Matthew and Cassie's Big Climbing Trip.

Red Rocks

2012-02-12T13:17:00.000-08:00

We left Bishop last week feeling ready for a change of scene after a month and a half in the same place. We had an amazing trip to Bishop and sent a lot of great problems, but as always, there were many projects left undone. For me the main one was Rave a V7. I finished the stand start, but couldn't put it together with the sit start before leaving. For Matthew it was Cholos, a V9 which he made great progress on, but couldn't quite link all the moves before we left.

Rave stand v5 - sit v7

Cholos v9

We were excited to head to Red Rocks though where we were excited to boulder at a place we'd been hearing good things about. We were also looking forward to seeing our friends Kim and Mars who we'd met in Squamish back in August. Unfortunately Mars injured his shoulder a few months ago so is out of commission for a while and they are planning on heading home to Australia soon. It's been great to have friends to hang out and talk with even though it is torturing Mars not to be able to climb.

We checked out the Kraft mountain area which has the highest concentration of good climbs here and were not disappointed. Since we weren't planning on spending too long here, we decided to explore as many problems as we could rather than focusing on a few projects. There is a mix of some really good problems on great rock and some not so great rock, but we found a few of the classics such as The Pearl - a V4 that I really enjoyed and the Monkey Bars boulder where there are great problems of all grades. Matthew made short work of a V6 there, Monkey Bars Right which we somehow managed not to get any pictures or video of. Matt has been unable to stop himself from projecting and is working Monkey Bar Direct v8.

The Prowler v6

The Pearl v5

Yaak Crack -- where I learned I have no endurance

I also spent a day sport climbing with Kim. We had a really fun day, it was great to be back on a rope again, but I quickly learned that I have no endurance after the bouldering only diet we've been on.

We were planning on heading to St George today, but it is supposed to be raining there for the next few days, so we may stick around Vegas a little longer. We're excited to see our friends soon in Utah!!!

Thanks to Jenny and Jin for sending us a some pictures they took while we were in Bishop and to Kim and Mars for taking some great pics while we've been in Red Rocks.

Cassie crushes Gleaner

2012-02-03T17:16:00.000-08:00

Sunrise over camp

Sunrise over the mountains

So far this week we've been focusing on projects. None of mine have gone down yet, but Cassie finished up one yesterday. It's called Gleaner and is a solid v6 (looks harder than this for her) and required a huge reach. Believe me it was a struggle to get to the pocket. After she got the pocket she went to a terrible left hand instead of the better pocket, missing the good one by about half an inch. You can hear me telling her to go further right to the good pocket. Cassie calmly tells me she knows and finishes the climb. I was terrified she was going to fall because she was on the worse hand. Still don't know how she held on to that bad hand. Funny how you sound on video, Cassie grunts a lot on this one :)

So, here's a sneak peak of one of our bishop trip videos.

Cassie on Serengeti v5

Cassie reaching for the pocket on Gleaner v6

Slabbing it up on Robinson's Rubber Tester

Airplane Tickets purchased for abroad part two!

2012-01-24T16:51:00.000-08:00

holy crap we just bought a lot of plane tickets!!

Today we booked all our tickets for our second trip abroad. It's going to be a ridiculously good time.
For starters we leave our van with my mom out in Ohio and head to New York City to visit brothers and enjoy the Big Apple. We fly out of JFK on April 11th to go to Bangkok, Thailand arriving there on April 12. We'll spend almost two months in southeast Asia. Right now the plan is to climb in Thailand, and do some exploration in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
On June 2nd, we catch a flight to Cape Town, South Africa for a two month bouldering trip to the world famous Rocklands!
Then, on August 2nd we leave Africa for two days of travel to get to Australia. Matthew always talks about how he hates how quickly you arrive places with plane travel not getting a sense of how far you've really traveled. This 42 hour adventure may change his mind. We will spend two months in Australia to sport climb, boulder and maybe even do some trad :)
October 2nd we head to New Zealand for two months of bouldering at Castle Hill, a renowned limestone area.
Finally, we fly back to Thailand on Dec 2nd for 2 weeks of rest and relaxation before flying back to New York on December 18th. We'll probably spend a couple of days in the city before heading back to Ohio to spend Christmas with my family.

hopefully we didn't screw up any of our dates and don't accidentally book our trip for longer than our visas allow.

Phewww, this is going to be nuts!

PS here's the summary

Leave the USA for Thailand and Southeast Asia!!! 1.75 months
New York - Bangkok, Thailand - April 11th

Rocklands Africa!!! 2 months
Bangkok, Thailand - Cape Town, South Africa - June 2nd

Australia!!! 2 months
Cape Town, South Africa - Melbourne, Australia August 2nd

New Zealand!!! 2 months
Melbourne, Australia - Auckland, New Zealand October 2nd

Thailand!!! 2 weeks
Auckland, New Zealand - Bangkok, Thailand December 2nd

HOME!!!!
Bangkok, Thailand - New York City December 18th

What a week!

2012-01-24T14:14:00.000-08:00

Well I know all we've been posting about lately is that we keep improving and sending our projects, so I'm sorry to report that this post will be no different than the rest.

Our climbing brush armed snowman. Wish this guy could brush the holds for us.

First, a little background. Cassie and I have been climbing steadily for about 5 years now. We moved to Utah in late 2006 and left for the big trip about 8 months ago. Each year saw us get a little bit stronger and more confident with new grades being achieved and old grades getting easier. We would often go back to old climbs we had done and remark how they felt easier than the last time we had climbed it the previous season. Other times those same climbs still felt very difficult.

I remember going to a bouldering area in Utah called Triassic in early 2007 and having a lot of trouble with v3s, and thinking that v5 was miles away from being possible. About a year later v4s started becoming achievable, and v6 seemed like an elite climbers grade, far beyond the abilities of us mortals. Watching people climb those grades we were in awe and talked about how great it would be to climb a 6 someday. On average we have improved about 1 v-grade a year. The exception to this has been the trip, but only a little so far. To wait a year for a new grade requires a lot of patience and perseverance. Hopefully this helps explain how we can be so happy to say we went from v6 to a v7. It's not just the grade, but also all the work that went into getting there. Sometimes its a long wait and a lot of work.

Cassie has been climbing off and on for about 14 years or so. Only seriously for the last 5. At times she had trouble seeing any improvement in her climbing abilities. She would remark how she didn't notice any improvement in her climbing, even though everyone else watching her climb saw it. It's amazing how we overlook our own abilities and doubt ourselves even when we improve. It happens to all of us. This is because we plateau. You start seeing change so slowly you don't notice it yourself.

I've always measured my progress in grades a bit more than Cassie, who generally seeks out new climbs more than I and loves climbing an easier grade just as much as a harder grade as long as its fun. There are people in climbing who scoff at those wanting to climb a new grade, saying that they are grade chasers and climb only for ego rather than fun. It's an interesting statement about a sport, and I think it has a lot do do with climbers desiring the ethic of boldness rather than strength. in other sports like the 100m sprint no one would say to a runner "sure you took off 1/100 of a second from your time and have a new world record, but did you have fun running it?", or to a gymnast who gets a perfect score "you're just a grade chaser".
Improvement is measured in many ways, but the easiest to explain is in grades. So, we post about how much fun we are having and that we are improving. The grades only tell part of the story, but are an integral piece of climbing.

This week two two major hurdles have been overcome. Cassie found a v7 called "acid wash right jug start" (can someone please rename this climb? What a boring name!) she spent two days working on it. It's a very body-tension specific route and is her first v7 in the US. She got a pizza dinner and beer for that one. Now the bar has been raised and she will need to do a v8 to get another pizza.

Cassie about to do the crux on Acid Wash right v7

For Cassie finding a climb that suits her can be difficult. Often moves are done by guys that are near 6ft tall, so completely different sequences must be used by Cassie who is 5ft 4inches to climb the route. Given these obstacles she can often feel miles away from a climb because of her reach. It was this way with The Hulk v6, which at first appears to favor the taller climber. She sent yesterday and I think it really opened our eyes to how though she might be smaller than some, she is still capable of climbing routes like this. No pictures of this one because I was busy spotting. The crux move involves a reach behind move that puts you at risk of falling on your back from about 6 feet up. Needless to say a spot is a good idea on this one.

My projects included a couple of v9s that I tried over a few days. I really really really never expected that I would make it to v9 having always said that if someday I could do a single v8 I would be happy. Well, v8 went in November and a second went in January so the logical thing to do was try a 9.
Last Dance was the climb that felt most possible to me so I spent 3 days working on it. I sent just as I was starting to get tired. So psyched!

Sticking the big throw on Low Dance - v9

We are both riding on a streak of good climbing lately so the only thing to do is to keep pushing ourselves. Who knows what we might send? Today I write this long post from the comfort of the van and look outside to see the six inches of snow that was dumped on us last night. No climbing today, but I figure we deserve the rest.

Bishop update

2012-01-17T17:50:00.000-08:00

Our second week at Bishop has seen much success. We've really found our groove here and the temperatures dropped enough to help with the friction. Last night's low of around 10 degrees was a bit much though.

doing the dishes

view from the Happies

looking at The Hulk and Solarium from the west rim

The Happie's wonderful honeycombed pockets. Some of these are Sharp!!!

We went back to Rio's crack at the Sad boulders for a third day of effort. This time everything just clicked. I sent in a few tries and then Cassie, not to be outdone, sent immediately after. Rio's is a difficult line, but well worth the effort. Unfortunately the video camera batteries died just before we sent. Cassie's send was absolutely amazing. Her heal popped off the crack and she managed to get her feet back on but on terrible holds, and still managed to make the really hard cross over move. Everyone's jaws were on the ground when she pulled off the send. So far this was our favorite problem at the Sads, and one of the best v6s we've ever done.

Cassie crushing Rio's Crack v6

We got on a heap of new problems at the Happies. Serengeti was a great v5. This week I started focusing on getting some projects and it paid off just a couple of days ago. Rave v7 and Disco Diva v8 both went down, as well as Redrum v7, and Action Figure v6. Many climbs we don't have photos of, but have been diligently taking video. We're promised to ourselves to start taking more pictures.

finally sticking the crux on Rave v7

Cassie working Action Figure - v6

We've taken a page for our British friend's (Ruth and Innes) playbook and have started rewarding our hard sends with discount day old pastries from Schatt's bakery, so we got chocolate pastries for Rio's, and jelly filled doughnuts for Disco Diva. If either Cassie sends a v7 or I send a v9 we will go out and get a pizza and beer :)

Cassie began working a fantastic climb called Every Color You Are v6 and was making good progress, but stressed a tendon in her right hand, so she is taking it a bit easy. I'm starting to focus on some more projects, and Cassie's hand continues to improve, but still needs some rest.

We went out to dinner the other night with a couple of Cassie's cousins. It was great Thai food and really enjoyable company. The next day Theresa and her friend Yvonne took us out to see some local native american sites, there was an old village marked by rock circles and grinding areas, plus petroglyphs including feet pointing towards water. Very cool and beautiful.

rock art

We went to the buttermilks today and enjoyed buttermilk stem, and a couple of v5s on the bachar boulder.

buttermilk stem sit start v4

Bishop week 1

2012-01-06T14:44:00.000-08:00

We left Oregon just before the bad weather hit two days after Christmas. It took two full days to drive down to Bishop. The van performed admirably considering we hadn't driven it in over 3 months. We arrived at the Pleasant Valley climbers campground (called "The Pit"). It's a cheap little campground that has no water, and pit toilets but is only $2 a night per car. There is plenty of free camping at the Buttermilks which is significantly more scenic, but the vibe here is positive and the concentration of sites helps limit the impact from having so many campers. From here to the climbing areas it's only about 4 miles to the Happies, 5 to the Sads, and about 20 to the Buttermilks and only 25 miles to five natural hot springs!

We spent our first week here climbing as many classic lines as possible. It was a very productive week. Cassie has had a nemesis climb here for over a decade that is supposedly only a v2 called "Big Chicken" at the Happies. It's a very stout line that is steep and tricky. We've seen many a climber fail on this climb that we would normally consider a warmup. She got it her first try which was very good and shows she has improved a great deal. We tried Solarium which is a v3 in the old guidebook but is now v4 in the new guide. It's a techy but powerful problem that took me a few goes to figure out the correct beta to get the good sloper at the top. Quite a picturesque problem. We both hopped on a super-classic line called "The Hulk" which goes at v6. I sent in a couple of tries. Cassie did quite well on it also, though the crux move is a long reach. It definitely seems like she could finish it soon. Cassie also sent Ketron Classic (v4), I climbed Sucker Punch The Happies are great volcanic tuff climbing that has generally quite positive holds. There are patina edges that make some problems super fun to climb at even the easiest grades. We've spent a few days there already and have a ton of projects to finish such as The Gleaner v6, Disco Diva v8, Rave v7, as well as many others we haven't had time to even hop on yet.

The perfectly formed - Solarium v4

Matt wishing the slopers were better on Rave v7

The Gleaner - v6

We've also been to the Sad boulders. Some of the volcanic climbing is scoffed at by people who really enjoy the Buttermilks, but we've found all three areas to be equally good climbing for different reasons. The Sads have some beautiful cave problems that stay cool all day, plus some great v5/v6 problems. I finished Molly (v5) yesterday as well as Anti-Hero (v5) and we both worked Rio's Crack (v6+) with our new friends Inus and Ruth. They are from the UK and are both very good climbers. It's great to continue meeting such wonderful people om the trip. We've climbed with them a good deal and really enjoy their company.

Cassie trying Rio's crack - v6

The Buttermilks are certainly positioned in a very beautiful setting and are incredibly striking lines on granite egg shaped boulders. It's home to some of the hardest boulder problems in the world. Cassie and I have sent a climb that shut us down on a previous trip here 4 years ago. It's called Iron Man Traverse (v4) and is a wonderful traverse (that's saying something since most of the time I hate traverses). We also climbed Birtday Direct/Center (v3) which is a tricky problem up a vertical face. Quite techy that one. Then Cassie stepped it up a few notches and sent Green Wall Center v6 in only 3 or 4 goes. Very impressive to climb that grade in such a small number of tries. That makes her hardest granite send to date!

Cassie on Birthday Center v3

warming up on the Hero Roof

Ruth on Sheepherder v2

We're climbing a ton so don't have a huge number of pictures, but we've shot a ton of video that should help us put together a good bishop video sometime in february.

Today is a rest/shower/blog day. We're doing a bunch of research on plane tickets for the next segment of our abroad trip which should start in early-April.

Europe Video

2012-01-06T13:20:00.000-08:00

We put together a video of our trip to Europe. Hope you enjoy it! You can watch it in HD if your connection is fast enough. Simply change the "360p" or "480p" to "720p" or "1080p". It looks excellent in high def!

3 months already?

2011-12-13T01:57:00.000-08:00

Gibraltar monkey

Our last few weeks in Europe have been a bit of a whirlwind. We ended up in Gibraltar which is definitely not Morocco but was actually more interesting than we expected. The rock has a history of battles for ownership and strategic importance in other conflicts which have made it a rather unique place. We walked to the top of the rock which has an amazing view of the Mediterranean. Also on the rock is St Michael's cave, which is a natural limestone cave with huge stalactites and cave formations. They think this is the cave where Neanderthal man was first discovered and that is referred to as the gates of Hades in Roman mythology since at the time no one knew if there was a bottom and the formations are quite trippy. It reminded us a bit of the gaudi architecture in Barcelona. They even given musical performances in there. That would be pretty cool! After the natural cave, we walked to the other side of the rock where the siege tunnels are. The British built a total of 33 miles of tunnels, starting in the late 1700's and continuing on through WWII. The tunnels were initially to get to a point on the rock and mount a cannon where the defenses were weak. Another interesting quirk to Gibraltar are the monkeys. They were brought over at some point from northern Africa, and they say that the British will leave Gibraltar when the monkeys do. So of course the British want to keep the monkeys there, and have even brought more over when the population was low and feed them still today. They are interesting to see, but a bit strange.

St Michael's cave

Gibraltar botanical gardens

After Gibraltar, we decided to make our way back to fontainebleau. The forecast wasn't great, but it was promising enough that we hoped we could get in a few more days of bouldering. On our way back we stopped in El Chorro (but didn't climb) the gorge is amazing and we wanted to check it out and spend one more day in the sun.

El Chorro Gorge

Once we got back near Paris, our first stop was Versailles. We had bought tickets when we were first here before realizing that the line wrapped 3 times around the front courtyard and we couldn't handle the thought of a 2 hour of more wait at the time. We guessed that in December, there would be much fewer people and were fortunately correct since we walked right in with no wait this time. Versailles was quite spectacular. It showed all the excesses of the french monarchy at the time and you could understand why the people of Paris were so upset at the time that all this money was being spent on the palace and they were starving. The marble work was probably one of our favorite parts. We've never seen so much beautiful marble in so many different colors.

Versailles cathedral

After Versailles we were a bit concerned as the forecast for Fontainebleau had changed to one nice day and 3 rainy days. We were quite discouraged about the prospect of sitting in the rain for our last few days here and were wishing we had stayed in Albarracin longer. We ended up getting 2 1/2 good days of climbing in, it rained at night a few times and drizzled one afternoon, but our last day which looked the worst ended up being a beautiful cool, sunny day. We went to the very first area that we climbed at here, 95.2. It's a sunny open area on a bit of a hill so we knew it would dry quickly. We found that many problems were a lot easier this time around. We think it is more that it was about 20 C (75F vs 45F) colder this time around which helped a lot with the friction. Maybe we've gotten a bit stronger as well :) We had a great time on some of our favorites from before and checking out some new ones in that area.

