Lost my shirt

Arun retrieving a stuck rope rappelling off Young and Rackless, a fun 5.9 4-pitch climb, with Leici...go Arun!

Its summer in Boulder, which means I may be inclined to climb without a shirt on occasion. I bet you've never seen me climb in shorts though - I'm too much of a trady at heart to not bang up my knees scumming up a climb.

But yesterday was the first time I lost my shirt. Luckily, a crumpled pile of cotton did not add to the climber micro-trash of tape - Marc and RD kindly picked it up on their way out. I drove the hour+ drive home weaving through the farms and estates of the front range shirtless and feeling free. I won't forget the look on my neighbor's face when I said I lost my shirt. I can crack myself up sometimes. Apart from the occasional sufferfest (see Jason's post on Mt Alice ski trip here), I've been enjoying the daily swing of trail runs and sport climbing.

18 miles down, 6 to go in the East Inlet of RMNP

Here are a small handful of photos from some start-of-the-summer trips:

Paul cruising up Empire of the Fenceless at Easter

Zach on his way to sending The Ticket

Hiking the meadows below Lumpy

RD getting us started at the Monastery

Marc on the fabulous Tabula Rasa

Me enj0ying the moves high on the pillar

Quite a ride

...on the Joy Ride!

10 months and 6 trips to Coney Island later, I convinced Arun to meet me at work for a quick trip up the canyon. The weather was stellar and the route would be in the shade, but I couldn't convince a partner to get on it with me; others had Easter Island, Oceanic Wall, and Sherwood Forest on the mind. I made it clear it was Coney Island or bust for me. I felt good after working The Ticket on Saturday and climbing the full Naked Edge on Sunday with Mr. Briggs. We swapped leads - I led the first pitch clean (wahoo!) and followed Roger on the spicy chimney pitch - a classic climb with a classic guy!

First a little more history on why I became obsessed with the Joy Ride. On my first try with Jason last August, I didn't get to the last bolt on my first attempt - two sections were super reachy. I didn't even get it clean on TR, but the moves were awesome, the foot skills super technical, and the rock just fine. We went back with Shane a week later and both Shane and Jason style the RP and show me how its done.

Shane cranking the first crux move over the roof

Jason agreed to feed my need the next week and we headed back. Despite a poor state of mind, I jump on it a second time. The roof move is now on cruise control and I finally figured out a short dude's sequence for the reachy move at the 4th bolt. After sticking the 3rd and final crux, I blow the clip attempting to lock off and reach high. My forearm juice crystalizes and I take the fall after 5 minutes of deliberation. Ideally, I would have made a few more moves and clipped it higher, but my fear of falling was too great. I was climbing it for the wrong reasons.

Long story short, I developed a shoulder injury, initiated PT, and associated the climb with my shoulder pain, so I shelved it for the year. 7 months later, I returned to it before my trip to the Ruth Gorge and knew I had to change my approach: not to get to the top clean or tick it off the list, but for the personal growth it would bring. On an early May return with Brendan, I climbed it with one hang between cruxes when my fingers went numb. With the lack of a good warmup in sub-70 temps, my fingers had no chance.

With my lovely fiance at the belay this evening, I head up with the idea of warming up, taking a practice fall, and hanging the draws. As I step off the ground, I let out my usual flatulence, but this time I let it fly a little too far. With some TP and hand sanitizer on hand (thanks hun), the damage was manageable. A few minutes later, I was depressurized and back on the climb with my mojo unfettered. I kept thinking I would take a fall or a hang as part of a warmup run, but the moves came together and the fingers did not fall asleep. Soon enough I was on the ledge. At this point, I let the pump in my right arm subside and worked out the upper crux moves in my head. But the anticipation returned and a rising heart rate sneaked up on me. Boulder Creek raged below and I realized that if the water could flow so easily (along with my flatulence), why couldn't I. Arun smiled up, I embarked, struggled a bit with the sequence but committed and hit the jug. Instead of reaching high and blowing the clip, I made a couple more 5.10 moves and clipped the bolt at my thigh. I reached the anchors, called it a day with a huge grin, and we drove back to town to shop for our future kitten. Thanks for all the good vibes everyone!

PSYCHED!

