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.

sad post

so, alas, my cheaply built computer died this past weekend. I have had a few stories worth posting, but couldn't motivate myself to do so since I had no picture editing capabilities to back them up. So this is fair warning that the posts may be fewer and farther between, at least until I can fix or find a replacement for my 'puter and start the photoshop up again.

Latest news: J-Fire, Fogel, myself and Ngoc had plans to head out to the Valley this past weekend for some bouldering fun, but were stymied at the last minute by some freakish weather spill-over from the midwest tornado debacles going on of late. We'll be attempting a re-do this coming weekend, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

[skip the following if you aren't a climber]
Also, speaking of climbing, since I can't post my pictures for the time being, I'm going to try and transition to talking about my climbing progress...you know, because I have to blog about SOMETHING! I did my second v7 in the gym last week, and am climbing perhaps a solid grade and a half harder on average than I was about 2-3 months ago, when I started my latest regimen of finger exercises. I remember getting back from Bishop last October or so and sending 4's with difficulty and 5's less than half of the time. I've so far completed 2 cycles, each cycle consisting of 4-6 weeks of weighted hangboarding, followed by 3 weeks of campus boarding (and a week off of specific training if I feel thrashed). After trying different methods suggested in Eric Horst's Training for Climbing, I've kind of slapped this regimen together to specifically build bouldering strength, and to better suit my level of physical recovery. The biggest challenge is continually listening to my fingers and elbows, and knowing when to back off or else suffer pulley/tendon strains. Ice is totally my friend!

a conversation Ngoc and I had very recently:

N Oh my God, Dave. That's a spider, that's a big spider, that's a black widow. That's definitely a black widow. Its got a big red dot.

D What? Where. Are you sure? [looks at spider] Yeah, well, if that's not a black widow, its definitely something scary.

N Can you, like, flick it? Can you get a stick and flick it off the porch?

D OK. [gets stick, starts flicking]

N He's going to jump on you and kill you

D I know, I'm being careful. He's hiding right now. [more flicking]

N Can we spray him? Oh, we don't have a hose. Can you use a squirty thing?

D Good idea [gets squirty thing]

N What about 409? Can you squirt him with 409?

D What? Why...let me just try the water [squirts spider off porch and onto first story patio, below our apartment]

N I'm going to get some 409 and finish him

Looking at the date of my last blog post, it appears that some time has passed since my last entry. When asked why recently by a buddy, my answer was simply "nothing cool has happened". I think if you're one of the few people who read this, you hear about my life happenings all too frequently already.

Breaking the life-mediocrity as of late was an excellent trip to Mickey's and Stinson Beaches this past Sunday. Ngoc, JFire and I drove out there and met up with Mike to enjoy some surprisingly fabulous weather and naked beachgoers. The rock at Mickey's beach is super slick and covered in a perpetual sea mist. My guess is that optimal friction out there never really happens... If anyone knows how to get around the ocean wetness out there, I'd be happy to hear it. But without this key knowledge, we kept to the dryer areas and easier problems mostly.

John and I did manage to send Orange Pleasure and Orange Pleasure - Right at V4 and V5 respectively. I had trouble finding the exit to the latter, pulling handfuls of choss off of my ill conceived top-out. Some quick zig-zag beta from John had me sending next go.

We got tired of Mickey's after the tide came in along with some tourists, so we high-tailed it up the road to Stinson, made a stop for Coronas and Ginger Ale at the market, and headed to the Stinson Beach Boulder to play on some short eliminates. We had some fun lounging and messing around on John's goofy changing lieback problem, which he finally sent most unceremoniously after a few minutes of rest. I managed to send it with some nutty heel hook beta that Ngoc gave me. Even though she's almost a foot shorter than I am, her beta always seems to work better for me.


We never could get up this odd V1. I think we had horrible beta. Here's John making it look easy.


Ngoc has become quite the macro photographer! These last couple photos show it.

Stinson Beach Boulder. The vertical rail above John's head is the lieback that you have to finesse onto, after starting low and on an opposite lieback with close to no feet.

My new nickname should be "great white".