Arkansas Update

Well, today was day 4 on of consistent climbing and a lot has happened since the last update. We're now out of the Hartlerode's house and are shacking up in our cabin at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. Pretty good time. There are like 16 people or so that I know from the last summer here chilling and just enjoying the beautiful weather and awesome friendship. Here is a short recap with some pictures of the climbing during the last three days, leading up to today.

Day 2:

Ended up taking a bit of a rest of a rest day. Ended up repeating all of the same problems from day 1 at the ranch first go and called it a day. Here are some shots of the sends.

First move of Wild Flowers V3:


Topping out on nothing:


Start crimp of Slopadon Milsevic V5:


Bumping through the harder side pulls:


Bear hugging out through the top:


Getting the top sloper:


Topping out Slopadon...again:


Strolling away:



Day 3: Today I was able to get a send on High-Five a V4 dyno. Unfortunately, there are no pictures or video.


Working Memento V5...Still haven't sent. It sooooo hard for me:


Feeling like junk, and trying to get psyched for Miho V7 (Wayne has the video cam too, so video is to come):


Miho V7, the send photo sequence:

Crazy drop move knee to gaston:



The crux foot move:


Hard drop left knee into a full on compression move with the gaston and out to a good three finger crimp:


To the slopers on the top out:


Finishing it up:



Day 4:

Today, I was able to get two sends. One of the super cool Moondye Stand Start V4, which has this beastly dyno (video to come), and then also one of Chuckwagon V6 (pictures to come). Pretty psyched since today was supposed to be a rest day (HA!)

Happy New Year!

First Day Climbing

Went out to Horseshoe today for some bouldering an it went pretty well. Here is the tick list.

Trees, Shrubs, and Vines V2: Flash
Wild Flowers V3: Flash
Udaho V3: Second Go
War Bonnet V4: 3 Goes today and some goes earlier in the fall. Hard for me.
Slopadon Milosevic V5: 3 Goes

Pretty psyched for the day and I came really close to a cool V7 called Miho. Wayne, Lindsay, and Brian Martin were all able to get sends and hopefully K-Mart and I will be right on their tails tomorrow! Pics will be up when they become available.

Back home...

Well, I'm sure as everyone knows, the weather in the South East has been nothing short of terrible the last few days. As a result Drew and I bailed out of the Hartlerode residence on Monday morning making an eventual 10 hour drive through heinous conditions to Nashville to meet up with K-Bo and chill in a civilized town. Yesterday, we went to ClimbNashville and managed to get in a few pitches and do a fair amount of bouldering. Pretty good stuff and something I definitely needed since we only got in around a 1 and 1/2 days of climbing in AR. Bummer. I'm back home now though, and will be counting down the days until my re-arrival to the NW Arkansas area for hopefully a more successful trip!

Day 2

Day two was spent at a local crag here around Conway, and was definitely a ton of fun. We got a bit of a relaxed start and eventually met up with two of Wayne's friends Gene a Chris, who are both really strong. The majority of the problems were down in this old creek bed that had through time eroded the sandstone down to expose these beautiful 15-30 ft vertical walls with amazing caves all over the place. Needless to say, the majority of things we worked on were cave problems today, which are not really my strength. However, things went a little better than expect. Here is a quick photo summary of the day:


This is the "Warm-up" problem that rings in at about V4:


Drew on one of the big throws. This wasn't too friendly for the shorter folk:


This problem had several cool lock-offs with crossovers:


After this we worked a V6 in the same cave but none of us could get a send together besides Wayne's friend Chris. So we moved on over to this real cool high ball face problem called, Off the Wagon On the Town, for a bit.


Here is Wayne working through the crux up top. He used a different sequence than most, by using a crimp out and left which to get to he had to get in this precarious position about 12 ft. off of the deck. Yikes. :


Drew with the high foot pulling around to the crux:


I ended up getting a send of this on my 3rd go, and it goes for around V3. After this we moved down a little further to an area called the Whiskey Cave where we worked a cool, dynamic, and slopey V4 problem, that no one really knew the name of.


Hitting the big huck:


Getting the high foot for a drop knee:


Wayne moving out to the dished sloper:


Wayne making the final moves to the end jug:

Here is a quick video of me sending the V4:





Everyone back at Wayne's apartment looking at you looking at us on the blog!


Today, it looks like we're going to head to Fontaine Red (yes, it makes fun of the ever famous Fontainbleau with its name) to give some classics a go before the rain, and meet up with Tim from the last summer. If the weather turns south, we're probably gonna head to Horseshoe and hit up some of the stuff underneath the numerous large roofs!

