Idaho!!

Been a while since the last post, the past couple of months have been pretty hectic and didn't involve a lot of climbing. Mostly moving from SLC to Boise, Idaho to prepare for the fall semester and hopefully do some new alpine exploration in my home state!

Moving from Salt Lake because I wanted to go to Font in the spring, do a lot of climbing in the fall and winter would have pushed my graduation back at U of Utah another 2 years, in Boise I can finish in 3 semesters and then take off and go climbing with an actual sense of freedom.

On the climbing front, Kaiya, me and the McClures made it up to the McCall scree after a near death experience with a whitetail deer for a couple of days of cleaning boulders and climbing. Many problems were sent, some amazing, some not so great but still good, with the best and hardest not even attempted since we were all wasted and way too low on skin to try anything else. Photos and soon to be video at climbidaho.com, the excellent website of Mr. McClure.

Kaiya has been sidelined with a stress fracture in her left middle knuckle, so she has been taking time off and doing Crossfit workouts, a killer workout program that has a different workout every day, and periodical rest days as well. She came up to check out some boulders on Highway 55 with myself, Adam Healy and Morty on the 4th of July. Couldn't think of a better way to be independent!

We found some amazing stuff, one boulder in a creek that will be host to 3 great problems, two of them being pretty damn tall and scary. Adam found a beautiful line of slopers one would expect to seen in Font or the southeast, and we worked on it for quite some time. I managed to stick all but the first and last move, the first being due to some needed removal of more dirt from the landing, the last because of...uuuhhhhh. Not strong enough on it. Anyways, here are some photos from the day, I am psyched to head back up there and try the thing again in cooler temps and with stronger muscles

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