Stalker

I like to always be immersed in climbing related things whether that be climbing(my preferred method), reading a guidebook, reading a climbing magazine, reading on the interweb about climbing, or just dreaming about routes. I also like to plan trips that may or may not happen. The thing that chains this all together is the climbing.
So the interweb. People are getting blogs, like this one but more people read them. I assume almost noone reads mine haha but in preparation of that day I keep this. Since people get blogs they need someone to read them, why not me right? Alex Fritz' blog kicks my blogs butt. Everyones does, I must need pictures, that's the key. To have pictures though, someone must take them. Joshua Levin he blogs it hard too. I need to blog it hard.
I don't know if you've seen tthe obvious correlation yet. But people that blog hard about climbing, obviously climb effin' hard. So theoretically if i spend more time blogging I will increase my power possibly tenfold. So sick.
I also have a facebook. Weird I'm a teenager with a facebook. Ok well I was looking through Alex' pictures, like the stalker I am and he had pictures of his room. This is just getting weirder isn't it. Well his room is covered with medals. And I say that to ask is that normal? I have all the medals and stuff, not many, that I haven't lost in a drawer that I never look at. Oh wait I have two ribbons hanging up right beneath my doorway, can you guess? They are participant and competitor ribbons taped back to back haha. Now lets make this clear. I am not ragging on Alex Fritz. It just sounds like we look at things differently. Quite frankly I like Alex Fritz, he's nice to me. It doesn't take much for me to like someone. Besides all that. climbing today. Grim Ripper Project. I'm so psyched. It is this way hard, extremely hard cave. Harder than the other things I've done. I think it's harder than Satan's Soul. But I have all of the sequence unlocked. well except the last couple of move which hopefully won't be the hard part. It's not supposed to be at least. But see yah. Wish me luck. LUCK

Summer?

Ok well it's kinda summer. The rain has still been coming down occasionally, more than that, but the climbing has still been a-go. Besides that I suck at this blogging stuff, hardcore. I am no good for updating on a regular basis. Which is weird since i can sit at the computer and just have Facebook suck the all the time from my life. I should take up baking again. Yes baking, Love it. The downside is the delicious food that you just can't seem to stop eating, who says no to homemade banana bread? My favorite bar type baked good has to be the seven layer bar. Except for the fact when you eat it it's like saying something along th elines of- Screw this, I wanna get pudgy.
And I just can't do quite that. I have a little more pride than that. Peanut butter is my weakness though. ok well i have to go. haha carnival. and groceries. and skin healing.. project going down, hopefully this friday. wish me luck

the letter 3

3 is perfect. Not quite a letter though, I'll admit. A triangle of 3 is always strong. Well 3 days of school are left. And right now that's just perfect. Tomorrow when only two are left. That will be the new perfect. When one is left the newest perfect. And once there are no numbers left that will be perfection. This weekend was a god send of sorts. On Thursday I made a happy little trip to the doctor's office. The reason for my visit was to check up on my abs. I have been concerned for quite some time with the possibility of a hernia. So skip to the point, no hernia. I was so relieved, extremely relieved. Friday I went climbing, when I first got to the crag I was feeling way too out of it. I pumped myself out a couple times warming up then went into a rather long break. On my first try doing the traverse project at the carcass crag I sent. Holy Crap. I barely did it my arms were so pumped at the end. From there we went to the Wretch I did the project on there also. Two projects one day glorious. But might it get better, oh it might. Myself and Amanda went to Clambake, a project I've had for quite some time. I was sticking the crux move that I had never been able to stick before. Realizing this was possible I started to get a wee bit jittery. After a couple more attempts I was hit with the fact I'm skipping a move. Oh @#$% ! I tried to do it with that move but by that time my muscles were weak. Oh yah I was sick that day too. It was 5 in the afternoon and all I had had was two bowls of oatmeal because it was all I could keep down.
Sunday I went out again. yippee. I did clambake, but my fingers were sadly enough sissies. That meant for a short sesh, tore a hole in ye' old finger. Hopefully I won't have thin fingers next time.. hopefully tomorrow if there is no rain right. Well wish me luck

