It's been a really long time since I've posted something. It's not because we haven't been out there doing our thing. In May we took our first sailing lessons at Redondo Beach, CA, we went bouldering at a place called Wagon Wheel in California, hiked the Jar trail several times, and went mountain biking at Wind Wolves Preserve. I meant to (and still plan to) write up a post on the Jar Trail and the mountain biking trail at Wind Wolves, but its just been a pretty hectic month (mixed in with a little bit of laziness on the weekdays).
Read MoreI bet you were thinking I'd have given up on my training experiment by now (using the methods and program described by the book Training for the New Alpinism). Although I missed a couple of planned days here and there, I mostly stuck to my 8 week transition period plan. Woo hoo! And shame on you for not believing in me.
Read MoreI’m finding that, more often than not, things do not always go according to plan. Plans formulate, chaos intervenes and then the plans change. This isn’t always a bad thing though; sometimes I enjoy how things turn out differently than planned.
Read MoreNot all who suffer do so unwillingly. In fact, last weekend I spent 14 hours with about 20 or so people who chose to spend their Saturday's doing that exact thing. Suffering. The Utah Climbing Club. The group of people I look forward to seeing once a month to suffer with somewhere on a mountain in pursuit of summits. Summits that don't necessarily mean much to anyone except for ourselves, and they only mean so much to us because of the hard work and sweat we put into achieving them.
Read MoreViva Las Vegas.
I've been to Las Vegas many times before. In fact, when I moved to California, going to Las Vegas was one of my many frequent trips with friends on the weekends. We went 5 or more times a year sometimes. Then, I grew tired of it, or rather, my body grew tired of being hung over and stumbling into the next work week. I stopped going really. I'd always marveled though at the Red Rocks in the distance in Las Vegas, but never really had anyone to go climb with there and so I had never been.
Read MoreI've never really had a dedicated training plan when it comes to exercising. It's mostly been along the lines of: Climb more, and Run more.
Read MoreThere I was, belaying Michael up from the trad anchor I had just set up on this 5.10a multipitch climb in Owen's River Gorge, CA. All of a sudden my rope went tight. What the heck? That's when I heard the crash of a boulder on the ground and I peered over the edge to find Michael knocked out cold. Fuck.
Read MoreMy chico and his family generously took me under their wing for Thanksgiving and fed me good food and let me drink their booze. I am very thankful for their extreme hospitality and welcoming attitude. Given our wandering nature, Michael and I high tailed it to Joshua Tree National park post Thanksgiving day celebrations to see what the hype about climbing at Joshua Tree was all about.
Read MoreRarely do a bunch of my climbing friends plan to spend a weekend climbing outdoors together. That might seem odd, but everyone's got different schedules and goals so a lot of climbing weekends just usually end up being me and Michael and maybe one other person. So this weekend in November was special because it was the first time I've ever been to New Jack City and we were also meeting 5 of our climbing friends there for some good old fashion camping and climbing.
Read MoreCelebrating my 25th birthday couldn't have been more epic! Mountain biking, Kingfisher tower, and Ancient Art, all in one short weekend! I owe a big thanks to Darren from the club and Michael for making it all happen.
Read MoreBack towards the end of October I got to go with Michael and Jim to Utah to learn how to aid climb from Utah Climbing Club members. We drove out to Hanksville, Utah to climb at a place the club called "TowerLand". I think the place may also be better known as "Viewfinder Towers" or something like that. We left Thursday night from California and drove all night to get to Utah the next morning at 7am.
Read MoreI seriously had been waiting for this club event all year long. I'm not sure why it stood out to me so much, but I was so stoked to go canyoneering and see what it was all about. I think it appealed to me so much because I had no idea what it was really... if that makes sense. The allure of the unknown. Also, I've heard good things.
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