My computer finally died after 10 years of service, so I'm a bit slow with the spambots and whatnot lately. Just caught up. If I missed anything from this morning, lemme know.
Mountain stuff:
I'm training to do bigwall stuff at the moment. Lotta aid soloing and soloing in general of all kinds. If you have any gear you wanna get rid of/sell, let me know. I need haulbags, ropes, biners, cams, etc etc etc. I am also looking to buy a Toyota RV or VW camper in good livable condition within the next year or so.
I'd like to do some canyoneering and maybe a Baldy trip sometime in the next few months. I don't think I'll spend another winter in Yosemite for a million reasons, so perhaps I can organize some clinics to help people get started in mountaineering, climbing, and canyoneering safely and without spending money on the wrong stuff. I enjoyed the clinic we had a couple years back, even though it wasn't a classroom kinda thing.
Pics of random stuff:
Rhombus Wall
You know.
Solo clean aid stuff
A chopper on a route
One of them looking down pics. Nobody with me so I can't get butt pics.
A squirrel took this photo for me.
Climbed with someone I just met at Church Bowl. Pretty cool how during warm days, you can walk to a crag and people may climb with you. Lotta cool folks. This is Bishops Terrace, a 2 pitch 5.8 we did in 1 pitch (way better that way). I think this is the 3rd time I've not lead a route since I got here.
Looking down from Sunnyside Bench Regular Route, which I soloed yesterday. More pics...
Big corner/chimney
Do not go up the stacked blocks on left on pitch 3. Go right...
...up the 5.5ish fist crack with good exposure. Woulda been super easy with a rope.
Looking down from somewhere.
Head to this tree. There's a small ledge, or more correctly a flake you grab and ride like a handrail with your feet smearing. A couple hundred feet of exposure beneath you makes it cool, but solid.
Looking down while on an easy 5th class crack that ends the pitch. Pretty cool.
A few days ago, I drank too much coffee at work and thought I'd go freesolo a buncha stuff I had already lead before, and a chimney I soloed that was easy. The next day I went to Swan Slab and freesoloed somewhere between 41-45 pitches up to 5.8, basically until I was tired. I got to the 3rd pitch of a line I solo in the morning (Swan Slab Gully 5.5? 5.6?) which has a nice short walk off and some nice views. There is a 5.5 crack atop it and I started feeling tired enough to make mistakes, so I called it. Went back down and did some shorter stuff and called it a night. Did it all in 4 hours or so? It felt real good, real solid. Really opened my eyes as to how much ground you can cover when you aren't hampered with systems and you don't need to take another person into consideration.
The weird low angle crack on pitch 3
Bay Tree Crack, a 2 pitch 5.6 with the 2nd pitch ending very nicely. A hand crack with easy feet to a big ledge, walkoff to a 5.6 handcrack downclimb for 20ft or so?
I really miss the San Gabes, and I miss my adventure buddies. Yosemite is cool, but it's a park. The San Gabes are still the wild west.
