Squamish Video

Here is a little video I put together of some Squamish Bouldering.  It is also on the videos page.

The Grand Wall, 5.11a A0

Climbing the Grand Wall was the culmination of our experience in Squamish.  We started out climbing the very slabby Apron routes and started working our way up to harder, longer, and steeper climbs.  After being in Squamish nearly three weeks, we decided that it was time to tackle a bigger challenge.

The Grand Wall is hard to miss, climbing up the beautiful face of the Chief.  It is easy to pick out two of the most classic pitches, The Split Pillar and the Sword by looking up at the wall from the road.  At 5.11, the climb was a harder multi pitch than either of us had attempted before, and it was sustained at the grade, unlike some of the other climbs we had done like the Squamish Buttress which goes at 5.10c, but only has one pitch at that grade and the rest at 5.7.  We decided to gun it, and left the tag line at home so we had no option of retreat.

The Topo

5 Stars, oh yea!

The night before the climb we got tons of beta from our friend Andy who has climbed the Grand Wall at least four times.  He filled us in on all the important details and we went to bed psyched!  We woke up early the next morning, grabbed the gear that we had racked the night before and hiked to the base.  As we arrived at the bottom of the climb, two other parties showed up behind us.  Luckily they were awesome people that entertained me at all the belay stations. 

The first pitch is a 5.7 R, which means there is a lot of space between your pieces of protection.  It is a bolted dike that goes for 42 meters and has all of THREE bolts.  We linked this pitch with the next 5.9 pitch which is also slightly runout.  The next pitch is an awesome traverse that goes at 5.10b.  The movement was really cool and at the end of the traverse you aid up a short bolt ladder. 

Looking down at the runout slab pitch

 The first three pitches went by really fast!  We were already far off the ground, and even better, we were at the base of the split pillar!  The split pillar is an awesome splitter (who would’ve guessed) that started at tight hands (for me.  Rattly fingers for people with fat hands), went to hands, off hands, turny cups, fists and then a bit of offwidth at the top.  Eric styled the pitch perfectly.  I had to lay back some of the wider parts but eventually made it to the next belay.

The Split Pillar

Eric styles it

The sword is a really thin finger crack with a tricky bulge in it (crux of the route).  At the top is another bolt ladder.  Eric cruised this pitch also and brought me up to the belay at the base of Perry’s Layback.  Perry’s is a huge offwidth crack, which is thankfully bolted (or we would have had to drag a bunch of #4s and #5s up).  The face that you smear on while you lieback is fairly smooth and given that it was a right facing corner and my right shoe was totally blown out, I had to pull on a few draws for this pitch.
  

A nice view

After this pitch, we were only two pitches from the top!  Eric was feeling a little tired (understandably so) so I led the next pitch, which was a very technical face climb.  It was a little more runout than I feel is ideal, but I inched my way up, feeling my shoes crumbling away beneath me.  After clipping the last bolt, there is a reachy 5.10 move, which involves you making it up a blank bulge to a mediocre jug.  The only problem is that there are no footholds or handholds to get you there, so if you aren’t 6 feet tall, you basically have to dyno.  I did some creative sideways aid climbing and somehow made it to the top of the pitch. 

My very sad shoes

The last pitch features an undercling traverse around a flake and then easier climbing to the top.  I was feeling pretty gassed when I went to follow this.  The undercling traverse again featured a smooth surface with no holds where you had to smear your feet.  Darn shoes need some rubber!  As I was traversing out I was thinking about how it would be really inconvenient to fall.  I was about to hit the corner of the flake when my right foot slipped off the wall and I went boink!  I looked up in dismay to see the flake 15 feet above me, and nothing but smooth polished wall in between.  Rats!  I had to climb up the rope and really hope I didn’t fall in order to get back into the flake.  Eventually I was at the top!

Woo!

