The FEAST

5/22/09
For the past 4 days I have been feasting on good food, laughter amongst friends and family, sunshine, sweaty hiking, and most important of all the top notch rock located some 30 minutes from my mom’s doorstep in Seattle. I set off on my adventure last Friday where I met Dom and Laura at the Farside parking lot. They had both taken their friend Sarah up here a week ago and were eager to get back. The Farside sounded like a great place to get some new pitches in and it was. We played around on some classics all day long and took in the beautiful scenery and enjoyed the amazing rock quality and sheer awesomeness of the routes.



Laura making the first airy clip on Space Face(5.10c) at Interstate Park.


Laura reaches past the crux on Space Face.


Laura onsights Lip Service(5.10b) at the 'block of doom' cave.


Laura on Girls Rule(5.10a).


Paintbrush.


Laura on November Glaze(5.9) at Squishy Bell.


Squishy Bell.

It was nice to have only a 30 minute drive afterward, and as I pulled into my mom’s place I realized how tired I was and that I was going to do it all over again the next day.


5/23/09
Saturday I had agreed to meet some friends from the Evergreen Rock Gym at Exit 38 to show them around so they could get acquainted with the nearest crag to Olympia. My plan kinda’ sank to the bottom when we showed up to Deception Crag and realized EVERY line was spoken for. No worries I told them, there is a stellar 5.10 we can do at Nevermind. Upon showing up to Nevermind I realized that everyone was ON the 5.10(Nevergine) so I put draws up on Steep Street so they could top rope it. That didn’t go over so great either but I got a chance to repeat Culture Shock in the meantime. After a near ground fall at the first crux jogged my memory I got back on and linked the beast. It is a great climb for anyone who hasn’t done it yet, super steep but friendly holds. I was glad to have a few hard ones in the bag especially since I was only counting on doing routes no harder than 5.10 on this day. The girls decided to try their luck at Write Off Rock and managed a nice lead of the 5.7 there. We moved on after that. Heading up the road a bit we stopped at Gritscone, where we did the 5.7, 5.9, 5.10c, and 5.11. A few more steep minutes of hiking and we finally ended up at Interstate Park. We did this cool 5.8 that I had done the day before, a really nice line on good stone that traverse right and up. It was nice to lay around in the shade and talk it up. We soon found ourselves at Squishy Bell, where a few dudes had made it their temporary hang out. Needless to say the ground was covered in bags of weed, glass pipes, munchies, and the random bits of clothing and oh yeah, climbing equipment. They were on the route I wanted to do, a sick 5.9 and also a 5.8 that shares the anchors so we waited. And waited, and waited, and waited. We watched all three dudes sketchmaster their way up the 5.9 on top rope and they seemed quite content to do this over and over again. We sat on the flat look out up and left of the crag soaking up the sun and even more good conversation and a nice view. We finally gave up waiting for them, did the short 5.5 and headed back down the trail to home. After a quick stop at the bridge to see if anyone wanted to take the plunge I was homeward bound once again, or should I say my mom’s home.


The trellace.


The view from above.


Seeley, the crag mother.



Gabby TR's Bottoms Up(5.7) at Write Off Rock.



A river runs through it. Or maybe a creek, I forget.


Shanti leading Pete's Possum Palace(5.7), at Gritscone.



Some rough and rugged flowers on the mountainside.


Gabby at the chains of Catatonic(5.6)at Squishy Bell.


To the right of Squishy Bell.

5/23/09
Sunday was a nice day to catch up on some ‘chill’. I visited my bro who I hadn’t seen in a matter of months. Took in some good convo’ there while gorging myself on Lasagna and garlic bread. Then headed back home where I napped, helped mom in the garden and feasted on more pasta(Wild Mountain Café is tha’ bomb!! Lemon chicken pesto pasta!!! WORD!!!) Anyway, it was a good day to kick back and take in the finer things of life.


Garden.


Garden.


In the garden.


Murphy.

