Bummin in Bishop The Video

Here it is after a lot of trying to edit, upload, re-edit, and post! Hope you enjoy!

Bummin in Bishop

Okay so I've had a little writers block lately and haven't been able to come up with how to describe our latest outing to the south. So, let me just start out by saying that those of you who haven't been to Bishop CA then you're truly missing out on one of the most amazing places to climb, hang out, and enjoy some breathtaking scenery. This year was my second time around and the first for Kaylene and Dan.
On our first day there we decided not to venture too far from "The Pit" (climbers campsite) and head just down the road to that Happy Boulders. As we made our way up the steep and sand covered trail memories of the year before clouded my mind and excitement filled both Kaylene and Dan's mind (I'm pretty sure at least). We summited the trail and made our way back deep into the boulder filled canyon pointing out all the recognizable features and routes, "ohh look up there, Atari!" and "this is Heavenly Path boulder". But we kept trudging past making it almost to the end of the main trail where my project of last year sat, Carrot Top V3 on The Fred Boulder. My first thought as we stepped up to size the problem was "I can't remember these boulders being this big!" Climbing around in SEIdaho has kind of skewed what I thought was tall and what wasn't. Everything in Bishop is a highball in comparison. This year the problem gave me little trouble and I actually flashed the thing, muscle memory lasts I guess? Dan could get all the moves and almost flashed it too but the top out gave him some troubles so we created a way to mark if we finished the route or just got to the top hold with a "-" next to the route in the guide. So we marked it like this: C (carson) D (dan) K (kaylene). In the Happy's for the whole trip it summed up as Carrot Top: D-, Cf. (f for flash), Celestial Trail: Cf, Df. Mmm... Nice: K. Up Your Skirt, Left: C, D. Up Your Skirt, Right: C. Kaylene's route on Savannah Boulder: K. And we also worked some other problems but were shut out. Dan and I found a wonderful V2 on the Savannah Boulder called Kling and Smirk with some of the dopest moves I've ever worked before. It starts with a perfect match undercling then moved out left to a deep and far jug followed by a right hand into a DEEEEP pocket, then the crux, a left hand up to a sloper get a heal up on the side of the wall to a right cross into a pinch, readjust your feet and BOOM! launch out to a far ledge to your left... This is where we were defeated but it WILL be sent next year. (Video of us working it will be posted soon).

Dan workin' the sit start on Up Your Skirt, Right V2

Kaylene stepping up on Carrot Top V3

Making my first and only attempt on The Hulk V6 (beautiful!)

As the days went on and started to blur together we would go from the Happy's to the Buttermilks everyday. We never made it to the other spots like The Dreamers, Druid Stones, or even The Sad Boulders because I felt that Kaylene and Dan both would like to work the best of the best in the little time we had to spend out there. On our day's out at the Buttermilks we definitely made the best of it going to all the classic problems like Green Wall Essential and Kaylene's pronounced project the Buttermilk Stem, a beautiful test piece thats starting move is one of the most difficult to solve. Kaylene worked and worked and worked it until her palms actually bled! They call this problem "the palm eater" for obvious reasons. Overall the Buttermilk standings went like this: Birthday Left: C, Df. Buttermilk Stem: C, D (soon to be K). Essential Peabody: C-, this one needs some explanation though, this problem is on the Grandma Peabody one of the 2 largest boulders in the Buttermilks standing at around 40-50 ft. tall and as I made my way up the route I got to the lip (which is around 15 maybe 20ft up) and made the move to the last hold, and when I got up I reached my hand into the deep hueco pocket only to find my hand half submerged in water!! making the top out near impossible without chalk so I was forced to down climb and drop... giving me the C-... anywho! Green Wall Essential: C.

Grandpa Peabody in my hands

Kaylene's crazy legs on Buttermilk Stem V1

If the bad ass climbing isn't enough for you then maybe the lure of meeting new people and sharing bad ass climbing memories with them may be your thing! On our second to last day on the trip we were in the Happy's heading to find something to work on when we past a group of guys working The Hulk, we must have pasted them 5 times and each time they would ask if we wanted to work their problem with them, but we would decline and move on to something else. It wasn't until the last time that we past them when they asked where we were camping out at and if we'd like to chill with them, so we did what anyone else in Bishop would do, invited them over for beers and the warmth of a fire. Ryan, Dane, and Josh a group of friends who got to Bishop the same day as us and stayed the same length of time as we did and were in the same campsite.. Was it destiny that we'd climb with these guys and make some new climbing buds to plan trips with? maybe. We swapped stories and talked nonsense to each other making funny noises or saying anything random that pop into our nogs. The next day we met up with our newly found climbing friends at the Buttermilks and we worked some of the same problems together, such as the Buttermilk Stem. Later we would go to the Happy's and work Kling and Smirk and the Hulk together on our last day in the promised land. (Videos will be posted later).