Day 1 in AR

Drew and I made it in today at around 2 and were able to go and get some climbing in at around 3. Definitely psyched. Went well too. Did a warm-up, and a cool arete. After that we went and did this full value, awesome, boulder problem called Huecos and Dynos, V4. Here are some pictures of everyone and some of the climbing!


Sweet camper:


The "Whatta-Burger" where we met up with Wayne:


The problem starts matched in the low hueco, goes out to the sloper and bumps to the next hueco:


From there you pull through and gain a new crimp. Bump the left and to a side-pullish thing then make the dyno to the top hold!


This is with the crimp gained and getting ready for the throw:


Wayne after snagging the dyno hold:


Drew on Huecos and Dynos:


Lindsey on H&D:


Tomorrow we're heading to another crag down the road to hit this new V5/6 Wayne just sent. Hopefully Drew and I can follow suit!

Welp...

Tomorrow is go day! I'll be leaving Murray with Drew in the morning to head out to Conway, AR. There we will meet up with Wayne and Lindsey, both of whom I worked with this past summer, for 7-8 days of non-stop climbing on the beautiful sandstone of NW Arkansas. I've purchased a large amount of batteries and cleared the memory card of my camera off, so you can expect to see some pictures of the amazing sending that will surely be going down! I'm psyched!

Sweet!

Last Weekend At Jackson Falls

Well Drew came in like I said, and I'll give a real quick re-cap:

Saturday:

• Cold
• Easy boulder problems sent.
• Hidden Treasure .12a, three goes. Failure.
• More failure on V3 boulder problem.
• Watch guy break ankle.
• Go to bed

Sunday:

• Sunshine
• Fail on .10b.
• Work on Everybody Needs Friends .12a. Fail 3 goes.
• Check out 4 acre fire someone set above falls, while scared to death of being shot by hunters.
• Go home

That was very brief I know, but I just waited way too long to try and give a reasonable update. I've made it home though now, and since being here I've already managed to totally screw up my mom's computer, and not be able to fix my car. Great times...not. Happy Thanksgiving!

This Weekend...

Drew is coming in from ISU. Whoop!

P.S. It's going to be effing COLD!

Today

I went to the gym today. Yuck. There were so many meatheads. Not climbing one weekend is making things rough.

Jackson November 8-9

Well, it looks like I'm going to be spending my first entire weekend in Murray. Not too excited about that little fact, but it has already been a pretty nice experience since I was able to sleep in until 9:00 this morning! It was awesome! Now I'm making pancakes and going to do some homework and get some studying done. Anyways, on to the climbing events of last weekend...

Friday night, I headed up to Jackson with Mike C. and we hung out for a while and waited for Carmen and Chris, two friends from Nashville, to make it in. They came in, we hung out for a bit and then decided to turn in so we could have an early start on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning we were able to get down into the falls by 9:30. Promptly we went over to Royal Arch wall to do some warming up. I set up Deetle Dumps 5.8 and everone else gave it a run through on lead as well. Pretty awesome. At the top I went ahead and set up a TR on the .11c that is between Deetle Dumps and Arch Angel. I gave that like two goes on TR and have nearly figured out all the beta and it could possibly go clean here sometime in the near future. I also led up The Meanest Flower 5.9 which is a really cool climb! Just might be my favorite for the grade at Jackson. Next, we ran over to Lovely Tower and I sent Lovely Arete again, to get some draws set on Hidden Treasure .12a. I ended up giving Hidden two goes and while I didn't get the send I was able to get it both times with only one fall. I'm pretty psyched still, because hopefully it'll go sometime here in the near future. After that Carmen and Chris got in a few more climbs on Spleef and we called it a day. Oh AND Mike made it all the way through this gnarly .12d slab that was just put up a few weekends ago. Kudos to him. I didn't even want to consider trying that stuff.

Sunday, we woke up and headed down to Manky Alcove and warmed up on The Essence of Manky 5.9 and I ended up taking a few falls for Chris and Carmen so that they could get some good practice giving a good catch. After that Mike went up Creep Show .10a, and we also we up a new .10a/b that was put up on the outside arete. I also went down inbetween some climbing and did some bouldering with a few local guys and sent a few V2's. We ended up not really moving from this area all day and I climbed Creep show like 4 times but never got back on Access Denied .11c. After that we all went ahead and left as Chris needed to be back early to prepare for his trip to Ecuador!

It definitely was a pretty great weekend and I really hope that I can climb with that group of people again sometime here in the very near future. Was definitely my favorite time of the fall. Next weekend it's looking like Drew is going to come down from ISU and climb at Jackson with me and Carmen is looking at the possibility too. I think it could be another pretty awesome time. I'm definitely psyched to climb and hang w/ Drew again! We're even looking at the possibilities of a trip down to Horseshoe as soon as school is done for me in early December! Sooo much climbing to do!

