Happy to have climbing back.

So, obviously, from my recent blog posts, I've been climbing a bunch recently. It's nice to be in shape again and to have it back in my life. Once I moved to Salt Lake climbing dropped off dramatically, and now coming back to it, I realize how incredibly powerful it is in my life. I've been hanging out with Ed a bunch which has been really nice, and having mini epics with his dog Aja. Ed was just down here for a few days and we checked out some pretty cool spots. It rained two of the three days he was down here. We started at Moe's valley. I did some exploring earlier this week in search of some unclimbed stuff. I found a couple lines that I wanted to do. We got on one of them... finding that the sit start was totally impossible, and not all that great anyways, we did the stand, and established a fun little problem, nothing great, but fun. The other line I found is pretty highball. Gonna have to rappell into it and clean up anything lose on it before getting on it.
We got on Gription, which Ed is as close as it gets on that thing. What an incredible problem, one of the best I've ever been on. It got dark, and we still felt like climbing so we went down to Wal-Mart got a lantern, hit our ritualistic dinner at five guys and went back out to climb. Started to rain pretty hard, so found some caves and tried to climb. Freakin mud, EVERYWHERE!! Ed's poor car.... sorry man.
We went to a newly developed cave outside of Hurricane and climbed on a rope the next day. It was fun. The next day was freaking great. We went to the aptly named Cathedral. The Cathedral is a beautiful limestone cave, with 3 gothic styled somethings... little cave things.... I don't really know what to call them. The lines in there are obvious, and impressive. We got on rope, got pumped, screamed at eachother, due to the fact no one was around and we were in the middle of nowhere. The cathedral... it's so cool man..... it's sooo cool.
The desert was beautiful on our drive out from the crag. This is what I really wanted to experience by living in Utah.


This is Ed carrying Aja across a death slab. I can't believe tenor freaking pulled this one off. Wish I would have seen him do it, but I was around the corner.
The Cathedral.
Cathedral.
Gription.

Moe's valley.
Bouler with potential for new development.
That freakin highball.. Pretty psyched on it.

The move

Yes yes ya'lls..... Man,... Things are pretty friggin swell lately. Since things haven't really been working out up in the S L C I've decided to move down to St. George Utah. I have new job opportunities thanks to my good friend Tyler, which is allowing me to work wherever I want. So, after much thought, a couple trips down here to work and to climb, I've bit the bullet and moved down here. I got down here two days ago with my friend Ed and we climbed yesterday. BOOOMSHAKALAKA! Yesterday was the best day of bouldering I've ever had. We started our day with a trip to Jazzy Java... can't beat the special.. 3 bucks for eggs, them hashed browns, and some delightful sourdough toast. I was a little tired because I foolishly decided to sleep outside with tenor on my crash pad... I don't know why I always refuse to believe that I don't sleep well on that thing, even though I've tried a hundred times. Add tenor chasing coyotes all night into the mix and it proved to be a restless night.. It's ok though, Ed and mines psyche carried us strong throughout the day. It was beautiful in the desert. Moe's is located in this little valley with boulders spread along the rim, along with some on the valley floor.. We explored all day and didn't get on a single bad problem. Moe's has a very special feel to it, much like the vibe that Shagg or the prudential wall has... it's pure magic. It's not quite as remote as shagg... in fact, it's a very easy drive from town... Ed and I warmed up and from there it was game on. We both were feeling really good, happy to be out of the city and smog and be in shirtless climbing weather in the middle of the desert surrounded by majestic snow covered peaks. We would work problems, break them down and give good solid goes. It




was inspiring to climb with eachother, once one of us would send, it was the next persons turn, and it was go time. Send train in full effect. We met some other people around and the vibe was one of the best that I've experienced, especially since being out here. It was very refreshing to have that east coast friendliness that is so magnetic, which is always found at new england crags. We got on some harder stuff including Lidners roof v9. It was great to work on that thing. Ed quickly did all of the moves, and I surprised myself by sending it.... Felt nice to get really agro on it, really, that is some of the most passion and drive I've felt in a while and it was a great experience. From there we moved onto Show of hands v10/11 and started to work that beast. It has great movement and is the most physical problem I've been on. Start on an undercling with a bad left foot (oh... for the non climbers that are reading this, you are probably hating it.... sorry, the psyche is strong with this one ).... pop up to a right hand crimp.. toe hook the undercling and bicycle with the left foot... bump right to a small intermediate.and pull HARD SUCKA to a right hand crimp... traverse your feet left, toe hooking all the way... get a good left foot... big move out to the arete... match and finish on a v6ish face problem.... woooowee!! it's a beaut!! Did all of the moves except for the face.... was pretty thrashed.. but got myself a new project... would like to see it go soon.. anywho... ed was climbing in some pretty blown out shoes that have been re-randed which crush into the back of his achilles tendon pretty bad. He had no tape to protect it so instead he used a banana peel which entertained me throughout the day.. a nasty bruised, slimy banana peel, and he was STILL crushing it!! I'm currently sitting in the jazzy java stealing internet.. this place has a great vibe... i think i'm really going to like it down here. We ended the day on a classic route near the mouth of the valley and by hucking ourselves at the beast which is another old classic until our bodies gave out. When we got to the parking lot we realized that Ed didn't have his dog... it ran into town and we got a call from a nice family. When we got there to pick her up the kids were giving it big ol' hugs around the waist as it dragged them around.. she's a pretty good sized collie. I'm really tired of writting now.. I will get more photos from the trip up here really soon. Oh snap... i like it here. Come down and visit. Hope to get into a place this week.. as for now I am camping (again...). YYAAAAAHOOOOOOO!! Ya son... I am psyched!!............................................................................................................................................ Show of hands.

Still here....

Thanks for the harassment by all once again. It finally pays off, yes it may be a month later, but it is paying off. Well, there has been a lot going on out here within the past couple months. I've been getting in the gym pretty consistently again, and I'm getting really amped about the upcoming climbing season..... I hope this a good sending year. I've been working up at snowbird, which is a big mountain here in the land of the Utes. I decided to get a job up there so I could get a free seasons pass. Unfortunately it's been a bit of a slow start to the season, and snow conditions haven't been supreme. Also, I just haven't been diggin on the work itself, feels pretty empty. OK... now, onto the next piece of bad news..... sorry, the blog hasn't been super upbeat so far, life has gotten pretty heavy the passed couple of months. Well.. camille and I broke up. And it's been really, really hard. I mean, the amount of pain that is involved in tragically beautiful. It's incredble the potential that we have to care for other people. I've learned alot through the process, which I know is going to go on for a little while. She is still an incredible person to me and I'm totally grateful for what we got to experience together. So..... Onto more upbeat news... So, as life somewhat falls apart around me, I realize it is time for change. Tyler, who is camille's older brother whom I am good pals with, recently moved out here also. Tyler is a little tired of the area too, so we are moving up to bear lake in Idaho. Ya, pretty psyched... time to get back to the country for a little bit. We'll continue to come down to SLC a good bit to ski and climb and work. I'm excited for tenor to be on some land again... with his good buddy sir handsome pedee (tylers' dog). I'll be rock chippin with tyler, and helping to get brad, another Erickson's house into shape. So those are the plans for now. This wasn't the most fun blog update in the world, but I want to keep all you kind folks up on whats in the happs out here... hope you are all doing great and have a rediculously good start to 2010.