Little Bavaria

Sarah decided she needed a post graduation climbing trip, and really wanted to head to the desert... which was the plan until ten minutes after we'd departed. Traveling east on I-90 I discovered that summer school started 4 days earlier than I'd thought. I quick change of plans had us turning the car around and driving to Leavenworth Wa, to boulder in the Cascades.

 The climbing surpassed all my expectations, and in my experience is the best area in the northwest. Highlight of the trip was grouping up with a cool bunch of climbers from Seattle and Bellingham who brought beta and a high level of psych.
 
Myself on the last hard move of "The Undercling."

 
Bellinghamian Taylor walking a 3star V0 padless.


 
 Sarah learning the proper technique for whale-beaching.


 
Taylor on "The Rib." Maybe my favorite v4 of all time.


 
Vineet getting ready for the crux move on The Rib.


 
Same problem different angle.


 
Runner up for best v4 of all time: "The Pocket."


 
Myself getting all types of hurt and angry on "The Hole."


 
A guidebook in hand, a Schmidt in each pocket and a puppy....


 
The Icicle River ripping...  Hopefully I'll return soon.

pockets and puppies.

Summer has been a stellar break from the monotony of school. I've been trying to continue climbing, though lounging and gluttonous BBQing generally seem to be winning out. In Missoula for Sarah's graduation I managed to get down to both loho and lolo, and remembered why i was always able to stay psyched while in Missoula. Here are some photogs (compliments of Ryan "Outee" Nelson) of an excellent afternoon session with Ryan, Brandon and Molly.

Molly hiking an excellent and large unknown problem (v3/4?) ***

Brandon attempting a repeat of his problem "The things they carried." (v6/7)

Myself attempting to tack on a very cool sit start from the hueco. Neat beta and a monster sloper.

Unfortunately, it appears I lack Brandon's toughness/love of mantles. After getting through the sit three times I was not able to beach my whale. Apparently I never properly caught the only top out hold which mainly involves a half pad pinky pocket. Shit.

And finally, I got my self a new climbing buddy. Hopefully she'll learn that peeing on a crash pad is an unforgivable sin.

May-lay

Whelp, semester is almost over which is excellent as my academic achievement seems to be inversely related to sunny days and nice weather. Some interesting stuff to report since my last post. < <<

Due to some weird spring weather i decided to spend my Saturday scoping some boulders, local Buttian Kevin Hutchison tipped me off about somewhere along the CDT. The patina face above was perhaps the prettiest of many nice looking lines.(Yes I pirated this photo from yall)<<<

Aside from the pretty boulders and scenery, the highlight of the day was coming face-to-face with one of these guys. Usually when I hear a little crashing in the woods, I assume I spooked a deer, so when a very large cougar popped out running in my direction, it took a couple of seconds to realize what I was looking at. I tried to snap a pic with my phone but was to busy peeing myself. <<<

This weekend marks the most gluttonous time of the year: Graduation Season. Spamblock's (pictured above)demands that I attend the festivities means that probably be spending the weekend in a collared shirt and khakis, pretending like I'm sober while talking to the relatives of random graduates.<<<

Hopefully I will be fueled by ample (and free) amounts of this stuff, which tends to run like water at grad parties.<<<

Which I hopefully will be able to overcome by Sunday, when flailing in the deep woods of Lolo. Every once in a great while I've seen noteworthy sends accomplished in dire states of hung-overdom... Here's to hoping.<<<

Then in short order Sarah and I will be heading here. No, not Austria but the next best thing (only a bit of an exaggeration): Washington.<<<

Rumored to be home to granite so clean it makes Lost Horse look like choss. (photo ripped from koan bouldering (cool blog worthy of peeping))<<<

The best part of this, is that we will hopefully be guided by these two goons. (Note: Due to an unfortunate fall, Sam now climbs in this very helmet.)<<< ...................................................Here is to three weeks of school free flailing!

LoHo and Lochsa

Don't get me wrong, Butte is a nice place... but every once and a while getting the hell out of Dodge is essential. So inspired by a beautiful looking forecast I headed west to Missoula for some fine granite, beer and culture. Boy oh boy did the pilgrimage par off. I had been itching to to return to Lost Horse for a while. On Saturday, after striking out looking for partners all morning long, I decided to head out solo with hopes of repeating as many classics as possible. It'd been a couple years since I'd climbed in the canyon, and it was a blast trying to remember old beta and reworking things I once had wired.

Highlight of the day was running into Ian "the tattooed gorilla" Carapoli, at John Wayne. After a year hiatus it was excellent to see Ian back outside, dispatching everything in a go or two. Ian happens to be the worlds best spotter which came in handy as I was pumped as shit by then, and was lobbing off problems with reckless abandon.

Thrutching. I had originally been planning to follow some folks up Shoshone on Sunday been when Kevin Barnet Called to invite me down the Lochsa I immediatly flaked like a bum. Big spring run off, 75 degrees, and and a solid and mostly inebriated crew made for ideal conditions.

Props to captain Stu for the master navigation.

No flips + Schmidts + sunshine = victory.

BAQM

Bad ass quote of the month

"There is no such thing as unisex. Its just a matter of having enough swag to pull off a woman's jacket." -a wise unknown sage

Also, I'm officially spending the summer in Bozemania. While this normally would sound like some sort of fun development, its actually solely because i can take twice as many engineering credits as anywhere else... But... three day weekends.

the park revisited

Had a long weekend over easter, and due to impending winter storm warnings around Butte, I decided to visit my old stomping grounds on the North Fork of the Flathead. It seems pretty crazy that a year ago I'd just started living there. Weather was un-seasonally nice, and we took full advantage by lounging around the Glacier Institute like champs. We did however to do a little hiking on the southern boundary trail, which follows the Middle Fork of the Flathead. This trail would normally not be my first choice, but snow up high had us looking for new options. It turned out to be great. Despite having driven the same route on highway 2 numerous times, being on the opposite side of the river, and traveling at a much slower pace changed the entire experience.


Middle Fork


Precambrian Super Choss

One final push to the end of the semester. Here's to hoping its only beautiful outside on days I can actually afford to recreate.

Bouldering via google images

Sarah, down from Missoula for springbreak has been on a bouldering tear lately, ticking off sends on some of Whiskey's most classic moderates. Most of which were projects that have plagued her for years. Instead of posting the same tired photos of boulders you've probably seen 100 times before, I decided to google image search their names and post my favorite picture instead. Fortunately, she avoided problems like "fagatron" or "the young and the breastless," otherwise this blog would no longer be PG.

Sends thus far include:


The Senile Traverse


Bone and Barbwire


Yoda


Waverunner

Meanwhile, I got throttled by the boogyman

It was most unpleasant