Preparations

Christmas is over, and the time is drawing near for the road trip to begin. The route has severely shrank, but the psyche is still there and I'm hoping to get things officially kicked off on Monday!

While at my Grandparents' house for Christmas I was able to make some small changes to the Jeep so it will be more compatible with the road trip lifestyle. Papaw and I managed to snag the seat bottom out and then add in a small sheet of plywood over the top to allow for a little more headroom and also to create an awesome little storage nook for all of my food. Today, I started packing things into some small tupperware containers and getting the last of my laundry done up so that things will be ready to go a.s.a.p.

If I do get to leave on Monday I'm going to be heading down south to Georgia for the first leg of the trip. The destination: Rocktown; an epic bouldering crag outside of the small town of La Fayette. Right now, I have the intent to hang there for around 2 weeks and then it will be off to Arkansas to pull on some more stellar sandstone slopers! I can't wait to get things rolling!

A week in SoiLL

Well the last week has been spent in the company of some great old friends, and also with a few amazing new ones. We've explored some great new areas in SoiLL and have been fortunate enough to get some sends along the way. It was great to climb so long with Wayne too, he's definitely kept steadily improving and he did very well for himself in this new sandstone environment. Here are a few pictures from Wayne's camera from the week...

Sending Buzz Arete V4 at Giant City State Park

Wayne flashing the Center Line V3 at Giant City State Park

Wayne nailing the crux of R.I.P V6 at The Graveyard

Sticking the crux move on Bug Eyes V5 at The Graveyard

Sporting the awesome scarf that Mom made me.

Phillip cruising Shorty the Pimp 5.13a at Jackson Falls.

Wayne working into the crux of Shadow of a Man V5 at the Holy Boulders.

Inspired.

Topping out Enlightenment V5 at the Holy Boulders.

Beautiful sandstone slopers at the Holy Boulders.

My ticklist for the time here looks something like this...

V6

Pinch Me

Big Dyno Problem

V5

Enlightenment

No Name Problem

Bug Eyes

V4

Buzz Arete

Wedlock

Arete Problem

Broken

Gill Roof - Flash

No Name Problem

V3

Punch Drunk

The Center Line

Big Pinch

Skeleton - Flash

Formaldehyde - Flash

Hornball

Mollusk - Flash

Face Problem - Flash

V2

No Name Problem

Cracked Skull - Flash

V1

The Tomb - Flash

V0

Devil's Arete - Flash

Eye Sockets - Flash

Next Week

Well Graduation is today, and tonight will be some festive events. But, starting Sunday night I'm gonna be chilling in Carbondale for a week at Kevin Martin's house and climbing all over SoiLL. I'm psyched and Drew and Wayne are gonna be cruising in too, with the possibility of Brian Martin being there as well. I'm gonna be getting left behind by everyone. Crap! At least I have a tan.