Three Blind Mice

Funny that our last post was from Utah, yet the only thing in the post about Utah was the fact that we got there, and the rest was about our last adventure in Bishop.  Well, that's about to change in this post.  As usual, so much happens in the span of a week that it get a bit difficult to sort it all out and then write about it in a way that won't bore people to death. 

If you've occasionally dropped in on our blog or faithfully followed along, you know that every place we visit has had its adventures and our first week in St. George, Utah has been no exception.  One tale of adventure actually starts with something that has been on my mind since climbing in El Chonta, Taxco, MX.  I did what I thought was years away from accomplishment.  According to the local guidebook, I successfully redpointed (after the first try, any try that completes the route bottom-up with no falls) a 5.13b.  But it wasn't enough that I had redpointed the route, it was important for me to confirm that I had in fact redpointed this difficulty because the number 13 has a special significance for me.  To me, 5.13 was what I considered THE benchmark.  A sign that I was really dedicated, that I trained hard, ate right (mostly), and did all that I could do to reach a grade that I ALONE felt separated the men from the boys.  5.13 represented a grade that mortals not blessed with steel tendons and tons of natural talent, athleticism, or super genes could reach through persistent, unrelenting dedication.  5.14 and higher?  Well, that is reserved for super-beings with all the aformentioned qualities which I do not possess.  So, maybe you can see why it was a big deal for me to make sure that the route was not a "gimme" or "soft" or "generously graded".  But, that started a train of thought that yielded some really interesting results here in St. George.  What's in a grade?

As I payed more attention and turned the question over in my mind in a near-obsessive cycle, I began to list the pros and cons of the climbing grade in my head.  I found that when I completed a route, the grade had the potential to make me feel incredibly good, it improved what I perceived as self worth. It gave me something to quietly brag about, and it gave me a way by which I could judge my progress.  But what about when I searched for a route by the grade?  I found that the grade caused intimidation.  A line that might have looked appealing before I knew the grade, now looked impossible.  Moves looked incredibly difficult and fear of failure set in, causing my perceived self worth to drop.  I kept thinking that this was not right.  Too much focus was being spent on the number instead of the route.  I felt like the natural aesthetics of an appealing line were being diminished after I found out the grade and somehow I was cheapening the challenge.

At home, Marie & I climb mostly at Stoneworks in Beaverton.  One of the many things that makes this gym stand out is that they do not grade their routes or boulder problems.  Everyone there identifies a route by the color of its tape.  "Did you try that purple route on the overhang?" or "How about the camouflage problem over on the tsunami wall?", are things commonly heard in the gym.  One of the reasons for this, according to Matt and Robert, the owners, is because it takes the intimidation factor out of the game and people are more apt to get on stuff that they otherwise might not even want to try if they knew the grade beforehand.  When you fall of a route at Stoneworks, you may feel some disappointment, but it's different.  It's a disappointment laced full of encouragement to try again because to the climber, the route is difficult with no grade attached to it to make you feel bad.  Likewise when you "send", you've succeeded in completing a route or problem and only that, no grade, nothing to pump you up falsely.  You move on to the next challenge.  Also, there's no chance to climb a route or problem simply for the number attached to it.  You get on, and if you like, if it holds your attention, if you're up to the challenge, you continue.  If not, there's a hundred other routes for you to try.  This was what I was after in my outside climbing, and so I chose to try a little experiment.

I knew based on my previous climbing experiences that I could potentially lead routes all the way up to about 5.13 based on the routes I had completed in the past and their corresponding grades.  I had barely glanced at the pages for the 2nd area we were going to climb, which was called Chuckawalla.  I remember seeing a 5.13 in there but nothing higher, and I didn't know which one it was.  That told me that I could potentially do any route I encountered on that wall.  So, I told Marie that today I would just be climbing routes based on their appeal from the ground and that I didn't want her to give me the grades of the routes, whether she or I picked them.  What followed next was one of the most liberating climbing experiences of my life.  I spent all day picking routes based on how cool I thought they looked from the ground, or how interesting another climber made the moves look, or sometimes just following whatever line Marie decided to put up.  I onsighted (ground up, first try, no falls) all 9 routes that I got on.  When I was climbing, I was able to concentrate only on the challenge at hand.  My mind didn't concern itself with identifying the crux because it didn't have a pre-conceived notion of the grade.  When I finished each route, instead of discussing whether the grade was "soft", "sand-bagged" or dead-on, I could only tell you if I thought it was fun, if the holds felt greasy, if it was mentally demanding, or just a fun cruiser.  All of which to me are the most important elements of the game.  Things which, for me, had unknowingly taken a back seat over time, in favor of number-chasing.  I'll be the first to admit that in the last 11 years I've completed a number of routes of varying grades that I didn't enjoy, simply because I felt I should be able to climb that grade, and now in retrospect I feel like I don't want to waste any more time like that.  There's too much fun to be had, and too many beautiful lines and challenges to do, to pass them by in favor of hard numbers.

Juan blindly firing Pilgrimage

On our third day of climbing in St. George, we headed out to Snow Canyon, and Marie decided to try a similar grade-blind climbing day.  This was a special place for her, because it is the first place she ever climbed outside, years ago on a vacation with her family to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks.  Tired and extremely irritable from 2 nights of no sleep because of a stupid mouse in our van, I grumblingly opted to rest and belayed Marie under extremely hot conditions among the desert sand dunes at The Doghouse, War Zone, and Aftershock Wall.  With no guidebook and nearly no one else climbing under the blistering sun, Marie ventured up and down routes with no knowledge of their grades, picking routes soley on looks, putting all the draws up herself.  At the first wall her routes were picked based on the visualization of her being able to do the moves.  Of all the routes there she picked 3 and onsighted 2.  When I asked about the decision to skip particular routes, she said she simply didn't feel them or the moves didn't look doable to her.  For all we knew at this point she could have skipped routes that could have been 5.10 as they could have been 5.13?  Then she did one route each on the next two walls again simply because they looked fun.  During the actual climbing, Marie admitted that when a few of the routes started to feel difficult, she just concentrated on the job at hand because she had no way of knowing if those particular moves were the crux or if the crux was still to come.  At the end of her day we found that she had sent an 11b, then 11a, and hung a few times on a 12b.  On the next wall she sent 11a, and the 10a on the final wall.  I've seen Marie get upset before when she couldn't complete routes at grades that she more or less took for granted, case in point, the 60 ft. Woman Traverse V2 at Bishop.  I asked Marie how she felt after falling on the 12b.  Since she didnt know the grade at the time her reaction was neutral.  She just identified that the moves were hard but they had no negative impact on her self-esteem, nor should they have.

