the trip was getting our broken down van started with a rock.  Yes, you read correctly!  After an awsome day of climbing at the Second Meat Wall, we walked back down to the car by the light of our headlamps.  We were, as always, the last ones out and were really looking forward to some dinner.  I hopped in the van, turned the key and.....nothing.  After some brainstorming, we remembered we'd seen someone camping up the other fork in the road, so Ryan and I trekked over to their site to see if they'd give us a jump.  What we encountered was a group of guys who were single-handedly keeping the Pabst Brewing Company in business and they were more than happy to help us out.  They drove us over to our van, hooked up the cables and.....still nothing.  Shit! 

While we let the battery charge a little longer, I was thinking about how we were going to have to get somewhere where we could call a tow truck to come bail us out.  During this time, the ringleader Scott proclaimed "you're going to get into your car and turn the key and nothing is going to happen.  Then, I'm going to bang on your starter with a rock and you've got a 40% chance of starting the car."  This seemed like complete lunacy to me, but what the hell.  To my absolute amazement, he hit the starter with a nice chunk of wingate sandstone while I turned the key, and VROOM, we started right up!  Good god, I wouldn't have been more amazed if he had turned that piece of rock into solid gold, this may as well have been black magic.  After a night spent in a Moab mechanic's parking lot, we were back out climbing the next afternoon.

Red Vines and PBR = CRAZY DELICIOUS!

It was a sweet trip and I can't wait to get back down to the desert.  It's such a beautiful place to climb and the cracks are endless!  For now, it's back to Montana climbing and snow.  It's tough to come back to crappy weather after climbing in the sun for a week, but we'll make it work.

Weekend in Lander

Jess and I decided we needed an escape from winter, so we took three day weekend and headed down to Lander, Wyoming for a little pocket pulling in the sun.  We headed down on Thursday night and camped in good ol' Lander City Park.  Don't get me wrong, I love camping in the park, but nowhere makes me feel more guilty than when the police cruise though and shine their spotlight into the car in the middle of the night. 

We woke up Friday morning to sunny skies and headed up to Sinks Canyon.  We warmed up on Firecracker Kid and Elmo's Fish, two really fun 10s.  Then it was on to Blue Moon.  I can usually get through this thing, but it is never easy.  It's kind of a slick, hard boulder problem about mid-way though the route that always feels heinous.  Jess gave it a couple goes and then we both tried Searching for Jose Cuervo once.  After that, I put in one poor try on Busload of Faith.  I tried this last year and felt pretty good on it.  It didn't go all that well this time, but I did figure out the first move, which I hadn't done before.  I ended the day with two tries on Confessions of a Mask, a 12d right on par with Kundun in its sandbag nature.  The route has big pulls between good pockets, not something I'm typically good at.  It was a lot of fun to try it though.

Saturday turned out to be 35 degrees and snowy/windy rather than the forecasted 50 and sunny.  We walked around a while, got snowed on and then decided to bail.  We headed into town and waffled about returning to Bozeman.  As a last ditch effort, we went back up the canyon to see if things had improved.  It was slightly better so we decided to give climbing one more go rather than leaving.  We ended up climbing a few 10s on the Stud Alert wall.  I was also able to onsight Backup Binkie, a fun 12a with a boulder problem at the beginning.  Jess sent it 3rd try.

Amazingly, the sun came back out on Sunday morning and we had great climbing temps.  We warmed up on Corner Drug and then went to Purple Galaxy an amazing 100' 12a with cool two finger pockets and monos.  Jess tried the route a few times while I gave a few goes on Confessions.  The first go went really well, but I got incredibly pumped and fell at the crux.  The second go brought me through the crux, only to fall in a dumb place.  With Jess done trying Purple Galaxy, I had one more try on Confessions before we had to leave.  Luckily, I managed to pull off the send of this great route.  The winch start leaves a little to be desired, but the good climbing above more than makes up for the 10 feet of choss you have to pull though.

It was an awesome weekend and it felt great to get out and climb at Sinks again.  Ever since my parents let me pack up the car when I was 16 and head off on my own to Lander for a week, the place has felt special to me.  I've climbed in a lot of really cool places, but going to Lander always has a nostalgic feeling that can't be beat.  Can't wait to get back and put in more work on Busload!

Spring is here.....for now!

With beautiful weather arriving in Bozeman this weekend, we decided to hang up the skis and get out and climb!  It feels so wonderful to get out and climb in the sun after a winter of shivering on the chairlift.

Jess and I headed out to Natural Bridge on Saturday in hopes of good temperatures.  The sun was out, however it didn't hit the walls for very long making for chilly climbing.  That combined with getting on a couple of 12s that we thought were 10s on the Porcelain Wall didn't make for the best warmups.  We then headed down to the shipwreck wall, which was a little warmer.  I managed to pull off The Black Pearl second try, which was pretty good.  It's a pretty short, bouldery route, which is not my forte.  Maybe all that time bouldering in the gym this winter worked!  I was then able to do The Kraken, which always gives me problems.  Jess gave The Kraken a few good burns and then we headed out.

