It's been a while

Quick update before School, thought it might be a good idea.
First off, most importantly, I have had two good days outside the last two days. The first day we, Drew and I, made it outside for three hours before I had to go to work. Drew punched out Nipple Mechanics with ease. The highlight of my day was a new(?) route on the blank check boulder straight up the face. I started from some obvious crimp around chest height; there is still a sit start to be done. Yesterday, Drew and I went climbing for 4 and a half hours. The high was 16 degrees F. It was fantastic I managed a new route with a dab. So, of course, I have to go back to do it again and gain legitimacy in my mind. Maybe I will do that when it is a little warmer... Speaking of other news though, I managed to make it to youth bouldering nationals. It is coming up; it is approximately 3 weeks away. School calls.

a lil' bit o' this, a lil' bidda that.

I ride on the psych wave. Sometimes I fall off. Right now, I am riding that wave full force. I have been training and am so psyched to do so. But in other words, the main reason of this post is Mike uploaded a video of the other day when we were at Pistol Whip. http://vimeo.com/16721156 check it.

The right path

Full Gravity Day was awesome. I ended up taking 5th overall. Not quite my goal, haha, but I am still happy with it. Most of all, it was a learning experience I needed now, not later. Dominick Speranza ended up besting me in the finals taking fourth. Sick with it. He's pretty psyched about that. Me, well I'm mainly nervous haha. This is gonna be an exciting go around this year. I'm actually really psyched about it. I'll have to work it up.
Besides that, the next day I journeyed to Pistol Whip. I ran into Mike, Marc, and Clint going to Cornflakes, and they were already heading to Pistol Whip, so I accompanied them. Short story short, we managed to throw down and finish the stand up start for pistol whip. Now the SITTTT, YAHH!!
Besides that, I'm just training, so I can avoid failure. Hah I'm PSYCHED!

Heroes

I have three big climbing heroes. The first is Patxi Usobiaga because I am eternally impressed by his dedication to training. I kind of feel like I'm in the same boat; I think I will have to always train if I want to reach the top and climb with the best of the best at their level. The second is Adam Ondra. He is young and goofy(well it is kinda true haha). He climbs like a mad man though, inspiring in my opinion. Then there is also Nalle who, to me, came out of no where and was just climbing at the top. He also started climbing a little later than most top climbers; I thought that was cool. Now that I think about it, there are a lot of climbers I look up to. Among the larger than life ones are: Alli and Kevin Wilkinson, Joe Kinder, and Jonathan Siegrest. Then of course, even though this isn't actually the point of this blog, are the local climbers who I really feel I owe a thank you to for so many things. Mike Snyder was the guy that took me climbing outside when I really didn't have any climber friends. I can't tell you how appreciative of his patience with a little climber like myself I am. Aaron Mulkey had the largest impact on me. His gym introduced me to climbing (introduction is step number one to obsession). He introduced me to the now deceased climbing team and competitions. Clint Cook is someone who I look up to. He not only pushes his climbing in the midst of an actual life, but he has an attitude towards everything I admire. Leif Gasch: he has had an influence upon my climbing like none other. From him, I learned progression; he showed what training actually was. That it really could be used to make climbing harder stuff a reality. BJ Tilden is one of my biggest heroes. I used to be all worried that I would never receive a sponsorship. Hearing him though, I realize why was I ever worried about that. He climbs extremely hard and has an actual job and no sponsorships. He has chosen to go that way. He loves to climb just to climb. That is how I climb, but I would worry about the idea of a sponsorship. Now I know that doesn't matter. So I am just climbing to be better. That is all I truly worry about now: bettering myself.

Thrilling post

Ok, I don't really have anything to write about, but I need to just give a quick update on this because I think it is appropriate. Downgrades are as follows haha-
Perpetual Motion was a 9 and is now an 8/9.
Hypervelocity star was a 7? and is now a 4.
C.E.O. was a 9 and is now an 8.
Hot Hot Heat, a contrivance, was a 9 and is now an 8.
Heart of a Masochist was a 12 and is now an 11/12.
The last three were personal downgrades. I am fine with downgrades because everything I say is an estimation. And truthfully, I was never a quality grader. An update on me: I still love climbing, and I am learning to experience ecstasy with training. Puh-Pow

The times a changin'

