I’ve been in Squamish for a month now and it seems like I’m just getting to know the area! The bouldering here is massive, I have been busy just ticking off the moderate classics. The forest is dense and beautiful with boulder after boulder waiting to be climbed. The forest is so thick that it keeps the heat out and is a good ten degrees cooler than out in the open. The climbing style here tends to be technical with lots of slabs, aretes, and mantels. It’s a really fun style of climbing that challenges you to be more than powerful.

Jeremy on Undertow V7

There is something for everyone here. If you like low moderates, hop on Easy Chair. If you like highballs, check out Ride the Lightning, Teenage Lobotomy, Funeral Arrangements. If you like borderline free solos take a gander at Straight Outta Squampton, World of Hurt, or The Broom.

A lot of people travel to Squamish in the summer and it’s easy to see why. The campground is right next to the bouldering at the grand wall and the town of Squamish is a 30 minute walk so you really don’t need a car to be here. Lots of rad people are here now from all over including El Paso, Quebec, Florida, Oregon, New Mexico, Flagstaff, etc. Friends are easy to find in the forest so it’s never a problem to rally some pads for a highball session! It’s a good mix of people and I’m sure more are coming in the next few weeks.

Me on Agoraphobia V11. Hoping to send tomorrow!

The weather hasn’t been stellar, with rain dropping on a regular basis but there have been enough dry days to get a lot done. According to the locals this year has been one of the wettest in recent memory. July and August are usually the driest months here so we’ll see how we fair this month!

The Chief

I was fortunate enough to meet a couple other climbers looking for a roommate a few weeks ago so I’ve finally moved out of the truck! At least for a few months. We can see the Chief from our living room so needless to say the boulders are right around the corner from us! It’s a pretty phenomenal place to spend a summer. I have a place to edit video, there is a ton of rock to be climbed and filmed, not to mention breathtaking views to be found right outside the front door! Life is good in Squamish! If you’re planning to make it up here this summer, give me a shout!

I snapped this photo on a run I went on last week! I don’t ever run so that’s new!

And on an unrelated note, here’s a funny still I found when I was working on the Idaho footage! Apparently I start making weird faces after hanging out in Idaho by myself for a week!

I got grilled at the border crossing into Canada last week and I didn’t have the right answers to their questions so I had to go inside and talk to a border officer.

“Where are you from?” Um, I’m not sure, my truck says I’m from GA.
“How long will you be in Canada?” I don’t know, a month or two?
“Why do you want to go rock climbing in Squamish for two months?” Because that’s what I do?

They couldn’t understand what I was up to but luckily they let me in!

The weather has been pretty good since I’ve been here.  It’s been in the 60′s and hasn’t rained too much.  I wasn’t planning to come up here quite so soon but that’s how the journey goes, it’s often unexpected.  I’ve been climbing, getting to know the area and some of the locals.  I’ve been fortunate to hang out with Tim Clifford who lives in Squamish and works at blurr, one of my amazing sponsors. He’s been educating me on all sorts of things!  When I told him I had been climbing for ten years he said, “Oh, so not that long then.” Would you believe he started climbing before I was born?!  Just four years ago he established The Singularity, an as yet unrepeated V14 here in Squamish. He is a bit older than the average boulderer but still climbs harder than I do!

View from the Chief

My original plan was to be heading back to Atlanta within the next few weeks to spend time with my family and lock myself in a room to edit my movie!  I will probably try to get most of my filming done here in June and hit the long road back East as planned. Alternatively I might try to stick around Squamish for most of the summer.  It’s considerably colder here than Hotlanta, plus it’s beautiful and there is an abundance of bouldering!  We shall see, I have been itching to actually have a home that doesn’t have four wheels so hopefully I can make that happen soon one way or the other!

Squamish

Asher

My latest video is up on Deadpoint Mag!  It was shot in Joe’s Valley in March and features a young lad by the name of Asher who is a delightfully talented and funny 16 year-old from Denver.  His sister is the legendary Flannery (aka Flannigans).  Please share the video with your friends and be sure to click the “Like” button below the video!