We're heading to a hotel near the airport tonight for our flight tomorrow. It's hard to believe that three months has flown by so quickly. It was been an amazing trip that we will never forget. We spend Christmas with Cassie's parents in Portland Oregon and then head down to Bishop California for at least a month, maybe two. So enjoy your holidays and we'll be posting more sometime in late-December or early January.

fun red problem at font

the roof at cul de chien

The world's fastest trip to Morocco.

2011-12-04T10:53:00.001-08:00

Yes, we are in gibraltar. After a humbling attempt to go to Morocco, we realized that we still have a lot to learn about travelling and always having a back-up plan for if things don't work out as planned.

We arrived in tarifa 3 days ago, scoured out the ferry and bought 2 open round trip tickets. Found a campground nearby with a beautiful beach and got everything prepared to catch the first ferry of the day at 9:00am. After a nice quick crossing, we arrived in Tangier with plans to take a bus to chefchauen as soon as we could. We found the bus station with some difficulty and while we had stopped at a couple atm's along the way which we couldn't get money out of for some reason, we weren't too concerned until we learned the bus only took cash and we had a total of 5 euros and 30 US dollars on us. We tried 5 more atm's and spoke with a few bank personel trying to find out what was going on. Even now, we still don't really understand why we couldn't get money, one bank told us there was a connection problem and others said they didn't have an agreement with our bank, key bank, another bank told US mastercard and visa aren't accepted in Morocco (probably a language translation issue). On top of this the whole rest of the developed world outside the us uses a chip and pin system in their credit card which is much more secure than our magnetic strip system and this has caused us minor problems in Europe, but we've always been able to get money. So since few places in Morocco take credit cards and we weren't even certain the card would work, (our visa has failed to work a couple of times) and the fact that we couldn't get money from an atm and we didn't have enough cash of any currency, we decided our safest option was to return to Europe that day since we had our return ticket already. We figure our total time exploring this new continent added up to about 3 hours, most of which we were either lost or looking for money. We decided to drive to gibraltar to fulfil our need to get out of the schengen zone for 2 days.

Not quite the trip we were planning, but no harm was done except to our egos and we've learned some good lessons about the need for backup ways of getting cash and carrying more in the first place. We've learned a ton about gibraltar too, tunnels, monkeys, sieges, pubs, and all. And yes, our atm card works just fine here. Plus we got to visit the UK, without actually going there.

Tomorrow we leave gibraltar to start making our way back to Paris, probably stopping at el chorro along the way.

Clue #2

2011-12-03T11:33:00.001-08:00

Scotland and Tangier are both good guesses, but you'll have to try again. Here's another clue.

Guess where we are...

2011-12-03T04:30:00.001-08:00

Here's some pictures to help you figure out where we are right now.

Albarracin send fest (new levels reached)

2011-11-25T00:59:00.001-08:00

water puddle reflection

After Cassie hurt her finger we figured her time in Albarracin would be spent recovering from the injury. After a full week or so of recovery (rest assisted by significant rainfall) she began to pull on her fingers and found that it was feeling much better. So, it seems it wasn't a full tear, but probably only a strain. Yesterday she hopped on a great line called Karma which goes at 7a+ or v6/7. She sent it in a few tries, which was a great effort. This is Cassie's first v7 and it proves she has gotten quite strong bouldering over the last few months. The crux move involves a long reach and she had to really lock off on her right arm and really stretch to get it. Pictures coming later for this one. Today we head back to a huge roof that Cassie is psyched to try. It's another 7a+ and should make for some very cool photos.

Palpant v8 - small but stout

Later that day as it cooled off we headed to my project called Palpant. It's a beautiful roof/bulge that involves difficult compression moves and a big throw, on top of that two full cut loose moves. I sent it on my second try on my third day of effort. I nearly fell at the top and really struggled to stay on for the finish so it was a true full value send. It goes at 7b+ which is v8/9. That makes my first true v8 boulder problem and I was incredibly happy to send. We have video of the send that we will post when we get back to the States.

setting up for the second crux throw

catching the sloper and holding the swing. just barely.

Thanksgiving isn't celebrated outside of the USA but our friends from England wouldn't allow us to pass up an opportunity for a feast. The entrance to the bouldering has a small park which includes a bbq shelter. We've done what is now known as Burger Monday a few times and so we decided that a bird must be on the menu for thanksgiving. We had 8 people chip in 4 euros each and we were able to get three whole chickens, four bottles of wine, and potatoes. We started the fire early and everyone was nervous about grilling that amount of chicken considering we were doing it with firewood. I've gotten a reputation as the chief firebuilder in camp so it was up to me to get some coals going. We threw the first batch of chicken on at about 7:30 and began basting them with Cassie's homemade bbq sauce. Mouths were watering as the sound and smell of bbq chicken came from the grill. Considering most of us climbers are living on quite small budgets such a feast was kind of mind boggling. The result was grilling perfection as everyone began tearing into the chicken in what can only be called a feeding frenzy. Dirty hands or not chicken was eaten and washed down with good (seriously) cheap $1.25 bottles of wine. Batch after batch of chicken was put onto the grill with everyone getting their fill. Afterwords we all sat down next to the fire rubbing our bellies. People had quizzed us about the traditions of the holiday so someone started the "i'm thankful for" and everyone else had to repeat all previous thanks and add their own. Much hillarity resulted from things like "showers", "nice smelling girls" "garlic mayonaise" and a little reflection was allowed as well. We were indeed thankful and happy. Definitely one of the best thanksgivings ever.

As we write this post I can barely comprehend that we are leaving sometime between monday and wednesday for southern Spain and Morocco. Time has indeed passed quickly here at Albarracin and it will be three weeks of climbing when all is said and done. Hopefully a few more projects will fall before we head out. Much love to all our friends and family over this Thanksgiving holiday. Being so far away sure makes it tough and we miss all of you a ton. Can't wait to see you soon.

Albarracin Spain

2011-11-11T00:27:00.001-08:00

Albarracin

Castle walls

in the US they wouldn't let you do this...

We left Apt (Buoux) Tuesday November 1st to head south towards Spain. The plan was to drive while the weather was poor. It worked pretty well except that the weather was quite poor for almost a whole week.
We drove along the coast of Spain and spent a day exploring Barcelona before the skies opened up and the rain poured for a couple of days. Barcelona was a beautiful city with small streets that are perfect for walking around. We explored a famous market, the harbor and the Santa Maria cathedral which we though was even more beautiful than Notre Dame in Paris. The gothic buildings were amazing as were the Gaudi architecture.
Given that Cassie and I tend to do almost no research before exploring most cities we often stumble upon things other people intend to see. It makes it a bit more exciting and allows us to just go toward whatever seems interesting. Cities in the US wouldn't allow for this type of meandering considering you must generally drive everywhere. I'm sure we miss things, but we always feel like we see a lot and enjoy it so it works well for us.
As usual we avoided eating out and spending money on museums, so sorry that we don't have anything to report on that. One thing to note though is how good the cured meat is in Europe. Probably food laws in the US don't make it possible to hang a whole leg of pig up uncovered in an open-air market, but over here they are everywhere, and the meat is delicious.
After leaving Barcelona we stayed on the coast heading toward Valencia and eventually Albarracin. We took our time since the weather was still pretty terrible. After a lot of driving we started seeing huge hotels on the coast and signs for campgrounds so we picked a small town and setup in a campsite there. There were hundreds of motorhomes and rvs there. it seems the coast of Spain is a great place for retired people to get away from the winter in northern Europe. We were the only people camping and were easily about half the age (or less) of everyone else. after taking a walk on the beach we realized we had stumbled upon a famous town named Benacasim. It was a fancy resort for the rich, and during the war the villas became hospitals for the wounded. One of the villas was Ernest Hemingway's home and where he and journalist Martha Gellhorn had an affair. We made some friends at the campground and spent a few days waiting out the rain. Finally the forecast began looking good so we drove to Albarracin in the rain. The only campground was closed so we were quite worried we wouldn't be able to afford to stay and climb. Luckily it is off-season here and were able to rent a hotel room for only 20 euros a night.
Albarracin is the most beautiful village we've ever seen. The infusion of much tourist money has allowed it to become a very eyecatching place with a nice plaza and wonderful red buildings. The castle on the hill is exquisite. Plus there is a famous trout stream running through town. The local bakery has pain au chocolates that put the French versions to shame (why not add more butter and chocolate?) And the Spainish breads are outstanding. The bakery here is by far our favorite on the trip.

Now to the climbing. Albarracin was touted to us by european climbers as the anti-fontainbleau. At Fontainbleau the climbing is mostly technical power. Here it is just power. It is the most amazing climbing area. The area is known for having roofs and it has not disappointed in the least. We began climbing tentatively because it had rained only the day before and most climbs were still wet. Luckily because of the huge roofs here, many climbs are able to stay dry. In some cases roofs have a second roof (often very high and unclimbable) above them that protects the lower climbable roof from rain. our first day was quite good climbing at the Techos area (roof in Spanish) with us both climbing Obra de Arte 6a+ v3-v4 in just a few tries. The second day we climbed with some new friends from the UK named Michelle and Lucy who are both on long climbing trips. We climbed at the Arrastradero area which had a great variety of climbs in style and length.

Cassie sending Obra de Arte 6a+ v3/4

Matt on Arista de los belgas 7b - v7/8 - completed on 3rd try

We both flashed a 6a pocketed roof called El Minivarano that may be one of the best v3s we've ever done. We also did a very cool face called El Metodo Decide 6b (v4) in a couple of tries. Both of those sends helped inspire confidence to begin pushing ourselves harder so we headed over to Spider-Pig a 6c+ (v5) which I flashed and Cassie is very close on. Our third day Cassie took a rest and I climbed. Michelle and I put our fears aside and did the huge topout on Supermafa Tacho 6b v4 (i flashed it) the top is quite high and requires a heel hook mantle. Nothing like going horizontal 12 feet off the ground to get your heart pumping. After that we headed to Corona a 7b (easy v8 hard v7) that I came quite close to getting so I'm keen to go back and finish. Also did Meteoro a good 6b. The next day Cassie and I walked around town. After a good day of rest we were back at it again and had a super day at the Psicokiller area which was excellent. By this time Cassie and I were doing grade 6 in a few tries. We decided to hop on a long roof called Anfiteatro 7a. neither of us finished it but it was an amazing line. We also tried Vivo en el Presente 7a+ (v7) another powerful and difficult roof. There was a huge group of guys trying both and everyone was awestruck when Moni (Monika Repitchy flashed it, and Cassie almost sent it as well while most guys (including myself were falling at the crux repeatedly). Moni is a German pro climber who is super strong and is here with her boyfriend Peter. Click here to see her blog. She has already climbed and onsighted or flashed some very difficult problems and is super humble about it. She is easily the strongest girl (and is stronger than almost all guys) we've seen climb. Very fun to watch her crush. we also met a super strong South African climber named Chris who has been on quite the road trip and has crushed all over europe. He has a great blog that you can get to by clicking here.Though we left that day without any memorable sends we were both happy to see that some of our hardest sends might just happen here. Unfortunately the day after Cassie was trying a difficult horizontal roof that was rated 7a or v6 am injured her right ring finger tendon on a small pocket. Needless to say she is pretty bummed because it will hold her back from climbing hard for a while, though whether its a week or a month we don't know right now. There was an audible pop we both heard which isn't good. So, were trying to stay positive, but its tough when you feel like you are close to getting your hardest climb and must then back off.

Cassie on the tendon popping Eclipse 7a v6

In the meantime I'm trying a couple more projects including a 7b+ called Palpant. It certainly feels like the most difficult climb I've ever tried. In theory its either solid v8 or easy v9. I spent a few hours on it yesterday and did all the moves except the crux move which is a big throw to a sloper while basically horizontal. Also sent another 7b called Arista de los belgas (pictured above). This was my second v7/8 here and that makes 3 birthdays in a row that I've gone up a V grade. Hopefully by the time we see our friend Mark I'll be strong enough to keep up with him.

Today is saturday and our friends Adam and Michelle were super nice and let us borrow their laptop for the night. That's why the pictures are now uploaded so send them positive thankful thoughts if you are enjoying this post. I'm probably taking a rest day after 3 days of climbing and Cassie is going to climb a bit to see how her hand feels. She climbed a bit yesterday and didnt have any pain which is a good sign. We are now trying to decide what to do with our last month in Europe. There are a few options and all have their benefits and drawbacks.

Cassie trying Joya 7a+ v7

Cassie on El Metedo Decide - 6b v4

Matt flashing the high Supermafa Tacho 6b v4

Here's a link to the Albarracin Flickr Set with all the rest of the photos that aren't pictured here. There are a ton...

Cresciano and Chironico

2011-11-06T01:54:00.000-07:00

la finca campground

We have uploaded pictures for Cresciano and Chironico so a follow up blog post is in order.

The hike to the Cresciano boulders was much higher than we thought, we mistook a road for a stream which shifted our view of where the boulders were. Instead of being on a flat grassy area they were on a large hillside. We were concerned that the landings would be rocks and slanted, but were happy to find a beautiful flat forest with great boulders. On the way up the hill we hiked by a wonderful little old Swiss village.

the view from Cresciano boulders


the boulder hill - the climbs were above the small village in the trees

We spent 2 days at each area, exploring and climbing. Most days it was quite cool which made for great friction, but was definitely chilly. It took me many tries before I decided to take off my sweater and climb in a t-shirt.

Cassie had spotted a beautiful boulder with huge crystals on it during our scouting expedition. We did a bunch of great climbs on it, from the line of crystals, to a thin turning crack, a high powerful face, and a funky starting sloper problem. There were so many climbs on it we almost didn´t go to any other boulders that day.

the cool crystal problem at cresciano

Chironico was a bit puzzling to find given that our guidebooks were in italian and german. We got quite lost. We found the boulders and were happy to find a ton of climbs to do. The rock was excellent and the landings were perfect as well. Both days we found more and more boulders. Would have liked to had more time to explore and climb, but the weather drove us away.

a 6bish dyno at Chironico

Matt´s Chironico project - left undone

This boulder was my project for the trip and I left this climb undone, kept falling on the final hard move. So close, but that´s the way it goes.

Hannah and Seamus - our New Zealand friends

We uploaded about 150 pictures, many more than are pictured here. click here to get to them

Buoux (Back in France)

2011-10-30T08:58:00.001-07:00

We left magic wood with the threat of a snowstorm and just barely made it back over the 2000m san bernadino pass before the snow hit. We were very happy to make it safely down to the valley below where we rejoined our friends from New Zealand for some excellent granite bouldering at Cresciano and Chironico. Both areas are located in southern Switzerland in the Ticino region where Italian is the main language.
We stayed at the La Finca campground which was walking distance to the Cresciano boulders. We thought it was going to be an easy 5 minute walk to the boulders, but our orientation shifted when we asked for directions and were directed way, way up the hillside. We all had thought the boulders were down in the valley along the river. We walked up (and up) the very narrow winding road (cursing the other climbers who had driven up and were obviously free camping although there were signs explicitly saying not to and we had read that the access agreement with the village was a little tenuous due to this) through the old village of Cresciano into a chestnut forest filled with granite and/or gneiss boulders. We had photographed an Italian and a German guidebook which was some help but also quite confusing as we tried to decide if the hand drawn block stating "flugen mit unterkling" was the climb we were looking at or not. We climbed two days at each area and were able to find many great problems and know that there were many more areas we didn't even get to. The scene at each was beautiful, walking through old villages with views of the valley below and the alps above. Although we could have stayed longer, a few days of rain were predicted so we parted ways and headed for Finale Ligure Italy. Hannah and Seamus began making their way back to England
We arrived in Finale which looks like it has some great climbing and is one of the few areas with a free (although disgusting) campsite, but decided not to stay or climb since more bad weather was coming and we didn't have a guidebook. We drove along the Mediterranean coast which was quite beautiful and made it to Nice France where we camped. Heavy rain was predicted for the night. The receptionist told us it was only the 12th day of rain they had all year, but we thought it rained enough for at least a week. We decided to save our time to relax on the beach for when it was sunny, so we made our way through the Verdon Gorge (in a ridiculously heavy rainstorm) to Buoux where we are now.
Buoux is a famous climbing area, one of the first hard sport climbing areas in France. It's a beautiful sandstone/limestone cliff with amazing pockets. Yesterday I climbed at the Styx wall which is where Lynn Hill (an ultra-famous US climber) almost died when she fell into the trees from the top after forgetting to fully tie into the rope. We checked knots and harnesses a few extra times before getting on. The routes were quite amazing, but after a few months of only bouldering, my endurance and head were not quite up to the length of the routes or the distance between the bolts. But we can certainly see why Buoux was and still is such a famous climbing area. We'll probably stay here until Wednesday when we will make our way to Alberracin, Spain for what looks like amazing sandstone bouldering.
For now we are really enjoying the town of Apt which we walk to from the campsite. It has amazing chocolate and candy shops, bakeries, cheese shops, butchers, and a great Saturday market. Most of the shops are in a walking-only area with is great for people watching and window shopping. Today we are planning to go to a chocolate festival at an abbey in a nearby village. We are hoping for some free samples!
We have a lot of new climbing, town, and food pics, but will have to wait to post those until we have access to a computer again.

Chamonix and Magic Wood

2011-10-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

After leaving Fontainebleau we headed to Chamonix to check out the French alps and see Mt Blanc (a famous mountain). We left on a thursday because rain was predicted and rain it did. We drove through the rain and ended up camping in the rain for about 4 days. Much time was spent in the car watching movies, drinking wine, discovering that our tent leaked, and heading into Chamonix for the free wifi. The weather was quite cold with temps near freezing at night. It snowed for a bit at camp, and a lot in the mountains. Once in a while the clouds would part and allow us to see the peaks and they were quite spectacular. By Tuesday the weather had improved considerably and we were able to hike on a few trails and enjoy the views. Many cable cars exist in the area and most people pay the 50 euro price to get higher onto the mountains and then hike from there. Being on a tight budget means we chose not to do those more expensive trips. We would have loved going to the top of the Aguille du Midi which was a spectacular view from camp and is pictured above.

waiting out the rain. very exciting stuff.

free internet at the tourism office

the wonderful french bakeries. this one was in Chamonix

another rest day activity - laundry...

