Sunday, January 31, 2010

Castles in the sand.. at day at CWC

cwcstich

( a short Solo in the c-wood C: M.Lloyd )

Saturday was going to be a solo mission to Castlewood Canyon but at the last minute i wrangled up two amigos and we headed south. Castlewood is gem nestled between the hell that is Parker and Highlands Ranch and the beautiful Franktown. Besides rattle snakes and families from suburbia Castlewood hosts some pretty sick climbing if you know where to look. Justin Jaeger is the man down there and he seams to keep a large part of his brain devoted to knowing the beta and locations of all the bouldering there is to be had there.

First mission for me was to do some solo rock climbing,CWC is well suited to it because it is short, moderate, and has a walk of from the top. The first route i tried resulted in a minor epic. I tried to onsight solo a 5.11 ( unknown name and  grade) anyway at half height my hands went numb due to the cold and i had a little panic and decided that i was in a tiny bit more that i wanted to be. So i, with great difficulty, down climbed the route…. a bit sketchier than I'm used too. Next i climbed the route pictured above, it had a crack which to me is like having a rope. hand jam= on belay . Adam shot some photos and then in order to make the sequence shot above i soloed it again for good measure. I really love the place that adventure rock climbing ( my new phrase for the climbing that i enjoy ) puts me. Excited , committed and alert describe it best.

Sky worked on Marcello’s “The Mangler“ which i think weighs in at upwards of v10. I shot a very cool sequence of the first reachy move.

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Adam was able to fire a cool looking moderate boulder problem on the other side of “the mangler”

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I notes from the world i saw a new movie last night called Crazy Heart. It was really well done, i have always enjoyed some good ole’ country music. If you do too check it out. Here is a trailer for it.

I got more to say but that's all for now…

Thursday, January 28, 2010

An ode to Morrison

I have so much energy. I climb 6 days a week even though it probably makes me a worse climber. I do this because I'm addicted. I understand something of addiction, i have seen it in my life.  I will climb in a gym or outside it makes no difference to me. It’s not really about sending or conquering a climb. So i will climb choss and love it still.
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Yesterday i went to Morrison by myself as i do on many days and played around. I have been climbing there off and on for a long time as have many other Denver climbers. People seem to hate that place but i always see climbers there. Cutting there teeth and there tips on the potato peeler and flying off Helicopter. This place deserves some credit.
Bouldering_MadRock-3 ( Emily and Alexa crushing in the Black hole)
If you can climb v whatever there you can do it most anywhere.  I realize that rhymes and it wasn't meant to so i will now write some that is.
Morison_darkside 036
oh Morrison you really are a pile
yet you lay just a few miles
down the road , over the bend, just there at the end
you routes are so contrived
but you have still survived , oil coatings, erosion and slander
it’s nothing but banter
more like a monkey and less like a leach have so much to teach
crimpers and slopers not jokers and hopers
this place will make you a man
you may be cheesy and sleazy but not one bit easy
you have broken a hope or two
so in time, with out costing a dime
i will become your apprentice
or at least something momentous
traversing and under clinging around
so skip that hand hold and don't use that foot
it off alright  even if you could
Bouldering_MadRock-5
(above) This is me on going to the air port or Jordan or so variation of the two. The Photo was taken by my good friend Dan Gambino. You can go to his site  by climbing on the link to the right.
(Below) a picture from the dark side. I have no idea the name of this boulder or of the problem.
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  Morison_darkside 015
( above) this photo is of Alexa Himestieb as she sends the squirming coil v6 at the Dark Side.
(below) is Adam Mckenzie climbing Government issue one of his first V10’s.
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Dannyv5
(above) Climbing is Danny, this photo was taken on Danny camera by Me . Yeah i got skillz.
Mattfreesolostraight-1
(above) This photo was taken By Daniel Madson of me free soloing a easy route at Morrison. There is a lot more to climb there than just at the black hole.

