I haven't brought up the climbing training progress since my Sad Post a few weeks back even though I said I'd make it a regular "thing". Last week I finished a six week cycle of weighted training on the fingerboard, and this week I begin 3 or 4 weeks of campusing. Contrary to logic, campusing is actually MUCH easier on my fingers than the hangboard...its my elbows and shoulders that take a beating on those elegantly arranged wooden rungs. So much so that it even allows my fingers a chance to recover properly from the sad shape they're in after 6 weeks of weighted hangs.

After 3 or 4 weeks of campusing, the cycle repeats. The general feeling goes something like "start hangboarding, get stronger while feeling progressively more wrecked physically, peak at about week 5 or 6, switch to campusing when the body can't take it anymore, lose half a grade to campusing but recover *somewhat* at the same time." Why campus, you ask? for the skill-building and coordination, at least that's what I tell myself. how else am I going to work on dead-pointing those 4 ft. dyno's I love so much!

in the way of actual results, I haven't pushed into higher grades since last time I wrote about training, but I've become a lot more consistent at the edge of the envelope...what that means is a much much higher success rate on V6's at the gym. I'll take that as proof of improvement, I guess. There were a couple problems that I was shut down on a month ago that I've ended up sending this past week.

This past weekend was blistering hot. a BALMY 95 degrees, as read by my Audi's temp-ometer on the ride back from little Saigon. If you live anywhere near the Bay Area, you know that our spoiled asses can't handle record highs such as these. Ngoc and I slept for 3 hours on our carpeted living room floor, unofficially the coolest place in the apartment, on Friday evening.

We didn't want to let the heat overcome our good spirits, so we organized a little bbq at Great Stoneface Park in North-north Berkeley (our new favorite picnic spot!). J-fire, Ngoc and myself had spent an afternoon here prior, throwing ourselves at the Great Stone Face stand start (V4), the hardest 4 I've ever hopped on. But on Saturday, climbing took a back seat to good company and Maxine (pictured above). Ngoc made a rare appearance in a lovely skirt...if only she truly knew how much I like seeing her in skirts and dresses, she'd be wearing them all the time.

On Sunday, we cooked Paella! It was delicious, but we definitely have a few "tweaks" for our recipe next time we do a paella night (This weekend?!?!). Ngoc is uber scared of pan oil, as you will notice below.

It's 80 degrees out. There are 20-something's in business casual throwing a football around in the park downstairs.

Last weekend Ngoc and I booked out tickets to Vietnam. Since then, we've been in touch with one of the two reputable guide agencies in Ha Long Bay, starry eyed about all the climbing and possible deep water soloing we'll be doing over there. At some point, it dawned on us that we have absolutely no route climbing endurance.

Solution? Climb 6 days a week and alternate bouldering/roped climbing days. After 3 days of this, I'm knacker'd. Elbows, fingers, shoulders, back...all ache. Back to the drawing board I guess.

Unfortunately, I don't have any groovy pictures for you to enjoy. But since it's on my mind, take a look at some of these DWS shots.

Sonnie Trotter makes the second ascent of Rhapsody E11 in Scotland. Huge Sonnie Trotter fan, ever since I caught his crazy campus routine on YouTube (i'll put up a link later)...really ever since I saw him on the cover of Rock and Ice 4 years ago (when I was a wee climbing n00b) gear leading the Monkey Face at Smith Rock (5.13 R/X??).

A choice excerpt from his blog, where he Chronicle's the whole thing:

"Dave presented us all with a challenge. A challenge to climb this sequence of holds and until someone does, that challenge will always remain. I could do the 'direct version' and the 'cop out' version, but I still didn't climb Rhapsody, and I would not be truly satisfied. I came here to challenge myself and that I did. Rhapsdoy is a good route, actually no, it's a terrifc route, it climbs so fucking well, it's actually fun to fall off of. There is not a painful or scary move on it, it's a brilliant line."

So stoaked on climbing in general right now that I thought I'd edit my page layout and include links to some of the better climbing blogs I read. I've come across a number of climbers who blog, but I feel the one's I've included over on the right here make for the most entertainment

Yesterday we (we being myself, Ngoc, J-fire, Susan, Alfred, and Fogel) met up at Castle Rock State Park, our "local" bouldering playground...."local" being just a hair shy of one and a half hours drive from here.  Save for a trip to Bishop, or more recently, Yosemite Valley, Castle Rock is the closest we can come to more than a day's worth of bouldering in one spot.

Castle Rock is often compared to Fontainebleau. Not that I've ever been to France, but I've often heard comparisons made between Castle's thickly canopied softwood forest and fairy-tale vibe and France's bouldering mecca.

Whether or not Castle is reminiscent of some place across the Atlantic, its chock full of grippy, slappy, slopey sandstone goodness. It is just as much frustrating as it is contemplative, and is quite the rude awakening to most loyal gym rats. We had a great time, got mad dusty, and drank our share of frosty margaritas afterwards.

Accolades to Mike for his first V4 send (skipped straight from 2 to 4!) of the sit start Sweet Honey variation to Honey Dip. Wow that's a mouthful. also cheers to Ngoc for an epic fall of the top of the Parking Lot Boulder onto a poorly protected landing, and to myself for Indian Traverse V5 (even though I "technically" skipped the final few soft moves and decided to top out early. I'm still counting it damnit!)

Yosemite bouldering! w00t! Ngoc, J-fire, Fogel and myself just returned from a two day trip to the valley for some bouldering and camping antics. Day one involved a 6AM start from Albany (which, actually, worked out well. I'd definitely be inclined to repeat the saturday morning start, vs. a friday evening traffic battle) and a quick stop at Nation's for their 7 lb. breakfast to go. On to Yosemite, and the Cathedral Boulders, where J-fire, in rare form, made a quick 4 or 5 attempt send of Octagon V6/V7. That was actually one of the only problems ever that I'd dare whine about my lack of height over. The pre-crux move was just long enough to force me to reach for it dynamically! Argh!

After the Octagon, we headed over to the King Boulder and worked on a couple of hard problems that none of us really sent, but that John and I came reasonably close on. Fodder for our next trip. We did get some great pictures on a nearby v2 lie-back arete that was totally classic Yosemite desperation. See below. It's funny how the next-to-nothing footholds that everyone complains about in the valley are only literally a millimeter or two away from the bomber overhung foot placements in Bishop. So close, yet so far!

Day two was a little more relaxed and involved many more sends on the Curry Boulders, including Zorro V4 and a V3 on the Kevin's Traverse boulder or something like that. The day ended with a bit of excitement as I fell off the top (not the crux) of Circuit Breaker V2 on the Staircase Falls wall. Epic fall, epic problem. I send shortly thereafter using some obvious footwork beta that I missed the first time. I definitely count this problem as one of the most aesthetic I've ever sent.

Some other highlights: the no-frills buffet at Curry Village, frisbee and beer on our Merced River sand-bar, and Yosemite falls in all its glory. See below for some trick photos taken by all of us.