Bouldering at Joe’s Valley – A Photo Recap

A bunch of talk of bouldering has gotten me psyched for the upcoming Bishop season. I’ve most likely only bouldered less than five days outside in the last six months. The last serious trip was to Joe’s Valley with a bunch of Bucknell Alumni back in April of 2009. Since we had so many people we got a bunch of sweet photos. If you want a glimpse at Joe’s Valley take a second to look through the photos and check out the links for a brief photo essay from each of the three days we were there:

Joe’s Valley – Day One at the Right Fork

Joe’s Valley – Day Two at New Joe’s

Joe’s Valley – Day Three at the Left Fork

Joe’s Valley – Wills a Fire Videos

Day One:

Luke flashing the Comedian SDS

Lizzy flashing the classic hihgball Michelangelo

Day Two:

Adam sticking Pocket Rocket

Luke on Planet of the Apes

Day Three:

Adam on the Angler

Lizzy on Feels Like Grit

Josh crimping hard on the Jordan boulder.

Enjoy!

– Luke

Joe’s Valley – Wills a Fire Videos

Summer Catchup: Pine Mountain Pulldown and Mt. Woodson

This summer was jam packed with  fun climbing including many trips to the Sierra. These long days on the mountain stand at vast contrast to some of  the more chill weekends that are swept up in the fray. I wanted to share a few photos that I didn’t get to post back in August and earlier in September.  One missed weekend Julie and Josh came down from LA to do a bit of crack climbing 101. The easiest place for this is Mount Woodson, which has a mix of boulders with nice cracks and top ropeable mini routes. We lucked out with cool weather in August and had a great day touring some of the classics like Robbins Crack, Jaws, Baby Robbins, Lie Detector and more.

A very proud TR onsight 😉 of Eric’s Face.

In addition to learning crack technique Lizzy made the most progress I’ve ever seen on Lie Detector, which is a desperate 5.12+ thin fingers seam. A series of 5 or 6 nearly footless moves pull over a bulge to a much easier 5.10 section. Lizzy was able to stick the first three of these moves for the first time proving her summer of climbing returned good fitness. Without the advantage of Lizzy’s fingers I was barely able to do the first move, figuring out some crazy beta requiring a precise deadpoint to a poor lock… Maybe next time!

Working on an interesting arete variation Josh came up with.

After tiring of crack climbing Josh and I played around in one of the caves on this tricky problem. In addition to the established line seen in the next two photos we tried a variation or eliminate that followed the arete. It was fun but neither of us could get past the poor slopers. Josh managed to avoid the camera so there are only photos of me on these problems.

Starting up the cave/rail problem. (Originally graded B1 !)

Too bad I missed the hold.

Bouldering is hard…

At the beginning of September I attended the Pine Mountain Pulldown which was also a stop of the Reel Rock Tour. I was psyched for the combo of stress free bouldering and a chance to see the newest climbing films. Lizzy was able to catch a ride down from Palo Alto and  volunteered as a trail monitor on Saturday for the competition.  I was able to carpool from San Diego with Jeff and Keli who are very active in our local climbing community. The Pine Mountain Pulldown is set up as an environmentally responsible event and  partnered with our local advocacy group, Allied Climbers of San Diego, to minimize impact.  After a day of bouldering on Saturday I spent Sunday walking around the bouldering area, with Keli, Jeff and Lizzy, picking up trash and washing off offending tick marks as part of an Adopt-A-Crag event. To further reduce environmental impact the power for the event was solar and all of the competition climbers were bussed to the crag to reduce pollution.

On Sock Hop – V6  photo thanks to Jessica

One of the ACSD members, Adam Kimmerly, took a bunch of photos which can be found here. He also attended last year and one of those photos ended up on the poster of this year.  The following pictures are a subset of his shots from 2009.

Keli on a tricky slab (V5 without the far  left holds).

Robert, of the Vertical Hold Crew, on the classic Dissing Euros V6

Luke about to fall off a fishy V5

Colin, another VH strong man, crimping hard!

Gracie, a micro crusher from Fresno, showing the boys how its done.

Luke uses some alternate beta on the same problem.

