So what is Moab you ask?

Well. There are two main types of rock climbing - those were you clip pre-placed drilled bolt anchors - and those that follow crack systems where you bring your "gear" with you as you go - placing caming devices into cracks.

Moab is pretty much THE mecca for the latter type of climbing - Traditional climbing - or in short, Trad climbing where you bring your own gear with you as you climb cracks.

The rock here is Sandstone, though QUITE soft desert sandstone - at least compared to the likes of the New River and Red River Gorge. The cracks are just perfect however. Almost always perfectly parallel and just plain spectacular!

I'm here for a week, then I'm off to the HP40 competition in Alabama.

Over the Mountains and Through the Desert...

to Moab I go!

And the library here is the best I've ever been to - here I sit - blogging, working on photos, playing my mud game - and importing two new audio books - Dune Messiah and Dune Battle of Corrin...and after that maybe 1984.

I drove through the mountains over I-70 - it was definitely scary in spots! But made it - I went slow....and listened to the Harry Potter Book 7 audio book. Good stuff man...

I am soooooo incredibly psyched for MOAB!

The temperature here is PERFECT - cool, but sunny....perfect!

Here's a photo from pack in Denver - Kristen's dog Rigby.

The Spot...in Boulder

All my life...well ok maybe not - I've heard about the Spot in Boulder. This "legendary" gym - huge - spectacular.

It was cool - and any negative praise I may mention here is a minuscule and scrupulous banter. The place is truly awesome, regardless of my negative comments.

My first impression was - wow. This place is really small....there's two free standing boulders. and like 3 walls - one of them really steep.

I envisioned the place the be A LOT bigger! The problems were cool - and one thing that I'd like to note is that there are a BUNCH of moderate problems - which is cool and good for warm-up.

The topouts were cool. The problems - some were unique and afforded good movement and tricky beta. It just...well...wasn't as cool as I thought that it would have been. Really - it just WASN'T big enough....

I really wish it would have been bigger - maybe 4 pillars instead of two....anyways...still kinda cool.

Snow?????WHAT???

OK.

SO I made it to Colorado, and i get here and what do I find? IT snowed and is snowing....there's some "chain" law to get to Moab through the mountains....I'm hoping to check out the climbing gym here tomorrow - not sure...or maybe I'll check out the Spot....I would like to check that out.

Meeting Phil and Jess at Moab Sat =) (hopefully I can get there!)

my drive across Kansas.....

Really - when you're going to colorado from ANYWHERE - its Kansas that blows....

yeah..

it sucks...

its long.

and its flat

and its straight

and its flat

Your major landmarks are that cornfield on the left. And that other corn field on the left.

I saw a few cows this morning.

The sunrise um.....over the cornfield was nice this morning too.

I was gonna walk into a hotel and get free breakfast this morning, but figured that I have this no interest credit card - i may as well use it....

and.....my omlet is almost done....back to the road....

Random Newbie Crag Story...

oK...so there I was - in the midst of the "beginner" crag a really cool group of people..just hanging out - there were several 5.8s that I hadn't done and wanted to do and Allison wanted to try some of the routes there to finish the day.

Well...there's like this ONE 11c there - and there was like a bunch of dudes and this group of two (arguably cute) females doing it. The one girl was doing it, though with some extremis...well;

All my life, I've been labeled/assumed to be a weak climber...I don't know why - but anyways - well - I walked up to her in my most awing voice I asked, "Wow, that looks really hard how is it?"

She replied almost condescendly, (still strutting a bit I might add) - "Oh...its 11c, fun, kinda easy". I was like, "Oh wow - nice job though! That was awesome!" my tone flawless.

See - I figured I'd limit myself so she could feel better about her self...Well...Allison, bless her heart goes, "Um Dan, didn't you onsite this entire wall?"

Mentally i was like "Doh!" - the girl gave me a weird look, I kinda looked awkward and walked away...muttering something like ALLISON!

maybe you had to be there....

Some road tripping stuff....

here's a few things to make that 19 hour drive through the night a little better...

1. Audio Book - A MUST!!!!

2. Lots of Caffeine (whether be in the soda or coffee format)

3. Munchies - the worst the better....

4. You don't need to buy something to use a restroom at a gas station - look for sheetz, they tend to have cleaner restrooms...

Heading to Utah....

To quote the Smashing Pumpkins:

"The more you change the less you feel"

I've always thought of this in the sense that when we're little and we have so little in our bubble of life, things are simple, and we one thing changes, regardless of its magnitude, it changes a lot in our life.

