Its been way to long...

It's been way to long since I've posted and that's because I've been even more busy than normal. Starting my job as a professor this semester has been amazing and overwhelming. I love teaching! I've also been training for a couple of big goals in climbing both at red rocks. In a few weeks I'll get on Resolution Arete, and then a few weeks after that make a go at the original route on Rainbow Wall. Both have been lifelong dreams, and I finally feel in good enough shape to take them on. I'll try to bring a camera on both of these routes!

Last weeks climbing...

My friend Earl was in town for the week and I got my full share of climbing in. In the last 7 days I managed to climb at paradise forks, west elden, priest draw, buffalo park, east clear creek, and the peaks (twice)! Got on a bunch of cool lines, but didn't take any pictures. Here's some highlights of routes from the week.

• Led Davidsons Dihedral again (5.11+)
• Figured out the crux on Sail Away (5.12)
• Redpointed the scoop climb at the peaks (5.11+)
• Finally led a crack at the peaks I've been oogling for a year (5.11)
• Did some classic deep water solo's at east clear creek, Sea King (5.11), The Shield (v3), and a ton of other super fun routes.

Also saw a pretty cool film that debates the idea of being a dirtbag. This is something I've often toiled with, so it was cool to see the film, and they had free beer.

I've often wanted to just get away, live out of my vehicle, and climb. However there is another side of me pulling, directing me to try to make beneficial social change. I don't think I could be a dirtbag, as my philosophy is centered around Hanna Arednt's notion of "the human condition," Freire's "unfinishedness of being," and my own vision of how to create change. Put simply, I feel it is all of our responsibilities to contribute to the betterment of our communities.

Here's a link to their site and the preview of the film. Definitely worth checking out.

http://www.23feet.org

Finally, I had a great time hanging out with good friends. It was just what I needed to find the motivation to sprint to the finish line with my thesis!

Photo of the week

I'm not usually one to photoshop much, but I was feeling creative and had this recent picture that I wanted to spice up. The picture of is of my friend Artec on his first 5.11 trad lead. The climb is the prow at Paradise Forks, AZ. The prow is probably one of my favorite 5.11- crack climbs. It starts with an offwidth, then goes to fingers, to ringlocks, to thin hands. For this photo I rigged a fixed line off a tree at the lip and rapped slightly over the lip. He went much quicker than I expected and was just pulling the crux bulge in time for me to take this shot!

Photo of the week

Had a great day in Oak Creek Canyon with John and Jon. Excited to get out swimming and to take the camera. I'm not great at water shots, and went with the intent of doing some experimenting. Things I learned. Wait until the sun goes over the canyon wall (obvious). Shoot upriver, don't know why but for some reason my shots turned out better that were pointed upriver. I shot this one in ISO 200 with a 0.8 second exposure at 16mm with my Sigma 10-20 and am pretty happy with the results. I think this summer will be a great opportunity to get out in the evenings and work on this type of shot.

Humbled by the desert

As I look at the scratches, cuts, and bruises on my legs and arms, and the soreness of my quads I think about how good it is to be humbled. Memorial day weekend is filled with people epic'ing on climbs, hikes, paddles, bikes, etc... I didn't think I would make a rookie mistake, but recent successes in climbing have made me over confident. The day started waking up at 4 am dropping Julia off at the Mesa airport for her flight to Arkansas. After driving back to Flagstaff (which took 4.5 grueling hours due to a car wreck) I got some coffee looked at the topo/approach for "the windows route" in Sedona, loaded my pack and got back in the car. Jason and I have had pretty good luck in the past with the "fun," approaches guarding the red rock giants of Sedona. This time however what we thought was going to be an easy 30 minute hike turned into 3 hours of bushwacking, kicking steps in inches of loose dirt covered slick rock, and the unrelenting sharp pokey flora that grows seemingly everywhere. Upon finding the climb on the opposite side of where we started and getting up to the saddle the wind was gusting around 50 to 60 mph. The decision to not climb was made, and luckily we'd brought summit beers. Albeit a failure of the summit the time spent outside was much needed and we celebrated our spiritual successes over the beer. The windows route looks awesome and I can't wait to go back and send!!! Here's a few pictures Jason took.

Photo of the week

I've spent a lot of time trying to get a good photo of Humpries Peak. It seems I'm always too late, too early, or the weather is just too good to get a shot. I've learned my lesson in the past of always taking my camera with me as I've missed many good shots. Last Saturday I got a shot that I think is decent, not great, but in the right direction of getting the shot I want. After hiking up to the saddle between Humphries and Agassiz on a gorgeous spring day we turned around to check out were we had just come from and the clouds were going crazy. The dormant volcano top looked as if it was sucking clouds into it. I took this shot in color, but thought that it looked better in black and white. I have to admit I used a set mode on the camera for it because the clouds were moving so fast and didn't have time to set it up properly. I used the depth of field mode as I wanted to highlight the prairie in front, the trees and top of the peak in the middle, and the sky in the back. The sky is easily the coolest part of the photo as it is multilayered.

Post school Moab trip!

To round off the school year we decided to do a three day trip to Moab. The weather was supposed to be unreasonably cold for this time of year and was in the lower 80's all weekend. The climbing went surprisingly well. I ended up onsighting an 11d mixed route that I'd repeatedly watched people epic on and 10 minutes later redpointed an 11b trad route to its right. We also got out to Mill Creek, which was RAD! I look forward to going back over the summer. I also can't wait for the late fall as my list of climbs in Castle Valley just keeps growing.... Here's a few pictures from the trip.

Picture of the week

I've decided to start posting a picture a week with a story of my inspiration and how I took it. Since the photo above is one of my favorites and one of my most planned I've decided to start with it. The photo was taken outside of Red Rock National Conservation area in Las Vegas, NV at the Kraft Boulders. As one walks down the trail the split in this boulder catches the eye, and begs to be climbed. The first time I went to Red Rocks I climbed this gem, and tried to take some pictures. At the time I had a cheap point and shoot, the lighting was bad, and the composition was awful. Five years later I came back with a tripod and a vision. I knew that the light would be perfect at in the early evening and to take the shot from the east side of the boulder. I got really lucky with this shot as the sky was cloudy, but the air was clear. I set up the tripod and my friend James climbed the boulder. It was Jame's first time chimneying but his form was great. I snapped off about 10 shots and this one turned out the best. I used ISO 200 and shot it with a 18-55mm lense at 18mm. For me this picture encompasses the freedom of bouldering. This problem tops out at about 25 feet and keeps the climber going until the end. Also with Jame's being a relatively inexperience climber I think it shows the natural movement disposition of people to climbing.

I'll be posting another picture next week!