Keli, with Jeff spotting, on her way to second place in the women’s division!

Luke gets yet another handful of Mojo bars thanks to the Clif Bar booth!

Enjoy,

Luke

Joe’s Valley – Wills a Fire Videos

Josh on Lumberjack Low

After watching a video Jamie Emerson posted I was reminded that I had some how failed to post the above picture of Josh trying the same problem. I love this shot and it really shows the crazy sandstone texture of Joe’s Valley.

Luke sets up the drop knee with his eye on the pocket.

Almost there on this low percentage throw.

Adam reaches for the next incut on Wills A Fire – V6

One of the most interesting things about Wills A Fire is the variety of beta. The problem is fairly simple with a number of well spaced incut holds.  However the location of these holds requires one to cross or bump between the pockets to setup for the topout. As you saw in the videos I crossed to the crack and matched it while Adam crossed between the pockets so he could get a right gaston in the crack. Both of these methods were different than my initial idea shown above which involved a left hand bump/throw between the two pockets.  After we got home I watched a video Matt Wilder had posted showing yet another sequence using a somewhat hidden hold.  I was happy to send this classic on our final day and it provided closure to the trip.

Enjoy,

Luke

Joe’s Valley – Day Three at the Left Fork

We had a bit of rain on Friday night that sent everyone to be early and luckily we awoke to clear skies in the morning. It had not rained much during the night and we hoped to get some climbing in. Our inital plan was to drive to Ibex if we had woken up to rain or possibly a short detour to Triassic.

The Riverside area seemed ideal start of our last day and was near the Right Sign area with the classic Wills A Fire. After doing many fun slab problems attention turned to the technical Feels Like Grit. More time and better temps were necessary and we moved on the Angler and eventually went up the road to Wills A Fire.  It was starting to drizzle and after Adam and I sent the group moved to the right fork which was still dry.  

Energy was running low and after a few attempted climbs we bailed to a wonderful Lunch/Dinner at Big Mammas. We left just in time and were greeted by an intense hail storm as we drove into town. 

Lizzy and I will be writing a bit more on our impressions on Joe’s Valley later on. For now enjoy the photos from our last day!

Cheers,

Luke

If the weather was warmer it would be nice to take a dip in the river!

 

Julie tests her skills on a nice slab problem.

 

 Luke tries his best not to crimp on the small holds.

 

Josh and Julie enjoy the relaxaing views at the Riverside Area.

 

A pretty looking line across the river!

 

Lizzy has her eye on the jug.

 

Adam  reaches on the same problem.

 

Kearah shows that you don’t need your feet to mantel. 

 

Lizzy getting her slab on.

 

 

Luke happily flashing the super classic Angler

 

Rebecca working her way up The Angler V2

 

Heel hook and go!

 

Adam quickly moves through the crux.

 

Adam getting high above the river. 

(The left blue pad was sticking out about a foot over the water!)

 

Adam playing on the  nice slopers. 

 

Luke getting ready to top out.

 

Luke making the final moves up the rail.

 

Adam reaches for the top!

 

Luke on The Angler (aka the Rail) V2

 

Lizzy working her way up Feels Like Grit V8

 

Lizzy applies her balance the subtle features of the rock.

 

Adam tries his hand at Feels Like Grit.

 

Julie figuring out some beta on Feels Like Grit.

 

Make sure to come back for videos of Adam and Luke sending Wills A Fire. 

Joe’s Valley – Day Two at New Joe’s

We decided on New Joe’s for day two and slowly made our way out to this sector.  Everyone was weary from all the traveling on Wednesday and the ton of climbing we did on the day before. When we arrived at the dirt road at the stated mileage we were greeted by a large locked gate. The access road which leads to a shared oil company parking was CLOSED!?! We were a bit confused but evenutally found our way to another parking lot about 3/4 of a mile up the road.

After a bit of searching we saw a well carined trail and started to walk in. At some point we got a bit lost and were faced with a steep decent into a creek bed. Jackie, with a torn ACL, could not easily proceed so half the group went back to the parking lot and moved the car so they could walk in via the gated road. 

