Yes, we continued to have a blast in the Utah Hills climbing at the Wailing Wall and Sunset Alley.  I had quick success on Indulgence (13b) and set my sights on Half Baked Half Broken (13d) but needed new skin and rest to manage a proper shot at victory.  With our good friends Jeff and Zak living several hours away in Flagstaff this offered us an ample opportunity to recuperate, do laundry and catch up with our buds.  So, we left.

The drive to Flagstaff was uneventful, Jeff and Zak greeted us with open arms and cold brew.  It was great to see these guys.  Apollo and Zak’s dog, Daila, became fast friends in 3 seconds.  How nice it is to be a dog!  They showed us around town and some local areas.  We were both impressed with the serene area, The Peaks.  The Flag crew ran us up some classics which were fantastic.  Jefe had been eyeballing an open mixed-line project which turned out to be a nice route.  We both managed to work out the beta but neither of us succeeded in a redpoint.  I sure hope Jeff returns for a proper send of this nice line!  (Maybe he already has?)  Regardless, the route involves a compression crux on small edges followed by a sparsely protected face.

We also climbed at the Pit and Priest Draw.  Jeff was adamant that there was essentially no other climbs other than on the impressive White Wall.  Team New River Gorge represented as Rachel crushed Stone Free (13a) second try and I fired off No Joke (13b) on my third attempt.  Jeff managed a repeat, after a broken hold on Total Recall (13c) which was rad!

Well-rested and with clean laundry, we returned to our campsite at Welcome Springs.  Familiar faces greeted us and we made some new friends Tiffany and John.  We rallied and Rachel finished The Infidels (13a) sans actually working on the upper crux after recieving crucial beta from Elkie Lindner, one of Rachel’s climbing heroes!  Shortly thereafter she sent Fun Pig (13a) and onsighted several great 5.12s at Sunset Alley.  Rachel is crushing rocks right now!  As for myself, I did Half Baked as well as Moving On Up (13b) and Shout Out the Doubt (13c) both second try, on the same day.  BAWSE.

John got some great photos, check his work out at: http://www.johnroarkmedia.com/

With time running down on our trip and projects done, we left for Zion!  Much to tell about our trip there I tell you, stay tuned!

About an hour after I redpointed this route, Eddie was finally ready for his flash attempt.  He like a stealth bomber, waited patiently for me to work out all the intricate beta (all of which was hijacked from Misty who is ridiculously close to sending this thing) so that he could AGAIN flash my project in my face. Thats how he rolls…. and he learned from the best. Cough….. Mikey.

Here are some more photos of Eddie flashing:

This thing was a blast to climb, as were the bulk of the rigs at Sunset Alley. What a killer place. More photos and text to follow from St George climbing!  BOOM!

Hiking is for rest days…. WHAT?!

for sure had some of the smallest “holds” i have ever seen on a rock climb! nice work Jumbo Hoss!

After enjoying all the fun Annanuki had to offer, we quickly bolted to the Battle of the Bulge Cliff which was the location of something else both of us were itching to climb: “Big Guy”.  Ed has been to the creek 5? times now, and somehow he has avoided trying his hand at any offwith splitters.  So, in order to leave the Creek with no regrets,  we hiked up to the base of this wide gaping splitter and vomited out a pack full of cams all bigger than my face.  To me, i looked up and thought: “This is going to be so easy, im just going to shove my gigantic soccer leg in side that thing, and ride my knee all the way to the top”.   Then, without any hesitation… Eddie racked up, and embarked up the “Big Guy”.

Personally, just an estimate based on visual inspection and personal experience… but i am convinced that his rack weighed more than both his legs combined.  Just a rough guess.

The start of the “Big Guy” is splitter #3 Camalots (which is perfect fists for both Ed and I), and quickly transitions into #4’s.  The perfect fist section was cruizer for Eddie, as was the #4’s.  Though his legs are not large in girth, he still was not able to get his knee in the #4 section.  So he stacked butterflies and stood on good feet until he could sneak his monkey leg into the crack.  This was probably somewhere in the middle of  the upper section.

Stacking becomes mandatory near the top of this beast, and even though you can get a leg in, its probably the most exhausting “no hands rest” imaginable.  The bulk of the climbing is hand fist stacking and walking the knee up inch by inch.  Its amazing…

Spending a week at the Creek was a great start to our trip, and “grounding” in many ways.  Its somewhat of a “novelty” area, but what I really think that means is that its unique.  Which is pretty freaking cool if you ask me.  Its great to climb something that is unlike anything else Ive ever climbed.  Usually it means I learned something new.  On “Big Guy”, I learned a number of new things:

1) What “butterfly” stacking is — and that its pretty bomber.

