From Heaven to Hell

There's no easy way to say it so I'll just state it bluntly, Becky seriously injured her knee today on our second day of climbing. She was trying another of the fantastic problems here, one that involved a slight dyno. She partially latched the hold but came loose and fell hard and awkwardly. Judging from her scream I expected to see a compound fracture. Fortunately that was not the case. Unfortunately, the doctor in town believes she partially tore her MCL. He did not have access to an X-ray or MRI but seemed very confident in his diagnosis. I'm not sure what we're going to do, all I know is that right now we're really upset and a bit bewildered.

We'll try an update everyone when we figure things out. Hopefully next time we'll have better news.

Publish Post

Heaven Is a Place On Earth

Well, we made it. It was a absurdly long journey. About 50 hours from the time we woke up to leave at 3:30am Monday morning (CA time) till the time we arrived at the Ernie house where we'll be staying for the next two months. I got about 8 hours sleep mixed in there somewhere, but I'm not sure. I made a little video about our journey but the connection here is prohibitively slow so I won't be able to share that for a while.

The destination was well worth the headaches. This place is unbelievable. If I weren't a climber, I'd still be in awe. Its a gorgeous place. Its as if Dr. Suess and Albert Bierstadt collaborated with God to make this wonderland come alive. As a climber, I'm having a hard time coming up with reasons for why this isn't the best bouldering area I've ever been to.

I'm thrilled to be here with great friends and I feel so lucky knowing that even more are on the way. For those of you who haven't been yet (Paul, Lyn, Randy, and Alan) you won't be disappointed.

I already miss my Turtle but I hear she recently posed for some advertising photos and may be able to pay my bills when I return...Good Dog!

To wrap it up, I'll leave you all with a photo of Becky on a great problem called 'Schwupp' from our first full day out at the boulders.

Anticipation

My upcoming trip to South Africa is easily the most eagerly anticipated trip of my life, climbing or otherwise. Its been over a year since I first started planning it, and more than three years since I first started day dreaming about making the journey.

Over the years I've often thought about following a regular training regimen for climbing, but a lack of discipline and my desire to spend my time on real stone has kept me from spending more than a week or two on any given program. Only with the Rocklands trip in mind, was I able to buckle down and spend six weeks on a Paul Barraza's training program. As a result, I feel like I'm in the best bouldering shape of my life and, right or wrong, I expect a payoff in the form of many coveted boulders.

My goals for this trip are pretty general at this point, but they are important. Most importantly I want to have a 'full' travel experience. I want new experiences, new faces, and unexpected things to cross my path. I want to see penguins, I want to learn something about South African history, and I want to eat white rhino like a great white hunter!

As far as climbing goals go...I want to climb a bunch of classics and I want to climb some harder stuff too. I'd really like to find a testpiece that will challenge me more than any boulder problem has before AND I'd like to climb it. A tall order, I know, but this may be a once in a lifetime experience so I want it all and more.

I'll do my best to update this blog when I can. There have been times in my life when I couldn't travel or climb as much as I'd have liked, during those times it was the climbing blogs of people like Sock Hands, Jamie Emerson, and others that kept me motivated for the times when I could. I'll do my best to pay it forward, as saying goes, for those of you who are stuck in a cube, broke, or injured and unable to travel this summer.

For those of you that have or will be making the pilgrimage this summer, I'll see you in Africa!

-Justin

Howl at the Moon

I went back to Burnside Lake this weekend to climb with the one and only Noah Kaufman. I was really psyched to do the project we'd tried at the end of my last day there. Here's the video of our little session.

The Wolf Pack from Princess on Vimeo.

Afterward we went back to Noah and Siemay's pad and watched an amazing movie, 'King of Kong'. I can't recommend this documentary enough. The film follows an esoteric group of characters obsessed with old school video games like Donkey Kong and Mrs. Pacman. Watch this movie.

On Day two of the weekend, I found myself at the Saddle with a posse from the Bay. It was absurd how many people were there. Both parking areas were beyond capacity and there were people parked on the road. I goofed off there a bit, not too motivated. We finally made it over to the Future boulder, which I hadn't seen before, and it looked really nice. I didn't have much time so I chucked myself at a few problems but to no avail. I'll have to go back sometime for a more concerted effort.

A final note. I leave for South Africa in one week, YESSSS!!!

Reset

We reset the training wall and now I want to climb on it but it's 1:40 in the AM and the gym wont be open for some time, so I'm not really sure what to do with myself...search Google Earth for boulders?

stealing holds from the course setters

Pretty sweet if you ask me. Must climb!

An Amazing Shirt

Noah's amazing shirt climbing 'Fat Man in a Little Coat'

Yesterday Becky, Peter, and I were shown around a newish bouldering area by Noah and Siemay. I say newish only because some of the boulders there have no-doubt been climbed on over the years, but recently Noah hiked around a little and found a couple of blocs that far surpass the quality of the others. I used to hike here when I'd go camping with my family as a child at Grover Hot Springs, and I'd remembered there was a lot of rock around (though I wasn't a climber then). When I saw Noah in the spring I asked him if he'd ever checked it out for climbing and he said there wasn't really much there. Then sure enough, after some Google Earth exploration he found an "AMAZING" boulder!

There is more than one boulder at Burnside Lake, but from what I saw there is ONE main attraction. Actually, there is one other problem called "Goliath" that is totally worthy too. The rock here is essentially the same rock one would find all over Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite. The typical fare is near-vertical, knobby, and technical. The steepness of Noah's find, as well as the incut nature of the holds, make it really special.

Below is a video with three random problems from three different areas. The last problem is from the cool boulder at Burnside.

3Random Problems from Princess on Vimeo.

Happenings

Most people that read my blog probably know by now about the losses of Micah Dash, Jonny Copp, and Wade Johnson. Some of you knew one or more of these guys. I had never personally met any of them and yet for some reason I've been affected more by their deaths than the deaths of the many other climbers that have passed since I took up the sport/religion 10 years ago. Alpinists are sometimes prone to romanticizing death in pursuit of their passion. I won't go so far as to say its a good way to die. It would be far better to live to a ripe old age after living one's passion to the fullest. Still, to die in pursuit of passion, refusing to play by the rules, is something I would choose over a long life lived in restraint. I just hope the friends and families of these three men can be consoled by the knowledge that their boys lived a blessed life.

Micah Dash and Johnny Copp segment of "The Sharp End" from Cedar Wright on Vimeo.

My personal life has been far less dangerous than climbing new routes in the remote reaches of western China. I've moved out of Peter's place and into a storage unit, I've been training at the Great Western Power Company, and I've made it outside a few random times to climb on some new stone. Last weekend Becky and I visited the Sierra Buttes for the first time. I'd been curious about this place for nearly 5 years, ever since I spotted it on Terraserver (a precursor to Google Earth). I left with a very good impression. The rock is high quality, steep, featured, and the setting is gorgeous! The only drawbacks are the steep hike in (not that bad really cause it'll keep the riff-raff out) and the inconvenient location if you're traveling from the Bay Area. From Truckee, where we stayed, it was a mild 50 minute drive. From Oakland it's nearly four hours. Thanks to Brian Sweeny, his friend Ty, and anyone else that put in all the hard work creating the trail to the boulders.

Becky's photo of a warm-up.

Last but certainly not least, Becky had her graduation ceremony for finishing her studies to become an RN! While she'll modestly tell you that it's not that big of a deal because she still has two more years to finish her master's degree, I can honestly say that its a huge accomplishment and I'm very proud of her.