Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Hannah Sends...Car Dies!


On September 28th, Hannah finished Lay down Sally v4, on her third try on her third day of work. The conditions were not even that good. It was hot, Hannah wasn't feeling that great and no motivation...may have been suffering from a slight hangover/dehydration. She cruised it even with some slight sequence mistakes. She was in such disbelief when she got to the top she came down and sent it again. This is obviously not at her limit. I was super psyched for her because she has only been climbing for a little more than two months. After then send, we both worked some other projects in the area. Hannah gave the burly Shinzo v3/5 a few tries, making some quick progress. I worked on the sit start to a v9 that adds about 10 more ridiculous moves...no progress there. Things were going great, projects were being sent, trips were being planned, but then it all went away. I made wasn't paying attention while driving through some construction and rear ended a guy who was quickly stopping for a red light. No one was seriously hurt. Hannah broke my windshield with her head and felt fine. What we thought would have been about $2000 worth of damage actually came out to almost $14,000. Looks like it we'll be car shopping.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

It's been a while...




Man, so much has gone on in the last few months. In June, I moved in with mon chou/middle school sweetheart, Hannah. Things have been great. My fingers were pretty much healed. I was climbing a lot more, and sending projects here and there. Hannah and I travel about every weekend between Colorado, UT, the Flaming Gorge, and Lander. We had several good DWS sessions at the Flaming Gorge this summer. There are a handful of new lines there. One that we all did was a really fun 12b with lots of tension and a big, blind dyno to a side pull. We had a huge crew there on the 4th of July. With friends traveling to meet us from Laramie and SLC, UT. Can't wait until next summer, see what projects go down
July 5-8 Hannah and I head to Colorado to meet my parents and the extended family from Australia. It was great to see Kell and my new nephew, Henry. He was great, he was full of energy and character. I hope I can make it down to Australia with in the next few years to visit them all.
July 9-13 We all headed up to Lander, WY for the International Climber's Festival. I started of the trip by tearing off a huge flapper on my ring finger within the first 4 hrs there. The trip kinda started out slow for me, but it was on once the rest of the crew got there. Collin made a clean sweep of all the classic 12's and worked on Boy 13a with me. Our friend Justin E. took a break from the relentless art of crack climbing to get a taste of limestone sport climbing. Hannah also got her first taste of sport climbing at the legendary Wild Iris. Tim, Chris and I took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the dyno comp. Then thanks to a slightly impaired Chris...Cody, Chris, and I took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the pull up comp. The trip seemed like it quickly ended, like it always does, and we went our separate ways...until next time.
In August, Hannah and I traveled to SLC, UT for the Outdoor Retailer Show to check out some of the new up and coming products. We got to watch qualifying and the finals of the NE2C , the energy was sick. We also squeezed in some time for some sessions at LCC and American Fork. Hannah and I got more into sport climbing and made frequent trips back to AF and Wild Iris.
Things then started slowing down for me because of an injured wrist, its always something! But Hannah and I made a trip back down to the Flaming Gorge to work on and finish some projects. I got the 4th ascent of Vegan Cafe, V8. Hannah started working on Laydown Sally V4. Which is really cool because her goal was V3 and she has only been climbing for about two months. Sick!
Last week, Hannah and I traveled to Idaho for the Pocatello Pump, to represent FiveTen. The comp was a blast and we manged to get a few hours of bouldering in. I quickly finished some projects that I had last worked on 7 years prior.
I hope to get a lot more climbing in before we leave for France in less than a month. I need my wrist to get better, now. They gave me a steroid shot in my joint and I will know within a week if it is working. I'm pretty psyched to get over there and see some new things and experience a different culture. I think that the US is lagging in many areas and it will be a good change for a while. We are planning on going to Switzerland next year to check out some bouldering areas.