Rat Race Task Two

This morning looked grim--foggy, windy and building high clouds. Somehow it all cleaned up by about 12:00, and a short (42.5K) task was called. Waiting for the start in the air was interesting--it was very windy above about 7,000 feet (I use feet in US meets to keep it simpler), we kept drifting downwind at high rates of speed up high. But the cloud flying was amazing--I think there was some sort of wave action, we were able to surf the front of clouds at least 1500 feet above base, a rare treat in paragliding.

The task was a couple of laps around the local Wood Rat valley, then off into the small hills of the Rogue valley. I had a solid start and hammered around the first two laps in the lead with Eric Reed, the conditions were really nice with smooth glides and fast climbs. Eric and I were able to glide the first two laps with only one thermal, but had to use a lot of bar on the into the wind legs. Most of the field wasn't far behind us, which lent motivation to pushing on the speed bar. We then headed out into the Rogue valley and got slowed down--Bruce Goldsmith, Bill Belcourt and a couple of others caught us, and we all climbed together in a weak thermal. I was sure that there had to be something better and left to go find it. I thought the hills were going to work better than the flats, but got flushed out of them and very low, about 200 feet above the ground, but I could just tell it was going to work and sure enough I was able to slowly grovel back into the sky. Unfortunately Bill and the others had gone on glide to goal by then, with Bill into goal first. I'm pretty sure he won the meet as he also did well on the first task. I played it conservative into goal, once I've lost the lead I'd rather be solid in getting to goal than land early as many pilots did. In the end there were probably 20+ pilots into goal, amazing given how the day looked. I don't know where I placed but had a great flight. It's always better to end a meet with a good day of flying!


Workouts:

Last night I hit the Rogue Rock gym again, and started out by learning how to slack line instead of climbing for about 45 minutes, super fun. I've only tried slacklining a few times, I'm going to have set one up in my yard for the future. Got a good session of bouldering on the crew there, we ended up in keeping the gym open to beat ourselves up on a cool hard route into the night, a great workout. I really like visiting different gyms as I travel, I always meet good people and have a good time. The Rogue Gym is a good gym if you're ever in the Medford area, well worth a visit.

Rat Race Rain

The last three days have been rained out. It happens.


Workouts: A fair amount of drinking, running, climbing in the Rogue Rock gym, Yoga and drinking has gone on and been fun.

Rat Race Day One

A good task, a good day! Len won, something like 45 people in goal, fantastic! Good to see so many friends again, it's a gathering of the winged tribe for sure.

I had a very mixed day--somehow mis-timed the start and was a bit low when it happened, but high enough. The strange thing was my GPS didn't flip at the first turn point, and I didn't check it until I was about 3K past the point--I knew I'd flown right over it from the comp last year, but the GPS didn't switch, so... I flew back, got it for sure, then continued on the course but 15 minutes behind the leaders. Comp experiences like that are mind-taxing, it's easy to let the negativity of making a stupid mistake ruin the day. I was pretty much last on the course after my additional turnpoint, but managed to rally enough to make it into goal about 20 minutes behind the leaders. The whole time I figured I was in dead last, so I just relaxed and enjoyed the good flying, and it was worlds better to at least fly the course rather than blown up mentally. As happens so often, I ended up doing OK but forgetting the comp attitude and just flapping. I think it's important to compete a lot to be in practice, I haven't competed in a year and my systems were not tight. We loaded up my flight last night and I did indeed fly directly through the first turnpoint, but for some reason my GPS didn't flip. I should have been paying more attention.

Keith, Rob and Grahame all made goal, Nicole missed it by being a bit late and geting shaded out. Still a very good showing for team Canada.

OK, we're heading up the hill right now although the sky looks like grey.

Rat Race, Medford Rock Gym

It's been a fast-paced few days. On Friday Kim and I drove up to Jasper to wish my Mom a happy 60th birthday (happy birthday again), followed by a drive back to canmore, mad packing, then to the Dom semi-invitational suffer fest in his home gym that night. It's always a wicked event, thanks to the Dom family and all the other people who poured sweat, chalk and blood on the holds all evening, I always crawl out of Dom's garage. Then the party games started, which I suck at but lots of good energy from all the folks. Knut put me up at his house in Calgary that night, then up early to fly to Medford, Oregon, for the Rat Race paraglding competition. I got a great Yoga session on in the Portland airport, I always expect to get hassled as a potential Jihadist or something for doing yoga in US airports, but all cool, and it helped work out the kinks from Dom's desperate comp. Finally made it to Medford, amazing how much can happen in such a short period of time.