Hope everyone is doing well and I'll be seeing most everyone here in the next two weeks!

Hump Day

Today has been like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I've finished nearly all of my practicum in one class, am completely done in another, and only have next week in the rest! After that there is going to only be about one week of school left and then I'll have the entire Christmas break for climbing and traveling for climbing! This weekend is looking like it's going to shape up to be great. A few friends are going to be coming up from Nashville to climb at J-Falls, I have some good projects to work on, and I'm feeling good and psyched after a work out today! We'll be seeing how the weekend goes!

J-Falls Weekend 11/1

Well like I said I was able to make it to Jackson Falls this weekend...again. This has pretty much been the most consistent thing in my life outside of school. I couldn't think of anything else better to be so consistent on either. Here is the breakdown of the days climbing...

Saturday:

Taylor and I made it in to The Falls at around 12 in the afternoon and quickly went down and warmed up at Spleef Peak on Through the Smoke 5.9 and Rattler 5.10a both really cool climbs. After that we went directly over to try Amoeba Brains a .10d that is really aesthetic but unfortunately sucks. I didn't come anywhere close to redpointing and after Taylor gave it a quick TR we quickly moved on over towards Battle Axe Tower. Once there I got on a cool .11b with amazing moves called Splinter Faction. Unfortunately though, I had the dumbest and wrongest beta possible and came down after flailing around trying to get to the 4th bolt for some time. After that some guys we just met up with gave it a few runs and both got it onsight. They also had TR setup on Viking Blood a .12c and Taylor and I were both able to give it a go. That this is freaking SWEET! I came no where close to getting it clean but it has some awesome moves and crimps! I dig crimps! Later that night Dave Downey ended up camping out with us and made Taylor and I look like sissys when we both insisted on going to bed at 8p.m. and then beatings us up in the mornging when we slept till 8:00 after the time change.

Cheerio Bowl:


The awesome rest on Cheerio Bowl:


Sunday:

Started out by heading down to The Gallery to try and warm-up. Didn't happen so we went over to Hidden Peaks and Warmed up on Stubborn Swede 5.8 and Cheerio Bowl 5.10a. Both are pretty classic routes for the area and good fun. After that I was able to give a TR go for on a .12a called Detox Mountain. It's amazing and so overhung and pumpy. I fell I think 4 or 5 times. It might go sometime in the spring if I can keep climbing as consistently as I am now. After that Taylor and I went over and started up on Access Denied .11c. I made it through very roughly too, but it has to be one of my favorite routes of the fall. It has some really great moves and it is all very vertical and crimpy. That's my style. I made it through that pretty sketchily though, and gave it a TR go again and found out all of the correct beta and can't wait to get back on it for a red point go!

Detox Mountain:


Next weekend it is looking like some friends of mine from Vanderbilt are going to be coming up for some climbing at J-Falls, which is guranteed to be an awesome time! I'm psyched and can't wait to take advantage of the inevitably awesome temperatures!

"Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane..."

Well not really. But I am about to pack up into Taylor's Jeep and we're off to J-Falls for the rest of the weekend! I'll be sure to update things when we return! Oh yeah! I tied for 11th in that comp in nashville out of like 31 people. I suppose I'm happy with that.

Last weekend at J-Falls

Well on Saturday I drove in to Jackson and met up with my friends Will and Chris, and their friend Carmen for some climbing. We headed out around 1 p.m. and quickly went down to Lovely Tower and I led up and red pointed Lovely Arete .11a again. On the way down, I set the draws up on a cool .12a I had been wanting to lead for quite a while now, Hidden Treasure and gave it a go after a good rest. It went quite well too. I made it through the lower bouldery section fine and all and got in a good rest before the third bolt clip. After the traverse across on tiny crimps I clipped the third bolt and then nailed the dead-point crimp (which is the crux) and in the process of getting my right foot up I took a fall. I fell once more after that in the same spot but was quickly able to finish it the next time. Pretty psyched and I think that with a little more strength it should go sometime in the winter or possibly in the spring. We'll see. After that we went over to Spleef Peak and I was able to red point two .10a's that I'd been meaning to get for a while, Rattler and The Garden Route. I also gave a really cool boulder problem, THC a go but couldn't finish it up.