We left Chamonix after about 5 days of exploration and headed to the Matterhorn (a famous Swiss peak) only to realize that there was a steep charge to take a train into Zermatt and that you can't see the mountain until you get to Zermatt. Being a huge tourist draw has caused the town to ban cars and force tourists to take a train or hike. The hike would have been okay but we didn't give ourselves enough time to do it and so we left without seeing it.
We decided to move on to Interlaken Switzerland to see other peaks that were supposed to be some of the best in the alps, but were thwarted again by army officers who had closed the only road because of huge amounts of rain. We chose to head instead to the east to Magic Woods and start bouldering again. this path took us through Northern Italy for a few miles, and wow was that some of the craziest mountain driving we've ever done. This was on a local road since the main highways all have steep tolls here which we've been avoiding. It's slower to get around and takes us through a lot of small villages, but we have the time and mostly have been enjoying the experience. The Italians have quite narrow mountain roads (on the sides of sheer cliffs) with drivers that love driving in the center of the lanes and only get out of your way in time to avoid head on collisions. It was probably the most intense driving I've ever done and we were happy to find a campsite in Locarno Switzerland. The site was crazy expensive at 36 francs (basically 40 dollars) and even charged another franc for a 5 minute shower! Needless to say we wasted no time leaving there in the morning to finish our drive to Magic Woods.We drove through the day and crossed San Barandino Pass. The height of the pass is about 2000 meters (6000 feet) and we were not totally surprised to see a bit of snow at the top. This made us a bit nervous because we knew we had to go back over the pass to get back to Italy and the coast.

the crazy Swiss switchbacks on the way up San Berandino Pass

Magic Woods campground

hiking across the river to the climbs at Magic Woods.

We got to Magic Woods that afternoon and arrived to find the rocks wet from rain so we didn't climb that day, but got setup in camp. The next few days we spent exploring the woods, finding boulders, and climbing. We didn't have a guidebook and instead had a printout with an overview map. The map has boulders depicted as drawings and numbers marking the climbs. This made it quite difficult to get oriented, and it was even harder given that the boulders are located on a steep hillside covered in wet moss and mud, hiking around was strenuous and we ditched our gear to explore as quickly as possible. We weren't terribly impressed with the first two areas we found though we did find climbs we wanted to try and did a few small climbs. The following day a lot more people arrived at camp and we met our new friends Seamus and Hannah. They are from New Zealand and were living in Britain for the last couple of years. They've done a ton of traveling and we were eager to hear their stories and pic their brains about it. We spent the next few days completely exploring the forest and climbing together. The landings at Magic Woods leave a lot to be desired so having extra spotters and a huge pad helped immensely with our confidence. Plus Hannah and Seamus are great to hang out with.

lunch in Magic Woods with New Zealand friends - Hannah and Seamus

a fun warmup

a great 6b. We both did this climb and loved it. one of the best in the woods.

We did our hardest climbs those days with Cassie sending multiple 6c's and I got a couple of 7a's and even a supposed 7b (V7) called James Bong (though that grade is a subject of much debate on the internet). We found that we weren't as psyched on Magic Woods as we had expected. The climbs there are more intense undertakings than we had thought and required a good bit of courage and many pads to protect. Cassie and I are pretty much wimps when it comes to falls and we spent a good deal of time complaining about the landings and wishing we could find more problems that suited us. That being said, the friction there was the best I've even seen. The grains of the stone and the 40 degree temps allowed us to stick onto slopers with ease. It was some of the best granite climbing we've done. It made Squamish and Little Cottonwood seem very slick in comparison. There are tons of 8a and harder climbs which are immense and inspiring but are much harder than we can do, and so for us, don't contribute to the quality of the place.

Cassie on a crimpy 7a

a crazy hard 6c arete. didn't finish this one.

With snow predicted for Wednesday we decided to leave Magic Woods ahead of schedule. We opted to head to two bordering areas many European climbers had talked about. Located in southern Switzerland, Cresciano and Chironico are famous bordering areas that we had never heard of before we got here. They have an added benefit of being located at an elevation of 300m instead of Magic Woods which is at 1200m. The weather here is warmer and drier than Magic Woods. We spent our first day exploring both areas and just spent our first full day on the stones at Cresciano. It was excellent. We'll plan on doing another blog post recaping our time here in the next few days.

There are a ton more pictures that we didn't put into this post. Click here to get to them
Chamonix-Magic Wood Pictures

Final Fontainebleau

2011-10-05T05:47:00.000-07:00

Well after three weeks at Font we are mentally and physically drained. There's so much climbing it's easy to be overwhelmed and we are finally throwing in the towel. There are tons of climbs that we would have loved to finish, but when you can barely raise your arms above your head it's just time to go. Supposedly it's going to rain tomorrow so we figure that's a good time to head East toward the Alps. We're planning to check out Switzerland and plan to be in Magic Wood (a very famous granite bouldering area) by the end of the weekend. Hopefully by then our muscles and minds will have rejuvenated themselves and our psych will be restored. The ferns are starting to change to brown, a good indication that autumn will be replaced by winter soon!

Since our last post a couple of great projects have gone down. Cassie finished the superb Marie Rose (6a). It's quite famous since it was the first 6a (done in 1946). It's pretty incredible that it was climbed so long ago because let me tell you it's not like most people just walk up this climb. During the 3 days we spent on it I saw one other person climb it out of at least a dozen people trying. The top part is the crux and many many people fell off that last move. Cassie had it dialed after the first day, but it took many tries for her to get past the crux. The hands and feet are both quite poor and require much technical footwork and balance to succeed.

La Marie Rose 6a

She also finished La Coquille (6c). It's a much steeper climb (overhanging) than Marie Rose, and has a huge move off a high foot to a small right hand. The move took much effort by both of us to succeed and we were both psyched on it. Really amazing climb and outstanding rock. Each move is unique and difficult.

La Coquille - the awkward and powerful start

La Coquille - the desperate crux throw

A few days ago I finished a project that I was psyched on called La Oblique (7a). It was the only 7a of the trip to Font and wow did it tax me. 7a appears to be a grade here that is quite difficult to break into. I tried probably about a dozen or so 7a climbs and this was the only one that felt doable to me. It's a sit start that goes to a dyno and a mantle finish. The slopers at the end are pretty terrible.

Matt's "Try Hard" face at the end of La Oblique

The fine grained sandstone

an orange circuit warmup at Franchard Isatis - Haute Plaines

Fontainebleau Part Deux

2011-09-27T06:51:00.000-07:00

Well we've been steadily chipping away at the areas here inFontainebleau. It's incredible that we've climbed at a different areaevery day for the last 2 weeks and we still haven't made it to somemajor areas. We've been climbing 2 days on 1 day off, but after 10 daysof that we've started feeling some aches and pains so we're backing offa bit.

Concept 7a

the castle and river 200 yards from our camp.

We moved camp from La Musardiere to Les Pres because Les Pres was half the price. It's also within walking distance of a great little town on a river that has a 900 year old castle! Plus there's a little bakery with great fresh baguettes and pastries.

Baguette

We've made it to the Bas Cuvier area where we climbed with some brits that were quite a lot of fun (both of their names were Tom) and had a great day. It's excellent to get more spotters and just the comraderie of bouldering is better with more people. We tried la Marie Rose, which has to be one of the most frustrating problems ever. Very balancy and technical (Cassie's style-she came close) and is rated a Font 6a (easy V3, yeah right!), it's incredible that it was climbed something like 60 years ago. We both gave up on it, but vowed to come back. I tried La Joker (7a) and got completely humbled. Cassie sent Le Trou Simon (6a) and we all tried to get on the send train but got spanked. After that I did a sweet double dyno that I can't even find in the book, but watched some other guys try it. It's an all points off dyno from an undercling to two slopers. Sick!!!

Double Dyno 6c?

We went to Francard Isatis and checked out the blue circuit as well as some red climbs. The rock was excellent and we had a good day. One really really good problem was Le Surplomb Statique (6a+) which was an incredible climb. Great movement and fun. According to the font grades it's only a hard V3!!!! Everything here feels much harder than the grades they give it.

Le Surplomb Statique (6a+)

Slopers anyone?

On Sunday we tried to go to Versailles. We had everything packed, woke up early and drove straight to the train station. We made it to the palace at about 11am, and were shocked to see that the line was like a mile long. I'm not kidding, we looked and thought we were seeing 3 separate lines and then realized it was one long twisting snake of a line. We opted to keep our tickets till December and go back just before we leave for the US. We figured we would have been waiting in line for at least two hours. I suppose that's what you get going to the most popular tourist attraction in the country. So, we walked around the Luxemberg gardens, checked out the Pantheon, walked through the Latin Quarter and went to the monument to the Bastille. We had a great day just walking around Paris. It's a city that is meant for walking and riding bikes. Everything is much more friendly than NYC or other US cities. it's a place that you can stroll for hours without getting bored.

Yesterday we checked out Apremont. It was a cool area, though stuff was pretty high and with only one pad and spotter it was a bit stiff for us. The temps lately have been very hot for good bouldering at around 80 degrees and it isn't expected to cool off until next Tuesday (which was about when we were planning to leave). We'll see if that happens as we're hoping to start making projects out of the hard problems and see what we can send. 80 is way too hot, next Wednesday they're saying 63. That's much better.

the USA - in France...

France and Fontainebleau

2011-09-19T06:55:00.000-07:00

notre dame statues

We made it to Font! We arrived jetlagged in Paris and picked up our car with no problems. Thanks to the trusty GPS we found our way to the campsite near Milley-en-Foret. The GPS is the most wonderful invention ever. I have no idea how we would navigate without it. After we got to the campsite and got established we decided to go into town to buy a crashpad and supplies. There is a carrefour (which is sort of like a walmart) and decathalon (sporting goods store), about 20km from camp. We stumbled our way around in a jetlag fog to buy what we needed for a few days. After getting back to the campsite we realized that we had forgotten to buy any fuel for our campstoves. We made a few extra trips because I-Matthew thought that all propane/butane cylinders were alike. Eventually we fell asleep in our tents with our bodies not sure what time it was, but completely sure we were exhausted.

Ectoplasme

the atari arete (Matt's name)

Our first full day here, we walked from the campsite into the Trois Pignons area of the forest into a group of boulders called 95.2. The boulders here are amazing!! The friction and tecture of the rock is crazy, the landings are all mostly flat and sandy. We quickly learned that just because we can climb a grade at home does not mean you can climb it at font, especially when still in the jet lag fog. So, we've mostly been trying problems from some of the easier marked circuts that look fun and are starting to try a few harder ones as we get more of a feel for how things climb here.

sandstone texture

cul de chien area

le petit toit - super fun heel hook traverse

People have been bouldering at font for much longer than most places in the us and the style is very different here. They made up many circuts of climbs through an area which are maked with colors giving an idea of how hard the circut is and numbers to show where you are on the circut. This is actually marked with painted arrows and numbers right on the boulder. So, we have an idea that a blue circut problem is probably around a V0-V2, and a red circut problem is maybe between V2 and V5, but you don't usually know for sure. Some people seem to just climb the circuts and others try individual problems. The bouldering scene is very different here than in the US. In the US we sometimes feel like we're pretty old for boulderers with most people you see in their 20's or under. Here, you're just as likely to see people in their 40's and 50's usually walking around in their climbing shoes and just as often without a pad as with a pad.

how the problems are marked

The forest and amount of boulders here is absolutely ridiculous. In two days of bouldering, we have explored two areas of Trois pignons which is just one of 5 or 6 main huge areas of font all which have 10-20 areas within them which would take at least a day each to explore let alone actually spending the time to work on a harder problem that you want to get. It's pretty mind boggling.

le biblioquet -- they say it's a dog head, we think it's a turtle at least from this angle

The weather has been a bit rainy the last couple days. We took the train into Paris yesterday while it poured here. It takes about 40 minutes by train to get to Paris and they run every half hour. Very convenient! We made our way to Notre Dame and walked through the main cathedral while mass was going on. The light through the stained glass windows was beautiful and the detail in all of the statues was amazing. With the sermon being given in French and the smell of incense in the air it was quite moving. From there we walked to the Louve where we stayed in the outside plazas then walked into the adjacent park. We might go back to Louve in a couple weeks since entrance is free on the first sunday of the month. The park had beautiful gardens and statues all throughout and was a great place to walk and have a picnic. It's amazing how much art there is outdoors here. If you want to spend a day in Paris and see a lot of statues just walk around for a while and you'll see lots for free! After a little more wandering we realized we were pretty close to the Arc de Triumph. We stood looking at the craziest traffic roundabout I've ever seen and were terribly puzzled how we were supposed to get across into the center to the Arc. I promised Cassie $10 if she made it across the insane roundabout alive, but she declined and we finally figured out that there was an underground passage. We were super lucky to find out that admission to the top was for free that day (still not sure why), so we went up the long spiral staircase for some amazing views of the city.

notre dame

light through the stained glass

stained glass

We had debated on which way the Eiffel tower was from the Arc, and as luck would have it the view from the top easily showed us the way, that is until we spent 5 minutes walking down a spiral staircase inside the Arc. (If there are no flights of stairs in a spiral staircase how do you describe how far you walked?) When we got out we were literally dizzy and it took us a minute to figure out what direction we were pointed.

We walked down a street toward the Eiffel (sounds weird to leave the word "tower" off), but kind silly to leave it on since you know exactly which Eiffel we are talking about. The street we took had expensive looking clothing shops on it, but was basically deserted which was quite odd since only 1 street over was the busiest we had been on in Paris. On the way to the Tower we walked past an photography exhibit and enjoyed being totally puzzled by what is called art. Eventually we arrived at the Tower and decided we were too tired to spend any real time exploring, so we hopped on the metro and headed back to camp. Total cost for the day was $2.00 (4 x .50) for the public bathrooms. Very weird to have to pay to get into the bathroom and even weirder in the metro when the attendant lady says to you in French "go ahead" and she is pointing to the same row of stalls that your wife just walked into and you're thinking "will they arrest me for being some weird pervert if I go into a womans bathroom, or will she think I'm an idiot if I just stand here looking dumb". Tough choices. Luckily they are unisex bathrooms or I might have rang you all up for bail.

On the train home we were completely confused as to what train we were supposed to be on. Even after asking (in english) a couple of guys standing at the doors and they confirmed it was the right train it looked completely different than the one we had gotten on. It's amazing how completely inept you feel in someone else's country. In our heads we know we are reasonably intelligent people, but when you can't speak the language you have to depend on the kindness of strangers. We've found that the French people are quite happy and helpful to point you in the right direction, even while you massacre their language just trying to ask if they speak English. If I have an accent I'm pretty sure its the one you get from a labotomy.

This morning the weather is looking better but it's still wet from yesterday, so we're hoping this afternoon things will be dry enough to climb a bit more. We were waiting to for the tourism office to open to find out where an internet cafe was when we met a nice Indian couple who we chatted with for awhile. He was looking at attending the university here and told us there were free computers that we could use, which is where we are now. We're hoping the weather will cooperate and give us more good climbing days, but we can't complain about a few forced rest days to see Paris and some other sites.

We have more Paris pictures but they are taking for ever to upload so we're going to try later. Here's a few that we were able to upload http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewandcassie/sets/72157627580104407/

and some from bouldering
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewandcassie/sets/72157627580094735/

Mojo Slideshow

2011-09-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a post with a slideshow of Mojo sleeping, freezing, swimming etc. We're going to miss the big lug while we are abroad in Europe. He's staying with Cassie's parents while we are gone. 3 more days until we leave for Paris!

Olympic National Park

2011-09-02T15:58:00.000-07:00

We spent our last weekend at Squamish and left on Sunday morning. It was time to go as arms and fingers were starting to hurt. Our list of projects still remains strong and we're hoping to make it back there someday after the trip is finished. After leaving Squamish we headed straight to Olympic National Park via the west side of Washington (to avoid Seattle) we hopped a ferry from Keystone to Port Townsend for about $25. It was a beautiful day out and we enjoyed getting closer to Sol Duc Hot Springs without driving.

Last hike at Squamish

Port Townsend Ferry

Sol Doc is a great little hot springs resort tucked into the center of Olympic Park. It has a few pools at different temperatures and a larger swimming pool. Last Christmas Cassie's parents (leo and dottie) got us a great Christmas present of a gift certificate that we could use for a couple of different resorts at Olympic including the hot springs. We made great use of it by camping within walking distance of the springs and using the gift for great dinners. We have only eaten out a few times on the trip so it was a special treat. The springs are really relaxing and we made the most out of our day-pass by soaking 3 different times. It was a very relaxing day. The weather (though part of the park is a rainforest) was excellent and we continued to be amazed by the warm dry days. We left after 2 nights at Sol Duc. On the way out we hiked to Sol Duc falls, and watched salmon coming up a lower section of the river. Really special place to see.

Salmon

Sol Duc Falls

From Sol Duc we headed to the Pacific coast. We camped at South Beach right next to the beach and went for walks to tidepools. Once Cassie was walking mojo and got surprised by a freak wave. I got a great action sequence of them both running away from the wave, unfortunately mojo didn't quite make it and got soaked. It wasn't quite as dangerous of a beach as a sign indicated it could be. Though the danger might be real we had a surprisingly relaxing time given that we should have been fearing for our lives...

