Que Sappy Love Song

Is that not the cutest face you've ever seen? I'm talking about the bear cub of course not my goofy mug. This big baby weighed a whopping 63 pounds! That's a ton for a bear less than a year old. I thought about stealing him and trying to teach him to fetch the newspaper and such. I'd have named him Bunny and given him a blue collar. Seriously, this was way cooler than going climbing today. Everyone loves a baby bear, but this one is mine.

By the way, the Yosemite Facelift is off and running again so get out there and pick up some garbage. If you can't make it here go somewhere locally and do your part...Unless you're Alan Moore and locally means the Riverside Quarry. Then, if you're Alan Moore, go find an abandoned 1986 Honda Civic that has been reincarnated as a homeless shelter in its second life and tow it the crag so that it can be with all of it's relatives.

Rain

Its raining, which is nice for the scenery but not for the climbing. Still, I did two new problems today, both on the same boulder as "Merit." "Atom Smasher" in particular is excellent. Pictures will have to wait until some more of my friends with normal jobs or my lazy unemployed friends get up here to pose like Madonna for me and my picture taking machine. Sorry.

Here is a picture of Fire instead. Cool eh?

Birfday Visit

I had some visitors this weekend. Vicki (see above), Peter (seen below on "Battle of the Bulge", which he sent), and my dog Turtle. We went bouldering and had a super time. I have to recommend a problem that I had previously been more or less unaware of. "Hammerhead" in Camp 4 is a super-awesome-mega-classic not to be missed by the highball connoisseur.

You know what the best part about my birthday was, aside from seeing my dog? Treats. I was buried in yummy treats by my friends. Tammy Lynn made cheesecake, Vicki made lemon poppy seed, and my mom sent a poppy seed cake as well.

In a bit of climbing news Tommy Caldwell has made the possible second ascent of Chris Sharma's boulder problem "Thunderbird" in Toulumne Meadows. He also made a rare repeat of Ron Kauk's "Peace". Expect more exciting sends from him and Beth later this fall.

It is cooling down here, which means it is time to get serious and send some hard stuff. If you haven't heard yet there is a ton of climbing to be done in the Valley, don't miss out.

Late Nights

"Seat of the Pants"

After several long nights working as late as 6:00am, I have a couple of days off. Yesterday I went bouldering in Camp 4. I met a nice Austrian dude by the name of Deiter? He told me to just call him "D" so I did. He has been travelling the world for a while and is planning on staying in the states for several months. Recently D has been in Peru and and Brazil. His stories of Brazil were quite intriguing and made all the mo' betta by promises of fantastic beachside and inland climbing.

D on "Baby Bear"

"Team America"

Today I took my housemate, Tammy Lynn, on her first mountain climbing adventure. We went to the Glacier Point Apron and climbed "The Grack," a perfect introduction to Yosemite climbing. Here are some pictures of her making her first "summit" and first rappel. Way to go Fucker!

Merit

I established a new boulder problem recently that required a bit of vision and tenacity. Not to climb, of course, but to clean up. This problem raised the question that every first ascentor faces, "is it worth it?" Of course what makes one climb worth while or not is different for everybody but I have a few specific questions I ask myself before scrubbing. Is the environmental impact of cleaning a particular line going to be egregious? Is the problem going to be worth doing? Is anyone besides myself going to enjoy it? How long will it take to clean? and vice-versa, how long will it take to recover if it is never again to be climbed?


I named this problem in light of this internal conflict, I thought it was worth it.

"Merit" (V3)

Oh, and if you were wondering why you are supposed to clip those carabiners on the dumpsters in Yosemite, or any bear habitat for that matter, this is what happens if you don't.

A salveged day.

Today I had made plans to climb a couple of pitches of the Rostrum with climbing ranger extraordinaire Jesse McGayhee. Just about the time I was starting to expect his arrival I got a call from my boss, Tori, asking if I'd help "work up" a bear that had been trapped the night before. Fortunately, Jesse is an understanding fellow and took this opportunity to spend a few hours taking care of domestic duties.

Here you can see me give "Blue 1" the old reach around. Just trying to make him comfortable.

The best part about living and working in Yosemite, from a climber's perspective, is that after work you can easily get in a fulfilling climbing fix. That is exactly what we did today. Jesse and I headed over to Lower Cathedral Rock for some cragging and I made amends by helping Jesse with his job. First we recovered a fixed line that had been left on a project for about three years. It took a while but I owed him. We climbed a couple of really nice routes there as well. In particular a 5.11d (I don't know the names of any of these routes), which I was able to onsight just barely. The rock quality was spectacular, the movement was varied, and the view was second to none...unfortunately, I left the camera at home.

As a consolation prize here is a picture of my friend, Jesse Burkhart bouldering a problem called "Circuit Breaker." I highly recommend this problem if you like crack boulder problems.

For perspective, here is a shot of me on the same problem.

Back in the Ditch

This is the view from my new front porch. Whatcha think?

I'm back at the center of the climbing universe (at least that's what they tell you in Camp 4) and I'm psyched to climb and chase some bears. It's a bit hot for the really hard stuff but its still good enough conditions to go cragging. Still, I couldn't resist exploring for new projects yesterday and of course, Yosemite never fails, I was rewarded with some promising looking lines.

This one looks really hard.

I was very disappointed in the amount of garbage I saw in the stream bed yesterday. I would like to say I was surprised but that would be a lie. I know that there will always be some incidental litter wherever there are people but I would like to think that in a National Park people would be a little more careful with their garbage. Unfortunately, the Disneyland mentality prevades and people assume that because it's a Park they will be cleaned up after.

This rubber duck has seen better days. I gave him a proper burial in a dumpster.