Verticle World - Apr 28

Usually I would not include any gym climbing, as it is nothing more than a workout, but I must deviate from this one time. Yesterday at the gym I climbed with Velvet, her first time in the climbing gym. She passed her belay test and got trained on the Gri-Gri's they used. It was a bit shaky to start, but by the end of the night, she had it wired. On her first night in the climbing gym she did a 5.5 and a 5.6 route... her second time climbing and she did awesome! She did get fatigued pretty fast... she is quickly learning what "climbing shape" means.

I wasn't really feeling that great or anything, but ended up doing 3 10's while we were there. I'm not 100% on my knee yet and I'm basically where I was before my surgery. Actually I have never done 3 10's in the same day before... I would work up to it, but be tired after doing one, let alone 3. I have been working out hard and staying on top of my fitness, so I am hoping to show significant improvement when I'm completely healthy. 11's here I come.

I think in some way this may be due to climbing at Index a few months back with Dave. It really opened my eyes to what hard climbing is and how to get up what I thought I never would. Now things just seem a bit easier to pull off. I can't wait to get my s#!t handed to me again! Thanks Dave.

Leavenworth, WA - April 25, 26

This weekend I climbed in Leavenworth, WA. There are numerous climbing areas around the small Washington "German-town" and it is genarally one of the finest climbing areas around central Washington. This is one of my favorite places to climb and camp, and has been the site of many great climbing weekends for me.

This weekend was also a momentus occasion, my girlfriend Velvet climbed for the first time and loved it! She top-roped on a few 5.easy routes and even sent her first route ever at Bruce's Boulder! I was so proud of her. She now has the climbing bug and I suspect she will be climbing often in the upcoming months.

Starting off on the crack at Bruce's Boulder.

working it...

Almost there...

At the top!

Also this weekend saw me achieve a couple of personal goals:

1. I did my first lead climbing since my knee surgery on Feb. 05 of this year.
2. I did my first TRAD lead.

Still got love for SD...

I didn't really have it in mind to do either, but while looking for easy routes, we found numerous groups of TRAD-leading classes taking most of the routes that would have been easy enough for a first timer to have some fun with. I ended up leading the routes just so we would have something to climb.

The first sport lead was a 5.7 and it was easy, although it only had 2 bolts and was a run-out nightmare... could have used some gear to protect up high. If I would have fallen, I would have decked for sure.

Getting on draws.

Getting past the first bolt.

Way past bolt #2.

The final moves, finally the anchor.

Ashley on Belay, mounties 15 strong in the background.

Lillie isn't impressed.

The TRAD lead was on a 5.6 route on Domestic Dome called BS ( I think, I'll verify that). It was very exciting and fun. I placed all cams, as there were very little constrictions in the cracks. The route protected well for the first 2/3 of the route, then had a blank slab with about 3 moves to do before reaching a bomber ledge. Above the pro and traversing about 10 feet, the blank slab felt very exposed, although doing the route again on toprope proved very easy.

Building the Omni...

Looking for placements.

Easy stance, looking to place piece.

Moving on up.

The crux move.

Happy I made it.

That's all for now.

Getting the hang of this now...

This should be post #2. It's from my phone, so we'll see of it works. This seems to be coming together pretty easily so far, but now I realize I'm going to need to start organizing my pictures and resizing them for use in the blog.

My first post...

This is my first ever blog post. I needed something to show up on the main page while I was getting everything dialed in with this whole "blog thing". I will be posting about my climbing... mostly it will be a way for me to remember what I have climbed and beta for next time (or others). Hopefully over time, I will be able to track my progression in rock climbing and mountaineering. L8r...