Chris Lindner’s Blog

February

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:43:56 -0700

I started off the month with a little trip down to the bouldering Mecca of Hueco Tanks, near El Paso, Texas. It’s one of the best, if not the VERY BEST bouldering in the United States. The bouldering is absolutely amazing and the crew of international climbers hanging out down there is stacked full of talent and psyche. As a climber, it’s a great place to hang out, camp in the dirt, eat fresh tortillas all day, and climb until you bleed from every finger; and I did just that. I’ve made the trip twice before, but the first time was about 13 years ago, and my last trip was nearly five years ago, so I was definitely due for another visit.

I made the 11-hour drive down to Texas by myself, but I was soon joined by my three friends Matt, Duffy, and Zach. Matt and Duffy live up in Crested Butte, the next town up the road from where I’m at in Gunnison. Zach just moved away from Crested Butte recently, and now lives in Moab, UT.

Matt...

Duffy...

Zach, my identical twin?

We were fortunate to have another buddy, Corey Dwan from Crested Butte, let us use his cozy camping trailer which he’s kept down at the Rock Ranch in Hueco for the past few years. Corey works in the Crested Butte Real Estate business (http://www.crestedbutteforsale.com) and unfortunately he couldn’t make the trip down because of his work, but we enjoyed using his trailer for him, and happily heckled him for not coming down to Hueco the whole time we were there. But that’s the rules: Be There or be Slandered!

I’ve been lucky to get to know Corey and Duffy these past few months, since they both have rad home gyms at their houses that I’ve been training at lately (and they are both super cool dudes!). I love home gyms and I hope to have the coolest one in the world someday, but for now, it’s nice to have friends that have already made that dream come true for themselves.

Corey’s trailer and our home-sweet-home for 10 days...

The Preccaries (Javelinas) are aggressive! Don’t get in their way!

Hueco is culturally and spiritually significant to rock climbers as it is for many Native Americans, as shown by the hundreds of pictographs dating back thousands of years. It’s trippy climbing amongst crazy rock formations that served as homes and shelter for so many people over the years. Hueco is like America’s version of the super old castle ruins of ancient Europe; it’s our version of history.

Back in Gunnison, after my short trip to Hueco, I’ve found myself doing a bit of ice climbing and exploring for new cliffs/boulders around town.

Lake City is only an hour away from Gunnison and they have a pretty sweet ice park with “farmed” ice which they create with sprinkler heads on top of the 150ft wall. It’s basically a smaller version of the internationally famous Ouray Ice Park, which is only a little over two hours away. A couple days ago I went to Lake City and did pretty much every ice and mixed route there by myself with a rope-soloing setup, using my Petzl Pro Traxion and a rope anchored from above. It was a lot of fun and an excellent workout.

I took a trip along with Jodi last weekend to Penitente Canyon, which is rumored to have some epic bouldering potential amongst the established sport climbing. My long-time friend, Chris Righter, and his kid Logan met us down there for some sunny climbing weather in the snow-covered southern-Colorado mountains. It’s a beautiful area with rocks everywhere, just waiting to be scrubbed and climbed on for countless days to come. I’ll be spending some more time down there in the coming months I imagine...

Here’s Jodi making morning coffee after a cold night (-10 F) camping in the truck...

Logan found a hole in the rock and climbed through...

Some Antelope on the hillside... cool looking creatures.

It has snowed over two feet in the last few days in Crested Butte, so I’ve been snowboarding up there a few days lately, as well as bolting/cleaning a 500ft snow-covered cliff just outside of town. I’m enjoying this Winter wonderland and I’m salivating for Spring climbing conditions at the same time.

New Year in gear

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:28:39 -0700

Just before Christmas, my buddy Ellis and I drove out to Joshua Tree from Gunnison for a short climbing trip. My shoe sponsor (Evolv) had an idea to shoot a short video segment involving Kurt Smith, myself, and a route Kurt bolted back in 1988 called “Dunce Cap” (13a). Kurt bolted the route ground-up on lead, in proud form over the course of a few days trying, falling, lowering down and trying it again ground-up style. It was a pretty big deal at the time and it was one of Kurt’s top-notch achievements at that point in his professional climbing career.

Anyways, Kurt was out visiting Joshua Tree with his wife Elaina for a holiday climbing trip, so it was a good time to make the video happen, and we did. Sender Films and BigUp Productions collaborated on the project and sent out two videographers to document the weekend, Russell Holcomb and Rob Frost, two really funny dudes. A solid crew of old-school Joshua Tree locals from the 80’s showed up, including legends like Scott Cosgrove. Buck and Jay from Evolv rented a killer house just outside the park for a few days for everyone to chill. They filmed me doing Kurt’s “Dunce Cap” route, which is a super technical face climb, and believed to have never seen a repeat since Kurt’s first ascent. Keep a lookout for the web-version hitting the Internet soon…

Here’s a couple pictures my dad took of “Dunce Cap” during the shoot...

Shortly thereafter, I rolled back to Gunnison to host the Christmas festivities at our place. My parents, my brother, Jodi’s mom, Jodi’s friend Maria, and a fully decorated Christmas tree crammed into our little one-bedroom apartment for a few days of family joy. We all went up to Crested Butte on Christmas Day for some turns in the snow, and we rented snowshoes and hiked around the mountains the day after.

Left to right: Maria, Jodi, me, pops, mom, brother Shaun, and Jodi’s mom Pam...

Mom, pops, myself, and my brother...

Maria and Jodi having fun along the hike..

Jodi jumping with snowshoes on?

