Travel

First, thanks to everyone who voted on what shoes I should get next. Looks like I'm getting a pair of Jet 7's. Should be interesting to see if I like them.

I leave tomorrow for Richmond, California until Friday. I'll be spending some quality time with the folks at Mountain Hardwear and Montrail taking a look at all the new stuff for Spring 2010. They always treat us with good food and drinks the whole time we're there so it should be a good time. They are all good people who like to have fun....plus they have a nice little bouldering wall at headquarters that I'd love to play around on. We'll see.

These meetings are always a weird combo of seasons. The designers are presenting their Spring 2010 work to us, all the while they're working hard on Spring 2011 designs and prototypes. All of this happens during the Spring 2009 season. It always makes me smile a little.

This past Friday, Katie finished unpacking and we were officially moved in! Fantastic. What did we do on Saturday then?




More to come on Phase One of the homewall soon...

Catching Up

The house even came with a free sticker!

Katie and I signed a lease for a house a few weeks back and we're just finishing up the move. I hate moving. So much. It just sucks everything out of me and I don't want to do anything with anybody. We started the move on Saturday and will be completely done on Thursday.

We were upgraded to a 24 foot uhaul since they didn't have any of the 17's left. After filling up the bottom third of the U-Haul we took off for the new house. Pulling into the driveway I took out a nice chunk of pavement from the street with the truck's hitch. Apparently 24 foot long trucks don't like driveways on a hill. We unloaded everything and then promptly got the it stuck in our driveway, afraid that the street would yank the bumper clean off. Katie pulled through like a trooper and took over the reigns when I got too frustrated. Well done.

I'm glad that mess is done. Neither of us could believe how sore we were the next day. We moved the bunnies over last night and pretty much just have to clean the place now. I'm going to be so happy when we're out of there and are back to somewhat normal life.

The bunnies in their new stables

We'll be putting up part of the wall this Saturday hopefully. I am very excited. We've moved the toys out of the way and made room for the first section. I'm happy to be able to start climbing again...

Pads just waiting to be used...

Pick My Kicks

So my pair of beloved V10's has pretty much kicked it and I've failed at replacing them adequately. So very sad. I'm in the market for a new pair of beat around shoes for the gym and warming up and such. I want something easy on and easy off and think I have it drilled down to two very different shoes. Right now I'm looking at the Jet7 and the Anasazi Velcro. Not sure which I want though.

I tried the Solutions and they just didn't seem to work that well. Hated the heel cup on them. Also tried the Cobra years back and while I liked them back then, I don't think I'd like them as much now. After blowing out the Scarpa Boosters last year I'm hesitant to pick up a pair of the Stix because I think they'll have the same issue.

I've tried the Jet7's a bit and they weren't my favorite but I think they were a size too big. They're on the same last as the V10's but felt bulkier. In the right size I might actually like them.

I had a pair of the old Anasazi Velcro's and liked them for what they were. Unfortunately they were a half size too big and I've always wondered if I'd like them more in the right size.

I'm curious what your thoughts are! There is a poll to the right. Tell me what shoes to get. If you don't want me to get one of those post a comment with which shoes I should get and maybe I'll add it to the poll.

And........go!

Wedding Planning

With the date finally set, September 12, Katie and I took a day off yesterday to solidify a few things. Our reception is up at Devil's Lake so we ended up having to go up there to see how the numbers would work out. It ended up being a nice excuse to climb for a little bit at the end of the day! Wonderful how that always seems to work out, huh?

We went over to the fire road and made our way to the 45 degree boulder. I'd been wanting to get Katie on these problems for a while now and it was a perfect day for it. My skin was still pretty trashed from Sandstone Violence and I wasn't sure how much I'd be able to climb. I always forget how friendly Quartzite can be to the skin.

In pretty short order we both did the center line and worked out the moves on the right hand line. We finished that thing, one after another, and moved on to the left hand line. In a matter of tries we did that as well. It was really really nice to just go out and do some moderate problems in an afternoon. All of the problems are super fun and gymnastic. Very unique for the Lake.



We've been more focused on projects this spring and I'd really forgotten how much fun it is to circuit stuff. We had one of our better days this spring and Katie kept on remarking on how much fun it was.

After that we went down to Alpine Club and I gave it a bunch of goes. The start move feels way better than it ever has and I felt closer on the second move. I think I'm going to have to go about this one differently though. Normally I just siege a boulder until it lets up and I do it. I really just have to get stronger this time. This is a huge goal for me and I've wanted to do this boulder since the day I saw it.

We didn't take that many pictures yesterday due to all the climbing. Kinda nice. We did see a couple of pretty cool birds though.

A very cool Woodpecker

And a bunch of Vultures, I believe

I always get so excited when I start climbing at Devils Lake again and I tend to forget how much fun the climbing there is. I can't wait to go back!

Governor Dodge at Night

Not wanting to spend another night in the gym Katie, RV and I drove out to Governor Dodge last night after work. We arrived around 7 or so and went up to Hangman and Highly Executed. Low motivation and humid conditions dominated at first. We all played around but didn't really commit or try hard. I know Katie and I are pretty burned out on both of those problems and we really just don't care about them anymore.

After a bit of prodding and poking Katie convinced us to get back on Sandstone Violence.

Everyone has personal epics and demons that they try to avoid. Sandstone Violence is that for me, it's an epic and I'm so intimidated by it it's not even funny. I know I can do the moves but I avoid trying them at all costs. Sandstone Violence is maybe my biggest climbing failure ever and I hate it.

I've got a history with this problem that's kind of hard to put into words. It's the only project of mine that has actively fought back and it came within two inches of doing some VERY serious damage to my head.

I've done harder climbs and I've done scarier climbs. I'm not sure what it is about Sandstone Violence that just sort of wigs me out, but it totally messes with me.

I'm glad that Katie made us get on it. I didn't send the stupid thing but I got closer than I've been in almost three years. It was a good feeling again and reminded me how much fun the moves can be. RV got a new highpoint on his first go and looked as solid as you could on every go after that.

I ended the night by getting my right hand on the last right hand crimp before the jump. Right where I ended my attempts in 2006. Right before that stupid block smoked me in the shoulder. It felt good, really good, and now I actually want to get on it again. It's nice to feel that again. It's been too long old friend.

So many times I say that it'll go down next trip, and so many times I'm just so wrong. I can honestly say with this problem that I have no clue at all if/when I will eventually do it. I hope it'll be soon though.

Here are a couple of pictures from the night.

Home Wall Ideas

Katie and I are moving in a couple weeks and we're going to be putting the homewall back up. Right now it looks like we're planning on having an 8 foot wide 45 and possibly one other angle. We'll see how much space we have. Anyone have any ideas out there? I'd love to hear them.

Our last homewall was steep. Almost too steep. End to end the wall was 17 feet long, including the kicker, and maybe 7 feet tall. One 4 foot section of 45 and three 4 foot sections of maybe 70 degrees overhung. Very steep.

Our local gym doesn't have A/C so we're excited about having a small wall at home to play around on. Should be good. I'm VERY excited to move.

Also, our gym uses mainly clay holds. What are everyone's favorite plastic brands? I have my own ideas and there are a couple that stick out in my mind, but I'm curious what everyone else uses.

New Projects

I hope this turns into something useful....

http://wisconsinbouldering.blogspot.com/