Friday, November 28, 2008

Kelly Canyon

Flagstaff, AZ is still tops on my list of best bouldering towns in the USA. The quality and variety are exceptional with several different types of stone and styles. Throw in the added bonus of new areas popping up all the time and year round climbing conditions and it's hard to find a better place to live.
Here are a few pics from Kelly Canyon, one of the larger sandstone areas.


Jenny slapping the slops on the incredible undercling problem

Jason testing the fiction

Jenny sending the classic trailer park arete

Ashley eyeballing the next grip

Upside down climbing

Coming to the States not only provides brilliant weather but the opportunity to get my roof climb on. So far we've just been hitting up some of the old stomping grounds and repeating some of the classics. Here's a little vid of three roofs from NM and AZ. Enjoy.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Box Canyon and Pie Town

So I have been doing more than just birding here in the States. Here's a few pics from Box Canyon near Socorro, NM and a word from Pie Town.

The recently broken and much harder cow shit cave

Warming up in the steam bed

Lina on the gimme arete

The Dirty Bird and Prairie looking bummed

Why we call it Pie Town

Bosque del Apache

Here's a couple pics from the sunrise with the birds.


The birds waking up


Rise and Shine

Dad imitates Godzilla while snow geese eat breakfast in the background


The Fly Out

Bosque del Apache is a national wildlife refuge outside Socorro, NM. We drove there before sunrise to watch the "fly out". There are usually more birds this time of year but it was still pretty cool.
Enjoy the short vid.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Back in the USA

Sleeping two hours the night before I left Sweden and managing to stay awake for most of my flight put me in a zombie like state when I finally landed in NM at 1930. It was all part of a careful calculations designed to minimize jet-lag and I slept like a baby until 0545 the next morning when Dave (aka Pants), Claude, and myself rolled out for an early morning session before they headed to work.
The steep rail feature we tackled as the sun started to rise was a bit too hard for us, but climbing in a t-shirt at 0630 under clear blue skies put a smile on my face and reminds me why I come here for the winter.


Rocking the top of the rail


Claude on the start while Pants spots in his underwear (don't ask)



Friday, November 14, 2008

Slab-Dyno on Tjörn

Here's a short film of last Saturday's slab-dyno session on Tjörn

Monday, November 10, 2008

Tjörn

The Swedish weather has taken a turn for the worst. Last weekend we flocked to Tjörn in an attempt to find dry stone. We were partially successful as a few problems dried up with a little help but the rest remained wet for the duration. Here's some pics of mostly dry problems at Utsikten, Tjörn.

Martin on a sweet arete

Martin on a slab dyno

Lina testing her slab-dyno ability

Aja eyeballs the jug on the slab dyno

Henrik on Animal

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Ground Control

Last autumn we rallied pads to a highball arete in Utby. It took awhile to crack the beta and muster the courage but after all we said and done a new classic was put up. Emil nabbed the fa using the tall-man sequence (and an epic topout) and I got the second ascent with the short-man beta. Here's a little vid. Enjoy.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Buddha Rhubarb Butter

On Sunday 5 of us packed in a car and went to Boxvik. I got some good footage of Tompa on Buddha Rhubarb Butter but he somehow managed to not do it, falling off the top 3 times. You can't get much closer and he had to endure our harassment for the remainder of the day. If Tompa doesn't do it next time I'll be surprised, and continue to ridicule him. Until I get some good footage of a send you'll have to settle for this unexciting vid of me on the FA from a couple weeks ago.