Today was one of the best flying days I've had in a long time--the area around Medford is just made for paragliding, awesome flight out to Grant's Pass and back--I didn't have to turn for around 30K straight, just blasting along at and above cloud base, amazing. Flights like that are why I fly. There are over 100 pilots down here, it should be a very competitive comp and conditions look stunningly good...

After flying all afternoon and doing a tandem in the morning Keith and I hit the Rogue Rock gym in Medford, it's a good gym, still worked from the comp but had a good time pulling on plastic. The comp starts tomorrow and it's late now, time to wrack and get fired up in the morning, yeah!

wg

Rat Race, Everest, Training

On Sunday I'm off the annual Rat Race, a high-level paragliding competition in southern Oregon. I did it last year and had a good time flying with friends, looking forward to it this year. The photo is from Bo Criss from last year. Paragliding competitions bring out the best and worst in flying; the best when the flying is good, and the worst when we end up sitting on the hill all day waiting for good conditions... I'm fired up to fly, but if the flying is no good I'll be able to climb at the Rogue Rock Gym in Medford, which wasn't open last year. I'm actually maintaining a pretty good climbing fitness so far this year, I do not want to go through last year's hell of getting strong again after sitting in my paragliding LaZboy chair all summer...

Everest:

Made the news yet again as a double amputee and about 40 other people choose to summit rather than try to help a dying climber down the mountain. Who knows what actually happened, but it's clear that Everest is a circus that continue to amuse the public, and justifiably so. The summit is now more highly coveted by the public than by climbers, it would be a funny situation if it weren't so deadly. Climbers get incensed when every accountant or car dealer who summits (or doesn't?) makes the local newspapers, while far more "epic" ascents on other mountains receive no mention. I have to laugh at this a bit as what climbers are really saying is, "Hey, pay attention to MY climbs!" I also have to agree that climbing Everest by a standard route with good Sherpa support isn't all that much of an accomplishment, perhaps more of a financial accomplishment in gathering the money than a sporting event. Sharon Wood and the other Canadians who climbed a difficult new route on the way to the summit of Everest 20 years ago deserve their press and respect for sure, but reporting every summit climb is starting to get ridiculous, like reporting who won the local golf tournament as front-page news. Today in the Calgary Herald there's a story about a local woman who is attempting to climb what she defines as all seven summits. This is not news, it's not a sporting accomplishment, but there it is, front page. In one sense I'm happy to see climbing get any press at all, but surely the new route Raphael and Scott climbed last week on Andromeda is more worthy of front-page news? Maybe if Raph or Scott was brain-dead and blind then it would have been more newsworthy? As someone who plays the media game and has also worked at various magazines I feel I'm qualified to say that the media, even the climbing media, doesn't really understand climbing, climbers don't understand the media or the public, and the public will never understand climbing as its portrayed in the media (I sure don't). No wonder everyone is confused, and the resulting mix is so very strange, as it is today in my Calgary Herald.

Training:

It's an odd time of year, where I'm trying to climb and also trying to fly and do all the business stuff I ignore in the winter months while climbing. I've been slipping in high-quality if short workouts at the end of the day. A couple of days ago David and I had a great workout after I ran some errands in Calgary, we went to the University of Calgary and spent a couple of hours bouldering on the outside wall of the PE building. Back in the early nineties I spent days on this long wall of flagstone bricks, it was a serious physical flashback. We finished the workout by going into the dungeon at the U of C and climbing on Murray's old inset brick wall, and on the even earlier plywood and two by four wall. I spent literally hundreds of hours in that basement hallway years ago, it was actually super fun to try some of the old problems. I even got low blood sugar just like the old days when my diet resembled that of a rabbit (we used to think any bodyfat over about three percent was a serious hindrance, how times change...). Anyhow, a great "Nostalgia" workout as dD called it.

I've been mountain biking some this spring, including a great ride with "buzzsaw" Joe in K-Country. We rode around Barrier mountain, an epic ride, it really fired me up to do more riding in K-Country. Yesterday I rode with Mark for about an hour, then went for a short run with Chili dog, followed by a good yoga session. I'm slowly gaining more flexibility, although public reaction to my attempts at Yoga generally involves laughter. So what, I figure I'm not getting any stiffer at least, plus Yoga is good for the head.

