Laura decided that today was the day, so after work we went into Big Cottonwood Canyon, found a good spot, and she took her very first lead falls. By the end of the sesh she worked her way up to legit, full-on, bolt-at-the-feet-with-plenty-of-slack whippers and was laughing hysterically. Hell yeah!
Weather in SLC turned to garbage, so Jesse, Andy, and I went to the Swell for some cracks. I didn't do anything too spectacular, Jesse crushed as usual, and Andy not only sent his first 5.11 trad route, but he did it onsight. We started the weekend at the Dylan Wall on what was clearly the last climbable day of the season given it's direct sun exposure. The second day we went into Pine Canyon despite the sun because Andy wanted to give a shot at the 155-foot Lite Not Solid, which he sent in fine style. Hats off to Andy for stepping up his game.
Andy and I went into LCC for a short after work sesh today. He hadn't climbed a many of the classics around Crescent Crack Buttress, so we headed there and he basically ropegunned everything. I decided to stick with my stuff-I-haven't-done theory and hopped on a 10d slab at the end of the day. I'm absolutely terrible at slab climbing. It plays to all my weaknesses and none of my strengths. Basically, I got my ass handed to me and never made the second bolt. But we had draws hanging on the anchor, so I climbed a chill crack and traversed to the anchor. By the time I got to the ground the rope was completely stuck due to rope drag. I had to re-climb the crack with a Gri Gri self belay, and I even managed to get one of Andy's cams stuck. Just goes to show. No matter how much experience you have, you can still turn a chill day of cragging into a complete and total shitshow.
Laura and I headed to Zion with no real plans except to climb stuff, drink beer, and take 'er easy. We did all these things very well. In Laura's continued quest to develop a huge booty, she insisted on carrying the haul bag that I had already loaded with training weight (every cam I owned and a totally unnecessary rope) while I cruised up the trails with just a rope bag. Then she picked out two ass-named routes (Junk in the Trunk and Ghetto Booty) to climb on the first day. Laura did her first multi-pitch climbs this weekend and made excellent strides toward getting this whole crack climbing thing figured out. Plus, her booty looks huge!!
I just heard news that Kyle Dempster, Jed Brown, and Bruce Normand won the Piolet d'Or for their ascent of The Great White Jade Heist (M6, WI5, 5.7 R, 2650m) on Xuelian Feng (6422m) in China. SLC local Kyle is about the most soft-spoken and strongest climber I've ever had the pleasure to know.
I joined Mike and Britne for a long weekend at the Creek with absolutely splitter weather (except the last day when it was like climbing in a sand storm). It was Mike's second Creek trip and Britne's first, so it was pretty rad to see them getting more things figured out with each pitch. I myself had my most productive Creek trip to date. The stats: 13 pitches that I'd never climbed before, no falls, no hangs, two towers, and my first ever onsight of a 5.12 gear route. Now I'm afraid of some kind of karmic backlash. The next desert trip is definitely going to suck.
A little while ago I went through all my slides and threw every frame that I'd never use for anything. I took a sheet of 20 to get scanned for various things and threw these ones in there too. A lot of pretty cool trips went down in the days when I was still shooting slide film, but I didn't quite have the photography thing figured out yet (as if I do now), so it was pretty hit and miss when I got a good shot. Here are a few pieces of nostalgia from back in the day.