We were both super psyched on the awesome climbing we had just completed.  The Grand Wall was super varied, and featured every type of climbing at a sustained grade and at high quality.  It was AWESOME!  Eric climbed it in excellent style, onsighting it, and I was psyched to get to the top with just a little gear pulling.  Although we had finished the climb, we were not down yet.  We had to traverse the Bellygood Ledge which is a very narrow walkway above a sheer drop off—scary!  Fortunately we made it safely back to the ground. 

Bellygood Ledge 

Drop off!

Climbing the Grand Wall left us really satisfied, and with our food nearly gone, our  campsite taken from us (we might have forgotten to pay for the last few days), and rain in the forecast, we decided that it would soon be time to leave.  The next day we decided to go out for one last boulder session.  Instead of sending some projects, I got a new one and worked it til it was almost dark.  Eric had put in a few goes on Mantra (V8) and decided to try a few more times.  As the darkness crept in he took off his shoes and threw in the towel.  While packing up, he noticed that the crux hold should be held like a pinch, not a sloper, and put his shoes on for one last go.  He stuck the crux!  As he was going for the top he made the unfortunate realization that the top hold was a sloper, not a jug, and came flying off the boulder and onto a rock.  No!  He twisted his ankle pretty badly and had to hobble out of the forest.  It was a bummer kind of way to end the trip but he is in good spirits and his ankle is feeling much better. 

We hit the road back home, feeling lucky to have gotten in so many classic climbs and to have experienced such great weather (no rain!  Unheard of for a trip to Squamish).  Today we’ll head to SLO to see the puppies (update on Star- second Vet’s opinion was that she did not need surgery), and we will await our next adventure!   

Adventures in the Forest

We have now been adventuring on rocks in and above the forest for two weeks.  It has been glorious!  The climbing here is so unique- the boulders are set amongst the huge trees of the peaceful forest.  Everything is green and moss and lichen covered.  Strange bugs and slugs creep around and funny mushrooms grow on many surfaces.  Despite the appearance that there are a lot of people here (based on the full campground and parking lot), it remains quiet and uncrowded in the trees.  The routes are also unique, with more tree-slinging, odd traverses and ledges than I’m used to. 

Since my last post, we have done LOTS of climbing!  We have completed 40+ pitches of trad climbing and done a fair amount of bouldering.  Eric sent Gibbs’ Cave (V8) and The Bulb (V8) and tried lots of other hard classics.  Two days ago he went a scary V5 called Doubt, a V7 called Undertow, and two V8’s- Autobody and Hunt’s Arete.  What a day!  I have sent two V4’s- Easy in an Easy Chair and Trad Killer.  I was getting very close on a really tall slab called Phat Slab (V5) but took a bad fall and am too scared to try it again!  We are looking forward to some more bouldering in the next few days and some more sends.

Most of our focus has been on route climbing.  It is hard to ignore the Chief as it sits there in magnificence overlooking the campground.  One day we climbed St. Vitus’ dance on the Apron, which featured a very lovely crack on pitch 3.  Our biggest day of climbing yet took us up Rock On (5.10a) to the Squamish Buttress (5.10c), which took us all the way to the summit of the Chief!  The view from the top was incredible and the climbing was great.   We linked several pitches together, so the whole climb ended up being a total of 10 pitches. 

We had another good couple days of climbing on the “Squaw.”  On our first day there, we climbed Birds of Prey.  I led the first two pitches of awesome finger crack, and Eric led the burlier 5.10 pitches.  Unfortunately, after our first day climbing at the “Squaw” we left our guidebook at the base of our climb!  The next day we hiked back up hoping to find it but it was nowhere to be seen.  We figured that as long as we had hiked all the way up to the base of the wall, we might as well climb something.  We didn’t have our guidebook, so we guessed where the start of another climb, Jungle Warfare (5.10a) was.  Well, apparently we guessed wrong.  The first pitch was an awesome splitter in a right facing corner that went from fingers to tight hands to hands.  The second pitch was an exposed face climb that probably went at 5.11c/d if I had to guess.  After that we went up some hand cracks, finger cracks and some slab and before we knew it we were at the top!  I was psyched that we didn’t epic and get stuck up there.   

