Tuesday, November 15, 2011

What We've Been Up To... We Moved To Glenwood Springs!!!

The title basically says it all...

In July I moved back over to the western slope and started work at Summit Canyon Mountaineering in Glenwood... Liesel works at the Bluebird Cafe, the awesome cafe next door, Psyched!!!!  We've been climbing a ton in the area, it is soooooo good.  Rifle is 32 miles from the front door, Indy Pass is great for bouldering and crack climbing, Joe's is close and Indian Creek isn't too far off either.  We're psyched and y'all should come visit... in the spring.

We're gearing up for winter here... It's already snowed a couple of times and the climbing days are getting shorter and more miserable but we're still getting out, Puox today:)  I'm going to kick my own ass and try to do some ski mountaineering this winter... Haven't skied since I was in 6th grade so it'll be interesting.

I also bought a new camera and computer.  I've been having a ton of fun with my Canon 7D and a new MacBook Pro.  I'm capable of making some sick videos!!! I just gotta figure out how...  I posted my first video on Vimeo for everyones enjoyment here.

Now for some pictures:)
Liesel

Oh Sheep!!!

Autobot V5 in RMNP
The next three photos are from Skylands in Crested Butte, CO.

Thanks to Danny and Wendy for letting me tag along.


Danny on Choke Hold at Indy.


Mark Avery

Nathan Martinez on a project at Indy.



My project...

Tom and Elke were always in the canyon:)
We can't wait to see you next year.

Nathan on Vision Thang!

Derek Franz




I'll be posting more pictures soon...

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Now for Something Completely Different...

The past couple weeks have been eventful...

Liesel left for Alabama with a car full of delicious Colorado beers, I have been bouldering a ton in RMNP and Mt. Evans and beach volleyball with the crew in Boulder is one of my new favorite things! Aside from all that, it seems I may have gotten a job in Glenwood Springs, CO so I'll see y'all in Rifle real soon!

I spent the 4th of July holiday with my parents down in Monument, CO... It was a really great time. Here is a video slideshow I made of the firework show in Palmer Lake... Bummer about the quality. The music track is John Frusciante "Murderers."


A little more than $300 worth of beer in Liesel's car... Not for her.

Some favorites in there! Colorado has the BEST beers... Did y'all know I'm allergic to most of those... It looks like there are some Oregon and Montana brews in there too.

Beautiful Hallets Peak in RMNP... I've been working on an amazing boulder problem in the are called "Whispers of Wisdom" near Emerald Lake up in the park. AMAZING!



Last but not least...

I bought myself one of those Italian coffee makers. The thing is the best camping coffee pot I've seen/used. I've been calling it "The Holy Grail", it is the "anti-Satan's Coffee Maker." On that note I'll peace out on this post... Climbing in the gym today? Afternoon storms...

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

On the Front Range and Bouldering



We've been hanging out here in good ol' Colorado for about 2 weeks bouldering. We've hit spots from Newlin, near Canyon City, to RMNP. Man!!! I love RMNP! I guess this is another power training phase, cause all I want to do is boulder. Even though that's the case, I'm psyched to climb in Rifle this week. We'll climb Thursday-Saturday the 25th and Monday and Tuesday of next week in Rifle Mountain Park.

We built a raft... Well we built a crash pad holding structure out of dead/down trees in Boulder Canyon to keep our crash pads dry on Cage Free... Unfortunately no sends that day.

Here are a few recent climbing pictures from RMNP. Hopefully we'll get our hands on some of the great pictures Mickey O'Hara took while we were in Newlin:/
Me on Merkin, V9

Liesel on Grieta Blanca, V4

The Portal, V8... Sending!

Adam Davidson

TJ, lookin good on the Portal... But more importantly look at that sweet Black/Yellow Organic waiting to catch him!

I'm now the proud owner of 2 new Organic bouldering pads!