2) Offwidths are much harder than they look — even if you can stick your knee in.

3) How to hand-fist stack.  One of the more unique and awesome type of jams ive done.

4) My boyfriend is a complete BAWSE.

Upon returning to our campsite after our final day of climbing and dodging sand tornados, we found our tent to be a little wonkey.  At first, we thought it was trashed… but upon further inspection, it was fully in tact, save a few tent poles that now resemble Apollo’s serpentine wiggle walk.  We spent our last night in the asymmetrical dome before bailing the next morning to the St. George crags.

More posts to follow on climbing here in St. George!

Mega shout-out to our little homie Andrew “SAWSE BAWSE” Nimmer for onsighting Dracula right in the face of all the hippies camping at the Red!  Nice job, Dawg! Your in the company of only a small handful of other climbers to have achieved this feat, all of which have climbed 5.15! Looks like you’re destined for greatness!  Haters be learners, the Sawse Bawse has spoken!

This being my fifth(?) trip out here I find this place both the same and different in many ways.  Moab and IC were the first ‘destinations’ I ever went on a climbing trip to 8 years ago and for that reason, I hold them close to my heart.  Driving down the road here brings back hilarious memories.  Strange what comes to mind.  Eating strawberry ice cream on the street with Rios.  Playing foosball and drinking Wild Turkey at a dive bar at the age of 20 during Jeep Week.  Tony Bones declaring his gear was “so bad” but going for it anyways–on his first trad lead, Wavy Gravy.  Ian’s wobbler at the Optimator Wall and several hours later–his redemption.  Micah monkey slapping Rachel’s scabbed hands.  Throwing stones.  Trundling.  Good things.

One thing I don’t seem to recall was the pain.  Crack climbing hurts.  Sometimes a lot.  Rest days really are more for recuperation from the scrapes and bruises we get from climbing cracks than from actual fatigue.  Here are some photos from the trip so far.

We’ll try to revitalize this blog soon.

Cheerio!

Without further rambling, let me introduce the newest member of my household, Apollo!

In that photo she is about 25 lbs.  Today, she is about 45 pounds, and just as cute!  Apollo loves chasing bugs, belly scratches, jeep rides, and playing with other doggies.  She does not like yellow jackets, vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, or the dishwasher.  Check out this cool video I made for my friend Kim that highlights Apollo’s favorite trick:

http://www.youtube.com/user/rachelmelville?feature=mhee#p/a/u/0/9Y9wyb2n3iA

We are on the market for learning new tricks, so if anyone has any fun dog trick suggestions, leave ‘em in the comment section.

Apollo and her BFF Bella Brackett:

Bella is Apollo’s BFF, and Sparky is Apollo’s BF.   Yes, she has a boyfriend.  And they are in puppy love.  Sparky lives upstairs, and they have doggie playdates.   This is one of their favorite things to do on their dates:

Apollo’s favorite weekend activity: going climbing! (Just like her mommy!)  She loves jeep rides, and backpack rides (down the cirque ladders)!

Besides having a new pup in the house, ive been crushing it at work.  I am now continuing my career at a new engineering firm known as “Environmental Resources Management”, or “ERM”.

http://www.erm.com/

To my climber friends, this means I went from a 5.11 engineering firm to a 5.14 engineering firm.  Needless to say, Im psyched.  It’s a great feeling to kill it on the rocks all spring, and then kill it off the rocks all summer.  Im getting restless again, working LOTS, and anxious to regain some of the fitness I had this spring.  Luckily, some friends of mine  (David and Julia Statler) have come to the rescue.

David is a full-time PhD Chemical Engineer  who has decided to add another full time job to his life:  building a sick bouldering gym ground up!

And this is happening RIGHT here in Charleston, WV.   I couldn’t be more psyched!  David has been totally crushing it round the clock, putting in full days at work being a super smarty pants doing cool stuff with polymers, and coming home to rest and watch climbing videos  full on manual labor of constructing and designing a climbing gym !

David has been working so hard that he is actually just a shell of man.  As noted by the hallow eyeballs.  That is what giving 200% looks like: BOOM!

Check out this engineering masterpiece:

David’s wife Julia is no slacker either.  She also helps out with the construction, but some of the real sickness of the gym comes in the details.  Tetris wall: her idea.  It doesn’t end there…   Check out some of these rad photos of Julia’s painting of the climbing walls that David designed:

VERY COOL!