Lady Mac

After ten days of trying we actually got a good flight in off of Lady Mac above Canmore. Josh, Kim, Jerome and I hiked up, moving slow due to Josh having a blown knee. Cruised along, ended up launching at about 1:00, I got yanked into the sky. It was interesting flying, fairly windy at base (about 3,800M), but with big thermals to block the wind. It's always fantastic to get to fly in the Canmore area, big peaks with snow, love that action! The photo is looking east toward Calgary, Cougar Creek is the main drainage. It's officially really flying season again, finally!

Skaha, Hedley, the Muppet Show

Back home. It's been the spring of road trips, partly due to shite weather here in Canmore and partly just to listen to the tires on the road. I'm trying to shoot with photographer Jerome for the Gin catalog, but we've really flown only one day in the past eight, too windy the rest of the time. We did get a short flight in at Hedley, but it ended quickly when Jerome flew out into the valley and went backwards for a bit. He wisely choose to side-hill land in the lee to escape the valley wind. I watched all this while thermalling above him, then did the same. The air was not friendly. Later I learned that Keremeos, the name of the next town up the valley, means "really windy place" in the local native language (seriously). The Hedley valley is a relatively V-shaped valley surrounded by high plateaus; you couldn't design a better place for valley winds. It will have exceptional flying some days, but in general it's not a place I'd recommend for inexperienced pilots unfamiliar with valley winds and how to escape them. That said, our three days in Hedley were great; fun locals, lots of climbing, kayaking, hiking, gold mine tours, it's just a great town and one I look forward to visiting more in the future. The options are endless.

A lot of what I love about road-tripping comes from the people I get to travel with. In Hedley we met up with the full "Muppet Show" from the west coast. I think the name started with my bud Jim O, as we are indeed muppets on strings when flying paragliders. Anyhow, the Muppet Show varies in size and composition but includes an incredible chef, AKA the Dingo. The Dingo cooks at the best restaurant in Whistler, and travels with coolers of top-notch food and the ability to put together the best food I've ever eaten. But the real highlight is watching the Dingo cook, it's a Cirque de Soleil style festival of speed, alcohol and general culinary madness that only reaches fruition when the food hits your mouth. Thanks to the Dingo!! The rest of the Muppet show knows how to erect a nylon refugee camp in ten minutes flat using vehicles, kayak paddles and whatever else is handy. There's an art to nomadic living, and the Muppets have it down to a joyous science. Many of my best hours have been spent camping in apparent squalor but with a standard of life far higher than I find while occasionally staying at the fanciest hotels in the world. It might seem a bit trite to say, but I always return from trips with the Muppet show reminded that real life is best found outside with friends.

On Wednesday Jerome and I stopped off at Skaha while driving to Lumby and shredded ourselves running from route to route. Skaha is a hobbit land of fun climbs; we stoppeed climbing only when our skin was bleeding and the sun faded into a blue evening. I was so worked I couldn't even climb a relatively easy route, I love that!

Thursday was spent in the company of Randy at the Lumby Air Park, always a pleasure, and we even flew twice betweeen rain storms. Lumby offers the most reliable soaring in Canada I think. It's not the best place for competitions due to the variable weather, but those variations almost always produce at least a couple of hours of soaring conditions, it's amazing. I've spent months there over the last four years, it's starting to feel a bit like home thanks to Randy and the good scene there. We had to seperate from the Muppet show and head up home at night, now Jerome and I are back in Canmore and watching the wind howl yet again. I really hope we get to fly the next couple of days!

WG

Hedley, BC

Hedley is located in the middle of nowhere, also known as southern BC. It might be worth taking the time to look it up on a map--Hedley is one amazing place. In the last two days we've done some excellent granite bouldering, crack climbing (10-foot roof with a wild crack) plus some kayaking and nice mountain running. The town is full of characters and loose nuts shaken here by various storms, a nice change from increasingly homogenous Canmore. We've been treated very well by the people here, I know I'll spend more time here in the future on the basis of the people I've met.

No flapping for the last two days but, but lots to do so no stress. Today doesn't look too special, but you never know!

wg

AIR

Jerome Maupoint, author of the beautiful paragliding book "Stolen Moments" is in town shooting for a week or so. Yesterday we flew Swansea near Invermere, fantastic day, four hours of turning circles above very snowy peaks. Light winds, good lift, it was about as good as it gets in the spring. Josh flew the Zulu, I flew the new Boomerang Sport.