Since my former life with a home and a 9 to 5 job, a lot has happened! I have traveled to a lot of places, met amazing people in each place and I climbed a LOT of boulders! Here are a few stats from the past 1.5 years of my life:

• Miles traveled: 39,500 miles. 30,400 by air and 9,100 by car. For perspective, the circumference of the earth is less than 25,000 miles!
• Continents: 3
• Countries: 6
• States: 19
• Longest flight: 8,400 miles direct from Johannesburg to Atlanta. 16 hours in the air!
• $$ spent: ~$10,000 for the six month trip to Europe and South Africa. Haven’t tallied any US travel expenses yet.
• Boulders climbed: 1,500. Total guess based on 3 days a week climbing and 7 ascents per day (not necessarily new or hard ascents). I think this is the reason I feel a lot more comfortable on rock than when I started. I’m not climbing much harder but I’m more well rounded and technically proficient than when I started the trip!
• Double digit boulders climbed: 55
• Hard boulders climbed during two-month Fontainebleau trip: 1
• Time required to send first hard boulder in Switzerland: 2 hours
• Nights spent in a hotel: 5 (family sponsored!)
• Times stuck in the snow: 2
• Nights spent in the truck: 150
• V9′s flashed: 22
• Favorite part of traveling: the unexpected connections with people that change your course and experience
• Least favorite: not having a home
• Favorite area: Rocklands, South Africa
• Most impressive thing I have done: created 10,000+ hours of entertainment through bouldering videos watched in over 90 countries
• Biggest failure: The Vice V13, Rocklands.  Hard compression was a new challenge for me!  Projected for 10 or 11 days.  Got through the cruxes on one of my last days but couldn’t pull it off!
• Time spent at McDonalds on the internet/editing video: way too much!
• Biggest mistake: renting a 35 year old beetle in South Africa!
• Places visited that I want to live: Bellinzona Switzerland, and Leavenworth Washington
• Favorite rock: South-East sandstone
• Most desperate moment: When some of my belongings ended up in my friends car when they left Rocklands to head home.  I was left with no car, no tent, no sleeping bag, and no jacket!  I was saved by the rad community of climbers living in Rocklands so it worked out fine but I felt alone for a minute there!
• Favorite boulder problem: Tie between Splash of Red V10 in Rocklands and Wet Dream V12 in Red Rocks Nevada
• Scariest send: Kill List V11, Joe’s Valley Utah.  Sent 3rd try ground up and was not expecting it!  Should have at least looked at the top on top-rope first!  My fingers were going numb and I started to have an asthma attack topping out!  ahh!
• Most epic send: Vecchio Leone V13.  Sent with a hurt back, couldn’t stand up afterwards and went to the hospital the next morning! Honorable mention goes to Green in the Face V13 which was a huge mental battle to climb it by myself.
• Girls impressed by climbing V13: 0

When I started climbing I NEVER would have imagined my climbing would have progressed the way it has and I never would have imagined climbing would take me to such amazing places and given me so many great experiences. The reason I say that is to encourage everyone that you can do it too. If you want to climb V10 or grade X, put in the time and energy and I bet you can make it happen. I think the people that progress the quickest aren’t necessarily the most talented, they are the most motivated. If you climb a lot and you try HARD every time you pull on the rock then you’re on your way to your goal, whatever that may be. I would also encourage everyone to focus on more than a number goal.  Numbers are a good indication of strength but don’t say much about technique or style which are at least as important as strength.  I’m more impressed by someone that is well rounded and can climb consistently and look good doing it than someone who can occasionally bust off a harder climb.  If you live in a place like Fontainebleau this will come easily due to the nature of the rock but if you mostly climb in the gym or in steep areas then you may have to go out of your way to get on a slab or techy climb.

The same applies for travel. Sometimes people get in the habit of dismissing a goal or dream because it seems unrealistic for them. If you want to go to Fontainebleau or South Africa, then make it happen! I’m not the most motivated person in the world, so if I can do it, so can you! Save up some money, make sacrifices if you have to.  I’ve met a LOT of climbers that don’t make much money but they will live out of their van or truck during the year just so they can take that big trip to South Africa or Europe.  Lots have been doing it year after year.  They may not be the wealthiest people you know but they love to climb and travel so that’s what they do!  Not everyone is willing to live out of their car but there is always a way to reach a goal.

Ok that’s enough advice for one blog post!  Go climb!  Go travel!

I’ve been living in Leavenworth Washington for the better part of six weeks filming for Western Gold. The climbing here is fantastic and the people are even better. Leavenworth is a proper climbers’ town with an awesome community who call it their home. It didn’t take long to make friends here and I’ve been tempted to live here myself.

