Caught up in the GAME!

The Triple Crown isn't a mystery to any climber in the South East. I've never heard any bad news about it, always run very smoothly. Here is the situation I'm in.

Rolling up to the first leg on the Triple Crown I knew climbing "advanced" would be a hard task. Being the first time to ever be in NC much less climbing a new area, 10 of my best would be proud. I feel like this mindset is what makes competition fun. I had tons of fun, executing moves in the best manner to save skin and energy. Ending up climbing harder than I ever thought.

Now, here we are at HP40 for the second comp. I have tons of the "advanced" problems wired. I will say I hadn't tried/sent any of them before these past 2 weekends. My chances of screwing up is as good as anyone. This isn't competing, this is winning, with out getting bumped.

Now look at the open category. A competition for me for sure, the guys who will win open will warm up on my projects. This isn't fun either.. But is that how the Advanced guys feel? To know you can't keep up with locals is enough to make me not want to spend the $60 to compete.

I hate the fact that I have to "Down Play" my climbing. Not trying my hardest, just climbing what I have to do to win, and not get bumped. A month ago climbing 1o v6-v8 at hp would have been laughable. It isn't like I have been running a circuit for the past 3 years, and now I wanna get some free gear.

If I win, I sandbagged.. If I lose, I should have done the problems I didn't want to do and get bumped. . . I don't know if I'm cut out for this climbing comp thing.

I'm rambling... What ever, I am going to HP to climb hard, talk shit, and have fun.

What is this cold you speak of?

First cold weekend climbing! I actually numbed out on routes Saturday! Felt close on what has turned into my main project. Brooks walked silverback with the worst beta, but strongest form.

Headed to Horse Pens Sunday morning to find the sun bright, temp in the 40's/50's, and the friction super sticky. Everyone was super motivated and trying there hardest. Like they had a secret, and no one else needed to know about it.

Hound Ears was a great experience to base bouldering on... I found out I can send at least 10 problems v7 and higher in a day. . Not to mention it was my first time to be at Hound Ears. So, now when I go to a local crag, I should have no problem to do the same EVERY time.

I agree with a Handy Cap given to the locals at each crags. Like I said, 10 of my best shouldn't be hard to repeat since it's 45 min from the house. I wouldn't want to compete if I went across the country to compete, and know I was going to lose to the locals. I know on routes, that I have dialed, I can climb and feel absolute NO fatigue....

I don't know where this was going. But here is a video of me doing Cadillac Thrills at HP40. This thing is really good, and was a big feat for me. Last January I couldn't do the first move, I haven't been back on it until yesterday. Went down in the fastest manner of 3 tries!!! Psyched..
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DCzrxNJkX6zE&h=031301dc4c8c08b458ea0dcf7bba48a4
Thanks Chris for the video!

Last Call

Where to start....



Huge weekend! Big props for everyone coming out, this was my first Triple Crown to attend.. I see why this event is the biggest in the States.


Thursday
Me and Joe head out around 4:00... One missed turn and allot of shit talking later, we arrive at Boone... Where "Last Call" means last call.



After catching a few hours of desperate sleep, Brooks and Natalie arrive to show us our home for the weekend. It just so happens Natalies sis lives in Boone...




Friday
Coffee, food, and CSI... I know

Early registration leads to an awesome feast of bbq and shrimp. After the feast we attend more shit talking, to a whole lot of nervous pretending to be asleep sleep....

Saturday

Wait in this huge line of hippies to hop on a hopefully rental van with the most psyched guy I may have ever met. Hearing the F word from this guy was insperational.


After the stratigicly packed uhaul truck unloads the pads, we treck up hill to only stand in a longer line with more hippies. With no game plan in mind, the crowd splits...



The Hound Ears map did me about as good as a guy translating French in Russian.


Me and Joe followed the crowd only to find the HUGE boulder field that was hidden behind the Billion dollar mansions... The first boulder we saw was the fuc yo boulder. I didn't care what the rest of Hound Ears was like, I was satisfied.



4 min of warming up I found out that I don't do so well infront of 400 people. I wouldn't try the v0, because I was afriad of failing! Hard to explain, but I couldn't just climb.



I see the pads stacked 10 deep infront of this highball... After fighting through the 12 guys with chalk pots, I finaly get to see the label. Jaws 2 Direct V8. Still in the overwhelmed phase, I hop on and find my self at the top with ease! PSYCHED! First boulder problem of the day and a solid flash for me. Topping out and running around with a big grin, I have to compose my grin to a minor smirk.

Directly behind Jaws was Fuc Yo v9... My grin quickly turned into an O face as I watched 5 different guys flash the low start The Crusher v10. Very impressive.



Building up the guts to hop on the train, I get on with the worst style and fall on the last move to the lip. Next go I find my self scared to death as im cowardly screaming "GOOD SPOT!!" I fight my way to the top. 20 minutes I had done more than I thought I would throughout the whole day.













The rest of the day flew by, only to find my self 3 climbs away from filling my 10. I end up running down the hill with one of the judges "Andrew" and climbing all 3 within 20 minutes. A proud feat at the end of the day. Not to mention the up hill run to be the LAST one to turn in my card...


Good time to mention as I added my card (in the fastest manner) I hit the wrong button and just wrote down a number that I thought was close to what I had. Around 7000 points. I still have no clue what my total is. . . .

