living the good life

Sorry we don't have any pictures to post. I left the usb cable for the camera back in Utah. So, I'll just have to describe how awesome our hotel room is. When I arrived in Vegas they upgraded me to a penthouse suite. It's freakin huge! 4 rooms, with a glass shower and a big jacuzzi tub. The shower is pretty fantastic as well since it has a total of 4 showerheads! 1 head is angled down like a normal showerhead, a second for your chest, the third hits your bum and the last gets your legs. They are also adjustable so that you get a massage. We've got a full kitchen that's way larger than ours with granite countertops and even a dishwasher. Flat screen lcd tv in the living room and another tv in the bedroom. There's a king size bed that's super comfy and windows that let you see the whole strip. So, needless to say we're enjoying ourselves. Normally we'd rather be camping, but once in a while a bit o' luxury is quite nice.

I think this is our third trip to red rocks together. It's spring time in red rocks and the flowers are all blooming. We've never seen so many colors here. There's deep greens on the vegetation with orange, yellow, and purple flowers all blooming. The climbing here is really a lot of fun. Saturday we climbed in a place called the Black Corridor. It's a really narrow little canyon with tons of sport climbing on each wall. There's probably 15-20 climbs on each side of the canyon. We picked this spot to climb since it was going to have shade for most of the day and also had a bunch of 5.9-511 climbs which are right in our range of comfort. We first got on a climb that I thought was a 5.10b and looked fairly straightforward. It turned out to be an 5.11b which gave us quite a run for our money. We both had to climb it 3 times to finally get to the top, but by the last time we had it pretty much nailed except for a stretchy move at the end. It took us about 3 hours to finally finish it... Much longer than we had planned. I also strained my ring finger on my right hand when I topped out the last time so I was done climbing for the day. Cassie did a really superb 5.10a which she promised was "a terrible climb" to make me feel better since I didn't want to make my injury worse.

Today we're making some breakfast, eggs and cantalope and we're planning on going trad climbing. We'll stick to the 5.6-5.9 range and take it easy. Could be another warm day with the temps hitting 90 in the valley so we'll be chasing the shade around. Tonight we're going to head to our favorite local sushi restaurant to have our anniversary dinner. Cassie flies out first thing in the morning and heads straight to work, while I stay in town to try and fix this very tricky bug that is giving me fits.

Sometime this week we should be able to post pictures from the weekend. Hope everyone is having an awesome weekend!

-matthew and cassie

viva las vegas

As I sit here writing this blog entry it's snowing at Sundance. Gotta love the mountain weather. at 6200 feet it seems like it can snow pretty much anytime it wants.

I'm getting ready to leave this morning for Las Vegas. The newspaper down there needs my assistance with some software issues. I'll be there through next wednesday. It's a last minute trip but there's an upside. We bought Cassie a round trip ticket to Vegas for the weekend, paid for by my mileage driving down. So, this weekend we get to enjoy the 80s and sunny as well as tons of potential rock climbing. It's also our anniversary so we'll be doing a bit of celebration as well. I'm booked at the Hilton Grand Vacation on the strip with a pretty good view of Vegas (the town that should not exist). Our next post should have some pics of us climbing the red rocks in the warm sun.

the red monster at Ibex

the red monster, originally uploaded by matthewandcassie.

This weekend Cassie and I headed to the West Desert of Utah. We were going climbing with the Utah Climbing Club at an area called Ibex. Ibex is considered on of the best and most unique bouldering areas in the world and attracts climbers from all over the world. The location is also quite scenic.

Ibex is located in the desert with basically no water for miles and miles. In this photo you can see what appears to be clouds in the horizon on the left side of the boulder. They aren't actually clouds, but are dust plumes that are rising off a dry lake knows as Sevier Lake. The wind was blowing at a constant 20 mph with gusts up to 40. This made bouldering quite interesting since the pads sometimes got blown out from underneath you while you're climbing. We camped friday night and spent all day climbing saturday. It was surprisingly difficult climbing with none of the climbs going easily. We tried a bunch of problems and sent some but also left tired and sore saying that we'd be back to try our projects again. Dinner was marinated steak, potatoes, spinach, and rolls as a reward for all of our hard work (yum!).

We also did a little side trip to an awesome place called Crystal Mountain which is a volcanic rock that really is a mountain and is totally out of place in its surroundings. Utah is certainly an area with tons of climbing and lots of places to explore. The geological diversity is outstanding and there's always something to do. Unfortunately the wind just would not let up so we decided to head back home on Sat instead of camping and exploring on Sunday.

Check out the pictures in this photoset by clicking on the above pic. Lot's of great pictures await including one of a Scorpion and Crystal Mountain!

Twisted

matthew climbing Twisted, originally uploaded by matthewandcassie.

Saturday night's poker and potluck was a fantastic success. Not everone made it, but those who did had a great time. The food included stuffed mushrooms, samosas, a yummy salad, Lasagna for the main course with two different types of bread, and for desert cupcakes and Tiramisu! I lost about 8 dollars but that's the way it goes. Cassie (as usual) won a bit o cash. That night we did not sleep well, but awoke around 9 and made a huge breakfast with our friends Jackie and Chad.

Somehow even with our lack of sleep we managed to have enough energy to go up to REI and pick up our new cam that we got with our dividend money and then to LittleCottonwood Canyon to do some bouldering. It was pretty warm but we still had fun and worked on a couple pretty techy problems (they are all techy in LCC). Cassie is really close to sending Twisted and I was able to top out (height helps a lot). Cassie even tried a V10 and got off the ground (i don't think i could get off the ground). With a lot of work she might even get it!