A few things I have noticed during my stay in Leavenworth:

• Everyone has proper technical climbing skills, it’s part of the nature of the climbing here.  Much like Fontainebleau there are lots of slabs and vertical climbs that require more than strength for success.
• Grades aren’t much of a concern here.
• The locals always wear a chalkbag.
• A “slick foot” is a climb you can do in your tennies.

Leavenworth and the surrounding area has everything to offer from bouldering, sport & trad climbing, to skiiing, snowboarding, hiking, alpine climbing, mountain biking, and more. It’s an adventurous community, everyone is into at least one outdoor sport.

Enjoy a few stills from the movie!

Rob Lewis climbing 'Was'

Kyle O'Meara well off the deck on Cremation of Care

Rob's trademark smile on the river in Index

Kyle fighting on the second ascent of All of the Above

I’ll be in Leavenworth for at least two more weeks and maybe longer?

Castle Rocks

My two rest days over the weekend were wholly uneventful, Sunday especially so. The only place to sit inside with wifi was closed and being 35 degrees and windy meant I spent most of the day in my truck reading and playing angry birds. Actually one thing did happen, I managed to run the battery in my truck dead since I was listening to music all day. I had enlist the help of Friendly Idahoan #2 to give me a jump.

Monday finally came and I had a slow morning waiting for it to warm up a bit before I started my hike out. After warming up I hiked up to the green wall.

The piece of a hold I had the misfortune of breaking on day 1

After two rest days I figured I had 3-5 decent tries before my fingers would be shot. There was a chance of rain/snow in the forecast for the next four days so the pressure was on! On my first go of the day I fell towards the end where I’ve fallen a few times before.

Fail

At this point I was starting to wonder whether I could pull it off or not. I was as fresh as could be and conditions were good so I had no excuses. I decided to feel the hold I missed on that attempt so I stacked all four pads precariously to reach it. I chalked it up and placed a good tick mark so I had a clear goal to hit the hold that otherwise blends into the rock. I had only stuck that hold once from the ground and knew I had a good chance of sending if I could just stick it again.

After a long rest I rallied from the start.

Pulling onto the start

Finishing the 1st crux section

I executed the first 5 moves and screamed to desperately grab the small peanut hold.

Going for the peanut (you can see it if you look hard enough!)

I did another move and threw for the hold I’d missed on the last attempt.

The same moment in time from camera #2

I stuck the move and went for the final crux, a huge move to a big sidepull at the top.

It was desperate but I grabbed it and maintained body tension to adjust the feet and finally grab the jug.

Manteling for the win

After a slightly scary mantel over the rocks I was on top! I had just completed the boulders’ third ascent and it was the first boulder I had topped out in Idaho other than the V2 warmup.

All that was left to do was hike out…

2 big pads, 2 regular pads, 2 cameras, 4 lenses, 2 tripods, stickbrush, shoes, food, water...

I’ve got one other solo mission to attempt tomorrow and then I’m off to Washington for a few weeks.

All the images above are video stills from my upcoming film Western Gold.

I rolled up to Almo, Idaho on Monday night. Almo is home to two climbing areas: Castle Rocks and City of Rocks. From what I can tell so far they are both fairly small in terms of developed bouldering. Fortunately a few locals we’re coming out to Castle Rock on Tuesday. I met up with Mike & Tammy McClure, Mike Bockino, and Lauren Bell. They showed me around the two main boulders in Castle: The Taco Roof and The Green Wall. Taco Roof is home to Warpath and half a dozen other problems. It’s a big cave, more impressive than Martini Roof. That being said roofs generally don’t inspire me so I didn’t try much there. After starting in the roof, we moved up to the Green Wall which is an absolutely stunning wall.

Green in the Face. Photo by Mike McClure

THE line on the boulder is Green in the Face which checks in at V13 and from what I’m told has been climbed by two people, Craig Hurst who FA’d it and James Litz. It starts on an obvious jug and follows beautiful green streaks up the tallest side of the wall. Without chalk on the holds it’s hard to tell there is a way to climb it but as you take a closer look you find there is a series of a dozen desperately thin crimps that can take you to the top. On my first day I did all the moves except the very last one.

That's me trying hard for the first time in months. Photo by Mike McClure.

On my best attempt from the bottom I was sticking one of the crux moves midway through the problem when the foot I was standing on broke. Unfortunately what broke is also a pretty key handhold so now the problem is more difficult and even more unrelenting. In terms of number of moves it’s similar to Crown of Aragorn but this is much more consistent with hard move stacked on top of hard move until you’re on top.

