Wisconsin

I spent most of last week in the Midwest, because my cousin was getting married in Chicago. I grew up going to Chicago twice a year, but it had been four years since I'd last been back. In the summers we'd always head up from the Windy City to my grandparent's lake house just across the border in Wisconsin. It had been a while since I'd been so we spent two days up there before heading to the wedding in Chicago. Here's a few photos. It was lovely to be back at Power's Lake, where I've spent many summers.

Picture got messed up, but it's a good view of the pier I grew up playing on.



Cory and I canoed over to this fun little swampy area of the lake.



My paddle and algae.



Getting ready to go through the tunnel.



Back on the open waters of the lake.



A view down to the lake and community tennis court from my grandma's cabin.



The cabin.

Post-Work Bouldering

I headed out for a little after work climbing this past Tuesday with Josh and Melissa. We met up at Santee, the local bouldering spot, and got on some great climbs. It's just so nice to get on the rock for a few hours after a long day at work. Makes my soul feel refreshed.

One of the problems we did was this fun slabby arete. It was Melissa's project for the day and after a few frustrating tries she hopped back on it and nailed it. It was great to watch her send it. Here she is in the middle of the business.



Josh topping out on it.



My turn.



We saw this crazy huge bug (like 3 inches long!) dragging this desert tarantula around. It was awesome!



My long standing nemesis at Santee is a problem called the 20 Point Boulder Problem. I was stoked to give it a go, but when we got over there, there was 6 or 7 people working on it. So we headed for this problem Josh had been telling me about called the No Hands Traverse. It's this great little ledge with a blank slab above it. As the name implies, it's a feet only climb with nothing to grab onto with your hands. It was super delicate and technical. I tried it probably a dozen tries and then, on the last try of the night, just before it got too dark to climb anymore, I sent it! Super happy to have nabbed this gem! Definitely a new favorite at Santee. Leave the muscles at home for this one. It's all about good footwork.

Woodson

Josh and I headed out to Mt. Woodson this last Saturday. I hadn't done much crack climbing of late and was itching to get back onto some splitters. The initial plan was to meet at 6am and then drive out to the rocks. However, a brief look at the forecast showed that it wasn't supposed to be as hot as it normally is and we decided to meet at 7am instead. The hour sleep in was nice for sure, but it was still pretty hot out there. Oh well, at least the climbing was fantastic. We warmed up on a really fun 5.9 finger crack. It felt super good to sink the digits into the rock again, as I hadn't really been crack climbing since May. Here's a view of the warmup.



Since Josh lead the warmup it was my turn to hop on the sharp end. Next up we headed to a gorgeous dihedral called Rockwork Orange. It's a steep, slightly overhanging hand to wide hand crack that goes at somewhere around 5.10b. The last time I had lead trad was in May, so hopping on a stiff 10 right off the bat gave me my moneys worth and I had to take one time on it. Josh cruised it super smoothly, and then I ran a second lap on it, this time on top rope and got it clean. I'll be back to nail the clean lead on this guy again. Stellar!



Next up was a beautiful, right leaning, technical 10a finger crack, called Alpine Crack. Here's me after leading it.



We threw a top rope on this gorgeous 12a finger crack. It's got pretty good fingers for the first half, but bad feet the whole way and then the crack tappers out. Neither one of us finished it, but this one was good. Made the blood run! Aaaargh!



One of the climbs we did was called Bat Flake, a stout 11b that goes from fingers to hands to fists and then to offwidth. Here's Josh demonstrating the proper technique to use on the offwidth section.

Holcomb Valley

Satisfied after enjoying a taste of winter in July, Margie and I continued our journey south along the eastern side of the Oregon volcanoes and crossed the border into a hazy and fire ravaged California. I spent the night in Redding, where forest fires burned all around the city. Saturday morning, July 26th, I was on the road early and heading for Big Bear Lake, to meet my buddies Josh and Melissa for a day of sport climbing. After ten hours of driving I made it to the lake and met up with the dudesters for a bite of Mexican and then to the campground. We clipped bolts all day long the next day. It was fantastic to be back on the rock and to hang out with my old buddies.

Here I am warming up on a fun 5.8.





Josh getting ready for the roof on a tricky 10a.



The happily married couple: Mel and Josh.



Me leading a really fun, technical 10a.



Melissa on lead.



Josh stylin' on a crazy good 10c.

Mount Hood

After getting the workin' on Mount Stuart, I recuperated in Seattle for a few days then made my way down to lovely Mount Hood in Oregon. Mount Hood has the only year round ski resort in North America, so I new I had to go and get some July turns in since I was going to be driving right by it. I camped at a nice little campground at the base of the mountain and was up and heading towards the ski resort by 6:45am on Friday, July 25th. After paying my $50 for a lift ticket, I hopped on the lift and made my way up onto the Palmer Glacier, where the resort operates in the summer.



Because it's the only year round ski resort, Hood is the hot spot for all the ski racing teams around the country. I have to admit, I felt a little odd seeing all these ski racers show up in their spandex, spider web suits and head up the hill. Somehow my backcountry touring apparel and fat powder skis didn't quite seem to mix in with them. You don't run into too many ski racers in the backcountry. Anyway, I was stoked to be out in the mountains and on the snow again, especially because I was able to try out my new boots which I had bought in May and had not been able to ski yet. Here's me heading up the chair with my new boots on.



The snow in the morning was pretty hard and icy, as expected for this time of year, but I new it would get slushy later in the day. Because I hadn't had time to adjust my new boots to my skinnier skis, I was on my fatties for today. Certainly takes a little more work to get them over on edge, but it let me know how much more power these new boots had, and after the first day on them, I am very happy. These bright green babies are going to be a blast next season.

As I said before, Mt. Hood is literally covered in ski racers. This makes it unclear as to where the runs are as all of these teams have their little race flags and mini courses set up everywhere. Well, after skiing through a few of these courses, one of the coaches stopped me and said, "Hey you can't ski here. There is a public lane over there. These lanes are for racers only. We pay for these lanes."

My reply was, "Seriously? I just paid $50 for one run?" Truthfully, I'm not that impressed. Yeah, it's July, but $50 for one run? That's lame. If I would have known that I probably would've hiked up to the snow. Oh well, regardless, I had a great time running laps on the mellow, blue public lane.

A view of the upper Palmer Glacier and the standard route to climb and ski Mt. Hood.



Looking over the ski area with big Mt. Jefferson in the distance.



Back at the car. Mission accomplished.

Stuart Videos

Here's a few videos tracking the progress of our long day on Stuart. Enjoy.