Volasail

Long story short: on my last trip to San Francisco for work, I brought my climbing shoes and entered a friendly little climbing competition.  I entered the Men’s Intermediate division (v3-v5, middle of three divisions).  I placed 22 of 69 people.  Not bad for my first-ever comp, and being a little out of shape.

But here’s the weird part.  If I had instead chosen to enter the Men’s Advanced, my total score of 19,280 would have put me in 17th place in that division.  Huh?  Shouldn’t they average out the scores and then divide?

I don’t get it.

That’ll teach me to be an underachiever.  Yes, I should be in the Men’s Advanced group.  Yes, I can fly a plane.  Yes, I can perform open heart surgery.

We had big plans last weekend of taking a group of our friends out to Joshua Tree.  Having spent so much time out there the last two years rock climbing and camping, I figured our friends would enjoy the quiet solitude, campfire, and starry nights.  I guess I was wrong.

Although we locked down the date over 4 months ago, our small circle of friends all lead very busy lives.  Like clockwork, we got our first call Tuesday night — the wife was sick and they were staying home.  We got our second call soon afterwards — there was some volunteer work that randomly planned some training this weekend.  And with 4 of the 10 people cancelling, the others decided it would be no fun as a partial group.

Frankly?  I couldn’t care less!  I’ve spent more than my fair share of nights alone in Joshua Tree, staring into a fire and enjoying the alone time…  of course, I was very excited to share the beauty of this place with our friends, but getting to spend the weekend alone with my wife was a perfectly acceptable replacement.  

Friday was spent simply walking around the park, enjoying the “nature loops” setup by the park service.  Every 20ft or so, a new sign would point out plants and animals and give you some background on the area you’re in.  I always hated History class, but there’s something different about actually seeing history.  Seeing relics of the past (including a handful of pictographs), reminded me of my time growing up in Northern Virginia — a place littered with hands-on American History.  We finished the day doing a 90ft climb to the top of a rock to watch the sunset.  Afterwards, we drove into town to find the best in small-town dining: Applebee’s.

Saturday was full of bouldering.  My good friend (and very good climber) Aron joined us for the day.  My wife is a great encourager and she enjoys watching us climb.  (I’ll spare you the rest of the details as I can see my blog starting to become dreadfully unbalanced with climbing posts).  The day was capped off with a big campfire, some roasted chicken breasts, a big bottle of Fat Tire, and a great chat with my lady-friend.

We climbed a bit more Sunday morning before heading back to LA.  Once home, my wife left for her mother’s as I prepared for a week-long work trip to San Francisco.  Although my trip was a productive one, there’s something jarring to the soul when you experience such a drastic change in mindsets.  One day you’re sitting beside a fire, bundled up in a big poofy coat and beanie, staring at a sky lit up like a Christmas tree … the next, you’re dealing with cab lines, TSA, and expense reports.  I guess that’s why we take pictures.

Robert Miramontes (author of the Bouldering Guide to Joshua Tree) put together a cleanup day this past weekend at the Tram.

40+ folks showed up to “climb&clean.”  The Miramontes’ (Rob and wife Christina) passed out trashbags and even gave everyone a raffle ticket.  A few local climbing companies donated gear for the raffle.  I went up early Saturday AM with wife and baby.  This was Ava’s first trip up the mountain, and she did great.

I managed to tick 2 of the 3 climbs I wanted to do:  “Like A Virgin“, and “Standing on the Head of the Dragon.”  (the 3rd is “Methane“, but it was too hot to work on this problem).  Part of the “cleanup kit” included rubber gloves to cleanup…anything that we found that we didn’t want to touch.  I decided instead to use the gloves as part of a photo shoot in homage to “Like A Virgin.”

(please forgive the crude inuendo)

Cruised down south to hang with the in-laws this past weekend.  Spent most of our time driving from grandparent to grandparent so they could all see the baby.  Now that all 7 great-grandparents and both sets of grandparents have seen her, hopefully next week’s trip will be a little more relaxing.

Despite the hectic schedule, I managed to find time for climbing.  Since it’s so freakin’ hot, the only option was to wake up at 5:30am and get to the boulders before it got too hot.

I usually hate climbing at Santee — I’m not a big fan of dime-edged feet and relying solely on the quality and stiffness of your shoes.  However, my buddy Jon took me to a new boulder I’d never climbed on: the “20 Point Boulder.”  It had a few very unique and gymnastic climbs — very rare for the area.  I ticked one v4 and began working on a traverse that a friend had told us was a v2.

My only guess is that the problem lost a foothold somewhere during a recent fire, because that climb was not a v2.  By the time I figured out the sequence, the sun was roasting the rock and I failed to finish.  Unfortunately, I then spent the rest of the day thinking about the climb…which meant another early morning trip to Santee.  I figured out some new beta and sent early Sunday morning.

20-Point Traverse.  V4.

With the move to our new apartment, we’re now in a weird location — between 2 climbing gyms, and neither of them near work, home, or in-between.  Add to that the fact that my shoulder injury has had me side-lined for almost 2 months and I’m one weak climber of late.

I went out last weekend to the Tram and to Black Mtn and felt heavy and week.  V3’s were hard, and that made me sad.  So I broke down and decided to do some working out at home.

Behold!  My awesome home gym!!

I went up to Black Mountain (near Idyllwild, CA) yesterday with some friends to rock climb. Here’s a pic of me working on The Visor (v6).