Over the last five years Lizzy and I have gone on a number of very productive trips to Indian Creek. There are still new cliffs that we have yet to visit, but we have picked off most of the low-hanging fruit. With this analogy I mean that we have gone around and done the fun [...]
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 [...]
Every trip I’ve taken to Indian Creek has been so different, but each is an incredible learning experience for me. There’s something about that place – it’s never quite what I expected, and adjusting my expectations in the face of reality is always a challenging exercise. Instead of writing a play-by-play of the entire trip, [...]
Winter here means two things: training and skiing. Storms come through and dump tons of snow in the mountains, which means a lot of granite areas are covered in snow (or snow melt), but the ski slopes are also fantastic. Skiing turns a negative (storms –> no climbing) into a positive (great skiing!). But all [...]
When you drive into the Yosemite Valley on Hwy-120, the view is unmistakable. El Capitan and Half Dome dominate the horizon. As you wind down towards the valley floor you can catch glimpses of a black and gold pillar off to your right, perched above the Merced. This overhanging rock spire is the Rostrum. The [...]
I’ve been in this situation before; I’m nervous and don’t really want to go through with it. The nagging of potential failure is pulling me down. I don’t know why I care so much. They say it is more important to try and fail then to never have tried at all (see Alfred Lord Tennyson). [...]
First of all, if you don’t recognize the “Squamish is…” reference, then watch this classic Timmy O’Neill video. Or if it’s been too long since you last watched it, watch it again: Although I spent my whole life before college in the Pacific Northwest, including my formative climbing years when I found my love of [...]
When planning our Spring Break climbing trip to Trout Creek and Smith Rock in Oregon, we didn’t anticipate becoming Team Gimp + Lizzy. We also didn’t plan on repeatedly epic-ing on the ~48 hours surrounding our planned departure and initial climbing day in Oregon. But what climbing trip really goes exactly as it’s planned? So [...]
Friday morning I rolled out of bed and wandered over to the window. Streaks of rain glided down the glass like tears. Somehow it seems every weekend in 2010 has been filled with rain. I can remember some pretty days of bouldering back in January and February surrounded by weeks of fog, wind, and weather. [...]
[This is a long overdue trip report from December 2009.] At 4am the alarm started blaring and I stumbled out of bed. Where was I? The unfamiliar dark room didn’t seem like home as I pulled on clothes, grabbed food and made my way out the door. In the car I started blankly at the [...]
The year is drawing to a close and I’ve begun to realize that, even though I didn’t allow myself to literally write down a list of goals for the year (I find this just results in too much pressure and disappointment…), I did in fact have a bunch of goals and I accomplished a big [...]
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