check out this beautiful crack rich is leading in a secret valley...

today is canada day!

i have not written in a while but here are some recent events:

eric and i climbed the entire "alaska highway", five grueling pitches. our goal was to climb a link up of alaska highway into the next route "the calling". after the first five pitches though i was physically too exhausted to continue. three of the pitches contained strenuous off width sections that i am not accustomed to climbing. so i have been practicing off width climbing.

the second picture is of rich on one of the classic off widths at "the cirque of the uncrackables".

the third picture is eric leading a ridiculous 5" crack at murrin park.

the kid shooting the gun is ben, a local who was intrigued by a pellet gun brought across the border by a group of californians. ironically the only other group here from california also brought a pellet gun!

i hate off width cracks!

my finger healed and the last week i have had much better luck. a mountain guide and new friend of mine, eric hughes and i climbed to the top of the chief via "angels crest" and "high plains drifter". eric let me on-site the hard top two pitches, a 40 meter 5.11 hand crack and a 5.11c technical crack. we passed two parties and climbed the 16 pitch route in under 5 hours this way. rich and i climbed a nice 6 pitch 5.8 up the "apron" called "calculus crack" the picture is rich on lead. the bouldering pictures are of our crazy quebecois friend, jacob the last one is rich on "lucky sharms". rich hooked me up, volunteering with arc'teryx last thursday. i helped with a sale and they gave me a jacket, sushi and beer, sweet!

what a day! my car got broke into (see previous post), my friend Liam landed on my other friend James's head and i split my finger BAD.
i met up with some friends i met in hueco tanks, who are from the UK. they are hilarious and very talented climbers.

we climbed " fixing the car" together, a cool v8. when i topped out i noticed i had badly split my finger. i guess i will go back to trad climbing for a while until it heals.
Liam, a master high ball boulderer, fell from the top of "ride the lightning", a v8 with a hard mantel at 22 feet. he landed on James's bald head. one picture is of Liam about to fall before the sloping mantel and the next one is James with 5.10 sticky rubber shoe marks on his head. both guys were totally fine and Liam did the problem 1 minute later!

i woke up this morning to my passenger side window of my car smashed in. my car was parked at the inn parking lot. i think my old i pod was the bait. unfortunately for them it was worth no more than $50. luckily for me, the alarm went off so they did not have time to find my wallet, passport and check book also within the car. lame way to start the day but i have had so many fortunate things happen to me lately that i am not too upset by the break in.

i am currently working/ living at "the inn on the water". i check in guests and perform house keeping duties part time. 20 hours of my work week goes to pay for me to stay here. i would prefer to work for compensation but stay at the campground but it has been raining a lot and i am happy to have a cozy place to call home, plus all of the workers here are very nice.

this weekend rich and i climbed a mega scary, 30' highball, v5 roof to a slab with a v2 move at 25'. i will not do this climb again, once was enough.

-rich the beginning of the slab.

rich kupskay surfing boulders,

vince pinch and the classic viper.

this morning i climbed "the egg", woohoo!

climbing "sharma's arrete"


today mike and i climbed the 5.12 pitch of "daily planet". we took the wrong approach trail three different times on our way to the cliff band where the climb is located called "the sheriff's badge". after over 2 hours of approach we finally climbed the two pitches leading to the base of the route, which proved to be awkward slab climbing up arretes. the 5.12 pitch was easily freed but we were not expecting such an epic on the approach and so with no food and getting hungry we rapped back down. this is another climb i will need to go back for.

the second photo is mike on "golden boy".

the third photo is me leading the 5.12 pitch on "daily planet".




yesterday was awesome friction, with winds blowing through the forest and cool temperatures. i quickly did all the moves on "the egg" including the difficult start move three seperate times. a great day.