To the Ruth Gorge and back

[Apologies for the re-post - blogger is decisively the worst online software I have ever worked with - it deleted the post and messes with your formatting all the time)

Lessons in defining success

After 2 years of negotiations and raising nearly $1 million in funds to conserve a thousand acre property, we awaited a signed purchase agreement, only to discover that, instead, the landowners went under contract with a developer to parcel out their land amidst some of the best salmon habitat in the Pacific Northwest. Who ever thought salmon could bring someone to tears? Well, it did, and it was an important lesson in land conservation. Just the same as the countless scores of alpine attempts, “takes,” and minor injuries which fill our climbing lives with erratic waves of success and failure.

But what really defines success in the mountains? How can we justify decisions to bail or head back and yet carry a lingering feeling of regret? How do we slay the ego-centric dragon and focus on real “success” – personal growth and learning, coming home in one piece, two weeks with one of your best mates?

Late in the afternoon, nearing the summit ridge on the Northeast Face of Dickey, Graham reaches an impasse out of my view from the belay. After a short discussion, we proceed to bail and make 7 raps on a series of pitons, nuts, flakes and snow bollards. GZ never felt so good about the decision he made – no other thoughts got in his way.

On our attempt of Barrill, another snow storm, avalanche, and above-freezing temps send us back to the safety of basecamp. With an inversion over our heads and a forecast of unsettled weather, we retrieve our fixed line the next day and take the next weather window to fly out 3 days early. Graham was comfortable about the decision; I was sad to leave. Yet, on my shuttle back to Anchorage, Graham called to tell me about the serac that slid into the Root Canal basecamp from Mooses Tooth and killed an unfortunate climber from Texas. “Those mountains were the most dangerous I’ve ever seen them,” said Graham.

I was beginning to understand. Chris’ copy of The Rock Warrior’s Way frayed at the edges as I flipped through its pages at camp and Ilgner’s words of wisdom filtered through to my subconscious. The lessons learned here will carry forward to my projects back home. “Joy Ride” will be just that, not a nemesis. After ten years of climbing, the lessons and learning are just as vivid and real as my first scramble or first trad lead. It’s the journey, not the summit or the redpoint, that we need to embrace.

Alaska was an incredible experience. Our trip was a success. Graham and I climbed some amazing, high quality pitches of ice, mixed, and snow. We took calculated risks and acted out our decisions confidently and efficiently. We climbed strong and threaded together some mentally and physically challenging pitches. We chowed down on “deancakes” and burritos while listening to solar-powered ipods. We shared quality bro time together. And I learned just how small we are compared to the expansive Ruth Glacier and its 3,000 to 5,000 foot faces. Graham and I started our adventures together over ten years ago and we have both grown and come back together as stronger people and climbers.

Here are some of my favorite shots from the trip. For the complete photo journal, visit:

http://isc.astro.cornell.edu/~don/pictures/v/friends/joe/joe_climbing/joe_ruthgorge/
(copy and paste link if it does not work)

At Talkeetna Air Taxi, GZ carting over half our 461 lb load of gear and food

Landing in Rick's Beaver ski plane

On a scouting trip to see whats in - so close yet so far

Denali

Cheers from basecamp! Barrill on the left

The Mooses Tooth

Our attempt of a potential new line on the NE Face of Dickey

Starting up a beautiful runnel of ice

More fun terrain

GZ topping out a short step

GZ backstepping up a narrow v-slot

Me topping out the v-slot below

A couple pitches later, GZ negotiated up some runout M5+ only to find a 30ft blank section with no pro and a loosely consolidated snow mushroom above. We bailed and a snow storm came in for the next 4 days.

Happy Easter from the Ruth Gorge! Bradley plastered in fresh snow

Our attempt on the NE Face of Barrill

GZ belaying the first pitch

Inching up the narrow M6 squeeze chimney

The chimney ate up so much time that we opted to fix a line and come back the next morning ready to send!

Graham starting up a beautiful pitch of tiered ice

Another thin vertical step

The crux of the climb - a vertical arete of rock plastered with dollops of ice. Just at the top, with his head above the lip, an avalanche hit, pounding Graham with snow, ice, and rock for a good 20 seconds as he held on 15 feet above his last stubby screw.

Me on the next pitch of snow and ice

With warming temps and greater snowfall, we called it a day and wrapped down

Graham prepping another meal of salami burritos

Our fellow basecamp buddies, Andrew and Claudine

With unsettled weather and an inversion, we opted to fly out early

Parting shot - we'll be back to the Ruth for sure!

Off to AK in T-1 Days!

I feel like the only way to prep for Alaska is to just go to Alaska. Nonetheless, Colorado has been the backdrop for all my training and prep along with a quick visit to Southern California, Hueco, and the Red River Gorge. Bouldering and steep sandstone equates to long mixed climbs in the Ruth Gorge yeah? I'll let you know.