the list

So summer is very near. I hope this upcoming week of forecasted storms and snow will be the grand opening to the sunshine and warmth. This weekend I managed to sneak in two days of climbing. The second day, a wee bit short, but climbing none the less. I tore it up on the hangboard on friday which was a silly idea with the weekend approaching. Saturday morning hit and hit it did. My whole upper body was sore. I went out with Reese and Justine to the batcave where everyone seems to have desire to go now days. Now we get to the exciting part. I climbed a route, Presto, I put on my list. I made a twenty-some problem list of to do routes in cody for this summer. Some are V8 and other are much much harder, projects. My goal is every weekend to get on at least one those routes and make maybe a little progress. Hopefully by the end of the summer that whole list is almost crossed off. It will give me a little organization and hopefully help keep motivation high.
Sunday I went out with Dan who is now working the problem twoface a sandbagged V7. He kept making it through the crux move but falling shortly after. So close. Hopefully next time though all goes as planned.

Infatuation

Infatuation- extravagant passion or love. That's what I have with climbing. Obsessive. Everything. It is a drug. You do it once. Next time you need more. And more. And more. Yesterday despite the winds that lashed our faces Justine, Reese and I made our way out to the boulder gardens. Reese, newly licensed to drive, has made a comeback to climbing. He had climbed when it was just getting big in Cody, a short lived love for many. But after climbing Three times in the last week after at least six months of no climbing and very intermittent climbing before that for the two years previous. He has already almost made the comeback to V3 and also almost did V4. After climbing at the first boulder I stole two pads and made my way over to Spearpoint. Spearpoint is filled with a good many hard routes. A 3, 6/7, 10, 11(Tribal Vibrations, and now another something. The boulder hangs out about 20 degrees from vertical maybe a little more. Many of the routes on this boulder lead to sideways movement, still fantastic, but no straight lines. The last time I was with Mike Snyder at the boulder he pointed out the straight line. Here you start on a flat pad and a half ledge. Cross into a good pocket with you first three fingers on your left. Slide into a pocket with your last three on your right then make a dynamic throw/bump off crappy feet to a tiny half pad three finger crimp. Bring your left to a tiny sloping pinch after throwing in a left heel. Bump. Scream, move with your right to an even smaller crimp that begs to tear into your precious fingers. Bump haha again into a crack system. cross with your left higher into the crack system Toe into a small pocket with your right quick move with your right farther up the crack. A couple more pumpy hand movements and top out. First Ascent. I was so excited. I think this problem is hard really hard. But the most exciting part was doing it. Second- I love naming it. It's still special to et to name things being that I haven't done too many first ascents and like this one the ones that I do are hard. Dan told me I need to name it Pookster. Haha after my girlfriend Amanda called me that the crap has not stopped. So Pookster it is haha. And I think it is a solid 11. Pookster(V11) So sick

The Fantasy

I used to fantasize about sex. Things changed. I fantasize about climbing.
The moves run laps in my head. The brilliance of the possibility. The idea I might be able to take the moves combine them and find the way to completion. Tomorrow feels like a lifetime away. Like I am waiting for the most amazing moment in my life. All that awaits me is another route upon which I draw my life force from for the time being. It is constantly inspiring me. It is nothing new. Yet something I have never encountered in my life before. Climbing's inspiration it lends to the soul is unexplainable.
The summer brings hope for me. I have much to do. Much to accomplish. I plan to climb to my limit. As much as possible. As hard as possible. Quite frankly the developed routes are running slim for me. This summer will involve pushing the limits of Cody bouldering as far as I can. With Satan's Soul I have already set the summit at a higher point. My goal is to keep pushing the limits farther and farther.
Another note upon which to remark is Dan Moncur. A climber originally from Casper, Wyoming who is now going to college in the nearby Powell. His winter was not filled with climbing being that he didn't have access to much of a gym anywhere. No one really did. But now that he's back on the rock he is psyched. And crushing. We have been going out when he has had the chance and he has already started putting to rest some of Cody's hard problems. Yesterday he walked up the super crimpy Hot Buns Stuffed, V9. I was blown away. An incredibly impressive send. I can't wait to keep climbing with him and see what else he might put down this summer.