DANGER!

Running from a wave

Otter

filtered sunlight

Cassie's birthday was on the 30th and we spent it having dinner at Kalaloch lodge and walking on the beach to watch the sun set. It was an outstanding meal and sunset.

Birthday Sunset

This labor day weekend we had been planning to do a backpack with Paul (our friend from Seattle) so we headed to Portland Oregon to stay with Cassie's parents and get organized. Mojo and I will be staying here at Cassie's parents house getting some projects done on the van while Cassie goes out on the backpack. But, fear not, though I will miss spending time with Paul there are other things coming to look forward to. Such as EUROPE!!!

We leave for Europe on Sept 13th and return December 14th. We fly into Paris and currently are planning to head straight to Fontainebleau (a humongous bouldering area) which is about an hour outside of the city. After that who knows what we'll be up to since the whole trip is still a work in progress.

So, we may not be posting much for the next 2 weeks or so, but expect a post from Europe as soon as we are able.

Sunset on the Pacific Ocean

the forest of fours

2011-08-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

mojo - a v4 sleeping position

Some days everything comes together into an amazing day. We met Josh and Sarah from Boulder while they were trying "it's about time" an awesome looking v5 that we also wanted to try. We tried that problem with them for a while with little progress, then moved on to "timeless" together, another v5 that we had looked at, but were not wanting to try on our own since it's tall and the landing isn't very good. With more pads and spotters, we were excited to try it and Matt made short work of it. It was great to find some people who climbed at our level and were fun to climb with.

matt - it's about time

Sarah - it's about time V5

We climbed with Josh and Sarah again a few days later and as a group of four made short work of a number of great v4s. For some reason Squamish seems to be the land of classic v4s. There are so many highly rated v4s here with reasonable landings. We started at "black mark" which Sarah and Josh made quick work of. Matt had figured it out a few days earlier and it took me another days try to send it. Josh then suggested "green tea" which after a little searching, Matt was able to find down in this pit. It was a little strange to have to climb down to get to the problem which we started out on the top of, but it was a really fun bear hugging problem, to a really awkward bad feet top out. All of us were successful after a few tries.

green tea - v4

We then headed to "trad killer" which Matt and I had looked at a few days earlier. After a few tries at the bottom moves, we all made pretty short work of a very fun problem. Matt then onsighted another v4 "pocket problem" which looked amazing. At this point, we were all pretty tired, but Sarah and I decided to give "easy in the easy chair" one more try. This is an amazing heel hook, sloper traverse which I had tried a couple times with little success. We both finished it in just a few tries and all left the forest exhausted and happy from a great day of climbing.

josh - trad killer - v4

easy in the easy chair - v4

sarah - easy in the easy chair

The next day, my parents arrived in Squamish for a visit this week. We hiked to Shannon Falls, and the top of the chief and have been enjoying hanging out with them and showing them our road trip lifestyle. It's been a great few days of making new friends, fun climbing, and being with family. We just have two more days left in Squamish. We have a few more projects we'd like to finish like "it's about time" and matt has been trying a v7 "anubis" that he's close to getting. We will be a little sad to leave but are getting more and more excited every day about heading to Europe in a few weeks!

josh - superfly - v4

Sarah - shots fired - v4

matt - anubis - v7

Squamish Projects

2011-08-19T12:32:00.000-07:00

This week our bouldering projects went down. We're really happy to have finished the ones we had our eyes on before our last week here. That means, of course, that we'll be picking up new projects to try and send before we leave.

The Chief

Largonian Bulge - V2

Cassie sends Swank Stretch - V5

Cassie stepped up this week and was the first of us to send v5 at Squamish. She had found a problem that she really enjoyed called Swank Stretch. It's a v5 and is her hardest granite boulder problem to date. It's a truly funky problem that starts with huge hands, then immediately goes into two very very small sharp crimps in a seam. I had tried it a few times and just couldn't seem to get enough purchase in the seam to make doing the moves possible. To add to the difficulty it's a very overhung problem that puts a ton of weight onto your arms. After getting your hands on the seam you have to do a huge move to a decent hold, and then do a very powerful move to a jug. So, it had a variety of different moves to it. Cassie tried it maybe 3 different days and on the third day everything came together. Quite an impressive send. She continues to work on Sloppy Poppy where she has the moves so dialed that she makes everything up to the final move look almost effortless. She's also working on Viper.

Swank Stretch - V5

I sent viper after 3 days of effort. Coming into the trip I had said I would be perfectly satisfied with doing some v4s so I was really surprised to build up enough strength to do it. The first move is really balancy, reachy and powerful. You basically squeeze the arete with your right hand and then do a drive-by move (falling into your other hand). If I hit it just right it works, but otherwise I can't hold it. Viper is called a "mega-classic climb" so I was really happy to do it. Other climbs also went this week such as: Easy in the Easy Chair v4 was very cool, as was the direct up variation called Palminator v4. Timeless v5 had a scary landing so it was nice to have a larger guy spotting me (thanks Josh!).

Viper - V5

Timeless-V5

We also went to Cheakamus with Mars and Kim. It's a sport area just a few minutes north of Squamish. We spent the day clipping bolts and watching a pro climber named Alex Hannold do some very difficult climbs. We also watched some other top climbers do some insanely long overhanging routes. I've never seen someone onsight something in the 5.13 range and it was tremendously impressive.

This coming week the weather may take a turn for the worse so we'll do our best to get some more climbing in. Cassie's parents arrive Monday and were super happy to meet up with them. It'll be nice to go for hikes and have some beers together!

Matt trying Mrs. Negative - 12a

Cassie looking calm on - Kigijiushi 10c

Mojo trying to sleep on rocks

Mars - Kigijiushi 10c - the incredibly steep roof is above him

more from squamish

2011-08-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

if I needed more reasons why mountain biking is scary

We're still in Squamish and loving it. It may seem like one month is a long time to spend in one place, but at Squamish, we haven't even come close to running out of things to do here. We have about two more weeks and are starting to think of with so little time left how we'll be able to do everything we'd like to do here. Our perspective on time has started to shift after three months on the road.

excited for another day in the forest!

Matthew has started sending problems pretty quickly and easily (other than the bashing and scraping of his hands and ankles against the rock), I'm making progress on some of my projects, (just a little slower and with more of my skin in tact). The granite here is ridiculously good, and the boulders are concentrated at the base of The Chief in a beautiful forest. It's always cool and shaded in the forest and it's easy to forget that you're in such a beautiful place. We often emerge from the boulders blinded by the sun, shedding layers, and looking up and around at the amazing scenery here.

Matt - titanic v3

stu's fly - the hardest v2 in the world

black mark - v4

We've been lucky to find a drive in campsite at the climbers campground that gets a bit of sun, most of the sites are walk-in tent sites nestled in the forest which may be a nicer setting, but for us it means we still get a bit of solar power and there have been a number of sun oven baked goods. Blueberry muffins and peach crisp have been our favorites lately since both are fresh, local, and cheap! The conversations that happen among VW van owners has again been great as we met and are camped right next to an Australia couple with a eurovan who are traveling and climbing around the US for a year. It's been great hanging out and climbing with Mars and Kim the last week or so! They are primarily trad climbers, but we convinced them to come boulder with us a couple days and we had a good time trad climbing with them yesterday. They've also gotten us even more excited to go to Australia and climb in the Arapiles!

kim - thriller off the void 11b

remembering how to place gear

mars - a very impressive onsight of thriller off the void 11b

mars - titanic v3

This week we also were able to meet up with friends from Salt Lake. Christian, Julie, Dave, and Chris made the 20 hour drive to mountain bike at Whistler for a few days. Whistler has amazing mountain bike trails, but is a little out of our league in both price and skills. They invited us to join them for some relatively easy mountain biking on some local trails, but since they were heading for the trail we saw earlier with the warnings of an aggressive cougar and knowing that I would by far be the last one of the group making me perfect bait for the cougar, we decided not to join them. After they had beaten themselves up at Whistler for a few days (including bruised ribs and a broken bike), they met up with us for an afternoon of bouldering before driving back. It was great to see friends from home and we all had a great afternoon playing around in the forest.

julie

bouldering at squamish

More squamish pictures can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewandcassie/sets/72157627233331569/

And I finally got around to editing and uploading the bear pictures from our drive here from Jasper which can be found here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewandcassie/sets/72157627334226482/

baby bear

sunshine at squamish

2011-08-04T15:38:00.000-07:00

climber sculpture

Huge Slug - they are all over in the forest.

After our first trip to squamish two years ago where it rained for a week straight, we knew that there was amazing bouldering in the dripping forest but didn't get much of a chance to explore it. We were hoping for better luck with the weather this time around, but can't believe the luck we've had so far. Blue skies every day and the 10 day forecast is completely dry! Last time we were here, we decided to hike to the top of the chief on a rainy day and remember it being a miserable, wet, cold, slippery experience, with countless stairs to get up there, at the time we were happy to get a view of the bay below through the dripping fog. We decided to try the hike again and there's just a bit more to see on a clear day and it's really quite a pleasant hike when you're not in miserable conditions. The nausea inducing looks over the shear drop from the top were plenty to remind us why we prefer bouldering to multipitch trad.

north summit of the chief

peering over the edge

what you see when you look over the edge

We've started to explore the boulders with much better luck than our first trip. We've gotten on a few classic problems so far and hope to get many more projects in the sunny days ahead. The campground and boulders at the chief have been a great place to meet other climbers from all over which adds to the fun.

superfly v4

Jonathan-easy in the easy chair v4 (really not easy at all)

Megan-superfly

Colin-sloppy poppy v4

Superdike - V3

Cassie warming up

Squamish!!!!!

2011-08-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

Given that Skaha was going to be in the mid-high 80s and on top of that we didn't have a guidebook to the area we decided to skip it and go to Squamish where temps are around 75 and sunny. Needless to say it's bluebird skies and beautiful. We rode our bikes into town to use the internet at the library and were surprised to see that it's closed for the "British Columbia Day" Holiday. Oh well at least we can use the internet from the front steps.

Bouldering has already commenced and pictures should be coming in the next couple of days. Our pictures that didn't finish the other day are now uploaded and ready for viewing.

Here's the link to photos from the end of our stay in Wyoming, Montana, and the Canadian Rockies.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewandcassie/sets/72157627334226482/

Montana - Alberta - and - British Columbia

2011-07-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

We left the Herzog's cabin last Sunday morning after a great week of climbing with friends. We were sad to leave, but as always on the trip there was something new around the corner that tempted us to keep moving.

We left and drove for a whole day just to reach westernish Montana. We camped near Anaconda Montana along highway 1 in forest service land, and left immediately the next morning. We arrived in Missoula around lunch, picked up some supplies and left immediately again. This time we left I-90 and headed up through Thompson Falls along highway 200 (thanks for the recommend Jesse!!). Cassie and I took a swim in a small river flowing out of the Cabinet Mountains. The river was almost 10 feet deep and so clear you could easily see the bottom, it was also incredibly cold. I had to throw mojo in to get him to swim. It was a beautiful drive and we camped that night along lake Kookanusa (spell it out Ko - Can - USA) and you get the reason because the lake (reservoir) crosses the border. There is some climbing there but we didn't get to do any because the weather took a turn for the worse and was very windy and rainy. It stayed that way off and on for about a week (until today). Again it was a beautiful night of camping along the lake and a lot of driving.

Next we headed east to Glacier National Park. Neither Cassie nor I had been along the "Going to the Sun Rd". Unfortunately it might have been incredibly beautiful but we sure didn't see any sun, and almost didn't even see any mountains due to the weather. We have very few pictures because it rained nonstop the entire time. Couldn't see a thing, but that's the way it goes. We headed north into Alberta and had a relatively easy time crossing the border. The border guard asked a lot of questions and eventually found out that we were unemployed. There is apparently some concern with illegal immigrants and he was happy to hear that we had enough money to leave the country and plane tickets to Europe. He could have asked for us to do a significant bit more work by having us hold onto some kind of card we needed to return when we left (their way of keeping tabs on us), but luckily he didn't. It's still incredible to me that people would think we might become illegal immigrants. Of course, if the debt crisis causes the US economy to tank we might not come back....

We drove west along Route 3 towards Fernie British Columbia and stayed at a provincial park there. It was almost our first paid campsite in a month. We opted for it because the first free site we found along the road which was incredibly beautiful in a field next to a river, also happened to be right behind a gun range. It only took a couple of shots before we realized how close we were and we got in the van and hauled outta there as quickly as we could. The next site had more skinned deer carcasses than I've ever seen and given the bear population and the disgust with the site we chose to move on. By then it was getting dark and we were exhausted. As luck would have it we pulled into the provincial park, found the last open site and we elated to get a break from the very nice person who collects the fees. After hearing our story of intended free campsites they "forgot" to collect the fee. Many thanks to you!!!

We continued driving the next day and made it to Kootenay National Park on the west side of the Canadian Rockies. The site was excellent and within walking distance of Marble Canyon which is an outstanding limestone slot canyon with brilliant blue-green water rushing through it. There is an interesting vantage point that is precariously being hollowed out below it by the water. A little disconcerting after you realize what you have been standing on.

The next day we headed into Banff National Park and did a hike to the Six Glaciers along Lake Louise. There is some really good climbing on the back of the lake but we figured that with all the climbing we are about to do and with the incredible scenery that hiking would be the best use of our time. It was worth it. The lake is incredible (other than the huge hotel) and the hanging glaciers were awesome. At the top of the hike is a cute little teahouse that has been operated by the same family for something like ninety years. They pack in the perishables on horse, and fly in the non-perishables in the spring. It was a pretty touristy hike, but the scenery was exceptional.

We camped that night at Rampart Creek, just south of Jasper National Park. The weather continued to stay good and bad with clouds helping to create a mysterious look to the mountains, but with rain causing hikes to be more difficult. We hiked to the Athabasca Glacier at the Columbia Icefield and only stayed a few minutes since the rain and wind created an incredible chill. Along the road we saw our first bighorn sheep and Cassie got some amazing pictures of them. We drove out of the park that day and stayed off the road near a creek just north of Blue River BC.

We woke up this morning and intend to get near Kelowna BC to climb some rock again for the first time in a week. During the drive we were commenting on how we hadn't seen any bears yet and that we were disappointed. Not 5 minutes later we saw two cubs in trees with a momma bear trying to coax them both down. Cassie took something like 150 pictures while we watched.

Today I write this blog post from the library in Kamloops. We are catching up on emails and relaxing in the air conditioning. Well that pretty much catches us up. Next post should have some climbing pictures!!!

NOTE: No pictures posted because of the incredibly slow internet here in the kamloops library. some pictures did make it to flickr but we only got about 25% of them uploaded. Will add pictures asap. here's the link to the pictures that did make it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewandcassie/

ten sleep continued

2011-07-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

We love Ten Sleep!!

The climbing is amazing and to make things even better we've had friends to hang out with and a great cabin in the mountains to stay at. The pictures can say this all better than we can. We'll be in Ten Sleep through the weekend then will make our way to Canada by the end of the month.

ten sleep guide at sector shinto wall

ten sleep trail marker

jesse great green gobs of greenie goo 10a

euro trash girl 10b

wyoming flower child 11d/12a

ice station zebra 10c

Ten Sleep update

2011-07-19T15:25:00.000-07:00

I just do eyes 11b

Tensleep is the best climbing we've done so far on the trip. Shelf Road in Colorado comes close with great limestone and tons of walls as well, but the variety and quality of the limestone here is more varied and interesting. The bolting is a little less spacy which also helps to inspire confidence and increase fun. Combine that with free camping very close to the camp and reasonable temps in the shade and you get a great experience.

Cows in Camp...

We arrived at tensleep on Thursday the 7th of July and have climbed every other day since then. Cassie's arm continues to feel good and we continue to push ourselves on progressivly harder grades. Our first day we climbed at an area known as Charlie's Circus which has great cool shady climbing until just after lunch or so. The climbs there are relatively short but are excellent. We did a few climbs around 11a or below our first day, then went back again found a few projects and worked them. I tried a really bouldery 12a called "The Barnum Route" and sent on my third try. A great long overhanging 11a called "Circus in the Wind" spit me off twice at the last bolt. I still need to get back to it and finish.

After a few days of easier climbing we headed to an area with a huge number of climbs called "Mondo Beyondo". We joined our new friends Tom and Laura. Tom is semi-retired and owns a eco-lodge in Panama and Laura is a pro x-country skier (one of the best in the country). They are both super hard climbers and worked on 5.12s all week without a rest. We opted for a few 11s called "I just do eyes" 11b and "Slightly Toasted Cracker" 11d. Both Cassie flashed or onsighted. Those are her hardest onsight and flashes to date and she was very happy with them. Both climbs are quite long (10-13 bolts) and are technical which is the style Cassie really excels at.

We also went to the Valhalla area and hopped on "Great White Behemoth" 12b which is the hardest lead either of us has tried to date. It's an incredible wall that is slightly overhanging the entire way. All of the moves are quite difficult and it just keeps coming. We were both impressed with the excellent rock quality and were happy to make it to the top even though neither of us redpointed the route. We are planning to go back for another shot.

Hoping for fish

Sunset Reflection

After a week of climbing Jesse, Nicole, Chris, Renee, and Tori showed up from SLC. Also joining us was Tom (Nicole's dad from South Carolina) We climbed at another area called Metropolis and the Daily Planet Boulder. Two good crack climbs warmed us up. Jesse led Luthor (a 9/10 that felt more like 10b) and I led "Captain Tombstone" (also a 9/10 that felt more accurate). The crew then headed over to "Moon Units Secret Shinto Ride" (10-) and I hopped on "Solid Gold Secret Sauce" (12a). After those we headed to some brand new routes on the Cigar that were 10b and 10c which Cassie and Jesse led. The shots were quite spectacular.

