Just What the Doctor Ordered

Patient’s Symptoms: cranky, irritable, low psych, stress, confusion

Rx: Utah sandstone, take daily for 1 month, or until symptoms stop

Wow.  Now that was a climbing trip.  Not only was it a climbing trip, but it was exactly what I needed after finishing school.  For the past month, I sampled some of Utah’s finest sandstone, moving from Indian Creek splitters, to Moe’s Valley’s colorful and interesting boulders, to Joe’s Valley’s diverse, perfect blocks.  It was an amazing trip and it left me feeling better than I’ve been in a long time. 

Cool rock at Moe's Valley

 So you heard about the Creek, which was basically the warm-up for the trip.  Chelsea and I got back into climbing mode, enjoyed living the desert life, avoided getting melted by the intense sunshine and got our butts kicked on many classic climbs.  Then it was time to switch to bouldering mode.

I had never been to Moe’s Valley and I was super excited after looking at the guidebook and seeing all the 3-star moderates.  I was also excited that we could set up camp and walk to the boulders every day, which made for a very laid back week full of fun climbing.  Moe’s Valley was our transition back into bouldering mode and not too much sending actually went down while we were there.  There were way too many awesome things to try which meant starting a ton of projects and finishing very few.  My favorite project was Schezuan Chicken, an awesome V5 that included a knee bar!  I worked it a lot but didn’t end up getting the send.  Next time!  As temps started creeping into the 80’s and friction started decreasing, we decided it was time to move on to Joe’s Valley.

Eric on Gription V9

Chelsea on One Eyed Willy V3

Me on Schezuan Chicken

We arrived in Joe’s to find perfect temperatures and unparalleled psych.  I have literally never been so excited to go climbing.  We spent our first three days in Joe’s climbing all day long, from morning until dinner.  Every problem we got on was stellar.  My skin stayed awesome and I felt like I could climb forever.  It wasn’t crowded, in fact we were alone at almost area we went to.  Chelsea got into bouldering mode like I’ve never seen before!  She usually isn’t too psyched on boulders, but she was completely into it and sent her first V5!  It was a sweet little climb called Pockadoodle, and I was really excited to be able to flash it.  I also got to send my first V6!  It was called Cue Ball and it consisted of a big move out to a pocket, and then a very technical topout on really thin crimpers.  In the same area, I repeated Mono e Mono, a V5 that I did on our last trip to Joe’s.  Eric repeated Finger Hut V10, and sent some other cool lines like Coal Mind V9, Water Paintings V7, and Boux Sit V7. 

Joe's Valley Reservoir

Eric on Finger Hut V10

Eric on Water Paintings V7

Things must have been too good to be true, because after our third day of climbing we woke up to snow.  It didn’t matter much because it was supposed to be our rest day anyway, but when we drove into town and checked the weather, it forcasted precipitation for several more days.  With sandstone, you have to let the rock dry for awhile before you climb on it or you risk breaking it.  We decided to get in the car and head for Bishop!

Chelsea loves bouldering 

Chelsea on Pockadoodle V5

Bishop was super warm but well all managed to put a few things down.  Eric sent two really cool V10s- Acid Wash (Happies) and Denton’s Remorse (Druid Stones).  It was really cool to hike up to the Druid Stones because I had never been up there before.  Talk about a lot of rock!  I also repeated Serengeti V5, and Chelsea came really close to sending it, which was awesome!  It was also great to hang out with some of our friends from Reno, Heidy, Fabien and Ryann. 

Enjoying the sunshine at the Druid Stones 

The crew! (Minus Fabien who was taking the picture)

After a few days it was time to head back to the Bay to celebrate my Dad’s birthday.  Now I am in SLO, getting the car ready for my big move!  I’ll be heading out to Joe’s Valley for another day or two of climbing, and then I’m off to Minnesota for the summer for my internship.  If anyone knows about any climbing there, please let me know!

Patient's status: CURED.

P.S. I LOVE ROCK CLIMBING!!!!!

Big Bend and the Gas Fiasco

After our fun-filled day of adventure with Kathy, Chelsea and I woke up late and headed out to the Big Bend boulders just outside of Moab.  We pulled up to a nice looking boulder and jumped out of the car to check it out.  It was beautiful!  I haven't seen such a nice looking sandstone boulder in a long time.  I was psyched to try all the problems, which included a bunch of fun crimp lines.  After warming up, I jumped on a really cool V5 that started under a roof and moved out to a bunch of thin crimp matches.  I tried the line again and again, making more progress each time until I was just one move away!

