Oh Panera...to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree"

Seriously.

If you're living on the road - the best place to stop for "office work" is Panera - they don't even bug you to buy stuff - or just get a 1 dollar bagel - and drink all the water you want....

Sick as a Dog...

Serioulsy - I've always bragged that I never get sick - and I haven't been - in recent memory - until yesterday - It sucked big time. I drove from Charleston to Pittsburgh to see my grandma and grandpa - the whole drive - I kept getting dizzy and felt terrible...finally made it - I'm feeling much better today.

So I'm videoing at Coopers Rock this weekend - Nicole is up from Maryland - and its totally a wash today - though looking MUCH better tomorrow and Sunday =)

Apollo Reed..and then Water Bouldering

Two days of fun for us......hot though - though not as bad 0n Monday - we did Summersville Lake - for the first time in my life - I actually feel like I can do Apollo Reed - which has ALWAYS been a hard one for me - I've always joked that I'll climb 8a before I'll be able to do Apollo - but man - I managed to do all the moves....for the first time every - it IS a cave route - and its power enduro - but the first step is doing all the moves then linking them....

Yesterday - we went water bouldering at on the Kanawha River....it was loads of fun - though I need to shoot it in morning light...and get a canoe to shoot it...stay tuned...

-Danno

Volunteering With Jaqueline

Jacqueline and I volunteered yesterday at Manna Meal - it was a lot of fun - we basically just helped with food setup and then served food. Good times for sure.

If you're looking to do some volunteer work - I'd suggest your local manna meal...

http://www.mannameal.com/

Morgantown Trip...

I've been in Morgantown the past two days, one more day - we climbed and filmed yesterday, took a rest day today and are climbing again tomorrow - we filmed Twist Dah Hick - which I'm really psyched on - and Crash and Burn - this one - the lighting wasn't so good....but its all good - the Twist Dah Hick footage is REALLY rad =)

Tomorrow - we're hoping that it doesn't rain and are going to likely head to Upper Rock City to film Colorful Corner and then Probably Tomb Raider or something like that....

I managed to send my favorite problem in the forest - which I previously mentioned - Twist Dah Hick - and also - I did Electric Avenue 4th go - man that thing is scary - especially when its wet - but it was dry enough so it didn't matter that much......

Here's a an outtake - a video of Ryan on it...the aspect ratio is messed up - but I'm not gonna fix it - gonna spend my time working on the sellable video + I've been picking up some freelance work for Wolverine - doing some NRG maps....

Ryan Smith on Twist Dah Hick from Daniel Brayack on Vimeo.

da RED

Man - we got a cold spell...seriously - it was awesome - I hardly sweated - and when I wasn't climbing - I was actually cold - it was AWESOME!

The first day, we did at Funk Rock City - where I managed to put together an old project and do two new routes... sweet!

today - we did Muir Valley - I basically got my butt kicked on Triple Sect.....while some tosser on the ground was saying that its only 12c; and Jesus Wept only 12b...while I was getting my butt kicked on it.....oh well - I'll have to take Triple Sect at 12c on my 8a when I do it....

Brutalized

Ok....so we spent a couple days at the Meadow....Brutalized is the only word I can think off....down aiding roofs sucks...I lost a 0.3 BD Cam (somewhere in the flora and fauna) and also destroyed a TCU....its gone...I ripped it out of a slot and just trashed it.....Man - I had a great weekend =)

Andropov's...........Cold....at Junkyard....

Ok so it was suppose to be a rest day - I've climbed the past like 6 out of 7 days. We took my roommate Ryan's friend Sarah out to climb - to Junkyard. She was a bit of a crusher - so we did some of the hard(er) lines there....well - I figured - I've never tried Andropov's Cold (11c) - and with J.Y.D. at 11c next to it (more like 10c) - how hard could it be???? Man - its hard...it was dirty and hot and sweaty and humid...at least that's my excuse...for not sending it after two goes...the gear is scary and you end up placing it below your jams since it takes up your holds...oh and its very nice to have 3 0.4 BDs....

Ok so now some climbing.

We spent 3 of the 4 climbing days at the Meadow - Bob and I were working our respective projects on the "Landing Strip"

Bob was really really close to sending his yesterday - he made it through the low crux - only to miss a hold and pump out at the roof crux...he's really close - and I think its gonna go down for him really soon next trip.

I managed to finally squeak through my projecct. I'm not sure what I'm going to call it yet - any suggestions?

Its hard - it took me probably 15 goes to figure out the technical first crux - another 10 goes to figure out the second crux...another half a dozen goes to be strong enough to do the first crux and a couple more to put it all together.... its a gooder for sure...

I think I may stick with "Landing Strip" but that may change...

Landing Strip (5.12c) Boulder up to the first bolt, powering through opposing sidepulls. Make a high second clip and cypher the hard techy crux. Stand up for a basically not hands rest and then GET KUNG FU ON THAT SHIZNAT> - I end up basically doing a double campus move through the first roof - (the feet are really really bad) - then there's basically one more 12a move to a good rest - then a techy and (definitely blowable) upper sequence at maybe V2 or V3...

A long trip to the New and a few new routes...

Soo......Fourth of July - for once in like - forever, it wasn't bad weather. Bob, Barb and Joe came to visit from Pittsburgh for a 5 day trip; Thankfully - we only had one rain day and it was in the middle of the trip - perfect right? What did we do on the rainy day? Well - we went into town late, ate lunch - took naps back at the meadow - then went out to dinner, came back - and went to sleep. I read a lot too....I just finished up "Salem's Lot" - and not knowing that it was a Vampire book, I had "Twilight" waiting for me...so a double whammy Vampire novel experience.

Why didn't I know that Salem's lot was Vampires? well - I have a rule that I specifically don't read about books or even read the back cover....so yeah - I thought Stephen King had more taste than Vampires - but whatever...

So Twilight...yeah - I see why the teeny boppers are all phsyched on it....

Ok back to climbing now....(maybe more vampires later) - ....continue to next post....