Arkansas Wrap-Up

So I just had a pretty great weekend. In case you missed something, I went down to Arkansas this past weekend with my friend Andrew to do some bouldering.

Here is my pre-trip tick-list with outcomes:

V7
Razor's Edge - gave it 3 tries, got to the crux on the first go, but didn't know the beta to finish. New guidebook down-graded this to V5.
Miho - didn't try
Leatherface - looked at, but it's just a bit beyond me at the moment...maybe in a couple months i'll be strong enough for it.
Orb Weaver - didn't try
Undertow Direct - didn't try, but definitely next time

V6
Pier Pressure - didn't try

V5
Even Dirtier - put in some really good work, almost there, but it is pretty friction dependent. I'm sure i'll send next time when it's cold.
Momento - see 'Even Dirtier' comment
Slopadon Milosevic - didn't try

V4
*War Bonnet - Sent after a bit of work...then found out it was up-graded to a V5, my first of the grade!
Alabama Ahead - just one or two moves away...will definitely go next time...probably first try.
Moondye (stand start) - tried 3 times, each one progressively worse...another friction dependent problem.

V3
*The Crescent - got it! fun problem with interesting beta
Sloping Joe - didn't try

These weren't on my tick-list, but I did them anyway:
V4
*Chainsaw - Flashed it!
*A Little More John Wayne - Didn't think I was strong enough for this one...but I guess so!
*Le Beak - Awesome looking rock

V3
*Rings of Uranus - a classic arete
*Privileged Planet - A fun roof problem

Check out this video I put together of some of my climbs (you might want to just copy and paste the link because it opens in this window, not a new one):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlwPe1xZr0M&feature=related

This is another one with Wayne and Andrew climbing some stuff too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9ne4fPLKPI

I'd give a better wrap-up, but I've had this much of the post written for a week without posting it, so I should probably get it up sometime....

Horseshoe Canyon Ranch!

So this past Saturday, Andrew and I went to Pere Marquette State Park in search of rocks. PM is in Illinois right along the Mississippi. This was my third trip to the park, all in the hope of finding some quality boulders to climb on. The first time we went we found a couple of good boulders, but that was about it. The next time we just went to those and worked on the same stuff. This time, I was determined to find some new boulders...but alas, we ended up going for the same old stuff. It worked out pretty well though. We only had a few hours because we both had to work that night, and we ended up finding two new climbable lines on the boulders we already new about. The first one was a pretty tough traverse (mostly sideways movement) problem. After cleaning all the holds and giving them a health amount of chalk, we started to project the climb and work out the moves. It took about an hour just to figure out the sequence, but I finally figured out some beta that would work. Unfortunately, the middle of the problem has two REALLY tough moves in it (the problem will probably end up being V5 when it actually gets climbed), so I had to put that on hold and move on to the next boulder. This boulder is a really cool looking face, slightly overhanging and 12-15 feet high. It is right on the trail, so we get a lot of curious passer-by, but they usually just walk by with confused looks and talking about our "portable couches", AKA crashpads. Anyway, there was one problem that I had climbed the last time I was there, but never gave a grade, so I climbed it again and figured it was about a V1 or V2. Next we worked a problem that went up the tallest part of the face. It had some really cool moves on it, and when I finally sent it, I decided to call Just the Face is probably in the V4 range (but maybe less).

Andrew climbing Top Out the Tree (V0) last winter. This is another problem we established at the second boulder I described above.

On a side note: the night before, Ben and I went to Disney's A Christmas Carol in 3-D IMAX (against my will). Unfortunately, my initial feeling that this movie would be bad was spot on. It looked great, but it's definitely not a movie for the kids, nor is it enjoyable for adults. Trust me, don't see it.

The reason I allowed Ben to drag me to the movie is because he decided we were going to start a film podcast based on the Academy Awards (for those that don't know, a podcast is kind of like a radio show, but not live and it can be downloaded on the internet through iTunes). Ben, Nicole and I recorded our first one this past Sunday and I think it went pretty well. Anyway, I'll get you some more info on that when we get it up on the internet. I could use your help though: we asked for people to write in with their favorite disaster movies for a discussion in next week's podcast, so if you have one, leave it as a comment and a quick reason why it is your favorite. Disaster movie can mean: natural disasters, epidemics, aliens/monsters/zombies taking over the world, etc... anything that threatens life on planet earth. Thanks for your help!

Anywho, in a couple of days I am heading down to Arkansas for a weekend of climbing at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. Andrew and I are leaving Friday morning (maybe Thursday night) and climbing until dusk on Sunday. I have been to HCR for the past two New Years and have had a ton of fun both times. I have friends that live in that area from the summer I spent in Colorado and now we have an annual gathering to bring in the new year with climbing, friends and merriment. This trip is just a bit of a warm-up for the trip at the end of the year. I've been wanting to get back down there to work on some projects and explore the area a bit more and I want Andrew to check out the high quality climbing as well. Following is a list of the boulder problems I am wanting to check out this weekend. Most of them I have either worked on a bit or have seen other people climb them and would like to project them myself. I'm really setting the bar up high, hoping that I can at least work out the beta for my trip at the end of the year, but who knows....maybe I'll end up ticking off a bunch of these. Wouldn't that be nice?Kevin Martin sending High Five (V4) last winter at HCR. You can see me in the blue sitting on the boulder behind him. A couple of days later I also sent, making this my first V4.