The weather has been fairly foul around here for climbing lately. But I did get out to nearby Ouray for their annual ice climbing festival extravaganza. It was a fun hacking at the ice for a couple of days. The day before the festival, I went to the used sporting good store in Gunnison and found an old pair of ice climbing boots for $45 and another pair for Jodi for $25! Normally ice boots are like $300 or more, so I was stoked on the deal. So now I have crampons, ice tools, and no excuses. I ordered some half ropes from MAXIM and some ice screws from Petzl this week, and I’ve been driving around Gunnison scoping out the local ice flows listed in the guidebook.

Jodi’s first time on the ice....

Myself, Seth, and Adam

A couple of announcements:

First, I just got on the sponsorship boat with PROBAR (www.theprobar.com) for energy bars. I’ve been friends with the founder/owner for years, and have been a fan of the product since it’s birth. I’m psyched to be eating free and healthy food while I’m out climbing. This is their best flavor in my book...

Secondly, I’m very proud to help promote, participate, and provide evening entertainment for two local competitions/festivals in both of my hometowns this year. The first one is at Mt. Woodson, in San Diego, CA. I grew up across the street from this fantastic granite wonderland of cracks and bouldering. There was quite a “scene” there back in the 80’s and early 90’s, almost like the “scene” at Hueco these days. The best climbers in America were always passing through Woodson for a visit, in between trips to Joshua Tree and Yosemite. Anyways, there’s a reunion festival going on March 19-21 and everyone is invited, new-school and old-school. I’ll be doing a slideshow one of the nights at the Vertical Hold climbing gym, and there will be a few semi-organized parties over multiple nights. It should be a historic event for Woodson's history and a chance for the young and old to come together. Should be fun, so make plans to go! If you’ve ever been or never been, you’ll be psyched to climb there. I’ve taken Sharma, Graham, Trotter, and Pringle there multiple times and they all threw down some impressive sends and loved the area and its limitless potential.

Here’s a picture of my buddy Ethan Pringle topping out one of the classics at Woodson, “Grain Storm” (12a mini-solo) last time he came to visit...

The other event is going on where I live currently; it’s called “24 Hours of Gunnison Glory” (Gunnisonglory.com) from May 28-30. It’s loosely based on the Horseshoe Canyon’s “Horseshoe Hell” concept, which is: climb as much as you want over the course of 24 hours, and have a good time doing it. There’s free camping all around the event site, and plenty of killer climbing all over Gunnison. Make plans to come out, climb your ass off, and enjoy a beautiful, rocky mountain good time!

Adios

Two mini trips

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:00:35 -0700

Let’s see here, it has been a month or so since I last spoke of my tales of adventure… Life has been rolling along quite well... I just got home from two short trips to So-Cal and Alaska.

Along the drive to So-Cal, I stopped off at the Ballin’ Alley just north of Las Vegas for a day of rock gripping. I had found and bolted this Ballin’ Alley area while I was living in Vegas for the past couple years, and had bolted a really beautiful line that I was unable to fire the first ascent of. The last time I climbed at the Ballin’ Alley, 8 months ago, I had a gnarly soup can explosion on my face. I was psyched to return, this time with a sandwich instead of soup.

I ended up sending the project, and dubbed it “Die Gute Scheisse” (The Good Shit, in German)… It’s by far my favorite 5.14 in the Vegas area, and one of my top 5 favorite routes of all-time. It’s actually the second all-natural 5.14 I can think of in all of Southern Nevada. The other 30 or so are all chipped. Jason Campbell bolted the first all-natural route out near Mt. Potasi. Anyways…. SUPER AMPED….frothin’ if you will. Speaking of frothin’, I’ve been watching the Triple Crown of Surfing online quite a bit over the past month or so…. I don’t have a TV, and surfing is the only sport I actually like to watch. It’s been REAALLY good online viewing lately. Pipeline should be a killer finale to the surfing season…

Getting back to the story, I culminated the day at The Ballin’ Alley with another first ascent, a 13a? that I entitled “Captain King Pin.” At the end of the day, it was frigid and dark, so we headed onwards to Joshua Tree, to surprise my mom for her Birthday. Each year, for the past 10 or so, my parents go to visit their best friends who live in Joshua Tree, so I thought it would be a good surprise to show up. Worked out well… My mom was joyful.

I climbed briefly in J-Tree, the highlight was doing “Equinox” (12c) for the first time. It’s always been a dream of mine to try that route. It’s one of the most classic splitter finger cracks in Southern Cali… SOOOO GOOOD… Go do it.

I had a nighttime bouldering session with my good ol’ buddies from Ramona at Mt. Woodson, across the street from where I grew up in north-east San Diego. After San Diego, I drove back to my home in Gunnison, CO so that I could catch my flight to Alaska.

I stayed with the Barcom family who help run the local climbing gym in Anchorage. I did some setting for their annual ABS bouldering comp and helped out with their youth climbing team. They have a great community of climbers up there, and I had a really fun time visiting. This was my second trip to Anchorage; I did nearly the exact same weeklong trip to Alaska about two years ago. Except last time, I went snowboarding for a few days after the comp, and this time I went ice climbing.

Now that I’m living in Colorado, I’m minutes away from some of the best ice climbing in the World. I’m looking forward to dabbling around on the ice this winter season, so I was really psyched to go climb a couple classics up in Alaska and learn some of the tricks of the trade. Fortunately, a few really nice folks offered to take me out for a couple short days (not much light up there right now). We did a 3-pitch route called “Three Ring Circus” and another stellar climb called “Ripple.” I have some axes and crampons Petzl hooked me up a few years ago, but I’ve never used them, because I don’t have any ice boots. Gotta get some, ASAP.

