Another amazing weekend of climbing!

For the first time ever, Jess and I passed up on the opportunity to spend a three day weekend in Tensleep, instead deciding to stick around and focus on some local projects.  At the Cube, Jess has been working on Strawman (13a) and I've been getting bouted trying to climb Occam's Razor (13d).  On Thursday after work, we headed up to the Cube to continue our attempts.  Jess was able to get a one-hang and amazingly things started to come together for me and I was able to get Occam's Razor down to two hangs!  On both routes, progress comes slowly so any improvement is welcome.

Friday, we packed up and headed over to Natural Bridge to spend a couple days on some projects.  I had tried Isla de los Locos (13d) last weekend and was really impressed.  This route is as good as anything out there, so I was really psyched to get back on it.  Jess had a couple of easier 12s she wanted to get done and also wanted to work on Pageant of the Transmundane (12c). We warmed up and I hung draws on Donkey Kong (12a).  Jess had been on it the weekend before and was able to send it first go of the day!  It was a battle and was probably the most inspirational bit of climbing I've seen in a long time!  After that, it was time to get on the Locos.  When I tried it last week, I figured out most of the moves, but there was a section in the middle that I could not figure out.  On my second go of the day, my knee randomly slotted into a kneebar and the move became clear to me.  At this point I figured I could put this route together, however it started raining and I decided to wait until the next day.  Jess was able to get all the moves figured out on Lion's Den (12a) and then we called it a day.

We woke up on Saturday to blue skies and we were psyched.  We warmed up and then Jess sent Lion's Den first go of the day.  I got on the Locos and made it part way through the crux only to flame out.  My second go was a little rushed and didn't go well.  After Jess did a little more climbing, I got back on and fired it off!  This is such a beautiful route and is definately the best thing I've done in Montana.  Nice work Kyle!  There are a couple of other bolted lines to the left that look really good and a couple of other potential lines that need to get bolted.

Isla de los Locos (13d)

Jess gave some good tries on Pageant in the afternoon and I took it easy and climbed a couple of easy slabs.

On Sunday, apparently we hadn't had enough, so we headed back up to the Cube.  I think we were both feeling pretty worked being 4th day on, but what the hell.  We warmed up on Uber Ass and then I got on Occam's Razor.  Amazingly, I didn't feel too bad and two hung it.  On my second go, I fell off midway through the crux and then got back on and finished the route for my first one hang.  My third try was as close as you can get to sending.  I made it to the last clip, which I think is the hardest single move on the route, and just didn't have it in me, so I grabbed the draw.  I've got the top pretty dialed, so it wasn't too bad to get another one hang.  I did try it one more time, but it was pretty worthless.  Jess also had a great day and one-hung Strawman a couple of times.  She's really close and I think she's going to get it very soon.

Today is a rest day as we're both feeling pretty worked.  We leave on Saturday morning for a week of hanging out on the beach in Michigan, so we're both hoping to put these projects to rest before we leave!

Now that's my style!

It's been a while since I posted anything here, so I figured it was time.  Jess and I have been getting out climbing a bunch and spent the last two weekends in Tensleep.  I have to say, Tensleep has to be my favorite climbing area for sure.  The amount of rock there boggles the mind, the wildflowers are out right now and oh yeah, the rock there is absolutely amazing!  The style of climbing also suits me perfectly. 

Two weekends ago, Jess and I headed down in search of projects to work on for the summer.  I climbed Goldmember last year and wanted to step it up a notch, so I thought I'd try to tackle one of the 14as at the French Cattle Ranch.  I had originally thought I'd try Doomsday, but draws were hanging on Galactic Emperor, the extension to Sky Pilot, so I gave it a go.  The boulder problem at the beginning is pretty rough, followed by a good rest, some moderately difficult climbing and then a final thin crux at the top.  The route is incredible and amazingly, I was able to redpoint it on our second day!  Before we headed back for Bozeman, I was able to try Doomsday (14a), which is also amazing and get most everything figured out.

Last weekend, we headed back down and my goal was to try and finish Doomsday.  After one burn to remember all the moves and another falling off the second to last move, I was able to pull off another send on this beautiful wall.  With that project out of the way, I moved on to my real nemesis, Blue Light Special (13b).  Despite being almost a full grade easier than the previous projects, this thing totally kicked my ass.  I would hang all over it multiple times.  Luckily on Sunday, I managed to pull off the send.  With that one under my belt, I felt that since I had the Sky Pilot boulder problem relatively fresh in my mind, I should try Private Halfenheimer (14a).  This route pulls the SP boulder problem to a rest and then tackles the upper half of General Litzenheimer, an absolutely impossible looking 14c that begins with a V13 boulder problem.  As with Galactic Emperor and Doomsday, my first try left me discouraged thinking it was way to hard and that the pump would keep me from pulling difficult moves high on the route.  My second go, I managed to pull through the initial boulder problem to the rest.  I barely remembered any of the upper part and quickly fell off.  Our last day in Tensleep, we were graced with overcast skies, meaning the wall didn't bake in the morning sun.  After a warm up, I got on and again was able to pull through the boulder problem only to fall right after the rest.  Another try spit me off in the middle of the boulder problem, so I came down, rested about 10 minutes and on my last go of the trip, managed to send!  Holy crap, I couldn't even believe it.  I had no confidence going in that I'd be able to pull this one off on my third day on.  I'm super excited about doing all three of these difficult routes.  I feel really priveledged to be climbing well enough to be able to climb on this gorgeous wall.

Back in Bozeman, I've been focusing my attention on Kyle's heinous arete route, Occam's Razor (13d).  This is by far the hardest route I've ever been on and definately seems more sustained than some of the shorter routes of the same grade I did at American Fork back in the day.  There is not a single easy move and I'm still totally clueless about making one of the clips.  This one is about as far away from my style as you can get.  Stay tuned for a progress report, this one is a stunner!

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!