 We had another big day yesterday, climbing Peasant’s Route on the base of the Grand Wall.  It was really inspiring to look up at the Chief from the Grand Wall.  Peasant’s Route is a stout 5.10c and we really enjoyed all five pitches.  After we came down we hiked over to the Apron and practically ran up Diedre a very class 5.8 corner crack.  It is supposed to be six pitches, but we did it in good style and linked everything.  We ended up climbing it in three 200 foot pitches, stretching our rope as far as it would go. 

Eric has amazed me with his ability to climb anything and everything.  He sends boulder problems quickly, sport climbs like a beast, and doesn’t think twice about tying into the sharp end on any trad climb.  Where I would usually hesitate and wonder if I have the skills to make it up every pitch on a climb (for example, I’m not so good at wider cracks so I might not choose a climb that had a pitch of wide crack), Eric just guns it!  He has confidence and the skill to back it up.  It is good to see him continually pushing himself to new levels in gear climbing.

While it is great to see Eric excel, it sometimes leaves me exhausted!  I have been left huffing and puffing while following a few pitches in the last week.  My calves burn, my fingers and hands tire, and I have to leave my pride behind and pull on gear every once in a while.  I love climbing with Eric and knowing that I have a rope gun to get me up any climb we tackle!

I also really miss climbing with Chelsea.  Chelsea and I both have pretty specific strengths and weaknesses in our climbing.  It is always really fun choosing climbs and splitting pitches based on what we excel at.  If there is a slabby or sporty pitch, I’ll take it.  If there is a splitter crack, Chelsea will get the lead.  I definitely miss my PIC and can’t wait until she is climbing again!

One nice thing about being in a place so long is that you start to discover the locals’ secrets.  One thing we’ve learned about is “Happy Hour” at the rec center.  This has nothing to do with drinks, but rather the price of admission.  If you go Monday-Friday between 11:45 and 12:15 it only costs $2 to get in.  Once you’re in, you can swim, hot tub and shower!  What a deal. 

We haven’t been taking too many rest days because there is so much to climb, but when we do we have a great time.  Today we went up to Whistler to check out the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. We saw lots of people mountain biking and ate some delicious ice cream.  We’ve also been swimming at lakes, and walking around and exploring.

There is a great community of climbers here (including some famous ones), which makes for a great vibe and a wonderful place to chill out.  It is very relaxed here and we sleep in late almost every day.  On the weekends, the parking lots overflow with people coming to hike to the top of the Chief.  For some reason I have started calling these people ‘tourists,’ even though they are almost all from BC. I get amused by the puzzled looks we get from the ‘tourists’ while cooking our breakfast out of the back of our car. 

Anyway, back to the climbing.  There is just so much of it, it’s hard not to get overwhelmed!  We are thinking about staying a little longer than we originally planned so we can do a few more of the things that we want (or we could try waking up before 10am).  The bouldering guidebook has over 2500 problems in it and even the select route guidebook has too much to choose from.  Eric would read me bedtime stories in the form of route descriptions (until we lost our book).  “Pitch 3, 5.10.  Start up the right facing corner and climb left to a tree.”  I fall asleep under the silent forest canopy dreaming of climbing.  When I wake up in the morning, the rock awaits :) 

Squamish

The Rockzilla comp!

We are currently on a rest day in Squamish after four awesome days of climbing here.  We left from Napa, California, after attending an awesome bouldering competition at Rockzilla.  I placed 4th for the women, and Eric placed 4th in men's in terms of points, but there was a three-way tie for 3rd, which put him on spot out of finals.  Finals were really intense!  

Giovanni Traversi on Men's Problem #3

After a nice sleep in the back of the car, we hit the road!  It was a beautiful drive and before we knew it, we were in Eugene, Oregon.  We met up with some great friends from Cal Poly, Ben and Chrissa (recently engaged!).  They lent us some inner tubes and we had a relaxing float down the river.  