The goal I set for myself last year at HCR was to have one V7 climbed by the end of the year, as well as a handful of V6s....time is running out....(Keep in mind, last year at HCR I climbed my first and only V6. Other than that, I haven't even done a V5..only V4 and below, but I have faith!)

Horseshoe Canyon Ranch Tick-List:

V7
Razor's Edge
Miho
Leatherface
Orb Weaver
Undertow Direct

V6
Pier Pressure

V5
Even Dirtier
Momento
Slopadon Milosevic

V4
War Bonnet
Alabama Ahead
Moondye (stand start)

V3
The Crescent
Sloping Joe

I'm sure there will be other stuff we will climb, but these are my main targets. I will definitely let you know about my progress upon my return....wish me luck!

Also, I know I keep promising video and pictures, but you'll have to wait just a bit longer. Andrew has video of me climbing Formaldehyde at the Graveyard from a few weeks ago, but hasn't gotten that to me yet. We are also going to be taking a lot of video at HCR, so hopefully I'll have a pretty cool video put together sometime in the next week or two. Sorry I keep boring you with all this talk that you probably don't understand, but hopefully it will be a bit clearer once I get a few videos up!

I hope everyone is well....I'll talk to you next week!

Lots of bouldering...and I like it!

So it's taken me a bit longer than I had hoped to get a post up here (go figure), but I've got you covered now! I've been lucky enough to get outside the past three weekends to do some bouldering! The weekend before my last post, Andrew, Adrianne and I went down to Jackson Falls (our normal spot) to do some bouldering. We met our friend Sarah and her boyfriend Ryan the night before at Sarah's family's lake house stayed there. The house is about 1/2 an hour away from J-Falls and has lots of beds and other nice amenities, so I always like it when we are able to crash there. Anyway, we do all of our sport climbing at Jackson Falls and have definitely done some bouldering there before, but at the end of this summer, a guidebook devoted completely to southern Illinois bouldering was released. This book is incredible, and has been a huge help in finding quality bouldering in a bunch of different areas, including Jackson. Anyway, we got to J-Falls and did a little warming up on a couple short problems: Flint (v2) and Tomahawk Traverse (v3) before moving on to Andrew's project: Arete Syndrome (v4/5). Unfortunately, the problem was soaking wet, so we had to put a hold on that. We went around the corner to a problem called Matt's Sloper Problem (v4). We ended up spending a good chunk of time on this one, but I finally figured out how to finish it, and after watching me top it out, Andrew sent it on the next go. After that, we went to check out a problem I was wanting to work on a bit: Fusion (v3). Unfortunately, that one was soaking wet too, so we moved on to the Reefer Madness area (yeah, I know...lots of climbers are also hippies...). Here we did a few different problems including Juicy Fruit (v2), a really fun problem with two easy moves and a REALLY hard top out, Ghetto Life (v2), which I had done before, but repeated (and for some reason I barely finished it and looked like a newb on it), and Wolverine Problem (v4), a one-move-wonder with a long move from a horizontal crack to a pocket. This was all coming after over a month off from climbing and only 2 days at the gym the week leading up to this trip, so the rest of the week following J-Falls, I was sooooooooooooooooooooo sore. Here is a list of things I couldn't do without it hurting: move, laugh, pick up my phone, sit, stand, etc.... It was pretty bad. But the soreness eventually went away and I've now learned my lesson: don't be so lazy! Although I was starting to feel better, I had just gotten home from work the Friday following J-Falls and was taking off my suit jacket and had a shooting pain in my left shoulder. It was really strange and ended up hurting quite a bit for awhile. Just in the past few days has it started to subside.

Anyway, that was the night before taking our trip to The Graveyard. A new area that we found through the new guidebook. This area is about 45 minutes closer than Jackson, but not as big, so it has advantages and disadvantages, but it was nice being somewhere new. I had a really good day, onsighting Eyesockets (v0), flashing The Tomb (v1), Slab of Meat (v1), and Skeleton (V3), sending the classic problem Formaldehyde (v3) on my 2nd try (Andrew has video of my two attempts on this, I just need to get it from him and I'll post it up on here), and red-pointing Hornball (v3), a one-move-wonder, after trying the move about 6 or 7 times. So really, I only ended up being on the rock about 15 times that day, so it ended up being a light, but productive day. This was probably a good thing though considering my messed up shoulder. I actually started noticing the tendinitis in my left elbow coming back a bit that day as well. I'm not sure if it was because of my shoulder or not, but either way, that has been bothering me since then as well. Luckily, I think I can get that to go away with just doing some push-ups every day for awhile. The problem with climbing is you work all these muscles to pull your body in different directions, but you don't really do any pushing, so muscles grow different and can cause tendinitis.

