Tuolumne Weekend #3

Ngoc, Matt and I met up with Adrian in Tuolumne this weekend for a couple days of pure bouldering. Every time we go to Tuolumne, we invariably seem to end up at either (a) the Gunks or (b) the Knobs. Every other area we've tried so far just doesn't compare.

For the past two trips I had been getting punished on Cellulite Eliminator V7 at the Gunks. However, this trip, relatively fresh and well fed, I walked up to the line and sent on my first go of the day. Matt also flashed it...typical...and came heartbreakingly close to sending the other area testpiece, Steelfingers Traverse V8.

On day 2, we headed back out to the Knobs and I bagged a surprise send of the Sit Start to Kauk Problem V6. The sit adds two moves (but no quality) to this very elegant and fingery problem.

Tuong Nguyen & Hanh Au

This Saturday, we spent the entire day celebrating the wedding of my brother in law, Tuong, and his wife, Hanh.  It was a whirlwind day that took us to Tracy, the Oakland Rose Garden, and Peony restaurant.  It was all capped with a fabulous 10 course meal that included ginger lobster, duck 2 ways, and lots and lots of shrimp.  yum!  Here are some photos I took at the ceremony and in Tracy on the morning of.  Enjoy.

Tuolumne #1

wow, I sure haven't posted on here in quite a while. Believe me, we've been keeping VERY busy these days, but I guess I just haven't taken any pictures worth posting...until now!! Ngoc and I are crazy about Tuolumne. We went up there to boulder and even ended up doing a couple pitches of easy trad (Ngoc's first time!). Ngoc and I both quickly sent the Kauk Problem (V5) at the Knobs. I highly recommend that problem for shorter climbers with small fingers and legs...Although a pad stack may be necessary for the start! Enjoy.

Lake Tahoe Squawcreek

Memorial Day weekend was spent at the Squawcreek resort near Lake Tahoe. There were copious amounts of poolside napping, eating, gambling, shopping, trail running, sauna steaming, and granite bouldering. The granite in Tahoe is beautiful and varied, but the bouldering is generally quite, well, puzzling! Here are a few shots of our explorations.

Trueman/Barnum Wedding

This past weekend flew by so quickly. Ngoc and I spent Friday evening with Mom in Sacramento and had a great round of French toast on Saturday morning. Then, it was off to Chico (and uncharacteristically hot temperatures!) for Chris and Lindsey's wedding! Chris and Lindsey are good friends of ours, and it was great to see a lot of our close friends who, for one reason or another, we haven't been able to hang out with lately.

Congratulations to the new bride and groom!

Bishop Redux and Other Happenings

Two weeks later, Matt, Isabelle, Ngoc and myself were back out on the east side for another too-good-to-resist weekend of bouldering. Day 1 started off with some sharp warmups at the Sad Boulders and a send of Molly (v5), a problem that I came nowhere close to sending a year and a half ago, by yours truly. We then all migrated to the Death Star Cave where Matt and I flashed Anti-Hero (v5) and Isabelle and Ngoc put in great work sessions on the same. Unfortunately Izzy suffered a painful pulley strain on her tenth go or so. NOOOOO!!! She'll be back to clean up this problem on her next trip. Also noteworthy, Matt and I put in some work on Beefcake (v10) which is pretty futuristic for at least myself, but we did manage to do pretty much all of the moves.

Day two we busted out to the 'Milks and Matt sent High Plains Drifter (v7) on 5th go or so. Wow that is a full value boulder problem! Movement, height, rock quality, oh my. I got heartbreakingly close to the send, and will DEFINITELY clean it up next time.

As if that wasn't enough, we then jetted back out to the Sads @ 3PM to give Ngoc a few burns on Anti-Hero. She sent on her first go of the day!! We had to force her to take a few laps to get in some video footage and snapshots.

Big thanks for Matt and Isabelle for the funtastic weekend. You two cats are great climbing/eating/driving buddies.

Rewind a week or so: Ngoc and I had a great afternoon with Ashley, who we only get to see rarely these days. We had a little fun up @ Stoneface park before heading to Mark's bday party in our anti-theme green shirts. We're such rebels. Great to see you Ash!

Mickey's Beach

To escape the HEAT WAVE this past Sunday, the Team packed up and headed out to Mickey's and Stinson beach for some bouldering, sun, and plenty of nude-watching. After warming up on some of the Orange Buddha eliminates, Matt made a terrific quick send of the Orange Buddha Arete (v8), the prize of the Orange Buddha boulder. I managed to hit all the moves, but the full send eluded me this time. Isabelle also put in a lot of work on Orange Pleasure (v5), getting close enough to the send to taste it. I think Isabelle and I both have unfinished business at Mickey's.

