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Nice AK, never too early to get kids out.
Met up with John the Wolf for some trad lines in Val David. Thanks for the belays and have a great time on your expedition out west!
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p.s. I really need to get better at crack climbing, particularly wide cracks.....
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Another awesome day in the most awesome Val David. Fall climbing is ridiculously fun. Val D is a vertical party. Thanks to the québécois hippies passing around the acoustic and running through French standards to Manu Chao, kept my head cool on lead.
Attachment 189065 Had a nice outing on the yellow spur the other day. Fall climbing is so nice with the nice weather and being sorta in shape.
Edit: the mobile uploader keeps messing up the rotation, I can't seem to get it right
that's really nice, colorado was so hot when i was there it was not motivating to get on some routes. would have been nice to get to Eldo.
Quick, non-stoke related question: Is the Myhthos a good shoe for a newish climber? I'm looking for an all-arounder. I live in Tahoe, am not a great climber (sub-5.11 in the gym and sub-5.10 on rock), and am currently top roping and gym climbing, but I have aspirations of doing 5.6 to 5.9 trad stuff around Donner, Lover's Leap, and the Eastern Sierra next year. I have some $50 Mad Rocks that I bought a few years ago and never really used much until this summer. They're comfy, but the rubber seems shitty and they aren't exactly performance-sized. I was set to pick up some Moccasyms, but it felt like they had a bit of dead space even in the painfully tight sizes. The TC Pros sound dope, but they may be a better shoe than I deserve.
Anyhow, here's some iPhone-shot newbie top-roping madness:
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Mythos are great shoes for anyone. TC Pros are also excellent, get what fits you best.
I'd say it really depends on what you want to do with them - mythos's were made for all day trad - now they have been by and large replaced by the TC pro, which is arguably a better shoe.
But if you are doing gym and single pitch sport, you would probably be better off with any one of the major companies sport climbing shoes, like a LS miura, scarpa boostic or tenaya tatanka or oasi - or something along those lines. Whatever fits your foot.
Yea, whatever fits for sure. So many good options for shoes out there. I think the force x is a good all-arounder.
Thanks, guys. I ended up with the Mythos. I'm about a 12 in street shoes but got the 10 1/2, which is snug but was comfortable enough yesterday for 30-45 minutes at a time. They were a little pricey but seem like a good all-arounder for a new climber and a decent shoe to have in an potential climbing-shoe quiver.
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We climbed liberty crack (V 5.10 C2F 1200') a couple weeks ago.
Highly recommended climb! Washington Pass has great alpine rock climbing!
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Trout Creek is also a great place to climb (cracks)
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damn dude, that is a really nice crack. wish i didn't suck at them so bad, i need to get a book or the wide boyz training lab or something.
Great you are getting out more, give me a shout anytime you want to do some things on the east side. As for shoes, comfort is king for long trad routes, especially at the level you (or I) are climb at. I bought some nice shoes for sport climbing while in Italy since I didn't bring my rock shoes (it was a ski trip that morphed into some Italian limestone sport climbing), and while the shoes were great, my feet were miserable. I love my lace up 5.10's for all day trad routes. I had to slip the heel off at each belay in Italy, which makes me nervous since we were right above the Mediterranean Sea, and a dropped shoe would have been washed way.Quote:
Originally Posted by AKbruin
Did my first multi-pitch trad climb yesterday. Surrealistic Pillar (5.7, 270') to Corrugation Corner (5.7, 300') at Lover's Leap.
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Lovers leap is great. Love The Line.
Took my 9 yr old twins on their first multipitch in eldo yesterday:
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Excellent, and a well deserved reward.Quote:
Originally Posted by AKbruin
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I never climbed at Lover's...didn't realize there were routes that long.
My nephew has just started climbing and has become somewhat of a gym rat, and even built a home wall. He asked me to take him out for his first time on real rock and got spanked pretty good. "Where are all the holds?" I told him he wasn't in the gym anymore with color coded climbs. After a couple tries he got the hang of it pretty well and was totally stoked on real rock. So, I couple months later he asks me to take him out again. He had been leading a few gym route and wanted to try it on rock.
I had him follow me on a couple of easy routes, then handed him the quick draws at let him loose. This is Echo Cliffs in the Santa Monica Montains.
This was his first lead, and he flashed it. 5.7 I believe
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...R/IMG_7178.jpg
He led a few more single pitch sports routes 5.6 to 5.8 with no problems.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...R/IMG_7179.jpg
A couple weeks later I get a text that he is going out for the first time on his own and wants a few pages of my guide book copied for him. I get a text back the next day that he ticked a bunch of 5.7-5.8 routes but did a 10a as well, so he is super stoked.