Anyway, that night upon my return, I got all cleaned up and into my lounging clothes when Ben and Nicole came home from watching the Iowa Hawkeyes win. They were really excited and wanting to do something fun, so we decided to go meet a few of my friends at Lumiere Casino. This was my first casino experience since going to Vegas with the family about 10ish years ago. I took out $40 dollars from the ATM upon arrival and said that would be the max. I ended up buying in $20 for a little bit of blackjack AND I WON! I was up and down for awhile, but after a bit, I told myself once I was up $50 I would leave the table. I went up $50 and went and cashed it out, but kept my original $20 in chips. After Ben and Nicole had both lost their money, Ben said he was ready to leave, but that $20 was burning a hole in my pocket, so I sat back down. I proceeded to lose it pretty quickly, but overall, I still ended up making $30! Pretty much the easiest money I've ever made....I think I might go back EVERY night and quit my job. Oh wait...that's where people run into problems right? Anyway, here is a picture to sum up the night...oh yeah, Ben and I suited up for the festivities:

That finally brings us to this past week/weekend. Tuesday night we carved our pumpkins. It was an interesting experience. I hadn't carved a pumpkin since at least high school, so I wasn't very good at at. I think all three of ours turned out pretty well. I ended up sticking to the climbing theme and it ended up looking pretty sweet (I think):
Ben carved the Bears helmet and Nicole carved the Hawkeye logo:
Unfortunately, my actual Halloween turned out to be pretty lame. Ben and Nicole went up to Iowa for the weekend and I had to work at the club on Saturday, so I didn't do anything for the holiday. Andrew and I got up early on Sunday and went to Elephant Rocks State Park in Missouri though. E-Rocks has a TON of quality bouldering within 5 minute's walk from the car and it is only 1 1/2 hours from St. Louis. The only problem, though, is that the rock is uber-sharp granite. I'm used to climbing the sandstone rocks of SoIll, so its a rude awakening when we go to E-Rocks. My hands were bleeding by the second climb of the day...but it was a gorgeous day for the beginning of November (about 65 degrees and not a cloud in the sky). The bouldering started really well, Onsighting The Finger Crack (V2), The One Way (V1), and Bookstore Blues (V3), while flashing The Right Way (v0), Tennis Shoe Crack (v0), and Scobione (V2), and red-pointing Jump Start Thing (v2) and Vector Days (v3). Unfortunately, this was all within the first 1 1/2 hours of being there. After all the sending, we moved on to some harder problems, including Smoke (v4) which we got some good work in on, but never finished, and a few V5s. Overall it was a good trip, but it is always hard to climb for more than a couple hours at E-rocks just because of the sharpness of the rock. My fingertips are pretty raw today, but it is a bittersweet feeling.

This weekend Andrew and I are planning on going to Pere Marquette State Park. Pere is an area about 40 minutes north of Andrew's house along the Mississippi River that we are trying to find some good stone at. We have been there twice before and only found two climbable boulders, but we are gonna go look for more this weekend. It would be great to have a place to develop ourselves close to home! Anyway, I'll let you know how all that goes.

Sorry about the huge post, but I just needed to get all that down. Don't forget to check the sidebar lists for updates between posts. I keep that pretty up-to-date.

Go Bears! (I missed my first game this past weekend in favor of climbing, but it was the Browns....and I was pissed at them for the horrendous Bengals game)

Bouldering!

Sorry I haven't posted in a few weeks....and you will have to wait a bit longer for a full post. I'm leaving in about 1/2 an hour to go down to southern Illinois to do some bouldering. I went to Jackson Falls last weekend (see list on the side), but my friends Andrew, Adrianne and I are going to a new place today called The Graveyard. It is a small area tucked in the woods behind a tiny country church and graveyard. I'm really looking forward to climbing at a new place and hoping to find some good problems/projects. Anyway, hopefully sometime this weekend I'll have a few more minutes to fill you in on the last couple of weeks and maybe have some pictures for you. I hope everyone is well!

COLE GERDES!!!!

Check this out....it's the greatest thing you will ever see!

http://www.cmt.com/videos/reba-mcentire/437631/consider-me-gone.jhtml


Isn't that AWESOME! (for those of you who don't know, that's one of my best friends Cole Gerdes from Pontiac. Good Stuff!

In other news: Work went well this weekend. The band was really good and a lot of fun to work with, so that made things easier for me. Had a few technical difficulties, but nothing serious that I couldn't handle. Hopefully this will lead to even more responsibilities at work and the club.

Also, my friend Steve came over the other day to work on some tunes for the soul band. He is a friend from college that I played with in jazz band, wind symphony, jazz combo and sax quartet, so he is going to play tenor and bari sax in our band. Hopefully soon I'll have some good news about an upcoming gig!

After the awesome (well, sort of awesome, kind of depressing that our pass D sucks that much) win over the Lions (DAAAA BEARS!), Ben and I went to see Zombieland. It was pretty darn good! Pretty gory in the beginning, but it tamed down (a bit) and was very funny, thanks mostly to Woody Harrelson and an incredible cameo appearance from.......just kidding, I wouldn't spoil that. Go check it out if you are in the mood for some good ol' fashion zombie-killin' fun!

I hope everyone is doing well....I'll talk to you again soon!

A few pictures

Sonny Rollins sings a blues for his last tune...I don't think this happens very often...he was feeling really good that night. It was pretty cool to see.

Sonny playing during the concert at the Touhill


Me with Sonny after the show...he was a pretty great guy.