Thanks to the Barcom family, Josh, Tanya, Dusty, Todd, and the whole Alaska Rock Gym staff for another fantastic trip.

Back here in Gunnison, I’ve been bouldering a bit. The other day, we lugged a gigantic 6 X 10 gymnastic mat on the top of my buddy’s truck out to this new “secret” bouldering area just outside of town. Over a couple days, I put up a few really nice FA’s, along with Will and Ellis.

Our local ski resort, Crested Butte opened up over Thanksgiving. I’ve spent three days riding up there so far. Enjoying the winter so far….

Heading back down to So-Cal next week to soak up some much needed sun and to shoot a short Evolv video. I’m looking forward to that. Hoping to hook up with my good ol’ buddy Damon Corso for some climbing-time too.

Happy Holidays ya’ll.

Photos from the Fortress

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:51:32 -0600

Here’s a few pics from the past couple trips to the Fortress.

Jodi and Scooter...

Our little sun-protected home at the base of the cliff...

Beautiful scenery and sunsets...

Settling into Gunnison

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 10:28:14 -0600

Can’t complain about too much these days. I’m loving life here in Gunny. I spent three weekends climbing at Rifle, spent one weekend in Salt Lake City for the HERA Climb-4-Life fundraiser, and I just got home from my second weekend in a row at the Fortress. I’ve been spending the weekdays doing school work and bouldering around town at the local areas. The Fall colors are in full effect around here, and the scenery couldn’t be more beautiful.

After six days days at Rifle, I put my big boy pants on and sent the route I was psyched to do: “Girl Talk”.... If the grade stands, that makes “Girl Talk” my second 14c that I’ve made victory with. Unfortunately, it really didn’t feel too hard, so I’m skeptical to accept the 14c grade. But then again, I’ve done several 14b’s lately in less than five tries, and this route took me twice that. Maybe it just felt easy when I actually did it, sometimes it’s like that I guess. Who really knows? Luckily, I’ve stopped fretting about that quickly, and I moved on to what’s surely harder: “Kryptonite” (14c/d) and “Flex Luthor” (15a?), at the nearby Fortress.

Two weekends ago, I pulled down on the limestone at the Fortress of Solitude for the first time in my life. I actually “pulled down” quite a bit of the Fortress itself while I was climbing. That place is chossy as SHIIIIIIT!!!!!!!!! Adding to the experience is the brutal leg-burner approach, the blazing and relentless heat from the scorching sun, and the Gnarliest wasp and hornet frenzy I’ve ever seen. Wasps and hornets numbered in the hundreds within the vicinity of every route at the cliff. They kept flying in and out of my hand holds, flying into my hair, and pissing me the F-word off! It was hard to stay psyched, but some things just have to happen. I definitely lost the first battle at the Fortress, but I’m determined to win the war. It was a rough first weekend..

Surprisingly, there are several reasons why there’s bolts at this cliff and why people actually (yet rarely) climb there:

1) It’s one of America’s top-5 proudest cliffs in terms of massive height, width, and consistent steepness.
2) It hosts two of Americas top-5 hardest and proudest routes: “Kryptonite” (14c/d) and “Flex Luthor” (15a?).
3) It has an amazingly beautiful scenery and view.
4) Ummmm, I can’t think of any other reason, really.... It’s pretty brutal otherwise.

I decided I would start out on “Flex Luthor” so that when I tried “Kryptonite” later, it would feel easy. It was quite obvious that “Flex Luthor” has probably only been touched by less than five people. Most likely, only one person has ever tried it more than ONCE: Tommy Caldwell. Tommy is a badass-good-frigin-rock-climber and he did the first ascent (ungraded by himself, but regarded by the media as the first 15a in the U.S. ) back in 2003 or so... Since then, six years have gone by without much traffic at all. People like Dave Graham have ventured up at least a few bolts once or twice, and perhaps a couple others??? Bottom line: it’s hard, it’s dirty, it’s 120 feet long, it’s wicked steep, and there’s no chalk on it.

The Fortress carries it’s own reputation for all-natural climbing. The forefathers of the Fortress clearly stated the rules early on: no chipping, no glue, and oh by the way, it’s a bitch of a hike. I commend the forefathers for such progressive vision, trying to steer a new era of Colorado bolting ethics away from the chipping and glue-crazy bolting ethics found in nearby Rifle in the mid-90’s. It’s good to see a cliff that got it “right” from the start. Unfortunately, there’s quite a bit of choss and loose holds on most of the routes routes as a result of the lack of glue, even though the quality is still really good in every other aspect.

The situation presents a debate in my own head after climbing there. First of all, I stand strongly against chipping holds, I’ve never made a hold, and never will. However, I debate my personal stance with using glue on particular holds, and climbing at the Fortress brought up the debate again in my head. I’ve never used glue to keep something from breaking off, but I have used glue on a couple of my own routes that I’ve bolted. I’ve used it sparingly, but purely to keep dirty hand holds from crumbling or slowly deteriorating. For me, it’s usually the biggest holds on the route that are a perpetually dirty despite continuous brushing. Holds that continue to crumble every time you touch them, no matter how much you try to brush, definitely affect the quality of the route for me. But on the other hand, climbing a route with no glue definitely increases the quality of the route for me. So it all evens out I suppose. One thing I know though, is that “Flex Luthor” is going to require a lot of hours brushing and hold finding, then several weeks, months, or perhaps years of hard work trying to climb. But, I’m looking forward to the journey. Gotta have goals...

