RAGING ROCK
WESTERN STYLE
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.
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