The Energizer

An unplanned afternoon of climbing at the Pit turned into an unplanned send of something I've been working on for a long time, "The Energizer." Rumored to have been put up none other than John Sherman solo, this climb has been really hard for me. The pit was the first place I climbed in Flagstaff, and this was one of the first climbs I tried. I got shut down really hard then, and have continued to get shut down hard, even up to two weeks ago (and on top rope). Jason and I decided to head out after work this afternoon, as he has been working on this climb for 7 years. After doing some warm up laps on Mr. Slate we decided to go for it. It was my turn first and with really low expectations I started up. Surprisingly the friction on this normally greasy climb felt great, and I rapidly pulled through the starting moves and up to the big throw. The same throw that we used to fall from repeatedly. I hit it static, and shocked tried to decide what to do next. I tried some new beta using a two finger pocket, and almost pulled the crux. After one hang I finished the rest of the climb! I'd never one hung, or two or three hung the climb before so this progress was really exciting. Jason's first go was a one hang, and then he got back on and got it clean. It was super inspiring to watch him fight his way through the crux and fight the pump to the finish. After two more tries I also fought my way through!!!! I feel as if I have finally broken the 5.12 barrier, as this was my third in two weeks. It is good to feel progression and to feel healthy!!!

Inspiration for the summer climbing season

The Sedona season has pretty much wrapped up. I'm still looking forward to some evening towers in the warmer weather, but for the most part it's time to shift focus back to the forks, peaks, etc... Surprisingly I've recently gotten back into sport climbing and it's been a blast. This has in turned inspired me to actually train a little and try to really break into the next level. For those that know me, I'm not one to train, and have self labeled as an elitist trad climber, mainly because of my lack of strength on sport and bouldering. When I bouldered and sport climbed more I felt as if every time I got strong I would get hurt.

Recently, and what will lead me into the second part of this post, is a change of diet. I've changed my diet to heavily represent food without many ingredients that is mostly unprocessed, and cut eating out back to less than a few times a month. Long story short, I've lost wait, and in turn have finally broken into the 5.12 barrier without getting hurt. So far all these years a simple diet change would have resulted in less injuries! Pretty common knowledge, and something I should have realized years ago. I've also cut down on my drinking, which for those who know, also wasn't exactly helping my climbing. This is all part of one of my next journeys and that is to try to almost completely localize my diet, and reshift my time into learning how to make things that I would have had to buy.

Inspired partially because my unexpected strength gain in climbing and partially from a book by Juliet Shor Plenitude I've decided to spend my free time (non market time) by expanding my knowledge of activities such as sewing, beer making, baking, carpentry, pretty much any skill that would allow me to become more efficient, save money, and find some "flow" in everday life.
Finally, I'd like to minimize my waste as much as possible, which I believe in turn will save me a bunch of money and force me to actually commit to the activities I just talked about. So to end this post, and to start a journey, some recent climbing pics!

Spring Break 2011

Just got back from an awesome spring break trip to Moab. After packing the car and starting to drive out of town to go to Red Rocks we found that our favorite coffee shop wasn't open, we had a small freak out and decided to stay in Flagstaff and cook dinner. The result of more in depth discussion that evening resulted in us deciding only to go to the Moab area for spring break and save some money. The first day of our drive put us in Moab around lunch time and afforded us time to climb at Potash road for the rest of the day.

We then continued on to Castle Valley a place I'd been once before, and consider one of the most amazing places I've been. This small town of around 370 was once a booming mining and farming town. Their website says

"Fremont and Ute people were in the area of Castle Valley long before white settlers arrived in the region. Arrowheads and shards have been found throughout the Valley, particularly around the unique "stone pile" located on the grounds of the old ranch house. Some claim this was a meeting place.

Up until the 1920's, the focus of the Castle Valley farming community was towards Castleton, then a small mining and sheepherding boomtown, and the post office/general store in Richardson, an outpost in Professor Valley. With the decline of Castleton and the disappearance of Richardson, Castle Valley's isolation led to the selling and consolidating of land into large ranching parcels. The "old ranch house" near the large cottonwood tree was the homestead of what eventually became the McCormick Ranch.

A monument located above Castle Valley to the southwest marks the spot of the 1881 Pinhook battle, in which eight posse members, two Moab cattlemen, and possibly as many as two dozen Native Americans lost their lives in a confrontation over land and misinformation.

When Castleton and Miner's Basin were "real towns" in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Castle Valley was a farming area. Brothers Mat and John Martin owned large spreads in the Valley, and Mat's son, born in 1886, was probably the first non-Native American child born here. The Martins' sister was married to Tom Parriott, who was a road worker and mail carrier and gave his name to Parriott Mesa."
The campground was nothing less than stunning and afforded us an amazing view of the climb we'd be doing the next morning.

We did the N. Chimney route on Castleton which was amazing. Good rock, adventure, and an incredible summit. The approach to Castleton is probably one of my all time favorite hikes.

Climbs for the new year

Every year I post up climbs that I would like to do in the new year, and every year I actually complete very few of those. It's good to be optimistic, but this year I'm going to be a little more reasonable in what climbs I chose.

Davidsons Dihedral, Paradise Forks, 5.11+
The Prosecuter, Sedona, AZ, 5.11
Oak Creek Spire, Sedona, AZ 5.9
Prusik Peak, Washington, 5.9
Chimney Rock, Cooper Hiser, 5.9
Three Turkeys, Paradise Forks, 5.11c
Make a trip to Granite Mountain!!!
Make a trip to Joshua Tree
Big guy and big boy at Indian Creek, 5.11 ow's
Jubilant Song, Red Rocks, 5.8
Ixtlan, Red Rocks, 5.11c
Inti-Watana to Res Arete, Red Rocks, 5.10

The Mace

Got on a really fun climb in Sedona this past weekend. I'd heard a lot of different stories about the rock quality down there and wasn't sure what to believe. It turned out to be pretty decent, a little sandy, but mostly solid. The Mace is on the NA classics list put out by the Los Alamos Mountaineers http://lamountaineers.org/NAC/browserf/climbs/mace/beta.htm , and I've yet to do a climb on that list that hasn't been spectacular. This was no exception.

Jason and I left Flagstaff at the leisurly time of 10:30am and drove down the winding, gorgeous highway to Sedona. I'd never been on this stretch of 89a, and theres loads of climbing in between Flagstaff and Sedona also. I'm pretty stoked for driving 30 minutes out of Flag this winter to escape to desert climbing. The trailhead was super easy to find and marked with a huge sign. The approach took about 20 minutes at an average hiking pace with great views abound.

The first pitch was an easy but run out 5.7 some sandy rock, pulling over a limestone roof to a huge belay ledge with one huge eye bolt. The next pitch fun 5.9 crack climbing to easy offwidth finish to yet another huge belay ledge with an eye bolt. The 3rd pitch was a very memorable traverse with a couple hundred feet of exposure into an offwidth/squeeze chimney. The 4th pitch, supposedly the crux, had some easy chimneying to a few 5.9 ish face moves into another offwidth, awesome! Once on top of the first summit you walk across set a belay and do the infamous step across move. This is where you have to fully commit to leaning over a 4 foot gap with 300 feet of air, and then full body stem traverse to a decent hold. Pretty sweet. The summit sported a unique register in a big metal canister that looked like it belonged on a ship. A huge metal pipe bolted down with 5 fatty bolts, with a crazy screw on top.

The rappel was also fun a full 70m of freehanging between the two towers.