First off, I'm so psyched. I don't think I have ever been this psyched to do anything. All I want to do is to climb, train, and think about climbing. I want to dropout of school and climb. Other areas are calling to me. They say come climb. But I can't do that. School is a must that must be finished. Then college is a must that must be finished. Climbing is must too though. How does that work? Well sadly enough when conflict occurs between climbing and other activities... climbing wins.
This week has been one of success on the climbing front and on the school front. I have the hardest part of my prposal for building an electrical generator done. Anatomy and Physiology homework was completed. Most importantly, I trained like a mad man.
Last weekend though on sunday, my third day on, I sent the project in the newness. I don't really have any pictures; yes, I do; but they aren't amazing. This route is a four move wonder. with three definitely hard moves- the first move you go off a sloper onto an open hand crimp pinch. Making a cross way out onto a steep lip, you grab this super crap sloper. You then throw in a toe and heel to make this huge wild swing move out to another crap sloper. Both feet cut, and you make a crazy campus move to a flat ledge. From there, it's over. Just a calm walk to the lip. I feel hesitation taking over whenever I try to rate routes. Where is the person to confirm stuff for me? Confusion. Confusion. Confusion. I'm going to call the line Heart of a Masochist with a hypothetical grade of V12.
Now it has been a week or so since that day. I've climbed outside twice since then. In those two days, I found my new project. The route is on a boulder that has a V9 and two projects so psyched. Train, Climb, Train, Climb.

Loss O' Time

School= Time KILLEEEERRR. Down with school. Down with N-Tell-Egence. So despite the fact school hath been stalking me out trying to ruin my life, I have been managing. In between trips to Cedar to check out the marvelous there has been growth. I went with Drew Haman to this spectacular new area and proceeded to have one of the best days of climbing ever. We put up tons of new problems for one day. Ranging V5-V9 which definitely put me right to bed when I went home. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. The next week was filled with hangboarding. The weekend came back and gave lift to new hope. Off to do the new for another sweet day. I finally managed to send this beautiful route that had been shunting me at the end of the last session. It is a beautiful highball with a bouldery crux in the beginning and a second crux at the tippy top. Definitely highbally, absolutely stellar line though. Perpetual Motion V9. The fun was cut short by my need to be present at my job.
I then took three days off cause of hangboard motivation issues.. this has to be common. Then went to the Newness another time. This time I had the pleasure of checking out the boulders, two, super low. So one line i think I can confirm as undone went up. A super sick v5 arete. The off to check out this crazy roof boulder Drew showed me. He had pointed out this line on the small of the roof that had looked cool but not attention grabbing. It turns out after working it Drew has an eye for great lines. Hard line. It's a true boulder problem; there is 4 crux moves then a hopefully easy top out.
Another day of training blahbbity blah then a morning to the magic again. All before noon haha. I went with Jason who has been psyched on climbing here(newness). I met Jason a while ago when the gym was open. We never really climbed together much; we weren't mean to each other, but he was kind of an unknown for me. When we climbed together with Drew in the Newness he flabbergasted me. I hadn't climbed with him since winter in Dylan's, but he absolutely crushed. He was pulling moves on Perpetual Motion with ease. So I got his number; hopefully we keep climbing together. I love it when people are psyched and just want to get better and better. He has that attitude and is willing to work for it. BOMB. Back to story- we went out, a new problem was done, sweet dynamic v4. Projecting that line some more, I found myself actually slapping and swinging of the move I couldn't stick at all last time. Awe! Such a cool line. After progress on the cruxy route front, we hiked for almost two hours scouting the boulder field. We found mild potential. Jason found this little clump of bouldering after an hour or so. This is where we found the good lines. Two, in my opinion, to be exact these boulder crisscrossed on top of each other. The lower one is this crazy slate like rock. There is possibility for breakage along with sweet route. I didn't give it much consideration, maybe a 7, because I was immediately enthralled with this other line. I can't even explain how beautiful it is. Just crimps along an angle formed by two faces of this boulder. I cant wait to try it; I need to finish up that other problem first though.
Now in between sentences I am hangboard training. I am excited for tomorrow because I will be climbing. I'm going with Jason to his project: Clambake. A supre cool route I think it V10. Maybe I'm getting soft haha cause everyone calls it 9.. I don't know if those people have actually done it though? But sickness off to work at 9. Oh and I still don't have a wall built. In between school, climbing and work I have seemingly miniscule amounts of free time. Climbing outside though- ahh the psych.