Ngoc was still (smartly) going easy on her hand and ankle. She did get onto some of the Orange Buddha eliminates, and reports that her finger is healing strongly. Phew!

The shots below were much more of a group effort this time. I like this format a lot, selfishly, because it means there are many more photos of meee! Enjoy

Bishop

Ngoc, Isabelle, Matt and myself made a mid spring pilgrimage to Bishop this weekend for an action packed few days of sending.  We spent a days each at the Happy Boulders, the Pollen Grains, and the 'Milks proper.  Lots of action was had, but unfortunately Ngoc strained a muscle in her hand on day one and had to suffer through watching the rest of us work our projects for the weekend.  Poor Ngoc!  Nonetheless, she handled it like a pro, managing to stay positive and bounce our collective energy back at us.  What a trooper!

We also met up with Danica and Jesse & co. on day 2 at the Pollen grains and had a great day exploring new territory.  As I write this they are probably still in the east side gnawing their fingers on pockets and granite crystals!

Noteworthy sends: The Hulk, Gleaner, Hand to Hand Combat Traverse, Jedi Mind Tricks, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Iron Man Traverse, and the Rib Direct Sit Start.

Peep the slideshow for some of our trip's visual candy.

Yesterday was my 27th birthday proper, and the final day in a birthday weekend to out shine all birthday weekends. Ngoc planned a mini-vacation for us that involved some oceanfront bouldering at Goat Rock State Park, a grand dinner experience at Cyrus (more details on that over at The Disagreeable Recipe), and a day of wine tasting in the Russian River Valley.

Next weekend is Bishop! We're giddy in anticipation. Look out for MANY more photos in the coming weeks.

The 2009 bouldering season has started off in earnest.  Ngoc, Danica, Jesse and I took a little day trip out to Yosemite valley this Saturday to revel in the warm spring temperatures.  It was a gorgeous day, and the falls were gushing with runoff.  Heading over to the Village, we started to notice the beginnings of the Yosemite tourist rush.  oh my!

Danica took home the bacon with an easy send of the Sentinel Traverse V6.  Ngoc and I both put in earnest efforts, but came home without sends.  I'm finally honing up to the fact that my shoulder is pretty busted at the moment.  I have a history of ignoring injury, but yesterday convinced me I need to take at least a week off from hard bouldering.  It's one of the worst feelings, being on a project and feeling like you should be able to send, but held back by pain your body's rebellion.  

We're already planning our return in a month or so.  Its amazing how fast spring in Yosemite goes by.  One week, the snow's melted, and only a couple months later, its already too hot to climb anywhere except Tuolumne.

I'm also upping my photography game this year.  Yesterday was a test run with the new LumoPro LP120, and plenty of bugs were worked out.  Look for more, better pictures this year.

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This past weekend Ngoc Ted and I flew to Red Rock to partake in the excellent winter climbing (as well as the year-round entertainment). The climbing turned out to be mostly good...excellent for yours truly in fact.

The first day started up with a quick post warm-up send of a not so classic v5 on the Warm-Up boulder, then off to the Pearl where I nearly flashed the classic V4. There are many who would call this problem hard for the grade. I would agree, although the margin of just how much "harder" this problem was shrank significantly with the discovery of some wide-stance foot beta, thanks Ted. After the starting 2 moves, the problem is v2+ish. Shorter climbers have a heatbreaking disadvantage on this one...

After that, we hit the Monkey Hang Boulder and I made a near-flash of the Classic Monkey V6, which was completely unexpected. 4 tries later I sent with authority, after learning how to properly rest between burns! Ngoc also worked all the moves of the Monkey Traverse V7 and is lined up for the send next trip.

On day 2 I made a couple feel-good V4 flashes and hopped on some more classics, but otherwise turned the volume down a notch. Ted made his first real inroads into outdoor climbing with a few V0 sends and a close call on the V2 at the Monkey Hang Boulder. Ngoc also projected a little more, but spent just as much time napping off the cold weather!

Day-trip to Yosemite Valley yesterday, my fingertips are completely SCORCHED. Just looking at my tips, I don't think you could take discernible fingerprints from 5 of my ten fingers.

Nonetheless, Ngoc, Danica and I had a great day on the awesome granite blocks. Nothing historic went down, but projects were definitely established, most notably the Sentinel Traverse, a pumpy v6 that Danica and I were both able to completely link, and which Ngoc was able to link except for the last few trivial moves. The sun was creeping below the valley walls, and we were all spent, but we'll be back to throw ourselves at it again soon. In the meantime, endurance training is my new friend.