5/24/09
Monday, Memorial Day brought more climbing, YES!! I met Dom and Laura up at Little si, where apparently they were giving away a new car to the first thousand people who made it to the summit. In other words the trail was PACKED. I waded through the masses, sweaty overweight suburbanites, somewhat in shape couples drenched in Nike and ACG gear, and herds of little children. I finally made it to World Wall where Dom was 90 feet up on Voodoo Guru. Laura was chattin’ it up with a guy named Ryan Palo. I dabbed the sweat off of myself and did a lap on Psychosomatic, well falling at the crux anyway, still a pitch of 5.12 at least. Next up was Bust Tha’ Move, a route I hadn’t done in 2 years. All I can say is I had no business doing the crux the way I did, yikes!! I was glad to have not fallen but it was an ugly maneuver everyone. Recovering from that trauma we stepped over and did a nice line, Mega, Mega, Megatherion. I even managed to foul up the sequence on that beauty, what the hell?!! Dom gave Sluglover a go, psyched to work on this one. Then we stepped over to the Rainy Day corner and did a lap on the old girl before wrapping it all up on End of the World. Another route I hadn’t done in ages. Man, Dom laced up the gear making it sound intense, Laura did the bottom on TR, and then I shakily pulled through the crux and managed to link it. I think my favorite part of this day was getting on old routes I hadn’t done in ages. It is so easy to get sucked into a routine of Abo, Psycho, Rainy Day, repeat as needed. I need to start working in multiple 5.12 pitches into my circuit here in order to really step up my training. I was psyched the most about getting End of the World at the end of the day, one of my favorites; I just hope the rock doesn’t crumble away at the bottom. Here are some photos:


Mega, mega, mega. World Wall in the background.


One of Ryan's friends working Chronic(5.13b)


Chronic.


Ryan Palo working his way into Pornstar(5.13d)


Ryan on Pornstar.


Ryan off Pornstar.


Dom on the start of End of the World(5.12a)


Dom sticks the committing lunge on End of the World.


Aahhh, the end at last.

Heading back to Oly was a bit of a bummer. I wish I could go on eating mass amounts of god food, climbing everyday with interesting people, seeing my family, and partaking in good weather, but until this becomes a job(oh yeah it already is, if you can climb 5.15b!!) then I’ll just have to take these kinds of four day weekends as they come.


Finally, at peace.

RedMan

The title of course referring to the state of my epidermis. Yikes! Needless to say I was able to get some sun, a very crucial part to visiting Winatchee. I just returned last night from a two day romp out to Leavenworth. It was my friend Greg’s b-day and as a consolation b-day prize he got to stare at my ugly mug for two days while we melted in the sun. Arriving around two on Sunday afternoon we set up shop at Mad Meadows, the Hueco Route cave and the little room of the Sail were actually quite cool and we panted our exhaustion away by watching a crew of guys and gals swig beer and take turns on Drugstore Cowboy. Greg did The Hueco Route and the Rudder, while I ran some laps on DC, then decided to try The Jib. The jug looked closer than I remember so I felt good, but after pulling on for the flash I decided it was a little committing. My second go I decided to just try and actually stuck the jug, a little bamboozled as to what to do next I lunged out right for what I thought was going to be a big victory jug and greased off a flat hold. Well, a little working out was in order and I straightened the top out up and finally sent. Greg got to work on DC and sent that as well and we moved onwards and upwards passing our beer swilling friends on the way. We sat in the shade after our 50 yard trek uphill had crippled our intentions of climbing everything we saw and instead settle for a nice session with Spongebob. Greg came close, and then walked around the corner and sent Tentacles quickly. I had fun revisiting these quality V.3’s.


Spongebob Squarepad(V.3)


Tentacles(V.3)


Tentacles.