But as we get older - not only do we get used to change, but our bubble gets, bigger. However, this is at a cost of sensitivity.

I've never liked to watch war movies - the biggest discernment being the casualty of death; the waste of life with somewhat indifference. Take for example, in "Saving Private Ryan" - where they're all running up the beach - a bunch of people get shot and the other soldiers don't even make a second glance...then they're sitting against a "dune" and the machine gun fire ripples across the top, one of the men killed by the bullets....once again, a seamless uncaring...

Anyways - yeah I'm off to Utah, I'm not jumping with excitement, I haven't planned the trip - I haven't even thought about what I need to bring, just my car, computer, camera, some cooking stuff - sleeping bag.....I figure I'll just figure it out when I get there....not even sure how to get where I'm going. Figure I'll follow signs for "Denver"

Da New...

So my past two days consisted of bouldering at Coopers Rock with Joel and climbing at the New River Gorge.

I love this time of the year - when the colors pop...its amazing!

So my plan was to solo up my favorite route: Two Bag Face (5.9) at Fern Buttress - though I got halfway up - got scared and said SCREW IT and down climbed it!

Got some photos of Chris on it though....

SO RRG today and tomorrow - then OFF TO INDIAN CREEK!

-Danno

Engagement Photos

Nothing beats fall colors =)

Here's an old one...

Philly.

So I left the red on Monday or so - stopping in Pittsburgh for the night. I spend two days in Philadelphia, checking out the gyms - pretty cool places - that's for sure...shot some gym photos...the first time I've shot indoor photos (with my lights)

Pretty cool - I was psyched - I totally sent the green problem! (and flashed the blue one!)

The scary woman...

Ok so I'm in Morgantown for the weekend - long story short, I went into Adventure's Edge and noticed that several people were discussing the impending tree cutting to occur at Coopers Rock.

Well - of course, me being me, I had to express my opinion, saying that cutting trees is fine. I mean - what the forest burns naturally every 500 years or so - also, a mature forest doesn't hold as much wildlife as a timbered forest....

Well - this lady went nuts on me and the second that I realized that she was an extremist, I politely said that I was through with my conversation with her. Well, she didn't seem to be, and asked another question, which I politely dodged and then changed the subject.

Well she stormed out on me.

Good one Danno - you sure know how to keep you're trap shut - anyways...

Pulled a Photo out...

Here's one that Bill shot of me last season, Soloing at Sunset Walls at Coopers Rock...

A day at Muir...

We climbed today at Muir Valley, I did some really cool routes, including this one route: Rat Stew (5.10a)

I managed to 2nd go a 12a at the Sunny Side or something - it was called (checking book now) -

Suppress the Rage (12a) - I uh,, well could have gone left or right and I chose wrong the first time (but still almost did it.) - 'DOH

just a random one...

just in case...

my last one didn't offend anyone...

So what is the motherlode anyways?

I figured that not everyone has been to the lode - so I'll talk about it..

Basically - "The Lode" consists of a few walls - The undertoe wall - which is short(er) - about 25? degree overhanging routes - lots of slopers and crimps, with jugs.

The wall gets progressively taller as you go left (actually the ground drops...)

On the far left is Leave it to Beavis (12d) and Tuna Town (5.12d) - Tuna Town is the classic endurance route. Its about 60? feet of say 11+ or 12- jugs to a rest (60 percent rest I'd say)

The next sequence is fairly hard - maybe a V3 or V4 with a clip in the middle to a rest jug that tend's to be wet (about a 70 or 80 percent rest).

Another hard - sequential boulder problem follows - the finishing move goes to what looks like a horizontal, but its a bumpy kinda crimper thing...you match that up then hit a "rest" jug - get a quick shake here, clip, heel hook and do a move to a really really good rest.

This rest is probably a 85 or 90 percent rest - with heal hooks - you can kinda get your wrist on the jug too...its really nice to rest on.

Then its a V3/V4 to the anchors.

You get maybe 5 good crimpers - then two crappy weird crimpers - there's not real edge on them - kinda bumpy...then you get a good "tooth" crimp - a jug crimp, then a sloper jug to the left of the anchors to clip.

Most people just jump here. You skip the first two clips on the route as a matter of course - to save your belayer (who gets pulled almost to the third) - then you take the 50 footer.

Its pretty casual when you're used to it.

Here's a shot of the undertoe wall - Elodie on Resurrection - a really bouldery 12c....

