Oh Colorado

I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of a pickup, FULL of teenagers rallying up the dirt road to the trail head where I slept in the back of the subbi.  6 were in the bed of the truck, their leader, proudly stood  one hand on webbing anchored to the bed, the other in the air like ridding a bull, he screamed with glee as he was almost thrown from the truck.   In my own private apocalypse, he was thrown from the truck, face first, into a tree.  After shattering his smug face his body bounced into the pond along side the road, he promptly drowned before any of his friends could get to him.

Sadly, the last part only happened in my mind.  Eff you Colorado, eff you.

I've been here less than 48 hours and have already encountered more indifference and ego than I have anywhere else in the world that I have traveled....combined.  People aren't outright rude, but damn, the indifference it burns and the utterly vacant eyes that everyone here has, it's damn unsettling.  It's like their souls found out they lived in Rado, packed up and got the fuck outta dodge!

Bad weather, good resting

Woke up today to howling winds and sand covering everything in my car.  It is actually perfect temperatures right now for climbing, with a nice breeze, but I guess Tobias's wife and child don't want to sit in a tent all getting hammered by the wind.  Weird huh?!

I've been in the Creek now for 5 days.  I haven't climbed anything of note, my ankles are absolutely killing me from these splitter cracks and I have 4 more days of suffering left.  I understand there are a lot of routes here, but damn, they are the same.  So boring, so painful, no fun at all. I can't wait to leave this place of brainless suffering.  I feel like there is some lesson here to be learned.  It occurs to me that maybe, while climbing, I need to start training myself to be positive.  I'm generally pretty upbeat off the rock, I feel happy and content, but these routes make me feel like shit while climbing them.  Somewhere in the suffering, I have know I need to figure out how to have fun...or maybe I'll just leave in a couple days and come back in a few years like I always do haha!

Here some pictures from my phone:

Looking out of the storm that stopped me from climbing at the Homestead with Esther=(

A gift for Adrianne=)

Impossible pool shot, Adrianne was quite proud of herself

Zombie

Mondo Finds a friend, a very submissive one

Right before mondo lost her ball

Mondo, creeping outside the tent

On the Road Again

And I can't wait to get on the road again.
On the road again -
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends.
Insisting that the world keep turning our way

-REO Speedwagon

I've now been traveling since February 14th.  It seems a little fitting that 6 years ago now on the same day a lot of things in my life changed.  My long term girlfriend cheated on me a couple days before and my childhood dog was put down.  It was a rough time for me to say the least.  I decided on that day that I was going to quit my job and move.  Aside from my parents living in Washington, there was nothing left for me there, all my friends left, the weather totally sucks and I had done all the climbing that I could do without serious training, training that typically ends up breaking me and leaves me weaker than before.

Well, this time around, 6 years later, I am just off a hernia repair and two months of sitting on my ass at my parents house.  Many thanks to them for sheltering me during my weak period of healing.  I know how frustrating it can be to have a dirtbag in your house that you can't seem to get rid of!

Mondo, just before leaving my parents house, aint she cute?

All that aside, I started out in Bishop California.  I had low expectations there after bouldering some easy problems in the gym and being terrified 5 feet off the ground that any fall would open up my stitches.  Well, after two weeks there, I was doing great! I did my first V7, High Planes Drifter, a problem that had shut me down on my previous visits there.  And, it felt easy!  After 2 weeks there I put down several V6s and down that had given me grief in previous years and alllllmost did Acid Wash, V10, but sadly my last day there saw temps around 75 degrees.  I was in no condition to try so hard in those temps with weak fingers, a weak gut and being scarred to hurt a finger so quickly after being couch bound for 2 solid months.

Mondo after driving from Washington to Bishop Cali

 I kept moving camps in bishop after getting sand blasted for days.  Every couple hours I'd clean out my tent and then it would look like this!  Horrible!

After Bishop Mondo and I headed to Moes Valley, just outside of Saint George Utah.  I met up with my old friend Prarie Kearney and met a new friend, Nicohol...now that I think about it, I owe her a phone call haha!

 I only hung out in Moes for a week, the weather got hot fast.  I did manage to send Bazooka Tooth, V10 and Loose Cannon Sit start V9.  Grades debatable, but still some of my hardest boulder problems and only 3 weeks on the road!  After hanging out in Saint George for a week I relocated 4 hours North East to Joes Valley Utah, famous for it's flawless sandstone boulders.

I met up with a few people I had met in Bishop in Joes and spent a solid 2 weeks there.  Sadly, I only busted out the camera one day and grabbed these few shots...all of Spencer, good thing he's fairly photogenic!

100% man meat

 I had a good time in Joes, sending Playtime is Over V9, Low start to Resident Evil V10 and Worm Turns V11.  Sadly I left a ton of project behind and might need to go back.  Though motivation will play into that a lot, I've dispatched a ton of a things in Joes, leaving only hard projects that I don't really think I can do.  Now I'm in Indian Creek with Tobias, top roping hard routes.

Next up, either more Moab or back to Joes...or Maybe Nulan Creek in Colorado!  We'll see!

Mission find home; Flagstaff

After our 32 hour drive Mondo and I arrived in Flagstaff Arizona.  We saw lots of interesting things on our drive out.  Mainly fat people.  Sweet mother of Pearl, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Texas must be the fattest states in the nation.   Everyone is massively obese in these states.  It was bizarre to arrive in Arizona and feel like something was off...it was the fit athletic people!  I hadn't seen one in a week!  Northern Texas reminds me of pictures of Soviet Russia, without the bullet holes in all the buildings.

I met up with Dustin and his dogs in Priests Draw.  I only took pictures of Sam, as Milo has yet to do anything more exciting than sit and stare at me...Sam basically does the same, she just looks better doing it.

 

The climbing in Flagstaff is generally STTTTTEEP, really freaking steep.

 

I stayed with Dustin and Adriane for the better part of 2 weeks, maybe a bit longer.  Climbing two days on and a day off for the most part.  From the first day, not being able to do anything on the steeper problems, I knew it was going to be a bit of a rough learning curve.  By the end though, I was able to put down problems that completely shut me down my first day, like Floor Pie, the hardest V6 ever created and others like Wife Beater, Move and Grove Barbie, Cosmic Bicycle, all rated V8 on 8a, though general consensus is around V6-8 on all problems, all fantastic!

All around it was great to finally make it down to Flagstaff.  I've been trying to figure out where I want to live next and this place is very high on the list.  Very little precipitation, climbing all year round if you are willing to drive 4 hours to Vegas, awesome people, small town but with everything you could hope from a big city.  They have 3 walmarts!!!