We slowly made our way back down to the car and made a last stop at Egg Rock. China Cat went down but that’s about it. I think I’ll have to wait to grow longer arms for Musashi, or maybe I just have bad beta(?). Plus Kelley’s new problem Darkstar will also have to wait until I can figure out what the hell he did!? Anyway we slept well that night, it got just cold enough to dawn a jacket and enjoy a roaring fire thanks to the mountain of wood and a fence post we ended up with.
I woke up next morning to the crashing sound of someone letting the dumpster lid fall from its apex. Greg let me know that he was awake and I stumbled out of my tent wanting more sleep. It was about seven in the morning and we decided to get an early start before the heat set in and made us zombies.


Watch out for flying ants.

Our first stop was Forestland, but our tips refused to cooperate. I was able to warm up but the rock felt like crushed glass. My fingertips felt as if someone was pressing them against a searing hot pan every time I tried to hold onto a crimp. My mind was telling me yes, but my body was telling me NO! It was a quick session that ended after we realized the psych was low, and the skin was lower. Still, we moved on. After meeting up with Greg’s dad in the parking lot of Forestland we caravanned up to JY for a little while and then just gave up in the heat and decided to pack up camp and chill in Greg’s dad’s pool in Winatchee. It was some must needed floatation time, however I managed to emblazon myself with the kiss of the sungods. After rejuvenating our tips in the pool we drove back to Leavenworth and headed up to Mt. Home Road. It was a beautiful day and I always love getting a chance to climb up there.








We got on a stout V.2 at the Star Wars boulder, and I tried Darth Maul, the agro version of Iron Man traverse with a killer dyno at the end. I got to the dyno each time but could not force myself to let go and send. It is quite a stellar problem though, the rock quality up here is amazingly, awesome, super cool , number one!


Greg on Nice Men(V.2)

Last stop was the Pasture. Greg sent a few of the classics, Cattle Terrace, and Cud Crack, while I was able to muster up BSE a really cool highball with an intense last move. I tried to go for the repeat of Cattleguard Arete but fell at the lip, still one of my favorites.


Me at the top of BSE(V.3)

With split tips and a new outlook on future skin cancer treatments we headed back down the road, stopping once to check out a sweet prow off the side of the road, I believe this was Isaac Howard’s Quest for Fire. A slightly overhung and narrow prow with amazing features on dark granite, easily one of the more impressive and striking lines I have seen in Leavenworth. I don’t believe it was on privately owned land, and by that I mean there were no houses around, but who knows. I look forward to returning to try this problem, it looks doable for a ten and very aesthetic.
The trip was a success and Greg was able to get on a lot of good problems and send some of them as well. I had a blast climbing a lot of quality problems and a new hard one, and checking out some projects. The heat was a bit of a deterrent for future trips, but I was really glad we got out and happy birthday Greg!

Draped Up and Dripped Out!

Before the rain on Drill Sargent.

Well, I just returned from Leavenworth. I left this morning with my usual compadres Dom and Laura. We arrived around 11:30, pitched the tent at the free camping and made it to Forestland in time for a little warm up session. Unfortunately that was pretty much all we got done. With the exception of Dom climbing like a mad man. I think he knew what was about to happen to our little trip but he finally sent his project The Shield in high fashion, second go of the day. We futzed about on Bedroom Bully before manning up and trying Busted. Dom topped it out from the stand a few times and then with no hesitation fired the sit! His second V.8!! Nice one Dom, it was good to see someone sending. We had met up with a friend of mine from TESC named Gregg and after the send we showed him around the upper Forestland. He did well to flash Sunny and Steep and before you knew it the clouds that had become threateningly large actually followed through and started to spit on us. We gave Gregg a farewell at the parking lot and made it back to the camping site in time to pack up our things and say farewell to our friend Whitey(kinda the reason we made this trip in the first place). Heartbroken and a little confused we didn't give up just yet. Even though it was pouring we kicked around the Swiftwater cave for a while unlocking the beta to the far right line. Dom pulled out another send but was not able to top this one out because of the rain so will have to come back for the official send but he did well to wrap up the short day trip to Leavenworth. Damn you rain!!


