5 Reasons I Love the Pacific Northwest

I really like visiting Seattle and the surrounding region. Here’s why:

1. Moist air – great for the skin
2. Trees – they’re green and they make the air smell nice
3. Clouds – I miss them here in SoCal
4. Friends and family – it’s nice to catch up with everyone
5. Rock climbing – just being closer to Index, Squamish, and Smith Rock makes me happier

But, alas, we are now back in the hot dryness of SoCal. At least I only have one week of class left and not much in terms of finals. I’ve only got one school application and 2 fellowship applications to go. And in a week and a half I will be out in the field working on my project. Which is awesome because fieldwork is much more fun and exciting than homework.

Hopefully everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Luke and I had fun in Bishop before heading to Seattle. I even flashed my first “V4” – Hard Crack at the Happy Boulders. It probably wasn’t V4. But it was awesome and the fall would have been scary, had I taken it. A longer TR with lots of photos to come soon.

~Lizzy

Learning How to Relax, Turkey Day in Seattle

Luke meant to post this on Friday, but he forgot… Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! ~Lizzy

I am a go-go-go person. I like doing as much as possible. I am happy when I fall asleep instantly at the end of the day due to fatigue. At the same time I like things to be easy. I want to be relaxed while climbing, I want to flow over the rock and be captivated by the movement. I struggle to relax on weekends after sitting at a computer for 40 hours each week. I want nature, I want to push my limits and become a better climber.

Lizzy and I haven’t really taken a full week off since our sweet trip to Indian Creek back in March. Not to say that we haven’t had our share of three or four day weekends and adventures. Due to my job and Lizzy’s busy school schedule we are weekend warriors. Yet in the last 6 months we have visited new areas, made new friends and sent our hardest routes.

This weekend we will be up in Bishop with our friends Hartley, Jamie and Nicole from Santa Barbara. It is nice to get back to the simplicity of bouldering. We will then return to San Diego tuesday morning to fly to Seattle for Turkey Day. It will be nice to get back to Washington, breathe in the clean air and enjoy the green vistas. We won’t be climbing in the Northwest but it will be nice to read some books, see some family and rest up.

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

– Luke

Happy Holidays

2007 has been an amazing year for climbing and this will most likely be my last post of the year. Moving to a new place has allowed me to climb more often and at a whole bunch of amazing areas. I look forward to 2008 and many months of exploration and climbing! I thought I would add some photos to for a bit of spice, hope you enjoy!

Lizzy is already in Seattle for Christmas and I will be flying up there tomorrow. We will be in Seattle until the 28th visiting family and friends.

Climbing has been winding down recently as the temps have been a bit colder. Our only trip in the last three weeks was to Joshua Tree this past weekend. We had some really warm weather which was nice and unexpected! We did a bit of trad, sport, bouldering and multi-pitch. The mix of everything was nice and I even hopped on Iron Resolution (photo above/right) which was really cool despite the fact that it is way too hard! We also got to climb the Headstone at sunset which was fun(photo below). I had never lead before in my down jacket and it ended up being a good decision. It probably dropped 20 degrees in the hour and a half before sunset.

We are going to try to head to Arizona for a short New Years climbing trip. I will be posting up a trip report when we get back.

Thanks to everyone that reads our blog. It has been a great experience writing these blogs!

If anyone has questions or topics there are interested in let us know via comment or email. DreamInVertical at rockclimbing.com

Cheers!

– Luke