Big Changes...

So a lot of big changes have happened and it looks like there are a lot more on the horizon. First, Nancy (my girlfriend of 5 years) and I broke up. Which was a big shock to me... Now, I'm struggling with what to do with my self and who I am with out her. For awhile now I have seen us settling down in Atlanta and starting a life here but it seems that that is not the case and I have a lot of opportunities ahead of me.

One thing that is nice but weird at the same time is I no longer have to consider another person when planning anything; where it is day to day life or a big trip 6 months from now. So with that new found freedom I am going to Yosemite Valley this Wednesday and then starting to make plans to move west once I get back.

Packing shit show....

So Yosemite, such a great place... but flying out there SUCKS!!! First the stupid restrictions on check baggage is ridiculous, and flying with an small big wall rack doesn't make anything easier. Second, the damn series of trains planes and automobiles needed to get from Atlanta to Yosemite Valley is a preposterous epic shit show. It even involves a bivy in an airport. My sister actually leaves for Italy the same day and will arrive in Rome before I get to Yosemite Valley, freaking ridiculous.

I'm meeting my good friend APL (apple) out there and our big goal is to free Freerider (5.12d) on El Cap. This would be by far the biggest, hardest and best accomplishment of our climbing careers to this point. I'm both really excited and nervous about Freerider, I've been climbing hard enough, atleast on paper, to say I can redpoint all the pitches on this thing but actually doing it is another issue all together.... I guess we'll see shortly.

Well, that's it for now... Big trip, Big Break-up and wide open future.....

And so it begins...

So this is it, my last beer before I start my 7 week training schedule in preparation for the valley. A New Belgium Ranger, a great IPA, I highly suggest it. I feel stronger on routes then I've ever felt before and am really psyched to go and try as hard as I can in Yosemite. I've been out there twice now and am so inspired by the climbs the surrounding and the people who are pushing their limits. Over the last few month I've had a number of outside trips, including a week long trip to The New, where I worked the greatest show and feel that it could very possibly go this fall; I can't explain how excited I am about that.

But back to the point....the valley and training. So I'm planning on breaking the next 6 weeks up into 3 - 2 week cycles. each getting more intense then the last and the 7th week will be a recovery week, hopefully allowing me to preform once in the valley.

So weeks 1 and 2 should look something like this....

Sunday - Climbing (trip outside)

Monday - Run 3 miles

Tuesday - Climbing (15 routes and 15 boulders >V5), Core and Campus 45min.

Wednesday - Run 3 miles, Climbing (15 routes and 15 boulders >V5), Core

Thursday - Climbing (15 routes and 15 boulders >V5), Core and Campus 45min.

Friday - Run 3 miles

Saturday - Climbing (trip outside)

So we'll see how it goes... hopefully week one goes well and week 2 should be great so week 3 can get harder....

Let's try this blogging thing again....

SO..........last time I posted something I talked about going to The New and Seneca for several weeks and posting stuff from the road, and getting on all these awesome climbs etc. etc. Obviously posting anything was a big lie, as I suck at posting stuff on here.

The trip turned out to be a giant shit show.... instead of 5 weeks i was only out 3. I never went to Seneca, and stayed at the New. I got shut down HARD on the Greatest Show and it also rained almost everyday I of the trip. To top it all off I had to fight a shoulder/pectoral injury. On the bright side I got to hang out with some great people and friends and really enjoyed being back at the New, even if the climbing was a bust.

Since last August, I have left Chicago and Nancy and I moved down to Atlanta, so she can go to grad school at Emory. Being down here has been great! I'm 2-3 hours from dozens of climbing areas, you can climb almost all year around, even the summer if you can deal with the heat. We have a nice apartment and I've found a great crew of people to climb with on a regular basis.

I finished out 2010 by not really having accomplished any of my goals in climbing. A fact that hit me pretty hard and definitely lit a fire under me. My motivation for the most part is super high and I'm working on training as hard as I can. 2011 has been a great year for me so far, I sent my hardest boulder, routes, and even am really close to red-point in a day a multi-pitch route I've been eying up for years. All of this makes me want to train even harder. I'm in a really great cycle right now.

As the season goes on I really want to keep posting and probably put up some pictures to go along with the posts. Well, thats all for now....

It's Been A While....

So, I'm noticing that I really am not great at keeping up with these posts. Its been over a year and a lot has happened in life. I'm still stuck in the flat lands but am getting ready to move to Atlanta, which is a change I welcome with open arms. It's not that Chicago has been a horrible place to live, it's actually a very nice city, but I find myself stuck in the city and not being able to make it out to open spaces enough. So Atlanta will be better since I have more access to plenty of climbing and open spaces in the Smokey Mountains. Just gotta hold out till August.