In other news, I have taken over running the Bistro!!!.........for this weekend at least.... Bob (one of my bosses) is going up to New Jersey this weekend for a Bruce Springsteen concert (gross) and leaving me in charge of allll the stuff at the club this weekend. Frank Catalano, a tenor sax player from Chicago is playing this weekend on Friday and Saturday. I have to take care of everything, including setup, soundcheck, front of house, artist relations and payment. I have done all of this stuff before, but being the only one there and doing it all by myself is a bit stressful. I'm looking forward to the opportunity though and I'm glad everyone trusts me to run the place by myself!

Also....HOW 'BOUT DEM BEARS!!!! They had another nail biter this past Sunday, playing like crap for the majority of the game...but I was glad to see them pull out another win. Hopefully this weekend against the Lions won't be quite as stressful, but coming off the Lions first win, I am a bit scared...but just a bit.

If you get bored, here are a couple of things to check out on YouTube (just click the links): Black Dynamite trailer (a '70s blaxploitation spoof that looks incredibly hilarious), Christian Scott (a trumpet player that I have just come across...he is a modern jazz player and what I have heard, I like...click here for another tune) and Frank Catalano if you get a chance.

talk to you soon!

I Like My Job

So I might only be working part time still, but I can't complain much more than that. We are back in the swing of things at the Bistro, so I'll be nice and busy now-a-days. We have had a couple of cool events since the last post too. on September 10th we had an event at Neiman Marcus called Fashion's Night Out. It was a nationwide event at all Neiman Marcus locations. Jazz St. Louis was one of two not-for-profits that took part in the St. Louis event, raffling off a $500 NM gift card and putting on a concert with Good 4 the Soul and a few of our kids from the student groups we teach. The event was a lot of fun, featuring runway shows every 30 minutes, open bar, and hors devours from some of St. Louis' best restaurants. It was pretty nice spending the night around rich people and hot models....

This past weekend tops that though. On Saturday, we presented saxophonist Sonny Rollins at the Touhill (a performance hall on the campus of Univ. of Missouri StL). For those of you who don't know, Sonny Rollins is commonly referred to as "the last living jazz legend." He has played with EVERYBODY: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Max Roach, you name 'em, he played with 'em. Anyway, Rollins is now 79 and still touring, but mostly overseas. It was a huge show for us, with 1400 people turning out for this once in a lifetime experience. I spent all day backstage helping out the band and got to meet and talk with Sonny a pretty decent amount. It was quite an honor talking to such a legend in the jazz world. The best part was that he was sooo down to earth. He could easily be a huge prima donna, but he definitely was not. Its great working with the best artists in the business when they are actually nice people. Pat Martino was the same way. But then there are people that are terrible to work with who 99.9% of people have never heard of. Oh well. Anyway, the concert was incredible and he signed my all-access pass after the show! Good Stuff!

As far as MY band goes, I have only been to one rehearsal so far, but it was a lot of fun. I just got my friend Steve to join as the tenor and bari sax player, so we now have two horns. We are playing a lot of great tunes: some Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Joe Cocker and other stuff in that vein. Our gig is still two months off, but we are hoping to book some more stuff around that time, so that should be exciting.

In other news, I have been REALLY lazy with my climbing, but hopefully will really get back into it now that the weather is starting to cool off, which means Bouldering Season!!! Also, this past Friday we had our housewarming party (finally). It was a good time, but the turnout wasn't quite as good as I would've hoped. We did have some neighbors join us though, so that was nice.

And last but not least: HOW 'BOUT 'DEM BEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope everyone (ESPECIALLY Tony) got to watch the awesomeness that was Da Bears incredible defeat of the defending Superbowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers. Talk about an intense game.

Sorry if this post is a little disjointed and rambling, but I am in the middle of watching a marathon of The Office on TBS....Hopefully next time I will have some pictures for you! Talk to you soon!

It's 2:20 AM and I'm finally going to try to write something...

So it has been a grueling couple of months here since my last (non-picture filled) post. I have been swamped with my part-time job, waking up by 11 AM to catch The Price Is Right, and honing my combat skills and knowledge of modern weaponry and warfare by playing LOTS of Call of Duty 4, not to mention committing countless hours to catching up on all of the great TV shows out there before the new seasons start....so I hope you can all understand my lack of this completely superfluous act of "blogging". Anyway, enough of my sob story...I am committed now! This past weekend I got to see my whole family (probably 99% of my readership, so I should just say: "I got to see you!") which was very nice, even though I would've rather it been this weekend and not for the same reason. I got to catch up with a lot of them (you) but there is plenty that I have left out since my last blog, so I decided I would make a list of the goings-on over the past couple of months:

1.) I found out that hyphens were, for the most part, removed from the English language, but are still accepted, so I should've said 'goings on' instead of 'goings-on.'
2.) I recently went up to the Chicago Bears training camp with my friend Amanda. She worked there for a few weeks this summer and made friends with a few of the players. The night we went up, we went out to the bar and about 1/2 the team showed up! Alex Brown bought us tequila shots and I talked/hung out with a few of the Bears players. Fun stuff!
3.) Today I had to yell at some Asians for backing into my car and walking away. Apparently the stereotype is true... and luckily there was no damage.
4.) Ben and I had our cars broken into outside of our apartment a few weeks ago. My iPod was stolen. Fortunately I didn't use it much and all my climbing gear was still in the trunk.
5.) FOOTBALL SEASON IS UPON US!!!
6.) Unfortunately, I've made only a couple of trips down to Jackson Falls since my last post.
7.) Fortunately, one of those trips involved my hardest climb to date: Spiders From Mars (5.10b). Those of you that have been keeping up and didn't skip the long section about climbing in that last post will know that Spiders was a long time nemesis/project for me...I'm glad it is finally over!
8.) The next trip down to Jackson I on-sighted Gully Gee Whiz, a 5.10b, making my hardest grade to date seem like a joke. If I can on-sight 10b, I should be able to red-point at least 2 grades harder....
9.) I am out of climbing shape and I live only 5 minutes from the rock gym...I need some motivation....hopefully the cool temps will help!!!
10.) My climbing partner, Andrew, and I are planning to go to Pere Marquette State Park this weekend in search of boulders/climbable rock. We know it is out there....but where? First Ascents here we come!
11.) I have been asked to play in a 60s funk/soul group...I haven't played my sax in 7 over 9 months (mom, don't show this to dad) but I have a rehearsal Monday night and hopefully I remember how to play....it's just like riding a bike...I hope...
12.) I am a Colonel in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and very proud of it...
13.) I am still getting along great with Ben and Nicole and enjoying life here in St. Louis. I do hope to start getting out more soon and start taking advantage of all the city has to offer though. Life is good, but can always be better.

Here are a few pictures to leave you with tonight...well, this morning...

The Family on my 22nd b-day in South Africa

The Jazz St. Louis Family (minus Gene and Kate) at one of our fundraisers

Me 'hang-dogging' (or hang dogging) and rehydrating on my big project: Flingin' Hog (5.11a)

The Furnished Apartment

Hey! Long time, no blog. I know you are all pretty upset with me for my lack of communication these days...and for that, I apologize. I've had a fairly busy month and a half with Ben and Nicole moving in (2 different days), a couple of weekends climbing down south and a fair amount of sitting around doing nothing.....I mean....being productive. Anyway, I'll get into some more detail soon (and I promise...soon) but for right now, I want to get some pictures of the apartment up. I hope you like what you see:

The St. Louis Life

So I've been in my new apartment in St. Louis for 2 whole weeks now and I am really liking it. It's soooo nice to be only 7ish minutes from work as opposed to 35! I no longer have to worry about falling asleep on the interstate while driving to work in the morning...so that's a plus. Also, now that school is done and I still don't have job #2, I am going into the office every day, but for shorter amounts of time. It has filled out my weeks pretty well, and works better with my schedule of going to sleep at 2 and getting up at 10! I know I promised some pictures of the furnished apartment, but it is still looking a bit depressing, so I'm going to wait on that until Nicole moves in and brings all the nice, big stuff that will really fill the place out. It was really bad until Ben and Nicole came down this past Tuesday and brought a couch! For a while, my downstairs consisted of a beautiful kitchen table (courtesy of my friend and co-worker Phil) and my ugly recliner. It was actually pretty creepy looking for awhile. They also brought a few other items: desk, bookshelf, TV stand, which helped as well. After moving stuff, we went to dinner at Ricardo's Italian Café, which is just a few blocks from our place. The food was really good (I had the penne in a vodka cream sauce), but the nicest part was the 1/2 portions you could order, which was a good amount with our appetizer of calamari. Ben really surprised me by ordering the pesce cannoli, which was chock full of mussels, lobster, and shrimp. We also got him to try the calamari by not telling him what it was until after he had a couple. He ended up liking it all. We then went to Square One for a beer. None of us liked the beers we had this time as much as the first time we went there, but they were still good. It was nice to have them come down and keep me company for the night, but it will be better when they are here to stay.

I'm actually heading up to Iowa City this (extended) weekend for the Iowa City Jazz Festival. Chris Potter, an incredible saxophonist, is playing in two groups at the festival, including my favorite jazz group: Chris Potter Underground. Check them out on YouTube....it's great stuff.

Two weekends ago I went with my friends Andrew and Adrianne to Jackson Falls in southern Illinois to do some rock climbing. We left St. Louis around 8 pm on Saturday, putting us at Jackson around 11 that night. After setting up the tent, we decided to go out for a little night bouldering session. In the planning stage of this trip, Andrew and I were really excited about this part, but it didn't turn out quite as planned. First of all, about 1/2 way into the hike to get to the boulder area we were heading to we realized I forgot my brand new bouldering guidebook in the car, so that was a bad start. To make things worse, it was still very hot out and even more humid, which made both us and the rocks sweat like crazy. It also meant that the bugs were out in full force. However, after a lot of chalk and brushing, we were able to get the rock dry enough to have a couple of goes on it. Andrew and I both sent (climbing from ground to top of boulder) a classic Jackson problem called The Ghetto Life, which is a V2. Now I know most people reading this have no idea what I am talking about, so I'll try to provide a brief explaination on climbing grades:

Bouldering grades range from V0 (very easy) to V15 (disgustingly hard). Generally, V0 problems are not usually very overhung and only have big, easy to grab and hold features, while the problem gets harder, the holds get smaller and the moves get more technical. The hardest thing I've climbed so far is a V6 called Chalk Wagon down at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in Arkansas this past winter. However, even though I prefer bouldering to sport climbing (climbing with a rope and clipping in to pre-placed protection as you go up) I don't get to spend as much time doing it. My goal for the end of the year is to be climbing V6 fairly consistently and possibly one V7.