After the nice cool off, we jumped back in the car and motored up to  Portland.  There we stopped at Rogue brewery for a good beer and then headed to VooDoo for some crazy doughnuts.  We were welcomed into our friend Casey's apartment with gracious hospitality, and got another good night of snoozin before we hit the road in the morning to head further North.  We made a quick stop in Seattle at REI and before we knew it we were crossing the border into Canada.

It was slightly stressful at first, trying to keep my speed at the right kilometers per hour while navigating through Vancouver.  At one point I headed the wrong way down a one way street, but crisis was averted and we made it to Squamish as it got dark.

We spent the night in the car and were able to find a sweet camp spot the following morning.  Then it was off to the forest in search of awesome boulders!  We were not disappointed by the awesome granite blocks that filled up the forest floor.  Everyone told me that Squamish grades were soft, so I was expecting to crush.  Well, it seems that I may be a bit out of shape, because not too much crushing has occured yet.

Nonetheless, we are having an awesome time getting on super classic problems.  We have also gotten on a bunch of awesome routes.  We took the Snake (5.9) up the Apron.  It was 5 pitches and we swapped leads up a fun corner.

We are looking forward to getting on some more long trad climbs in the days to come.  A good friend from my Planet Granite days, Sarah, showed up a few days after us and we have been enjoying her spirited and enthusiastic company, as well as the company of a Canadian named Brian.  Yesterday we all headed to Cheakamus for some sport climbing.

On our rest day, we headed to the farmers market and got some awesome deals on veggies.  At one stand, they let you fit as many bell peppers as you can into a plastic bag, and the bag costs $4.  We were able to fit 6!  We also headed to Alice Lake for a swim and to the Rec Center for a shower.  Squamish is BEAUTIFUL!  Really loving it!

This post is a little scatter-brained, but at least it provides an update :)  The bad news so far is that I blew out my trad climbing shoes on our second day here!  Noooo!  The one re-soler in town was going to charge me $60 to fix them (and that's Canadian dollars!), which is about 50%+ of the price of a brand new (full-priced) shoe.  Bummer.  Other than that, we are all smiles!

Crap. Double Crap.

The first fail came when I realized that a large majority of the internships I was interested in started in May. The second when my dog started to limp.

Let me elaborate.  In order to graduate, I must complete a minimum of 10 weeks of internship.  My plan, of course, was:

Fall quarter: Epic climbing trip
Winter and Spring quarters: Finish up course work
Summer: Internship

In my exuberance in thinking that I could once again take Fall quarter off and have everything work out perfectly, I failed to spend the few minutes it took to go online and see when the internships I wanted to do started.  Well, I did that the other day and realized that most of them start in May.  And Spring quarter doesn't end until the second week of June.  Recognizing that it would be foolish and irresponsible to jeopardize my chance at the internship I really want, I decided that I would indeed have to take classes Fall quarter.  So as of Sunday, the plan was to take a shorter (about six weeks) trip, probably mostly to Squamish, starting on August 1, and return in time for the start of school in late September.  Then, I would finish my coursework in March and have until May to climb.

The plan wasn't as awesome as the original, but it would certainly work.

Star with her party beads

That was the plan as of yesterday.  Today, things took another interesting turn.  I decided to take Star to the vet again as she has been having some limping problems, mostly exercised induced.  The vet decided that she would need X-rays, so I had to leave her there.  A few hours later the vet called and told me words that I hoped I would never hear.  Star has a partial tear in her ACL.  And she needs surgery.

Noooo!

I went back to the vet and saw the X-rays and the vet explained everything.  Apparently it is nothing that could have been prevented, but due to Star's bone structure it is something that was bound to happen, and could have happened at any time.  The vet recommended that Star have a Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy, otherwise known as a TPLO.  Basically I think they chop out part of the bone, put in a plate and a bunch of screws and tighten everything up.  Does that sound expensive to you?  It is!

The good news is that the surgery is very effective, and Star will able to go back to her 100% normal, functioning self.  There is also a very low risk of re-injury after the surgery.