The Shit Cave(I mean the Shist Cave)

The River Wall

Yesterday my friends Dom and Laura and myself took a trip out to a little known crag in a small town named Eatonville. Our mutual friend Jeremy had been before and said it was worth checking out, a small sport crag with a dozen routes or so all between 5.7 and 5.10b/c. The weather was amazing so we decided to head out to Eatonville and see what we could find. About an hour later, after driving past several nice little farms with a great view of Mt. Rainier in the background, we arrived at the cozy little hamlet that is Eatonville. We followed the directions our friend had given us and after a bit of walking we arrived at the train tracks that marked the 'climbers trail' to the crag. This is the first wall we came to:




Unfortunately it was guarded by a fast moving river too wide to jump and too deep to cross, and the only route we spotted looked good, but the first bolt was about 20 feet off the deck, yikes! It was a rather odd place to find bolts but we convinced ourselves that this must be the place. A little bummed we hung out below the bridge before we gathered our things and headed back up.



Instead of giving up we wandered a little further down the tracks before finding another steep trail that ended up taking us to a cool little wall peppered with bolts. At last we found the treasure. Mounted on a flat rocky outcrop this little wall started at about 15 feet at the left and grew to be at it's tallest around 35-40 feet ending in the water. The routes were fun, a little dirty and chipped in some places, but climbable and the grades were between 5.7-5.10b. The rock was a wierd mixture of things that resembled sandstone but was definitely not, more like a basalt type of stone. It offered up several little edges and lay-backs and we had a great time climbing as many of the routes that we could get too, enjoying the weather and the river at our backs.


Laura on the first route of the day, a very dirty .10b.


Laura starting a cool 5.10a.






Dom on the last route of the day, a sweet 5.7.

Dairy Freeze, check!

One of my favorite pictures of World Wall One.
Nick staring down the extension to Aborigine, Technorigine.


Yesterday I took a trip up to Little si, or more accurately World Wall One. The weather was overcast, with brief stints of sunshine but it was only to taunt us and our icy grips. My band consisted of Mika and Dom. The number one priority after arriving to the wall was to get these cursed draws back on Abo. and clear my good name of any damaging associations. WW1 was already alive with climbers and I took no rest and no water and immediately got on Abo. It felt so effortless this time, not that it hasn't in the past but it almost felt like I was climbing it for the first time again, except I knew all the beta. It was a wonderful way to start the day and foreshadowed the kind of day that was to come. After removing the bad karma and having an excellent warm up burn on Abo. we stepped over to a climb I hadn't done in almost two years, Megatherion. Mika gave it a burn hanging the draws for us and then I was up again and absolutely loved getting back on this rig. Lovely sinker flake jugs almost the entire route, with a short crux section in the middle. The route feels exposed and the top is covered in black textured stone that is amazing to climb on. Another excellent pitch was in the bag and I was feeling like climbing today was taking on an almost playful approach, everything just flowed and I was able to really just enjoy each climb for what it was. Dom sent Bust The Move next while Mika TR'd it and then I finally decided to grow some balls and get back on my project Dairy Freeze. I had first tried it two years ago and remembered very little except that the crux involved some serious crimping and trusting of a certain very tiny foot hold. I had re-familiarized myself with the route last week and was ready to send. The temps were cold and the friction was good but my fingers froze up after getting through the first crux move and I fell. I finished the route, came down for a rest as Dom gave it a go, and then fired it directly after. This route has everything, a nice mellow start on good incuts to jugs, a strenuous and technical sequence through the crux, a dyno(but only for me), and one of the coolest slabs with that black textured rock I mentioned earlier on absolutely brilliant little crimpers and smears. It was a joy working and sending this thing and I would nominate it as one of the best 5.12b's at Little si, if not the most diverse. Here is a picture of Dom in the middle of the crux move, his right foot on that tiny little foothold going for the sidepull.