“Kryptonite” is going quite a bit better, but it’s still really hard for me. It’ll easily be the hardest route I’ve ever done if I can make victory on it. The quality of rock is much cleaner on this route since it has seen roughly five or six ascents over the past seven years or so... My progress is good so far. I’m figuring out the beta, making some inspiring links, but near-fatal fatigue is still a major issue. Working on it...

I got to camp with my parents in Rifle for the past couple weekends which is always a pleasure. They made their annual Fall-pilgrimage for a couple weeks. I even saw my brother Shaun out there last weekend too. My dad is just recovering from serious shoulder surgery, but he’s back at it now, and he just sent “Extended Family” (12c) a couple days ago. My mom sent it too. They’ve been traveling throughout Alaska and Canada for the past few months during his rehab, all while following the bird migrations. They are 5.14 bird-watchers and photographers, they’re nuts about it. Check out my dad’s bird/fish photography website www.lindner514.com for their latest adventures. They are a pretty funny couple these days...

Here are my photos from the past couple weeks...

Crested Butte bouldering with Scooter...

The Fortress...

Stopping by Rifle for Mom’s camp cooking.....

Bike rides around Gunnison...

Our home...

From Australia to Colorado

Tue, 1 Sep 2009 12:32:13 -0600

Arriving back from my East Coast trip in May, I boarded a plane to Australia in June with no return date and no place to call home. Actually I'd been homeless since we moved out of our house in Vegas back in April. My girlfriend (Jodi) had quit her job of 5-years in Vegas and she was living with her friend while I was in West Virginia for the month of May. When June came, we set off on the next chapter of our lives together without knowing where we would end up. She has a CHT (certified hand therapist) license that qualifies her to work in about seven different countries throughout the world, including Australia. The plan was for her to look for a job there amidst climbing and surfing around the country. Australia was stunningly beautiful, with a wide variety of new birds chirping in the trees and critters creeping on the ground. We rented a little camper van to live out of, which was cozy and perfect for the two of us. After a few weeks, the job openings were few and far between, so we decided we'd rather live, work, and climb back in the United Sates. We booked a ticket home, called the trip a "worthy vacation" rather than "a place to live," and ended the trip just shy of six weeks.

Nonetheless, Australia was a blast, and it went something like this: We flew into Sydney, surfed and bouldered around the city for a couple days, and then drove 12 hours down the coast to the Grampians outside of Melbourne. We really enjoyed the bouldering there (particularly in Hollow Mtn Cave), then decided to check out the Arapiles not too far away. We did a bit of trad and sport climbing there, then cruised back up the coast to see the sport climbing mecca of Nowra. We checked out the Blue Mountains, then toured a few more urban bouldering areas around Sydney including the Balkans, Jessica's, Sissy's, and the Villas. We spent the last couple days surfing and chilling at our friend's beach house before jetting back to San Diego.

Searching for a job, my girlfriend landed four interviews in the U.S. after we got home. One in Colorado, two in central Oregon, and one in Alaska. We had no idea where we would be living next. The first interview took us to Gunnison, CO. I've spent close to six months in Rifle over the past 13 years or so, but other than that, I haven't been to too many other places in Colorado. I was eager to check it out. We drove to Gunnison a week before the interview to check out the small town (population 5,400) as well as tour the local climbing areas. We checked out Hartman Rocks (in town), God's Crag (closest limestone sport climbing), drove over Engineers Pass (roughest 4x4 road of my life, up to 12,800 feet!), and checked out the iceless ice park at Ouray which is super famous in the Winter. We saw the breathtaking north and south rim of the Black Canyon (about an hour to the west) which houses Colorado's tallest rock climbs up to 2,300 feet. I certainly approved of the climbing potential in the immediate area along with the legendary Rifle and the Fortress being an easy 3-4 hour drive away. Plus, we are both really into snowboarding, so having the world-famous Crested Butte Resort a quick 30-minute-free-shuttle-ride away from our doorstep sat really well with us. My compromise for Jodi climbing with me all of the time is that I have to go snowboarding with her once in a while, so having Crested Butte being our local mountain wouldn't be half bad.

Jodi's two-day interview went perfectly well and they offered her the job. We quickly signed the lease on a quiet little one bedroom apartment just a couple blocks from the hospital she'll be working at, then drove back to San Diego to gather our belongings. We drove both our trucks and a U-Haul trailer back out to Gunnison and moved in just a couple days ago.

I got a membership to the local gym which is on campus at Western State College (4 blocks away). They only charge $30 for 6 months for non-students. Crazy! It's a sweet little gym with all the needs for training (campus board, hang board, and decent bouldering). I'm going to get my training going for the next couple weeks, then start making my way out to wealth of excellent climbing around here for the start of Fall.

Life gets pretty crazy sometimes, and the last couple months of vagabonding has been stressful, exciting, and exhausting. I'm really happy with where I'm at now in life. From not knowing where life would bring me a couple months ago, then winding up in Gunnison perfectly happy... it's taking a while to set in that I actually have a home again. It's a reminder that life is a river that makes its own course, and sometimes it's best to just let it flow, stay positive, and admire the outcome. I'm in a quiet little town that I can ride my bike to the store, gym, pub, post office, etc. I enrolled in an online program at a university to finish the last two years of my software engineering bachelor's degree, and I started school this week. With a more permanent residence, and several climbing and academic goals on my plate, I feel my life is going to thrive in the coming weeks, months, and years. The next chapter begins... Life in Colorado!