As you continue on, you hit the madness cave - which is just plain madness - no - its really really steep - its pretty much the reason that a lot of people come to the lode...

the routes grades are as follows (left to right) (not counting extensions)

14a, `13b, 13b, 14a, 13c, 13a - For a lot of the routes - you need a 70m rope - the madness cave essentially climbs a somewhat vertical (for the red) wall to a break - then the wall tips back to REALLY steep for a while - then rounds up to a headwall...here's a photo:

There is the GNC Wall (or something like that) - which has several god, classic routes, including 8-ball (12d), Snooker (13a), Cut Throat (13b?) and Thanatopsis (14b)...its baller...

There's some other walls, but they suck (not really - I'm just done typing)

couple days at the lode....

I swear I'm the worst (male) climber at the lode - its humbling...basically people warm up on my project.

I don't care though - For me - success is determined by me trying as hard as i can on a route...

Sending a route is nice - which means I can move onto another route - and continue trying hard...but its not the motivation. If I never do Harvest - that's OK.

I'm happy with my progress on it - and its rad! I made it through the crux today on point.

The start is a hard boulder problem, the it eases off a bit - just techy balance stuff...with some cool rests.

Supposedly, the crux is a transition sequence from the one rib, to another, but that move - on my little check list of moves that I can piss on - it has a checkmark...

Ok maybe not...but still...

Its the move after that - which as been giving me trouble - its definitely a hard thrutch move for me...but I think I got that one doable...its hard - its where i fell...after that move is a really really good handle bar rest - which has been wet...

Then its a serious of hard boulder problems with OK rests to the anchors - the move TO the anchors is pretty hard - small edges (for he lode) - powerful....I bet I blow it there...

Sent my project...yay!

So I finally did Tuna Town - it was rad - I spent like 15 minutes at the last rest and it went down fairly easily - go figure!

Allison Martyn - To Defy...

To Defy the Laws of Tradition (5.10a), Left Flank, RRG

About time...

I've finally sacked it up and did some good climbing...we went to curbside today - It had been a while since I've onsited 12a, but I managed to onsite two today - I swear the 11c that I did at the end of the day felt just as hard as those two 12s!

Rocktoberfest and Beyond...

Last weekend was Rocktoberfest - the first time that I went to the event; I spent most of Saturday selling stuff for the RRGCC at the booth - and filming.

I managed to get SOME climbing in Sat morning heading to Left Flank; I got a good bit of climbing in yesterday at Eastern Sky Bridge - it was a bit hot for that place (I know! still hot!) - Eastern Sky Bridge, though, is a winter crag - because its basically in the sun all day.

I mostly did repeat routes, though I led a new trad route - the Underling. Its really cool. You climb up this dihedral, under a trash compactor roof. - then traverse under the roof.

It starts out with finger locks above you - and then opens all the way up to a BD #4. Then you crawl through this hole and belay...its pretty rad =).

Couple more days at the Red - not bad =)

OK - so yesterday we did a Trad day - with Elena and Dustin - I managed to onsite Rebar, an 11a trad route....kind of onsite - i shot photos of it last year - but never felt any of the moves....anyways....I also did this really cool route called smoothie nut (10c) - it was spectacular - really cool less than 90 degree dihedral.

I got some more video teaser....

TRAD TEASER 2 from Daniel Brayack on Vimeo.

So climbing today???

Its been two whole days since I've climbed - I really feel like I'm falling into a rut here...of not climbing...its crazy!

So I think that I may have a video gig - helping out a friend with a video job at a Heavy Metal concert....yah - ok lets count on my fingers how many heavy metal concerts I've been too...well if I do this one, it'll make exactly 1....

So I'm trying to decide - do I want to get a Mac Laptop or PC laptop....top of the line of course....life is so full of hard decisions.

Does anyone know when Mac releases their new line of Laptops?????

RRG Trad Teaser...

Here's a teaser for my RRG trad video....

RRG Teaser Video from Daniel Brayack on Vimeo.

At the new - then back at the red!

I went to the New River Gorge for the weekend - meeting Matt Fanning and crew.

Saturday was a Meadow day - Matt bolted a new link-up somewhere out in the woods somewhere.

I tried Made in the Shade, with new knee bar beta, but still couldn't do the move off the underclings....oh well....

Sunday - we climbed at Endless Wall - I went back to an old project of mine - Seeing Stars, a really good 11d arete route near the Fern Point Ladders.

Then we went to try Fall Line (12b) which Matt onsited - SUPER cool and very atypical for the NRG - more like a RRG route - the crux is basically a foot-cut dyno....then pumpy to anchors - kinda cool!

I headed back to the red today, and am here for a while!

Hoping to film more Trad climbing + I brought my Jib Arm back from Charleston...