Dairy Freeze, (5.12b)

Dom wasn't able to pull the crux with my beta, but he remembered his own beta from years ago and he will send next time we are out there. After giving the mandatory visit to the loveliest woman in the PAC NW, by the name of Rainy Day, we wandered over to Psychowussy and I hung the draws and pumped out on the extension. Mika gave a nice clean lead of Psychowussy followed by Dom to wrap up the day and we were back in Oly just in time for a hillarious game of Telephone Pictionary and some interesting mead tasting. I'm really psyched on cleaning up some of the other 5.12a's I haven't done at Little si like Sweet Tooth, and State of Perplexity. I'm also really psyched for harder possibilities like Propaganda and Sluglover. Dom and Laura's work have ended now so hopefully this means lot's and lot's of Little si! Or other areas, whatever works...

Eye of the Tornado

Last Tuesday, 4/21/09, I made a short trip out to Little si. There was noone there on this beautiful day and to my surprise someone had left draws up one of the most traveled 5.11b’s of the crag, Aborigine. My first thought was, “What happened?! Why would someone leave all of their draws on a climb like this?” My second thought was, “Sweet! Free gear!” They were nice draws two of which were nice petzl draws and the rest metolius extended draws, 7 draws total but the extended draws had several beaners and slings to each of them. My friends Mika, and Kyle showed up later and I pointed out that there were draws hanging on Aborigine, a route I’ve done 20 times or so. I kept on convincing myself that taking these draws was justice in itself since I’ve been to this crag hundreds of times and have never seen hanging draws on Abo., especially in the middle of the week, no matter what the circumstances are. But, in the end it was a very wrong thing to do. Taking anything that does not belong to you, whether intentional or un-intentional is just plain wrong, and generates some bad karma. I stripped the draws off the climb and we split them up between the three of us with the stipulation that if anyone came up that day we would ask them if the draws belonged to them. No one came up for the rest of the day and we left.
Well, here is where the story gets interesting and I’m not surprised if anyone out there reading this is shaking their heads in disgust at my actions, but tonight, Friday, 4/24/09, I just checked cascadeclimbers.com, a popular climbing forum for the PAC NW, and to my surprise Bret Johnston had left a thread labeled ‘Theft at Little si!’. My heart leapt into my throat and I knew it was about those draws. I had just gotten off the phone with my friend Dom who chastised me and berated me for taking the draws in the first place so I was feeling pretty crappy after seeing this thread. I read all the posts, most of them stating that I was a rotten, immoral, thief and that I should be banned from climbing and life on this planet. I’ve posted a few comments from the site about the incident:

“No disrespect intended ot either the botty hauler or Mr. Johnson.
But we are talking 5 or 6 slings and the accompaning biners. (if they were mine I'd actually know the number missing)
At least two of them were "sponsored draws". In the grand scheme of things not that much money even for a "non-working" climber. For someone that is at least particially sponsored and willing to freeely replace old gear on the wall not much of a ding in the pocket book.
Our shit being ripped from the base of a climb or out of a car is one thing, leaving your gear hanging on MODERATE climbs by sport standards is another.
Just an FYI but if I had seen a half dozen draws hanging on a moderate 5.11, mid week, I might have taken the time myself to hang my way up the thing just for the fun and the free booty.
But I don't score booty these days. Bad Karma, IMO. I've had enough stuff ripped off over the years. Found a bunch as well. With the ability to communicate via the Internet these days everyone seems to think what they "leave" should be returned. I've picked up 3 sets of leashless tools this winter at rap stations. Gave them back when I could. But if someone started bitching about "loosing" them and DEMANDED them back I'd sooner give them away to a good home. You'd have to be kinda a dumb ass to leave them there in the first place.
My guess is the poor bastard that did score your gear had no clue why you left it but I bet he didn't think it intentional. Bitching about it here might seem like an educational opportunity for some. The real lesson for me anyway is, don't be leaving your shit on "easy" climbs. Some climbers (looks like 50% from this thread) seem to think anything not locked up, nailed down and with a Rottweiler guarding it as free for the taking.”

“Whoever took the gear deserves a time out.
And no ice cream after dinner.
And give him his toys back.”

