Luke's Blog

Life in Nelson

2010-07-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

I have spent the last few months in Nelson trying to climb as much as i can while also trying to scrounge some work together. Their have been some fantastic days of new routing, evening bouldering sessions, weekend trips to Skaha as well as a day to remember climbing in the alpine on the Valhalla's infamous Gimli. All together it has been a great spring and is turning into a wonderful summer of lazy days on the beach (while trying to stay motivated to climb)

As some people may know shortly after my return form the states i bolted a new line at the new and great Arrow lakes. This line is full 35m pitch up a slightly overhanging wall on the left of the Waterfall walls. This is definitely a project for me and is certainly the hardest climb I've tried. I have only tried the route twice on lead and am currently frustrated with is as I didn't climb well either attempt although i did make it to the top (so it's not all discouraging). I feel as though i should be able to climb cleanly to the stopper crux 2/3 of the way up, this hasn't happened but i feel with some good temperatures and a day where I'm on my game this shouldn't be a problem (not that easy mind you). Currently with the temperatures in the 30's I have settled to put the route on hold until cooler day but am looking forward to the opportunity to give it a real effort in the early fall

Bishop to Smith

2010-03-30T20:37:00.000-07:00

Hi so its been along time, sorry about the wait. I've been busy climbing and unmotivated to spend the time typing. I'll start from where i left off in Bishop: After the Greg, Drew and Ryan (from Bend Or) left Bishop I bumped into a crew from Vancouver Island who where great and adopted me into there camp. We moved to the Buttermilks (where you can camp for free) which was a great place to be as you are right at the base of the Eastern Sierras and super close to the awesome bouldering that is the Buttermilks. I had a few great days bouldering some of the classics including; Flyboy sit, Saigon, High Plains Drifter, The Iron Man Travers and The Grandma Peabody aret.

Grandma Pea Body Arête5.9

Unfortunately after all this success I manged to bruise my heal by missing the pads on my first try on Saigon Direct, this was totally my fault and was stupid as we had lots of pads and i had just missed them by just a few inches. This was a pretty big downer and meant i was out for a weeks. But I manged to have a few good adventures during this time off, one day we went fishing (not manging to catch anything) and another day we made the trek to Mammoth for some epic natural hot springs in the middle of the desert.

On my first day back I was bouldering in The Happys and had a great day climbing The Clapper, A Big round of Applause and Atari. But on the way out i was being extra careful of my right heal and due to this sprained my left ankle (real Bummer) this meant I was out for another week. During the next week it snowed a few times which meant that we couldn't have climbed anyway so that wasn't to bad but it was still no fun limping around.
Finally after two weeks of being out i was back out and ready to climb again. I wasn't really feeling the high-ball boulders of the buttermilks so I spent a day in The Happys and sent Last Dance (v-9) which i was pretty stoked about, After this i wasn't really feeling psyched for Bouldering as i was still a little scared of furthering my injures.

Mikey, Bret and I where all that where left of the Canadian crew by then and we decided to move camp up to Owens for a few days of sport climbing. We had a great couple of days enjoying good weather and the long routes in the gorge. One day stands out in particular as i manged to on-sight a slew of hard routes and sent my project. The routes where; Piranha (12b), Phasers on Stun (12c), Excelsior (12d) and my project Fight club(13b) a supper bouldery route up an amazing wall. After this day i went bouldering a couple of times but couldn't get into it and was ready to move on. Finally onto Smith!

"Phasers on Stun"

After arriving in Smith Rocks I gave Greg a call and he said i could stay at his house, which has turned out to be fantastic. The first few days in the park where great the weather was fantastic and i was climbing really well. I on-sighted Full magic light a really great 12a which we do as one of our warm ups everyday now. I also climbed Chain Reaction (12c)2nd go, Full Heinous (12c) 1st go (although i had tried it on my previous visit to smith years ago), On-sighted The flat earth a 12a/b which actually wasn't that great. I also sent Agro Monkey 13b on my second go which I was really happy about.