Joe's Valley?

I've never been good with this. Recently I've been climbing before that spring break in Phoenix with my grandparents. I just had a 5 days in a row climbing spree. How amazing is that? So amazing. But back to Joe's. I caught a ride down there with some Helena(MT) climber's, the Speranza's, so the trip in total was made by myself, Dominick II(the dad) and III(son), and Duncan Ellis. The first night we slept there was semi-hell for me. I have rather poor circulation and during a cold night it shows. I spent most of the night awake trying make sure my toes didn't fall off and just tried to keep relatively warm. Our first day was going to be spent at Area 51. Worries fluttered about me when I thought of climbing and my lack of sleep. We arrived to the boulders about ten-ish the sun beating down on our backs. I quickly stripped down into my capilene. After warming up on a boulder I neglected to find the name of we moved on to Resident Evil. The problem was a wee-bit hard haha. It took a good many goes goes but i finally sent it. Black Lung, the thought of the climb had always excited me. I wanted to try it with my all, but I felt that with this trip I wouldn't be able to do it at all. I tried it a few times though. I think given another year and maybe a couple days there the send wouldn't be to hard to do. Dominick sent the V8 that was a shorter version of resident evil. But we decided to move on for the day. We drive to fingerhut. Now talking about this it seems like we went to Resident Evil climbed and left all within a tiny time period. But oh no we didn't, it was time consuming. Fingerhut was not a-go our tips were shredded so we moved onto the scrawny and brawny boulder. Everyone else was pretty much psychless by this time, except me. I flashed the route called Not so Brawny, I think that's its name but the crimps on Scrawny and Brawny felt like tiny little needles poking into my hands by this time. I bit through the pain and did the first move matched but then botched my sequence. Sadly I left this route undone. We returned to camp tired and ready for dinner. Once night approached we happily made our way to bed.
The next day was started later being that we were tired. Our first stop was the boulder with they call him jordan. Myself and Dominick dispatched Wills A Fire but after that they call him Jordan felt just like to much dynamic movement and our guides gave us no clue as to what the routes were on the left most side of the boulder. We made use of our time and instead of being squabblers we made our way onto the riverside area. The angler was done by all. Myself and Dominick worked Feels like Grit. Talk about hard. That took my all but finally I found myself to the point of topping out. Dominick was psyched but couldn't manage to piece it together. Up the hill to Big Joe was our next destination. This boulder is huge. I did Big Joe in two tries then gave Nerve Extension some all out goes. Dominick and I also tried smoking joe from the start a couple times but he and I quickly reverted to working Big Joe and nerve Extension respectively. It was late when we called it quits and time to return to camp.
The third day was a rap up day. We were all trashed and knew today couldn't last long. I think next time I want to take a week trip where we have 2 on 1 off 2 on. The other days would be travel. First we went back to area 51. Dominick wanted desperately to do Resident Evil. He impressively did it in like 4 tries that day right once he did that we were outa there and went back to Big Joe. In two tries I did nerve extension. Super psych and then after a coupe tries I did smoking Joe. Super duper psych. DOminick also did Big Joe. Every one was ready to leave here now no one else was down for climbing more. But we went to the boy size area. After letting Dominick's dad get on some slab we tried boy size. Hard as crap was how that felt. I almost almost almost had it but I left it undone. We went to camp quickly disassembled it and made the long drive home.