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