Whats on my plate???

Well...I've decided not to go the to Gunks this weekend - it will cost me at least $70 which would be better put toward food and housing at this point. Also - We're having a cook-out tomorrow night here + I think I may go to see the new X-men movie on Friday night =)

I also blew off climbing today - as I am pretty hosed still - and don't want to drive 2 hours round trip to climb when its this hot out - Instead, I'm going to put in a hard training day - at Ashley's advice - I'm going to do 5x5s - 5 problems, 5 times each - all in a row (minimal rest) - and then I'm going to do a hard ab workout - then a hard push-up routine - and then I'm going to run (still taking it easy - maybe a 5k)

There's this nice little monotonous park about 1/3 of a mile from here - its a 1/3 mile loop - so I can just put on some good tunes and dream about maybe one day being a good rock climber =)

This weekend, I'll be climbing at the NRG with Matt Fanning again of course =)

Today I ordered a Tv monitor for my jib arm and I am looking into tri-pods right now for it - I won't need it until my Nova Scotia trip, but I'd like to have it all set and ready and be fairly good at it by then.

Life is grand!

Sport or Trad?

In my previous blog - I posted a little thing (on purpose) about bolting a route that we originally did on trad gear - What many don't realize is that a lot of sport routes - could, infact go on trad gear - EASILY - at the New River Gorge for example, Freekie Stylee would go - (though scary as all get out) - Exoduster would go on gear, another route - Party in my Mind - which could easily have been bolted is a freaking awesome trad route - it comes down the the choice of the FA - on these routes that can go either way - I mean - yah - bolting an obvious crack is a no-no - but with the advent of today's gear - you can almost always get a crappy TCU or C3 in a horizontal.

So why a sport route - well - its basically a sport crag - there were no obvious cracks and actually placing the gear onsite would be downright scary since its horizontals....you'd have to guess fairly well to place a few of the pieces over your head....and if you blew it you, you'd ledge out pretty quick....

=)

So - We Can Start this Conversation by you Telling Me Everything that you did Wrong this Weekend. (5.10d) (maybe sinking some iron was one of them? *wink)

Back at it at the Meadow.....

Wow - man my life just goes soooooooooo slow, its amazing......Like - while driving out of the Meadow today (gushing through the waterfall that you drive over) - i was like...wow - I hardly remember driving in....

soooooooo I went in - my good Buddy Matt Fanning and crew from Virginia were running late, but Matt was bringing his drill - so I rapped down a new line I wanted to bolt in the hangar, ticked all the holds, set all the gear (you use trad gear to keep you into the steep rock) - marked all my bolt placements....

Well - Matt was running really late and another buddy of mine, Eddy rolled up - we both sent the route on Trad Gear since we were bored - I was thinking maybe 10d or so, Eddy thought 10a, Matt later did it and though 11a, as did Chance....so if you put that all into the concensus calculator - you get 10d.

While drilling that one, I spotted a line of holds to the right - on this really thin - white wall - I bolted that one as well - figuring if I couldn't do it - I'd sick Matt on it - That one ended up taking maybe 2 working burns and 3 - I didn't do it that night - one - hanging it - though I managed to send it this morning - I really had to try hard for it - it starts on the previous route that we drilled - and then breaks right - there's a dynamic move to a good edge, then a setup food smear, then a really long move to a bad edge - a hand foot match - then a power move to a good hold - then you traverse left and clip the anchors on the previous route. Matt talked me into adding a bolt and anchor about 7 feet up the nasty chossy always wet rock....I'm gonna pull the hangar and shuts on this finish next trip as its just a waste...

So I named the two routes:

Tell Me Everything You Did Wrong This Weekend (5.10d) - an inside Joke

and

Blame it on Fanning (5.12a) - a pun on the McConnells Mill Route - Blame it on Rico.

While I thought Matt had wrecked or something - he was, infact, creating a tyrolean (high rope) traverse across the Meadow River so we could go across the high river to Cambodia.

After sending "Blame it on Fanning" this morning - we all loaded up the packs and swam across the fridigly cold river (and hauled our packs across the lines)

We all pretty much gang banged the 3 actually 5.10s (more like mid 11s) on the 5.10 wall - but the hightlight of the day were the addition of several new trad lines.

Sam Powel established "Run Fat Boy Run" and intimidating off-width roof crack.