Full Magic Light photo taken on Ethan's Iphone

Another great day was when Greg and I went up the "Backbone" (13a)on the monkey face a wickedly exposed double aret with Ben Moon a phenomenal photographer. This was a really great experience. The route was probably one of the best pitches of climbing i have ever done. You start with a 5.6 traverse into a hanging belay so you are already a sixty or so feet of the deck when the climb begins. Once on the climb you start with some moderate climbing up to the start of the double aret where the climbing really kicks off, a series of insure slaps gets you to some easier yet more exposed. Overall this climb blew me away and both Greg and i are supper psyched to go back to red-point it.

Greg While setting up a fixed line for Ben

"The Backbone" photo Ben Moon Photography

Since then we have had many more great days climbing and have many great opportunity's to climb with some amazing climbers. For the last few days Ethan Pringle has been staying at the house and climbing with us. Ethan is an amazing climber and it has been supper inspiring to watch him climb.

Today was an interesting day we woke up to snow but by 10:30 it was clearing and we decided to take the chance. After getting hailed on while warming up it cleared up and turned out to be a great day. Ethan and I both on-sighted Karate Wall (12c) an absolutely mega long endurance pitch and then went onto try other things. Ethan made some solid progress on "To Bolt Or Not to Be" a stunningly blank 35m 14a and I fell at the very top of "Darkness at Noon" (13a) another super long vertical face climb.

Well I'm off.
Cheers

Owens River Gorge

2010-02-14T15:51:00.000-08:00

I have spent the last week sport climbing in Owens River Gorge which is a world class climbing destination about 15 minutes North of Bishop. In my opinion it's greatly under recognized due to all the amazing bouldering in the area and therefore does not get the attention it justly deserves. Needles to say I've had an amazing week of climbing with a group of guys from Bend OR (otherwise known as Smith Rocks). On the first day we started at "The Great China Wall" an easily accessible wall with something for everyone, after a few great warm ups I on-sighted "Black-hole" a really amazing 12b and made two attempts on "Yellow Streak"another classic. This felt like a really good way to start the trip but unfortunately the day was cut short when a snow storm blew in, we ended up spending the afternoon wandering up the gorge scoping out other areas.

Over the next few days the weather steadily grew warmer and we where able to get many amazing routes in. We went back to "Yellow Streak" (13a) and I was able to send it on the next go, this is a full 35m long pitch on a slightly overhanging wall, you start up an 11 and then continue up above to some technical face climbing. Truly outstanding. We also climbed at Eldorado Roof where I climbed "Loony Binge" (5.12c) an amazing 30m roof flake that traverses under the great Eldorado Roof, this is a mega classic endurance route with no real hard moves and I manged to do it second go after making better use of the rests available. To top it off i climbed "Aurora" the mega classic 13a third go, this line follows an overhanging wall at the left hand end of "Great China Wall". This is another endurance route with big hold the whole way they just get further and further apart as you go on. Over all a really fantastic introduction to the Gorge and now I'm supper psyched to climb long ass lines!

Today was a rest day and I drove North towards Mammoth following Greg, Ryan and Drew to some natural hot springs on there way home. They where fantastic! We had a hot tube sized pool to our selves in the middle of the desert which we could control the temperature of and a stunning view of the eastern Sierras, it was simply stunning. What a great life climbing by day hot springs and campfires by night. Cheers

Bishop "The Happys"

2010-02-08T17:16:00.000-08:00

So I made it! Whew what a drive. I gave an older women a ride from Vic to her small mountain cabin about an hour out of Redding, this was the gruelling part of the drive. We did it in one push and it took us about 16hrs after the ferry, It was great to have Pat along though as it meant one of us could nap in the back while the other drove. The next day i drove to just before Lake Tahoe where spent the night to wait out a mandatory chains policy that had been implemented. Then yesterday I drove the rest of the way and arrived at about 2:30. Its amazing here, and it seems i arrived on the first day which was climbable in about two weeks.