An excellent problem at Big Bend

Unfortunately, that moved thwarted me, as my foot was still under the roof and stopped my momentum when I tried to lunge up for the last hold.  Nevertheless, climbing on this boulder got my extremely psyched for the next leg of our trip- Moe's and Joe's Valley!  I love sandstone bouldering and this little excursion just got me more excited.  We jumped in the car in our shorts and tanks, ready to escape the 80 degree weather.  Just a short time later, we were driving through a snowstorm.  We got out to get gas and nearly froze our buns off.  What a change one hundred miles can make...  Two snowstorms and many hours later we had crossed into Nevada.  (We were on our way to pick up Eric, who has been living in Bishop.  Quite the detour... I know!)  We passed a sign that said "100 miles to next gas."  Fortunately, we had more than half a tank left and 215 miles til empty according to our range.  100 miles later, there was no gas station.  At the junction for Highway 6, there was also no gas station.  Our tank started to dwindle, and so did our hopes of finding a gas station.  We slowly made our way up a mountain pass and then rolled down it, trying to stretch our mileage as far as possible.  We saw lights in the distance and crept ever closer to them.  They turned out to be a mirage.  (Not really, but not a gas station either).  At about 10 miles til empty, we passed a sign that said "116 miles until next gas."  Chelsea and I just looked at each other, and couldn't do anything but laugh.  "We're screwed."  We looked at our cell phones.  No service...  Since there really was literally nothing we could do, we pulled over on the side of the road and went to sleep.  I guess my internal balance must have gotten shifted after driving for the previous 9 hours, because when I stepped out of the car I wobbled and slammed the door on my thumb.  Owwww!

My obese, unusable thumb.  Fortunately, I've been able to climb without it

We crawled in the back of the car with Star and went to sleep.  Except I didn't sleep because my thumb was throbbing the entire night.  A total of two vehicles passed during the entire night, which did not bode well for the following day.  Eventually the sun rose and we saw that we really were in the middle of nowhere, and trying to walk to a town was definitely out of the question.  Chelsea made a beautiful sign out of box of pancake mix and a Sharpie that said "GAS."

Sad face.

Then we settled in for what we thought would be a very long day.  Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long until a car came.  Chelsea jumped out and danced on the side of the highway and the kind sir pulled over.  He said he would alert someone down the road about our situation and see if anyone could bring us gas.  A few others passed during the next hour and everyone had the same reaction to our situation, "wow this is the worst place ever to run out of gas!"  Yes, thank you for that helpful piece of information...  We had just put on a movie on when someone pulled up behind us with a 5 gallon gas tank!  Our hero!  Soon we were on our way and not too much later, we had arrived in Bishop!  What a happy ending to our epic night :)  We spent a day and a half in Bishop and got to climb a little bit before departed for Moe's.  I surprised myself by making a lot of progress on Pain Grain, a cool V5 in the Buttermilks.

Brother-sister teamwork climbing in the Happies

We have now been in Moe's for about 5 days and are loving it!  Expect a full update on our climbing here to come soon.  Within the next few days we will be moving on to Joe's.

Me working Underwhelmed V6 in Moe's.  More to follow!

Creek Wrap-Up

All smiles

I've never put so many photos in one blog post so I'll keep them smaller, but you can click on them to enlarge if you wish!  Indian Creek is always a humbling experience, with this trip being no exception.  When you come here, you must be prepared for a butt-kicking!  Chelsea, however, was awesome and led virtually every single climb we did, showing that breaking your neck and not climbing for a year shouldn't slow anybody down!

I tried to lead a few things and got scared.  I'm not sure why I have such mental blocks when trying to lead at the Creek, but fortunately Chelsea was there to rescue me each time.  I did have a few successful leads, including Chocolate Corner 5.9, one of our favorites, and an unnamed 5.10.  We thoroughly enjoyed the slow-paced life we led at the Creek, waking up late each morning, stretching and doing yoga in the sun, eating breakfast, and eventually making it out to the crag.  

Morning stretches

One of the excellent climbs we did

We climbed whatever looked most appealing, and at the end of the day headed back to camp for a delicious meal, card games, and early nights.  The weather got very, very, hot, which made our motivation a little lacking.  We soon realized that we could accomplish everything we wanted/had the ability to in two weeks, and so we left the Creek yesterday and are currently in Moab.  We had the very pleasant experience of meeting our friends Kathy and Drew in Moab!  Kathy is nearing the end of her time in vet school, and just finished her work at a teaching hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado.  She and Drew were headed back to California, and we were all psyched for the chance to meet up in Moab.

Kathy!

Drew, Chelsea, and Kathy on a bridge over the Colorado River

We headed to a local crag where Kathy put up a crack climb that all of us followed.  We then headed to the Moab Brewery for burgers and brews, for a jaunt out to the Colorado River, some much needed and very refreshing showers, a viewing of the Hunger Games, and gelato.  It was a great day!