Since moving to Chicago, I've worked as everything from a person moving boxes around a law firm (literally) to a line cook and most recently a sales associate at Moosejaw Mountaineering. Moosejaw is a small but growing version of REI, it does have its draw backs but I am able to travel for weeks at a time when the opportunity strikes and still have a job, so I won't complain.

I was just in Baltimore to compete in the first big comp in my short climbing career, The Earth Treks Roc Comp. Even though I didn't do fantastic, I'm happy with my climbing and where I placed. It really helped me gauge where I stand against the big names and how much work I need to put in to be as strong as the people we read about in the climbing magazines.

On a different note, I head out Friday for about 3 weeks on a climbing trip!!!! I'll be at the New River Gorge for roughly 2 weeks, then Seneca Rocks for a week. I'm PSYCHED!!! First I haven't been outside since, October, which is way too long. Second, I'm feeling strong, probably the strongest I've ever felt so I'm excited to see what happens. I have a long laundry list of goals for both the New and Seneca, which include, The Greatest Show (New) and Nightmare (Seneca).

We'll see what happens and I'll post some pics and updates from the road.

Well, thats about it and I need to get going...... Ciao

Catching Up.....

So, its been a while since my last post but I wanted to get back in the swing of things. Over the last few months I did a good bit of climbing, down at the New, the Red and I took a trip to Yosemite Valley which was pretty awesome. I also moved....

So the trips to the New have been pretty standard, sent some cool climbs and still have a lot of open projects. But the most exciting trip was to Yosemite. I met up with my buddy Apl, the first week of October and we had a great trip. The first day we tried to climb the Nose on El Capitan but regrettably had to bail.

After that we took a few days just cragging, bouldering and hangin around camp 4. Then we decided to attempt a one day ascent of the Regular route on Half Dome. This really isn't a big deal but for the 2 of us who had yet to climb a grade VI wall let alone in do it in a day.

The day before our ascent attempt we hiked up the death slabs to the base of the wall, this was a long 4 hour hike with very heavy packs. Once at the base we set up our bivy, eat and go to bed in the dark. The next morning we woke up around 5am and started up the route. We were definitely moving slower then we wanted but we were making progress. Within a few pitches of the top the temp. dropped and the wind started to pickup. We topped out around 9 pm and within a half hour it started to rain/snow (kind of a wintery mix). The two of us packed our stuff up as fast as we could and started looking for the cables. It took way to long to find these cables, probably about an hour maybe a little longer. Then once we got down the cables and made it to what is called "the saddle" it took another hour to find the stairs. Normally, it shouldn't take so long to get down but the top of Half Dome was covered in a dense fog that cut visibility down to about 15 feet, not good.

Anyway, eventually we got down and back to the bivy. The next day we hiked to hikers trail and went to an all you can eat buffet. The rest of the trip was pretty relaxing and we headed home.

A few weekends later I met back up with Apl and did some climbing at the Red and Seneca. All in all it was a pretty good end of the season.

As for the rest of life, I just moved to Chicago and got a job working as an office peon moving boxes and stuff. It's a very easy and boring job but it pays ok and is going to help me save for more climbing trips.

I'll need to post more later but that is what has been going on the last few months.

New River Gorge Trip Report….

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Trip Reports....

So it’s been about a month and a half since I last wrote anything for this little blog I started and with the climbing season under way I guess I could but a few trip reports on here.

Seneca Rocks….

About a month ago I went to Seneca Rocks in West Virginia with Sarah Albani, Alowishish Leap (Apple) and Mike Yosko. Sarah and I drove down from Pittsburgh on Friday night camped out and got up Sunday morning to head to the rocks. We hiked up to Ecstasy (5.7) and elected to wait for a party to move on so we could climb this instead of hiking the entire approach; in retrospect a bad decision. We wasted a good 2 hours waiting for the party a head of us before Sarah could lead the first pitch. Once up to the first belay Sarah brought me up and I elected to lead Ecstasy Escape and was hoping to link it with the second pitch of The Burn (5.8), which is rarely done. I quickly found myself off route in a lichen covered part of the face, carrying a 25 lbs. pack and definitely lacking in good gear placements. After a few sketchy minutes I was able to top out and bring Sarah up and move on to the main objectives for the day. We headed over to the Crack of Dawn area where I lead Cottonmouth (5.10a) and linked it with Venom (5.10b); these are two stellar climbs of people climbing at the grade. Sarah was supposed to lead Marshall’s Madness (5.9) into Crack of Dawn (5.10) but elected not to because it looked like weather might be rolling down the valley. So, I decided to lead the first pitch of Sidewinder (5.11a). With the wind starting to kick up and rain on the far side of the valley there was a feeling of intensity that I usually don’t get at Seneca. Fortunately, the rain held off and all went well.