My favorite part of the flight was playing over the top of a ridge down near Fairmont--the tops of the ridges still look mid-winter, big whipped cream rolls of snow everywhere, plus the snow mellows the thermals out a bit making it more reasonable to fly close to the ground, a rare treat and something I normally avoid like the plague in the Golden-Canal flats area. It wasn't even too cold at altitude, but I was dressed in Himalaya-style clothing in anticipation of suffering. Thanks to Tobias and the nutter mountain bike crew for the lift up the hill too.

The Sport is one silky and intuitive glider. It normally takes me a few flights to figure out a new glider, but I felt totally at home on it after only a couple of hours of thermalling. I flew several DHV 2/3 gliders a few years back and liked them at first, but ultimately decided DHV 2/3 gliders mainly offered the performance of a 2 and all the danger of a 3. So far the Boom Sport provides enough feel of the air for me to keep it inflated, without requiring nearly as much attention as the full comp Boomerangs. The Sport feels more like the Boom III than the Boom IV, especially on the speed bar where it seems to "firm up" and remain stable. We had to use a fair amount of bar to get back to Swansea, my 5020 said the performance stayed relatively good on bar. The "feel" was good too, the Sport stays pitch stable when cutting through chop upwind, that's where the difference between a comp glider and a DHV 2 is usually most apparent. I'll write a bit more about it after I get some more hours on it.

I'll post some photos later, we're out the door to have at it again today. I love spring flying!

Atlanta, back home

Houseboat on Lake Lanier, Bruce photo.

Atlanta: wore me out.

It’s been a great couple of days here in Atlanta, with a lots of new experiences. Giving a “alpine start” show at 7:00 in the morning was a first, but I didn’t see too many people nodding off, and I’m still thinking about my tour of the hospital with Dr. R, it was educational.

A week ago I was climbing cracks in Indian Creek, Utah, where I had to shake the sand out of my sleeping bag with bloody hands before bed; in Atlanta I’ve had to eat the mints on my pillow to get into the thick sheets of the Ritz Carlton, real hardship, but I’ve managed. Plush hotels always feel mixed to me--very nice, but the reality is that my sandy sleeping bag was at least as luxurious as the Ritz, and the morning caffeine went down easier with a view of red rocks and the possibility of a day grinding yet more skin off my hands. Luxury for me has nothing to do with thread count or valet service; luxury is waking up with an easy mind and a wide-open day. Still, the mints were tasty...

Wednesday’s outdoor activities were curtailed by rain here in Atlanta, but in the evening I went to the Climbing Shop/ Wall Crawlerz gym and met up with one of the owners, Tim, to get a boulder session on. I’d also had a box of the new Scarpa shoes shipped there, I always love opening big-ass boxes of new gear. The new Scarpa climbing shoes look wicked, definitely the best rock shoes I’ve seen out of Scarpa in a long time. I’ll write some more on that once I’ve used them a bit more. Tim and a few locals beat the hell out of me in Wall Crawlerz for a few hours, it’s got great bouldering and a motivated crew of locals. The high humidity (the locals said it was low…) conditions destroyed my skin quickly, but good fun. Went out for beers with Tim and Dr. Dan from the AMC and his family, Atlanta is a rocking city at night in comparison to Canmore, good fun.

Thursday was a “perfect” three-sport day. I hooked up with a couple of the “Bad Apple” paramotorheads, led by Bruce. Bruce has a really nice houseboat on Lake Lanier, we ended up flying his motor near the lake and having a great afternoon of it. Perfect smooth 400fpm thermals, warm air, hell yeah! Thanks to Bruce and Worth, that was one fun afternoon! From there I drove over to Stone Mountain with the idea of getting a run and quick solo up the 500-foot rock dome on. Stone Mountain is Yosemite-style granite dome about 20 minutes from Atlanta, I’d always wanted to climb it, and figured there would be some good trail running around the base. It was a bit weird when I got to Stone Mountain—no climbing anchors, no trails to the base of the wall, weird. I ran around for about 30 minutes trying to find a way to get to the base of the cliff, but was thwarted by bush and poison ivy. Eventually I worked my way into the cliff and soloed an easy but fun slab line in the perfect evening light. Strangely, there was a line chipped into the cliff at about 100 feet off the deck, but there’s also a huge chipped carving in the middle of the main face so I didn’t think too much of it. As I topped out and hopped over the mesh fence a guy came up and said, “Ah, there’s no climbing allowed here, you can be arrested for that! Didn’t you see the “no climbing line?” Oh, so that’s what the line was… It all worked out OK, but I think it’s insane that climbing is illegal on public lands. The top of the dome has almost alpine-style vegetation (and a tram), it's definitely worth a visit. Finished out the day with another session at Wall Crawlerz with Tim and the Thursday night boulder crew, some strong youths there! I was left barely able to hold my beer glass.

