Engagement!!!

Kaiya and I are engaged!! I popped the question at Castle Rock on Monday the 22nd. She said yes. Then the most hectic, ridiculous and crowded day of climbing there began! I fell off the jug rail of Columbian Bowtie twice, once resulting in a screaming, shoe-throwing mantrum...and Kaiya sent Jared's Roof Stand! Her hardest yet, according to her. Weather was a bit crazy there, snow and sunshine intermittently traded places all day, and on the way out, we finally stopped at the Cattle Guard, a V7 that Mike and I have always said we wanted to stop and do every time we walk out. Conrad and I sent after a bit of effort and one really long slightly awkward move to a HUGE jug. Here I am in my Ben Spannuth/Jamie Emerson costume after sticking the dyno.



After the trip to Castle, I got pretty sick, Kaiya and I didn't climb much at all during the week, then I finally made it out to LCC on Thursday to check to see if Spinal Twist was dry. I need a hard project to motivate me to train a bit more enthusiastically for a while. Been slackin' yo! It was, and I climbed at the Gate Boulders alone while 30 people were less than a mile down the road at the Secret Garden...lazy SLCers. I managed to do all but a couple of problems, but I did a 6, two 8's and a 10 in a couple hours in the Darkroom. We went back out with Ben Spannuth and Ryan Young on Saturday after Kaiya got off of work, and my sister from Jackson showed up also. I managed to send the last worthwhile thing at the Gate(besides Spinal Twist), a super sick linkup/eliminate that links one V8 into the other, called Pro Series. I shot some photos of Ben and Ryan, as well as some of Kaiya on Shingles Stand.


Ryan Young on Twisted


Ben Spannuth, Lance's Dihedral


Ryan on Lance's

Ben came really close to sending Shingles, he ended up sticking the big move a few times only to pop off on the in-swing.





They are both psyched to come back, Ben to head up to Castle to send Green in the Face, he fell off the 2nd to last move on his last day there before driving down here to Salt Lake. Ryan was pretty close to doing Bully, here he is sticking the big left hand move with relative ease.


Ryan Young, Bully

Kaiya finally picked out a ring that she really wants, and that is in the mail, I will post some photos of that and us really soon, some nice romantical shots up in LCC and around Salt Lake...very soon

Castle, Ibex, LCC and more!!

The last few weeks have been a bit quiet here, at least on the blog, apologies for that. Internet silence has not been congruent with a lack of climbing however. Kaiya and I have been up to Castle Rock with Anthony Txertudi and Pawel, down to Ibex with the Cahoons, McClures and Pawel again, and then just the other day, out to Little Cottonwood where we met some friends from the gym here in town.

So a quick rundown/update of what has happened in the past few weeks:

At Castle, Kaiya fired a quick send of Tacos for Two (V6), Pawel and our new German friend Tobias quickly sent the Smell and Jareds Roof Stand, both V8 and Tacos in a couple of goes. Anthony and I struggled that day, neither of us could send our projects, me on Columbian Bowtie and the Bagpiper, Anthony on Green in the Face and Golden Chandelier.

Here is Pawel on the lip traverse of Tacos for Two



Ibex was an amazing experience, Kaiya and I had never been there before, so it was even more impressive in that regard. I had a pretty good weekend, the White Arete, Meat and Potatoes, Bruce Lee and Fister. Mike McClure sent all of those also, and with a last minute beta change sent The Bone Collector (V11). Tammy and Kaiya both sent Tranced out and Dreaming, a powerful V6 with a long first move from a pinch to a sloping pocket. Tammy sticks that move here.



Tammy McClure working Ju (V7) on the Red Monster boulder



Kaiya on Blue Flowers on the Red Monster



On Tuesday of this week, Kaiya and I went out to Little Cottonwood for an after work session. With the time change, I now have alsomt 5 hours of daylight to climb after I get off work. We ran into some people that we know from the Front and had a nice session till about dark at the Secret Garden. After some warmups on the back of the All Thumbs boulder, Kaiya set to work on Lance's Dihedral, a really cool V6 that climbs on slopers and heel hooks up a dihedral.



After some work on Lance's, I headed up to Bully and managed to finally send after falling off the same move for 3 days. Our friend Tim was working Lance's Scary (V7) coming very close to sticking the big move, he should send next time out.



Kaiya is psyched to head back out there for the Dihedral, and the stand start to Shingles, which as the sun was setting saw some amazing colors that I attempted to capture. The real thing was spectacular, here is Kaiya throwing for the jug pinch on Shingles.



Other photos of the day, Nathan on Lance's Dihedral and his girlfriend China on Shingles.





The sun setting on the end of a great session.

Payin' the Price

So the "potatards" were out in full force the last few days at Castle Rock. On Friday, Mike, Tammy, Kaiya and I walked through a blizzard to get to the Taco Cave. For those of you who have had the privilege of climbing at Castle, the snow was coming down so hard that from the parking lot, the Comp Wall was invisible through the sheets of snow.



Turned out to be a rewarding trip of postholing the mile up to the cave. I managed a third go send of the Smell of Africa, and then was pleasantly suprised when I did all of the moves of Columbian Bowtie, a Anthony Txertudi problem that I couldn't grunt out a single move on the year before.

Tammy and Kaiya started the day working the Smell, a fantastic problem that has it all; burly opening moves that lead to a tall, spicy and committing topout. Tammy has continued to crush since her return from the trip to the south, looking like she has been able to blend the power and technique better than ever, resulting in making moves look incredibly easy.



Three days later, we were headed back with hopes of better weather, only to be greeted with more snow and a brisk wind that chilled to the bones. The hike up warmed up the body, but warming up the climbing muscles and the fingers proved to be difficult. I had high hopes of sending Columbian Bowtie, but after three tries of falling trying to do a finger pullup with my right hand and once falling off the jug, regression began. Mike McClure urged me to try Jared's Roof Right, a cool little problem that I ended up sending first go. It climbs the bottom of JR, and then busts out right to a full on mantle at the lip. Cool problem that felt good to send something that day.

The highlight of the trip was by far Tammy's send of Jared's Roof stand. She had worked it for much of last season, scared of the potential death fall at the topout (haha), but after pressing out the mantle a couple of times, Tammy took a short rest and then walked the problem. Look for the video soon on Climbidaho. Congrats to Tammy, nice work!!

Kaiya found another cool problem to send the next trip: Tacos for Two. She came off the last move on her best go of the day, and like me, began the regression period shortly thereafter.



Next go for sure...