Off to Arkansas

So I'm heading to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in Arkansas in the morning for a couple days of climbing. Andrew and I are going down tomorrow (late) morning to get camp set up and what not, then climb on Saturday and Sunday. My friends Wayne, Marty, and Letitia are hopefully going to be meeting up with us on Saturday night to climb with us on Sunday, so that will be nice.

Anyway, just wanted to put the big goals down for the weekend trip:

1. send my first V8 - Numerical Methods. I worked the moves last winter, but didn't really put a whole lot of work into it as I was trying to send another problem at the time. This would be a big leap in grade for me, but I definitely think it is do-able.

2. Finally send Razor's Edge (v5). I've worked this problem (formerly rated V7, but downgraded) on my last three trips to HCR, but just can't get the send. It's gonna happen this time though!

3. Hang Ten (V7). This would be my first V7 as well. I worked the moves on the last day of my New Years' trip last winter, but couldn't quite finish it up. It is a very burly roof problem, so it takes a lot of strength along with some good technique. I'm not sure if I'm quite in shape enough for this one, but I'm definitely going to give it some good goes. If not this trip, it'll go when I go down for New Years.

4. Have a good time and climb with some great friends, take some cool photos, and enjoy a weekend at the rocks.

Keep your eyes peeled next week for a follow-up. Also, some video from a show my band played should be put up sometime next week as well.

Wish me luck!

To Brighten Your Day

I was looking for this tune on YouTube so that I could pass it along to my band in the hopes of playing it with them and I came across this video. I usually try not to watch all those cute animal videos, but I can't resist this one. Enjoy!

A Few Pictures from the Holy Boulders

John working on Tyler Durden (V5)

Steve lacing up for Enlightenment (V5) and Undercling King (V5)

John on Tyler Durden

Jamie on Undercling King

It was great finally getting to the Holy Boulders down in Southern Illinois and I'm definitely looking forward to a return trip soon. I flashed the classic warm-up Mollusk (V3) and sent Enlightenment (V5) on my second attempt. After that I didn't send any more problems, but I put in some good work on Undercling King (V5), Jungle Book (V8...an area classic/testpiece) and Tyler Durden (V5). Durden should go down the next time I'm there, but the others could take more work.

and i'm back in the game...

So I am finally getting myself back into climbing shape after virtually not climbing at all for the past 1/2 a year (by virtually I mean about once a month at the gym). The very last day of February was the last time I had climbed outside until October 2. On that day in February, I achieved my personal best grade: V6. On October 2, I was able to climb a couple of V1s... Obviously, I had some work to do. For the past 3 1/2 weeks, I've been hitting the climbing gym 3-4 days a week and have been outside twice. The first two weeks were very hard, both physically and mentally. I was working on boulder problems in the gym for multiple days that a year ago would've been done in two or three tries. I felt worse after an hour long session than I used to after 4 hours at the gym.

In the past week though, I have been seeing some big gains. I'm repeating all of the stuff I was projecting in that first week with ease and have moved on to working on some of the hardest stuff at the gym. My endurance is still pretty low, and if I do two days in a row, that second day is noticeably worse, but my peak strength is probably back to 85% of where I was 8 months ago. I'm working on V5s-V7s and am up to 2 - 2 1/2 hour sessions at the gym.

This weekend, I'll be making my first trip to the notorious "Holy Boulders" in southern Illinois. It is supposedly the best bouldering area in SoIll and is a little hush-hush. There are no printed directions or maps of the area - you just have to know where to go and what problems are what. I know a couple of people who have been, but have never been able to get together with them. My friend John from the gym is taking me this weekend though (weather permitting), and I'm pretty excited! There aren't too many easy problems there since it is not a place where newbies go, but I'm hoping I feel strong that day and can do some of the awesome intermediates that exist.

Anyway, hopefully I'll have an update for you after this weekend if we don't get rained out.

It feels good to be back.