Marie on "Living on the Edge", a fun classic at Snow Canyon

Back at Chuckawalla a couple days before, when I had done my last route for a warm-down, I finally asked Marie to reveal the day's mystery routes.  It turned out we had warmed up on 3 fun 10's, then one 12a which if I had fallen on I would not have tried again because I didn't think it was very fun, one 11b, then another 12a, then a 12b, then an 11d, and finally a warm-down on 12a.  All blind, done first try with little or no "beta" (route information) all picked because of visual appeal, aesthetics, and promise of challenge.  In that moment, I believe something had now changed in me as a climber, and while I wouldn't say that I'm ready to walk into any area without a guidebook and get on any ol' line just because it looks cool (you still have to be careful you don't get yourself into a dangerous situation), I do know that I'll be picking my routes with much more consideration for the things that really matter to me, which is having fun, and enjoying a more whole experience.  This more than anything has been the best reminder that grades are subjective, one climber's warm-up will always be another's project.  Things like style, mental, and physical capabilities all play a role in the difficulty of my experience among countless other factors that we all sometimes overlook, and that overall the route itself should be the source of my enjoyment and not so much the grade.
-Juan




So what else has been going on besides the climbing?  Let's see...

On Monday we had a fun rest day.  We probably walked at least 5 miles here and there exploring St. George.  Our first stop was the Chamber of Commerce for some maps and info about showers ($2 as opposed to Bishop's $5!  So we can shower >once a week now, haha) and parks and whatnot.  Then we wandered around and were tempted by signs at a joint called Iceberg bragging "Famous Thick Shakes!" so we split a caramel shake.  It was tasty, but we were taken aback when we realized the large paper cup hid a smaller one inside that contained the milkshake - we'd been cheated!  We soon found ourselves at a nice grassy park full of kids flying kites, old people playing pickleball (a sport I thought only existed in middle school P.E. classes), and families having cookouts.  We laid down in the grass and read, climbed trees, walked on our hands, goofed around, and tried really hard to get invited to some (any) family's BBQ - no such luck :(  On our way out, Juan made the sighting of the century - there were pecans all over the ground!  We looked up to many more on the branches of a few trees, and spent the next half-hour stuffing as many as we could into pockets, purses, and bags.  What an amazing, delicious, free treat!  We have been snacking on them, putting them on our cereal, and are planning on saving some to make pecan pie (Juan's favorite) at my dad's house next month.  When all was said and done, we still had a couple miles to walk up Bluff St. back to the car.  I stuck my thumb out the entire way, to no avail.  When we got back to our camp spot, we enjoyed dinner on our crash-pad couch watching the sun set over the west side of town.

Goofing around in the park

Superman's high-jump

Our - AHEM - nutsack

The main LDS Temple in St. George

 On Tuesday we climbed at Chuckawalla, as Juan described above, and left with high spirits.  I had led, though not without falling, a couple of 5.12s, which it has been my goal to work on, and Juan had a superb day.  Things took a turn for the worse, though, when we found the van was dead.  A kind lady helped us jump-start it, but while it was running in place a few minutes later it died again, and no one else was around.  Luckily for us, my friend Carolyn had hooked us up with AAA before we left in January, so we gave them a call.  Mike from Bracken's Auto Tech came out and gave us another jump, and the same thing happened.  It appeared we had a problem with the alternator.  He offered to tow us back to his shop and have his guys look at it in the morning.  So we rode back there and slept in the parking lot (reminiscent of a time me and my friends Eric & Peter slept outside a Les Schwab on our trip to Joshua Tree years ago...).

Do I hear a violin playing?

But the thing is, we didn't really sleep.  At about 3am, Juan woke me up asking, "What's that noise?!" and I listened, unsure what I was hearing.  Thinking it might be a big moth, I opened the hatch to see if it would fly out, and nothing.  The sounds continued.  Sure it was a mouse, Juan suggested we unload everything there in the parking lot and try to flush it out.  So we did, but even after we'd reloaded everything, the sounds continued.  We decided to let it rest til the next day and attempted to get some sleep.

So the next morning, Bracken's guys determined we needed a new alternator, and an hour and $300 later we had one.  We found a quiet place in town with wi-fi, unloaded our stuff, and set some mousetraps with peanut butter that I'd bought at Rite-Aid.  We impatiently waited all day, only going to shower at the rec center and to check out another small local crag called Green Valley Gap (decided we probably wouldn't climb there).

Peanut butter is awesome - what's wrong with this mouse?

The next day after climbing at Snow Canyon, we went to bed exhausted and tense, having listened to this mouse scratching for two full nights now.  There he was again!  Juan noticed, by flashlight, that he kept making rounds across the front seats and dashboard, pausing at the windows, and avoiding the traps.  So we decided to roll down the driver's side window all the way and see if he'd jump out.  Sure enough, within a few minutes he was perched on the edge of the open window, and "BWAH!!!!!!!" Juan woofed at the little bugger and out he flew!  (and I know how he felt because Juan scares me in this manner about twice a day).

Not our mouse, but a similar one.

So now we are mouse-free and hope to not face any more mice or car issues in the next month because we sure as heck cannot afford either, emotionally or financially.