Wow, with this gym on the brink of opening, and the good temps rolling in…  i have to ask myself…

Is it possible to start training for fall now? Do I still have time to send all of Elaina’s projects in her face  complete my goals? Guess i should start running…

BRING ON FALL!

Ok, now that we are done spraying about Leslie, let’s talk about climbing, and more importantly: ME.

Somehow, I convinced the Mess to go climbing at Drive By Crag… home of the 5.13a endurance rig-a-toni, “Easy Rider” which I was psyched to climb.  Easy Rider (ER) is readily locatable as it is just left of the eye catching Monique Forrester masterpiece, Kaleidoscope; and climbs with a similar tempo and style, though ER is nearly double the length of Kaleidoscope.  Highlights of ER include a sustained rightward bouldery crimp sequence capped off with a sickle shaped deadpoint to a right hand gaston.  I have affectionately dubbed this move the “puffer fish” because of the way it makes your deltoid flare upon engaging the movement.

[Photo Credit: Eric Cox]

Sustained power endurance edging on this steep angle leads to a few restful stances.

And, Yes, thats the Sharma Project in the background.

[Photo Credit: Eric Cox]

Guarding the anchors is a killer boulder problem surrounding a sweet sandstone tufa feature that lends itself to back-to-back pinching and tossing your weight around like a monkey going after a coconut.  A heart-smasher last move really made this one memorable and committing.  In my two previous send attempts I had managed to punt with the chains close enough to head-butt, which is the case for many of Easy Rider’s victims.  Eddie claims that the reason for my punting was because of “female indecision” (ie beta changing).  He is partially correct, though the beta changing was due to a mysteriously “wet – not wet – wet again” undercling at the chains, and i resent the implication.

It must have been the right concoction of leslie juju, decent temps, and no crying babies at the crag that enabled me to officially send this thing.  Or maybe it was because I held my pee.  I also woman-ed up and did the throw beta. No undercling. No wet holds.  Just one giant percentile lunge that puts the previous 100 feet of climbing into the cross-hairs.  Its great when you can static your way to victory… But, there was just something super rewarding about going dynamic and connecting with the finish hold.  Named the “monster mouth” because of its tendency to destroy and eject send seekers.  Physically speaking, the monster mouth is a chronically drooling slut of a hold, with a wedge shaped opening, and a large somewhat sloping usable surface.  Its wicked fun…Go check it out!

When we weren’t climbing, you could find J-Tree Dave, Myself, Less the Mess, and Blake “Team Suck” Bowling engaged in heated battles of “Settlers of Catan”.  If you aren’t familiar with this game then clearly you have a life and aren’t a complete nerd. Although, this game is pretty wicked geeky, and we may or may not have got into a ‘not speaking to you’ fight about an incident i will not mention. A quick google search revealed that we are not the geekiest Settlers of Catan fans in the world.

In contrast:

Some other outlandish settlers applications:

And:

The gross and exhaustive geekyness of some is truly unparalleled. I love it.  However, as much as I like the pizza… jokes about trading for broccoli might not have the same effect.

For now, Im back home in the New River Gorge… and somehow every time i drive over the bridge, it catches me off guard at just how stunning this place really is.  The New is one of the raddest places in the country.

I always find myself trying to catch a glimpse of the iconic “Mango Tango” (which is visible from the bridge) and trying not to crash.  Its wrong, i know.

As much as I <3 the Red… these psychedelic calico painted walls are a truly great homecoming.   Parting shot:  Chris Linder on “The Crouch” 13d @ the Cirque.

photo by Matt Stark

Kalymnos was truly a splendid trip and we give it the A+ recommendation for sport-climbing the steeps.  In addition to adding volumes to the library of one’s climbing skills, the long pitches pay dividends in terms of physical fitness.  I, personally, reaped those rewards when I returned to my nearly year-long project, Proper Soul (5.14a) at the New River Gorge.

Proper Soul is the premier route at the Cirque, which of course is the crown jewel crag of Endless Wall at the New River Gorge.  The route climbs steep rock which leads to a severely overhung dihedral that abruptly terminates into a thin, slightly overhung face.  The route then climbs a rising, rightward traverse on thuggier-than-it-looks white sandstone.  Several kneebars offer momentary reprieve from the blistering pump.  The route crescendos by exiting the white-orange rock of the lower cliff and pulls onto a gray slab at the top of which lies the anchors and the apex of the Cirque.

