Thursday 16 July 2009
Wednesday 15 April 2009
a taster of tower klymbzingz. Burnzy shitz pantz in FEARZ!!!!!1111eleventywon1
Here's a short clip from river tower. More to come soon.
And if you're wondering what the anchor was... Loose block slung with prussik chord.
And if you're wondering what the anchor was... Loose block slung with prussik chord.
Saturday 4 April 2009
Desert weather.
Why does the weather keep following me? It's pouring with hail, snow and rain right now in Moab. It must be a really unlucky bugger to have it rain on him even in the desert.
Greg (GMburns200), Jeramaih (Jmezies) and I climbed a tower the other day - photos, video, and TR coming soon. Also met Jason (Niciluraburundum or whatever) and his friends at wall street. He seemed sound but sometimes it's hard to tell with those BETish lads...
I was actually just walking down the road by wall street looking for some people to climb with when I ran into him. We did the usual "how's it going, can I climb with you" but when it came to my name he was like "ah fuck. It's Jason, good to meet you". We did a route or two then I gave Ryan (a local lad that works as a chef in the sunset grill) a catch on astrolad. When he took like a 15 or 20 foot whipper I swear the rope had barely came tight when he had already grabbed the rock and was climbing again. Strong commitment. I'll try to upload some photos in the next few days if the weather is still sucky, but I'm not sure I can do it at the library.
I'm hoping to meet up with Larry (Areyoumydude) in the next few days to do some aid climbing.
I also just bought a slackline for like 20 bucks (way cheaper then I thought they were) and have been having a blast on it, though I still pretty much suck. Greg was there to witness my fantastic faceplant when my body went to one side of the line but my legs went to the other...
I was hitchhiking to get into town yesterday when a motorbike pulled up. At first I thought he was taking the piss, but when the response to my saying "I've never ridden a bike before, I don't know how" was "you're about to learn" I knew he was for serious. It was a hilarious, terrifying and painful experiance in the end (hitting a hail storm ad 60 MPH with no helmet or face mask doesn't feel all that good - I actually bled t3h bludz a little) the lasted about 6 hours. After picking up the neccasary gourmet supplies from town (ramen, oatmeal, brown sugar and chocolate chips) we went for an "adventure" down past the fisher towers. We went out to Dewey's bridge, and old busted suspension bridge, and decided to try and swing from wire to wire, but it didn't really work. Instead we hung out and thought of ways to protect a slackline attempt across the top wires, which were still in prime condition. We decided that two long slings would work, or preferably two lengths of dynamic rope. sling them both around the wire below you in two U's and walk till you hit the first hanging wire, unclip one and swing it under the wire so you can attach it and repeat with the other one. We figured it would work but I don't exactly plan on trying it out. After thaty we headed back homewards, and were about a quarter the way back when something starting hitting my face, hands and knees in an incredibly painfull fashion. I first I figured the RV infront of us had kicked up a bunch of gravel but I quickly realised it had suddenly started pouring with hail. We quickly pulled off the road, faces stinging and hands numbed, and spied an overhanging rock which we ran to and hid under for cover. There was some kind of nest at the back, which we basically just hoped wasn't a snake nest, though I don't feel shamed by the fact that I paused and let him crawl under the rock first.
We hid out there for about half an hour till the precipitation moves back towards the liquid variety then jumped back on the bike and buzzed to the nearest building, which happened to be some highly posh cabin rental place. Wanting to get warm we pretended that we were considering renting a cabin (400 bucks a night was there cheapest rate... errr, no thanks ma'am, I'd rather eat for 2 months) or eating a meal (the cheapest thing on the menu was a cup of tomato soup... 8 bucks. or I could have 16 cups of cambels...). They quickly realised were weren't quite the customers they were looking for but let us hang out and dry out. After a short span of hanging out and dreading going back into the weather, we went back into the weather. It was still raining, but at least the tempurature had dropped...
All in all I've been having a blast in Moab and plan to stay here for a while longer.
Greg (GMburns200), Jeramaih (Jmezies) and I climbed a tower the other day - photos, video, and TR coming soon. Also met Jason (Niciluraburundum or whatever) and his friends at wall street. He seemed sound but sometimes it's hard to tell with those BETish lads...
I was actually just walking down the road by wall street looking for some people to climb with when I ran into him. We did the usual "how's it going, can I climb with you" but when it came to my name he was like "ah fuck. It's Jason, good to meet you". We did a route or two then I gave Ryan (a local lad that works as a chef in the sunset grill) a catch on astrolad. When he took like a 15 or 20 foot whipper I swear the rope had barely came tight when he had already grabbed the rock and was climbing again. Strong commitment. I'll try to upload some photos in the next few days if the weather is still sucky, but I'm not sure I can do it at the library.
