Sunshine and Cold

 Had to wear a lot of clothes this weekend even though it was sunny and clear all day.

 Jesse taking on another beast of a crack. Purple cams through the roof are just nasty enough to make you fall!

 JEsse fixing some anchors all in the name of the ASCA. (american safe climbing association) Yeah we step up and do our part to fix the garbage that others leave behind.

 After climbing cracks all day we stopped in for a quick roof crack bouldering session in Unaweep. Jesse crushed and my core was weakend from the bashing that I took on the rope. I will have to come back for this one. We did establish a new problem or two in the area and those barely went down due to our fatigue.

Why would I live anywhere but here?
Get outside and have an adventure.
piz : )

Another thing to occupy my time

My latest project, three runs on it today and I still didn't do all the moves.
I am in for the long haul. It's very bouldery and not my style, so I am totally into it.
First crux .2/.3 undercling jams with no feet. I can almost do this section.
Next crux overhanging undercling campus moves through a roof.
Last crux pulling the roof on terrible jams and no feet.
Ah yeah, get outside and challenge yourself and enjoy the journey.
piz : )

Winter OR

 We arrived in Salt Lake and it took Chris a little while to find his pass, oh wait, he was going to be me on this trip!

 Hanging at the CAMP booth, so many awesome toys!

 The coolest bouldering pads and gear.

 Jesse and Andy getting down to business.

 I made sure that this tri cam was the correct size, HUGE! It doubles as a weapon on the rough streets of SLC.

 Dinner with the Burr's.

 The newest Burr, So cute and cuddly. I got my time in cuddling and it was nice : )

 We got to see a real fireman.... NOT just a tool box.

 Keith, Dave and Chris at the pose down.

 Chris sniffing out the good give-aways at all the booths. He left no booth unchecked!

 Phil Powers of the American Alpine Club introducing the mountain man of the century.

 I was psyched to help out during the filming of this small get together and Q and A session with R. Messner.

Parting shot of another legend, Fred Becky. Yes, he is still hitting on the ladies!

The OR is about reconnecting with your friends and sponsors. I would like to thanks all mine in no particular order for another great year of working together. Thanks so much, John at Sterling, Laura at Arcteryx, Jesse at CAMP, Colleen at SCARPA, Keith at Wind-Xtreme and the Eric at the American Alpine Club!

Now I hope the weather stays good for next weekend and some climbing of the cracks. In the meantime its back to taking care of my boy, working with the high school kids and cleaning the house because Jane is hosting the girls and book club this week! Time to make sure that the toilets are clean.
Get outside and have an adventure.
piz : )

Snowy Rifle Day

 Heading into the canyon a couple weekends ago. If I didn't drive the truck I would not have made it with my wifes car.

 The calm before the storm.

 Mike B getting it on. Notice the nice frozen waterfall in the background. It was a balmy 22 degrees all day. My hands only got cold on the first route cause I had to knock and blow some snow off a few holds.

 The snow began to blow into the cave that we were climbing in and cover up the rope bag and rope!

 I wore an Arcteryx top and thermal to climb in alond with my windx-treme and arcteryx hat. No socks and no thermals on the legs.

Mike is always ready for a day of climbing no matter what the temps!
Get outside and have an adventure!
piz : )

Escalante fun

Mike actually showed up with tape gloves on. We were still 45 minutes from the climbing area. 

I started working on freeing this tips crack next to the S-crack. There is a little roof at the top. I need to brush it just a little but and get the nerve to place gear on lead. Should be a nice addition to the wall. Next time out, I will get some anchors in and clean the rest of the line.

Jeremy owning the liebacking in the canyon. Notice the beautiful bullet hole pattern at his back.

Perfect dihedral climbing on a perfect day.

Get out and climb!

piz : )

On the way into the Monument looking for a roof crack that I scoped a while back. The plan is to rap in and check it out to see if it is worth climbing on. I have a static line, harness and some cams to keep me safe.

I think that I found the spot after some wandering around. Unfortunately, it was a 200ft rappel to no where. Dang, I had to ascend all that overhanging rope for nothing!

I finally found the crack and where to rap from and it turned out to be all crumbly, short and a total pile. Oh well it was worth checking out the rest of the area and having a little adventure. I did spy something else in the area, but it will require a little more time as it is another couple miles off the road.

Not a bad place to be wandering around.
piz : )

Climbing Magazine

I am lucky enough to have some more photos printed in the latest issue of Climbing Magazine.
Issue #302                February 2012
You can see them
on page 6 (the upper left hand corner)
on page 16/17 (a two full page spread)
on page 20 (the upper half fo the page)

The photos are from a trip I took over winter break a few years back to a place called the Homestead in Arizona. You can head there and climb on some varied and white limestone. There are crimps and jugs and tufa's. The camping is nice and remote. To shorten the approach it is worth having a 4x4 to get all the way in there. Check out the Mountain Project Website for information on the area and the climbs. Also, go the link that Climbing magazine provides in the article.
Thanks and have a great week!

 Green River Tower Summit and me enjoying some wide stuff below.

piz : )

Ames Ice Hose

Things looked grim in Ouray so we headed to Telluride for the Ames Ice Hose.

Chris Alstrin and I were meeting Jesse to go and climb some ice. While we were at the Arcteryx house in Ouray the night before we set some booby traps for our friends in the house. The chairs would come together when someone tripped on the webbing, knocking down everything in sight! Unfortunately they saw our game and stepped over the trap. Better luck next time!

The ice hose is in the middle of this photo.

This is a better shot fo the whole thing. It is just on the other side of the road from Ophir, Colorado and a pretty short hike from the road.

Jesse and Marni at the parking lot in the morning. Dang there were two cars already there.

Hiking to the route down the slippery slope

The practice area before you get to the Ames Ice Hose. It was running because it hadn't been too cold as of late. A bit dangerous to be climbing on that waterfall. Top roping only.

Jesse, Chris, and Craig at the base of the route. Since we were shooting video we needed to get a rope above Jesse and Craig was the man for the job. A visiting climber from Idaho wanted to climb as much new ice as possible and Craig was really good to watch.

Craig soloing the first pitch. The route was pretty "picked out" so you didn't really have to swing the ice tools very hard. "Picked out" means that enough people have climbed the ice already and that there were already ice tool holes and foot holds made. Basically, it means that it is easier to climb when a route is picked out. You just place the tool in the hole rather than swinging it and breaking the ice.

Chris shooting Jesse on the first pitch

Chris shooting Jesse on the second pitch. It was just as wide as your shoulders and super fun!

Me hanging at a belay

Me on the second pitch. So narrow and so perfect!

Looking up on pitch 2

Chris staying warm at the last belay.

Jesse getting ready to lead the final pitch of ice.

Jesse heading up the last 200 feet of ice.

As the day progressed the snow began to fall. There was a lot of snow falling in a short time!
Get outside and have an adventure!
piz : )