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.