I'm hoping to meet up with Larry (Areyoumydude) in the next few days to do some aid climbing.
I also just bought a slackline for like 20 bucks (way cheaper then I thought they were) and have been having a blast on it, though I still pretty much suck. Greg was there to witness my fantastic faceplant when my body went to one side of the line but my legs went to the other...
I was hitchhiking to get into town yesterday when a motorbike pulled up. At first I thought he was taking the piss, but when the response to my saying "I've never ridden a bike before, I don't know how" was "you're about to learn" I knew he was for serious. It was a hilarious, terrifying and painful experiance in the end (hitting a hail storm ad 60 MPH with no helmet or face mask doesn't feel all that good - I actually bled t3h bludz a little) the lasted about 6 hours. After picking up the neccasary gourmet supplies from town (ramen, oatmeal, brown sugar and chocolate chips) we went for an "adventure" down past the fisher towers. We went out to Dewey's bridge, and old busted suspension bridge, and decided to try and swing from wire to wire, but it didn't really work. Instead we hung out and thought of ways to protect a slackline attempt across the top wires, which were still in prime condition. We decided that two long slings would work, or preferably two lengths of dynamic rope. sling them both around the wire below you in two U's and walk till you hit the first hanging wire, unclip one and swing it under the wire so you can attach it and repeat with the other one. We figured it would work but I don't exactly plan on trying it out. After thaty we headed back homewards, and were about a quarter the way back when something starting hitting my face, hands and knees in an incredibly painfull fashion. I first I figured the RV infront of us had kicked up a bunch of gravel but I quickly realised it had suddenly started pouring with hail. We quickly pulled off the road, faces stinging and hands numbed, and spied an overhanging rock which we ran to and hid under for cover. There was some kind of nest at the back, which we basically just hoped wasn't a snake nest, though I don't feel shamed by the fact that I paused and let him crawl under the rock first.
We hid out there for about half an hour till the precipitation moves back towards the liquid variety then jumped back on the bike and buzzed to the nearest building, which happened to be some highly posh cabin rental place. Wanting to get warm we pretended that we were considering renting a cabin (400 bucks a night was there cheapest rate... errr, no thanks ma'am, I'd rather eat for 2 months) or eating a meal (the cheapest thing on the menu was a cup of tomato soup... 8 bucks. or I could have 16 cups of cambels...). They quickly realised were weren't quite the customers they were looking for but let us hang out and dry out. After a short span of hanging out and dreading going back into the weather, we went back into the weather. It was still raining, but at least the tempurature had dropped...
All in all I've been having a blast in Moab and plan to stay here for a while longer.
Wednesday 4 March 2009
Tales of Sandbaggings by Curt in oak flat.
So, I'm here in Phoenix AZ, in early Marach, and sunburnt lobster-red. Winter here seems to be pretty much equal to mid-summer in Scotland on an unatturally sunny year, and as Curt said, it's what I get for "bringing [my] pasty white scottish skin to sunny AZ".
Here's some photos of Curt and I doing "the world's easiest roof" at Oak Flat in Queen Creek. We climbed for a couple hours but never really got the camera out till the end. I gotta start taking more pictures.
Curt is pretty damn strong, I gotta say - I could barely make it up some of the problems... and didn't even make it up others that he considered "warm ups". Of course my thoughts were "sure, 'warm-ups'" but of course he sailed up them with ease - they really were his warm ups.
I managed one problem that he said was a "real" boulder problem, though I feel a slight "lanking" may have occured. The crux moves are hard pulls from poor holds inbetween jugs, but I just made long reaches and passed all the desperate sections.we messed around on a couple of the classic lines (read: climbs I could actually do). There was one particularly hard problem he jumped on that I couldn't even pull off the ground on. I actually thought he was joking when he pointed out the holds which seemed to be the size of the smallest crimps I've grabbed but cripplingly sloping - just slight irregularities in the rough surface of the rock. Of course after my feeble attempt he cranked right off them, smearing his 10/15 year old shoes on minute holds and made a big slap for a poor sloper. I figured it was time to warm down.
Oh, then we looked for scorpions and stuff. I'm kinda scared about them (I've never seen one so don't know what to expect) but I was pretty sure I wanted to check some out anyways. I didn't see any, though.
The day before I rolled into town Curt and his friend were climbing there and knocked a big chunk of loose rock off a problem, and scorpions were swarming all over the back of it. When it hit the ground and broke apart they were pure crawling about everywhere. I'm pretty sure I would have screamed like a Sungam and run away at that point, but it would have been interesting to see them.