Sunday we woke up and went over the Mr. Jimmy and dallied around for a while and I didn't really have anything there that I was too psyched to get on. After that though everyone decided to go to the whole other side of the canyon to The Ranch area and do some stuff over there. When we got there I was able to onsight a pretty cool .10b called Southern Inquisition that's super bouldery and kinda scary through the top section. After that I rappeled in and set up TR on a .12a called Cowboys and Crossdressers. I worked that for a bit and figured out most of the moves. Finally, we headed back and I threw down sloppily on Cranial Implosion .12a and fell once, and didn't try again since it was getting dark so quickly.

That's pretty much it. This weekend is looking to be pretty cool too though. Friday, I'm probably gonna head to Nashville to climb in the ABS competition and hang out with Will and Chris there that night and then try and head back up for Jackson on Sunday. Should be great!

Jackson Falls Weekend

I was lucky enough this weekend to spend the past three days living my dream at Jackson Falls in Southern Illinois. Pretty awesome! I cruised in on Friday night and stayed through today, climbing with tons of people and getting to climb on tons of new stuff! Here is a quick recap:

Saturday:

I camped with Evan and Katie, who are both from the Chicago area, and we woke up early to head out to a very hard to find sector at Jackson Falls called The Promised Land. It's pretty awesome, and was named because of the high potential of really amazing lines that were there. They were right.

When we got there Evan and I warmed up on an awesome .10b called XOXO (hugs and kisses), which I sufficiently sucked it up on by falling once and then taking twice after that I believe. It was a really cool overhung route though. The kind of line that I really love, but the kind of line that I'm not so great at due to my lack of endurance on that style. Next, we went over and I TR'd an .11a called better late than never that I was able to get clean. Maybe, I'll lead it next time. After that Evan led up a few .12's that I decided to not get on and then we left. On the way back though I was able to stop at Industry and give it one quick go and reached a high point just past the 3rd bolt. It will hopefully go soon with the change in temps coming up this next weekend.

Sunday:

Evan, Katie, and I woke up, and had an epic after Evan locked the keys in their car. Mike ended up coming in too and we were finally off and hit up The Sophomore a super run out 5.9 that I luckly onsighted. Then, I moved over and flashed this cool .10c called Tons of Fun that Evan had just set the draws on. After that we cruised over to the Mr. Jimmy Boulder and did an .11b variation of this arete route called Piss Ant. I led it up but took a fall and had I believe another 2 or 3 takes. It was pretty stout for sure. After that Evan and I hit up Who Needs Friends a super stout 5.12a. I led it up through the 3rd bolt, clipped the 4th draw in but since I have no endurance I just couldn't stick with it and took the whipper and let Evan have his 10 minute epic near onsight.

Monday:

With Evan and Katie gone I ended up hooking up with an old climbing parter of Dads, Dave Downy. It's definitely really cool to get to climb with him and it's really great to to watch him climb harder than me and he's like 60 something. We got up and chilled out for a bit in the morning and then warmed up on TR on a trad route called Suspended Animation 5.9, which I was able to turn into a 5.10 with my terrible beta. Next, we went down and I was able to onsight a cool .10b at The Gallery called Deep Throat. After that, Dave and I husseled over to Big Star Wall and I gave an onsight go of The Birthday Route, 5.10b, which I flubbed up about 4 bolts up by missing some dumb hidden foot hold. Go figure. Next, I was successfully able to onsight another route, also a .10b, and it is called Alaska. It wasn't my favorite. It was nice to be able to really get to work on some of my endurance on that route though. Finally, Dave and I ran over and I gave a go on Group Therapy, one of the best .10c's at Jackson, and probably even in Southern Illinois. I sucked it up on that one too. It's basically and overhung jug haul, not my style...yet, so I ended up taking a few times and having a fall. Kinda bummed because it would have been really nice to have red pointed that one. There is always next time.

That's pretty much the weekend in a super quick summary. Definitely, was worth it though and I think that I might finally be getting some endurance back! I can't wait to be back to full form for sport. It looks like I'll be at JF again for next weekend too so I'll definitely be posting some stuff up after next weekend! I hope that everyone is doing well!

A little more of the wall...

Here are a few pictures and a video of recent climbing on the wall! Thanks to Taylor for everything.

This Weekend

Well, it looks like it should be a pretty good up coming weekend. My friend Katie from Chicago is coming down with one of her friends and I'm gonna climb with them Saturday and most of Sunday I believe. After that, I'm hoping that I should be able to meet up with an old climbing friend Dave Downy, back from the days when we climbed with dad, and one of his friends and continue the climbing on into Monday! Pretty psyched! Especially since 3/4 of my classes were already canceled for Monday. It's gonna be awesome, and I'll definitely be trying to take some pictures!

Horseshoe Canyon Ranch and Jackson Falls

Wow. These last few days have undoubtedly been quite a whirlwind, with me being what feels like all over the place with fall break.