Out climbing with Star

So now it looks like we might get a couple weeks in Squamish before Star's surgery is scheduled, and then it will definitely be time for me to get a job and put climbing on the back burner for awhile.  I'm just glad that they will be able to fix my Star Baby, and I hope everything will go smoothly.

The Buttes

Hello!  The last few weeks have been full of fun.  I got to spend some time at my parent's house in the Bay Area, which was great!  While I was there, I participated in the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Cycle for Life, a 75 mile bike ride through San Francisco and Marin.  I did the ride in memory of Tim, and it felt really good to raise money for research and complete the ride.  My brother Mike also participated in the ride.

After spending some quality time with the family, Eric and I headed up to Tahoe for some sweet Donner climbing!  We got to climb a bunch of fun cracks in the last week, and clip some bolts up at Big Chief.

Me following a sweet crack at Donner on the Black Wall

In an attempt to avoid the crowds for 4th of July weekend, we headed to the Sierra Buttes.  I had never been there before and was psyched to check it out!  After some driving, a very, very steep hike (that included a coiled and rattling rattle snake in the middle of the trail) we made it!

The beautiful Buttes

The Buttes are incredible!  The setting is breathtaking- snow covered peaks, beautiful boulders, mountain streams and pools...  And to top it all off, we were the only ones there the entire time we were there!  We had an awesome time running around the mountains, climbing boulders, jumping in the ice cold streams and enjoying the solitude.  Now we are back at the Lake enjoying the company of friends, and in a few days we will head to Colorado for my cousin's wedding.

Titan is tired after backpacking his and Star's food up the mountain

Awesome campsite on top of a flat boulder

One of the places we went for a swim

Eric on a hard problem

Me on a cool traverse

Controversy

It seems to me that the climbing world has been fraught with controversy lately, and that this trend of questioning, debating, calling out and general upheaval won’t be going away anytime soon.  Countless blogs and forums about the issues of grading, access, pushing limits and more have been published recently, sparking debate and rapid-fire opinion making in the comment threads.  I figured since I haven’t been on any climbing trips to talk about, that I would weigh in on some of these issues myself.

First, let’s talk about access.  Recently the main issues of access that have flared up have been surrounding the Red River Gorge, where the Roadside crag was closed, and Endovalley, a “new” bouldering spot in Colorado.  Roadside was on private land, and the owners voiced concerns about permadraws, overcrowding, and unauthorized development, which led to the closing of the crag until further notice (read more on Climbing Narc)  This issue is not limited to the Roadside crag, nor to the RRG, but is becoming a frequent scene at crags across America.  More people are climbing.  Nature is fragile.  Some people don’t respect ethics.  This is not a simple issue.  It is a growing problem that is intertwined with many other things.  Before we talk about those things, however, I will mention Endovalley.  This is an area in RMNP that was rediscovered recently by big names in climbing (read more on B3 Bouldering).  The rediscovery brought the area instant publicity on the web, as well as drawing large crowds to check it out.  This caused friction with locals who were worried about the inundation of people to the fragile area, large crews coming with photographers and videographers, and the loss of their quiet time at this bouldering area.  This brings up another slew of issues, including the role of media in climbing, which I’ll get to later.

Ok, so we have access issues.  A key factor playing into those issues is overcrowding.  Think about it.  Imagine the very first time you visited your favorite crag, and think about it now.   Even over the past five or six years that I have been climbing, I have noted a drastic increase in the number of people present at crags and bouldering areas.  Climbing is gaining popularity, this is certainly true.  What we need to figure out though, is whether or not this is a good thing.  When you look at many climbing organizations, their mission has to do with popularizing climbing.  USA Climbing’s mission is “to ensure the success and growth of the sport of climbing.”  The IFSC is working to make climbing an Olympic sport.  The Unified Bouldering Championship’s (UBC) mission: “To grow the sport of climbing.”  Everywhere you look, people seem to think climbing needs growth.  But how do we measure that growth?  Have these organizations taken note of the explosive growth of the sport in the past years?  Is it necessary to cap this growth?  Obviously, if people want to climb, they’re going to climb.  There is no way to say, “oops, looks like we’ve reached maximum capacity of climbers in the world, you’re going to have to find a new hobby,” but maybe we don’t need to popularize the sport for the sake of popularizing it.