That's all for now,
Marie

Utah: This Is The Place

New week, new rock, new home.  Dirtbags on the move, this week we finally update from where Joseph Smith stopped and declared, "this is the place"...Utah. Though not exactly the place in Utah where we thought we'd be.  If we lived in a perfect world, where it was always 60 degrees and sunny with a light breeze, we'd be writing from the Salt Lake area.  But, since it's still dumping snow, rain, or sometimes both in northern Utah, we are updating from St. George (southern Utah) instead. 

During our last week in Bishop we decided it was time to make the move to a new place and started making plans for finishing up any unfinished business in the gorge before moving on.  With only two climbing days left, we had to be really picky about the routes we wanted to get on.  On Tuesday, we decided we would check out the routes at a place called The Great Wall of China.  Our friend Matt had recommended a route called From Chocolate to Morphine 11d, and we saw it was on the way so I convinced Marie we should stop and do it on the way.  We warmed up on some 10's near the route and Marie stepped up for the onsight attempt.  Out of my 11+ years of climbing, I have to say this is the most perfect 11d I've ever climbed.  It's a very long route that starts off nice and easy, and progressively gets harder as you go all the way to the anchors.  Every foot of this route is filled with movements that flow perfectly into one another, starting low in a dihedral (think: open book) and ending up over a small roof to gently overhanging terrain at the anchors.  Marie nearly completed the route first go, falling at the crux only a couple of bolts before reaching the anchor.  With the quickdraws up, I grabbed the onsight with a grin that practically wrapped around my head twice.  Marie gave it one more go with a fall in the exact same place after which we decided to move on to The Great Wall. 

Marie's first attempt on From Chocolate to Morphine

We stopped along the way to take pictures of the Owens River and crossed one of its many bridges over the east side to finish up our day of climbing.  As we approached the wall we noticed a couple of fixed lines on opposite ends of the wall and atop one of them was a local bolter by the name of Patrick who was drilling the last few bolts in place on an extension to an already existing route.  Also climbing that day were Aaron and Jessica and their very protective puppy Zora, who we found out had just made a permanent move to Bishop from Portland.  Happy to converse with people from back home, we got to know one another between belays on really long routes.  I onsighted a tricky and wander-y route called Mandarin Orange 11b.  Marie and I both went on to onsight an equally wander-y route called Peking Duck 10d and watched Jessica run multiple laps on Tsing Tao 10b.  After Patrick had come down from bolting his extension, I finished up the day with an onsight of a monster link-up (climbing two routes stacked on top of each other as one) of Kung Pao 11b and Wrath of Kahn 11c.

Marie x 3 crossing the Owens River

Thursday it was do-or-die day.  Last chance on this trip to finish up projects.  For Marie, the choice was easy.  She was determined to finish From Chocolate To Morphine.  For me, there was only one thorn in my side and it was called Darshan (aka Ripoff), the little 12a project I had written about in our first post from Owens.  We stopped by the Negress Wall near the base of the trail to warm up and who do we run into?  My new friend Colleen, whom I'd met in Red Rocks weeks earlier climbing with her husband Scott at Sunny & Steep.  And who was Colleen climbing with?  Eric Perlman, who is responsible for filming all the Masters of Stone videos among other classics.  We got a chance to talk about climbing, and of course about the late Dan Osman (who is a big influence and personal hero of mine).  He shared some great beta with Marie about her route and suggested some great link-ups for us to do at the Negress Wall like Fear of a Black Planet 10b to James Brown 11b.  Through catching up with Colleen, while Marie was getting beta from Eric, I found out that my little 12a project had been upgraded to 12b which made me feel a little better about the tough time it had given me earlier last week.  When we were done chatting  Marie warmed up by onsighting Fear of a Black Planet, and I onsighted the 11c linkup.  From there it was time to get down to the real business.  We moved on to the Faulty Tower, where Marie's project was located, and just as I was heading up to the base of the route with Marie, I heard someone call out my name.  It was my friend Cyd  and his climbing partner Debbie, both from Portland!  It was great to catch up on our different travels and after a few minutes again we were down to business.  Well, first try, putting the quickdraws up, Marie completed the route in perfect style making it her 3rd route at that grade so far this trip.  And to think that just about a year ago Marie's goal was to get completely comfortable leading mid-hard tens?

With her project completed, Marie set in motion what climbers like to call "The Send Train" (to "send" a route is to complete it bottom up with no falls) and it was my turn to hop aboard.  We backtracked and crossed the river to The Social Platform.  Before doing my route, Marie tied in to onsight Skeletons 11b/c and after tricky foot work and tense body positioning, Marie crushed the route first try.  Next, I flaked the rope, racked my harness with enough quickdraws, and left the ground.  I was off to a good start right away, making light work of the  nickel-width holds at the start of the route.  I cruised through the flat holds that comprise the middle section of the route and after taking advantage of the rest along the way, I was soon ready to tackle the overhanging belly that guarded the anchors at the top.  After 3 more clips of sustained climbing on less than mini-jug holds, I pulled over the bulge and clipped the chains with forearms so pumped they looked like Louisville Sluggers.  Once my feet were on solid ground again, we packed our gear up and made that terrible hike up the half-scree-half-trail for the last time, projects a-la-finished. 

The Hike of Death (makes Smith's hike out look like an access ramp).

On our way out of the gorge, Marie and I treated ourselves to some delicious blizzard-like ice creams from a local ice cream parlor/coffee shop/movie rental/antique store called Mountain High Video, (yeah, that's right) then we got in the van and made our way to St. George by way of Las Vegas.

Ice cream at the multi-purpose store.