Climbing photos courtesy of www.craigingramphoto.com.au

FRIKSN, NEW sponsor - Aussie trip begins

Sun, 5 Jul 2009 11:43:24 -0600

Proud to announce that my new clothing sponsor is Friksn. Based out of Virginia Beach, VA... In their words, “The best alternative to climbing naked since 2002.” I couldn’t say it any better... I’m psyched to be working with these guys. Justin and Leo started this company in their garage and they are gaining momentum. I’ve been hanging out with them for the past two years on my trips to West Virginia and love the vibe they bring to the party and the climbing scene. We hammered out a deal this past May, and the professional relationship has officially begun. Check them out at www.friksn.com as well as their booth at the Trade Show in Salt Lake City next month if you’re able to make it. Their new line of T-shirts and hoodies are looking rather suave, I’m stoked to be representing. We’re taking over, so stay tuned.

Exactly a month ago at the beginning of June, I was returning from my month-long road trip out to the East Coast. I had a plane ticket to fly out to Australia with my girlfriend on the 19th of June, but 2 weeks prior, on my girlfriend’s last day of work (she had quit 1-month earlier), she got a call from Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. (the undefeated pro-boxer, considered to be the best pound-for-pound boxer in the World). She had worked with him on his last two bouts (with Oscar de la Hoya and Ricky Hatten) as his personal hand therapist. He was to fight in July and the price he pays for her to do barely anything at all is worth postponing the trip. We were bummed not to be leaving as planned, but another Summer season climbing at Mt. Charleston in Vegas wouldn’t be all that bad, so we accepted it, and begun living out of my truck up in the mountains with a storage unit in Vegas.

A week later, Floyd injured his rib during his training for the fight and they postponed the fight until September, which left us with a 5-day notice to get on our original flight to Australia. IT WAS ON!!!!!!!!!!!

We flew to Sydney and surfed a few days while checking the local urban bouldering out in Sydney. The city has a ton of little bouldering areas accessible by train/bus, so it was fun cruising around town with our huge bouldering pads while everyone was dressed up in their nice suits and pretty little outfits scurrying throughout the metropolis asking us questions about our “mattresses” on our backs.

We scored a rad little rental camper and drove 13 hours south-west to the climbing mecca of Grampians, a dream destination of mine since before Bill Clinton was in office. A few days of killer bouldering at Hollow Mtn Cave went down, and then the horrible winter weather hit and we were sidelined at the library for a few days. Deciding what to do, we drove 45 minutes up the road to another World-Class area called The Arapiles with a bit better weather. I hooked up this superb 14a in a couple tries called, “Punks in the Gym” which follows a gently overhanging (almost slabby) face on bullet hard sandstone. It’s one of the most famous hard routes in Australia with the German climber, Wolfgang Güllich's ascent 1985. I believe it was the first 14a in the World at the time which firmly cemented Australia on the global climbing map.

We’ve been camping in the “Pines” campground for the last couple days which is equivalent to the famous “Camp 4” campground in Yosemite. It’s rich in climbing history and the vibe is killer. Campfires, guitars, singing, and climbing stories all night, and then the sounds of cams, hexes, nuts, and carabiners clinking together in the morning as climbers rack up their gear for another day on the rocks. It’s climberville at it’s finest.

WV, NC, TN, and CO

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:54:09 -0600

Back in Vegas after a crazy East Coast road trip. I spent 3 weeks out at the New River Gorge in West Virginia. Besides participating in a week-long partying session associated with participating in the New River Rendezvous climbing festival, I tried to get as much climbing in as possible.

Last year during my stay at The New, I mostly sampled the classic pre-established routes of which there are many to choose from. The New is infamous for an overwhelming circuit of 13- routes on impeccable rock that are much harder and bolder than the grade suggests. I loved it. Towards the end of the trip, I made send on a killer first ascent, “The Crouch” (13d) which made me want to return to sample more projects the following trip. That time was now.

This year I tried several undone routes that were all REALLY hard and amazing in their own. I unsuccessfully attempted two at Endless Wall sector, and three at Area 51. After re-bolting and sending one amazing project at the Area 51 (“The Moist Bass Line” - 14a), I looked towards a big boulder called the “Brilliant Pebble” sitting alone in the forest nearby. Peter Kamitses had just sent an open project called “One for the Gipper” (13c / 8a+). I went over and did it right after Peter and was blown away with the quality (steep, short, and power-endurance on impeccable rock). I looked for a harder line on the “Brilliant Pebble” and eyed out some potential just to the left. The next day I returned with drill and bolts (courtesy of Water Stone Outdoors) and placed 5 bolts to the left of “One for the Gipper” while sharing the same finishing anchors.

The line is 50 feet tall, with 30 feet of serious business in the middle with 3 distinctive sections which I estimate to be about v12 to a minimal rest, v9 with no rest, to a v12 all-out dyno. I was able to do all of the moves, but I wasn’t able to stick the final dyno. I had my fingers smacking the lip a number of tries but couldn’t convince my hand to latch on. I placed the final crux bolt in a way so that the final 6-foot dyno crux could be avoided and one could continue out right two moves then onto the final 4-foot dyno crux of “One for the Gipper” for an easier yet still difficult red-point crux. It’s a bailout in every sense of the word if you head out right, but it will still be an outrageously quality route and it’s bolted correctly to support the idea. I tried the route for about 3 days during some really hot/humid weather and concluded it was probably about 14c with the easier 13c (v8) “One for the Gipper” finish, and maybe 14d with the brilliant direct dyno finish. It felt doable, but it wasn’t happening for me with just a couple days left in the trip. Who knows though, perhaps with crispy cold temps, it could feel 14b and 14c respectfully, but to be honest, it felt fucking hard, and I’m really psyched about that. It’s really hard to find rocks that are at your physical limit that can be climbed 100% naturally. I have to thank all the locals who helped me out with finding routes, belays, and for their general hospitality. There’s a really cool scene going on there in Fayetteville. I am looking forward to returning in the Fall/Winter with those crucial crispy cold temperatures if it works out. Life is pretty hard to plan that far ahead for me, but I would love to go back and do this route bottom to top. It’s surely the hardest route I’ve bolted to date.