Solid Gold Secret Sauce 12a

That evening we headed to the Herzog's cabin on the east side of the Bighorns. It's a beautiful place next to a mountain stream and pond. Mojo has shown his obessive nature and is constantly swimmining in the pond and looking for fish. We've been eating great food, playing cards, watching the sun set, and relaxing by swimming in the pond. We also went to Crazy Woman Canyon yesterday and got on a few routes that were good quality. Crazy Woman is about 15 minutes from the cabin while TenSleep is more like 40 minutes or so. We're headed back to TenSleep tomorrow.

It's been great climbing with all our friends and catching up after months apart. Seems like we just pick up where we left off and everyone is laughing and joking.

We're headed into Buffalo to pick up our mail and get some supplies. We'll be climbing at Ten Sleep for about another week or so, maybe a little less. Then we head north to Canada!

Jesse - The Cigar 10b

Intense climbing shoe discussion

Herzog Cabin Sunset

Chris - Cowpoke 10d - Crazy Woman Canyon

Nicole - Bury the hatchet 10d - Crazy Woman Canyon

Ten Sleep Canyon

2011-07-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

There are few possible reasons we don't post. The first is that we don't have internet access, the other is that we are too busy having a great time climbing. In this case both are true. We're having a blast in Ten Sleep. We aren't taking nearly enough pictures for a post, but with some friends arriving shortly and a few more days of climbing we should have enough for a true post.

Quick update: Cassie's arm is feeling better. She flashed (got on her first try) an 11a yesterday. So, things are looking up.

This limestone is the best!!!!

-matthew

Bighorn mountains and the Cloud Peaks Wilderness

2011-07-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

After our whirlwind tour of a few of the highlights of South Dakota and parts of Wyoming, we were ready to stay put for a few days. We found the most amazing field of wildflowers with a great view of the Bighorn Mountains and have set up camp there.

This picture took hours just to setup and then the deer had to come around. Ok just kidding it wandered about 50 feet from the van while we were inside avoiding mosquitoes.

We are very close to Ten Sleep and a lot of great climbing, but since my elbow was bothering me from Veedawou, we decided to wait for a while to take on any more climbing. So, we've been hanging out in the wildflowers, going for hikes, watching the wildlife wander in and out of camp and making some great food. We've made homemade chocolate-chip cookies, bagels, pizza, and calzones in the solar oven. A new favorite food is felafels which were a resounding success.

According to the locals, the wildflowers are especially good this year due to the high snow pack. Someone from the forest service told us that at one point their snowpack was 1000% of normal. This also means that many of the hikes that you could normally do this time of year are still snowed in. We've still been able to find plenty of hikes to keep us busy though. Even over the 4th of July weekend, we were quite surprised to find that the trails weren't too busy, there were definitely people around, but nothing compared to what we are used to from easily accessible hikes in the Wasatch and the Uintas. We did two hikes, one was into the Cloud Peaks Wilderness to a bunch of lakes via the Circle Park trailhead, and another along a jeep road near that took us next to the 7 brothers lakes. We were unable to reach the lakes due to high runoff and a dicey stream crossing. Mojo was very energetic and enjoyed swimming after leopard frogs and trout which he was unable to catch.

While we have gone on a few great hikes, we've also done our share of lazing about in the flowers around camp just being amazed by the beauty all around us.

We're planning on heading over the mountains to Ten Sleep tomorrow and give this climbing thing a try again.

Looking for fish

Leopard Frog

Rainy Lake

Cooperative Marmot

Camp

Old graves in the Wilderness

Cloud Peaks Wilderness

South Dakota and Wyoming

2011-07-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

Final Day at Vedauwoo

Mike and some friends from Boulder joined us for our last weekend in Vedauwoo. It was great having friends to camp and hang out with. Due to some lingering climbing injuries, we weren't able to climb much though and we opted to take the very long way to Ten Sleep, WY. We left Vedauwoo on Monday morning and headed to Saratoga, WY on the promise that it had free hotsprings and would be on the way to Fremont Canyon. An unexpected bonus was that the Snowy Range (yes that's the name of the mountain range) along route 130 provide many beautiful vistas. It was a good thing that we got something out of that part of the drive because Saratoga was in the same shape as many towns along rivers this year. With a snowpack exceeding 200% in many areas rivers are overflowing their banks and causing much damage. Saratoga was in the same predicament and because of the high water levels the hot springs were closed. We pushed on towards Fremont Canyon. Though we weren't planning to climb I've always wanted to see the canyon because of its unique location. The North Platte river flows through the canyon and creates such steep walls that routes must be rappelled into which makes for a committing day of climbing. It was a beautiful canyon and one I'd like to come back to and climb.

Fremont Canyon

Casper Wyoming was far enough for the day so we camped there and talked about where to go next. We weren't quite ready to head north to Ten Sleep and the Bighorn mountains so we looked east to South Dakota. The Black Hills have always been on my list of places to visit but it seems that they are always quite far away. With our location in Wyoming it seemed like a good time to visit. We headed east from Casper and camped just west of Wind Cave National Park. We had seen the cave on a map and were interested in checking it out. It was very much worth $9 for a tour of the cave. Timp Cave in Utah has much more impressive stalactite and stalagmite formations, but what wind cave lacked in formations it made up in sheer volume. We walked for a good hour on the tour and hit only the tiniest portion of the cave. According to estimates only 5% has even been explored. The best part was that the 50 degree temps in the cave were a welcome reprieve from the 90+ degree day outside.

Cassie observing cave Boxwork

Once the tour was completed we headed towards Mt Rushmore. One the way we passed the statue of Crazy Horse being carved out of a mountainside. According to the signs all of Mt. Rushmore could fit inside the head of Crazy Horse. There was an entrance fee to see it so we kept driving. At Mt. Rushmore we found that the National Monument was run be concessionairs who get around letting us in with our National Parks Pass by calling it a "parking fee" instead of an "entrance fee". Totally bogus and not at all worth the $11 just to park. So, we did a u-turn and snapped a bunch of pictures out the window. We left frustrated and definitely not feeling any national pride, but rather disgust at capitalism. Such is life. We saw a mountain goat outside the monument. He was super cute.

John Gill is a very famous climber who put bouldering on the map. Before him no one considered boulders worthy of climbing. He was doing harder moves years before any started doing them on ropes, and established key test pieces all over the country. Two such classic lines are located in Custer State Park at Sylvan Lake. We decided to pay the exhorbitant $15 weekly fee which isn't so bad for a week, but pretty attrocious for a day use. We went swimming in the lake to cool off and I grabbed a crash pad and did two of the classics in a couple of tries. Both were quite high but with good holds at the top. The first was Free Ariel a V4 and then there was Middle Yellow Wall also a V4. Both were excellent lines and we left the lake feeling refreshed and in good spirits.

Middle Yellow Wall - Sylvan Lake

We drove through the Needles area of Custer State Park to finish the day off and were blown away by the crazy granite formations and even saw a huge buffalo as a bonus. That night we camped in forest service land west of Custer, WY and were swarmed by more flies than I've ever seen in my life and it was incredibly hot in the van. It was not the most pleasant camping we've done. Our next destination was back to Wyoming to see Devils Tower and get to the Bighorn Mountains near Buffalo and Ten Sleep.

Cathedral Spires - The Needles - Custer State Park

Devils Tower was an impressive formation and was easily visible from many miles away. There was no mistaking it on the grassy rolling hills. Luckily our Parks Pass proved useful here and we were able to enter and park without a fee. We hiked around the formation and checked out the visitor center. Some climbers were climbing the easiest route to the top even though there is a voluntary climbing closure in June out of respect for Native American religious practices. We were impressed with the west side of the tower because of the very difficult and continuous look to the routes.

As with many single destination places once you've seen it there isn't a whole lot else to do, so we headed west towards the Bighorns. About 30 miles away we saw snow covered peaks in the distance and were excited to think about camping in the mountains again. Luckily we found a forest service road off of Rt. 16 a few miles west of Buffalo, WY. The road proved to be a gem with a single campsite on a flat meadow surrounded by millions of the most beautiful yellow and purple wildflowers and a view of the Bighorn peaks. It rained hard after supper and the sun found tiny pockets to shine through. It was a gorgeous evening.

BigHorns and Wildflowers

BigHorns

Colorado Front Range and Vedauwoo

2011-06-24T14:03:00.000-07:00

Trail Ridge Boulder V4

After leaving Barb's we wanted to do a little bouldering in Rocky Mountain NP before heading to the front range. We first tried to go to Lumpy Ridge but after hiking for a mile or so, learned that the areas we wanted to go to were closed for raptor nesting. We then went back into the park where we found a nice roadside boulder that Matt found some good problems on. After we were good and tired from bouldering, we headed to the front range to see more friends. Our first stop was Rachel's (a friend of mine from Colorado College). We had a great time catching up over dinner and hanging out with Rachel and Brett and meeting her twin boys. After that it was into Denver to meet up with Matt's friend Jessica and her husband James. They have done a lot of travelling themselves as part of their multimedia business. It was great to talk with them and share stories of their travels and adventures. Then it was up to Boulder to see our friend Mike. We stayed with Mike over the weekend and even though he is perpetually injured and was unable to climb, he still took us on a great hike up Estes Dome and climbing in boulder canyon.

Flatirons

Mike Paul and Matt atop Estes Dome in RMNP

We felt very fortunate to have so many great friends and family to see along they way. The week was our first break from the van and it was quite nice to take real showers, sleep in real beds, and cook food in a real kitchen. Most of all though it was great to sit down with friends and meet new friends, talk and tell stories. No matter what the setting was, it was seeing friends that made it a great time.

Vedauwoo - The Nautilis

After spending the weekend in Boulder, we headed north to Veedawoo Wyoming. Land of off-width cracks and very coarse granite. Our trad climbing resume is fairly short so we expected to get humbled and were not disappointed. Most of the climbs that looked really good were significantly harder than what we wanted to do, so Matt decided to stick to bouldering. The bouldering is reasonably good, though would be hard to compare to other areas as the granite is extremely coarse and has huge crystals in it. There are literally thousands of boulders, but due to the nature of the rock most are lacking in holds and are unclimbable. As John Gill (the father of bouldering in america) said "You can't see a hold anywhere so it's a matter of spending 30 minutes just trying to get off the ground, I've never been very much in love with the place". We would have to share his sentiment, but in recent years some decent boulders have been found.

Cassie bouldering

Captain's Chair V0 w/ kneebar :)

freakin huge crystals!

Cassie opted for a good crack climb that the book claimed was easy to protect and wasn't disappointed. The climb was able to be sewn up with gear and made for a very enjoyable crack climb. There is an impressive amount of rock around and with all the wildflowers in full bloom it's really quite a magical setting. Also, due to the erosion many potholes form in the rock and are full of water. One we found high up on a rock formation had tiny fairy shrimp in it. Quite amazing given its location and the brutal winters the eggs must endure.

Cassie rappelling on Kim 5.6 at Poland Hill

Granite Pothole

Mike, Linda, and Julius will arrive and climb with us through the weekend. Hopefully the weather will hold out. We keep getting rainstorms in the afternoon even though the weather gave a 0% chance. On Monday we will be leaving Vedauwoo to head north, check out an area called Fremont Canyon and possibly swing by Devil's Tower on the way to Ten Sleep Wyoming.

Mojo napping (as usual)

granite flowers

Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, and family

2011-06-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

Three days were spent exploring Rock Mountain National Park. We stayed just outside of the park on the west side off a forest service road. There's free camping, which is excellent, but unfortunately the campsites are quite abused. One campsite had a entire watermellon in pieces all of the site. I threw them as far away from the van as seemed safe, and in the evening a fox came along and decided to have them for dinner! Guess I should have bagged them up and thrown them in a trash can. A park ranger told us that feeding the fox is pretty common so it's not very surprising that it wasn't scared of us and came right into camp. Another site had an entire ribcage and spine of an elk. The sites had great views of the mountains in the park which made up for some of the lackluster stewardship.

Fox and Watermelon

Adam's Falls

East Inlet Trail

Overlook of East Inlet Trail

Our first hike in the park was up the East Inlet trail. We quickly checked out Adams Falls which has an impressive amount of water gushing through it. The trail continued on to beautiful open meadows with a meandering river flowing through it. We saw moose grazing across the river and what I was sure were ducks, but Cassie informed me they were just decoys. The hike continued up to the Devils Staircase and went up to Lone Pine Lake but unfortuately we hit snow and were unable/unwilling to continue on through waist deep snow to see the lake.

The following day our legs were sore from our previous hike so we did a couple of smaller hikes, and were thwarted again by snow and mud. We tried the Colorado River trail and hit snow in under a mile. The river itself was swollen and overflowing its banks. To avoid more snow we drove back down river a bit and did a nice short hike along the Coyote Trailhead. There we sat and snacked while watching elk in a meadow do the same. We also almost hit a moose who ran across the road.

Almost roadkill Moose

Flooded Colorado River Trail

Surprised Elk and Moose

Our third day we headed all the way through the park to get to Estes Park and see Cassie's cousin Barb. The drive was exquisite with great vistas of snow covered mountains. We also stopped to take pictures of elk, and were rewarded with a twofer. A moose ran right by the elk we were photographing. That was a great stroke of luck.

Self-Explanatory

The summit of the road was incredibly windy with gusts buffeting the van back and forth. On the east side of the park we were greeted with tons of elk and more sheer cliffs than we had seen on the west side. Longs Peak and others were out in full force and were quite photogenic. We did short hikes to Bear Lake, up the Old Fall River road which was still closed but allowed us to take Mojo (normally national parks don't allows dogs on any trail). Mojo enjoyed getting out of the van since he had been stuck in it for the last few days. We hiked around Sprague Lake and called it a day thinking our photography session was over. Arriving in Estes Park we phoned Barb, received directions to her house, and drove straight there. Barb and her family were gracious hosts. They had dinner ready and beer and we had a great time talking and catching up. We swapped stories of traveling and ticks (Cassie got her first tick at Penitente). After dinner Barb took us for a drive around town to see some of the local wildlife such as a beaver pond with a very amiable beaver, and some elk just grazing away in a neighbor's yard. Turns out the pictures from town were some of the best of the wildlife we took! After the drive we came back, had a great dessert, and talked until we all called it a night and headed to bed.

Barb, Keenan, Jade our excellent hosts

This morning we are headed to some local bouldering to see how our bodies are doing. It's the first climbing we'll have done in a week. We'll sample the bouldering and then head to Cassie's friend Rachel's house for another evening of spending time with friends.

RMNP!

Sprague Lake

Beaver

Fall River Road view

flower

Alluvial Fan Falls

Elk

On the way to Rock Mountain National Park

2011-06-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

Colorado Homestead

We've taken a few rest days after 3 weeks of climbing. Our bodies and minds needed it. The next major destination is Rocky Mountain National Park but we've taken the scenic way to get there. Currently we are in Granby, CO which is on the south-westside of the park. Our last post was from Cripple Creek. Since then we've been to 3 free campsites in national forests. It's been a beautiful drive and we've seen some amazing rock climbing areas in the South Platte of Colorado. It's unfortunate that we didn't climb but sometimes even with rock around it's best to just take pictures and pass it by. We stayed just north of Florissant Colorado Wednesday night,

South Platte Granite

Sheeps Rock

South Platte River

Flowers

near Jefferson Colorado the following night,

Duck Moon

Busy Beavers

Beaver Pond

Ducky

and last night we camped about 30 minutes south-west of Hot Sulphur Springs, Co.

How High? The Van breaks into the Ozone near Breckenridge.

We had our first equipment issue of the trip this morning. Our solar panel blew over in a strong wind gust and is cracked probably beyond repair, the glass is completely spiderwebbed. Surprisingly the panel is still putting out over 50% of its normal output, which is pretty cool, but we're sure we'll need to replace it at a minimum cost of $280. So much for being under budget, but alas these are things that will happen.

Today is laundry day and tomorrow we head into the Park. Should have some cool photos to post by sometime next week. After that we'll be in Boulder, Co with our friend Mike Loh.

Trees in beaver pond

A falcon searches for its breakfast while we have ours.

More Shelf Road

2011-06-08T14:53:00.000-07:00

Cactus Cliff

Sunset

We returned to Shelf Road fully stocked on water and food ready for some more climbing. But we started to become more aware of why people had told us that shelf was too hot this time of year. With temps in the low 90's we were limited to climbing in the morning shade before things just became miserable out. Our guidebook was clearly written in the winter since it only described about half of the cliffs at shelf and the descriptions on all were how they got great winter sun. This is not a good thing in June. We pretty much stuck to one cliff the whole time, but since there is pretty much endless rock at shelf, there was still plenty to do to keep us busy.

unknown climber on Cactus Cliff

The typical day at shelf consists of waking up fairly early, drinking coffee and eating breakfast from the great view of the tent pad, hiking to Cactus Cliff, doing a few fun climbs until it was in the sun, enduring the hot hike back to camp, then lazing about in the shade of camp in the hammock until it cooled off enough to think about dinner. We had frequent intentions of returning to climb in the evening, but the heat had sapped all of our motivation by that point.

Morning coffee - self portrait

One evening a couple stopped by our camp asking if we hadn't just been climbing in Penitente as they recognized our van from there. We started chatting and learned that they were also on a two year road trip. Donn and Jody are from West Virginia and about three months in to their trip. It was great to meet another couple doing something similar! We shared some stories of good places to climb. We didn't get a chance to climb with them since they left Shelf the next day, but it sounds like we will be on similar paths this summer and hopefully will meet up with them again.