We all met up at Area 51 after a bit more hassle then was expected but excited for all of the bouldering. New Joe’s is nice because all of the boulders are located on a single hill side with an old switch backing road. It saved time not having to pack up and move the car between different areas like we had done the day before.

We had a fun day but were greeted by rain when we drove back to the campground at dusk.

Enjoy,

Luke

Jackie on a hard V4/5 on the back of the Scotty boulder.

 

Luke sets up for a throw.

Lizzy tries her hand at V4

 

Rebecca goes for the Super Sloper!

 

Josh climbs Scary V3

 

Luke following Josh up Scary

 

Adam getting some air time on Pocket Rocket V6

 

Luke winds up for a Dyno!

 

Luke trying to fly on Pocket Rocket

 

Adam makes the distance!

 

Adam holding the swing!

 

Adam Sending Pocket Rocket v6

 

Luke gets close but no cigar.

 

Oh well, better luck next time. 

 

Adam starting off I’d Rather Be Climbing Her V6.

 

Adam on his send of ‘d Rather Be Climbing Her 

 

Lizzy trying to find the V5 move on a fun problem at the Tsunami Wall

 

Rebecca on Reading Rainbow V5?

 

Lizzy makes the throw on her send of Reading Rainbow.

 

Adam sorting out beta on Planet of the Apes V6

 

Luke enjoying a bit of kneebar trickery. 

 

Luke work through the beautiful slopers on Planet of the Apes

 

Luke trying some funky beta before figureing out the key right heel hook.

 

A very tired Luke on his send of Planet of the Apes V6

 

A tired but happy crew at the end of day two.

 

Joe’s Valley – Day One at the Right Fork

Joe’s Valley is a beautiful place and the various areas are on the hillsides and nestled in the drainages above Orangeville, Utah.  The industrial coal mining operations  sit in harsh contrast to the green beauty of the trees and rivers.  On our drive out from LA I first pictured the area being similar to Moab with a barren desert like feel. However I was pleasantly surprised by the Pacific northwest style views around the Joe’s Valley reservoir and was  delighted by the plentifully foliage.  The scenery even reminded Lizzy of pictures she had seen of Banff. 

For this trip we had a large group of eight with four of my college friends flying into SLC from the east coast and two more, Julie and Josh, driving out from LA. We had a wonderful 2.5 days of climbing even though it rained a touch on Friday night and there were waves of rain by Saturday afternoon. Our last day was cut short since we did not want to harm the fragile sandstone. The delicate nature of these rocks was reinforced by the recent news that the The Knocking Room had broken due to climbing after a rain storm.  After a wonderful early dinner at Big Mama’s we parted was back to our “real” lives. It was great to see all the familiar faces and have a chill time climbing and hanging out.

The bouldering is world class and the rock reminds me of the sandstone of the southeast with more pockets and crimps.   We spent a day at each of the different sectors, Left Fork, Right Fork and New Joe’s and explored many different boulders.  All of the following photos are from our first day at the Right Fork. 

Enjoy,

Luke

On the way down from the Reservoir

 

Luke plays photographer.

 

Kearah warms up on the Boy-Size boulder.

 

Luke struggles on Boy-Size V7

 

Lizzy gets psyched up for some highball action!

 

Lizzy on the perfect rock on the back side of the Man-Size boulder.

 

Lizzy commits to the crux of Michelangelo

 

Lizzy excited for her first V3 Flash! The crux was at 15 feet!

 

Luke goes for it on Michelangelo. 

 

Jackie making quick work of the Comedian  SDS V5

 

Luke on the 2nd crux of the Comedian.

 

Luke on his flash of the Comedian SDS 

 

Rebecca reaches on the Triangle Boulder.

 

Lizzy on some thin crimps and pockets on the Triangle Boulder.

 

Adam campusing a variation of  Scrawny V7

 

Adam goes big on Maxi Pad V6

 

Adam latching the edge on Maxi Pad

 

Josh on the start of No Additivies V11

 

Make sure to come back for more photos and video from the other days!!

OR ELSE!  😀

Videos Come to Dreaminvertical!