Monday, January 25, 2010

What a wonderful night for a day dream

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There are simply those days, the one’s that tend to continue in verbal form for many years. Sometimes, while there are happening one feels that they hold no certain significance (which is probably true ), however, the events that came together to create this experience have long lasting comical value. This is one of those nights, last night in particular.
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Names we changed to protect the guilty from certain public ridicule.
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We drive, possibly as fast as we can walk. The snow is heavy and visibility is reminiscent of a star wars warp drive sequence. 7 hours turns into 10. I am unhappy, which means I am a complete prick to anyone who dares disturb my crazed focus on the road. John, well, John isn’t too concerned. He is drifting through an inebriated haze and seems to be making connections of little or no relevance. He see’s that the GPS reads 151 miles to SLC our final destination and is happy to point out that Bacardi is also 151 proof and he would have some if it was available. You could file that statement in the obvious foreshadowing file. Adam is in the back seat playing video games, because that’s what he does, play video games. I guess he climbs too, but far less seriously. Adam could be at home kneeling in front of the television eating gram crackers and watching cartoons for all he cares. He has no idea how close to death we are. That’s probably just fine with him.
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This whole outing has one main purpose. We are heading to the outdoor industries trade show in Salt Lake city. We all in one way or another have business to attend to, all of us except John. We arrive at 10am and head right into the chaos that is the trade show. If you have never been to a trade show let me give you a visual.
1.They are all fit and healthy, they will only eat healthy yet will forget this fact when part taking in alcoholic consumption.
2. They are social awkward, people in the outdoor industry are here because they didn’t like team sports.
3. Once the façade of work is completed drinking is done with a youthful ignorance to the very real social effects of alcohol.
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After hours of attempting to smooze my way into making a living we give up and go climbing. We climb at the Front climbing gym.tradeshow 019 All three of us were at the opening of this gym in 2001 almost 9 years ago. This makes us feel old. We decide to quit this futile endeavor and go drink. Upon arriving back at the trade show we visit our good friends at Mad tradeshow 025Rock and discover they have a keg. We consume. I make at least 10  new best friends. I cannot remember one name for more than a second. That’s ok. What’s in a name? I discover that alcohol makes me very good at self promoting and shamelessly asking for things ( side note: this is a skill I should have applied to women years ago, turns out if you ask enough someone will in fact say yes). We run into Jake, he has a job at the trade show and is a contributing member to society but is always down for a little fun so we join him and his dad for dinner. All the events that occur from here on out happen a little fast with less and less sold “facts”. He is the summery…

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7-9pm we forget the idea was to eat at dinner and decide to just drink. Adam in particular starts the nights of right going straight for the grey goose. It feels early to be this drunk but hey this is Mormonville and we need to show the righteous how the heathens do it.
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9:00pm Our good friend KK joins us and we want to head out to the industry after party at club “ elevate” we arrive and find that a donation to the Haiti victims is required for entrance, I look left and run right, power fake, slide, dip and run. Success. A special place in Dantes inner rings of hell has been excavated out for people who bail on donations for disaster relief. We run into Don and Curtis from our friendly neighborhood wilderness exchange and buy each other drink. I should say now that im not much of a drinker and am approaching socially unacceptable drunkenness which feels right because so is John. KK remains the soft spoken voice of reason.
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( this is club Elevate the next morning )
11:00 we continue drinking with reckless abandon, scotch and coke, vodka and tonic ( skip the grey goose and hand me the pov pov bottle ) I loose John and adam and make new best friends. They buy me a drink. Thanks.
12:00 In the corner of my eye I see John being carried by two large men in black, they are not happy. I wave and say that I know the guy being thrown out like he is a celebrity or something. I turn back to my friends and they order another drink. I am scolded by kk and Jake, they tell me to forget the drink and go after John. I say he’s fine but oblige.

12:05 I walk out to a total nightmare. Let me set the scene. There are hundreds of people outside and they all seem to be looking at John. The bouncers have thrown him on the curb. John is completely out of his mind, screaming and shouting while sitting prone on the floor. I deny know this person and watch from a distance.
12:10 The police are called. The crowd grows.
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(This is from the next morning…)
12:11 Two security guards, after the pleading request of Jake and I drag John around the side of the club and let us try and take him away before the police arrive. Carrying a lifeless body is much harder than you would think.  People stare, i still try to deny knowing the person i am carrying.
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(KK try to talk sense into an immovable object. )
12:15-2:00 am we push, carry and drag John the 6 bocks back to the hotel. Stopping periodically to avoid police cars. We have a routine that when head lights approach we lean John against a wall and pretend to talk with him. John becomes defiant and decides that main street will be his bed . Adam says he is done and begins to walk home. I slap John. Hard. I use the “ fireman’s carry” and get John into the lobby of the hotel. I start to wonder what people think of me carrying a dead person over my shoulders and through the foyer but decide that the best thing to do is walk fast and pretend everything is ok. A girl in the elevator asks what’s wrong with my friend, I ask what’s wrong with her face. We exit the elevator.