Dan showing off his Jugs while Dane plays a sweet drum solo!

Ryan and Josh posing in front of The Hulk

Ryan sticking the crux on The Hulk V6

Overall the trip this year was great! We met some rad guys, climbed some WAY rad routes, and experienced life the way it was meant to. So again to all of you who haven't made their way down south then you're missing out, GET DOWN THERE! ASAP! and remember:

"We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character".

~Henry David Thoreau

If you'd like to see more pictures check em out on Kaylene's Facebook! or just ask for more and I'll post em!

Pre illness climbs

There has been very little climbing and adventuring over here due to upper respiratory illness... aka the coldz.. Luckily, before this plague relentlessly and swiftly came crashing down upon us we were able to go outside and climb some spots I eye ball pretty much every day while driving. Some of you may recognize these local spots. Enjoy!



If you'd rather watch this on a larger screen go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNUXtEZRTbc

Soo? How'd the Competition Go?

I bet some of you are asking yourselves "I wonder how the competition went?" Well ladies and gentlemen instead of writing out the events that took place I thought I would show you. Dyno Dan's going tell you what happened. Dan?



If you'd like to view this video go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8Ea7BcwKZc

Sorry for the viewing troubles!
Enjoy

Thinking Globally, Climbing Locally

As we make our way through the dwindling winter days and short lived warm spring days that are spread far and wide we as climbers look for any window for climbing we possibly can find. Although sometimes this search can lead us indoors we can still come across some great opportunities for something good. Last week we (Kaylene, Dan, and I) went up to good ol' Rexburg to see what we could find. We decided to hit up the bouldering gym inside Sticks and Stones, an outdoor equipment retail store, and all of a sudden an instantaneous feeling of deja' vu struck me right between the eyes. All the routes set were from the previous year's bouldering competition, one I would never forget.

See last year I was just moving back from California, just barely started climbing back up only a few months before the move, and when I got back I had heard of this Comp. and decided I would attend. I arrived there alone with no spotter/partner, an old pair of oversized shoes, and no chalk bag of my own but I was very enthusiastic about how the competition would play out. Near the end of the heat me and another person were fighting for the top out on one last route before time went out. With only one minute left I stepped up to the route, all the moves burnt into my mind, and began to send it. Moving through the first couple moves with little strain I finally got to the last crux to the top out, everyone watching with anticipation, my mind racing from thought to thought I dynamically reached to the final hold trying to squeeze with all my might but fell to the ground unsuccessful and disappointed. I sat on the deck and watched my newly found nemesis send the problem and top out successfully... crushed. All that day while we waited for the other heats to finish and the awards ceremony to begin I kept replaying that last move over and over in my mind and kept thinking to myself, "if I only could've gotten that last hold.." and "maybe I can still take 1st without that route". Finally after waiting all day they revealed the winners list. In my devision at the top of the list there it was, my nemesis who finished that last problem in first place... Myself, forth. By merely missing that last hold it cost me first place position and bumped the other guy up, if the story went the other way and I had finished that route first would have been mine. Although, when they were giving away the prizes at the end because it was raffle style they ended up pulling out my name first! I received first place prize for fourth place!

So back to the present, we were climbing in Rexburg on all the old routes and when I stepped up to that route that had best me one year earlier I climbed it with no fall and in one go (could say it was a flash). It was a lot easier for me this go around than a year ago. We climbed there for the rest of day, Kaylene stepped up to some intense routes and Dan sent a couple. At the end of our session when we were about to leave a fellow climber mentioned to us that Sticks and Stones was having another boulder comp March 20th and all of our eyes widened like little kids starring at a giant jar of jelly beans. This is it, a chance of redemption and a whole new experience for Kaylene and Dan, March 20th here we come! We will post our results after the comp. and we hope you can make it up there to either climb or support the climbers! And remember:

"It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys"

~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Near Death Adventuring

Through out winter climbers that are subjected to cold harsh conditions and constantly snow covered rocks. It makes to sort of a climbing limbo in between the months of February through around the end of April where there will be some days beautiful enough to go out and shred, but then only to be faced with snow storms and high winds the next day and following week. So as you can see there are some problems with climbing in Idaho Falls and we are always on the lookout for open opportunities to get out of the gym and out to the world of the outdoors.