Hey people,

Our friend Ben requested that we get some more videos on the blog. Although sometimes we struggle to even get photos if it’s just the two of us, it’s not too hard to do video while bouldering. Excuse the non-professional quality of the videos – these are just from my sweet little point-and-shoot Canon. Also, Luke is the awesome cameraman for both videos 🙂

This first video is from a short little V0 at Big Bend, UT. I saw some tall dude just reach the start hold from the ground, but it took me several tries to latch that start hold like I do here. Enjoy:

And this one is me taking a casual lap on one of my favorite boulder problems in Bishop. It’s not too scary for me anymore, but I still like to do it to warm up my mental space a little.

Ok, hopefully we’ll get a few more vids from Joe’s!

Spring Bouldering In Bishop

We had planned on a Limestone excursion to Saint George but the weather gods decided that was not in the cards. After some searching on NOAA.gov we thought Bishop would be a workable alternative. Bouldering is a good way for us to have a relaxing weekend with the hassle of ropes and Bishop is fairly close to Pasadena.  It was a rainy Friday (last week)  in both LA and San Diego and our drive up towards the sierras was much the same.  When it wasn’t raining on the 395 we could at see the clouds dumping snow in the mountains in the distance on either side of the road. The rain lessened as we approached the town of Bishop and when we pulled into the Pit, a local campground, the ground was completely dry.  

By chance on the drive up I had called Jamie and he was headed up to Bishop that night with two friends, Daniel and Megan, from Santa Barbara. We reserved them a site and were happy to share breakfast the following morning after their midnight arrival.  Jamie and crew spent Saturday at Dale’s Camp and the Buttermilks and we went to the Sads. Lizzy prefers Volcanic Tablelands and wanted to work on one of her projects from last trip, Sad Parrot. My fingers are still not in top shape so I focused on flashing easier problems and climbing on slopers. We were quite successful on Saturday since Lizzy sent her project and I flashed my first V5 and did another in three tries.  Daniel took a bad fall off Evilution and hurt his ankle so Jamie and Megan decided to join us on Sunday at the Happies. This left Daniel to spend Easter morning at the local Casino before the SB crew returned home.

Sunday started for me with a Flash of the super fun Slap Happy and Pirate Booty. Slap Happy is very simple and has fun moves on large slopers that requires commitment and body tension. Lizzy worked on Mr. Witty and Jamie and I both sent Will’s Arete, which I had tried on a previous trip.  Jamie sent first and I had a surprise send when I took Jamie’s advice and really pushed with my feet to stick the crux throw.  This problem is meaningful for me since I tried it on my first trip to Bishop in November of 2007 and it seemed impossible despite being V5. I appreciate each piece of progression as I am able to work through my weaknesses.

Lizzy ran a few laps on, Heavenly Path, and Megan, despite being fairly new to climbing, topped out this heady highball. Near the end of the day I got on my other main project, Every Color You Are V6. On the last three trips I had fallen off the second to last move before finally seeing an essential bit of beta. I had yet to try the  high right heel hook, but was convinced since I had seen it work. I fell off a few times trying to figure out how to throw up my heel before some other climbers stopped by. A strong dude from Portland sent Every Color first try using the heel hook and I was impressed.  On my next try I got up to the second to last hold and unable to figure out the proper technique threw my lower body to the right. My feet cut, legs making a big arc and all of a sudden my heel was in the right place! I bumped up my left hand, like I had just seen, but stalled not knowing if I should go left or right to the final jug. I was barely holding on using both hands and my spotters were encouraging me loudly to go for it, but how! I bumped my right hand and my fingers wrapped around the elusive jug. I was ecstatic but shaking from the extended effort and carefully moved my feet up through the final easy moves to top out! Sunday was one of my best climbing days in months with my fingers fairly pain free and  two projects sent. I carried my excitement and cooled down on a few more climbs before heading to The Loony Bean for a celebratory Chai.

It seems this will be our last trip to Bishop for the season and I was happy to put a few of my projects to rest. Next season I hope to recover my crimp strength and get on Los Locs and The Checkerboard which have been in my mind for the last year or so.  Lizzy has been doing awesome bouldering and is working her way up through the grades. She even has a few projects and is excited to get back on Mr. Witty and Action Figure.

Enjoy the photos!