The little fucker will be out climbing me in no time (if he isn't already...ahhh! to be 16 again.)
And just to show it is never too late, he is my 50ish wife cleaning a 5.7 route. She started climbing a couple of years ago.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...IMG_7167_1.jpg
Now my nephew, and wife are so stoked on climbing that we are booked for the Grand in August (we will see the total solar eclipse from high camp.)
Note to AKBruin, still openings on that date if you want to join us (Chad is going as well.)
Very cool. I'm curious as to how that worked. Did they belay you while you lead climbed? Or did you basically solo each pitch and then belay the kids?Quote:
Originally Posted by christoweber
I've only been climbing since July and all of it has been around Tahoe, but I get the sense that Lover's Leap is great. I really dug the horizontal dikes that characterize the place. Not my picture, but here is a Mountain Project photo from the second pitch of Surrealistic Pillar that shows how cool the dikes are:Quote:
Originally Posted by hutash
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Nice job, D! I should make an effort to get the missus out, but it'd be the blind leading the blind at this point.Quote:
Originally Posted by hutash
Man, I'd really love to do the Grand, but I want to do it as a ski descent (maybe through Exum). In fact, it's part of the reason I started climbing this summer. But if you ever want to do an alpine moderate in the Eastern Sierra, Yosemite, or around Tahoe, let me know!
I climbed corrugation corner a bunch of years ago. Sitting into the harness for the last belay station is awesome. Super fun and airy moderate climb.
Two ways to get your wife out climbing...hire a guide and do some easy multi-pitch routes and leave the instruction, and rigging up to him/her (which is what I did for he first big climb), or set a top rope and play on some easy pitches and let her find her way (which I have done several times since, with her and other new/inexperienced climbers.)
I have always dreamed of skiing the Grand, but at my age and ability, it will always be just that, a dream. Which is fine, I don't need to ski things that I could die on. If you change your mind and want to join us you are welcome (if there are open spots for those dates.)
"Very cool. I'm curious as to how that worked. Did they belay you while you lead climbed? Or did you basically solo each pitch and then belay the kids?"
I soloed it all. I had them on one rope which was a bad idea--next time I'll use two. Second twin got creative and went slightly off route and got scared. She was all smiles thankfully when I helped her out and got her back on route. Definitely needed to do some rescue rope work that could have been avoided. Fun adventure, smiles all around at the end.
Just got back from red rocks and some fun climbs
For planning on the grand, avoid the Owen Spaulding if you can. And if you can move relatively fast, do the less crowded petzoldt ridge. Just about as good as the complete exum and way fewer people.Attachment 193781
Ice season kicked off last weekend in NH.
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Beauty, still a little slow here in the west.
Watched a buddy wirebrush this nasty thin crack then send it on gear on his second try, five hours ago; he had been trying to take it down since last summer. Still super stoked! 12a! So rad!!!
Mosquitos were out in force though and black flies are coming... might be my last check in here for another month!
Chris Bennels - I saw some pro post pics of Trout Creek on IG this week, damn does that place still look nice to me.
Had a phone pic:
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Let's play name that climb. Gotta be a classic though.
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Something in Joshua Tree?
This is a gimmee:
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Loose lady
Pinched Rib, but good try. Such a classic right in the Hidden Valley campground at Josh. Everybody turns their body to the right and tries to lay back the dike, but it's easier to turn left and climb it more or less straight on.Quote:
Originally Posted by Idyllwild
ML242, that looks like a classic crack, but no idea what it is. Something in the Southeast?
Damn! So close
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Originally Posted by yeahman
^^No idea, but that looks really, really sweet.
+1Quote:
Originally Posted by auvgeek
Is that Armonk?Quote:
Originally Posted by ml242
No, that's a short and sweet climb at Mont Rigaud called 'What About Bob?'.Quote:
Originally Posted by berko
have you climbed at Armonk recently? I'll be passing through that area but heard there might be access issues?
I used to climb there in the late 80s early 90s when i lived in the Bronx. Stopped going after cars kept getting broken into in the lot.
Nice. You ever get on the palisades?
The crack was kens crack in the gunks for anyone interested.
I had heard that the palisades were banned, but in all honestly, I had no concept of crack technique back then, and it looked broken and greasy as hell from the parkway.
Ken's was my first ever pitch at the gunks in 1986. Cant imagine how polished the ubes must be at this point.
Shaken, not Stirred. Mooses tooth.Quote:
Originally Posted by auvgeek
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A little FR cragging from this weekend. Had the route to ourselves!