Back home in Canmore now, thanks to the many good people who helped out in Atlanta!

Workouts: Steady bouldering in the gyms (thanks to Tim, Zach and Wall Crawlerz), one day on the rock, lots of Yoga and running. Finally getting some finger strength back, it sure does take more time than it did when I was 21.

Atlanta, Rockies Accident, Risk

I'm in Atlanta, Georgia for a couple of days, nice to see all the green grass and full spring. Spent this morning doing a talk for Dr. R. and the staff at the Atlanta Medical Center, and then toured the hospital a bit with Dr. R. Very interesting to see the "inside" of a hospital, there are a lot of very talented and dedicated people working very hard. I definitely felt a bit selfish--I climb and fly, write and teach, but these men and women are genuinely making a huge positive impact with each person wheeled through the doors. I generally only see hospitals when visiting friends there, it was educational, thanks to Dr. R. and his staff for the experience--one of the things I love about speaking is that I get to meet some very different people, I sometimes feel I'm the one who should be paying for the experience. I'm hooking up with some local paragliders and climbers for some activities later today in the Atlanta area, should be fun!

Risk:

Here's an interesting article on risk, it does a good job of explaining something I've felt but not clearly understood: People change their behaviour depending on perceived risk.

Another sad accident on Deltaform (near Lake Louise, Alberta)

There was a sad accident on Deltaform last week involving two climbers from the US. I had corresponded with one of them about Rockies conditions before they came up, then found out the man died a week later. Both partners succeeded on Deltaform but were caught in a bad slide on the way down. One climber somehow lived despite the slide, bad injuries and spending a couple of nights out with those injuries. I'm always sorry to hear of accidents in the Rockies, the emails asking for information were positive and showed the climber's excitment. Risk and reward, life and death, joy and pain, these pairs of experiences are so closely linked. The deceased sounds like a good guy just hitting his stride in the mountains, I wish his friends and family some peace. Spring snow conditions in the Rockies are dynamic and highly variable, play safe out there.

Workouts

Did the plane sit program yesterday, but it's been a good month, the rock fitness is coming back as well my lungs, spring just fires me right up every year.

Aviation and primates

The weather here in Canmore is incredible, blue splitter days with low winds, warm temps, perfect for all recreation. Hiked up Lady MacDonald, the local Canmore paragliding site, for the first the time yesterday, it's so good to get back into the air. Flying in these mountains is just so damn good when it's good, today also looks good, yeah!

Here's some humor for all you monkeys.

Workouts: Climbing lots, hiking up a big hill with a paraglider, running, even mountain biking finally. This time of year is great, all these new sports open up again, yeah!

A good day to remember

A few weeks ago I was thinking about Spring, and it hit me that it's been a year since my friend Chris Muller died. I marked the date on my calendar not with a heavy heart but with a, "Hey, remember the good stuff" feeling. Today my calendar reminded me again, and the cold, snowy spring morning seemed to fit with the mood. I love seeing fresh snow, it always seems so hopeful and full of promise to me for some reason, and that's how I often felt around Chris.

So here's to Chris and my other friends and family who make life better! I'm going to go for a run in the snow, the sun's coming out, it's a good day to remember and celebrate both the soul-shaking glory and impenetrable darkness of life.

-April 22nd, a good day to remember.

Back North

Busted out the drive from Moab to Canmore via Salt Lake City over the last couple of days. I like long drives, scenery passing by, a 10-hour drive is far better than a 10-hour flight.

The final two days in Moab were good fun, we had trashed our hands so thoroughly that we had to spend another day up in Mill Creek, a decent old-school sport area above Moab. It's supposed to be a secret 'cause, "if word gets out the whole world will show up!" Well, the whole world was already there plus their dogs and it was still fun. Mill Creek is a fun area but a bit aggressive on the fingertips--perfect for balancing crack pain out over the rest of the hands. I survived some brutal local sandbagging and had a great day out with a horde of people. I learned that one of the routes that beat me up was actually rated 12c/d, and that another "12a" I'd onsighted was 12c. The more I climb the more I laugh at grades, it's all a mess in any form of climbing. I'd like to be good enough to just climb whatever lines looked best and ignore the numbers, maybe by the fall I will be, although paragliding season is likely to turn me into a doughboy again...