I hauled my bass guitar out and a couple sets of bongos to entertain us on the mellow days... I played of mixture of freestyle chaos mostly, but it was darn good fun.

So to sum up the Fayetteville trip, it was basically badass. The climbing was a little warm and sweaty in May, but the West Virginia slow-paced vibe is quite killer. The raging New River offered up a lot of fun on the non-climbing days. I took a 2 person raft down a few 5th Class rapids one day, and also had the chance to try “river boarding” for the first time with my buddy Jay, a local climber and river rafting guide. River boarding is like body/boogie boarding at the beach except its more like a miniature kayak that you lay down on and get tossed about in the rapids. With fins on, you could find little standing waves and surf them for as long as you like. I almost died once, but I deserved it. I was aiming for the “hole of death” with the intent of surfing it on a particular rapid that we had been running a bunch. But right before I hit the hole, I hit a rock on the approach, flipped upside down getting launched off my floatation device and remained submerged for the next 15 seconds thereafter. I kept thinking it was just like getting crushed by a massive wave while surfing and all I had to do was stay calm, relax, and count the seconds until I came up above water to snag a breath of air. That plan worked and I’m alive to type about it, so I’m psyched about that. I didn’t have too many other plans I could think of at the moment. The river board I was formally riding stayed in the “hole of death” a few seconds longer than I did getting tossed around, but luckily I was able to snag it downriver before the next rapid.

Jay, the man with the river skills...

Driving out in the back of the truck with the New River bridge (2nd longest arch bridge in the World, 800+ feet high?) in the background.

For Memorial Day, Scotty and I left Fayetteville, WV and drove down to North Carolina to go hang out with my best hometown (Ramona, CA) buddy Tyson Gardner, who is now in the Army stationed at Fort Bragg, NC. I did my best to “support the troops” by buying us a few rounds of micro-beers, exchanging several good laughs, and expressing my respect for him and the rest of the armed forces.

Scotty, my trusty co-pilot on the West Virginia road trip, had been putting serious sexual moves on this girl he met at the New River Gorge. She left halfway through our trip to go back to her home in Knoxville, TN. He was clearly sexually frustrated on our entire WV trip, so as a friend I agreed to detour through Knoxville, TN on our journey back to the West Coast and stay a couple days to support his girly mission before we had to drive to Colorado for our next stop. What are friends for after all? We ended up sleeping at an apartment on the campus of University of Tennessee for 3 nights living the college lifestyle with a couple of really nice girls by the names of Mickenzie and Amanda.

I’ve never actually gone to school at a University before, I just like to visit the student housing complexes and party once in a while to get my fair share of Beer Pong and other drinking games in, then leave without all of the homework and exam responsibilities. It’s cheaper and way less stressful my way of going to college, but I suppose you don’t get a piece of paper at the end that says you’re smart, successful, and qualified, so there’s the drawback I suppose.

One afternoon, we all took a quick trip to beautiful Chattanooga 90 minutes away from Knoxville to go eat “the best pancakes in the World” for dinner. It was fairly random, but that’s usually what’s to be expected when I have Scotty along on a trip. It was his World, I was just going with the flow...

Legal spray painting on “the rock” on UT campus.....

Scotty’s girl mission went successful, he wound up in love, and I stayed respectful to my lovely girlfriend back home while having a good time with a bunch of new friends, and we drove out a little hungover towards Denver to visit my brother.

My brother Shaun, who’s five years older than me, has been well ahead of me my whole life when it comes to partying hard. After a killer session bouldering together at the gym, he took us out to the biggest Bikini Contest I’d ever seen, and we raged for a few hours thereafter in Denver. I hadn’t hung out with him for a few years, so it was good times. He was climbing stronger than ever too, so it was fun scaling grips together again. Family is family, and I need to remember that sometimes. I often get caught up in the race of life without remembering the people who are closest.

The next day we drove out to Boulder, CO for the wedding of a really good climbing buddy of mine, Eric Harrison (EZ) and his newlywed, Danielle. A climber wedding wouldn’t be complete without everyone going climbing beforehand, so we all rallied up to Flagstaff Mountain to wrestle some rocks before putting their tuxes on.

Leaving Las Vegas, homeless and happy

Mon, 18 May 2009 21:46:28 -0600

The desire to leave Las Vegas has been at the forefront of our to-do list for sometime now. The variety of climbing and year-round climbing weather make it hard to deny the quality of life there, but Vegas has a way of sucking the life and energy out of you. My girlfriend Jodi grew up with a very non-Vegas style childhood in a small town setting up in Minnesota and she found her way to Vegas through a job offer that was worth moving for. I grew up in San Diego, then moved to Salt Lake City to be a rock climber, and then met Jodi and soon found myself living with her in Vegas for the past two years. We both knew that Vegas isn’t a place we want to live forever, but it was certainly convenient for the time being. Australia has been on my list of things to do for several years now. Time, money, and other obligations have prevented me from visiting up until this year. We bought our tickets to travel for 2-3 weeks, and then later decided we’d rather not come back to Vegas afterwards. So my girlfriend quit her job and we decided to go for 3 months. The idea is to find work in Australia and hopefully stay for longer, and if not, come back to the U.S. after a wonderful climbing trip and find a job and a place to live somewhere in the U.S.