Today Chelsea, Star, and I plan to check out the Big Bend boulders (here in Moab) if it isn't too hot and windy.  Then we will head westward and will be spending the remainder of our trip bouldering in Moe's Valley, and possibly Joe's Valley with Eric!  I'm psyched to meet up with Eric because I know he will push me to try harder boulders.  Here are a bunch more pictures from Indian Creek:          

Battle wounds!

Chelsea leading Coyne Crack 5.11+

Star dog!

Chelsea leading Scarface 5.11

Some sweet clouds

:)

Our home

Bridger Jack as the sun is going down

Making popcorn for our movie night with socks as oven mitts

The pupper

Trying to write my name with my headlamp

Stars and clouds

A night at camp

A Week in the Creek

A few pictures from our first week in the Creek...

A nice view

Star and the Six Shooters in the background

Sun rays shining on Anunnaki 5.11+/5.12-

Chelsea clipping the chains on Soul Fire 5.11

Star taking in the view

Star guarding the tent!

Oh hey life, what's up?

Good grief.  I’ve finished college.  This is a day that many doubted would ever come, maybe not due to a lack of academic prowess, but probably more to do with my efforts to spend as much time climbing and as little time in class as possible.  I think I did a pretty good job with that mission, and it is actually possible that I had close to as many climbing days as class days in the past four years.  Good work self, good work.

School’s out for the summer!  School’s out FOREVER! 

So wait, I’m done.  Like done, done, diggity done.  Like I’ve been in school for the majority of the past 18 years and suddenly I’m not and, and… holy s**t, is this real life?  I really haven’t pondered life after death school all that much, other than to think, ‘well it will probably be more fun, because I’ll have more time to rock climb.’  I should probably insert something insightful here, maybe some reflections on my college experience, but I’m already a million miles away (actually 1,808 miles, there were some detours, I’ll get to that in a minute), making my way towards Moab, UT.

What would motivate me to leave San Luis Obispo, the happiest city in America, at a sprinting pace, barely after turning in my last final?  Why, Indian Creek of course.  The desert paradise of splitter cracks.  And who should I choose to accompany me on this liberating journey to discover the meaning of life?  Why, Chelsea of course.  The only person who could be convinced via one text message, to quit her job the following day and head out to the desert to sleep on the ground for a month.

As I extracted myself from the back of my car this morning, where I had slept along with Chelsea and Star at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere, after driving for 10 hours straight, I was hit with a blast of 25 degree air and whole-body soreness that only comes from spending a night on top of a bag of dog food.  Welcome to life after college, Lo Pat, I hope you enjoy it.

I do not anticipate the probability of my impending homelessness with trepidation, but rather with excitement.  I find that my home on wheels offers a great deal of convenience and flexibility.  In terms of life plans, I do have some concrete ones, which include interning with Wilderness Inquiry in Minnesota this summer, where I will be a canoe guide on the Boundary Waters as well as taking on many other varied tasks.  After that, I will be meeting up with one of my best friends and first climbing partners in Vedawoo, Wyoming.  The plans stop there, but the ideas include relocating to Tahoe, Bishop, or Jackson Hole.  At some point, probably much sooner than I would hope, I will need to find a source of income.  But until then, let’s party on! 

On a sad note, my big boss man, Titan, severed his tendon while we were in Tahoe for a few days prior to departure for Moab.  I love Titan more than ANYTHING.  In fact, any guy who decides he wants to date me will have to accept the fact that Titan is my main man, and that he will always be second to my dog.  That being said, it was extremely hard to see him hurt, and even harder to make the decision that his best chance for healing properly would be for him to stay behind.  Thankfully he is in the good hands of my parents and sister and I know he will enjoy lying around on the couch.  We left him yesterday, and I already miss him terribly.  I hope he heals quickly and that he and Star will handle their separation well. 

Back to climbing.  Am I psyched?  Yes. Am I worried that the noodles that I used to call arms and hands, that have been laying dormant at my sides for the past six months may not be able to jam their way to crack climbing glory?  Slightly.  Will it all be ok anyway?  Yes.  I’m going to the desert, I’m going to climb rocks, and sleep on the ground and sit around campfires and stare at the stars and not take showers.  And it’s going to be amazing. 

Colorado Ski Trip

There's no better time to take off for an extended weekend in Colorado than mid-quarter, right?  Ah, senioritis.  Last Wednesday, Chelsea, Eva, and I flew out to Colorado for some skiing and to attend the first ever Winter Teva Mountain Games.  Because we are such fans of the summer games we figured we better check out what winter had to offer, and of course, you can't go to Vail and not go skiing!  Here are some pictures from the weekend.  

Riding the Gondola

Mixed Climbing Competition

Dual Bike Slalom

Me, Chelsea, and Eva

Photo by David Clifford on National Geographic's Site
Tele Big Air Contest

And here is a short video of some parts of the games.   I didn't really have time to edit it, sorry!