2:00-3:00 we try and decide if the hospital is the best place for John… we decide that we should think about it over food at Denny’s.
3:00 we head to Denny’s, without John.
DA_phoenix_dennys
4:00 we see one of the best chick on chick fights I have ever seen while eating our delicious meal, I announce that drunk people are dumb and they should be ashamed of themselves acting like that. Adam passes out at the table.
4:30 we find John alive and crawl into bed, we try and sleep hoping to find no dead bodies in the morning.
10:00 am John is fine, actually he is more than fine he’s great, no puke, hang over, nothing. This makes Adam and I mad, we on the other hand feel like death, I am physically sore from dragging Johns lifeless corpse through the city and he wakes up looking like a spit shined silver dollar.
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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Thoughts on training

001
I went and checked out the Denver Bouldering Club the other day and i must say it was very nice. Great holds and a large  unencumbered walls make for a very good indoor climbing gym. Only the cost would keep me away.  Either way , Skyler and i had a good work out and managed to even take some pictures. While I'm talking about working out i have a few words to share on the subject. Recently i have seen a lot written about training and working out in general. Paul Robinson says to do this or Sharma does that…. I don't believe that any of this is wrong but i believe the point is missed by most. People are different, they way you go about getting strong will be different from other climbers. i assure you i know a dozen v2 climbers who would rip climbers like Paul Robinson ( no offence to him ) limb from limb. Crimp strength is a poor gauge of athleticism. So to avoid controversy i believe that general rules have to apply to training. These are my rules.
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1. Have a ultimate goal. It must be held above all other parts of who you are. Partying and friends, success in any sport requires a selfish athlete. Your goal can only be accomplished by you.
005   Pictured: Skyler Weekes
2. Execute. Work and work hard. A month of training is nothing, nor a year. it takes 10,000 hours to master something. stop talking about it and go to the gym. ( side note… i have been climbing for 11 years without any major breaks and at my best guess I'm in the neighborhood of 3-4000 hours of climbing).  Remeber that when you think you know everything about a sport. “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” – Bruce Lee
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3. Want it. I know people who have climbed v11 in less than a year of climbing and friends who have climbed 5.14 hung over and malnourished, this does not mean you will do either. Rather you need to discover that you can try harder than you think and this is the only piece of training that really applies directly to your success at a sport. Remember that endurance is the ability to endure. Suffer well and often.
003
“I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude.”-Bruce Lee
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Pictured: Skyler Weekes

Thursday, January 14, 2010

recon...

i think this building needs to be climbed.. who knows. maybe someone crazy will do it.









panorama


Monday, January 11, 2010

Mike Sakas gets a new toy

check out Mike Sakas's new site ....






some words



He was a young man


I was allergic to the fall


I thought I was fine


It’s not addicting, not one bit, not even at all


I met time and pressure


That the night of the crime, the night that im in here for


I got there just in time


the newspaper  read it


constant tension was at its core


deeper deeper deeper


im not so young any more

Saturday, January 9, 2010

North Table Mountasin fun



Today i went up and did one of my solo circuits in Golden, 10 routes in under an hour. My buddy Will snapped a few pics ( below) this route is a 5.10-who name i have no idea… i thought the photos came out as pretty as the day was. n.table 012   
n.table 014

Thursday, January 7, 2010

a quick clip from J-Tree

so i decided to onsight solo “Pinch Rib” in Hidden Valley, Matuska filmed it while i almost fell off . Here is a quick video for your viewing enjoyment. sorry Aaron, i’ll be more careful next time.

 

thanks to Matus ( correctly pronounced Matush ) for the video and the delightful commentary