The Mike’s, Tammy, and Lauren headed back to Boise and I was left the only climber in Almo.

Later that night I decided I had to get back on the Green Wall. I imagined a landing with the pads I had and decided it was just enough to try it. On Wednesday I “rested” by hiking pads up to the wall.

Thursday was solo mission #1. I hiked up another pad, two cameras, two tripods etc up to the wall. I setup all my gear and got started working the line from the bottom. I fell on the first crux once then got through it on my next go and fell on the last few moves. My skin was already burning.

Video still of the first crux section

Attempt #2 I got through the bottom cruxes again and stuck the second to last move to a small edge, my feet came off as I got in position for the next move..

Video still from camera #2

Then my hand slipped and I was off, screaming from the pain of crimping so hard on move after move. After two solid attempts I couldn’t try anymore. This problem is THAT crimpy!

On Friday I wanted to rest but the forecast called for rain on Saturday so I hiked up to the Green Wall again to give it a go. I fell on the last moves again.. After one attempt my fingers couldn’t handle another effort so I called it a day and hiked out. I felt like I needed two rest days and that seems to be what the weather is bringing me anyways.

Later in the day I went for a drive in City of Rocks to try to get some shots of the beautiful scenery up there. As I got higher on the mountain there was more and more snow in the road. I wasn’t concerned about it since my truckhouse is ginormous and has 4-wheel drive. I noticed the tire tracks in the snow ended just in time to slam on the brakes and get stuck in a snow drift. I plopped the truck into reverse and started moving backwards, then sideways getting further stuck into the snow…

Ma stuckhouse

I spent the next 30 minutes digging snow with a windshield scrapper and tried to back out again. No dice. I decided I had one more good effort before the truck was beyond hope of exiting under it’s own power. I spent two hours digging a LOT of snow out from under the truck. I dug out to ground on all four corners, only problem being the depth on the right side. I post holed up to my waist right next to the right front tire so chances of going further into the gully were high. I hopped back in the truck for one final attempt. As I sat in the truck I knew it was a bad idea to back out considering the angle the truck was sitting, there was no way it was going to work. But I had to try anyway. For a split second the truck started backwards and I felt a glimmer of hope, but then the truck twisted further into the gully. Now it was fully sucked into four feet of snow on the right side. I didn’t bother taking a photo of the truck’s latest position since it was getting dark but imagine the picture above but 10x worse with the truck turned 30 degrees more towards the gully.

I figured I would set up a tent and sleep there that night. It was 7PM so there was still a bit of light left so I started jogging downhill to try to find someone camping up there. After a mile or so I found a family cooking dinner at their campsite. I described my situation and asked if they would help me find a tow truck in town and the friendly Idahoan replied, “I’ll get you out.”

We hopped in his truck and drove up to my snow ridden home. He attached a tow cable and said, “Put it in reverse, when you start to feel it pull, gun it.”

I was a bit nervous as I didn’t think the truck would come out towards the road considering the angle it was at and how much snow there was on the right side, but I didn’t quite think through what was going to happen.

In one of the scarier moments I can remember, the tow rope pulled taut, he gunned it and I followed suit. The truck started moving backwards quickly…all I could see were trees through the right window getting closer… I panicked, thought for sure I was going to hit a tree behind me. Friendly Idahoan keeps pulling, propelling me backwards through the gully. It felt like the truck wouldn’t go back on the road, it kept getting sucked down the shoulder. To my disbelief I eventually steered back onto level ground and the truck was unharmed!

I wish I had taken more photos or video but I was preoccupied with digging before sunset and then not crashing into a tree.

The Aftermath

See the bottomless footprint? Also note how close the trees are to the tracks!

Friendly Idahoan enjoying a victory beer

Safe and Sound

It’s now Saturday and thankfully nothing has happened at all today. I get one more day of nothing while I wait for the good weather that should be here on Monday to attempt solo mission #3 on Green in the Face. Hopefully all the rest will make my fingers feel like champions but we will see…

Delicate Arch at sunrise

Delicate Arch

Delicate Arch

After Arches I made the four hour drive up to Park City to ski for the weekend. I used to ski a lot as a kid but I haven’t been in seven years so it was awesome to get back out on the snow!

My Dad tearing it up

I drove from Park City to Joe’s Valley Sunday night and I’ll be here for a couple weeks shooting some video.