The highlight of the last couple of days was a great run up above Moab in wild evening desert light. It was Jeep safari week while we were down there, I ran by a bunch of jeep heads beating hell out of their vehicles--that was a surreal contrast with the general silence and colours of the desert. Later they passed me as I did a yoga session in the dirt beside the road, I think I was more alien to them than they were to me--I can get my redneck on, but a guy in tights doing yoga in the dirt sure perplexed them.

Stopped by BD to check out new designs and gear, saw some very cool stuff. Just when I think everything is evolved as it's going to get it all changes... Kolin has been doing some research on used slings and biners, check this out. I like the fact that most of the people at BD are truly climbers--Kolin started doing this to check his own safety on used gear, good information.

Also stopped by Superfly, always good to see Chris, Jeff and the real mastermind, Beci. Greg and I started driving home in a raging snowstorm, fully 'pine conditions, then cruised into Canmore on a warm, sunny day. It was like Canmore was south of SLC and not the other way around.

Thanks to all the Canmorons and Moab locals who made the last ten days so much fun, great trip!!!

Canyonlands redux

There's nothing like calling home and hearing that it's snowy there... Still sunny and warm here in Moab, although we had biblical winds last night that turned our campsite into a garbage mess and ripped up a few tents. Sand everywhere, it reminds me of a theory I read once that the Anasazi commonly died young because their teeth were too worn down from eating sand-filled food. I can see the truth in that idea after munching sand for a while, I'm starting to notice flavour differences; desert patina, Cutler vs Dakota, they all taste different... Not really, but sand is a integral part of the culinary experience here.

We had to take a break from cracks on Thursday and went into Mill Creek with the ever-psyched Lisa, who pointed a team of us at various routes. Mill Creek is a great place to climb, a lush oasis (still some snow down there despite the new leaves and sun) after the starkness of Canyonlands. Lev is close to senind "The Bleeding," an old Noah Bigwood route that hasn't seen a second ascent despite some good efforts, he again came close but no chains. Good to see him and Lisa as always, we had so much fun that we destroyed our fingertips, so it was back to Canyonlands on Friday, a hot day.

I talked to two of Moab's more prolific crack climbers last rest day, and they told me their secrets to climbing hard cracks: Aspirin and tape. Yep, even the pros find the harder cracks painful, it's not just my wussy ice climber skin and feet...

We were going to head up to the Optimator buttress but it was in the sun, so Greg, Ben and a new arrival, Nathan, and I headed to whatever buttress is across the drainage from Optimator. A couple of Aspirin, lots of tape, and a fun 5.10 corner later I was fired up to try something a little harder. Greg and Nathan had both had a go at a supposed 5.10+ just down the way, and then I had the battle of the trip on it, green Camalots on bad rock (we trundled a small car out of the start) to Red cams (OK). I got up to where it was supposed to turn Gold cams (good hands) and found another 25 feet of overhanging green cams, of which I luckily had two. I got excited and sent it with some choice words, definitely the hardest thing I've succeeded on this trip. Ben made me feel better by also using self-encouraging words on it. It felt like an exam or something, I was happy to get by with a pass if not an A for technique. The tape and Aspirin are essential, thanks to Dean and Steph for that info, I've never used Aspirin for rock climbing before, it's key for nasty cracks.

We then had a cool hike contouring around the drainage to the Optimator buttress; it was cool because it's very shady, lots of green grass, little seeps under huge soaring rock buttresses, I'll remember that hike for a long time. The contrasts in the desert are what make it so special I think, green and red, blue and white, the boundaries between the colors are sharper down here.

At the Optimator buttress we found a very cool overhanging crack on the back of a big block, Annaki or some thing (I don't have a guide down here, just climb what looks cool, so all names are phonetic guesses based off what people are saying). Annankai is the best single-pitch crack I've ever climbed, steep, good pulls, good gear, not painful. Ben and I both sent it first go, then did a few victory laps on it 'cause it was just so much fun to monkey around on the steep jams. I'd spend the rest of my life climbing cracks if they were all like that! You've gotta do that route if you're ever in the area, it's stellar!

