Castle Rock'ed Cont'd

The universal expression of 'its too darn hot'
One of the many cool crimp lines on the Green Wall
Lockin' it off through the pain
So Idaho
The teams reaction to the camping fee
Fee break down
The new Team Shoe in action
The namesake 'Out of Africa V10' hold

Castle Rock'ed: A series of mini Epics

Rocco tryin' 'Jared Roof V11' which is an absolutely amazing problem of sculpted edges on a roof
More Jared's Roof
'Potato Famous'- 'nuff said
The G(ranite) Rydaz with dice and all!!
Diesel helping us pack up
On Wed my good friend Rocco and I went on a mission to Castle Rock, Idaho. The objective was to seek cooler temps than the 90+Degrees of Salt Lake City and enjoy some outdoor climbing. We brought Rocco's dog Diesel for some much needed outdoors action, to be honest I think Rocco and I needed the outdoors time just as much the pooch.

The plan was to re-con and climb a little during the day and then return for a night session. Upon our night arrival back in the famed Taco Cave, home of 'War Path V-Hard', the lighter was not in the lantern case. This was the arrival of Epic #1. After pondering as to whether climbing was even possible in the true darkness, we decided not and returned to the car to find a place to rest and return as the sun rose. Arrive Epic #2. The camping situation in Castle Rock is a pain to put it mildly. The only options are a twenty minute drive away in the City of Rocks and that camping run $21.20 a night!!!!What!!!! There is only one more option for camping, it is a not so signed area with no amenities for still $10 a night.

Arrive Epic #3. Upon waking in the morning we had realized that the stove regulator was not packed, which meant none of our food was available for eating...sigh. After a breakfast of dry oatmeal packets, some brownies that were in Rocco's truck and taco shells we were off to try some more rock scaling.

All in all we both topped out a few boulders and lost a tone of skin but it was a very high quality area. We just sampled the two classic boulders Taco Cave and Green Wall/Bag Piper Cave but I was very excited as the blend of Hueco-esque and Bishop-like climbing was great.

Tightening bolts with the bros

Things have been radically different since my last post. The total diversity in experiences and realities that can be experienced from day to day is one of the great beauties of this world. That being said I have been twisting on bolts in the construction efforts of OR trade show booths until the late hours instead of touch and climbing real rock.

Once the booths were finished it was 4 days of seeing great friends and having meetings and spreading/sharing the psyche with people of the sport and overall outdoor industry.

Throughout the week I would duck out of the show to at least catch brief sessions in the local home gyms of the SLC area. On a side note it has been well over a week since I have had to start my car and biking everywhere has been a great minimization of my foot print, very psyched about this.

I seemed to not be able to get to sleep before 2a.m. throughout the show due to long conversations, basement sessions, and overall catch up with the bros. As friday(last day of OR) rolled around the exhaustion and relief could be read on everybody's face, but lucky Ander had the opportunity to work some more and break down some of these elaborate booths. I am very psyched because this short but extremely concentrated burst of work will fund my vagabond efforts for the duration of the summer, YES!!

I am now crashing with my good friends Rocco & Mary and tomorrow head out to check out the famed Taco Cave and other great boulders at the Castle Rock in Idaho. I am very psyched to see a new area and have already packed my camera so get ready for photos in my next update. Chau...

AR

Learnin' to Crawl: Episode III: A series of mischievously pleasant events

Since we last spoke I have been trying to sort out some of the near future and logistics and such. As financing has become a bit of an issue I have been hunting down some opportunities. I really lucked out and have landed so interesting construction/set-up labor in which I build the booths and structures for the up coming Outdoor Retailer here in SLC where I am writing this.