As for sport climbing, grades use a different scale and range from 5.6-5.15b. After 5.9, each number is divided into 4 parts: a, b, c, d. For example, the hardest I have successfully climbed from ground to anchors without falling is a 5.10a. The next hardest grade is a 5.10b, followed by 5.10c, 5.10d, and 5.11a, etc.... In relationship to bouldering grades, a 5.9 is equivalent to a V0, 5.10a=V1 and so on. If you haven't been keeping score, this means that since I've climbed a V6, I should be able to climb a 5.11b. However, lots of factors play a role in this inconsistency: lack of endurance, lack of time spent on real rock, and poor head game (a.k.a. me being scared). For some reason I feel perfectly comfortable making hard moves 10 feet off the ground while bouldering, but when I have a rope to catch my fall, I'm still scared of making moves I know I can do. Anyway, I'm explaining all of this because after our night of bouldering, we went out the next morning and after warming up, got on a route called Flingin' Hog 5.11a. Recently, I talked with Andrew and expressed my feelings about our lack of progress, grade-wise, and we decided to get on something we should both be able to climb, and project the hell out of it. Projecting a route is just like it sounds: working it enough to where you are comfortable with all the moves and have the strength and endurance to make a redpoint (climb the whole thing without falling). Flingin' Hog is what we decided to project. We ended up spending the whole day on that one route. I started off by getting 3 bolts (permanent eye bolts drilled into the rock that you clip a quickdraw into to put you're rope through) into the route before having to come down to rest up and let Andrew have a go. Andrew got up past the 4th bolt on his first go, but was pretty spent as well. His wife, Adrianne followed him and surprised both of use by making up to the same place as Andrew. After I had been off the rock for about 2 hours, I felt good and got back on. I started from where I had left off and ended up finishing the route, but not without taking my fair share of falls. Andrew and Adrianne both ended up finishing out the route on top rope (rope is clipped into anchors at the top of the route, like what you see at a climbing gym). All in all it was a good day of projecting and we are all excited to get back on it soon. Hopefully after a few more days of projecting, I will have a new personal best! We ended the day by taking a cool shower in the North Falls of Jackson, which couldn't have been a better end to the hot, muggy day. If you want some visual help with understanding what I'm talking about, check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlcQ3mxlNfs&feature=fvst It is the world's best climber, Chris Sharma, climbing a crazy hard route called Dreamcatcher-5.14d. He talks a bit about projecting and you can easily see what sport climbing is. There are thousands more YouTube videos out there with climbing and bouldering if you want to know more!

So I know that wasn't the briefest of descriptions, but I hope to have more climbing to talk about on this blog, so I tried to take care of a big chunk of it here. Sorry about the length of the post in general....I know it's a long one, but it'll keep you busy until I can pump out SA Part 3...hopefully coming soon. I really need to get better about posting!!! I hope everyone is well and I'll talk to you soon!

Formatting

I started "SA Part Deux" post before the "A Quick Update" post, so i guess it posts in order. Anyway, scroll down to see the newest post!

A quick update

So of course I haven't had a chance to get Part 2 of the SA trip posted on here (although I did start to write it the day I said I would), but I thought I'd give a quick update on this past weekend. As you may or may not know, I am moving into St. Louis this Friday (June 12). Ben Travers is coming down from Iowa City with his girlfriend, Nicole, both of whom just graduated from U of Iowa, to live with me. I found a nice 2 floor apartment in a neighborhood called Lafayette Square and instantly knew I wanted it. Ben came down for my graduation and went to look at a few of the places on my list with me. Luckily, he liked the same one, and we got our applications taken care of before leaving for SA. Anyway, I found out in SA that we were approved, and this past weekend, Ben and Nicole came down to sign the lease. Nicole hadn't seen the place yet, so after signing, our agent let us go check out the place again. Thankfully, Nicole liked it as well, or so she said. We spent the afternoon in the neighborhood, walking through Lafayette Park, which is only one block away, checked out the outdoor antique sale going on, went to a little wine shop 1/2 a block away from our apartment (that could be trouble) and made friends with the owner and his girlfriend, and went to dinner at a little micro-brewery and grill about two blocks from our place. The day got me even more excited about my move-in date. The neighborhood is beautiful and reminds me of San Francisco and there is plenty to do within just a few blocks. Here are some pictures of our place:Our place is the 2nd and 3rd floor, but this is our own private door.

Yes, we do have a purple kitchen, and yes, that is the only reason I chose this place...I like purple...

Our living/dining room area.

The stairs to our 2nd floor (the 3rd floor)

The awesome view from our living room...notice the arch off in the distance...jealous?

I get to start packing tonight (lucky me!) and will hopefully be completely moved in by this coming Sunday. After that, I'll try to get some pictures up of my room and the area a bit.

Check back soon....but not too soon....I'm a busy man.