Some classic V3's did get dispatched, and Danica quadrupled her list of v3 sends (from 1 to 4 or so). Day trips to Yosemite are well within the realm of doable, and we are already talking about when we can next go back!

Fresh in from the 6 hour drive to the East Side, here are a few of my favorite shots from a stellar weekend of great sends. Among other highlights, John made quick work sending Saigon (V6) at the Peabody Boulders in the first hour of our first day of bouldering. Also noteworthy, I finished off Gleaner (V6) at the Happy Boulders, and Ngoc completely demolished an old project of hers, Son of Claudius Rufus (V5) in terribly anti-climactic style (first burn, sans spotters). Tyler and Matt also were in good form, trading blows and sends out at the Happies. They spent a couple days on the rope too.

great success

Friday evening Ngoc and I kicked things off with some great dinner conversation and and fondue with Nina and the two John's. Highlights include John B breaking out his homemade alcohol still to show off his welding skills, as well as Nina's shortbread cookies with homemade ice cream.

As if one night of culinary antics weren't enough, we made the trek to Sacramento to visit mom and put together our award winning paella. She has leftovers to last her the whole week, we cooked so much. It was also our first trip to visit any of my family as a married couple.

Sunday was one stellar moment after another. After homemade breakfast with mom, we jammed over to my cousin's house for a quick visit and then sped off to Vacaville for some bouldering behind the nut tree. Great hillside basalt scattered around above housing developments...the climbing is really gymnastic and overhung, but holds are positive, sticky, and for the most part pretty big. We also had great company along to show us around. Danica and Jesse were on their way to Folsom to spend some time with their fam, so we interesected half way in Vacaville for a few hours of climbing.



On the way back to town, we stopped by Ngoc's mom's place for some spring rolls and had a great time running around with Ngoc's nephew, Keith Jr.


What a stinking cutie he is.

All in all, one of the most stellar weekends in quite a while.

weekend #1,398

the climbing slump i've been in since before vietnam is now, officially, no more. yesterday's trip to indian rock with ngoc and jfire is partially to blame. the overhanging v4 above the pole, a problem that had previously totally stumped me, went down quickly (Mike, if you're reading this, that v4 would be a quick send for you with the right beta. we should head out there soon), as did the last section of the full traverse that I hadn't linked through yet. now i'll just wait for a cold, sticky winter morning to go back out and put the whole traverse together.

in other news, albatross pub trivia night sunday. uh huh. yeah. well, i can say that we DIDN'T finish in last place, and more than that, we finished AHEAD of our rival team, which had two harvard grads, an attorney, and a Cal student among its members. even though Ngoc, myself and John aren't encyclopedias of random trivia, we still held our own.

no photos this weekend. boo.

Tomales Bay

This past Sunday a small crew of our close friends joined us at Tomales Bay State Park for an oyster-themed belated birthday picnic for Ngoc (sweet 16?). This format is actually sort of an annual outing of ours, and consists of first driving up to Hog Island in Marshall and purchasing a truckload of raw oysters, backtracking through Point Reyes Station with a cheese/wine/salumi stop at Cowgirl, and then finally enjoying it all at TMSP.

This year the weather was better than ever, and the setting is ridiculously good picture fodder. Hope you enjoy:

published

There were no parades, no Soho loft opening parties, no checks in the mail, nothing much to celebrate one of my pictures being "published". I put quotes around that since I use the term quite loosely...

A little less than a month ago I was approached by a content editor for Schmap online city guides. She requested the use of one of my Tilden Park photos in the latest Schmap Berkeley guide. It was very officious: I read and signed their limited use agreement which, unfortunately, plainly stated that monetary compensation was not being offered. But who cares! Someone likes my photos!

You can see my pictures on the Berkeley Schmap guide here. I'm credited as "Planet Groove" in the upper right hand corner!

just in case...

you live in a shell or are in the habit of keeping up 0% with current events, Ngoc and I are back from our honeymoon in Vietnam. check the last post for a link to the gory details.

I'll let the Ngutelo blog do the talking. Here are a few of my 'favs' from the trip:


Hanoi, bridge to Ngoc Son temple


Ha Long Bay

Sunset in Cat Ba Town, Ha Long Bay

Rice fields, Sapa

Hmong girl, Sapa

Imperial Palace, Hue



Chinese lamps, Hoi An

Nha Trang

Reunification Palace, Saigon