Last year, I’d already gone skiing twice before Christmas. This year… the difference is like night and day. Despite a record snow year last season (and an accompanying unusually late opening), Tioga Road is still open. It hasn’t been open this late in the last 30 YEARS!!! While this is bad news for the ski [...]
To start off the new year I wanted to share some photos from our very fun 2011. I’ll be writing a reflective post but don’t hold your breath. Enjoy the pictures! – Luke January – Sport Climbing February – Skiing March – Indian Creek April – Vegas vacation and the first Yosemite Tweetup! [...]
I have a tendency to forget how awesome a year I’ve had by the time December comes around. I’ve always been one to shoot for the stars with my goals, which often means I fall a little short. I also live with Luke, who, as you may have been reading, has been doing a lot [...]
Compared to last year, I was set up for success this year at the TNF Endurance Challenge half marathon. Last year, I was just recovering from some pretty bad IT band issues, but this year I’ve been blissfully (*knock on wood*) injury free. Last year, my longest training runs were 9-10 miles, and there were [...]
Many people associate haul bags with aid climbing, Yosemite, and El Capitan. But I think that haul bags are just as useful for free climbers, especially when you are trying to add a bit of comfort or climb closer to your limit. When climbing multi-pitch routes, you are often going for hours at a time [...]
Technically, it was morning but the night was still holding on. It was late October, the end of an amazing season of climbing in Yosemite. Daylight hours were precious and our head lamps illuminated the trail to Sentinel Rock. I was on this trail at this early hour three months before, almost to the day. [...]
I don’t know exactly where the road began, but I do have a memory of the Astroman topo pinned to my apartment wall in Australia. It was 2005 and I had traveled to Melbourne to become a better trad climber. Sure, I was there to study abroad, but really I wanted to dance up the [...]
I’ve recently acquired a trail running addiction. It is very awesome. Apart from the amazing (and exhausting) feeling of covering a lot of distance with a considerable amount of elevation gain (and loss), there are also the incredible views from new vantage points and the solitude of getting away from the parking lots and pavement [...]
As you can likely tell, posts have been few and far between this fall. Two months of splitter weather have resulted in oodles of time outside in Yosemite. Lizzy has been running up a storm and I have been keeping busy climbing. The big plan for this fall was Astroman and come September I was [...]
I’m still continuing my self-imposed vacation from climbing. For me, the best way to deal with burnout has always to find something else that makes me excited and throw myself at it. Climbing is great and all, but honestly, running is a way better companion for a mentally exhausting time like this quarter. There’s minimal [...]
The first snow has fallen and summer is officially over. The store and campground in Tuolumne closed weeks ago. The granite domes are now empty, no longer occupied by the summer flock of climbers. The Meadows are a wonderful semi-alpine escape from the heat of Yosemite Valley. High elevation grants reasonable temps from June until [...]
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