“OMG, so I left my wallet on the sidewalk outside my favorite beer store so that it would be there when I came back in a few days for another sixer and somebody totally stole my shit! WTF? THEFT ON 148th!!! Plus, those cards totally have my name on them. I go shopping all the time -- unless you intend to keep them in your wallet, I will see you!!”

“Exactly. I know at least 10 people who have redpointed extensions to abo. and none of them left draws up over night. Its seems that if you are working the 13d or even the 12c you could just put the draws up on your first trip up for the day and take them down on the way down at the end of the day. In general you don't see fixed draws on anything easier than 5.12 usually not anything easier than 12C. Little Si has routes that have fixed draws on them and abo isn't one of them. Again sucks someone took your draws it just not that surprising I guess.”


“it is stealing and if i caught you with my stuff, i'd kick your ass...end of story...”

“Taking draws off a sport route is bad form and stealing. If you see several draws on a route it is obvious that the person didn't leave them there as a bail bineer.
if the draws have been up all year and becoming worn, by all means take them down and stack them on ground next to the route. I would agree that fixed draws are sort of an eye-sore and should be used sparingly only for routes that is being actively projected at sport crag.
Also, just because you hiked a route with fixed draws doesn't mean you get to steal the draws.”

“Gear left on a climb is trash. Someone was kind enough to, hopefully, recycle your trash for you. Litterbug.”

“I am very disapointed at the level of discourse by many of the people in this discussion but it is CC.com what do you expect. I am a trad and alpine climber so I am well versed in bootying gear. However, when I see fixed draws on a route (overhanging or not, if I sent the route or not) I know to leave them in place. Someone obviously is serious about pushing their ability level. How can something be wrong with this. You would really have no knowledge of modern sport climbing tactics or no morals to believe it's OK to take multiple fixed draws off a route. IMHO It's the same as stealing fixed lines off a project.”

In the end I feel pretty bad, especially after reading what a lot of these guys say and realizing that my actions in this matter are not indicative of the kind of person I am, or want to be. At the time it did not cross my mind that this was considered stealing at all, but now I do and maybe that is the positive light that comes out of this shit storm. If the draws had belonged to some gumby climber who just left them there and didn’t care, me and my friends would be 7 draws richer and I would still think it’s okay to strip a full line of draws off a route, well traveled or not. However, they belonged to a well known climber who was projecting a 5.13d called Pornstar who trusted that noone would take his draws because why would any sane climber do that?! When it comes to the end of the day, it’s wrong to take draws(or anything that doesn’t belong to you) no matter if it’s Sharma, or climber X who can’t even send 5.9 on top rope. I’m putting the draws back, or giving them back in person, whichever comes first, and I’m revoking my membership to the climbing community of moral ethical people. From now on I vow to leave any, and everybody’s stuff alone, lesson learned. My apologies to the climbing community, and to Bret Johnston. I love Little si just as much as the next climber and have never taken draws before and again want to reiterate that I did not mean to cause anyone harm or distress and take full responsibility if I did. Please feel free to leave comments about what an asshole I am, or any other thoughts you have about this situation.

Chipmunks in HEAT!

My god it was a beautiful day in the Northwest today. I managed to skirt out to Little si for a few quick pitches. My friends Mika and Kyle showed up about 20 minutes after I had arrived at the magnificent World Wall One and I was quick to lace up and get on Abo. After my forearms were warm Mika lead Megatherion and Kyle TR'd it. I gave my proj. Dairy Freeze a once over and decided to wait to get back on it this weekend. I hung the draws on Rainy Day for Mika and then they both tried Abo. Time was going by faster than I had hoped so I hopped on Psycho and went for the extension pumping out before the last crux.
It was sooo good to get outside today instead of just laying about my apartment waiting for class to start. Speaking of which I better go now or I'll be late. Hope I can get back out this weekend when the temps go down a little. Even though the high today was somewhere around the mid 70's, WW1 was amazingly cool with no greasy holds and almost everything dry. See you there!