Saturday, July 18, 2009

Checkin' in and a good day at Clear Creek


Mt. Rainier
Whew! Just got back from the first day of climbing after (practically) a two week hiatus. I say practically cause I managed to get two bouldering sessions squeezed in there, one indoor, one outdoor. So Mel and I decided to head up to the High Wire crag in Clear Creek today to get on some healthy moderates. I gotta say, I am slightly worked! I got 4 leads in and 7 climbs total. The thing that I was the most astounded at though was that while my physical game actually wasn't that far from where I left it (got a 5.8+ climbed today, and flashed another 8 and two 7s with some interesting moves) my mental game was crap! The first two leads I was freakin' terrified! It was like every time I tried to move above a bolt every bone in my body started screaming "YOUR GONNA DIE!!" I'd like to say that I calmed it by saying "No fear for me!" but really by the end of the second pitch, I was actually laughing at myself as I came down because of how terrified I was of this nice, positive juggy 5.8 I was. After that it actually cleared up quite a bit and ended with me feeling pretty good about the two remaining leads, one that had a major commmitment style swing to the first bolt to it. Or maybe I just did that because I was so bugged out that if I didn't dyno it, I'd never make it. I'll find out tomorrow as I'm probably gonna head back there to spend about half a day before it gets too hot.
So what I've been up to in the meantime? Weddings, weddings and a birthday. Two weeks ago took me to Vancouver via Seattle for my cousin John's wedding, Vancouver is an absolutly stunning town, it has both the mountains and the ocean right there! Here's some shots that I found while cruising around town.





I managed to drag the family for a short hike on what actually turned out to be a ski resort during some down time but other than that it was pretty much constant wining and dining. I do have to say that one night I got very very very drunk. White wine is no fun as a hangover. Here are some of the better hike photos and one of a pigeon I got in Seattle:

The pigeon!

A creek

This post is getting a little long, so I'm going to end it here also as I have to pack as I'm moving in 2 weeks.
Stereo-I-pod broke so I got nothin'

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Off to Vancouver

So I just finished packing up all my stuff for Vancouver. It looks like I'm not going to get a ton of climbing in in the next two weeks because of this wedding and Liz's wedding back home in NC next weekend. Funny though, after cruising around on Mountain Project this afternoon, I could not resist throwing my climbing shoes and chalk bag in my bag for BC. There's just too many good climbs there that if I found myself near a boulder, I'd feel really silly if I didn't have them with me. Hmmmm...addicted much? Anyhow, I'm off bright and early tomorrow AM and I'm really excited to see what BC looks like and have got the camera loaded for bear. Even if there's no climbing to be found hopefully I'll be able to bring back some pretty excellent pictures. Here's to some good flyin'.
Stereo-Foo Fighters-Ever Long