The scary 5.7 slab in Joshua Tree.

PULLING DOWN ON PLASTIC

  AND PUTTING IT UP

I started work five weeks ago for the Planet Granites climbing gym in the bay area. I am a setter, its tough, long hours and little time for personal climbing time. I have learned so much about how others climbing. Because I am six foot two inches, I can usually reach through. So when it comes to thinking about where feet should be plugged I have to pretend I am way shorter closer to a "normal climber". I get up between six and six-thirty am depending whether I am working in the Persidio or not. Since the San francisco Persidio gym is an hour and a half from my house. I roll out of bed making sure I don't hit the snooze button, cause its all over if I do. I turn on the stove for coffee get dressed brush my teeth, once the water boils I fill my mug and jump in the car. start up the ipod beats and head out. 

 

Stem Gym v4 and the full missing link v9

Working in the Persidio is the best, everything is new, all the holds are new, the T nuts in the wall aren't stripped, and its got good space to work with. Plus the view is amazing. While I am working I can looks out over and see Crissy field, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. The hold choices make the problems, this is one thing that I have learned since setting. I wouldn't have thought that from just climbing in the gym. But when you are choosing holds it 

becomes really clear. Setting with 90's "clumps" make no star problems. Working for the gym certainly has its perks. But getting up early every day and working all day and once your worn down from the day its time to climb and rate what you spent all day setting. Yeah its great but you kinda spend your wad by the end and have really no energy for some personal climbing. And after four days of setting your pretty ready for a break from climbing. 

But for me the psych is always up and I cant stay off the rocks long. After a restful friday of speeding through the state of california bound for some remote area with a hand full of boulders waiting, Im ready to climb for my self. But Im slightly fatigued and cant really send at my limit. Its a good thing we spent all night driving to Joshua Tree to send some old school boulders and some scary sandbagged trad routes. My good friend Nikolai and I are here to get familiar with the old school. The first thing we get on is some 5.9 we think, it turns out to be not so hard. But the next route we get on is supposed to be 5.6, my idea of what a 5.6 should feel

 like is shattered. The is thin facing climbing with big long moves between slopping holds. Im belaying Nikolai  he gets in a few pieces and including a yellow cam below this small roof which doesn't look like he wants to fall on from down here on the ground. Maybe the piece will hold, but the position and the run out makes me a little nervous. He manages to pull through the thin section and gain some huge jugs under a large roof. Over the roof is a large face covered in huge patina. After a few moves which certainly don't look like 5.6 and something more like 5.10c. Nikolai gains a small belay ledge and he brings me up. I set off on the second lead. Right off the ledge is a huge diamond shaped block with two side pull cracks kinda like climbing a fridge. The cracks are flaring and I cant get at gear in them. I feel like I am soloing with my last gear at the belay ledge Im in a mind sp

ace of don't fall no matter what. The moves are easy but its not down pulling so its a bit precarious. I make it to the summit build and anchor and bring up Nikolai. We're getting a little better at this. I think its time for some bouldering. 

We head back over to the Hidden Valley Campground to try some classic boulder problems. First on the list is Stem Gem, a ultra classic v4 stem problem. I send quickly but apparantly you're supposed to climb it facing out, I didn't just figured it was hard because we're here in Joshua tree and everything is old hard. Next I try a pretty cool v9 called 'full missing link' in this cave. It was a pretty nice 

new school problem. It just had some nastly boulders right on your back making it 

nice and scary to fall. After that it was getting late so we called it a day. So we headed to town to 

drink Margaritas and burritos.

The next day we did a few more trad climbs and some more bouldering. We went 

out to the geologic tour road area, where I climbed 'Slash face' its a really nice tall

v4, with an exciting roll over mantel way off the deck.

On the last day we got a little earlier start and went over to Echo rock. I lead this 5.7 slab

there is a picture of it over the title. The black streak up the middle of the slab is the line. the thing

felt more like 5.10, I was crimping like crazy, and there were only four bolts in the 150 feet. Man

super run out fourty feet above your last bolt high stepping and crimping on micro edges. Totally

solo head space. I dont even know what would have happen if I had fallen.