Obviously, there have to be reasons why people believe that climbing needs expansion.  First, there is the Olympics.  For climbing to make it into the Olympics (whether or not this is a good thing), it needs to be popular not only among athletes, but also among viewers.  Second, there is the push for professionalism.  Climbers work just as hard as any other athlete, and there is the belief that climbers should be able to make a living from climbing in the same way that other professional athletes do.  The recently formed Professional Climbers International (PCI), is pushing in that direction, and seeks to “increase the value of the sport of climbing for the benefit of its athletes, its industry and the protection of the environment.”  (Europe is already far above and beyond where we are in the States in terms climbing being a legitimate sport and athletes being supported by their country, but this is an entirely different topic all together.) 

Aside from organizations pushing to popularize climbing, a big reason for the rapid growth of climbing is the proliferation of climbing gyms in the US.  Within an hour of my hometown, I can think of at least eight gyms off the top of my head.  In Boulder alone there are four gyms, all probably within 10-15 minutes of each other.  You get the picture.  Lots of climbing gyms have increased the popularity of climbing, and have also gotten a younger crowd into climbing. 

Another big factor in the growth of climbing, and the popularization of climbing areas is media.  We now have dozens sources of rock climbing media to choose from.  From the traditional monthly subscribed to magazine, to online sites like Dead Point and Climbing Narc, to blogs to forums to ranking sites like 8a.nu, there is no shortage of ways to find out about the what’s what and the who’s who in the climbing world.

In the recent access issues, media sites were accused of 1. Over popularizing areas and routes with pictures and stories, and 2. Not doing enough to instill a good set of ethics into young climbers. (Read a bit about this and more on Endo at DPM)  While it is true, that media exposure has certainly done a lot to increase the popularity of climbing areas, I don’t think that this is something that is necessarily wrong or that needs to be stopped.  I think timely reporting of sends, new areas, and cool problems is normal and legitimate and within the realms of responsible media in the climbing world.  I also think it is unfair to completely accuse media sites of not doing their job in educating the young public on climbing ethics (because it isn’t necessarily their job), however I do think that they hold SOME responsibility.  In the past, when people started climbing, they may have started outdoors, and they may have had an older mentor teaching them the ways of the rock.  This is how most climbers learned ethics.  We were taught to leave no trace, how to be responsible in nature, and other normal ethical practices that we don’t even think twice about.  However, with the younger generation growing up in the gym, and then venturing out on their own, they have often missed those important lessons about what is appropriate in the outdoor environment.  Because youth look so intently to sites like Dead Point for their information, I think it would be wise to mention ethics on these sites and in climbing media in general.  What many people don’t realize is that their actions do have adverse effects on the environment, a problem, which is compounded when there are thousands of people visiting a single area.  Over time the landscape will start to deteriorate and then the access problems and closures begin (not to mention that we could permanently destroy the natural landscape). 

In the theme of media, I have also heard complaints (mostly during the Endovalley debate, I think) about the presence of photographers and people taking video while others are climbing.  Some people are annoyed by the large posses that show up to climb and think that all the photos and videos are unnecessary.  This relates back to professionalizing climbing.  Climbers need cool shots and videos to show to their sponsors, to rep their sponsors’ products and to post on their blogs.  For sponsored climbers, this media is necessary to sustain their lifestyle.