 -Juan




Back to Bishop for a minute - I would like to give a shout-out to the people of Bishop, California for being pretty darn awesome.  Juan & I had the pleasure to meet and talk to the nicest folk in town on our rest days.  From the girl working at the thrift store where we bought curtains, to the lady who snapped our picture at the ice cream shop, to Annie the librarian who eagerly helped me print out pages and pages of info on local bouldering and even waived the printing fee, to the folks at the visitors' center who gave Juan lots of info and tips on the area.  Even the older guy who "kicked us out" of town (he told us camping in city limits was illegal, after we'd camped a few nights outside his RV park) gave us a bag of hot popcorn for the road!  So thanks to the people of Bishop who put up with the dirty vagrant climbers lurking among them, and do it with a smile on their face.  Your hospitality was greatly appreciated.

Speaking of people, we were so lucky in Bishop - after the initial shock of running into Mike & Scott on the street and Dan at the grocery store, the friends kept coming!  As Juan mentioned, we ran into his friend Colleen and Eric Perlman at the crag, and at the next wall over, we found his friend Cyd and Debbie.  Lastly, in town, we met the one and only Kevin Jorgenson (for the non-climbers out there, he is a giant in the climbing world at the young age of 25) and his friend Amelia at the AMPM!  They had been bouldering for a while and were on their way out of town.  We were star-struck and spoke with Kevin about his project on El Cap with climber Tommy Caldwell and about local climbing.  He happily agreed to take a picture with us too!  Really cool guy.  He'll be at the Smith Rock Detour again this fall and we hope to see him there!

Juan & I with world-class climber Kevin Jorgensen in downtown Bishop.

The funny thing about these five chance meetings is that not one of them would have happened had we passed by 5 or 10 minutes later, or walked a slightly different route, or chosen to climb at a different spot in the Gorge!  Or in the case of Kevin & Amelia, we had sprinted over to Whiskey Creek at 5:57 pm to get an order of beer & nachos in before Happy Hour ended at 6, and ran into them when we walked back to our car - so if we hadn't cut it so ridiculously close, we probably wouldn't have crossed paths at all!  So call it chance, or whatever, I'll call it plain good luck that we got to meet so many friends (and nice new folks) out on the road.  It always brightens our day to see familiar faces besides each others' ;)

Bishop was a fun place to be, though I won't miss our bovine alarm clocks (last week) or waking up in the snow in the middle of a Little League tournament (first week).  The weather, climbing, and people were wonderful, and I'll definitely come back again someday.

"Norm", seen (& heard) through our back window at ~6am.  One actually licked our bumper.

But we had other places to climb and people to see.  Thursday night Juan drove us down to Vegas, kindly letting me sleep and watch Back to the Future 2 on the way :)  We rested, hung out with Juan's family, and watched more movies Friday, and Saturday (yesterday) headed out to climb one last time at Red Rocks.  Guess we can't get enough of that place!  Actually, we only stayed to climb because thunderstorms were forecast for St. George that same day.  Who did we bump into on the hike in?  Ben from Maine, on his way out!  We warmed up at the Burns Wall behind Kraft Mountain, where we met a great local climber named Todd who was rope-soloing some routes there.  Then Juan & I headed over to Cannabis Crag next door, looking to get on some starred, steep 11's and 12's.  I was psyched to send a fun, overhung, juggy route called Synapse Collapse (11d) on my second go, and Juan came SO close to sending a stout 12d called The Fiend.  I too left with some unfinished business there, a short 11c called The Felon that eluded me simply because I didn't have much strength left at the end of the day.  That's okay though - if history is any indicator, we will be back at Red Rocks to climb again!

Juan gearing up for The Fiend (12d) at Cannabis Crag.

Sunday morning we drove the quick 2 hours out to where we are now - St. George, Utah.  The agenda for the day was to check out a cool area we'd heard about called the Turtle Wall, just north of town.  We continued our lucky streak by parking next to a group of three climbers from Salt Lake - Brent, Dave, and Scott - who knew the area and offered to show us around!  They told us all about the local climbing and we worked on some fun routes together.  Turtle Wall is a sandstone crag whose most unique feature is a beautiful arch/cave with routes ascending both sides.  One of our favorites there was called Banana Dance (11d), which Juan & I both onsighted and Brent got it on his 2nd go!  It was so similar to Synapse Collapse (see previous paragraph) that it was scary - I think we had an advantage from "practicing" on its sister route the day before.  Brent and Juan also sent a 12a called Dancing Fox, and I worked it too, but couldn't get the crux.  I'm aiming to keep pushing myself on 12a's on lead even as I continue to work hard 11's (got my 3rd, 4th, and 5th 11d's in this past week!) - because doing more 12's will make hard 11's feel easy by comparison, right??  In any case, it's good for me.  At the end of the day, the wind picked up, the clouds moved in, and the thunderstorm that had been forecast for yesterday finally came in.  But at least we got some great climbing in first.  Thanks Brent & friends for taking us under your wing today!

Me on my onsight of Banana Dance (11d)

Brent redpointing Dancing Fox (12b)

Juan doing "the Superman"on Dancing Fox (12b)

Dave and Scott (climbing) working Knuckle Bones (10c)

That's all for now, folks, we're going to go scout out some free campsites and enjoy a rest day tomorrow after a couple hard days of pulling down.  We'll probably be in the St. George area about 2 weeks before heading over to Colorado.  Hope everyone is doing well, and as always drop us a line here or at our gmail anytime you want, especially if you wanna come climbin!


Best,
Marie

Rollin' Stones: Tales from the Serial Dirtbags

Since Juan last wrote, things have greatly improved, climbing-wise, in Bishop.  On Thursday, we went bouldering at the Buttermilks with Scott and Mike from Portland.  We saw a pile of rattlesnakes sunning themselves on the rock and Juan insisted on getting within about 5 feet of them to get a good picture:

Juan sending the famous Iron Man Traverse (v4) at the Buttermilks

Friday, while getting groceries in town, we ran into a friend named Dan Ancog, who we'd met in Portland months ago through a friend of mine at US Outdoor Store.  We'd heard he was heading down to Potrero in the winter too, and thought we might see each other there, but it turned out he arrived there a few days after we left!  We did not expect to run into him here, however!  Dan's been on the road climbing for almost a year now but is based out of Tahoe, so Owen's River Gorge is basically his home crag and he knows it in and out.  Lucky us!  We partnered up for the weekend and he showed us around.

