Thursday, September 8, 2011

Trying to Catch Up, The Tooth and My Last Day at Little si



Well hello everyone. I'm sure you've missed me. Or maybe not. Either way, here is a very late blog post. I'll be making a lot of them in the next few days in an attempt to catch everyone up with what I've been doing. I've got more than enough photos, words, a video, and hopefully a lot of inspiration. So sit back and enjoy the show.
The above picture is of my friend Kyle on the middle section of the The Tooth. As Kyle put it, "The Tooth is like training wheels for alpine trad climbing." Indeed.



Here are some pictures of the rocky ridges that enveloped our approach to the Tooth. These were taken on our way out of the valley.



It was absolutely a beautiful day and I went shirtless pretty much all day, which I paid for severely for the next week (and maybe even possibly the rest of my life)



One of the highlights of the trip was discovering the amazing potential for alpine bouldering in this valley. There was everything, from lazer-cut faces, aretes, high balls, low balls, roofs, corners, slabs, etc etc. It was mind boggling!



Here is Kyle doing a great impression of a down hill skier.



Like I said, the weather was amazing. There was at least five other groups on the route that day, but once we got to the summit, we had the 360 panoramic view to ourselves and we sat and drank Rainier and sorted gear and got ready to do it a second time.



Rainier. So bummed I wasn't able to join my friends on a summit of this rig before I left.



Here is the valley you have to walk up in order to get to the base of the climb. It was great to get back on a snow field.



The future realm! This was the most impressive boulder I saw. Overhung face with every kind of feature you can imagine, and some HARD lines as well. Perfect top out, little to no cleaning involved. I want to hear of some FA's my friends!



Here is the beginning of the approach across the snow field. The Tooth is the big blob in the middle fo the photo.



Ahhhh, Litte si. What would my blog be without you? Once I was able to squeeze my foot into a climbing shoe it was on. I wanted to get some endurance back and go for a redpoint of something hard. Unfortunately, I just never got the appropriate momentum going. I did however manage to repeat a bunch of lines I had done before. Psychosomatic became almost like a warm up. I managed to repeat it 5 times, Techno 4 times, and a one time repeat of the ultra classic bouldery test piece PC-7. I did hop on Californicator but it kicked my ass and I decided to just get some mileage in. I had such a good time every time I made it out here and I never ceased to be inspired by this crag. I am so bummed I didn't have more time here, I was really feeling strong on my last day and with a little more time (like a month), feel like I could have put away alot of hard lines.
Below and above are some pictures I took of Sonja and her friend climbing Californicator.






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