Also - Matt Fanning eastablished : "Snail on a Straight Razor" - a quote from Apacolyse Now - 10d. This route follows a discontinuous crack on the 5.10 wall at Cambodia - it finishes on an anchor shared with the route to its left "Double Barrell" a Zak Roper 5.12b.

After Matt's initial go - he thought 11c - then I went up on it - found a better sequence and ws thinking maybe 11b - then we cleaned it - wired it - ran laps on it and decided to just call it 10d to be safe....i mean - it is on the 5.10 wall right?

So I may be going to the Gunks this weekend. A basically free trip minus a drive to Virginia - and $$ to get into the place...

jib arm...

at Risk of jeopardizing my engineering ego - I've designed and am going to build a jib arm for my video camera.

Check out this site:

http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/jib/jib.html

Back with my Chime....

So I'm living in Charleston now - I'm staying with my good friend from college - Dave Statler - man - what a SWEEEEET house - he has a climbing gym in the basement - I'm basically devoting my summer to training:

I'm doing 5x5s (climbing training), running, abs, and push ups...

Life is good

Back to the NEW (well Meadow at least)

Sooooo - I climbed 4 days in a row - Thursday - at the climbing gym in Pittsburgh (I ALMOST sent the blue and brown problem) - then Friday - I bouldered at Coopers Rock with Bill - I felt pretty good - though I was definitely hosed from the previous day bouldering -

Then I met Matt, Katherine, Christina and Paul at the Meadow - though I was rather hosed - I managed to run laps on several 5.12s...I would have done another - though Matt Fanning tickled and punched me off "Way of the Beaver"

It was nice to be back at my old stomping grounds - over the past two seasons Matt Fanning, Myself and several others have drilled over ?50 routes at the Meadow.

Unfortunately, I don't have a drill anymore - though - there's probably about 30 to 50 routes I have tagged worth drilling out there....hmmmm....anyone have a drill and super battery I can borrow? I'll give out FAs willingly =)

I shot photos of Paul repeating both "Roof of Death" a 5.11d 30 foot roof crack and "Stolen Tiggers" 5.12a/b a 12a boulder problem on 4 bolt slab to a full body length crux roof crack.

Of course I can't post them at this time....

Working on More Video...

Last night - I hung out with my buddy Joel Brady and filmed most of a video that we're working on. I know Joel - I said some of the "outtakes" would be on Youtube this morning - but well - you'll have to wait =)

Family and Dog Photos

I took some family photos of my cousin Stefanie, her husband Sean and my two cousins. Also - I took some photos of Bob's Dogs: Blade (the army of Darkness) and Parker.

Some Engagement Photos

On Thursday - I met Mary Greene and Adam Saucerman for engagement photos in Morgantown. Here are a handful from the shoot.

Video...

Working on my Vegas Video - it'll be short - one or two problems; the Feature is the Pearl (V5) - the uber classic there...

Day at the Gym....

I went to climb north tonight - met they new ?co-manager - she was pretty cool - hung out with Bob, tried some of the routes - of course, I sucked big time - like always - I almost did the Brown route on the Crimp Wall........I couldn't stick the dyno though....

I saw a good quote on a church board - it went:

CH _ _ CH - what is missing?

I'm really excited with my life =) - though I am really really really busy while at home - I enjoy it though.

My life plan....

So for the next few months (this summer)

I'm here in Pa til maybe Monday - then I'm hoping to get a job in WV for the summer - and I'd like to:

1. Do a NRG climbing video

2. Establish more lines at the Meadow - mostly at the next wall upstream from Cambodia

3. Work on the Obed guide with Zak (moving to Chatt this fall)

4. Film a South-Eastern Bouldering Video

5. Work on and Finish a Video with Joel Brady (its gonna be funny!)

Back in Pittsburgh...

And it snowed....seriously, I thought I successfully missed winter this year...

I've been hanging out with friends and climbing - we did Cooper's Rock Saturday and McConnells Mill Sunday - both bouldering areas - though we did two top-rope routes at the Mills...

I'm catching up on Photo work today - at least I'm hoping to - I may have to drive my grandpa up north 2 hours incase his rides bails on him.....I really don't want to....I have a lot of Video from McConnells Mill to work on....but that's how the cookie crumbles.