On Saturday we climbed in the Central Gorge, starting at the Dilithium Crystal area, where Juan found what I believe he called "the perfect route" in Enterprise (5.12b).  The route moves up big holds under a horizontal roof then up a slabby headwall above, and I tried it on TR and agreed that it was super fun.  My favorite, though, was the first pitch (11a) of a route called Towering Inferno, which crosses from the right side to the top center of El Dorado Roof in a 15-bolt-long hand crack traverse.  I'd never gotten to do a climb like that before!  It was sweet.  We finished the day off with a thin slab climb called Holocaust (10b) on the DMZ Wall.  We don't do thin slab climbs very often and Juan is not a huge fan of them, but I kind of like the balance-y movement they force you to do to keep your feet from popping off edges the width of a quarter...in any case it is good for your head!

Juan one-arm clipping Enterprise

Marie on the first pitch of Towering Inferno

We enjoyed a delicious pot of pasta with broccoli, onions, and cheese with Dan under a nearly full moon at the Piñon campground that evening, and he showed us his house on wheels - an amazingly outfitted Econoline which he designed and built completely himself (he's a trained carpenter)!  It's got a camp oven in addition to a stove, a rotating front passenger seat, a full bed, plenty of storage space, a "living room", the works.  If I can ever arrange a pad like that for myself, I would never pay rent again!  It was the birthday of Dan's friend Alison, who was there with a group of friends, so we joined them at their campfire for music, homemade desserts, and a "bacon bomb" put on by their firefighter friend as an "educational opportunity" :)

The next day we met Alison et al. out in the Upper Gorge at the Dihedrals area (sound familiar to any Smith lovers?) and Dan did something no one has successfully done for me or Juan in at least a year - got our butts on a trad climb!  He easily put up the crack/dihedral Pumpin' the Slots (5.9) and before we knew it we both led it as well!  It was hard, to say the least, after so much time away, and I for one definitely got a little nervous placing gear again.  But we both felt so good afterward, having finally done what we'd vowed to do on this trip - at least one trad climb!  And I'm sure it won't be the last.  Thanks, Dan, for the inspiration!

Dan leading the way on Pumpin' the Slots

The day continued with a lot of fun climbs, including Towel Rack (10d), a thin, slabby, face, O.R.G.asm, a fun 11a layback crack that reminded me of Smith's Panic Attack, and a long, tricky 10b called Delicate Mechanism.  Unfortunately Dan badly hurt his shoulder (exact injury as yet unknown) after clipping the last bolt on a cool climb called Slackjaw.  He rested after that and hopefully is feeling a little better by now... We really enjoyed hanging out and climbing with Dan and his friends and ended the weekend on a high note with showers, laundry, and a bag of leftover birthday cookies and brownies (they musta thought we looked thin!) back in town.

Not sure what's in store for this week or where, but stayed tuned and you'll see!

Marie




We've been in Bishop for a week and a half now and I've been noticing how easily we've adapted to van dwelling.  A couple of years ago as I was outfitting my motorcycle for a 5 week cross-country road trip, I remember thinking how I was pretty sure that by the end of the trip, the way I packed the motorcycle was going to look very different from how I packed it at the beginning of the trip.  As the adventure unfolds I began to figure out what things I needed access to more frequently, what things could afford to be stashed at the bottom etc., and so it is with the van. 

We've put together a near perfect system that lets us manage our lives from within the confines of the mini-van.  We've pretty much got each thing in its individual place and I'm pretty sure we could find most anything we want even in the dark.  There's also a rhythm to way that things are set up in the van that I find very curious.  For example, I'm pretty sure we perform with near precision, the same set of movements every time we get ready to cook.  Get out of van, open the hatch, remove dishes, wiggle out condiment container and set on top of the crash pads, and pull out stove.   Next, open right side sliding door, pull out clothes bin and set on crash-pad, pull out jack stand and place underneath platform, slide out cooler and pick out dinner.  I don't know why, but I've always found comfort in small routines like this plus once you have a place for everything, especially in such small confines, it's really easy to identify when something's gone astray.  For instance, recently we moved a water jug from the back of the platform to the side door due to a potential leak that caused us to have to stand the water jug up which made it not fit in its usual place.  When we next opened the back hatch to get ready to make lunch in the park, there was an interruption in the usual routine and I had to stop and see what was different. 

A typical breakfast of eggs over hard on a bagel with cheese for Juan, and oatmeal with nuts and banana for Marie

And so goes the other areas of our life now that we've made Bishop a temporary home.  We mostly eat lunch and sometimes dinner during the week at the same park, we sleep and I work in the same dirt road, parked the facing the same way on the same side of the road, we go the same convenience store 3 times a week for internet, and we shop and compare prices for groceries at the same two stores.  Occasionally we might sleep in a new spot, or cook dinner where we camp and it throws the routine off for a little bit but we tend to gravitate towards the same ol'.  For someone with a restless spirit who loves to move around a lot, I find it curious that I derive a certain pleasure from having a well planned routine.  A well oiled machine is what comes to mind when I think about it. 

The Bishop City Park, our usual lunch spot on rest days

The weather in Utah has not been cooperating as we would've liked, and recently we have been heavily debating whether we would like ride out another week here in Bishop, or head down to St. George and wait for the weather to get better in Ephraim so we can climb at Maple Canyon.  Oddly enough, a factor in my decision so far to stay longer in Bishop has been the effectiveness of the routine we've come to build in this town.  I pointed out that rolling out to a new area would mean a near complete reset to a part of the routine that might not be worth it if we were to stay for less than a week.  Some things, like the way we've come to arrange the van are getting to the point of being set in stone and I see very little change as we've worked out an effective system.  However figuring out the ins and outs of a new town like parking, free camping, cell reception, internet connection, and thrifty shopping seem like quite a chore to me sometimes after getting it all figured out in the current town. 