In the preceding winter, spring, summer and early fall, Proper Soul’s crux dihedral had been giving me BEEEG trouble and linking to the top of the crux was a bit of a pipe-dream.  I believed that the delicate, subtle movements would be very difficult (if not impossible) to continuously climb without falling because nearly every attempt on this route was spent making small incremental gains followed by repeated setbacks.

Fast-forward 4 weeks.  The Kalymnian trip allowed for more continous climbing than I had experienced since the summer of 2008.  Rachel and I returned in top form and conditions were perfect at the NRG.  A visiting climber, Ben “Flying Hobbit” Gilkison was also trying Proper Soul and his fresh perspective on the crux sections were very helpful in making the most of my  attempts.  Soon I was climbing up to, through and out of the crux section of the climb only to fall on several occasions on the second crux traverse, notably on the “Just a Dream” move some may remember from the video of Chris Sharma climbing the route.

Enter November 18th, 0545: I wake up, dress and drive to BAR-H for Psyc morning report at 6:45.  I note the sun is coming up and the air looks exceptionally clear today.

1000: Hospital rounds conclude, attending notifies me that there are no new patients the rest of the day.  Instantly, my focus shifts from psychiatry to Proper Soul.  I am on the phone with Static-K soon thereafter and we arrange to meet at 1100 for a pilgrimage to the Cirque.  Driving home, the thermostat reads 50 degrees and humidity is low.

Static K and I warm up, slowly.  We climbed New Life twice and Finder’s Keeper’s once.  Kirk fired Finder’s Keepers for the first time and made the 12c crux look like 5.6.  In true Kirky style, he chose to sprint the pitch–fearing a pump he believes will be paradoxically delivered if he utilizes the jug rests.  We plodded over to Proper Soul and I tied in and fired the rig….NOT.  Very anxious that this would be the last day I could send the climb, I was moving with the flexibility of Frankenstein and got spit off low in the dihedral.  I laughed and lowered.  Kirk assured me that falling off my project was good for me and reminded me to ‘loosen up meow’.

By now, Rachel had arrived at the crag after enduring the commute from Charleston.  John and Mikey had also rolled up to partake climbing in the pristine conditions.  I tied into the bright yellow Nano again, this time with Rachel on belay.  I pulled on the kneepad and patted Lilah on the head for some puppy power.

This second attempt on the route went much smoother and I climbed right through the dihedral, pausing here and there to make the most of the poor rest stances.  Struggling into the rest about halfway up the route, I felt a bit more fatigued than on my previous attempts.  I took my time, breathed deeply and waited for my (ridiculously) pumped forearms to recover.  I moved about the rest stance, trying to make the most of the various options available from which to recover.  At the point when I felt staying at the rest was delivering diminishing returns, I shifted my focus to the pumpy traverse that lied immediately ahead.  Carefully and as purposefully as I could, I moved through the traverse, cut my feet, threw a heel and pressed down for the right hand pinch just above.  Several moves later I was in another rest, feeling pretty good.  Again, I resolved to singularly focus on only the next hand or foot move and shortly thereafter I was staring the chains in the face.  I mantled quickly by, untied my rope and vociferously proclaimed victory with a barbaric yawp.

My first 5.14.

We went back for some photos.  Here they are from the grrrrounnnd up.

Unfortunately, weather.com didn’t get the memo that we had routes to climb, and projjys to send, because the last week we spent most of the week trying to schedule our climbing around the rain.  Alas, the sun shone upon us for our last two days where we first raced up to the Grande Grotta to get or final fix on some of the big rigs.  I was feeling a bit under the weather so I decided that the physically exhausting 45 meter cave climbing would be a bad idea, so I relegated myself to belay duty while eddie ventured back up “Fun de Chichunne” for round three!  After what might have been the longest redpoint belay I have endured, Eddie clipped the chains of “Fun de Chichunne”, and can NEVER make fun of me for climbing slow AGAIN!  I should give Ed some mega-props for making quick work of this classic… it packs some hard boulder problems in between the gut-buster tufa ‘rests’, and is a super relentless, ‘boogie til you puke’ style limestone tufa rig. BLAM!