On Thursday, I was fortunate enough to have my class and work canceled and I headed out at around 10 a.m. to Jasper, Arkansas to meet up with people that I worked with the past summer and do some climbing at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. I was definitely satisfied with my experience. I cruised in on Thursday evening close to five and jumped out of my car to go and get some quick bouldering in before it got too dark. I was quickly able to dispatch a few problems one being an interesting V1 arete and the second a cool pockety problem called Bottoms Up, weighing in at V2. I also did a problem that I thought was V3 but I messed the start holds up so it might have been a little easier. Still would have been probably hard V2, in my opinion.

Friday day rolled around and my friend Kevin Martin was there for me to go and do some climbing with. We were up relatively early, and then headed right up to a sector called 'The North Forty.' First, we warmed up on a pretty cool little 5.8 named Green Goblin that wasn't too bad. Next, we decided to just jump straight into the business and both were able to nab an ascent of Sonny Jim 5.11b, mine being a flash due to Kevin's onsight. It's definitely a cool route and has a cool balancy crux to a cool roof pull. Next, I led up a 5.10a called Season of the Storm and got that flashed. Finally, Kevin and I both gave another 5.11b called Big Top a shot and man was it hard. It's a super overhanging jug haul, but just not my style and I took several falls, and felt pretty pathetic. After this we decided to call it quits for the morning and went down and took a siesta.

Green Goblin:

The roof you pull on Sonny Jim:


In the evening my friend Wayne and his buddy Josh rolled in and we headed out to the Idaho's to do some quick bouldering. With a bit of help from Wayne on beta, I was able to finish a desperate V4 called Dig Dug that is a classic for Horseshoe and then I was able to nail another V4, Make You Cuss Arete, on the second go! Next, we did a really cool V3 slab problem called The Crescent. Not too bad of an evening session and I was almost able to send another V4, War Bonnet, but just missed it from muscle failure. It'll have to go during the winter trip!

Saturday, the weather ended up being pretty crummy in the morning so I decided to cruis back to KY, and ended up climbing at Jackson Falls today. My sister Lauren also came out today which was quite a surprise and she was kind of a good luck charm...of sorts. What I mean is I was finally able to figure out the top out sequence for my 5.12a project Industry. Pretty cool and definitely pretty physical. My beta involves getting a jam of sorts on a vertical seam at the bottom where water pools when it rains and then crossing up and hitting another identical hold with my right index and middle finger. Definitely feels pretty burly and there is probably some better beta but it works! I gave it two goes today and on the second I was able to make it completely through with only two falls, one of which being in a section that I typically have on lock down. I really hope that this will go sometime in the next few weekends! I'd love to sleep well again!

Other than that now I'm studying my butt off for the two exams that I have tomorrow. Yuck, and I guess I need to get back to that!

Jackson Falls

Well, we made it out to Jackson again this past weekend. It went fairly well I suppose. Drove out on Saturday night, after the pre-service weekend, and camped up above one of the falls. Definitely a pretty awesome camping spot. After that we went down and did a few boulder problems in the dark at the Reefer Madness boulders. Good fun, and I found a few cool little projects to work on.

Sunday morning we all ended up sleeping in until like 9:30 and then we headed right down the dog walk over the the Manky Alcove, where Kevin had a few things he wanted to get on. I started out with a nice 5.9 redpoint of The Essence of Manky. It's a pretty odd climb that works up a stem dihedral and then towards the top you have to end up liebacking on some good holds. Pretty cool all in all though. Next, we went over and I got the onsight of Creep Show, a 5.10a. It sucks. I don't recommend that route to anyone. Next, I really wanted to get on something that would be tough for me, and I sure found it. It's a pretty cool and really overhung route called Industry which is 5.12a. Stick clipped the first bolt and then flew right up to the third bolt, which I thought had been the meat of the climb. Unfortunately, I was wrong. From the third bolt up to the anchors involves pulling around a corner to get to a little slab and then it would be cake. Unfortunatley, my beta sucked at all times and I could never get to the top and ended up having to bail after my second go. I'm definitely gonna give it another go here sometime soon, when the weather cools off!

Here are some pictures from the climbing.


Clipping the first bolt:


Chalking up:


Kevin working up the route:


On the .10a. It sucked:


Right now is before a whole lot of grunting and whining started:


On the .12a. You can tell how overhung it is by looking at how my quickdraws are falling:


Clipping the second bolt:


Stuck, and hang-dogging it at the 3rd bolt.


A shot of me hoisting Taylor up to the 3rd bolt so he could try the top. If you look at how he is hanging you can again see how overhung the route is: