Some climbing, and no sending...

Kaiya and I have been taking it a bit easy of late...we both are working on some things that are really hard for us and the weather is Salt Lake is getting warm! No, bad temps! Go down! But it just keeps getting warmer.

I got a new job, again, framing houses that requires a 40 minute drive every day each way, so the whole climbing at LCC after work thing has kind of gone to shit lately. I have been training though, trying to send Spinal Twist, a Sharma problem (its not redtagged, I checked with Nalle) at the Gate Boulders. Kaiya has been working the Crystal Pinch and Supa Fly, both at the Gate and on the same boulder. Makes it easy for us to session.

Last week, I went out and shoveled off the two boulders that we needed dry 3 times, there was a total of probably 18" of snow that fell in 4 days up the canyon. We went out one of those days and the conditions were amazing, I managed to do all the moves on Spinal Twist, including the first 2 in row, which are the hardest, Kaiya did all the moves to Crystal Pinch and put some time into Supa Fly again. Here are a couple of shots of her on the Crystal Pinch...I think we are heading out Sunday evening to catch some cold temps, so maybe some photos of Spinal Twist.






As work picks up and summer gets into full swing, I will have less and less time to climb. Putting on bulk weight of muscle in all the wrong areas for climbing is frustrating as well, but necessary. I have a setup at work that converts overtime hours into vacation time. Every hour of overtime = 1.5 hours of vacation time, so by the end of summer i should have accumulated somewhere around a month of paid vacation. Get paid to go climbing...in the Dirty South! Jyeah!!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned for more from Sundays session

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.