Another (long) day in the Palisades

Quick summary: 3 am start, accessing the northern stretch of the Palisades via Bishop Pass. Rick and I wore approach shoes the whole way and didn't rope up, though I volunteered to thread a cord for two other climbers on Thunderbolt and the Milk Bottle. We finished at Mt. Sill by 4pm, descending south into endless moraine fields, eventually winding our way back north. After 21 hours on the go we fell asleep back in the parking lot at South Lake.

Cobra Crack, Squamish

(re-posted from Mason Earle's blog)

Falling off the Cobra from Mason Earle on Vimeo.

... damn!

Venturi Effect, Incredible Hulk

The Hulk inspires. Period. As summer gloom settles in here in SF and it feels more and more like winter elsewhere, it's good to remember the warmth of late day light on the East Side after a long, intense day on the high lonesome.

Croft and Nettle's Venturi Effect has become the backcountry test piece, and with good reason. Rapping down the upper headwall reveals some of the most pristine rock anywhere. It feels light years away from where I'm sitting now, but these videos give all the more reason to keep training and dreaming big.

BD athletes Kate Rutherford and Brittany Griffith attempt Venturi Effect (IV 5.12) on the Incredible Hulk, High Sierras, CA from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

A week in 'The Creek'

It was time: my grades were posted, gear was assembled, and much coffee had been brewed. All that stood between me and a care-free week in Indian Creek was a seemingly endless drive across I 80, the kind I've been swearing off the last few years. With the help of an audiobook version of Satanic Verses and an able-bodied co-pilot, we set off for what will hopefully become a new spring ritual; a new tribal rite.


What exactly has become of public art in Utah?


Soaring windgate and the uber-classic 'Luxury Liner'


An arsenal fit for wide fetishists and weak-ankled youth alike


Big bros...of many kinds


Late light in the throne room of the gods






Bizarro architecture...what is holding up that flake?


Not to be deterred, Em jammed on, earning her red badge of courage

Lotus Flower Tower via Packraft (!)

From the YogaSlackers site

I came across this trip report a while back and am continually amazed at what these ¨slackers¨ pulled off. Their adventure takes the ¨rope, rack, and the shirt on your back¨ dictum just a bit further. Read more here.

Mt. Merriam: 8/1/09

The best laid plans of mice and men...

Over the past weekend I headed to the Eastern Sierra for what may be my last climbing trip in the US for the next year. Initially I had my eye on finishing off an enchainment of nine peaks in the Minarets but had to switch to Plan B when my partner and I discovered a storm system was engulfing the entirety of the Sierra.


Crossing endless talus

We set our sites on the North Buttress of Mt. Merriam that is accessed from the Pine Creek drainage.


Royce Lake

After a respectable alpine start we hiked the ten miles into the peak but were stymied by unpredictable weather and a lack of good route beta.


In the distance, the South Face of Bear Creek Spire

In the end we turned around and hiked the ten miles back out as my knees imploded.


Crossing the bog between Royce Lake and Pine Creek Pass

After a hefty dinner in Bishop we hatched Plan C--a morning of cragging at Whitney Portal.

Lessons learned: take a topo, move even faster, check the weather before dropping in on a cheap ticket out of town.

John Bachar (RIP)

A week ago I got the news that John Bachar had died in a fall while soloing at the Dike Wall in Mammoth. When I mentioned it to my wife she immediately said, "Of Bachar/Yerian?" It was both funny and telling of how obsessed I've been over the years by John's routes.



In the high lonesome, no climber seemed as cool and collected, smooth and efficient than Bachar. On the ground he could be confrontational and gruff, even caustic, but with time and fatherhood, he seemed to have mellowed.



My first personal memory of John was meeting him in the Real Hidden Valley, carrying an enormous boombox, blasting NWA's "Straight Outta Compton" while wearing lycra tights and a ponytail. Few if any could have pulled off such a statement.