I had to leave to come out to West Virginia for the whole month of May, so before I left, I packed up our entire household possessions and filled a UHAUL truck and moved everything to my parents house in San Diego. Jodi moved in with her friend for her last couple weeks of work, and I drove out to West Virginia from San Diego with my friend Scotty just in time for my slideshow at the annual Cinco de Mayo party at Seneca Rocks in northern West Virginia. I woke up Wednesday at about 6am, packed the UHAUL all day, left Vegas at midnight, arrived in San Diego at 6am, unpacked, met Scotty at the UHAUL store at 9am, and arrived 48 hours later in West Virginia. From Wednesday at 6am until Saturday night at midnight after my slideshow, I did 90 hours with about 3 hours of sleep. It was by far the gnarliest day of my life. Life gets crazy sometimes, but it felt good to move out of Vegas, and get out to the East Coast for four weeks. I had to say goodbye to my place of residence for the past two years....

The Seneca Rocks party went well, lot of grilling, kegs, margaritas, and a salsa competition. I did my slideshow and I think nobody fell asleep, so that’s good I suppose.

Kurt on grill duty

Lot’s of beer to drink...

Justin (from Friksn clothing) creating margaritas

Salsa competition...

Good times with Kurt Smith...

After a short day in Seneca watching the rain fall, we left for the New River Gorge in Fayetteville, WV. I set up my tent in Kurt and Elaina’s backyard next to a rhododendron flower tree, and made my new home for the next 3 weeks.

Two days later the flowers bloomed and it looked like this...

Rainy and humid weather has been a slight bummer for climbing, but it could be worse, and we’ve been able to get out and have some fun.

I found a cool project I was psyched on at a newer cliff called Area 51. The line had been bolted a few years back and abandoned, so I took the liberty of re-bolting 3 of the 12 bolts to follow a better line and got the First Ascent after a few days. I called it “The Moist Bass Line” and gave it a 14a (8b+) rating.

The New River Rendezvous was the main reason why I came all the way out to West Virginia. The 3-day climbing festival went off with a bang. I taught clinics and did a slideshow/movie premier of my Vietnam deep water soloing segment in the latest DVD out called, “The Players” from BS Productions.

All Pre-Orders are on SALE for 20% off at www.ThePlayersMovie.com

Baja: If you can’t help yourself, just help others

Fri, 3 Apr 2009 21:48:43 -0600

The idea for this Baja trip came from two buddies from San Diego, Sean and Kevin. They’ve been surfing and climbing in Baja for nearly 40 years, and they’re always on the lookout for a new cliff to bolt. This time they went on my friend Beaver’s private plane and flew down to check out some potential cliffs along the Sea of Cortez just north of La Paz. What they saw prompted a phone call to me to come help them bolt one of North America’s next greatest cliffs.

Unfortunately, recent escalated fighting amongst the Mexican drug cartels, the Mexican government, and now the United States has put a sense of fear across all of America regarding our friendly neighbors to the South. The facts don’t lie: violent Mexican gang activity has accounted for 7,000 deaths along the border in the last year as well as an additional Mexican troop deployment of 36,000 men. There’s no denying the increased kidnappings for ransom, escalating law enforcement corruption, and heightened danger throughout Mexico for tourists.

I’ve traveled to Mexico probably 20 trips over the past 10 years or so, and have had nothing but perfect memories. Mexico is one of my favorite countries out of all of the countries I’ve visited. I’ve always felt the border towns of Tijuana and Juarez have continually been a sore misrepresentation of what life is really like in Mexico.

I wasn’t prepared to let the current stigma of drug violence along the border towns deter my trip nearly 30 hours south of the border into what I know to be “real baja” territory. To a place where the culture is rich, the food is authentic, the locals are as friendly as friendly gets, the surf is flawless, and hopefully to a zone where perfect rock climbing is in obscene abundance.

Our crew was 5 deep.... Myself

Dave

Kevin

Scotty

and Sean, I’ll explain the bloody finger in a second...

I left my house in Vegas on a Thursday night around 10pm and traveled 44 hours to our destination. We hiked 20 minutes to the main cliff we had in mind just before dark, and to our disappointment, the rock quality wasn’t what we were hoping for. The amount of rock was staggering, the height was optimal (100-200 feet), the features and angles would have been great, but the texture of the rock was a little too gritty and dirty. The cliff sat just two miles from the Sea of Cortez facing the warm blue water below. It would have been a World Class setup.

We sulked back to the trucks in the dark, kicking stones, cursing at the thorns latching onto our skin, and wondering what to do the next day to start salvaging the trip. We sat around the campfire that night, cooking food, drinking margaritas, and brainstormed potential ideas.

I’m normally one to sleep out on the ground, under the constellations, while watching shooting stars until I fall asleep, but this particular night gave me an eerie feeling. Spiders of several species were crawling around the campfire in the dozens, and mice were already scurrying throughout the cars, so I decided to hop in the back of my truck and close up the camper shell for the night. Everyone else slept out in the dirt.