– Luke

Lizzy sizes up the shady warmup.

 

Lizzy makes the warmup look good!

 

Lizzy works out some sweet mantel beta for a fun problem on the Reward and Treason Boulders. 

 

Lizzy enjoyes the stress free bouldering lifestyle.

 

Using Lizzy’s beta Luke flashes the  Space Suit.

 

Luke plays around on an fun unknown problem.

 

Lizzy sizes up the next move to the small chalked gaston on Sad Parrot

 

The crux finger pocket of Sad Parrot

 

Luke starts up Pirate Booty

 

Jamie makes quick work of Pirate Booty

 

Luke gets ready to throw for a sloper on Slap Happy. 

 

Lizzy pulls off the ground on Mr. Witty

 

Lizzy pushes left into the tricky rockover start of Mr. Witty

 

Megan works her way up the fun V1 right of Solarium

 

Jamie figures out some beta for Solarium

 

Jamie tops out the sandbagged Solarium

 

Ciao!

Cause for Celebration

Things have seemed so busy recently… I think I may not have written anything on the blog since just after Indian Creek, which is probably a month ago at this point. I will hopefully have time to catch up on my backlog of activities, but here are the highlights:

I went to Hawaii with other graduating seniors and grad students during my official spring break. It was sweet to learn a bit about igneous rocks in the field – my classes tend to be heavy on theory and light on hands-on experience. Sadly, it rained almost the entire time we were there. I had been looking forward to some nice Hawaiian sun.

sunrise on the coast

a tongue of fresh (less than a day old – still warm!) lava

pretty orange flower in the botanical garden

The day after we came back, I went to JTree with Luke, Julie and Josh. I caught up on my suntanning that I’d missed out on in Hawaii while everyone climbed at Hemingway, then put my saved energy to good use on Gunsmoke in the afternoon. I made my furthest link yet and pumped out in the corner because I hadn’t gone over my complicated beta beforehand. Then I was just too tired and flash pumped to recover. Maybe next time. But it felt great! The “real” crux is way easier than my short person crux!

Then, I visited Stanford. I had a great time, loved the group that I would be working with and the research I would be doing, and was excited about the Palo Alto weather, which I think I would like better than Pasadena. After stressing out for 5 days, I got the good news that I was accepted to the PhD program in the Geology Department! I’ve officially accepted the offer now, so Luke and I will be headed up to Palo Alto for the fall! We’re really excited!

And last weekend, we went to Bishop. I had my best day of bouldering ever on Saturday, sending two V3s (my 2nd and 3rd ever) and flashing a V2. One of the V3s was steep and juggy, definitely not my style, so it was cool to have sent it anyways. The other one was a problem I’d tried and loved before – Sad Parrot. I’d figured out the crux beta before and this time I had the strength to pull the move. So I guess I’m somehow bouldering stronger than I ever have before, which bodes well for our upcoming Joe’s Valley trip. But I’m also hoping I can combine this newly found power with more endurance for the ultimate goal – Smith and Squamish in June/July.

I was stoked to be strong enough to pull off this micro pocket this time 🙂

I’m also attempting to train for a 22k trail race in Malibu on May 9th. I decided this could be a good substitute birthday challenge (1k for each year plus one bonus) and I’m hoping just to actually finish, run a good amount of uphill sections, and feel better than I did on the Montana de Oro 8k.

So now I’m busy finishing up my LAST TERM EVER at Caltech. Its crunch time now for writing my thesis, so I’m spending a lot of time working on my research (and loving it, which seems like a good sign for grad school).

Get Psyched for ABS Nationals

Once again, my awesome little sister Maddy is headed to ABS Nationals in Boulder this weekend, along with a bunch of other strong climbers. Unlike last year, Luke and I aren’t going this year. Instead, we’re running a trail race (most like in the rain) at the apparently beautiful Montana de Oro State Park. Also, my chest is only just healing and I would be totally not excited to get sick (like I did after volunteering at Nationals last year) again and start coughing again. So get stoked for the falls, the sends, the upsets, the victories, and all the news that will hit the blogs on Monday.

Maddy climbing at the Circuit (I think)

~Lizzy