In other news... My mom has organized a great quilt collection hung all over the Colorado State Capitol building in Denver. The show consists of 270+ quilts from around the state. This is her third time doing it and it's A LOT of work, I'm really proud of her. She is addressing a standing room only crowd at the opening reception in the picture below.

We had a good time hanging with my family this weekend. Bowling with Galen and Ashley was Super Fun! Dinner with the family on Father's Day was great too. Liesel will be off to Alabama next Thursday, the 30th. I'll have more even sweeter bouldering pics in the near future. How's everyone like the new title? It was my first crack at Photoshop.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Jailhouse and "The Marathon Drive..."

Aaahhhhh, Colorado at last!


(view from the Jailhouse)

After our visit to Yosemite we made a pilgrimage to the Jailhouse for a week, for those who have not heard of it just imagine a giant basalt cave, on the Tulloch Reservoir in the San Joaquin valley. The climbing is hard, but the local community is wonderful; after a week of climbing at the Jailhouse we were starting to feel right at home. Kevin made good work on Soap on a Rope a 12d/13a, while I spent my time projecting the "warm up" an 11d. It seems we are saving our sends for the fall time.




After a week of hard sport climbing and great weather we wandered over to Santa Cruz for a moment, the first time I've seen the west coast, and then to a family wedding in Saratoga (Kevin's second cousin). The weather was rainy and quite cold for June in California, but meeting the family and attending the wedding was wonderful!


We left Jailhouse at 1PM PST on June 7th and were in Monument, CO 3PM MST on the 8th, 23 hours of driving in 25 hours... We stopped for a short rest at a rest stop outside Winemucca, NV... Marathon! If you ever get the chance to drive from Sonora over to Reno, take CA Hwy 4? over Ebbets Pass, it's beautiful!

It was great to see Mike this weekend up in Boulder and then in Newlin. Thanks Mickey for taking pictures all weekend... Check out Tom and Mitch's Vantasy in the near future for some cool pics, http://tomandmitchsvantasy.blogspot.com/.

Goodbye Siebe:( Keep up the CRUSHING... It has really been a pleasure. Anyone who has not already checked his blog out should. Siebe's a great guy and a fantastic climber. There is a link to his blog off ours on the right.

Dave, we'll see you in the fall. Good luck in Sweden and have fun.

I don't think we're making it to Ten Sleep...

Well, tata for now... More pictures are coming soon.

Friday, May 27, 2011

One Week in Yosemite Valley!


We've been in the valley for a week now. The weather is fantastic and the landscape is unbeatable. We have been very busy this week adjusting to the climbing here... This place is hard! or I'm just a wuss. So far Liesel and I have climbed Super Slide, Serenity Crack and Commitment into Selaginella as well as a few nice boulders. We also ran/hiked up to Nevada falls via the Mist trail one "rest" day and back down a portion of the John Muir trail.
Looking down Pitch 3 on Super Slide
Commitment and Selaginella are on the center of the buttress
Yosemite Falls

Here are some neat photos, mostly of Half Dome.





El Cap towering over Liesel.

Yesterday was the highlight of my trip so far in Yosemite. Siebe and I got up on the Captain and climbed the Nose up to Dolt Tower. Siebe was psyched to suss the moves out in hopes of one day freeing the route and I was happy to have a long day on jugs and aiders. I learned some new techniques and free climbed maybe a total of 200 feet all day, the approach shoes never came off:) Thanks to Siebe for being psyched to endure a long, COLD day.
Dolt Tower is just down and left of the much larger, more obvious El Cap Tower.

Looking down pitch 6? 7?
Siebe saved a Pop Tart for the top.
Bad Mofos.

Before we arrived in the valley Liesel and I stopped in Joe's Valley for 2 days of climbing, but the weather shut us down the second day. We ended up climbing in Triassic that day with David and Christine, two friends living in SLC. Triassic is much less popular than Joe's but we found it to be a nice area, densely packed with good boulder problems. I really enjoyed Desparete V7 and David did good work on Lemmonhead which is featured on the cover of the old, black Utah Bouldering book.