Sundays with Grandmama

God what a long day of climbing. . . 7 hours is alot for me.

Woke up late and called Chad around 1130. It was absolutely amazing outside so we decided to spend the full day at grandmother. I got all my shit together and headed to backyard for my usual chicken strips and mountain dew. wow that sounds redneck. I picked up Chad and we headed to valley of the kings since I've never actually climbed there. Funny I know. We warmed up and got on some cool easy lines that were pretty classic for valley of the kings (Chad called them classic lines for the valley to describe what we were on to some random dudes were walkin around). We spent some decent amount of time there. Climbed Darkman and some other variations that were around there. The Fin/ Potato Chip was really cool too. After we had enough of the valley we packed up and moved on.

We ran into Robert Simple and Michelle at the chainsaw boulder and talked for a bit. We then saw Dean coming down the hill as we went up to the Mighty Mouse boulder. Dean always cracks me up, I don't know why, he just does. We started on Mighty Mouse and Chad walks the damn thing as I continue to flail. I was tired as shit but I still consider myself a pussy for not being able to do it. . . . . again. This was the closest I've ever been so hopefully next time I'll get up there and do it. We kept moving around the boulder. Chad did the Clamper classic. We moved to the Big Easy. That was fun. Went into the Dead Rappers Corridor and worked Six Pac for Shur. That shit was fun! I hit the move and worked my way up to the next jug crimp. Fucked up my feet and was feelin around for something better than what I was on, got pumped out and had to jump off. Lame. I sat down and chilled for a little bit as the sun was goin down pretty quickly at this point. I gave it one more solid go. I hit the move, rolled up there, got better balanced feet and topped it out. I had to move quick on the upper holds cause I felt myself gettin pumped again. I thought it was pretty damn funny that I was tellin myself to hurry the hell up or I was gonna get pumped out and jump off again or fall like an idiot. After I sent Six Pac and Chad sent it with a couple goes after me, I looked at my video camera to see how the footage looked and I FREAKIN RAN OUT OF TAPE!!!! I was so pissed. The lighting was finally good and I had a good angle for the shot but no footage of either ascent. HORSESHIT!!!!

Anyway we ended the day with, I think it was Biggie Smalls. The V2 thing to the left of Six Pac. We hiked off in the dark and were the last ones off the mountain again. All around awesome day. I'm tired as hell and need to get up and get shit done tomorrow. Sometimes I forget I'm still a college student. : / Hopefully climbing on Tuesday.

Video of the Fin to come. . . .

Morning but not yet

8am wake up tomorrow to head to the dump with John to see what we can do. . . . . maybe Jason Lives. . . maybe Project Plow Share. . . maybe Pain. . . we shall see . . . . . for now its flowing and flowing hard. LATER BITCHES!!!!!!

-D

Hound Ears and Gmamma

Ah. . . where to start. First off it was an amazing weekend of climbing for me. Thursday I get a call from Chad who asked me if I wanted to go into Hound Ears with him and Jim. Of course I couldn't say no to that. I ended up skipping class at 2 and climbing all day with Chad, Jim, Andrew Grahm, Haily and Crazy Dave. This was my first time ever being there so it was quite an experience for me. I could not believe the quality that I saw in that place. Unfreakinbelievable!!! So much stuff for any style of climber. I almost cried in excitement. We ended up headin down past the water tower to warm up and check out some new potential. There was a lot of fun lines including milky way, mars arete, janitor, and bleed it out. We tried some new lines and got on some old classics. I jumped on Heratic for the first time and was amazed when I topped it out. That shit was so good. Felt so good to off the deck with nothin but jugs! I would love to do the double dyno version with more pads. After we screwed around down there for a while we headed up to the main area. "I need a towel. . . . bad." I couldn't shut my mouth walkin around up there. The rock just over flowed the area. Features everywhere!!. . . . I ended up joined the group after my walk and got on Albert Hitchcock and flashed. So much fun. I top out Hitchcock and I get up there with Jim climbin down this slope. He convinced me to get on this problem he just topped out that started down in this hole and comes out this cravasse. I think it was called "Ted Striker" from the movie airplane where hes sweating like Ted Striker because thats what you feel like when your climbing it if you look down. Crazy Dave gave it a go and couldn't find this hold and jumped off after pumping out. It was kinda scary at first cause your starting low and you look down and you see a 20 foot drop into this hole. So if you fell you could possibly slide down into this crevasse and fall 20 feet. So that was in my mind. I started climbing. It felt so good to flow on good crimps up this verticle face to top it out on jugs in nothin but wetness!! Amazing line. Just when it got dark I walked off. That shit was sweet! So, this was my first day of what Chad likes to call a mileage day. Where you basically climb everything and not sit at a problem for hours trying to do it before the day ends. I had a great time seein Grahm again and climbing with Chad, Dave, and Jim.

Saturday was a rest day. Nothing but nothing. . . .

Today Chad and I headed out to Grandmother and heard it was dry. We got out there and that was relatively true. We started on the long wall and warmed up. We tried just about everything on the wall that was dry. We worked up the hill and did some other good climbs. Throttle, a different way to do Dynobot that I've never seen (so much better), this traverse thingy, and i jumped on Hot Rod for a couple goes and stopped due to green wet slime on the crux . . . . good talk. We met up with Grahm and headed up to Ebonics. This thing was awesome. I'm pissed i didnt film it but Grahm, Chad, Haily and I all sent this thing and I was really happy. Great movement with great holds. The rock was surprisingly very sticky and it felt amazing. I use that word alot. Amazing. Hmm. . . . anyway. We climbed till dark and I'm tired as shit. I have to wake up at 530 to go to a staff training tomorrow for water based for app state outdoor programs. I'm draggin. . . Missin John McCauley!!! Come back to Boone!!! Hopefully climbin tuesday if its dry. . . .
-Dino

Yesteday B-Clev and I rolled out to blowing rock and got some decent work in. We are both currently out of shape and trying to role back into things. We were originally going to meet up with Cadwell out at Gma but it ended up being soaking wet. So he called and we headed the other way. The day was alright. It was decent temperature for this time of year which was pretty surprising. Overcast all day but never rained. So Brian and I warmed up pretty good and headed over to the 45 wall to give AHR some goes. Took me a a couple goes to figure out how I started it and made some progress throughout the day. Brian was so close like 4 times. Well done Brian. Def will go in the near future for sure. I still think its a dumb problem but something to do. Hopefully climbing again this thursday. Maybe Gma will be dry this time!
-Dino