Today we're thrashed, we've been 2 on, one off cycle since before leaving Canmore, time for a rest day. It was a bit sad breaking down camp this morning, the Canadian Invasion is splintering apart. Steve and Paul are on the road for a while longer as are Ben and Sarah, Erica and the other Sarahs have headed out. We're all headed to Castle Valley way in the morning for one last day of crack-whacking, then who knows, Greg and I are likely heading to Salt Lake City for some flying and bouldering/work. I need to turn some circles on my glider, I've been dreaming about flying a lot and the itch is turning into something immediate...

Canyonlands!

Every year I say I'm going to go to Alaska in the spring and try that game out, but by the time spring rolls around the call of warm rock and air is too great to resist and I end up not going to Alaska... This year is no different--after somewhere over 100 days of swinging ice tools I just can't see doing anything involving sub-freezing temperatures, so Bender and I loaded up and drove 20 hours south to Canyonlands. As we drove down into Indian Creek I realized that it was almost exactly 20 years ago that I first had at the cracks of Canyonlands, or rather they had at me. I don't climb in Canyonlands often, about every five years, but it's one of those reference points in life I keep coming back to. I've driven down into "the Creek" with so many different friends and partners, and each trip is a sort of time capsule lodged in my brain. As Ben and I slid out of Moab and down into the Creek I DJed a set of Grace Jones into Ice T/Minor Threat into Sisters of Mercy into Fat Boy Slim to commemorate the different trips and eras the Creek marked in my life, it seemed fitting.

Ben and I hopped out of the van and into the warmth of the Creek with the same psyche as I had had 20 years earlier, and soon we were up on some steep wall having at it. I always try to restrain myself the first day but don't, we stuffed ourselves full of steep cracks and gave blood. We started with the first thing at the top of the trailhead, which looked like hands but wasn't, blue Camalots all the way and much cursing. Then it was off to Gurka and fingerlocks, then some grunting corner, finishing off with Slot Machine, another mega-classic. My tape ripped off halfway up Slot Machine and a large portion of my left hand followed shortly. That route is a "pack a lunch" kind of rig for me, but totally fun, and Ben did battle on it too. Climbing cracks is a lot like riding a bicycle, I haven't done much of it in in a decade but the moves are still in my body.

Yesterday we went to Battle of the Bulge and climbed some perfect corner then got involved with Rengle something (the start of Air Sweden). I was too psyched and fell off the easy section, then sent it second try with some pain--desert cracks just hurt, call me a wuss, but that's how I see it. I wanted to work Air Sweden but gave that idea up after climbing the crack again, I can only take so much pain. Ben and I wandered off and somehow convinced ourselves to get on Ruby's Cafe, a 5.13. It looked steep so I thought maybe it wouldn't hurt my feet so much (now there's some logic for ya), but it hurt my fingers like a SOB. I gave it a couple of efforts, but the final one ended in a early-90s style full on tantrum (those who lived that era know what I'm talking about, anyone else can just visualize a three-year old in full meltdown). It's been a while since I've been so frustrated on a climb--I could climb the moves, but I couldn't stomach abusing my fingers that savagely. Eventually it was possible to laugh about the experience, but Ben and I decided that what people really need to prepare for climbing in Indian Creek is a "Creek Preparation Kit." This kit would contain two or three hammers of various sizes from finish to sledge... These hammers would be used to whack hands, fingers and feet until swollen like over-ripe fruit. Plus some bathroom towel sized sandpaper to rub all over your arms, elbows and back until you looked more like a skateboard punk than a climber. Finally, a mini cheese grater would be perfect for tearing chunks of skin off, just rub your fingers and hands with it until covered in blood and plasma. Add in some weak acid to simulate all of this on mild sunburn and you've just "trained" for the creek... I'm only partly joking.

Today we're in Moab along with the 15 or so other "Canmorons" down here, it's great crew to hang with in the desert. I think I like Indian Creek despite the climbing--it's about the place, Indian Creek just resonates with me and, I think, most people. Camping in the desert, watching your friends get worked and succeed, grinding your teeth on desert grit in the morning cereal, it all adds up to something greater than the parts. My friend Greg was stuck neck-deep on an offwidth crack a few days ago and, after a long period with no movement, Greg's partner asked him what he was looking for with his head stuck so deep into the void. Greg said, "My soul." I like that answer, your soul does indeed seem closer down here than it does in other places, just out of sight instead of on the moon. I'll have to climb a few more cracks and see if I catch sight of the sucker--pain is clarifying according to several religions, climbing in the creek isn't so much climbing as it is practicing some bizzare religion involving stigmata and the vertical spaces between the rock. As Ice T says, "Oh yeah!"

