Red Rocks!

So far my trip to the desert has been great. James and I just finished climbing Solar Slab. Solar Slab is an amazing 1200 vertical foot 5.6. It took us about 7 hours to do the 11 pitches of climbing, add the approach and descent and it was a little over 12 hours of being on the move. As you can guess I am pretty exausted!
We also climbed Geronimo on Monday the 26th, a 4 pitch 5.7. This was a great climb with really fun climbing!
Weather was pretty bad on Tuesday the 27th so we stuck to single pitch routes and climbed Straight Shooter 5.9 and a couple routes on Brass Wall. It was pretty amazing weather as it would snow for about 15 minutes then the sun would come out for a half hour and then it would snow again. Really weird!
I will update my trip reports as soon as I have time!




Here is James climbing on the 10th pitch of Solar Slab.

An end in sight!

School is finally over! Well, for a week anyways. It was a pretty tough quarter for me. A lot of time consuming projects. Not to mention that I had to find time for Snowboarding! C'mon, I have my priorities straight!
I'm sitting at the airport right now waiting for my flight to Vegas. This is going to be a good trip! A couple day's of relaxation, a couple day's of stress with the fam and then a couple of day's of rock climbing in the desert! And it all start's today. The only thing that is missing is Reka (She's in Japan). I wont see her for about 11 day's from now :( Hopefully I can keep occupied enough to keep my sanity.




My final for my computer drawing class.
Spent about 25 hours on this!

Spring Break!

Spring Break is right around the corner! I have a flight that leaves Seattle Wed. the 21 to Las Vegas. The original plan was to spend a whole week climbing at Red Rocks. A lot has changed since I bought my tickets though. First off this is the same weekend that the Red Rock Rendezvous happens. At first I thought that it would be fun but the more I thought about it the less I wanted to go. I don't think I want to be a part of the huge crowds stomping all over the vegetation and creating lines and a mess of ropes at every classic climb. I also have a snowboarding injury that doesn't seem to be going away. This sucks because I was hoping to get on some really good climbs while I was in the desert but I have not been able to train with my injury.
Because of this mess I have decided to fly to Vegas on the 21st. I will stay in Vegas for 2 nights and then drive to St. George, UT. My family will meet me there and we will probably go hang out in Zion NP or something. Maybe I could get my brother to belay me at Black Rocks or Prophecy Wall?! We will stay in our Trendwest timeshare until Monday and then I will meet up with an old friend and climbing partner James back in Red Rocks. This is when I will decided if my collar bone allows me to climb. We will spend the rest of my trip climbing (hopefully) and I fly back to Seattle on the 29th.
I'm disappointed that I can't climb much but am looking forward to seeing my fam. It should me a fun trip. If I get to climb (or at least do some good hikes) expect some trip reports in 2-3 weeks.

My tiny friend!

I just wanted to write about a new little friend I have. Actually I have had it for quit awhile. Back in Oct. Reka and I had our apartment robbed and they basically took everything of value; including 2 iPod's, Powerbook, digital rebel, and just about everything else that we worked hard for. We have slowly started to replace everything that was taken like our new Macbook Pro. While not having enough money for a new iPod I was happy to find the iPod Shuffle. This mp3 player is smaller than a matchbook! You can easily fit up to 250 songs on it and then you just clip it to your clothes or in my case, backpack strap. The best thing about it is when you are hiking or ridding and you want to adjust volume or change songs you don't have to dig it out of your pocket or backpack! I used to hike up with a 60GB 3rd Generation iPod and although smaller than the walkman I always had issues with it skipping from body movement and it felt a bit cumbersome in my pocket. With the new iPod Shuffle I find myself forgetting where it is! This is a hiker and riders new best friend! Oh yeah, if your an alpine climber and worry about every ounce that you take with you the iPod Shuffle is only 0.55 ounces! Now you don't have to cut your toothbrush in half just trade in you music player for the iPod Shuffle. Did I mention the 12 hour battery life!

Specs
Height: 1.07 inches
Width: 1.62 inches
Weight: 0.55 ounces
Capacity: 1 GB (about 240-250 songs)
Battery Life: 12 hours
www.apple.com