At about 3am, my buddy Sean awoke to small skunk who had latched onto is middle finger while he was sleeping with his arm out of his sleeping bag. He sat up in his sleeping bag and started trying to flick the skunk off of his finger. It wouldn’t let go. He then started slamming it against the nearest rock. It still wouldn’t let go. He then took his other hand and started pulverizing the skunk’s head into the rock while he pried his finger from the clamped jaw. The foul smell from the skunk’s spray penetrated the air, and Sean threw the skunk as far as he could across the wash. The skunk landed, dug his paws into the ground and took off in attack mode after Sean and the gang again. The other three had woken up by this point, and all four started hopping in their sleeping bags towards the cars trying to climb on top. Kevin picked up a softball sized rock and threw it at the skunk and narrowly missed. He then took a cantaloupe sized rock and hucked it perfectly (like Mel Gibson in “Braveheart”) and nailed the little demon dead on - AMUERTE!!!!! The skunk was dead on the spot, no more than three feet from the tailgate of my truck.

I slept soundly throughout the entire length of the carnage and woke up in the morning feeling great. I heard the stories when I awoke and snapped a few pictures of the campsite scene...

The first rock he beat the skunk against...

The bite wasn’t that bad, just a minor cut, but the threat of rabies is what scared us the most. We decided to bail and take Sean to the nearest hospital and airport in La Paz about three hours south of where we were at.

Scotty and I went to the world famous surf spot called “Conejo” about 2 hours south, while the other 3 went to La Paz to get Sean on the next flight back to San Diego to begin rabies treatment. Scotty and I drove to the coast, looked out, and started yelling with joy. Perfect head-high left point break, glassy, and not a single person in the water! We parked the cars, grabbed our boards, and ran for the water. We surfed for 4 hours until dark, trading perfect waves back and forth, and giggling at how good life can be at certain times. We fell asleep to the sound of waves crashing next to the truck, and awoke to Kevin and Dave who had returned from La Paz.

We spent the next two days driving here and there, up this wash, down this gully, while eating tacos, drinking beer, and not finding a damn thing worth climbing on. The trip was going on five days and almost 2,000 miles, and all I had was a surf session of a lifetime to show for it. Frustration and defeat was starting to settle in, but the adventure continued on...

Luckily, people sell tacos right out of their home kitchens along the drive.

Just pull up a homemade cow-hide chair....

Pile on the salsa...

And dig in... Even Scotty, who has been vegan for 6 months, couldn’t resist these homemade machaca burritos.

About 10 years ago, Kevin and Sean had bolted a route near a ranchita (small Mexican village) in the mountains called Sierra de San Francisco which was about 6 hours north of our original destination. Kevin said he remembered some potential climbing in the area, so we decided to give it a look. We drove for over an hour on gnarly 4X4 roads up to around 4,000 feet of elevation in the mountains. At the end of the road we arrived at a small off-grid ranchita hosting about 8 homes, 20 people, several dogs, chickens, pigs, turkeys, llamas, and hundreds of goats.

Kevin asked around for a guy named Ramon, someone who had welcomed him at the ranchita 10 years ago. Ramon immediately recognized Kevin, and within minutes, the entire village were our best friends, and were helping us set up our tents, making us a campfire, and making us feel very welcome. I gave the kids my two climbing magazines I had with me, and showed them all of my ropes and gear. They were all very excited to have us stay for a few days.

Ramon and his humble home we camped next to..

Cute little girl feeding the chickens...

The next day, we hiked miles and miles of cliff bands in the area scouring for potential routes. I rappelled down several routes and couldn’t find anything that looked 5.13 or 5.14 and eventually bailed back to camp with my head hung low. The kids made it hard not to keep a smile. They’d follow along wherever I went and watch intensely at every bolt I drilled, and every cliff I rappelled down to look at.

These villagers make the majority of their money from raising hundreds of goats and selling them for meat. Their family has lived in this spot for 300 years, and their ancestors have lived in the mountains of Baja for over 1,000 years. This particular village sits at the trailhead to the largest concentration of Indian cave paintings in all of Baja. The older men guide 3-5 day long trips with tourists throughout the mountains on burros. The rest of the family takes care of the farm animals, including herding the goats back to the ranchita every few days after they find their way into the deep canyons surrounding the village.

Ramon showed us his impressive arrowhead collection...

In the midst of my onset depression from not finding the quality rock climbing I was hoping for, we thought up a way we could salvage the trip. Instead of being a personal rock climbing trip, perhaps we could turn it into a humanitarian mission and help the village that had been so kind and welcoming of us. I bolted a rappel route into the deepest canyon next to the village so that the goat herders could descend into the canyon quickly and safely, and begin driving the goats out of the canyon and back up towards the ranchita. We also found a short 30 foot overhanging cliff no more than 2 minutes from the ranchita. I bolted 2 sets of top-rope anchors and let the kids have a whirl at it. I gave them 2 60-meter ropes, a harness, a Gri-Gri, a jumar, two sets of anchors, and a rappel device. Kevin’s spanish is nearly fluent and was able to instruct them on the climbing, rappelling, and jumaring basics.

Scotty on one of the challenging variations...

My brief depression turned into satisfaction after we gave the kids in this remote ranchita their own personal climbing wall and gave the next generation of goat herders new tools to accomplish their job more efficiently. The locals were very thankful and made us promise to return someday in the future.

Scotty and I drove a few more hours north to the famous surf break called “The Wall” which was still about 10 hours south of the border. Like our previous surf session, we showed up to a magical coastline without a single person to be seen anywhere. Just several hours of killer waves all to ourselves while squinting at a beautiful Baja sunset. It was a much needed perfect finish to cap off a journey that otherwise lacked perfection.