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'!    

Multi Sport Weekend

Jon Scott and I headed out to Whiskey on Friday for a little bit of December climbing.  There was a lot more snow out there than we expected, but did that stop us?  Well, kind of, we couldn't top anything out, but we still pulled on some rock, which felt great!


A lot of snow at the Wave Boulder



















Since there was snow on top of all the boulders, we decided to try Caught in the Act which ends on a big jug at the end of the traverse.  I've never been able to do very well on this problem, but somehow I pulled it out!  The temperatures were perfect for sticking to the slopers on that problem.  Jon came really close as well and ended up sending on Saturday.


Jon on Caught in the Act



















After Caught in the Act we went and tried The Green Monster.  I was able to come pretty close, but climbing in the shade was pretty cold and we got frozen out after a while.  Overall, a good day of climbing, despite the snowy conditions.

Saturday and Sunday were spent up at Bridger.  The snow is really good for this time of year and Jess and I got some great Fingers runs in on Saturday and a fun run on the Apron as well.  I went up solo today and got some nice hikes in.

Overall, an awesome weekend!

You must really be bored!

Well, if you've found your way to this new blogging experience for me you must either:

a) think I'm really cool.  The likelihood of this is very slim, so you must:

b) be extremely bored.  Sorry to hear that, but I will at least make an attempt to entertain you.

I look at enough climbing blogs trying to gain inspiration that I figured I'd start my own.  Unfortunately, I'm not stupid strong like JStar or permanently motivated like Joe Kinder, so any inspiration you get from me may be minimal.

One piece of inspiration I would like to share in my first post is this photo of my two dogs, Berkeley and Maverick.  Now here is a duo that actually is stupid strong and permanently motivated.  If I could be even remotely as psyched on anything as they are on chasing squirrels at Tensleep (or anywhere for that matter), I would be pumped!



















Well, that's all for my exciting first post.  I hope you were mildly entertained.  Please come back and visit, but the moral of the story is, don't read this crap, get out and chase some squirrels!