After a day of climbing we went out and had what is basically said the best Mexican meal I've ever had.
I know what a lot of you are thinking - is the IRL Curt same as the rc.knob tinternet Curt? Well, sort of, only instead of the snappy funny remarks being posted an hour later they arrive via the ear about a second later, and instead of being completely demeaning (e.g. in response to Beesty511 saying "jt512 and curt?? lol. Good for the manager. I wouldn't allow the likes of them on my property either." he replied "Good choice. Being in the company of any real climbers would certainly be embarrasing for you.") they are only slightly so, and usually not directed at anyone present. He's also a fair hand at ping-pong.
Oh yeah, about that sunburn - we were in the sun for circa 2.5 hours and I got LOBSTERED, I mean, it was bad. BRIGHT red burn, the chick next to me on the plane to NC seemed more or less disgusted that my arms were peeling all over the place.
Here's some photos of Curt and I doing "the world's easiest roof" at Oak Flat in Queen Creek. We climbed for a couple hours but never really got the camera out till the end. I gotta start taking more pictures.
Curt is pretty damn strong, I gotta say - I could barely make it up some of the problems... and didn't even make it up others that he considered "warm ups". Of course my thoughts were "sure, 'warm-ups'" but of course he sailed up them with ease - they really were his warm ups.
I managed one problem that he said was a "real" boulder problem, though I feel a slight "lanking" may have occured. The crux moves are hard pulls from poor holds inbetween jugs, but I just made long reaches and passed all the desperate sections.we messed around on a couple of the classic lines (read: climbs I could actually do). There was one particularly hard problem he jumped on that I couldn't even pull off the ground on. I actually thought he was joking when he pointed out the holds which seemed to be the size of the smallest crimps I've grabbed but cripplingly sloping - just slight irregularities in the rough surface of the rock. Of course after my feeble attempt he cranked right off them, smearing his 10/15 year old shoes on minute holds and made a big slap for a poor sloper. I figured it was time to warm down.
Oh, then we looked for scorpions and stuff. I'm kinda scared about them (I've never seen one so don't know what to expect) but I was pretty sure I wanted to check some out anyways. I didn't see any, though.
The day before I rolled into town Curt and his friend were climbing there and knocked a big chunk of loose rock off a problem, and scorpions were swarming all over the back of it. When it hit the ground and broke apart they were pure crawling about everywhere. I'm pretty sure I would have screamed like a Sungam and run away at that point, but it would have been interesting to see them.
After a day of climbing we went out and had what is basically said the best Mexican meal I've ever had.
I know what a lot of you are thinking - is the IRL Curt same as the rc.knob tinternet Curt? Well, sort of, only instead of the snappy funny remarks being posted an hour later they arrive via the ear about a second later, and instead of being completely demeaning (e.g. in response to Beesty511 saying "jt512 and curt?? lol. Good for the manager. I wouldn't allow the likes of them on my property either." he replied "Good choice. Being in the company of any real climbers would certainly be embarrasing for you.") they are only slightly so, and usually not directed at anyone present. He's also a fair hand at ping-pong.
Oh yeah, about that sunburn - we were in the sun for circa 2.5 hours and I got LOBSTERED, I mean, it was bad. BRIGHT red burn, the chick next to me on the plane to NC seemed more or less disgusted that my arms were peeling all over the place.
Thursday 26 February 2009
Le Petit Verdon AKA The Pit.
Well, I finally evaded the weather that was following me.I'm back in Flagstaff AZ, still staying with Dan, and the weather is great. Perfect temperatures and blue skies all round.Yesterday and the day before Dan and I went climbing at the Pit, and yesterday, having rolled into town the night before, we were joined by Cory and Ela.
Luckily, after putting my first one through the wash, I managed to get hooked up by some sound lads at the Grand Junction best buy and got a new one for free, so photos are going to be showing up again, as well as some videos (if I work out how to edit out eh 45 minutes of crap that's on it).We were not in a photo-taking mood yesterday, and forgot the camera the day before, but here's a few shots I did get of Cory on a sweet arete line that tackled a juggy roof. I jumped on right after he cleaned the draws and managed not to pull another "breakfast burrito" moment and flashed it.
Luckily, after putting my first one through the wash, I managed to get hooked up by some sound lads at the Grand Junction best buy and got a new one for free, so photos are going to be showing up again, as well as some videos (if I work out how to edit out eh 45 minutes of crap that's on it).We were not in a photo-taking mood yesterday, and forgot the camera the day before, but here's a few shots I did get of Cory on a sweet arete line that tackled a juggy roof. I jumped on right after he cleaned the draws and managed not to pull another "breakfast burrito" moment and flashed it.
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