Jason was kind enough to donate his raffle prize of a free month to Alpine Training Center, where Connie whipped me into shape and I finally got an idea of what Chris has been up to the last 14 months:

Lots of sandbag carries, push presses, ball slams, and slashers. I got schooled on work-outs like the airdyne, turkish getups, and farmer carries. Towards the end of my month, Connie tailored it for AK. Good times! Not only did it get my legs stronger and my forearms pumped, it worked a lot of my opposing muscle groups we climbers tend to neglect. I may pick it up later in the summer to help prevent overuse injuries from climbing, especially my shoulders.

A couple trips to Hessie Chimney with Jason and Blake helped keep my dry tooling in tune. Luckily it was fat this season and, all in all, it is as quality and classic as any winter climb in the Park:
Doug "Show me how to Dougie" Shepherd helped prep me for the trip with a winter attempt of the Diamond. The forecast called for sunny skies but 60-mph SW winds. We took our chances, headed up at 4am, and after hiking through some heavy gusts, the wind died down below the sheltering walls of Long Peak's giant east face. The approach to North Chimney from Mills Lake was a snow slog and Doug led the first block of getting up and over to the base of D7. The fresh snow slowed us down but, hey, what better training can you get for AK! The last slabbey stretch of the Chimney required Doug to shed his gloves and make some committing moves. Broadway was in rare form - steep walls of snow made the usual cake walk more interesting:




My block was to aid D7 and our late afternoon start meant only a few hours of light before I would be aiding upwards in the dark. Under the narrow view of my headlamp, I made slow but steady progress from piece to piece on straightforward A1 with the occasional balancing act traversing ledges in my double boots. But, it didn't feel right the entire time and I kept looking for the D7 crux I remembered from the summer of 2009. I figured any vertical gain brought us closer to the summit and the "super moon" encouraged me on. 4-5 pitches up by 2:00 am in the morning, I called down to Doug. The uncertainty of being on or off route, plus our tired bodies, brought me to rap down to Doug and take a break for food, water, and rest at a hanging belay. My down pants, Phantom 6000 double boots, and puffy jacket kept me just warm enough with the occasional leg pumps to get blood past my constricting harness. After a round of water and soupy Ramen, the MSR Reactor pot handle broke off, sailing into the darkness and ending our supply of new water. It's 4:00 am and Doug gives his first aid pitch a go. Swallows swooped by the belay and I dozed off in between feeding out rope and looking behind my back at the horizon, waiting anxiously for the sun to rise to warm my body. The Diamond's granite face eventually began to glow in the morning sun and we savored the moment. After jugging up to Doug, we realized we were at the base of the last pitch of Black Dagger, with a rotten, broken seam and chimney higher above. With no water and no cam hooks, we opted to rap down, where the stove pot waited on the deep snow of Broadway. The rap off Broadway provided more entertainment as nearly all of the rap stations were buried in snow.

Let me sum this up: incredible experience, great partner, brutal, and awesome at the same time. 35.5 hours car-to-car without a proper bivy and sleep - my longest single push in the mountains.

After a trip to the Red River Gorge heal-hooking up huecos, Doug convinced me to take one last alpine trip. This time it wouldn't be a day and a half outing - just a pre-work jaunt up Brain Freeze on Mt. Otis in the Park. Both Doug and I had climbed the route in 2010 so we planned to simul climb as much as possible. Doug took the first block, simuling through the unusually fat Changing Corners and all the way to the chockstone. From there, I linked two pitches out of the chimney system. 9:15 am. We skipped the short final step and rapped down so I could get back for half a day of work. I'm not sure it counts as morning alpinism if I got in at 1pm, but hey, it was another awesome morning in the mountains:

So Alaska here we come. Graham and I are super excited. I'm glad he is finally back from Eritrea, Africa - it was hard to plan for Alaska when your partner can only reach you via satellite phone. We are fully geared up and I just need to pack up tonight. And I couldn't ask for a better partner - Graham and I began our adventures together 10 years ago when he was 14 and I was 18. Since then, we have gone off on our own paths and repeatedly come back together from time to time to "stir the rad pot."

Sunday, we fly into the Ruth on Talkeetna Air to do a little window shopping. We will set up camp on the main Ruth Glacier and, weather pending, explore some new lines!

Thanks for all the support everyone! - especially Arun as I run off on missions into the mountains and chase my obsessions.