I manged to go to the "Happy Boulders" for an afternoon session this was a great introduction to one of the main areas here. Unfortunately I couldn't get a Guide book as the old one is not being printed and the new one isn't out for a month or so, so I don't know all the names of problems. I started off with some easier highball problems to get used to the rock and become comfortable, they where great big face climbs . I ended up meeting up with Scott a local who took me to the "Happy Boulder" where i flashed a nice problem which starts on a big hueco on the left hand side and traverses right past "The Hulk" and up the right aret. It was fantastic, big huecos through the traverses and smaller ledges to jugs up the aret. After this i was completely warmed up, and moved on to climb "The Hulk" a classic V-6 in a few tries. I was starting to get pumped at this point and moved on to some cool downs to end the day. What a great first day in Bishop.

Today I woke up to a perfect clear sky and was motivated to get an early start. I arrived at the trailhead where I meet Ian another local. He took me to the "Rave Cave" where we did a few warm ups on near by boulders. I then climbed the sit start to "Rave" a V-7 on my second go, I was extremely happy with this as i hadn't expected to get it this easily.
We then spent a while working a hard start move that branched into two problems. Ian was working the V-12 which he he'd done the V-11 stand start last week. I was trying an easier V-10 which the crux move was the first move, It was really hard and neither of us manged to do the first move, we where fairly close though. After this we moved to the "Happy Boulder" where some of Ian's friends where working Prozac, a variation of "The Hulk" where you skip a large key hold. Everyone was trying different things; technical reaches, bad slopers or a large dyno. After watching them try a few times i thought I'd try the dyno and manged to hit the hold right away, It then took about and hour of trying before i manged to hold on after the massive dyno. This problem is said to be V-10 but i feel with my sequence its not that hard, although everyone else struggles with this beta. There was some video taken of a few of my attempts so if i get a hold of it I'll post a link. Whatever the grade i am supper psyched to have sent it. I ended the day with a burn on "The Hulk" and a few easy cool downs.

A crazy fairy ring i spotted at a rest area on the way

On the way back to The Pit today

2010-02-01T15:38:00.000-08:00

Seuss at three Months

Now at just over 4 Months

Getting going!

2010-01-29T15:42:00.000-08:00

So I left Nelson almost two weeks ago, but alas I'm still in Canada and haven't yet touched stone. At the moment I'm in Victoria visiting with Yannick (my brother) and some friends who recently moved here. I have really been enjoying my time here relaxing, going for long walks with Suess, and working on getting back into shape after a Christmas season with little climbing. The weather here has been fairly mild which has been a nice change, I even manged to put shorts on one morning, although it seems to have turned to grey sky's for now. Seems climbing outside will be out of the question.

I have been Climbing with Yannick and some of his friends at Boulders, a local gym catered towards students with its cheap rate of $5.25 and there friendly staff. It has been nice to climb in a new facility. Although Boulders is quite a small gym (a little bigger then Gravity) with not very tall walls it boasts some excellent route setting and some great bouldering including a 25ft+ 40 degree tunnel which creates a route like feel with out the need of a belayer (perfect for those solo sessions). Boulder's also has plans for a new building which would make it the only wall in Canada suitable to hold a National or International level competition. I believe they hope to have the wall complete by the end of 2012. The initial plans are posted at the gym and its looking rather impressive, I can't wait to see the finished product.

I'm just waiting on a few things before I can head out. A new laptop charger is in the mail (thanks Suess for chewing the old one) and I have a physio on Monday as my knee has been acting out. If all goes well I hope to be leaving mid next week. I will soon be putting pictures of my van and Suess up. Can't wait to get on the road again, first stop Bishop, Ca.

Blogging

2009-12-06T15:05:00.000-08:00

Hi
I just decided to create a blogg as i felt it would be the best way to comunicate and keep people updated with what im up to. I'm currently hoping that the Ford Econoline van I'm wanting to buy checks out with the mechanic on tuesday. If this is the case i will be heading south to warmer climated to get climbing again! Il keep you posted.