As far as the quality of the climbing we were very impressed and got on a bunch more routes that were challenging. Cassie redpointed (got to the top without falling) a great climb called Leisure Class 11b and I redpointed the route just to the left of it called Pick a Peck of Perfect Pulling Pockets 11d. We were both really happy to have bumped up our hardest redpoint of the trip and were incredibly happy with the quality of the routes. We also got on a bunch of other climbs such as Blackmans Buurden 10c, three-quarter ton 10d, Illegal Smile 11b, Diedrus 10b, La Cholla Jackson 5.8, Stress Rehearsal 10d and others. Each of the routes was very good and we even took some pictures while climbing to document.

Cassie on Blackman's Burden 10c

After climbing two days in a row Cassie's elbow started bothering her, and my ring finger was acting up so we decided to leave Shelf a bit early and begin working our way to Rock Mountain National Park and after that Boulder Colorado. We were sad to leave early and have every intention of coming back at some point to climb more. On the other hand a local Coloradoan told us that the climbing at Ten-Sleep in Wyoming is even better limestone than Shelf Road, and that France was even better than either so I guess we only have better climbing to look forward to.

Very tired puppy

Currently we are typing this email from a small park in Cripple Creek, Co. Mojo is rolling in the grass enjoying not having to make the steep hike today and Cassie and I are looking forward to taking a few days off of climbing to just camp and hike around. We should be in RMNP by the weekend and in Boulder by the following weekend of June 18th.

Cassie on Three-Quarter Ton 10d (steeper than it looks)

Granite Arch - Shelf Road

crescent moon

Shelf Road

2011-06-01T15:26:00.000-07:00

Running away from dust storms at Penitente

Cassie and Mojo walking into Shelf Road - The Bank Area

We had planned to climb for two weeks at Penitente, but after a continuous onslaught of wind and dust from the road and Memorial Day weekend visitors, once Monday morning arose as the windiest dustiest day yet, we were ready to move on. We packed up and drove to Canon City Colorado which is a beautiful drive along the Arkansas River. We arrived at Shelf Road after most of the weekend visitors had left and were happy to find nice campsites right on the rim of the canyon with a great view of the canyon. Even though it was still windy, we were thrilled not to have the dust of Penitente. A few people had warned us that Shelf would be too hot this time of year and most of the walls described in our book are south facing, so we were a bit concerned that it would be just too hot for us.

view from camp at Shelf Road

Fortunately we met Steve and Ashley the first night we arrived who were travelling in their nice Eurovan until they found nursing jobs. They offered us firewood they had collected from everyone's campsites after the long weekend, let us browse their more detailed guidebook and gave us advice on good climbs and where to climb in the shade. They had also travelled internationally quite a bit and had a few good recommendations of places they enjoyed. It was excellent to get such good firsthand information.

tons of climbing: the Bank and Cactus Cliff.

The climbing at Shelf is quite different than Penitente. Penitente is searching for holds, balancing on tiny nonexistent feet, very short routes and very high first bolts. Routes at Shelf are much longer, steeper, and pumpier. We started out on the Cactus Cliff on a few moderate routes which were fun. The rock at Penitente is volcanic tuff, which makes for frictiony slabs, Shelf on the other hand is limestone and very very good limestone at that. The quality of the first few routes we sampled was exquisite. American Fork Canyon, while having some amazing limestone, is definitely steeper than Shelf, but as far as the sheer vertical rock quality I think Shelf has it beat. That being said the hardest route at Shelf is 13b while I think American Fork is somewhere around 14c. Given that the holds were so much more positive and chalked from a long weekend of crowds the climbs were pretty easy to onsight. We stayed in the 5.10 range and had a blast. At Cactus Cliff it's quite modern bolting with a bolt every 5-8 feet or so, which is in our opinion just right for sport climbs. We warmed up on a fun 5.7 called Crynoid Corner, did a fun 10b called Slicer just to the left of it. Then hopped on a great 10c called Alignment and finished the day on a 10d on the Vault wall whose name eludes me (we don't have it in our guidebook). By the end of the day we were crazy pumped in our forearms. The steepness of the rock puts a lot more weight on the arms. Over the next few weeks our endurance should start to increase.

trees at sunset

Today is Wendesday June 1st and we're writing this post from the Canyon City Centennial Park. It's a beautiful day outside and we've run some errands in town. Hope everybody had a great memorial day weekend.

view from camp

white flowers

Penitente Week 2

2011-06-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

Our second week of climbing at Penitente has been one of discovering that we don't need to rush it. We're starting to feel the pace of our days better and are listening to what our bodies tell us. We have climbed a bunch more routes and projected a few climbs. Each day seems to pass so quickly.

Matt at the Rock Garden

We made some new friends (Tom and Annie) who swung by to say hello after seeing our van. They have a VW syncro which is a 4wd van. They converted it to quite the comfortable living quarters and had many cool accessories. They've been coming to Penitente for quite a while and were very kind to show us some new areas we hadn't been to yet. Both Witches Canyon and the Rock Garden are within a short walk of the campgrounds but the guidebook has no descriptions and the internet isn't very thorough either. We climbed a great slabby 10 something at the Rock Garden and climbed a bunch of really nice short routes at Witches Canyon. As our earlier post said, Penitente is mostly slabby climbing with holds being few and far between. Witches however, had a ton of huecos and pockets to choose from and reminded me how much fun a 5.8 can be. Yesterday Tom and Annie took off to meet friends at Shelf Road and we took a rest day after climbing 3 days in a row. We're headed to Shelf on Tuesday.

Tom and Annie and their VW Syncro

Rock Garden

Tom climbing at Witches Canyon

We got a chance to try the solar oven out again on our rest day and were happy to find that it cooked a whole chicken in about 3 hours at around 270 degrees. The meat was incredibly moist and we'll definitely plan to do it again since the whole chicken only cost us $4.50. We did laundry in town, filled up our propane tank and bought groceries. So far we've been able to stay under budget and were happy to see that we've only driven 150 miles in almost 2 weeks. The temperatures have been rising and the sun continues to get more intense. I've been outside more in the last 2 weeks than I have in quite a while and the damage is noticeable with chapped lips and slightly burned faces. No matter how much sunscreen we put on we still seem to get a bit burned. We've been using the awning a little, but the wind has been howling for the past 6 days and turns the awning into a sail.

Solar Chicken

the Van and awning at camp

One of our favorite climbs we completed this week was called Not My Cross to Bear (11a). It took us each 2 tries to redpoint and wow was it fun. Stemming pretty much the entire way up the wall with shallow pockets on each wall. It was continuous with the final crux right at the top. Great climb.

Cassie on Not My Cross To Bear 11a - Penitente

Our first week of Penitence.

2011-05-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

Penitente-Virgin Mary Painting

By Cassie:

We made it to Penitente Canyon in the San Luis Valley of Colorado after leaving Vernal. The drive was beautiful – over multiple mountain passes with snow and all kinds of crazy weather and scenery. We made a stop at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison which is a climbing area well known for scary multi pitch climbs – I got nervous enough just looking down from the overlooks. In some places there were no guard rails on the road and the drop was about 2000 feet. Not somewhere we are quite ready for or are interested in climbing just yet (if ever) but quite spectacular. We drove more in the first 5 days than we plan to make a habit of and were quite happy to arrive at Penitente Canyon. The canyon is really beautiful. In the early 1900's it was a bit of a hideout for a sect of catholic monks who painted a picture of Mary on one of the main walls. The walls are fairly short (under 100 ft) and made up of volcanic welded tuft which makes for slabby or vertical walls with some good pockets, so mostly technical climbs (technical climbing means delicate footwork instead of requiring strong upper body strength). There's a cheap campground ($5 a night for now, they are raising the rates soon to $11) right at the entrance to the climbing area and you can walk to the climbing easily. We are planning to stay until after Memorial Day.

Colorado Rainstorm (by Cassie)

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Before coming here we had worried that mid May in southern Colorado may be a bit too hot for good climbing. We were wrong to be too concerned. It's been between 55 and 70 every day. The daily routine here has been wake up – talk about how great the weather looks, make espresso and breakfast, look at the clouds building, get on a couple climbs – roast in the sun, hope for and enjoy the clouds, watch the clouds build to the point of threatening to rain, head back to the van for lunch, then watch thick snow, huge hail, or pounding rain come down for a few hours to most of the day. That's what you get in the springtime at 8000ft. It's been dry enough to get some climbing in every day, but the storms have kept things interesting. We've been keeping ourselves entertained through the bad weather with movies and trying to figure out where to put stuff and what to get rid of so that we can sit comfortably inside the van while keeping everything dry. Mojo is enjoying sleeping in the sun, or chasing the chipmunks who try to steal our food.

Penitente Camp

Before getting here we had only been bouldering for the last year – the last time we've led any routes was probably last summer. You can get really strong and do a few really hard moves while bouldering but leading is a completely different mental game. Since we've been out of it for so long, we quickly found we had to take things down a few steps to regain our lead heads and learn how the rock here feels. We thought a reasonable place to start would be a 5.9+ called “What the Hey” that the book said had 7 bolts. In reality it only had 4 and was very awkward and runout, so, we bailed and took it down a couple more notches. We found a few easier climbs such as “How the West was Won” 5.8+ which was a great hueco jughaul and some other slab climbs which were fun and great for remembering how to lead and how to climb slabs.

Slabs are less than vertical rock where often the handholds are pretty poor and the feet are what is called smeary, to define smeary feet: feet in which there is no sharp edge or good horizontal surface to stand upon. These footholds are sloping downward and generally do not elicit a feeling of confidence. Often your feet on these holds feel like they are constantly slipping off.

Cassie on Lovesnake 10b/c

Each day we've been climbing harder climbs and getting a bit more confident. This was our fifth day of straight climbing and we are worn out. The rock here forms great corners and since Matt loves stemming he is in heaven here. Stemming is when you are in a corner with a foot on each side of the wall (see picture above). We've both redpointed our first 11a's of the trip (“Mysterious Blonde” and “Whipping Post”) and are getting excited to keep pushing ourselves (while trying to remember it's only the first week) Today we tried an 11d called “Forbidden Fruits” which looked like it was well bolted and fun. I took a good lead fall which was quite exciting since my feet stayed on longer than my hands resulting in my body flipping upside down and spinning sideways. I was not expecting to fall like that and was happy I was wearing my helmet as it banged across the wall. But just a couple small scrapes and everything is fine. We might try it again after a much needed rest day tomorrow.

Cassie on Whipping Post 11a

Whipping Post

The first week of the trip is underway.

2011-05-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

Friday May 13th - Saturday May 14th
For our first weekend of the trip we drove to Bozeman from SLC to watch my climbing team compete. They did amazing with probably the best results we've ever had. Watt got third by only the smallest of margins behind second and Clara tied for first place. Conner and McKinley also did very well. Hopefully this year we will have more than one climber go to Nationals. We left with many hugs after everyone was finished competing but we didn't stay for the awards ceremony. Instead we headed back to our previous night's campsite along the Gallatin river. When you are trying to camp for free it's best to give a lot of time to find a site. Luckily our spot was unoccupied and we were happy to setup camp again. It was significantly colder that night at we decided to lay in bed and watch a movie (thanks Chris!!!)

Sunday May 15th
The next day we decided to drive through Yellowstone NP. It was a good choice as there were very few other tourists and the scenery was outstanding. Buffalo grazing along the road in front of steamy thermal vents provided a scenic vista to behold. We hiked along the boardwalks to Fountain Paint Pot and enjoyed the unique pools of hot liquids which varied from clear blue water to thick muddy bubbling cauldrons. Each pullout had something different and the wind carried the steam quickly along the ground. In some of the pictures you can see how windy it is by how far along the ground the steam is carried. In a few places we were totally enveloped in the sulfuric aroma of the warm and wet venting. The colors ranged from vibrant blue to brilliant oranges with all other shades of the rainbow in between. Bison droppings were all around the vents probably because of the warmth they give off during the winter which helps melt the snow. Given that we have Mojo (our dog) with us hiking around wasn't really an option so we just did the short walks. I must say we would've loved spending more time but we needed to keep moving.

Sunset Lake

bison and steam

rainbow steam

it was THIS much snow!!

We crossed the Continental Divide 3 times that day. Last winter that area received over 600 inches where thy normally get about 400. We were blown away to see snow on the side of the road taller than the van. Many of the lakes were still completely frozen over. Leaving Yellowstone to the South took us directly past the Tetons. The views were incredible and we might have stayed there for the night if the campgrounds had been open and hadn't cost $20! We kept driving and passed Jackson, WY around dinner time. We took highway 191 towards Daniel and were discouraged to see a sign along the road posted by the Forest Service saying camping was only allowed in designated areas after May 1st. Luckily the Hoback river was almost flooding and the weather has been so poor that the campgrounds weren't open. We figured that meant we could camp anywhere we like and found a suitable spot high enough that any overnight rain wouldn't be a risk. After a bit of nervousness with the wind, threatening clouds and the roaring river we fell asleep.

The Grand Teton (i think)

Monday May 16th.
We awoke, brewed a quick cup of espresso and got on the road. The goal for the day was to get to Vernal in time to try and renew my Utah drivers license which happens expire while we will be in Europe. We got to Vernal by early afternoon, got our paperwork in order and renewed the license. Shopping was next on the list and we picked up a few greens and fruits to supply us for the week. Cassie and I are friends with a few people in Vernal and it was excellent of them to invite us to camp in their driveway and make dinner for us. Don, Trina, and Matt showed us a great time of fish tacos, beer and a great game of ladder golf. Much laughter was had by all watching all the cats and dogs interact. Trina and Don's roommate Shawn has a german shorthaired pointer named Ace who made Cassie and I very happy by proving that Mojo isn't the only dog who whines. In fact the whining was so similar to Mojo that it was pretty hard to tell who was doing it. We also unloaded a few items deemed to be superfluous. The van is slowly getting more streamlined... Thanks much to everyone for such a fantastic time and your hospitality! Hope you can kill a few minutes at work reading this :)

Tueday May 17th
We just left Vernal Utah and are headed East towards Colorado and Penitente. The weather for the week looks quite terrible for pretty much the entire West until next week. Given the conditions we have low expectations for the week of the trip where we'll be climbing. Our hope is that the area we are going will be drier than most and will allow us to do at least a few routes in between the raindrops. Can't say I'd rather be at work though even if the weather is less than favorable. We drove through a Douglas pass on route 139 on the way to Grand Junction and it snowed on us around 11am. It didn't stick which is pretty lucky given how treacherous that road had tons of dropoffs and switchbacks. We are now leaving Grand Junction and are headed toward Monte Vista, CO via US 50. We should be there later this evening, and if the weather holds climbing our first rock tomorrow!

we're off!!

2011-05-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

Even mojo's early wakeup call wasn't quite enough to get us out the door by our goal of 9:00 this morning. But with last minute rearranging and packing by Matt and me cleaning the apartment we made it out the door and hit the road for Bozeman by 10:30. We now have both crashpads on top of the van and stuff crammed into every nook and cranny. Mojo can only hope there is no need for quick stops as he'll have a pile of gear landing on his head. With a few last minute panics of how it would all fit we are now comfortably leaving slc listening to a great mix from Elyse. Our goal for tonight is a campsite not too fat south of Bozeman along the Gelatin river. We'll post pics of the fully loaded van soon.

The junk glacier moveth.

2011-05-10T06:50:00.000-07:00

The house is starting to feel pretty empty. We're down to two pieces of real furniture which consists of our bed, and our couch. The bed will be gone Wednesday evening and the couch should be gone by then as well. We did our first test pack yesterday and realized that we must eliminate a few things.
Filling up the largest box top Yakima makes was pretty easy. We were able to fit three 12 gallon bins, and our solar oven. Packed alongside of those boxes were long skinny items such as the tent and sleeping bags. Unfortunately two items that will be sacrificed are our large backpacks. We intended to bring 4 large backpacks, 2 for hauling climbing gear around and 2 for backpack trips. That's not going to happen since we just don't have the space.

the remains of our apartment

Shoes were the next thing to go. After packing all the shoes we realized we had about three 12 gallon bins full of climbing shoes, approach shoes, hiking shoes, running shoes, sandals, and our Sorrel winter boots. That's kind of a ridiculous amount of shoes. I suppose if we have a weakness it's for all the different styles and shapes of shoes. Having the right pair of shoes is critical, but where there isn't space there's only so much you can do about it. We opted for a single pair of running shoes instead of trail running and road running shoes, ditched the Sorrels, and eliminated a pair of approach shoes (yeah I had two pairs). We knew this was going to happen we just hadn't done the test pack yet. With the test pack completed that sliver of hope vanished and took the extra shoes with it. (we still have probably close to 20 pairs of just rock climbing shoes). Our hope is to just wear them out and throw them away when we're done with them.

Some things did make the cut however and we're happy to report that the pressure cooker, and the solar oven will make it. Most of the tools I wanted are going to be able to come as are a bunch of extra kitchen items like two large cutting boards and an assortment of other cooking items. We fully expect that we've over packed and that we'll be getting rid of some items along the way.

It's really tough to just get rid of things that are in perfect working shape. We have a bunch of nice blankets that we use at home, and there isn't anything wrong with them but we don't have the space. So, when the conversations happen for each item it usually goes like this "well here's this really nice item","yeah it's super nice but where will it fit","we probably don't have the space for it", "should we store it", "do we really need to store blankets?","no I guess that isn't necessary, it's not like we can't buy blankets when we get back","okay then it goes in the donate pile". Shortly thereafter a trip to Goodwill is undertaken with multiple garbage bags of stuff. The truly remarkable thing is that many of the items we're getting rid of are things we rarely (if ever) even use. In a lot of ways this has helped me see how many things can be owned but unused and may help me regulate my impulse to buy things we "really need" when we get back from the trip.

