Rock at last, Icebergs article in the NYT

Well, I've finally gotten out rock climbing, great to be back on the stone! Cory and I headed up to Grassi Lakes yesterday and had at it. We waited until relatively late in the day to let the rock dry out and warm up a bit--temps were still a bit chilly but not bad, we ended climbing eight pitches of decently hard routes, perfect afternoon. It's pretty funny how weak my fingers are after a season of mixed climbing, I was falling off 5.12a routes and loving it, giving everything to redpoint 12b, super fun! In the fall I can hike these routes, but part of the fun of spring is getting your ass kicked. Ben and I are heading south to Indian Creek tomorrow for some crack action, plus I really want to climb a few tower routes like Fine Jade that I've never done. I'm hoping mixed fitness translates a little better to cracks than it does to Grassi-style pockets, but whatever, it's about going climbing for me in the spring, not cranking really hard. I think the month off with sinus issues also really screwed my fitness, but it is what it is. I've had three good days in the Vsion and one on the rock, another week of rock climbing should start to improve the rock fitness.


A story I wrote on cimbing bergs with Ben Firth is up on the New York Times website. My editor emailed this morning to say it was the "most emailed sports article," nice to see climbing beating Golf in terms of popularity, who would have thought? Here's the link, and the URL if the Blogger link doesn't work: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/08/sports/othersports/08outdoors.html?ex=1144641600&en=786bcc410744810c&ei=5087


I've spent some more time with the Sum from Faders, it's working well still, definitely better for lowering than Gri Gri on hot ropes. It takes some time to learn, and definitely do read the instruction manual!


Workouts:

Every other day in the Vsion, sent the double-star route into the three-star route, as well as the "bugs" red route. Yeah, so it's pathetic to be pumped up about sending plastic boulder traverses, but I am! Yoga and running too, the energy levels are back up to full bore. I'll hit the Vsion today again and hopefully get a short run in before the long drive south.