South Africa Part Deux

After a solid day of bungy jumping, we moved on to a nice little tourist town called Knysna. We got in late, so we just made ourselves a fire and played a friendly game of Yahtzee. I had a solid showing, garnering a 3rd place finish! (keep in mind Yahtzee is a 4 player game....) In the morning, we got up and did a little bit of shopping before heading up to a look-out point along the coast. There were some beautiful views from up top, but down below, I noticed an abundance of rock on the beach...perfect for some beach bouldering and soft landings! I was able to convince everyone to go down to the beach with me, and we all ended up having a great time. There was plenty to do and explore down there. I only found a couple of quality rocks to climb, but it was a fun little outing.

so much for soft landings....

Our next stop was at Mossel Bay. For some reason, we thought it would be a great idea to stay in a backpacker lodge. We ended up in the "dormitory" style room, which consisted of 4 sets of bunk beds and two bathrooms at the end of the hallway that everyone in the lodge shared. We saved a bit of money that night, but decided that one backpacker lodge was enough of an experience for us. The next morning, I skipped the public shower and we made our way to Fish Hoek (a small bay town just south of Cape Town). As we near Fish Hoek, we can feel the excitement building. Mostly excitement to get out of the car, but also to see the wonderful B&B Jacinda and Matt booked for us just off the bay. In our excitement, we almost miss a sign reading: Beware of Potholes. Disregarding the sign, mom decides to put the pedal on the floor to see if we can just glide over the top of the potholes. Unfortunately, this technique didn't work. However, our wish of getting out of the car came true, as well pulled off the road next to the beach to change our completely flat tire. I must say, though, you couldn't have planned a better view for changing your tire.unpacking the whole trunk to get to the spare was the best part....

We eventually made it to Fish Hoek and got settled in to our B&B. Jacinda and Matt did a wonderful job in booking this place. They spent a few days at the same place a few months prior with their mission group and apparently made good friends with the owners, because we got a great deal on the best room in the whole place. We actually had two rooms on the first night because there wasn't a bed for me in the one, and we had to move the next night anyway. To sum up, our first night in Fish Hoek we had an ocean view, two bedroom suite AND another two bedroom for under $90. Happy Birthday to me! (it really was my birthday that night).
After we got settled in, we went to a little restraunt called Harborview (?) for birthday dinner...only to find out that all the food was 1/2 price because it was off-season! Needless to say, we splurged a bit, ordering a cheese tray, entrees, a couple bottles of wine and dessert. Not a bad day. The next day we decided we were going to head to the Cape of Good Hope, the most Southwestern tip of Africa. On our way, we stopped at Boulder Beach to see the penguins. It was a fun little stop. There were a ton of them out and about, including a few baby penguins. As we were leaving, the penguin guarding the gate (literally) tried to bite dad's foot off. Luckily, his feet are huge and the penguin couldn't fit the size 13 Reebok Classic into his beak. After the penguins though, we decided the weather wasn't nice enough to go to the Cape of Good Hope, so instead we drove to Cape Town for a little shopping. Most of the places were fine, but the shops that sell the hand-made stuff with the makers sitting by their work was a little too much for me. The stuff was interesting, but it's so hard to just look around and find something you actually want to buy when the people work so hard to sell you stuff. I understand they have to make a living, but when they pick a random item off the shelf, hand it to you, and say "I give you good price," I get a little annoyed. Enough about that though. After shopping, we stopped at a chain restraunt called Ocean Basket. Everyone enjoyed their meal, but about 30 seconds after stepping inside, I decided I was done with seafood for the rest of the trip.

Normally I would wrap this up in a more cohesive way, but I've got to get going and I want to give my loyal readers something to quell their appetites! Next up we will be visiting the Cape of Good Hope, Table Montain, Montague, and Oudtshoorn.

Also, I am moved in to my new place in St. Louis. I still have some organizing to do, but I will soon put up some pictures of the place with stuff in it!

I hope everyone is well!!!

South Africa Part I

The trip to SA kicked off with a tap of the snooze button at quarter to REM cycle in the morning on Tuesday, May 12. Before I knew it, we were out the door and on a shuttle to Chicago, anxiously awaiting our 4 flights and 3 hour layovers. The flight between Chicago and D.C. set a good tone for the trip with an in-flight episode of "The Office." Unfortunately, my luck did not hold, for when we boarded our international flight, I was lucky enough to have the window seat next to 'that fat guy that travels by himself with the tour groups and doesn't bring anything to do on the flight and instead talks to the person sitting next to him even when that person is wearing headphones and in the middle of a movie'.....if you don't know what I mean, think John Candy in PT&A. He was a nice enough guy, but I did switch with my mom (so I could have an aisle seat) after the first 8 hours at our layover in Senegal. The next 8 hours and the flight to Port Elizabeth were painless enough, but the 31 hours of traveling did get to me a bit. Mom was a wreck when Jacinda and Matt met us at the airport, even though dad and I told her they would.
In the morning, we had to fight the horrible jetlag and get up nice and early for a braai (cookout) at their pastor's house. The food was excellent and we met a lot of the people that have been involved in Jacinda and Matt's lives in SA. Later that afternoon we went down to the waterfront and enjoyed a little time on the beach. The whole day was quite an experience, mainly because of the driving. We picked up our Mercedes rental car in the morning before the braai and dad drove for the day. SA is one of the countries that drives on the left side of the road, so it made for an interesting first day. Mom was yelling at dad, I was yelling at mom for yelling at dad, dad was trying to keep from yelling at both of us for yelling.....and we then decided mom would be driving for the rest of the trip.

