Arizona

Patrick Olson on 'Count down...' 13a Mt Potosi

you can see Spencer tucked into the tufas 

taking pictures

Rocks everywhere. 

Spencer in the knee bar rest on 'Paranayama' 13c Mt potosi

I snuck out of Las Vegas a few nights ago. I prefer driving at night in hot places because my car has no air conditioning. and since arizona is ugly and hot between Flagstaff and Las Vegas, I didn't feel bad missing the scenery. I felt it was still a bit warm in Vegas. Even though we had been climbing in the shade it still felt kinda slippery. I climbed one more day at Potosi, great time. Pretty hot but Bill Ramsey blasting Paul Oakenfold in the lime stone ampitheatre made it all worth it. The beats never stopped. any time anyone one changed the music to something a little more diverse, Bill would shout down off his 5.14 something, "hey what is that some sort of ethnic music." Before long the beats were back on and Oakenfold was pumping through my head.  I sent a nice short bouldery 12d and tried a couple of 13's. One of the routs that blasts straight out the humangus roof is a riot. deep pockets, giant pinches and huge threads, make up this jungle gym of a route.

I think my best Ramsey Quote would be "I think there is a direct quarilation between your IQ and your like for reggae."

In Arizona I went to Priest Draw for a morning. I did a few classic lines including Anorexic which is featured in josh's film 'Rampage'. I blasted down to Prescott to visit my good friend Clay Shank. College life, parties and drinking. so much fun, it gets to me a little. I gotta get back out to some rocks. Today I visited the local Groom Creek. which is an area just outside Prescott with large granite boulders. Very much like a combination between the buttermilks and yosamight. It was pretty fun, I met up with this local guy Kayle, who showed me around,  there are many new things that are not featured in the shitty Dr topo, its free but it sucks. I did a cool v8 'Piano Fingers', that involded jumping over a bulge to a knob. You had to jump out and then reach all the way to the back of the bulge to a small sharp knob. I scraped my bare chest on the bulge and have a nice bloody rash. This only made me want to send more, next go it was perfect, not too much jump but enough height that I snagged the hold easily. In the main area is a good looking problem that I had tried earlier in the day, Kayle told me that it hadn't seen an FA, within a few tries I was standing on top of the new problem 'excuses', it ended up being only like v5. From a large flake the rock kicks back to a very blank slab with almost no holds. I think its pretty height dependent, Kayle did it in the end but at 5'10 it took him much more effort. 

So with the homework on Clay needed sometime to get things done, so i jetted back up to the Draw. I worked on this problem on the 'puzzle box roof', its called 'cosmic tricycle' it goes at v10. I tried it for about an hour and with the frustration building I jumped on a line to the right called 'puffer fish' v7. I felt I needed to send something, so with all my effort I got the flash. But not with out tweaking my right knee. As you come out the roof you jam your hands into these pocket pinches and cut your feet, swing your feet out to a excellent right heel hook, from there you work the pockets a bit more and while pulling with the heel you lunge for the top. As my hand hit the lip I hear my knee go 'pop pop pop' that didn't sound good. I awoke in the night to a very stiff leg. Thinking that some movement would be good for it, I went for a little walk to see what else the Draw had to offer. It was about 20 degrees so a nice stroll in the sun was just what I needed. But man this place all looks the same. After it warmed up a little and I had warmed up a little more, I tried a hand full of problems getting shut down on all of them. I feel weak. Maybe I just need a rest day. I think it was all that sport climbing in Vegas that made me loose a little power. I hope to get some back before I head up to Joe's Valley. So after getting shut down all morning I decided to call it quits and head to the hip little town of Flagstaff.

Its amazing to be on the road, meeting all sorts of new people, getting psyched on new boulders while passing the time. 

The Fall Road trip

Spencer on 'Paranayama' 13c

Bishop from the Bristle Cone Pines

The table lands on the right and the milks in the middleish

mt. Tom is the pointy tall one in the middle

Seems like every blog I read they are always apologizing about not updating their blog. Yeah its nice to keep tabs on your heros and friends, but I really only want to hear the good stuff. so I'll try to keep this to the good stuff. 