Jess on The Kraken

Sunday was even more beautiful than Saturday and we decided to head down to the cave at Squaw Creek.  We warmed up on Bonehead  and the 11d to the left, which were pretty fun.  Jess has been trying Subzero for a while now, so I climbed that one to put up a rope.  The goal for today was to try to repeat Kundun, possibly the hardest 12d I've ever done.  The thing is slick and very foot-beta intensive.  Every time I get on the thing, it's like being on it for the first time.  I managed to send it in two tries, which felt really good.  The day was young and I've always thought about potentially trying to climb all four routes on the right side of the cave in a day - Subzero, Kundun, Weapons and Hantavirus, so I decided to go for it. 

The first go on Hanta went pretty well.  I fell off one of the lower moves and then climbed it to the top.  After Jess took a burn on Subzero, I got back on and sent!  That only left Weapons to finish off the wall.  Luckily, I've done that one a bunch, so it went down pretty easily.  I'm pretty psyched with taking this goal down early in the season and now think it would be cool to try and add Of Mice and Men and The Raven to the circuit!

Jess rocking a tanktop in March!

While I was climbing all of these routes, Jess was busy trying Subzero.  This thing is Jess' nemesis.  She tried it a bunch last year and finally moved on.  Now she's back and doing better on it.  The route has two very difficult sequences separated by a good rest.  I think she'll be able to send it this year as long as she is patient enough to keep trying it.

All in all, it was a great weekend of climbing, especially for Montana in March.  Jess and I are jealous of everyone who's on the spring break exodus from Bozeman this week, but we're planning on heading down to Lander next weekend and we've got a trip to Indian Creek coming up in a month.  Climbing season is upon us and I for one am psyched!  We'll still have a few more powder days, and I'm down for that too, but bring on the sunshine!

A new name for my blog!

First of all, an admission.  Yes, from time to time, I listen to country music.  Gasp!  Judge me if you will, but sometimes a little country twang really hits the spot.  I'd like to think in another life I was a raging steel pedal guitar player wearing tight Wrangler jeans, a pearl button shirt and a huge white cowboy hat.  On second thought, maybe I would have been more of a Robert Randolph type.

Why come out of the closet with this information you may ask?  Well, I was on my way home from skiing three icy runs at Bridger this morning and on came the song "Time Well Wasted" by Brad Paisley.  Jess is a big fan of Brad and I may or may not have gone to his concert a couple months ago.  If you don't know the song (or if you do, but someone is looking over your shoulder and you want to pretend you don't) it basically talks about the importance of getting out and doing something fun with people you enjoy, rather than always sticking to the boring tasks that everyday life throws at us.  For instance, Brad would encourage us to put off fixing the truck and instead, go bass fishing with dad.  Ah, good ol' country livin'!



At any rate, I've always enjoyed the message of that song and it hit me today that what better name could you have for a blog devoted to hanging needlessly from rocks, sliding dangerously down icy mountains or any of the other strange things people around these parts do for a good time?  So, with the weekend fast approaching, I hope everyone out there is thinking long and hard about how they will waste their time in the coming days.  You won't regret it!

January climbing in Montana!

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything to the blog, so my appologies.  My free time the last month has been spent skiing and also taking a trip to Michigan to visit Jess' parents for Christmas. Oh, and of course, climbing in the gym.  The gym is a wonderful place to get strong for the upcoming climbing season, but no matter what, it just does not motivate me the way climbing outdoors does.  Sure, finishing off the neon green problem that you've been working for weeks gives you a sense of accomplishment, but not in the same way clipping the chains of your outdoor project does.

So when Jon Scott proposed an outdoor climbing mission to the cave today, Jess and I were all in.  It's taken a while, but I've finally reached the point of realizing that on a 50 degree day when it hasn't snowed in quite a few days, the skiing just isn't going to be good!

The crew met up at 10:00 this morning in some slightly drizzly conditions and proceeded to head out to the canyon.  Once we parked, we were were psyched to find fairly warm and dry weather.  Don't get me wrong, the warm up climbs were painfuly cold, but after that, we had a blast!  Jon and I both warmed up on Weapons and moved on to Subzero, Last Resort and Hantavirus.  Jess warmed up on It's It and gave some good burns on Subzero.  Kevin and Brad are both trying Weapons and put in some good tries on it as well.

Warming up on Weapons of Mass Destruction

It was awesome to get out and touch some real rock and makes me more motivated to continue training in the gym.  As much as I'd like to think this warm weather is going to stick around for a while, I know the colder temps (and good skiing!) are still coming, so the gym will continue to be a necessity.   Keep crankin'!