That evening we met up with Apple and Mike and hung out at the Cinco de Mayo party, which had free Mexican food and plenty of beer. Eventually after having our fill we crashed….

The next morning we hiked to the east face of the south peak and climbed in that area for the day. After warming up on Castor and Pollux (both 5.10a), Sarah and I went up to Orange Aid (5.10b). After a few minutes of Sarah getting nervous she finally jumped on it and got the onsight. We rapped to the base and I went and lead Nip and Tuck (5.10c) and Apple and I ended the day with Spock’s Brain (5.11a).

The New River Gorge….

After a few weeks of no trips Sarah and I took a trip to The New on Memorial Day weekend, as usual we left Friday night and climbed Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We headed to Endless wall on Saturday and went to the Fantasy Crack area. We warmed up on Fantasy (5.8) and the got on Aesthetica (5.11c), both are stellar climbs. I attempted Erotica (5.12a) and worked out all the moves but because of the way it is bolted I’m a little hesitant to get back on it until I’m stronger at the grade. We headed down to Leave it to Jesus (5.11c/d) and I hung my way up this climb as well. With a little more endurance I feel that I can send but right now I just don’t have it. Last climb of the day we got on Jesus and Tequila (5.12b), needless to say…no dice, this climb is hard!

On Sunday we went out to Beauty Mountain, which is becoming on of my favorite crags at The New. First climb of the day was Welcome to Beauty (5.11b), which is a stellar line and one of the classics at the area. We proceeded to go to Burning Calves (5.10b?) which Sarah onsighted. Then I worked Grace Note (5.12b), I think this will go down with a little more work. And finally I got on Steve Martin Face (5.11c) which was not a good way to end the day. The lead was heady and I was placing poor pro…I definitely need to redeem myself after that debacle.

On Monday, we had a short day at Summersville Lake and climbed at Long Wall for the morning. We climbed several 5.9 and 5.10 then got on Under the Milky Way (5.11d) which was stellar.

Coopers….

Chad Hume, Sarah Albani and I all took a trip to Cooper’s Rocks one Sunday in May. If you don’t know about Coopers it’s a pretty cool little state park nestled just out side of Morgantown, WV. The rock there is pretty awesome and offers a great amount of bouldering. We got there late afternoon with and headed to the Coral Area, Coral is a climb that Chad is pretty psyched about working. We warmed up on 2 V2’s and a V4 across the way from Coral, I’m not sure what they are called but they’re pretty decent. Then we headed over to Coral (V7), this thing is pretty hard. We worked out the first few moves and the kept getting shut down on a big move up and right. After a number of attempts we started power spotting each other and pretty much determined that this climb is going to require crap tons of core strength…so we moved on for the day after working it pretty good. Then we headed over to a boulder called Crash and Burn (V5) which went down after a number of goes. Finally, to end the day we went over to Tilted Tree Area and tried to send The Bulge (V5) but…no dice.

The New…..

So last Trip Report for this post…. I just got back from The New with Chad Hume and Eric Schenfeld. We got down to The Rocky Top Retreat (Roger’s) around midnight, set up the tent and crashed. We woke up around 6am on Saturday and headed down to Fern Buttress. At fern we jumped on a The Chameleon (5.10a) to warm up and then ticked off Fly Girls (5.12a). We jumped on Wild Seed (5.11a), which was stellar and fixed a line to snap some photos. Then Chad and I climbed Muscle Belly (5.11c) while Eric graciously snapped some shots. After that I ended the day by trying Portly Gentlemen’s Route (5.12c) and needless to say…no dice. This route is awesome and really stout. It follows a nice crack into a dihedral and the out a roof, all relatively moderate 5.11 climbing. Then you need to pull the roof on to a face with a thin finger crack, which I couldn’t figure out, so I aided up and Chad cleaned the route on top rope. I really think this can go down pretty soon, and that I should have the strength to pull the moves once I figure them out. It really seems that on the harder grades where I’m really pushing it that I have a hard time figuring out the new movement….who knows but it’ll go down.

Saturday night we cooked at Roger’s and hung out on the porch with a few people we met; then crashed pretty early.

Sunday, after a groggy start we headed to the lake. We hiked in down to Orange Oswald Wall and climbed Orange Oswald (5.10a) and Voodoo Surfer (5.10b). I was really psyched to get on Narcissist (5.12a) but surprisingly it was dripping wet, so instead we went over to do Under the Milky Way (5.11d). Then headed to the Coliseum and Chad and I jumped on Apollo Reed (5.13a). I made it to the 4^th bolt clean and the hung at the 5^th to make my high point at the 6^th bolt (of 11 or 12). I think the crux is right after the 6^th bolt but and hopefully I can pull the move next time. After that we jumped in the lake and headed home.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to post trip reports more often now and they won’t be this long. But we’ll see….

Ciao