Here's a picture of the spare bedroom with just items we are taking. Some things have already been put in the van. Will it all fit? Only the van knows...

the trip gear room

Climbing Trip Preparations

2011-05-05T11:03:00.000-07:00

Now that we are getting read to start our trip there are a few things that need to be done. We've sold our Honda, the BMW Motorcycle, and have kept the Subaru for driving until a few days before we leave.
Our apartment is getting progressively more empty with loads going to goodwill (in Utah they are called Deseret Industries which are run by the Mormon church). Our friends have spoken up for the last few pieces of furniture left such as our bed, some tables and such. It looks kind of like a junk glacier in the house as items slowly but steadily move toward the front door to be donated or sold.
Last weekend we got rid of both dressers in about an hour with almost 20 phone calls shortly after posting. We even had a guy claim he was picking up the dresser for another person who had already said they were coming to get it! Apparently good deals attract all kinds of people.

Yesterday we made really good progress getting our major VW camper projects finished. The first was a pretty intense install of some hydraulics for helping us lift the pop-top when it's loaded down with gear (this is made by a company called GoWesty it's called the lift assist kit, and we give it a big thumbs up). Considering that the Yakima box on top is literally the largest box Yakima makes it will definitely be needed. Last summer we had a significantly smaller box on top and Cassie was unable to raise the pop-top and I could only after putting in so much time that an analogy to Sisyphus seemed reasonable. So, we're happy to report that after significant amounts of cussing, griping, complaining, swearing (yeah I put that in twice), drilling, wrestling, and worrying it was installed and does indeed provide a significant amount of assistance. I can now put the top up using the tips of my two index fingers. While the top is unloaded however pulling the top back down is now incredibly difficult. Cassie can literally hang from the bar used to raise/lower the top and it goes nowhere. After the box is loaded things should get better.

GoWesty Pop-Top Hydraulic Lift Assist

We also waterproofed the canvas, and installed a GoWesty Wasser-Stopper rainfly. It's like an additional tent that wraps around the existing pop-top tent. In the Pacific-Northwest we're hoping it will help us be nice and dry in the van even if the weather is nasty. It has the added benefit of wrapping around the top of the van where there is storage area, creating a vestibule for storing gear and keeping it dry. Hopefully many soggy nights will be avoided. It was super easy to install and should be pretty simple to put up in the event of a rainstorm. Given that we cannot just abandon the trip and head "home" we're thinking that these kinds of features will make us much more comfortable.

GoWesty Wasser-Stopper Rainfly

That's all for the last minute preparations. Only 7 days and counting till we leave for Bozeman and my USA climbing team's regional competition. The drive to Bozeman begins Friday May 13th. At that point we will officially consider our world climbing trip underway.

Climbing Magazine - May 2011 Photo of the Month

2011-04-30T08:01:00.001-07:00

ucc-indian-creek, originally uploaded by matthewandcassie.

This month my first photo was published in Climbing Magazine. I won a Wild Country Helium Cam for it! They also mentioned our round the world climbing trip. Very cool of them to choose my photo and go out of their way to plug our trip.

One Month and Counting!

2011-04-13T08:36:00.001-07:00

As of today we officially have a month to go until we quit our jobs and leave Salt Lake City to start our around the world trip. Our intent is to take two full years off and travel around the world and US.

While traveling we will be climbing full time by camping at climbing areas, waking up, making some coffee and hoping on the rocks. We're really looking forward to exploring the globe and refining our rock climbing skills. We'll leave after my USA climbing team competes in Bozeman, Montana in mid-May. From Montana we'll head straight to Colorado and spend about a month there. After that we'll head to Wyoming, Montana, British Columbia, Washington, and then stop in Portland to visit Cassie's parents. From there we go to Europe for three months. We already have the plane tickets and car booked (so psyched). Leo and Dottie (Cassie's parents) have been incredibly generous to watch Mojo for that time. So, keep checking the blog and soon we'll have many posts describing our journey.

Right now the dull day to day stuff continues with our jobs. We can't help but feel like we're in a daze given that things area about to change so dramatically but that they haven't changed at all yet. We'll be putting the Honda up for sale soon and are slowly cleaning out the house. Just purchased a new laptop and a smartphone so we can blog on the road and hop online easily.

Gotta run, I'm late for work!

March and Triassic

2011-03-21T21:17:00.000-07:00

This month we've been blessed with some warmer weather. Triassic and Joe's have been sunny and pleasant. This time of the year we get out to boulder at both those areas fairly frequently. The only thing that holds us back is the occasional weekend snowstorm which can limit us to gym climbing.

Problem #26

The first weekend of March we went to Triassic with our friends Jesse and Nicole. Jesse made quick work of Bacardi Silver (v4), while Nicole made progress on it. Nicole is about Cassie's height and though she had trouble making the reach at the crux she crushed the beginning without any issues. We moved on to Some get Two Fingers v5 and everyone had fun falling off the pockets. We also completed a fun problem on the backside of Golden v1. I put together a short video showing us in fast motion figuring out how to climb it.

The following weekend Cassie and I went to Area 51 at Joes. We tried Contact (v5). I sent after Cassie figured out the beta and Cassie made a bunch of progress on it. After that we headed to Planet of the Apes (v6) and Chips (v7). I did Planet of the Apes in about 3 tries and then came super close to sending Chips but kept falling off the last move. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong but was too tired to send. I hope that we go back there this coming weekend. I know that I can send it if I can try it fully rested. Cassie spent time on Planet of the Apes and made excellent progress on it, but afterwords was complaining about her right arm hurting. We now know she has tendonitis. She has been taking it relatively easy for the last week or so.

This last week I was in Bakersfield California for work, I missed my Friday connection from LA back to Utah and so had to spend the night there. I caught the first flight out the next morning and Cassie picked me up in the Van and we headed straight to Triassic. We wanted to meet up with our friends who were trying to replicate something called the Wanker 100. This is a 100 problem easy bouldering circuit that's pretty famous in a place called Hueco Tanks near El Paso, TX (an incredibly famous climbing area). The goal at Triassic was to climb a Wanker 50 and when we arrived the crew was well on their way with over 20 climbs. We did a ton of climbs I've always overlooked at the warm-up area which is kind of sad since some of them were really very good. I guess normally I do warmups in preparation for projects that I'm really excited about, sometimes I forget how good the easy problems can be. The crew managed to complete 34 problem in a day, which is pretty good considering the group size and kids running around.

I love everything going on in this picture.

Nicole on Problem #27

Saturday night we camped with Mark, Suzi, and Pace. It was great. Mark got injured at Joe's Valley last Memorial Day and hasn't been able to climb with us pretty much since then. We've really been missing hanging out with Mark and Suzi since they are so much fun and remind us of ourselves (Mark is a biologist and Suzi works managing software so we have a lot to talk about. sometimes work conversations must be stopped) We stayed up, watched the campfire and drank beer. I suspect Cassie and I were both thinking about how this is what will be doing for the foreseeable future pretty soon.

Tori (Chris and Renee's daughter)

The next morning we played with Pace and then hiked into the Tongue Area which is a place we have spent a little time at. There were two v6s that I've been wanting to do and we all threw ourselves at Idiot Boy. Mark sent first which was really impressive considering he hasn't bouldered that hard in almost a year, I followed suit with my best beached whale impression ever trying to get on top of the boulder. Cassie came super close but couldn't quite pull it all together since her beta had her making a huge stretch between two ok holds, but with terrible feet. She left pretty frustrated. We moved on to Eon Blue Apocolypse which is a roof climb that has shut me down. I spent all my energy just trying to remember the sequence that worked for me. I swore after finally finding a new sequence that I would write down my beta on projects from now on so I don't forget it ever again. I've held true to that promise and wrote down my sequence just this evening. Hopefully I can just remember where I left my beta book....

Cassie doing a highstep on Problem #26

New York City

2011-02-13T10:22:00.000-08:00

Times Square

Butterflies (short video).

Normally my brother Nick and I don't get to see each other more than once a year, so when we got to see each other twice in a week it as a real treat. Nick came to Utah in late January for a long weekend of skiing and exploring Zion. Much fun was had in the brilliant blue skies and excellent snow at Alta. Afterwords we headed south, stopped by my climbing team's practice to prove to them that I really do have a twin brother and went to Zion National Park for the night. The weather in Zion was cold in the shade, but warm in the sun and we had a couple of great hikes exploring the emerald pools, the hike alongside the Virgin River and enjoying a scenic vista of the park from up high. On his last day in town we took Nick to the climbing gym where he tried bouldering for the first time. I must say he did very well for his first time. Afterwords much complaining of incredibly tired forearms was heard. We put Nick on a plane that Saturday with hugs.

being silly

Zion

The following Thursday evening Cassie and I boarded a plane for NYC. We arrived around midnight and were greeted by Katie and Nick in a car they had rented. They drove us back to their apartment and we slept. Friday Katie took Cassie and I to a great local bagel shop and then walked us to the subway. It was a quintessential NY theme, riding the subway and eating a bagel. Cassie and I explored the city on our own that day as Nick and Katie had work to do. We opted for the true tourist experience. We rode the subway into Manhattan and went to the International Center of Photography. There were 4 exhibits and all of them sounded really promising. The first was my favorite. During the Spanish Revolution just prior to WWII a few photographers were breaking the boundaries of photography and taking front-line war pictures. The black and white images were stunning. The next exhibit was completely different. A contemporary Chinese photographer taking huge color glossy pictures. The sets were created by his team and they show the contrast between modern and historic China. Really a neat contrast, but probably one more appreciated by people who know Chinese culture better. The exhibit after that was a interesting set of pictures taken by a small town photographer in the south in the mid 20th century. Lots of intimate pictures of people just being people at proms and social gatherings. The final exhibit was of southern water baptisms. Really interesting stuff, with some of the baptisms taking place in lakes where they had to remove blocks of ice just to get to the water. One has to think that getting dunked in freezing water could definitely feel like being reborn.

http://www.icp.org/museum

On Saturday we went to the Museum of Natural History with Nick and Katie. I must say that 10 years ago I probably wouldn't have appreciated it. Back then I was more interested in staying up late and going to clubs then in walking around a museum. Luckily I grew out of that because this museum is outstanding. We first went to a butterfly exhibit where you walk into a room that is 85 degrees and 85% humidity. It was pretty oppressive and caused out camera lens to get fogged up. In the room are many different green plants, flowers, and sugar feeding dishes. Butterflies fly around you in a way that you always wished they would as a child. I certainly felt like a little kid when a butterfly landed on my head and as I watched them flutter around. Little children were equally enraptured by the flying colors and I wondered how many butterflies met their end at the hands of an overly enthusiastic kid. Luckily they breed their own butterflies and since their life expectancy isn't that long anyway it's hard to feel too bad about it. It was really a magical experience and one that I'll remember for quite some time. That's the way true science can inspire kids, but completely capturing their imagination.

Please land on my hand.

We went to a few more exhibits and finished with the dinosaurs. They were really impressive and we all enjoyed gawking at them. Many exclamations were made about how large they were. It really is impressive when you are standing next to them rather than just seeing them as pictures.

Cassie and the dinosaur formerly known as Brontosaurus.

We finished the weekend by getting more bagels, walking around in the warm sunshine and taking a walk through Prospect Park which is only a few blocks away from where Nick and Katie live. It's a really nice park and one Cassie and I were pretty envious of as Salt Lake has very few parks and none that come even close to any as nice as this one. Afterwords we said our goodbyes, called a cab and went to the airport which was surprisingly empty, probably because of the superbowl being on right as we arrived. Cassie flew home to Utah and I headed to Montreal to work for the week. Many thanks to Nick and Katie for showing us such a great time!

Prospect Park

Montreal was cold and snowy but my friends from our office up there showed me how to eat in a way that keeps you warm. You can really learn a lot about climate simply by the foods people eat. I enjoyed rotisserie chicken, poutine a Quebec dish made of french fries with a mozerallaish cheese and 4 kinds of meat with gravy on top, and another local favorite called smoked meat which is a beef brisket slow roasted. I might have to go vegetarian for the next week I thought to myself after each meal. Alas, when I got home to Utah Cassie and I went to a friends house for our first "Bacon Formal". The theme was all things bacon, and as dressy as you can get. Cassie looked beautiful in her dress mom got her for Christmas and I dressed up in a suit. Cassie made two dishes, one was dates wrapped in bacon, and the second was a dessert that was essentially heavy cream and bacon with blueberries (cooked in bacon fat). The dessert was one of the richest things I have even eaten in my life. Maybe the richest. And since there was a huge amount of food that no one ate we have a bunch left over. So, maybe I'll have to put a hold on the vegetarian plan for at least a couple more days....

Cassie sends "Some Get Two Fingers" V5

2011-01-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

the thin pockets

Most climbs are fun to work on, but after trying multiple days and falling it's common to refer to a climb as your "nemesis". "Some Get Two Fingers" was that kind of climb for Cassie. She has probably only put a day or two each year on it, but she's tried it 5 whole days which means about three + years worth of effort!

moving out the rail

Today she completed it and though it's not technically the hardest climb she has finished I think it's safe to say it's one she feels most proud of. The climb starts back under a roof and traverses a decent rail out to the face of the boulder. You get a couple of decent hands to get your feet up and then the work begins as the climb begins to work up the slightly overhanging face. One small pocket for your left hand gives you two fingers, then you move your right hand up to a wider pocket that (for cassie) takes three fingers. even so, it is substantially worse than the other pocket. from these two very small pockets you move into one of the smallest most horrible painful crimps for your left hand. it is truly an atrocious hold. it bits into your skin enough to hurt but not enough to actually feel secure on it. once you are on that crimp balance is key as you move up to a good edge for your right hand. the climb isn't over there as the topout is still a little dicey. Cassie completed it beautifully.

into the business

The year of The Trip begins!

2011-01-01T09:49:00.000-08:00

Finally, the years of Waiting are over and the year of The Trip is upon us! This year Cassie and I will quit our jobs for two years to travel around the US and abroad. We'll be rock climbing predominately but also exploring the scenery and culture of the world. Possibly we'll find a new place to live or maybe we'll see how lucky we are in Utah. We'll be living out of our VW Westfalia Camper for the US portion and tenting it abroad. The current departure date is somewheres around May 15th, so we aren't quite there yet but getting super close.

Only 134 days to go!

Cassie's first V6

2010-12-28T20:59:00.000-08:00

Cassie sent her first V6 at St.George a few weekends ago. We put together a video of that climb as well as some others. The climb was called Underwhelmed.

Click here to watch the video.

escaping the cold (almost)

2010-12-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

Inside the TeePee Boulder

This weekend we made a trip down to Moe's Valley in St. George Utah. We went there a few times earlier this year so you might remember it from previous blogposts. We decided to make the journey after cold weather kept threatening to keep us from going outside to climb. We left Friday morning and were climbing by early afternoon. The weather was warm indeed and the sun on our faces kept spirits high.

Saturday morning the real work began as we headed into the main bouldering area armed with our newly purchased guidebook created by two local climbers. Many more climbs were documented and we were excited to see how much we could do. Unfortunately the weather quickly went from sunny to total cloud cover and the temps became quite cold. In my opinion that's the best climbing weather, but Cassie's big toe which was staying a constant white begged to differ. I guess climbing with numb toes is kind of difficult.

We quickly set about dispatching some warmups and then headed straight to a really cool roof climb called Underwhelmed. Unfortunately I was being totally lame about taking video or pictures and we don't have any shots of that climb. We will be going back next weekend however so I expect to get some shots for the next blogpost. Cassie came very close to sending that problem and is excited to go back and give it another try.

Cassie getting warmed up and loving the sun.

We then headed to a cave called the Device Ignitor which has 3 quality lines coming out of it. I tried the left variation and sent just as my strength was leaving me. Cassie tried the middle line and found that she was completely exhausted from trying Underwhelmed so many times. Again my apologies for not having any shots of those climbs. I do have some video though and plan to put together some clips after next weekend. We left after 7 hours of near constant climbing. We could have been a geriatric couple if you just listened to all the moaning and complaining about how sore we were. Cassie's back was in pain from an apparent nerve pinch (totally unrelated to climbing). Her abs were sore from climbing basically horizontal (upside down) for most of the day and her fingers were compltely raw from the rock. I was in similiar shape with forearms that could barely squeeze a tube of toothpaste and some missing skin from the sharp rock. Cassie was in bed and asleep by 8:30 and slept till well after 8am.

We woke up and made french toast and lattes then headed back out to see how much we had recovered during the night. The answer was: not much. We tried a few problems and spent most of the time on the ground groaning about different aches and pains. We decided to head up to a boulder called the Spiders Drum which has some really cool flakes that make deep drumlike sounds when pounded on. Now something you have to understand about rock quality is that pounding on rock and listening for a drumlike sound is a good way to find out the solidness of the formation. Any drumlike sound is a definite bad sign. But we climbed anyway with some misgivings about the quality of the stone because the climb looked SO COOL. Definitely one of the best V3s I've ever tried.

Spider's Drum

The holds on Spiders Drum.

After that we went to a climb called Israil (lots of rock climbing route names are play on words). It's a very stout problem but Cassie and I made good progress on it. We were completely wiped by the time we got close to sending and had to leave to come back to SLC. Hopefully we'll get video and pictures of us sending it next weekend.