But, it's inevitable that we will move at some point.  More places to see, people to climb with, and crags to explore, which is what these rolling stones are all about.  Once the van is on the move again and we reach our next destination, it's nice to know that we're equipped and ever more experienced in the art of dirtbag van dwelling. 
-Juan

Never Too Big For Your Britches

So, just when I think I've got it somewhat figured out, when I think I'm stronger and climbing better than I ever have before, when I think I've got a little bit to brag about...WHAM!!  Bishop cometh forth and layeth, the smack down!

From the weather, to the cell service, to camping, and climbing, Bishop has not made it easy for us in any way.  When we arrived in Bishop, our first two days were spent experiencing some actual winter weather.  I won't complain too much about this seeing as how we basically haven't felt much more than a windchill since about mid-January.  I guess we were due right?  We spent 48 hours huddled in the van around the computer screen watching movies while wrapped up in puffy jackets and down sleeping bags, parked across the street from an RV camp spot a few blocks east of Main street. 

On Saturday, April 9th, bored and suffering from a little cabin fever, we felt the sun was shining bright enough and the weather had improved enough for us to venture out to Owens River Gorge and see if there was any climbing to be done.  Much to our surprise we found that it had mostly only snowed on the east end of town and hardly any snow had fallen on the west end.  The parking lot in the central gorge had a little more than a handful of cars and we added our van to the lot, grabbed our gear and began the slow descent down the half-trail-half-scree pile that led into the central part of the Gorge. 

Owens River Gorge (Central Gorge)

Once at the bottom, we made our way to the Pub Wall which had some nice long routes with some sun still shining on them.  Full of moderate routes, we thought this would be a good place to introduce ourselves to Owens River climbing.  My first impression of the Gorge was rock that looked like Broughton's, felt like Smith, and climbed like Ozone.  What looked like grey basalt turned out was actually volcanic tuff and the walls were sprayed down in length with chalked flat-edged holds and irregular slightly sloped crimps.  Though the holds felt slightly greased and polished, shoes and fingers stuck nicely enough to polished crimps and foot chips.  The Pub Wall, however, was on the west side of the river and since we got a bit of a late start, quickly went into the shade which made the climbing difficult as it made our hands go numb within a few feet of climbing.  No problem, we just packed up and crossed a footbridge to the east side which had plenty of sun to finish out our day.  We continued climbing to the day's end on long, friendly routes with great movement and we left feeling like we couldn't wait and come back the next day to crank on some new projects.  And that is where things went a little pear-shaped. 

Sunday, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, with breakfast filled bellies we again descended on the Gorge early enough to warm up on nice long routes at the Pub Wall.  Much to Marie's delight, the crag was filled with dogs of every type and their owners were scattered about the gorge climbing this route and that.  Several warm-ups and games of fetch later, we packed our gear and headed over to the Social Platform on the east side of the river to try a couple of routes that came highly recommended.  First up was Marie, on her on-sight attempt of Expressway 11b.  The climb was still in the shade and two clips later Marie was shouting over the river for a take because even though she could see her hands pulling down on the crux crimps, she could not feel them.  Not the ideal start but no worries, there was plenty of daylight left.  I decided I would brave the cold and finish putting the draws up and though my hands weren't as numb, two clips later, I was also calling for a take stumped by the crux.  I paid it no attention, solved the problem a minute later, and lowered off with the draws in place so we could both redpoint a little later.  Marie, still resting and waiting for more sun to hit the wall, offered up a belay on the next route, a little 12a called Darshan aka Ripoff.  Feeling warmed up and recovered, I gave the route a quick preview and set off for the onsight.  Two clips later, only about 15 feet off the ground, I was already pumped and had fallen twice on some small technical crimps.  Hmm, well, I figured it was probably just an early crux I didn't read well, worked out the moves and continued climbing, half sure the hard part was probably over and the rest would be mostly a cruise.  After about 5 or 6 more falls I reached the anchors more pumped than a Jersey Shore fist and I began to sense that something was terribly wrong here.  We spent the rest of that day working on just those two routes, Marie and I both redpointing the 11 after our second try, and I left Owens with a 12a project, something that hasn't happened to me in quite a while.

Marie on the aborted onsight attempt of Expressway (11b)

After the weekend, we were approached by the RV camp owner and informed that it was indeed illegal to car camp in the city, and we were banished to the city limits to camp in the desert somewhere in no man's land between Lone Pine and Bishop.  At least the cell reception was better, and as it turned out, it wasn't all that bad, seeing as how now were pretty much left alone to cook and camp as we wanted, but Marie no longer had the advantage of wandering into town and meeting all 100 locals when she got bored in the van.  We did however make a trip to the grocery store in the late afternoon and on our way back we got stopped by none other than Scott Leeper and Mike Helt, two professional route-setters and friends from our very own Portland, Oregon.  Turns out they got snowed out in Joe's Valley and drove down to climb in Bishop for the rest of their vacation.  We were glad to see friends from home, and I for one was glad to climb with Scott because it had been years since we last climbed outside together.

Our new campsite outside city limits. 

Scott and Mike had just drove in after a four day sending spree and were in need of a rest day.  Scott, not being one to sit around and collect dust on a vacation, offered to show Marie and I around the Happy Boulders.  When we got to the boulder-filled gorge, we were greeted with house-sized, volcanic tuff boulders that caused more intimidation than inspiration.  Our warmups consisted of V0's and V1's and V2's that came very close to feeling more like little free solos than boulder problems.  At first, everything seemed normal enough.  The boulder problems were heady to say the least, meaning they required a good amount of nerve control, but they didn't seem uncharacteristically hard, yet those were the first and last boulder problems that we successfully completed.  We wandered over to a recommended boulder problem called the Hulk V6, and added to the small mound of pads already amassed under the classic line.  Try as we might, defeated and out of breath, after about 5 or 6 goes each, we moved on in search of something a little easier.  Scott brought us over to a very long traverse problem he identified as the 60 Ft.Woman Traverse V2.  Think moving from left to right picking your way between pockets on a boulder that resembles something between Swiss cheese and coral.  We both got about 4 moves into the thing and both of us found it really hard to admit to the other that we could in fact, not finish a V2.  Our spirits were sinking faster than a man with cement boots in a river as we packed up our pads and headed to yet another boulder problem.  This time, a V7 called Morning Dove White.  Why Scott thought we could do this after our last performance, was a mystery to me, but Marie gave it one halfhearted try and I actually was able to do quite a few moves before de-gloving the skin on my pinky due to sharp-edged pockets. 