After being inspired by Eddies sendage, I decided I felt well enough to walk over to Spartacus Wall.  In a sad moment, I knew I had to take my draws off of Daniboy, because it was still wet. Sigh.  Eddie told me that I should remember the first lyrics to our new favorite song “Take it to the Top” by Trevor Andrew: “A fool turns round when his luck turns bad”…. so, with that in mind, I told myself that “i feel wonderful”, and turned my attention to another route.  I had not yet tried the classic of the area ‘Sparticus’ and I knew this would be my last chance to climb it.  All I knew about the route was that it was somewhere between 20 and 25 meters long (60-75′), had a boulder crux, and was downgraded from 12d to 12c.  So, I decided to go for it.  With the draws still hanging from the previous party, I embarked.   I choppily climbed through the 5.11ish intro with my hair blowing into my eyes, and I couldn’t see… I was off to a bad start!  I quickly burrowed my brizkit into the side of a monstrous tufa and took a  monstrous breath.  I knew I was going to have to ‘get it together’ if I was going to do this thing first try.   I managed to finagle a no-hands stance to re-tie my pony tail.  Wow.  I’m almost embarrassed that i just said that.  So, feeling empowered with 20/20 vision, I moved up into what I perceived from the ground to be the crux.  My plan was to mount a tufa, reach into a 2-finger pocket, and make a massive sideways lunge to a ‘jug’.  Well, that was abandoned almost immediately when I couldn’t figure out how to even approach the tufa.  I began to climb ‘on the fly’, and found a right kneebar that allowed me to reach the 2-finger pocket, instead. I was psyched, to touch it because it felt like it had some bite, and I knew I could yard my massive body weight all the way to the ‘jug’.  SLAP! I nailed the jug….. not a jug…. dangit!! Ok, do one more move, Rachel… wham! Fingerlock. SICK. I can hang out here allll day. I rested fully… and looked up ahead of me at what I previously thought would be smooth sailing through limestone jugs.  Notsomuch.   I stared up at a sea of cryptic-ness reminiscent of a Rifle-esque blocky horror show.  I had frankly NO CLUE how to grab the holds.  I started climbing anyways, racing through the polished limestone freak-fest… death gripping my way upward.  I grabbed all the holds incorrectly, and felt as if I was falling upward.  I managed to work myself into an irreversible frenzy of lactic shock.  Awesome. Now, let me take a minute to diverge from this story…

If you have been following this blog, you know that we have already been visited by euro-matt stark, and euro-Porter Jarrard.  Well, who came along to visit us on this second to last day was none other than New River Mountain Guides: Elaina Arenz-Smith  and Kirk Bjorling!! How exciting!

So back to the story, as I’m nearing the anchors of Spartacus, and imagining myself falling from these HUGE block jugs completing the punt of the century… I meet none other than Euro-Elaina!  To my complete horror, I saw that our routes converged, and we were on a CRASH COURSE!  I was on a death bender, and there was just not a hold big enough to satisfy my cravings.  Fortunately, Euro-Elaina recognized my distress, and kindly allowed me to erratically climb the jugs in front of her while she waited and casually shook out on the shank holds.  Thanks for the encouragement euro-Lainers!! Always there for me on my big send days!  I’m pretty sure that I got struck by lightning, as I epileptically clipped the shuts… and immediately grabbed the other end of the rope for some immediate relief. AHhhhhhh. ‘MERrica!! Yeeeeah.

I started feeling a bit better for our last day, and Eddie said I could pick where we climbed.  Since my favorite crag of the trip had been the beloved meteor hole of Sikati Cave… naturally, that’s where I wanted to tufa wrangle.  SO we packed up our scooter and motored up the island.  Eddie calls this place the ‘psycho sikati’… and for good reason… this place is SIIIIIICK!!

We via-feratta styled our way into the cave… down to ground level with a few badass goats who managed to downclimb 5.10 their way in here.  One of the goats looked a lot like our friend David Nimmer.  Here is a short clip of Eddie (the animal whisperer) with one of the goats:

In honor of the goats, I decided to hang the quicks on a beautiful 7b called: “Mort Aux Chevres” which means ‘Death to the Goats’.  Eddie thinks that this is a fitting name for one of the showpiece routes here in the psycho sikati because goats occasionally botch the 5.10 down-climb, and pizza their way to the bottom. Elodie took some beautiful pictures of this route.