Yesterday was one of those opportunities. Waking up at 9:30 am I was welcomed to the day by rays of sunlight and birds chirping. Although the weather reports on several sites (thanks weather underground.. and weather channel..) indicated snow fall and heavy fog they actually should have said it was sunny, no clouds, and very warm! Grabbing the bull by the horns I called up Dyno Dan and we headed out to Blackfoot Canyon. As we arrived the the top of the crag we noticed that although it was sunny it still was a little cold so we bundled up grabbed the crash pad and gear and headed down into the canyon where the winding blackfoot river runs through. The further we made our way down the warmer it was getting because of the barricading canyon walls that were protecting us from all the elements except the most important, sunlight. We set up base camp and started our session of climbing. Me and Dan both were working on one of the best boulder problems in the canyon, located just down the river by a Fish and Game bridge made of a large wire line thats hung across the river. After I had sent the problem it was still giving Dan some trouble (especially after a crucial foot hold broke..) so we stayed and worked and worked and worked it until Dan respectfully stopped barraging the wall with relentless send attempts. When we were packing up about to leave Dan suggested that we cross the Fish and Game wire line bridge, us naturally being the "MANLY MEN" we are decided to harness up get some carabiners and sashes and totally cross that river Bear Grylls style! Which we did! Which was Dope! But as we were crossing we realized how difficult it was to pull our body weight up the last end of the line and decided that crossing the river back over the bridge would be incredibly hard and tiresome. After that decision we hiked up the river to an ice bridge that seemed like we could have crossed it, but we were definitely wrong, there was a gap in the ice about 4 ft. wide with a very heavy flow of water through that gap... we were stuck. We deliberated over our options and came to our final one, we would cross the 50 feet of frozen river on foot. (you can see where we crossed in the photo below)

In the middle of winter in February on a snowy river bank we stripped down to our bare feet (so our pants wouldn't get wet and cause hypothermia) and we slowly entered the freezing water. Dan got in first and got out last, I was going to spend as little time in that water as possible, but no matter how long we spent in there it didn't change the fact that the water was FREEZING and our feet were extremely cold! We got out of the river unscathed and shivering until we could dry ourselves off and put our dry pants back on... except Dan kept his off because they were wet from a minor slip in the river. Hiking up and out of the canyon half wet, one of us only in his undies we both felt a sense of humility but more so we felt an overwhelming sense of valor, bravery, and manliness. So next time your facing your river of ice remember:

"The secret to happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is Courage."

Thucydides

Recent Re-Discoveries

Today I thought I would share some recent discoveries that Kaylene and I have found. Along with some of our friends we've been able to track down some pretty untapped areas close to home!

Everybody has that "secret spot" as a kid, its a place you and your friends go when your parents told you to go play outside, its the spot you'd spend all day without worry of heatstroke or starvation, and its the place where you could let your imagination run wild. Well this is one of those spots, dubbed Cosmo Canyon some 10 years ago by 3 youngsters, including myself, my buddy Austin, and best bro Dyno Dan (in photo above & below). We would spend hours as children running around exploring the caves and rock formations created by the erosion of volcanic rock.

While the weather gave Eastern Idaho a break from the relentless snow fall me and Kaylene went and picked up my best bro Dyno Dan to revisit long lost Cosmo Canyon. It had been at least 5 years since I had been there, even longer for Dan, and Kaylene had never been there before, so open opportunity was staring us right in the face! As we set foot down into the canyon the hillside of free standing boulders along with a double football field sized wall of rock face took our climber's breath away. Hundreds of opportunities laying lifeless waiting for some good ole human contact. With limited time though we were only able to hike most of the canyon and look for some climbable routes, which we found but had little time to work on making some problems out of them. You can bet though we'll be out there again once the layer of white dwindles enough for us to hike without frostbite on our toes. But until then remember...

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing"

Helen Keller

First Following Fresh

Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to the First Following Fresh! I would just like to give a general overhead to what could would or should be expected from this adventure. We here at Following Fresh...or umm.. me at here...? aim to please you the reader by updates on outdoor adventuring. Me and Kaylene are constantly going out to established crags or out on the hunt for new spots to climb around our local area and would like to share what we've found, where we've been, and where we're about to go!

SO! keep on the lookout! With Spring just right around the corner you can bet we'll be out and about keeping our eyes peeled for a good time. We hope you enjoy Following Fresh and remember:

"One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure"

William Feather