Marie, doing the only thing we consistently excelled at.

Marie, I think, was still a in disbelief over the unfinished V2 and buried herself in the guidebook furiously looking for the answer, and after much page flipping and map-reading, Marie discovered that we were actually on the wrong problem.  What we thought was a V2 was actually a V8, and we were trying to climb it backwards on top of it all.  Feeling a crumb of encouragement, Marie located and guided us to the true 60 Ft. Woman Traverse and set about reading the sea of holes while I unfolded the crashpads and readied the camera.  Prior to reaching this problem, we stopped by the Solarium Boulder to tick a supposedly easy V3.  Marie kept falling near the finish holds, I could barely get off the ground.  I had thrown in the towel for the day.  What happened at the 60 Ft. Woman Traverse can only be described as "hitting the wall".  Marie did not complete the traverse, and proclaimed that she hated bouldering.  A few sips of water later she recanted her statement and we packed up the pads one last time, swearing we would be back to put a sad face on the Happy Boulders.
-Juan

Lemmons & Cupcakes

Pizza for lunch and pizza for dinner might not have been the best idea after all.  I'm sitting at the local Bishop, CA, Starbucks with Marie and along for the morning blog update is one bad stomachache.  I'm guessing it was the pizza but at this point, who cares, I just want it gone.  The morning has also started off with searches of T-Mobile stores, post offices, and Radio Shacks because I forgot my phone charger back at my mom's place in Las Vegas.  Since it's still pretty early in the morning here, nothing is open and everything is successfully building a little headache.  Not the best way to start the day, but I digress...

On March 31st, after our last post from AZ, Marie and I headed out into the town of Tucson to take care of various odds and ends that would finally put the finishing touches on our rolling home.  We stopped by Goodwill, where bought ourselves a couple of pots and pans, and scored on some really hideous drapes that Marie was going to turn into curtains for the van.  Taking a cue from Adam, we stopped by the dollar store and bought a little storage bin to keep our utensils and condiments from rolling all over the place, as well as some plates, a serving spoon, and cutting knives.  We also took advantage of $2 showers at the Udall Rec Center before finally heading towards the U of A to meet up with an old classmate of Marie's for some drinks and food.

View of Tucson through the saguaros on Mt. Lemmon

Close-up of a saguaro

 That afternoon Derek, whom Marie had known from a geology field camp in college, took us out to an Irish pub near the campus for some pints and really delicious food.  20 chicken wings, 1 turkey burger w/ onion rings, 1 giant plate of curry fries, and 3 or 4 pints later, we were stuffed beyond capacity, waddling our way down the sidewalks of college bars, retail stores, and eateries, on our way to some dessert at a local cupcake shop.  Derek filled us in on his full-time job at the college testing and blowing up rock samples with lasers, and we caught him up with details about the trip so far and our plans for the coming weeks.  He also took us to an area of the campus where we could see turtles and koi hanging out in man-made ponds.

Marie and Derek on the U of A campus in Tucson

After a solid afternoon of food and conversation, we parted ways back to Mt. Lemmon by way of a peircing shop to replace the hoop that made its way out of my lip and onto parts of the van unknown.  The shop was called Straight To the Point, which coincidentally had the same name as the piercing shop where I bought my jewelery in Portland.  We were greeted by Alec Bezzina, who it turns out owns the various studios in Portland and had just recently opened this shop in Tucson.  Like my experience at the shop in downtown Portland, Alec's shop was very clean and had interesting decor and nice displays of the jewelery for sale.  Alec was very courteous and professional (also like the staff in Portland), and upon finding out that we were fellow Portlanders, hooked me up with the replacement hoop at no charge!  How about that?  We also found out that Alec is not only the shop owner, but is also a life coach and motivational speaker as well, and he seemed to be a big fan of our climbing trip.

Juan getting a new hoop at Straight to the Point

Once back at Mt. Lemmon, Marie and I turned in for the night before Adam got back from picking up Ali at the airport in Phoenix.  When we awoke, it was officially April Fool's Day and we set off to pull a fast one on unsuspecting Adam and Ali.  We quickly came up with a story that included a bar fight with frat boys down at the college that resulted in a seriously cut eye for myself, and nasty sprained wrist for Marie.  We dug through our first aid kit to find bandages and gauze.  Hook, line, and sinker, the recently awoken Adam and Ali completely fell prey to our prank, but were great sports about the whole thing and we had a good laugh about it over breakfast.

All sad about her "sprained wrist"

The next two days were spent furiously protecting our fingertips by any means possible.  We climbed some very difficult, water-polished rock at the Jailhouse, but even that was not enough to keep Ali from tearing a nice-sized hole in her index finger, making it extremely painful to continue climbing for the rest of her 2 days.  Marie scored herself a nice redpoint on a route with a powerful and balance-y start, complete with full extension dynamic moves near the middle and decent runout a couple bolts before the finish.  Adam and I redpointed a physical line that began on slopers which were slipperier than a wet ferret, and had some taxing moves that wore you down from start to finish.  Did you notice how I left out the names and grades of the routes?  Well, even with guidebook in hand, we had no idea most of the time, what routes we were on because it one of the least stellar guidebooks we've ever come across, to put it lightly.  The end of the day was spent terrorizing tree frogs, gathering wood for the fire, and making dinner before repeating the agenda the next day at the Knight's Wall.