I left for my road trip on tuesday october 14th, I drove through Yosemite which had a light dusting of snow around the high mountains. very nice, taking my time I got to mammoth found a nice bivy and crawled into my wagon for the first night back on the road. Nice and cold. The next morning I got up made some Peets coffee and eggs, and headed to rock creek to meet up with Josh and Adam. I had never been to Rock Creek before, There isn't much bouldering there, but what is there is high quality. There are four boulders of good size with many hard lines. I hoped on to the only V0 to warm up but amount of energy needed to pull over the bulge was too much and I quickly jumped down. Next to the zero looked like a nice juggy v4 struggling up the thing I topped out, Later I learned it was a v6. Adam dispatched of two v10s before I even knew what was happening. I was intrigued by this bulge next to the v6 that he had made look pretty easy. I grabbed the starting holds and made a long reach over the bulge pausing on a slopper for a second and then stabbed for the small crimp, I missed it! I tried again and this time stuck the crimp. "Then you jack your left foot up by ur hand and make a lunge for a nice sharp under-cling, bump the left hand again and stand up." Adam said, yeah just like that. I fell again going for the under-cling. On my fourth try I stuck the under-cling and placed my right heal on the sloper just a few more stabs and a bit of thrutching I was standing on top of the boulder. That is the fastest V10 I have ever done. Josh who had also been trying to stick the top gave it another burn, his foot slipped off the sloper, so close. He gave it a few more tries and with the heal beta stuck the top and pulled over.  Next we ran over to 'a boy named sue' boulder, Adam wanted to try a v12 that Tony Lamiche had put up. The boulder is kinda small but nice and tall. The v12 consisted of a v8 lunge off small crimps to a good edge and then moving up and left onto very bad slopers jacking your feet up and dynoing for the top. Around the corner is an awesome v7 with very long moves, josh and I did it second try. Then we tried this v9 traverse into 'grooves arete' out of 'a boy named sue' (the v7). It starts out with long reachy moves on side pulls and a hard bump into a flat under-cling. The thing felt impossible, Adam quickly sent with some improved beta. I tried this for the rest of the day, I had done all the moves and went for a send burn, I fell at the very end on the V4 arete making a big lunge for  good edge, no no no, damn, i should of had it. I ate some peanut butter and grapes on a rap, awesome crag food by the way, thanks to Kush for the food beta. After getting some sugar in me I gave it another burn and this time sent. For the rest of the day I sat around rooting Josh on. Adam gave the V12 some more burns but didn't really make any progress. It was at the end of the day the sun had gone behind the mountain and josh was looking like he wasn't going to send. So i went for a little walk through the Talus field. On my return I heard a loud shout and Josh's head popped over the top of the boulder, Holy shit. Nice job man. Didn't think you had it in you. "yeah thats how I roll"

Next day we headed to the Buttermilks, Warmed up in 'Sheep Herder' a nice slabby v2 with awesome knobs. We then Met up with Adam and drove down to the get Carter Boulder, After getting shut down on all the small crimpy hard problems we tried this awesome new traverse into 'Ruckus' v6. It starts on the left arete and traverse right into Ruckus. doesn't make it much harder but for sure more pumpy. I sent after a few attempts, I was feeling pretty tired. It was getting cold and the sun had disappeared behind the mountains, Josh said why dont you give 'moon raker' a try. I wasn't sure I could do a v9 right now. but the conditions were amazing so I ran over and within a three or four tries was through all the hard stuff and into the giant no hands rest thread. nice another problem in the milks done. 

The Next day I shipped off to Vegas, on my way I stopped at the Bristle Cone Pines which are ontop of the white mountains to the east of Bishop. After crawling up windy and steep roads I popped out ontop with an amzing view of the sierras. I could see the sand doones of death valley and the top of Mt Whitney, Pretty cool the lowest and Highest spots in the States. 

When I got to Vegas I realized that somewhere along the way I lost my wallet, I searched my car franticly. But nope No wallet. Luckily my buddy Kush was flying in that day to climb for three days before he had to fly back to the bay area to his real job and real apartment. so Luckily he was able to lend me some money while I get my wallet back. But we had an awesome time. We headed to Mt Charleston for some nice lime stone climbing. Mt Charleston didn't really grab me at first, but the second day I got on 'straight outa compton' 12d which is a super steep supper juggy pretty short route. I should of sent second go but fell right at the end one move from the jug. I couldn't get back up there again. The next day Kush and I went to red rocks. it was third day on and neither of us were feelin very strong so we got on mostly easy stuff. I did happen to send a 12b second go, 'Geometric Progression' Nice and short bouldery route on small crimps. Through out the day I got my debit card and drivers license taken care of and its supposed to arrive in Prescott, AZ in a few days, By the way thats my next stop. 

SO that bring us to yesterday, Headed to Mt Potosi another steep Lime stone cave, with many amazing drilled routes out on of the steepest caves I have ever seen. Horizontal for 45 feet maybe more. I was feeling tired since it was my fourth day on so I tried this short bouldery 12d which secnd go I fell from the anchors going for the jug you clip from, same thing happen third go. The rest if the day I wathed Spencer try this 13c that went straight out the roof. Its amazing huge jugs knee bars for what seems like forever. I'm headed back up there tomorrow hopefully I'll send the 12d first try and be able to get on this 13a that is parallel to the 13c. 

so Until next time thats all folks,