What is so cool about first ascents?!? I’ve been pondering this question as I put words to my Forth of July climbing trip. Adventure, first ascents and the going into unknown all require work, frustration and a willingness to fail. It is easy to go to the gym every week or to look at a [...]
It is now the season for the Incredible Hulk and each week I seem to get another email from a friend who is planning a trip. I’ve got a lot of info scattered around Dream In Vertical but think that it should all go in one place. Feel free to leave comments/corrections so that I [...]
It was dark out but the moon was glinting off the hood. A fully loaded truck rolled easily down the 395. The chatter of my conversation was not enough to keep the attention of my co-pilot. Some how he muttered answers to my questions and then fell back asleep. I kept on rambling. The graveyard [...]
600 feet 19 bolts, 10 days, 6 brushes, 4 partners and 1 route later, here is the long-winded tale of my experience new routing on the Incredible Hulk. Stemming out under the small roof, I know that I haven’t done it this way before. I hesitate and wonder if I’m going to blow it. (Stop [...]
This is a trip report about my last two trips up to the Incredible Hulk. Scroll down to skip the Public Service Announcement or read on for important tips for minimizing impact at the Incredible Hulk. To future climbers of the Incredible Hulk: I’m pretty passionate about the outdoors and one thing that is very [...]
As the year comes to a close and climbing trips seem a bit less frequent, I feel it is important to reflect. As a climber I like to focus on progress and usually push myself to increase my abilities. While I have been climbing for about ten years, I have only been setting goals for [...]
It all started on Labor Day of 2008, Lizzy was away doing geology and I needed to go rock climbing. A friend from the gym, Konstantin, suggested that we climb the Red Dihedral on the Incredible Hulk. After doing the route we proposed that almost a year later we should come back, on the 4th of July [...]
Sometimes everything just works out. You get good weather, manage not to screw up the approach and have a perfect day. This weekend the stars aligned, so to speak, and a great day was had climbing Mount Conness. Typical to any outing, I did my research, read up about the Harding Route as much as possible [...]
It seems that the approach for Mt Conness can be a bit confusing so here are some photos with the route we took on our way to climb the Harding Route on the Southwest Face. This is the more direct of the two approaches from Saddlebag Lake and supposedly is about 4.5 miles long with 2,500 feet [...]
As the summer heat reached near record highs two weekends ago I found myself shivering in the cold shade of the Northeast Face of Langley Peak. This summer I have taken a bit more time to explore the Eastern Sierra and this weekend was one of the most adventurous yet. The goal was to establish [...]
The last few weeks of July were particularly hot in SoCal and Lizzy and I have escaped to the higher altitudes for a bit of fresh air. Many weeks back, the day before Lizzy returned to Cali, I took a short trip up to Keller peek with Josh. It was pretty hot but we got [...]
Recent Comments