Little Cottonwood Canyon

When we were in Salt Lake City I cruise up to Little Cottonwood a couple evenings. I'd been to LCC on hot summer days a few years earlier and while I really wanted to like the area I had a hard time finding things to get psyched on that didn't feel like grease pits. This last time I had a little more direction from friends and while the temps were less than ideal they enabled me to make it up some great problems (Bear-hug, Surpise, Lance's Dihedral, Twisted, and the Buzz where a few of my favorites).

Here are a few pics

Lina on Twisted

Prairie on what I think is called Lance's Dihedral.

Shingles

David on Surprise

Shivers

Idaho's Castle Rocks

About 7 years ago I was working in Idaho and took a weekend trip to the brand new state park called Castle Rocks. I spent my first day in running shoes, sprinting from boulder to boulder and wandering around the sizable park. That day I hiked for about 10 hours and while the majority of the rock was mediocre I did find some gems here and there but it wasn't until the very end of the day that the hiking really paid off as I stumbled upon an incredible roof. I went back to that roof the following day, climbing one of the obvious roof climbs and bailing off the balancey topout of the most striking line on the boulder. Since that day I've had that boulder in the back of my mind, filed among the places I'd like to return to. Well it has certainly took awhile but I finally made it back to Castle Rocks.

That roof from years ago was of course discovered by others who dubbed it Taco Roof and established a multitude of problems that generally fall in the high end. My return trip didn't diminish the impressions lets from years early and the line I'd left undone went down first try (it's called The Smell and is one of the better problems I've done in awhile). My buddy Mike McClure then proceeded to showed us around to Castle Rocks other world class block just a couple minutes away where we spent the remainder of the day doing more classics and collecting projects for the next time we return. It was fantastic and made me want to spend more time in the area.

Here are a few pics.

Find Lina warming up

Mark on the Green Wall

Mark on the fun roof climb "Heart and Cock'n'Balls"

Mark on "The Smell"

Mike toward the end of the his heinously long project. He's about 15 moves and halfway through the problem.

Me on some unknown problem. Great line and movement but a bit crumbly. I encountered lots of good lines that required some cleaning and traffic. Too bad all the rock in Castle doesn't match the quality of Taco Roof and the Green Wall.

This one is actually from Swan Falls. Mike on one of his newer problems.

Oregon

After scoping out the Bay area we bombed up to Ashland, OR to visit our good friends Beasty and Skaggs. I of course searched the web for climbing nearby and managed to drag my friends out for a couple hours. The bouldering around Ashland was limited but the company was top-notch and I did manage to scrape up a sweet problem that I though would be our warm up. The weekend was filled with beer drinking and endless rounds of a game called Cornhole. Good times.

Afterward we made a brief stop in Bend to break up a long drive East and get in a brief session at a small basalt area. I really like climbing on basalt but I wish it created bigger boulders. So it goes.

We are currently in Boise, ID and will be heading down to Salt Lake City in a couple day. Our whirlwind tour should take us to Joe's Valley, Grand Junction and Fort Collins in the next couple weeks. Life on the Road.

Beasty at the Ashland boulders

The lone boulder in the small Bend area. It may be lacking in size but it packs quite a punch with several good lines surrounding the boulder, surprisingly offers more than just one move wonders.

Lina on a slab-dyno in Bend

Lina crimping in Bend

Castle Rock

Been a little lacks about on the blog as we've been pretty mobile as of late and not doing quite as much climbing (only 3ish days a week). I'll try to get our adventures up to date.

So after chillaxing in Malibu for a few days we headed up to Davis and Berkeley so Lina could meet some professors and I could inspect the local bouldering. Long story short, the universities where more promising than the bouldering. So it goes.
We did manage to make it down to Castle Rock for some slopey sandstone. Ryan and Ngan toured up around to some of the gems and I agree with the "Font like" description I'd heard applied to the area. It was super fun and will make a great circuiting area should we move to the Bay.

Here's a couple pics of Ngan milking some slopers.

More Bishop Pics

Lina in the Pollen Grains

Lina on the Ruckus

Dev on Saigon Direct

Me on Finders Keepers

Carnage Collection

Here's a few pics of blood and gore I've collected over our time in the States.

Greg after backhanding the rock

Goldie Locks makes a point

Tiger elbow

Fingertip

Flapper

Eyeball

A Few of the Crew

The weather chased us out of Bishop a few days early so we headed back down to Malibu for a little r and r. To be honest the break is quite welcomed as tendons and skin are worn near the breaking point and the benefits of sleeping inside are rejuvenating to the soul. Bishop was great as the weather was close to perfect during our time there and the solid group of friends that filtered in and out made things enjoyable. The climbing of course was great and we collected new projects and dispatched with some others. It'll be nice to return to Bishop and some point next year and spend a month or so wandering around in the Sierras.

As for now we are planning the next leg of our journey. From Malibu we will head up the coast to Davis and Berkley, checking out the towns as possible post-doc locations and sampling the local bouldering. The initial plan to travel through the Pacific North West has been nixed as our time in the States has shortened. Instead we'll pass briefly through southern Oregon on our way to Boise and then Salt Lake City. We hope that good weather prevails.

Here are some pics of only a few of the folks that have made our trip wonderful.

Mustache

Say cheese!

hahaha

So hot right now

ahhhhhhhh

grrrrrrrr

Like oh my god!