But all of this has come together haphazardly in that I did not receive the call confirming the job until I could get in the town of Rifle and I was not going to waste the gas to drive to town just to check voice-mail. So on thursday I climbing for what I thought would be my last day for a while and tried a great route at the end of the day and grunted a bit but found my self at the end moves and fell just short of the anchors and the final dyno, taking the 45 footer that skipping the last bolt(not recommended) provides. I bit surprised by this progress in just two efforts I was jubilant at the experience but had to wait until the next time I was would return to Rifle. So I cooled down in the dark and drove down to Rifle(town) and got the call, and got the job BUT as it turns out the job was actually for one day later.

So there I was with another gift of a day to do some rock-climbing but I had made the point to so thoroughly thrash myself that now I was afraid of subpar performance but was just psyched to climbing anyways. Friday was blazing hot and the climb that I was interested in was a late PM climb, because of when the sun hits it. So I played the game of climb in the morning and much of the day on other things and try to muster up some juice for when it was about to get dark again. As 7pm rolled around I was gonna try the route and re-warmup up on it. That is exactly what happened and I was feeling pretty tired and as a result, apprehensive. So I chilled and belayed a hommie as he flashed Movement of Fear 5.12c and then it was my turn. I tried real hard and just decided to believe, commit and enjoy. I sent and with all the excitment I could handle both with the possible sports action last move dyno over the now (potential)55footer. Psyched and surprised it came together, I sent 'Poetic Justice 13a' and now my drive through the night to SLC was to begin, after some din din of course. The drive started at 11:30pm and ended at 5:54AM. It was a great session of reflection, excitement and interesting ideas. Now I type with very little sleep seperating myself from Friday's climbing and the labor of today. So Good Night and have a great one!!

AR

Learnin' to Crawl: Episode II-The fall and Rise of Psyche

It has been unbearably hot up on the western slope and somehow this has actually translated into incredible amounts of rain always being coupled with said heat. I am find ing the process and of psyche and captivation with sectors, routes and crags to be so different than that of bouldering. For instance, I don't consider myself to be a selfish person beyond healthy standards but bouldering always an amazing amount of freedom in which to roam, grope, and infatuate one self with particular rocks but when route climbing especially solo you are trying to snag belays and visit or avoid entire sectors due to sun positioning. This is proving to be a lot to get used to and the solo nature of this leg of travel is just adding to the exhaustion in this learning curve.

So in the beginning of last week I had to bail in order to preserve some sanctity of mind and while doing this it had occurred to me that besides some bench time due to food-poisoning I had not taken a break in a little/long while so to explore the land of Glenwood Springs was the mission. I did some urban survivalism for a couple days and then wrangled an awesome house stay with a mate who is new to the area. I got ride my bike and explore a beautiful mountain town in the midst of all its summer music festivals and recharge the batteries and indulge in some indoor cooking accompanied with a refrigerator. The stress seemed to just subside.

It is funny that I seem to be learning a similar lesson again and again. When you are on the road with both the blessings and curses of such a life about every month of serious climbing warrants a break of about four days to truly regain the mind and body equilibrium that cam be distorted from health and happiness.

After this little break with no real idea of what comes next I was coaxed into returning Rifle, CO for some more sports climbing and was able to manage quick ascents of Movement of Fear 5.12c and Never Believe 5.12d and all with a smile on my face. So once again, 'lesson learned'.

AR

Learnin' to Crawl. Episode I

I have been in Rifle, CO for a little over two weeks now. I am on a quest to become a full blown Sports climber and put the bouldering on the shelf for a little while at least. The learning curve is steep which is exciting but there is much to learn and I am in a constant state of a beginner's mindset as to how this route game works.

I unfortunately had a major set back after the first week when I incurred the full wrath of food poising which sidelinned me to the back of my truck for a full week with a few exhausting days of easier pitches to stave off insanity.

But I am back on the straight and narrow(or very close) as my stomach is no longer trying to rip itself out of my body. I sent a 12.d second try yesterday and flashed 12.b and both without vomiting myself. Psyched. I am starting to feel progression and all I can do now is just keep keepin' at it, and let my knees do the climbing.

AR