Adam on an unknown 5.11 at Jailhouse Rock

 In the morning, Adam's friends and local climbers, Eric and Josie joined us for the day.  After reaching the Knight's Wall we found that the trails were too steep for ol' dog Hank to manage safely and with Ali's finger still in pretty painful condition, after a few warm ups, Adam, Ali, and Hank called it a day and started their long drive back to Colorado.  Marie and I did make it down the trail to the base of Knight's Wall, where Eric had just finished his redpoint of Gneiss Boys 12a.  Eric was kind enough to hang our draws and after he and Josie parted ways with us, Marie and I gritted our teeth through one more painful, but really fun, route at Mt. Lemmon.  It was like pulling down on forks!!

Ally warming up on Goosehead Rock, near the Knight's Wall

Eric on Gneiss Boys (12a) on Knight's Wall

We received word that my friend Jessi and her family were headed to Red Rocks for climbing and dirtbike riding, and so instead of staying one more day at Mt. Lemmon, we wisely left the park with one last redpoint, and skin intact, in favor of nice smooth sandstone.

What a great trip this has been so far right?  I'm constantly amazed at how many cool, and different people we meet while on the road.  I don't know any other sport, pastime, hobby, etc., where you can meet a complete stranger, in a completely new area far from your home, and instantly make what can almost be considered a lifelong friend.  One minute you're sharing beta on climbing routes, the next you're discussing favorite places, and before you know it, many times after meeting only once, you have an open invitation to a new area with a place to crash and friends to climb with.  Even people that don't climb, like Alec Bezzina or Derek, are interested in our unique experiences, and are eager to share experiences in their own lives, be it professionally or recreationally.  We seem to always find a common interest and varied conversation, and it never gets tiring to share and listen.  So far on this trip we've left with invitations to New York, Norway, Utah, and of course Colorado.  With the exception of NY and Norway, places we were going to anyway, but how cool that we have friends waiting to happily show around?  And the same for us.  We have extended invitations as well from Mexico all the way to Norway and are looking forward to showing them around and introducing them to our already awesome and expanding group of friends back in Portland.  I know I speak for the both of us when I say I hope we can take up the offers both ways.
-Juan

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Picking up where Juan left off, we decided with Jessi and her family to climb at the Black Corridor, a narrow corridor lined with lots of great 9's, 10's, and some 11's.  We almost climbed out the upper level, including routes such as Live Fast, Die Young 10d, which has a tricky mantle right at the first bolt, and Rebel Without a Pause, a really fun, short, overhung 11a/b.  We were so impressed with Jeff & Robin's climbing, especially as Jeff was in approach shoes!

From L to R: Juan, Marie, Jessi, Robin, Joel, & Jeff

That night Juan & I split a stuffed pie at Metro Pizza and headed over to Mike & Steph's house to relax over brews and snacks.  Juan seems to finally have won the affection of their two Shiba Inus with many "dropped" bits of food.  The next day we rested and not much happened, except that I started work on our curtains on the van, finally!  I also got my haircut, and on the walk over, Juan and I flipped a coin to decided if we were still going to Bishop, or if we'd check out the climbing in St. George instead.  As you probably gathered, Bishop won out.

Tuesday April 5th was my 25th birthday, and I had a mission - to send Yaak Crack (11c), a route at The Gallery in Red Rocks that I tried once back in October and once a few weeks ago when Dave, David, and Isaac from Portland came climbing with us.  It's an overhung, pumpy route that follows a left-leaning crack using big holds on the face and in the crack.  But I wanted to send it in style.  A trip to the thrift store took care of that - I picked up a set of lavender satin pajama pants and a sparkly belly shirt and -POOF- a genie was born :)

Juan & I met Jessie and her family at the crag, where we warmed up and stretched well.  Then I got on the Crack, and pulled my way up with every bit of strength I had.  By the end it was sheer willpower (and perhaps the magical genie pants) that kept me from pitching, and I was overjoyed I had made it first go.  We celebrated with red velvet cupcakes with birthday candles, and Jessi's family even gave me a sweet birthday card.  Calls and messages from friends and family throughout the day also brought many smiles to my face.

Levitating (I wish!) up Yaak Crack

The others had a great climbing day too - Jessie & Joel did great on lead, with Joel onsighting his first-ever 5.11 lead, Gridlock, after Jessie hung the draws up on it.  Juan also had a huge milestone, sending Where the Down Boys Go (12d), on his second try!  That route involved a strong move to an undercling flake, among a lot of other really pumpy moves.  We left there feeling 10 feet tall.

Juan redpointing Where the Down Boys Go 12d

The plan was to get ice cream at a place Juan used to love called Leatherby's, but we found it out of business!  Looking for a Plan B, I remembered I'd wanted to check out this restaurant/bar called Dick's Last Resort at the Excalibur Casino.  If you just strolled into this place unknowingly, man would you be in for a surprise.  But we knew what we were getting into.  Instead of "What can I start you out with?" you'll hear a gruff "Whaddya want???"  Napkins litter the floor and people are wearing ridiculous paper and balloon hats.  The bartender blatantly hits on you and the waiters poke fun at you, and if you are an unlucky bachelorette, you may get a lapdance from a very fat man in a thong.  It was a riot and I recommend you check it out, as long as you are not easily offended!  We had a few drinks and split some delicious peanut butter ice cream pie, and ended the night with some belly-filling food at a place near Juan's house.  Overall, a wonderful birthday!


Irish Car Bombs - one of our favorite concoctions - at Dick's

Yesterday, we cleaned the van and I finished the curtains (still need more for the back though), and made the 5-hour drive to Bishop.  We'll probably be here for a couple weeks then, depending on the weather, head up to Maple Canyon, UT, our next stop.  And that's about all there is!

Hey Adam, look, we have curtains!

Best wishes to all,
Marie