Tonight is Tuesday and we went bouldering at the gym. Nothing much to report there except I'm psyched that my middle-finger's tendinitis appears to finally be going away after 3 months or so. After a Monday where the temps hit 75 we came home from the gym to find about an inch of new snow at the house. Spring is so funny in the mountains.

This weekend we head to Ibex to do some bouldering on really good quartzite. More pictures and posts coming soon.

straight up

straight up, originally uploaded by matthewandcassie.

Cassie has a bunch of comp time built up and I needed to take a rest day from work. So, we headed to Triassic. Unfortunately I got sick Thursday so I wasn't feeling great for bouldering. It's crazy that it's April and it's still not warm out, even in the desert. Heavy jackets were required just to stay warm. We went to an area at Triassic we haven't climbed at before called the Tongue Area. The climbing was alright with short problems and the typical Triassic slabby, scary, mantley topouts. We both got shut down on a V3 called Holy Nightmare Batman because we couldn't figure out how to top out. There weren't any holds! We did enjoy some other climbs though and all in all it was a pretty good day. Mojo ran around and looked for lizards, and laid down in the muddiest, muckiest puddle you've ever seen. He was so caked with mud I gave him a shower when we got home.

Tonight we're having a bunch of friends over to play poker and will do our best to take their money. Dinner will be server promptly at 6 with Somosas (indian bread thingy stuffed with potatoes and peas), Salad, and Lasagna. Should be a fun night. Tomorrow we're headed to Rock Canyon to climb as long as we don't drink too much or stay up too late. Hope everyone out there is having a great weekend!

scary highball called "Speed"

scary highball called "Speed", originally uploaded by matthewandcassie.

Joe's Valley on Sunday. We had a great group with us at Joe's this Sunday. Adam, Christian, Julie, Dave, Brett, Cassie and I all climbed. Did a bunch of problems and tried a few hard ones. Julie sent a very hard start V7. We mostly just got in some mileage on the sandstone.

This picture has Christian about to top out on a really high V3. It was a bit cold but the climbing was really great. Cassie and I both sent a V4 and were feeling good. Afterwards we went to the Price favorite Groggs for burgers and beer to celebrate a good day. We're headed back to Joe's on Friday to try some harder problems.

Tonight as I write this blog it's snowing like crazy in Sundance. I thought it was supposed to be spring?

Click on the picture to see more pics from the trip. Or just click here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewandcassie/

Cassie climbing Golden

Copy of IMG_4628, originally uploaded by matthewandcassie.

This is a picture of Cassie climbing one of the finest V1s we've ever gotten on. Picture was take on "Golden" at Triassic around October 2007. It's a pretty high topout but the climb is really a classic. Mostly this post is just to test our new flickr account to see how well it works with blogger.

a lazy saturday

We woke up this morning and made crepes with raspberry topping and bacon (thanks Nick!). It was a great morning. After much discussion we decided to do nothing at all today. We baked a quiche (with potatoes, carrots, onions, bacon with spinach and breadcrumb crust), made rice pudding, and banana bread. We're listening to Prairie Home Companion and chillin'. Tomorrow we head to Joe's Valley for some bouldering. Sometimes doing nothing at all is a good for the soul as being busy.

yeah it's only gym climbing but....

So what if it's just in the gym? We went climbing tonight and sent a couple of problems (a problem is a bouldering route. what is a bouldering route? well it's basically a climb on an overhanging boulder face that you are not roped in for. When you fall, you fall onto mats that pad your landing)). Cassie easily sent a V5 and found a way to do a move that she previously was unable to do. so now she is determined to send the V6 (what is sending? sending is successfully climbing a problem or route without falling). I was happy to send a V6 tonight after a couple of tries and am pretty sure this V7 that I am working will go. (working a route is figuring out the moves so that you can send). Well that's enough of climbing terms 101. Also for one of the first times since we've been here some fellow climbers we met had us over to dinner after climbing tonight. This is a huge thing for us since we've been here for over a year and still don't really have many friends. The baked potatoes were awesome! This weekend we are headed to Joe's Valley (a phenomenal sandstone bouldering area about 2 hours from here) to try and send some hard problems. And for once we are going with friends which makes it that much better. That's enough for tonight, we're tired and are heading to bed.

Drudgery in climbing

Life as a "climber" isn't aways fame and glory. Sometimes it's a lot of hard work, like sitting down with your equipment for hours just to put colored pieces of tape on them to make sure people don't accidentally steal your stuff. Notice the spectacular tape job? And we're not skimping by doing just one piece of tape, oh no sir, only three separate pieces will do. Also, mojo vomited last night right after eating dinner. It was messy, luckily I have an awesome girlfriend who isn't afraid of puke.

climbing in Rock Canyon

So we got out with the Utah climbing club last weekend. Great climbing on sharp quartzite. Did a couple of easy routes and then tried some hard ones (a 5.10c and a 5.11b super steep route called Simple Simon). Didn't redpoint anything spectacular, but we're going to keep going back to this area since the climbs are so easy to access. We had some equipment confusion with other climbers so I will be taking colored tape and labeling all our equipment to avoid ownership issues in the future (ah the exciting life of a climber). The weather was perfect with temps in the low 60's. Then on Sunday morning we awoke to about 8 inches of new snow so we headed to Sundance to get some runs in. Amazing that it's spring and we can still get fresh powder.

Above are some pics from climbing in Rock Canyon.

The first post EVER!

Yes ladies and gents, that's correct it's the first posting on our new blog. We're still not sure if anyone will actually read it. Here you will find the daily description of our lives down to ever last detail including the pleasantness of sneezes, farts and other exciting topics. We hope you'll enjoy our postings, and keep it to yourself if you don't because frankly we don't care. So without further ado here it is!!!