The next morning, we went to the creche (daycare/pre-school type of thing) that Jacinda and Matt work at. It was an interesting experience, but after an hour of screaming kids and the annoying warden lady that kept trying to give us bad directions and plan our trip for us, I was ready to go. After the creche, we left Port Elizabeth and got on The Garden Route on our way to Cape Town. After about an hour and a half, we came to one of the highlights of the trip: The Bloukrans Bridge and the World's Tallest Bungy Jump! 216 meters of pure adrenaline...that's almost a 70 story building!


We got to the bridge and got all signed up for the bungy jump, but then had to wait about an hour before we went out onto the bridge. We did get to see a few jumpers go from the overlook area, so this helped build the excitement. When it was finally our time to go to the middle of the bridge, we were pumped! Unfortunately, we had to walk a little catwalk cage underneath the bridge which was basically the equivalent of walking on chicken wire. I was ready to piss myself and we weren't even to the jump zone yet. After what felt like 10 miles, we made it out to the middle of the bridge and started jumping. Matt was the first to go, braving the unknown and plummetting to his imminent death. Luckily, he was able to avoid the jagged rocks and shallow water awaiting him at the bottom of the ravine and gave the rest of us a boost of courage. After watching a few strangers go, dad stepped up to the edge. He had the most awe-inspiring leap off of that bridge and would have fit in perfectly had a flock of eagles soared past at the same moment.

Unfortunately, I had to follow up dad's stellar bungy jumping performance. After watching a few of the strangers "jump" (basically fall) off of the bridge I had decided that I would have a jump that rivaled my father's. As I got strapped in and helped to the edge, I was surprisingly calm, focused on what would undoubtedly be the greatest minute or two of my life. Not even when I curled my toes over the edge and looked down to see where I would soon be falling to my death, did I get scared. I was prepared for an epic jump and a huge rush of adrenaline. They take my arms off of their shoulders and start to count down: FIVE FOUR THREE TWO ONE JUMP!!!!! I bend my knees and spring forward and up 15 feet away from the bridge....or so it felt. Turns out I did bend my knees, but somewhere in the split second that motion took, my body realized what I was about to make it do, and it fought back. I ended up crumpling off the bridge just like a swore I wouldn't. Nevertheless, I was still falling...and fast. As soon as my body began to turn over and the wind caught my cheeks, I realized that this was the biggest mistake of my life and that I would soon be dead. I distinctly remember wanting to yell "OH SH*T" but I don't think I was able to get the sound out. Lucky for me (and you!), the cord caught and I was safe.


Jacinda was up next and had a solid jump with the best scream I heard all day. Although it was a lot different than I had expected, it was a wonderful experience and I'm definitely glad I did it...even if my life did flash before my eyes.

I know I only got through the first few days of the trip, but I'll post again tomorrow and try to get a larger chunk of the trip up. Hopefully I can do the rest in only two more segments. Thanks for reading and sorry for taking so long to get this stuff up here. As I told Julie, my college days are over, but that doesn't mean I can't still procrastinate!

p.s. check facebook soon for more pictures!

Graduation

I am officially a college graduate! Saturday, May 9, 2009 now marks the beginning of "life in the real world." I must say, I am a bit apprehensive, but very, VERY excited to be done with school. The ceremony wasn't as painful as I expected, and actually only took a little over an hour and a half. It turns out, though, that upon arriving for graduation, I found out that there were 3 different colors of cords for the people graduating with Honors: red for Cum Laude, yellow for Magna Cum Laude, and white for the highest Honors, Summa Cum Laude. When I got to the check-in area, I found my marching card said I was graduating Cum Laude. However, when I picked up my regalia last month, I was given white cords as opposed to red..........but oh well; now people will just think I'm smarter than I actually am....

After the ceremony, my parents, my future roommate, Ben Travers, and I all went to St. Louis to see a couple of apartments. We ended up deciding on a nice place in Lafayette Square, which is a really nice, safe neighborhood. We sent in our applications and a deposit check today, so hopefully we will get good news soon! I'm really looking forward to moving into the city. Living with Ben and Nicole will be a blast and not driving 1/2 an hour to work every day will be helpful as well.

In a few hours, my parents and I will be leaving to go to South Africa to visit my sister and brother-in-law. I'm pretty excited about the trip...but not looking forward to all the flying. My mom just told me we have 4 separate flights in one day = not fun. Once we get there, however, I think it will be a great time. My dad and I have already decided we will be doing the World's Highest Commercial Bungy Jump at a whooping 216 meters high! I'm also planning on getting at least one day of bouldering in while we are in Cape Town. Other than that, I'm really not sure what all we are doing, but I'm sure it will be a great time!

I'll definitely try to get a few posts in while we are in SA, so keep checking back! This is my first time blogging, so hopefully you will come back for more...and hopefully I'll come up with more interesting content.......