New Route at the P-Wall

I have not named the line yet, but it traverses on bolts from Back to the Earth out to the the finish of my mega project named Hopeless (aka High Hopes).
The wall is steep and the traverse is really pumpy. Getting to the finishing moves is a real bear that is for sure and I have taken some fun whippers at the end of the route.
It feels like its 12+ or 13- for sure and I am really excited to have this quality addition to the wall.
I am currently taking ideas for route names. Keep them appropriate please.

There are some Dan Gambino photos of Brian Young and I trying the route and some other wall photos from the P-Wall.

http://www.dangpix.com/pwall%20traverse/index.html

piz : )

Rifle USA - home of the kneebar?

Rifle Mountain Park, Colorado USA. Where the strong come to send (eventually) and the weak come to weep.

First impressions? Way more beautiful than I expected. Rifle is a long canyon with 60-80m high limestone walls on either side (which means there's always shade, even in summer) and a rushing alpine stream running through the middle. The stream is conveniently filled with brown trout so you'll share the campsite with fisherman and camping families. Bring your fishing gear or buy a complete setup for $16 at Wal-Mart like I did.

The camping in Rifle costs $7 a night, plus $5 per car, or buy an annual car pass for $40, which makes sense if you're staying for more than eight nights. Amenities include toilets and firepits. That's about it. The nearest showers and food are in at the town of Rifle which is about 20 minutes away by car, or (better) Glenwood Springs (45 minutes away).

Easy routes? Pfft! Good luck! There's maybe one or two sectors which have a handful of routes in the 5.8 - 5.10 range (17 - 19 or 5c - 6a+). If you're climbing under 7a / 23 / 5.11c I wouldn't bother. Just go elsewhere. But for this grade and upwards (especially the 7c / 27 / 5.12d grades) the place offers some serious quality. To me, the routes all seem hard for their grades. Who cares though when the quality is so good?

Walk-in's vary in length from zero minutes to about 1 minute. Great for lazy sport climbers.

I've found the climbing to be less steep than I'd imagined. With far fewer kneebars damn it. Maybe I'm just not finding them? There's lots of just gently overhanging sectors (which I love) and the routes demand a ton of endurance. There's a lot of polish, so you have to learn to trust those "buttery footholds".

Nearly all the routes have clip and lower anchors which is nice. And nearly all the classics have permadraws like these. These are also nice, although the wear on the biners means that your rope will turn black (from the aluminium oxide) and you should wear gloves when belaying.

So we're one week in and those are my initial ramblings. As for routes, I really enjoyed Beer Run 5.13a and Easy Skankin' 5.12b - both rated as the best of their grade in the wider Crankinverse. And I've fallen in love with The Anti-Phil 5.13b, so I'll see if I can get that sent before we leave.

Enjoy some pics...

So Bush

So, I have been super busy with life these past two weeks. Shooting climbing video with Arcteryx, giving slide shows (Moab and Grand Junction), working with Realtors, training for a trail running race and so on. Sorry for the delay in any blog posts and sharing my life. The funniest thing that has happened lately is that one of my students hid a bottle of chocolate milk under a desk in my classroom long enough for it to curdle and smell. After a few days the room smelled pretty bad. To make a long story short, we found it just before we were going to chop a hole in the floor to find the cause of the smell. After rug cleanings, room cleanings and the works we were at our wits end and. I was about to vomit from the odor as were my students. Glad that one was solved! Talk soon and I will be sharing again after my trail running race in Grand Junction this weekend! piz : )