So back to the grind for another week of setting.

So last weekend I went to this amazing area in Sonora. The rock is freaking limestone and super high quality. It was super exciting to be running around seeing new boulders. Plus the place is super bizare, I guess what happen is miners flushed out all the dirt surrounding these rock features looking for gold. So the place is man exposed but not man made it it doesn't feel made made in the slightest. above is a picture of the best problem there. 

RAGING ROCK 

WESTERN STYLE

a good morning lap on high plains

Dear avid reader, hopefully you haven't given up on my blog completely, I have been in climbing mode and updating this blod wasn't the most convenient. But I'm not sorry cause I do it for me, plus that would contradict previous posts. So here is what I have been up to for the last few months. It started off in Vegas and then to Flagstaff, Arizona. After a little time spent in Flagstaff the anticipation of beautiful black and tan boulders drove me the 436 miles to Orangevile, Utah. It was super exciting to be in a world destination with dozens of classic boulder problems at your finger tips. For a month I ate the place up got to know the food ranch very well and their butter finger donut selection. Also the library for a bit of internet surfing on cold snowy days. I spent my rest days searching the hill sides for new boulder problems. In the end I did get a few FAs but its hard to get other people psyched on scrambling with crash pads up steep hills sides to new boulders, when so many of the classic existing boulder problems are within seconds from the car. This is another super attractive feature of Joe's valley. In my first few days I dispatched of Resident Evil within a few trys over two days. Then I ticked off many other amazing problems. Before long I had only the hard stuff to do. This is when the skin starts to let you know its ready for a change. so after two more weeks of projecting things here and finding FAs there, I decided that I need to head back to Sunny california. But not before I flashed the worm turns, and sent both Gurkha Knife and Dark continent, two newish problems at the 8 mile area.

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The sand dunes in Eureka Valley.

I spent another month in bishop. Over the four weeks I spent there I worked mostly on Already Forgotten in the buttermilk cave. and on my very last day in bishop I sent. Pretty exciting. I had fallen at the very end, on the top out of buttermilker. I large right foot no longer exists making this move along with others much harder. I first sent little forgotten and entertained the idea of doing the whole thing. A few days later a key knobish hold broke making the first moves of little harder, and during the next few weeks the hold broke three more time. In typical buttermilk fashion the crystals eroded away. The Holiday traffic didn't exactly help. The huge dyno at the start of the problem took me two days to stick and then I had to link it from the ground. After I was able to do this move, I knew I could do it. In the middle of the trip it snowed the most I have ever seen in bishop. With the top out covered in snow and ice it made it pretty impossible to send. I waited for two more weeks enjoying some nice christmas time to reboot from the long road trip. Fresh from the warmth of family and rest, I went back up to the milks and gave it one burn everyday dialing the moves until it felt easy. My kid brother came along and some friends from the bay, during one of our rest days we managed to make it to the Eureka sand dunes in Death Valley, We were told to bring sleds. We discovered that you can ride a sled down the massive sand dunes at break neck speeds. It was also cold enough that the shaded sides of the tunes had a thin layer of frost which made the sled ride a million times faster. Elijah (my brother) had a blast he's young enough not to be scared and he showed us all up on the slopes. It was amazing you got to try it next time you are in bishop and its only 60 miles away. Pretty easy for a rest day. On a day near the end of the trip when the milks were buzzing with holiday traffic I was searching out pads to try my proj. I ran into Sarah Orens who I had met in africa, she was with Sean Diamond, She asked me if I had pads that Sean could use to try this project in the secrets of the bee hive area. We teamed up and with our pads, I found out pretty fast that we didn't exactly have enough. The boulder is very over hanging with a very bad landing. Look for more details on Climbing.com and in a upcoming issue (owwhhh exciting). On the very last day of the trip the ice melted and I was able to send my epic project.

Me on the send of Already Forgotten

So there you have it. You are a little more up to date. Oh and i got a job as a route setter for the Planet Granites in the bay area. the plan is to save money and return to south africa.
Until my next adventure stay interested.