To round out our day in the cave, we decided to finish up with a stellar looking 7c+ called “Little Bulbos”. Not really sure about the name, but Eddie and I both agreed that this was the best hard route we climbed during the trip!  Given our unique tastes, you know this thing has to be awesome!!  It’s a totally rad line incorporating wild bloc sequences through blank sections, and solitary dripping stalactites.  After each giving it a go, we both instantly wanted to spend another week right here in the psycho sikati.  We had a quick pep talk going over the key beta, the sun was setting, and in a last-ditch effort, Ed embarked on round two with Little Bulbos.  He totally crushed the boulder problem at the 4^th bolt, and monkey-ed his way to the last boulder problem.  With a runout compounded by draw skipping, I heard some loud ‘Meinhold roaring’ echoing through the chasm.  And in a loud WHOOP of excitement, Eddie tossed hail mary pass and connected with the anchor clip just as the sun was setting.  Totally rad way to end the trip!  The only pics we got were of me NOT sending!! I really wish we had pics of Eddie… But here they are anyways:

Here is a video of  the sikati cave exit (this was from our first visit):

And here is a cool photo of eddie exploring within the sikati cave:

The climbing in Kalymmnos was so surreal, and we both feel fitter than ever!!  Definitely CAN’T WAIT to go back! So many routes to climb… one month in paradise just wasn’t enough.  Now we are back home and making frequent trips to the Red River Gorge to take advantage of the endurance we gained.  It has been truly awesome to see so many of our friends and family since we have returned, especially our hommies from Wisconsin! You guys are all amazing, and the hugs just keep coming!  November has been just beautiful here, and we hope it continues throughout the winter.  SO PSYCHED to be back in the Southeast.

Typically, our day begins with Nescafe or a cappuccino from the bakery down the street.  I’ll pick out a baguette while Rachel will grab some real Greek yogurt and some farm fresh Kalymnian eggs.  We’ll lounge for a bit, fill up water and cultivate our minds with the various books we have lying about.  Lately, we’ve been doing quite a bit of snorkeling–and while I am no scuba diver–the water is crystal clear with millions of small colorful fish swimming about the rocks and eel-grass.

After relaxing most of the day, we’ve been heading up to Grande Grotta and Panorama trying to bring down some classique rigs as our trip comes to a close.  Two days ago I squeaked out an onsight of the 40 meter 12d extension to Carpe Diem–a mega classic 10d pitch with continuous blobs, colonnettes and flakes.  Yesterday I finally got the opportunity to try one of islands mega-classics, Priapos (12d).  Priapos is the first route I saw upon our arrival as a Russian lady was lowering from the lip of the cave, 100 feet from her belayer.  (On a side note: this lady was from St. Petersburg and shared a lot of facial features with my sister).  It didn’t even look real.  As has been the case with most of these steep tufa marathons, navigation and maintaining creativity within the various rests is incredibly challenging.  After a 45-minute bout, I found myself inebriated with a trifecta of fatigue, sweat and joy of clipping the chains.  Rachel, wisely, is waiting to give the route a try tomorrow after a day of dryness and rest.  Here’s a few pictures of Priapos Verm took.  If you’re contemplating a trip to Kalymnos, I can unequivocally say that this one route is absolutely worth the trip.

Our nights ordinarily consist of sampling the various restaurants with friends we’ve met during the course of the trip.  The cuisine is spectacular.  Fresh octopus, snapper, leg of lamb and various Greek plates I can’t pronounce have made their way across our palates.      We’ll swash our grub down with some house wine and finish it off with some honey balls.  Yes, Simeon/Carolyn the Aegean Tavern is the bomb.

Speaking of new friends, one of which–a climbing legend I hadn’t met before this trip-John Sherman, has decided to move in to our crib for the remainder of the week.  His opinions regarding climbing, style and tact have sparked various debates with myself, Rachel, Pat and Jessa. Here’s a quick example:

Verm to Rachel: “You’ve never climbed a pitch in your life.”

Rachel to Verm: “I’ve onsighted plenty.”

Verm: “Were you naked, have rock shoes, chalk, a rope, tick marks or pre-hung quick draws?”

Rachel: “That’s bull–it’s the standard of the day.”

Verm: “It’s actually the poor excuse the media has told you is the modern-climber’s method.”

OR:

Verm to himself looking at latest issue of Climbing mag with TC/KJ on Muir Wall.  “Toughest route EVER?!!??  REALLY??!!  How many people have DIED trying it for CHRISSAKE!”

This exchange is occuring between 5-foot-nothing Rachel and a mountain of a man who’s climbed 37 years, wears a helmet bouldering and carries two chalkbags a la John Wayne’s six-guns in True Grit.  (Jeff–I told him about the “Manpus” as a potential new climbing move in 2nd ed. of Better Bouldering)  …and on and on.

Now, we’ve got 2.5 climbing days left with good weather forecasted and my belly’s hurting for some octopi.  Stay tuned.