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.

Cool spring climbs

As many of you know, I also run a web site with current ice climbing conditions in the Canadian Rockies. I normally finish this site April 1, not because the ice is gone, but because people are sick of ice and looking for warm rock. I just received a couple more cool route descriptions and reports worth sharing, check this out!

A flurry of reports from people, I'm feeling left out on all the fun, grin, congratulations to everyone who has been getting after it!

WG

Faders "SUM" Review

Fader's SUM review:

Ropes have gotten a lot smaller in the last ten years. I normally climb on a 9.1 Joker, and it's just too hot for a Gri Gri to handle safely (Petzl says the same, but many people are using the Gri Gri on smaller ropes). The BD Guide works great for belaying the leader on skinny ropes and is my primary belay/rap device, but for sport climbing/mixed I like to have a full auto-lock device for belaying the leader, and the Gri Gri wasn't cutting it anymore. In Norway I saw this thing called a "SUM" that one of the guys in my clinic had. He didn't have the instructions for it, so we kind of screwed up using it, but it worked well enough that I went and bought one (thanks to Brad at Mountain Magic for the drop-off service!). Yep, I paid retail for a belay device, so no sponsor stroking going on here.

I've now used it a few times, and I'm pretty happy with it. If you read the instruction manual FIRST, grin, it's very easy to feed skinny ropes fast and safely, and it locks down easily without belayer input. It doesn't work well on any rope over 10mm, but who cares, I don't use fat ropes anymore. The design is really smart with a sort of double-cam locking action. Faders says the impact forces are lower than other auto-lock devices, but I don't see how that is true--I still wouldn't use it for climbing on gear. But for bolted climbing it grips well and--once I read the manual-- lowers well too. I see far more people using their Gri Gris incorrectly than I do people who know how to belay safely with them, and the SUM is open to that problem (DONT PRESS THE HANDLE TO FEED ROPE, NOT SAFE!) as well, but overall it's the first belay device I've used on skinny ropes that seems safe for the leader. It's not cheap (I paid about $80cdn), but it seems to work well so far. I'm going to keep using it unless some problem appears, so far it seems safer for skinny ropes than a Gri Gri. It's about time that there was a good autoblock device for skinny ropes. My rating is "pretty cool so far."

Spring Energyhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

OK, I got busy traveling and this blog slowed down, sorry for the delay.

Here's the fast update: went to Vancouver, did shows for the grand opening of Arcteryx's new store, saw friends, got in a couple of good gym workouts and hikes, came back through Kelowna, did a show for the new UBC campus, was home for two days and got one in shooting with Cory Richardson on Pilsner (first kitchen implement ascent, more on that later), went to Washington DC to help out with the Climb for Life benefit, stayed one day and got a good climbing session in, came home, went out and shot a final day on the "How to Ice/Mixed climb DVD project with Pat, Chris, Scott and Jonathon. Scott redpointed Swank, and Chris was also climbing worlds better than he was at the start of the project, great to watch. I'm really fired up on this DVD, it's organized just like one of my ice clinics with Chris and Scott as the protagonists, the video from day one vs the final day shows exactly how much better and confident on ice they have become, congrats!

Today is my first day at the desk in a long time. My sinus disease appears to have abated, and I just finished the antibiotics. Amazing how much better I feel after going off the antibiotics, my energy levels are back up to normal, I've been doing double or triple sport days the last couple of days, antibiotics zapped me.

Workouts:

Now that I'm off the antibiotics I'm able to train effectively again. On Monday I went skate skiing in the afternoon, then a quick yoga session (I call myself the "human board," but it's getting better) had a great boulderingsession at the Vsion. I'm focusing on building back into rock climbing at the moment, so lots of long traverses to get my fingers back. Ice climbing does NOTHING for your finger strength, frustrating to be sort of strong in my arms and pathetic in my fingers, but fun. On Tuesday we shot in Hafner, actually did a fair amount of climbing, then came home and got a nice run in on the bench above Canmore. My dog, Chili, is very excited to see the running shoes come out of storage! Trails a bit muddy but not too bad. It's not really spring but winter is finally ending, I am officially done ice climbing for the season, it's time to Rock and FLY!