So, now back to our dayjobs which we are very excited won't be there for much longer. Sorry about the lengthy post, we just don't have very many pictures so I figured I would fill in the details with words.

winter weekends

2010-11-28T19:52:00.000-08:00

Winter has hit the Wasatch a bit early this year with a couple big storms before thanksgiving and it's been snowing like crazy all day today. As much as I love the snow and skiing, I wasn't ready for the abrupt end to the climbing season. Even though conditions may not be ideal for climbing in the wasatch for a little bit, we're still going to try to make the most of our last season of winter bouldering in Utah. Since our last trip to Escalante, we've made a couple trips out to Ibex to crystal peak for some remote and rarely climbed boulders, but beautiful lines and scenery. One weekened we scouted the place out for the climbing club and the next went back with the club. Although only a very few members were brave enough to brave the drive and the cold, it was fun to have a smaller group and there were quality problems for all of us to send and plenty for us to want to come back to as well.

I've made a couple trips to Moab in the last month as well. The first was a visit from my parents. We were originally planning on going out to Escalante with them, but the weather wasn't cooperating so we decided to head to Moab instead. We camped at Fisher Towers, arriving just before an amazing sunset the first night. We hiked around fisher towers, watched people climb ancient art. Which even though we've done it before, still makes me slightly nauseous looking up at it and thinking about how it felt to do it. Amazing, but terrifying!. This trip was just for hiking though, there's a great trial that goes along the base of the titan and other towers, ending at a ridge overlooking the fisher valley. The next day we hiked out to corona arch which is downriver a few miles from Moab. It's a nice short hike along the slick rock to two amazing arches with the added benefit of being outside of the park, so no fees, no crowds and Mojo could join us.

I went back to Moab for a week for my favorite work conference. The desert fishes council. Yes, fish in the desert, that's what I work with and they are some of the craziest and coolest fish and a great group of people from southern Oregon to Texas and Mexico. You have to be a pretty great person to love the suckers and chubs of the world. One of the highlights of the meeting has to be Phil Piester who is one of the founding members of the group, one of the founders of the endangered species act, and has a great story about holding the entire population of Owen's Valley pupfish in his hands in two 5 gallon buckets. These fish are still alive today because of him. Since the world headquarters of DFC is in Bishop, I plan to contact Phil and other fish folk on our travels next year and hope to see some other fish and habitats outside of Utah as a nice diversion from climbing from time to time. We were supposed to end the conference with a day long float down the Colorado on the daily stretch just outside of Moab. Although the day started out nice, partly cloudy is really beautiful in the desert and cast some great light on the towers, the 70% chance of rain and 40 mph wind forecast soon caught up with us leaving my boat in an eddy, pinned by the wind against a rock and the bank, unable to move for about 15 minutes while we all hunkered down facing upstream to avoid the hail pelting our faces. The wind and weather got so bad that 4 of 5 boats didn't make it to the planned take out instead tying the boats up and hiking out to the road and walking the remaining distance to the vehicles. Probably not the trip everyone thought they had signed up for, but memorable non the less.

This weekend, the weather and me getting over a cold tried to keep us from climbing, but Matt convinced me that 34 and mostly sunny at Triassic really was perfect bouldering temps and would be warm enough. I believed him so we headed over yesterday. The day turned out great. I made progress on my nemesis, "some get two fingers", but ran out of skin before I was able to finish it. Matt was on a sending streak, finishing some get two fingers (he got it years ago, but later realized he started it about 3 moves after it was supposed to start). Matt also finished his longstanding nemesis "thud", which is very short and powerful. He also sent a cool crimper problem called "Ronald McDonald and Me" V6 in just a few tries.

So while there hasn't been much blogging lately, we've been busy. Right now we're just trying to finish up our jobs and are so psyched to leave on our trip and next adventure. Unfortunately no pics from either of the moab trips right now. Our computer died and we don't have any good photo sorting/editing software on this one yet. We should be getting something soon and will add some pictures next week or so. You can find more crystal peak pictures here.

Egypt

2010-10-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took a trip down to Escalante with the climbing club. The goal was Egypt 2 and 3, but the journey there is half the adventure. We took the back roads down through Torrey to Boulder to Escalante since in the van, you can't go 80 on the freeway, so you might as well take the scenic route and enjoy the ride. The road from Torrey to Boulder takes you from the red rock at the entrance to Capitol Reef up boulder mountain through aspen and pine forests with meadows to break things up and give you an amazing view of the ridges and buttes of the Utah desert. They also make for a popular hang out for deer, so there can't be too much daydreaming about the beauty of the trip. Matt got some great shots while I was driving of the Aspens and scenery in the setting sun.

From Boulder, the road gets even crazier. It winds through the slick rock putting you up on a very narrow as in there is no shoulder, no guard rail, no nothing on between you on the road and the valleys and canyons below. Since it was dark by the time we got there, I chose to creep along in the middle of the road to put a little more distance between the van and the void.

Once you've survived the driving excitement and 16 miles of the most washboarded road you can imagine, the canyons have built themselves up to be pretty spectacular. Matt decided not to do the canyon trip since his knee has still been bothering him since our Nebo trip. It's much better, but didn't think it was worth the risk of re-injuring it.

the rappel into Egypt

We had a group of about 20 people going down the canyon. We started at the top of Egypt 2 which starts with a 250 foot rappel off of the back of Doug's Toyota. In spite of all of the jokes of hope the parking brake is on, it was a very secure set up. After the rappel, Egypt 2 was a fun canyon with a few water holes, short but a little bit tricky down climbs, lots of mud (which does not help your sticky rubber shoes stick very well), and lots of moqui balls which are those little round knobs in the sandstone which look really cool but start to be really painful while you're scraping your way along the sides of a narrow canyon.

Stemming in Egypt 2

We hiked out of Egypt 2 and back down into Egypt 3. Egypt 3 was amazing!! This canyon had it all. It had amazing scoops and turns in the rock, and at it's narrowest point is only about 10 inches wide! At 10 inches wide, you take off your pack, walk side ways and can not turn your head. It's pretty dark at this point and the sky is just a little slit way up above. Fortunately you could still get through the canyon if you are wider than 10 inches, you just had to stem your way up higher where it got a bit wider. There was also one more water hole -- even though I'd already gotten wet in the earlier pot holes, everyone was bridging themselves over this one which means your feet on one side, your hands on the other and you are the bridge. People before me were making this look pretty easy, but they were also all taller than me. I was pretty sure I was going to be taking a nice belly flop into the water, but had to give it a try and luckily made it! We were also going up this canyon rather than down. To get out of it there were a number of short pour overs that we had to climb up. These were tricky since sandstone that has had water running over it is very smooth, but with help in a couple spots from a hand above or a little assist from below, everyone made it through no problem.

squeezing through

We got back to camp after a long day with a great treat of fresh baked bread by Matt from the sun oven and finished the day off sitting around the campfire with friends.

Click here for more Egypt pictures and here for more pictures of fall in Escalante

Our Trip Map

2010-10-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

Okay so my mom asked me for a better idea of where we might be on our trip and when we might be there. Now understand that all of this is subject to change. We have an idea of what we might want to do, but we don't know how well any of this will work. Weather, climbing conditions, and a host of other factors may change this, and we have absolutely not committed to this route. That being said it seems like reasonable route and one that could make sense.

So here's what I did. We have a few static pages we can create on our blog. I've create a new one called "our trip map". It's a page with a google map embedded in it. I can change the google map and the page automatically changes when you reload it. Pretty cool really. I've put one of our trip ideas out there for people to see. You can click on the placemarks to see what area we are interested in visiting and a month that we might be there. As we actually go on the trip we'll update this page so you can see where we've been, get to blogposts for those areas, and see where we might be in the future.

Click here to get to the Trip Map Page.

Mud and Stars

2010-10-12T20:18:00.000-07:00

Cassie went to Oregon last weekend to watch her dad run in a marathon. Leo trained for months to get ready and we were all really proud and impressed that he finished! He even did the marathon in the rain which makes it even more amazing. So, congrats to Leo for such a great accomplishment.

I stayed in Utah for the weekend and went climbing by myself. It had rained a lot during the week and the rock was wet and everything was quite muddy. Not a ton of pictures were taken so bear with me. Basically I took some pictures of a big mud puddle and tried some night shots of stars. Yeah I know it's a weird combination.

Rainclouds over the mountains.

The Milky Way and the cliffs at Joe's.

Mojo loving the muddy water. He would have played in it all day if I had let him.

Weeds and muddy water.

I tried a project at Joe's and got really close but didn't send it. I did another climb called Runt (V7) that I tried super hard on in June but failed. This time I found the right sequence and sent it easily. Possibly I used holds that you aren't supposed to use because it was so easy that I repeated it immediately without even resting so that I could get video of me doing it. Alas watching the video it doesn't even look that good because I make it look super easy. One of the tricks when shooting good video is being able to show how hard the moves are, and usually a good way to do that is to really struggle on the climb. That seems to help make it look interesting, but when you just cruise it it doesn't make it look very impressive, especially when it's a short climb. In this case the whole climb was packed into 5 or 6 hand moves in only about 8 feet. So, I probably won't post the video because it's really not very exciting. Funny how that works sometimes something that is so rewarding to us (I felt completely elated when I finished it) just doesn't visually make that great of a story. I suppose that's because all the effort put into it is really what the story is about, not just getting the climb. So, trying to convey that effort is probably what I should really focus on in the video. Build up the story of the climb so that when I show the climber getting it the audience also feels that sense of accomplishment. Ah well, i'm just an amateur and often I just don't have the video. Most of the time I'd just rather climb than shoot video.

During the weekend I also installed our newly modified tent. Previously our tent just had canvas sides, so when you roll over you just see brown canvas. We found a custom tent repair shop in Salt Lake that would install new windows with bug nets. Over the weekend I installed it. It was great to be able to see the stars as I was falling asleep!

Before Tent was installed.

Finally installed and ready to sleep in. The new window is behind the light.

Mo' Joes Valley

2010-10-06T19:28:00.000-07:00

Cassie on The Angler V1

Well you can probably guess from the title that we went back to Joe's again last weekend. It was a really great weekend of bouldering and some lines went down that we were very happy about. It was also the first weekend where we got to try our new propane setup, and our new espresso setup. Both were fantastic experiments and we're certainly going to keep them on for the trip.

The propane setup was debated between Cassie and I for quite some time. We had decided to go with an old school coleman stove because we calculated the price of using those little green propane cylinders vs using liquid white gas and it ended up being dramatically cheaper to use liquid fuel. So, we purchased a liquid fuel stove and lantern only to be immediately reminded why we don't really like them. First, they almost always leak fuel when you try to fill them, and second they need pumped. That's not a deal breaker for a weekend trip. But when you figure you're going to be camping for almost 2 years straight it seems pretty unappealing. So, we did a little bit more research and found that we could get a smaller propane cylinder (about half the size of a normal bbq grill propane tank). This would allow us to continue to use propane, and after crunching the numbers we were astonished. did you know that a gallon of coleman white gas goes for about $12? and that propane runs (here in utah) at about 2.35 a gallon when gasoline is 2.85? that's about a no brainer to convince us to make the switch back to propane. I think over a year we'll save about 300 just in fuel and no messy spills or pumping!

The espresso maker was our other success. Some of you might know that I really don't drink coffee, but thanks to Bruce getting us a latte maker for our wedding present we started drinking lattes on the weekends. After cleaning out the french press a couple of times this year we started thinking that an espresso maker might be tastier and less messy. I'm not sure that it has proven itself on the less messy side, but the tasty has won us out. We also decided to get a conical burr grinder to allow us to hand grind our coffee. This means fresh espresso's everyday. It worked really well as you can tell from the pictures. Basically you just grind the espresso, put it in the espresso pot and put it on the stove while at the same time putting some milk in another container and heat it on the stove as well. When the milk is hot you simply use this plunger type thing which creates some of the creamist foam i've ever had. the espresso is usually done by then and you just pour it out. Yummm!!

We also had a great time climbing this weekend. We did a bunch of easier problems on Friday, and then went on to try Bowling Ball V4 which was excellent, and topped it off with Frosted Flakes V4 which was an excellent harder problem. The next day we went down to riverside and since the water was so low we could finally protect The Angler which is a very easy, but very high line right next to the water. The pictures were shot by our friend Lauren who did a great job. Cassie then went on to send Kelly's Arete which is a super fun V5. I was terribly impressed since it's a pretty high topout and the business of topping out isn't easy. Cassie is truly getting better about doing hard moves even when she is high off the deck. After that we went across the river to Low Tide V6 which I did in a few tries after figuring out some fairly tricky beta. We then headed up the hill to try some other V6s (Moby Dick, and Black and Blue) which both shut us down) We'll be back to try those again sometime soon.
On Sunday we warmed up at riverside and headed up to Big Joe. The previous weekend I had tried it but it didn't feel doable probably because of the warm temperatures, but even though it was out third day of straight climbing it just fell into place and I sent it. I'm very happy because I had put a goal out there for me to do a V7 before the end of the year and I made my goal early. Sorry, no pictures of that one, I didn't really think I'd send it so we didn't even bring the camera or video.

I think i might have mentioned in our last post that we've been climbing with some new friends that are staying at Joe's Valley for a while. Lauren is a recent college grad from Seattle who is on a lengthy college graduation present vacation and George is from Austria. George works at a ski shop during the winter and travels the remainder of the year. Cassie and I are both very envious of such a sweet setup. George climbs quite hard and is constantly pushing us to try harder in a super encouraging way. I daresay his positive attitude has helped us climb these harder problems.

Matthew on Low Tide V6

Ah well a great weekend it was indeed. Here's hoping with temps finally dropping back into the reasonable digits we can keep climbing hard. We also had enough video footage that we decided to put anther climbing vide together. This one is a lot more climbing that the usual one's. Hope you enjoy it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URqa1mXiKYQ

Here's the link to this weekends set of of flickr pictures.

Joes Valley

2010-09-27T22:47:00.000-07:00

Okay so we're really psyched on bouldering. No really, we are really, really, psyched on it. I've pretty much always loved it, but Cassie is getting the bug as well. We haven't really done much roped climbing this year. We're definitely going to get back on a rope soon, but right now we're just enjoying this type of climbing.

Cassie sending Pimpin' Jeans V4

Cassie on Pimpin' Jeans V4

Since I hurt my knee before our backpacking trip I didn't get to take that time off of work, which means with only a few months left in the year I have a bunch of vacation to use, and Cassie doesn't (since she went on the trip). So what to do? Cassie gets Fridays off anyway since she works four ten-hour days. With that in mind we've decided to go on three day weekends pretty much every weekend until the end of the year.

Matthew on Maxipad V6.

The destination last weekend was Joe's Valley. Since it's only a 2.5 hour drive from our house, and since it's a world famous bouldering destination it's a good choice. "World famous" you say? Yes, as in the guy we met this weekend was from Austria and was spending a good bit of his 6 month road trip in Joe's. So, that's how I qualify it as world famous. When people have that much time off of work, and they choose to spend it in the middle of the utah, with basically nothing around, it just goes to show how amazing it is (or how crazy climbers can be).

We got on a little bit of everything this weekend. Cassie sent 2 projects (a V4 called pimpin' jeans, and a V3 hueco problem), as well as a bunch of other climbs. I managed to finish Pocket Rocket V5, Maxipad V6 (sorry that's really the name), and flashed Kellys Arete V5. All in all we were pretty happy with the climbing, though no matter how well we do there is always a bit of saying "i wish I could have gotten x,y,z" but that's part of the game. If we were always content with what we did there wouldn't be much incentive to do it again. Sometimes I think dissatisfaction is the cornerstone of the human race.

Matthew on Maxipad V6.

video of cassie on some recent climbs. teaser for the next video.

Well next weekend we are going out there to do it again, so new posts and a video will be on their way. I have some pretty sweet video from last weekend, but I need a bit more to make it worth watching. Cassie took these awesome pictures of me sending Maxipad. She's got a great creative eye. Hopefully with her getting more into being artistic you'll see even more pictures of me climbing :)

More pictures from the weekend on our flickr page.

Solar Cooking!

2010-09-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

Recently we decided that on The Trip we would like to be able to bake. That was an interesting dilemma as baking and roadtripping doesn't really go together (or so we thought). After doing some research online about solar ovens we decided to go ahead and purchase one. It cost about $250 (with shipping) We bought the most widely used oven available and one that had the most positive reviews. Supposedly this oven could get over 350+ degrees and would cook without burning. We figured it was worth a try. This week the oven arrived completely assembled, and all we had to do to use it the first time was to remove the protective film from the reflectors.

How does it work? It works GREAT! Our burnoff test revealed that the oven could get to boiling in under 10 minutes, over 300 in 20 minutes, and over 365 degrees in 40 minutes! That's definitely hot enough to bake. So, today we threw together a simple no-yeast maple-oatmeal whole wheat bread. After preheating the sun oven we threw the bread mix in and sat back and watched. It cooked in almost the same time the recipe said it would because the recipe called for 350 degrees and that's almost exactly what the oven got to. Homemade bread baked by the sun in about an hour? Yeah!

One of the best benefits of solar ovens is that they can be used in cold weather. A clear cold day is better than a humid hot day because of the light intensity which is the most important part. That means you can cook even below freezing in the winter! Your cooking window is much shorter because of the shorter days, so that just means you need to use your sun time better.

Our hope is that on the trip we will be able to cook our own granola, cookies, bread, and snack bars. We figure not only will it taste better and be better for us than store bought items, but will give us a much different perspective on cooking and eating our own food. In addition to baking the oven can also cook anything else you want. We're going to try slow roasting pork, making rice, and boiling water for coffee. It'll be a cool experience.

http://www.sunoven.com/

Here are some pictures from our first baking.

The recipe.

The oven with reflectors folded up.

Starting temp

25 minutes into preheat.

around 40 minutes of baking.

Crust starting to get golden brown, and smelling great!

Bread in oven.

Checking the bread. Perfectly cooked and ready to come out.

The final product. Check out that crust!!!

So good.