While people complain about the presence of cameras at the crags, we also have the other end of the spectrum, where people won’t believe you’ve sent a problem unless there is proof, preferably in the form of a video.  One example is Paul Robinson with Lucid Dreaming.  There is not a video of the actual send, which led some people to question whether or not he had actually done it.  This could also lead into a debate about grades, because Robinson proposed the controversial V16 grade.  Had the problem been a V10, I doubt anyone would have asked for a video.  While this is only one example, there are many more times when ascents have been called into question because there wasn’t proof.  It almost seems that today, your ascent doesn’t count unless it is on video.  So on one hand we could argue that increased media at the crag leads to overcrowding, but on the other, there are climbers fighting to legitimize themselves by providing videos and photos of their work.  And then there many others like me, for whom videos provide a tremendous amount of psyche : )

Anyway, back to growth.  Is this a good thing, and is this what we want.  I think that if growth is going to happen, there needs to be a very clear directive towards positive growth.  We can’t simply funnel more people into the sport of climbing and wait and see what happens.  The sport needs direction.  Today’s theme seems to be finding the next big thing, pushing the limits.  People are constantly in search of the hardest problem, even the hardest single move.  Perhaps we need to be just as concerned with preserving the natural environment and being good stewards of the land that has so generously provided us with perfect rocks to climb on.

Speaking of rocks, is there a delineation between indoor and outdoor climbing?  Should there be?  If climbing were an Olympic sport, would it really be rock climbing?  Or would it be so warped to please the crowd that it resembled something much different?  Comp climbing is about hype and excitement and often about big gymnastic moves.  Outdoor climbing is often a personal quest to test one’s limits and to find beauty in nature.  In which form can we properly display the spirit of our sport?

The next issue of controversy is of course grades.  And that is one topic that I won’t even get into.  The subjectivity, different styles of climbing, different rating systems in different countries…  It’s just madness!

This is what happens when school lets out for the summer and I have nothing to do.  I realize I’ve said a lot, without actually saying much.  I haven’t actually offered many solutions but just tried to present some issues without too much bias.  What do you think of these issues or any other issues in climbing?  What does the climbing world need to focus on?  Where is climbing headed?  Please post in the comments section!

Check it out!

I have been adding a few new features to my blog!  Check out the tabs at the top, especially the video tab.  More coming soon :)

World Cup!

Last year, Chelsea and I attended the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado and decided that this event full of climbing, kayaking, stand up paddling, dogs, music, biking, running and more was probably the best event ever invented and that we should definitely attend every year.  However, when Chelsea broke her neck it seemed that we might not get the chance to go this year.  On Friday, I was sitting on my bed finishing up my final English project when Chelsea and I started texting back and forth and eventually decided that we had to go!

Raft Cross

Dock Dogs!  

We jumped in the car and started on the 17 hour drive towards Colorado.  PSYCHED!  We eventually got there on Saturday in time for the Bouldering World Cup.  If you have ever seen an event like this, you will know that energy is very high, the crowd is pumped, and the event is fun to watch.  The finals this year did not disappoint as we got to watch the best competitors from France, Germany, Austria, Korea, Japan, Australia, Russia and the US battle it out for first place.  In the end Austria took first in both men's and women's with Killian Fischhuber and Anna Stohr putting on impressive displays.

Alex Puccio in last year's World Cup

Daniel Woods in last year's World Cup

I also got the chance to compete in the citizen's competition on Sunday.  I was inspired by watching the pros the day before and headed out to the competition wall.  I forgot about the effects of altitude and climbing at over 8,000 feet after living at sea level for six months left me very winded!  I was also really scared of how high the walls were which made it hard to commit to a lot of the finishing moves.  Nevertheless, I had an AWESOME time competing and the routes were amazing!  I ended up taking 3rd place in the recreational category.  Even though it was in the beginner's category, I was super excited to take home a medal from the Teva Games.

That's me!

My medal :)

It was a great weekend full of fun events, free swag, great music and friends.  We got to see Eric for a bit as he was on his way out to Tennessee for a music festival, and we stopped in Moab on our way home to check out Arches National Park.  Now I just have two finals to take care of and then I am free from school until January!

Delicate Arch

A kayaker doing a flip 

Last year's mountain bike race

Last year's slopestyle competiton