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.

Time for Some Action!

Jimmy crushing Psychosomatic(5.12d) before redpointing Flatliner(5.13c)
Unfortunately my camera decided to go on the fritz as Jimmy soared up the wall and through the bouldery crux of Flatliner and all my pics of him on this stunning line are trashed!! Jimmy has been on the power endurance ride of his life this last month sending another 5.13b Lizard Prince and crushing his first 5.13c Flatliner. Great work Jimmy!!!!

July has just flown(!!) by. My good friend and climbing partner Nick came back from D.C. to visit and certainly left his mark. It took a couple trips for Nick to get re-acquainted with his once local crag Little si, but once he did it was game time! Making short work of Graven Image(5.12c) he then turned his attention to his long term project and gem of the crag Chronic(5.13b). On his fourth go of the day, on his 3rd work session this year he pulled a send out of the bag in typical Nick fashion screaming from the top of his lungs and depth of his soul to stay on through the crux for his first .13b send!!!


Nick enters the final crux section on Chronic(5.13b)


Latching the last move!!! Nice job Nick! Super proud!


Can you find the climber on Techno?



A wet morning in Seattle.





Keenan TR's Aborigine(5.11b)

Lisa has also put down her first send of the summer with an amazing redpoint of one of the hardest 5.12d's at Little si, Californicator. She had been working this with me for a month now and finally pulled out the send with style! Nice job Lisa, I hope I can join the club soon...

Lisa sticks a move on Californicator(5.12d)


Check out the WRG tank top, REPRESENT!!


Lisa crushes the crux on Cali.

Well, I just returned from another day out at the World Wall. The temps were the worst I have ever climbed in. Warm with a mixture of high humidity. GROSS!! Everything felt nasty and impossibly slick. I did, however, manage almost all the moves on Chronic and am so psyched on this line it's not even funny! I have a pretty good feeling that if my fitness keeps increasing this line will go down this year.
In other news of the day no huge sends went down, but Lisa did manage another one hang attempt of Psychosomatic and is very, very, VERY close to sending yet another giant at the wall. As soon as that and Prop go down it's time for Chronic!!


Lisa sticks the finger jug on Psychosomatic(5.12d)


Grabbing the victory jug!

Tomorrow we are all headed to a new crag, Newhalem. I'm so stoked but have a bad feeling my onsighting skills have severely diminished due to all the projecting I've been doing this last month. But, we'll have to wait and see how the routes play out. I've heard a lot of good things about this crag and I hope something in the mid to high 5.12 range will go down. Jimmy has his eye on a 5.13a called OSX so I'm sure I'll get on that as well. I just hope my camera stops spazzing out on me. Hope everyone is well and having a great summer so far.