Through SuperTopo, we connected over 70s funk and a mutual love of Coltrane. It was a pleasure to be encouraged on my own climbing projects in the Sierra and get assistance on the Yosemite Climberbenefit that I organized to help out his early mentor Jim Bridwell.




John's impact on American free-climbing is incalculable. Routes like "Bachar/Yerian" and "A Love Supreme" remain test-pieces of the highest caliber.



For a telling memorial in the fine oral tradition of late night campfires, go here.

Elders of the Wide

Scuffy B, Gary, Jaybro at the Fish Compound (Ed Hartouni photo)

For as significant climbing is to me, I've struggled to find a true community of climbers with whom I could really connect with. It's been a great pleasure getting to know this crew of quirky off-width aficionados. With close to 150 years of collective experience--in and out of the Wide--they're a wealth of knowledge with more than a passing interest in Hendrix, rugby shirts, and swami belts. Climbing with them I always know I can at once thrash myself and laugh till my spleen hurts. When I grow up, I want to be like these guys.


Scuffy deep in 'Throbbing Gristle' (Russ Walling photo)

Ed Hartouni

The late Brutus of Wyde, RIP (Chief photo)

"They seek those moments when time stands still. The catalysts are as varied as the individuals who pursue this path: a meteor shower; a night sky so star-filled that it snatches your breath; another rise of the sun over distant mountains vast and untouchable; dodging a rock careening crazily down a gully; a desperate icy struggle through whiteout and ground blizzard down to the safety of camp after an unsuccessful summit attempt; standing atop a mountain with a friend, the whole world at your feet, a blinding sun blazing out of a flawless sky, taking the time to watch that sun dip below the horizon even though camp is still many miles and many thousands of feet distant stumbling over boulders and through brush in the darkness; watching the starlight and the storm wrest for possession of the night sky, seated on a narrow ledge beside your rope-mate with only the clothes on your back for shelter, shivering the night away, knowing that, sometime in a distant place you cannot now touch, the world will once again grow bright, the sun will rise, and you will look out on the infant day with new eyes."--Bruce Bindner

Images from Bruce's memorial at the Stonehouse ashram below South Lone Pine Peak can be found here

Needles Trip: 6/13-21/09

One of the greatest parts of teaching is having summers off to reflect on the year and refresh your batteries. Over the last eight years my most solid climbing partner has been Mitch Ross from Santa Cruz. We met as teachers in Pajaro Valley and as it turns out, grew up in the same hometown. We don't get out to climb as much as we'd like but I always know that when the time comes to get feral in the mountains he's ready to get after it. This year we made our first sojourn in to the Needles of the Southern Sierra.



Mitch found this remarkable moth on our approach the first day.



The daunting 'Pyromania' on the Fire Wall, Sorcerer Needle.



Heavy weather atop the Charlatan. These climbers pulled off 'Thin Ice' and 'Fancy Free' before the storm rolled in. The 1938 fire lookout is in the background.



Stairway to the lookout.



Steep cracks and knobs on 'White Punks on Dope', Voodoo Dome.



After doing two off-route 5.8+X pitches of no-mistake-or-big-pancake slab climbing we were psyched to reach the top of Voodoo Dome. The Warlock is in the background.



The best parts of summer...



Slow mornings, triple threat coffee, and tall hair.



Mitch at the higher belay on 'Imaginary Voyage', Warlock Needle.



A beautiful tanninger at Dome Rock. Spring was in full effect and bugs were hatching after a late winter snow dump gave way to June's rising temps.



Last light atop Dome Rock.

East Buttress of Whitney

I'd soloed each of the routes on Whitney in the past--once each for their own sake then both back to back in a long, hot push--but this was the first time to do the East Buttress roped up and with a partner. Despite the clouds, we climbed in t-shirts and were back to the Portal in 13 hours. Not a bad start to the season!

Highline Freesolos

Lost Arrow Point, Yosemite


Taft Point, Yosemite