Finishing the night off with Quiznoe's, EZB rapping, and one of the best bands of all time... I was ready for bed.



Sunday


After the long drive home recapping all the what if's... It was one hell of a trip. A trip I hope to
make every year.










Quick recap:



CSI NY


Sleeping in the Pussy Palace

Joe breakes crux hold on Fuc Yo

Flashed more problems than I did all last season

EZB rapped


Lead singer beat his head with a chalk pot


Winner in Advanced did 3 v9's and didn't get bumped

Nursing 101 on the drive home










Work came early the next morning...


I will see you at Horse Pens!!!!!!!!







PSYCHED

Agree to Disagree

Latest controversy in the climbing community is secret stash crags.

Some of these crags have been closed for 20+ years (almost as old as me) and people have been climbing here for those 20+ years.

Take Chattanooga for example. I can name more closed crags than I can open. . . Not to mention there are more climbers in Chatt than all of Alabama. I guess before they hand over the title you have to take an ethics class on access sensitive areas.

I seem to be number one for pissing people off. Maybe because i'm young and an easy target. Or I come off as some sort of elitist who really doesn't know shit about climbing, but sports an ego on his shoulder. What ever the case is, I don't want to be the guy who comes in and messes things up for people. But I will ask questions. How do you learn the proper if no one teaches you?

If some of these gray areas in AL where in Chatt, they would be no question climbing spots. It amazes me the amount of people who start confrontation here. Maybe it is since we sport such a small group of people, there are no real way out of hiding. Small town hype, that everyone knows everyone (and what they're doing).

The number one answer I get, is to keep your mouth closed. Never mention it. What these guys probably aren't realizing, they are getting OLD! If these ethics keep on, the places will be deserted. Left to only the old guys who wouldn't pass on the knowledge to others, in fear of the places having traffic.

BY NO MEANS am I trying to start an argument with anyone! Only logical questions that I would love to get a rational answer for.

QUESTION:

How can Chatt have 4000 climbers compared to our 100, and not have HALF of the problems?

Home Sweet Home!!

I started out camping in a old walmart tent in the back yard when I was about 8 or 9.. I took a long break before I found climbing. Then, I purchased one of the killer hammocks at the outdoor store that I thought was the best thing ever invented. The cold nights and back aches soon took me back to the store to buy a nice 4 person tent.

While the tent was nice, cozy, and very dry... I found out that tents get cold, and the rain doesn't care if your trying to pack up your tent or not.

I recall one weekend when i was camping at Sand Rock and the rain came during the night, all night.. Hard rain, thunder, and of course lightning. That rain continued through out the next day. Being an in experienced camper, I had zero rain gear. You know the south only sells cotton..

So, as the rain grows, so does our anger. Soon enough I manned up. I got out and started breaking down the wet, muddy tent. In a down pour of nasty, cold rain. Finishing up with a nice slip into the mud and packing my keys up into the tent. I was a not so happy camper driving home.

That was the last night I slept in a tent!

The next weekend came the craggin wagon. I bought a hard shell camper to go on my truck. Within a few weeks, I had a respectable crashing spot under anyones terms. The craggin wagon stood up to all types of weather and events. I spent two months in Kentucky sleeping out of it half of the time. Life was good!

And now, im sitting in my new trailer! I purchased a 26ft dutchmen travel trailer. This thing has everything and more for me. 3 beds, shower and toilet, microwave, stove and oven.. not to mention plenty of room for EVERYTHING.

Need less to say I found out along time ago that I climbed better with a good nights sleep. I keep moving up in terms of comfort, but hell, it's raining right now. All I gotta do is go to sleep! I will do a full spray down on the trailer later this week. Pictures of everything soon to come. I know it will never be as cool as The Hippy Van, but one can only dream!

I will see you guys out there.. probably with a full stomach of bacon, eggs, and biscuits.. a wet head from a HOT shower.. and watching dosage v on the flat screen to get pyched... And hell yea im braggin, IM PSYCHED!!!

Old Rusty Ethics

I would say 70% of the first bolts in the canyon are in bad shape, rusted, stripped, loose..etc. That means 7 out of 10 routes have ATLEAST a bad FIRST bolt on it. Thats usually the one noticed the most, because of the stickclip nature. When I was talking to the MAN about the stories of him and others bolting these routes, we both realized that 90% of the routes where bolted around 10-15 years ago.

I was asking how hard it was to go through the channels and get the permit for replacing some old bolts. He assured me that with his permission I wouldn't have a problem getting out there. He didn't understand why I wanted to rebolt..

He said things like:

People will not give you the respect you think you will get for bolting.

The canyon doesn't get enough traffic to matter. The bolts are fine.

Don't waste your time.

When I started thinking about all this I soon realized that there is NO ONE out there doing this service. Refrase, no one in the new age climbers. I am not taking any respect away from the select few older guys who still make the journey with a hook and gun. It's like the baby boomers of the climbing generation. The only pattern I see differently is people putting up hard routes, not rebolting the ones they know they will not fall on.

The number of people climbing in the canyon is rising as well as the risk of people getting hurt. With a decade of old steele hanging from the canyons sand stone, we need to make a change, so we will become the next generation of people who take care of these places. If we don't who will?

The most beautiful name in the world...

The epic I find my self sifting through weekly, is routes and there names. Most of the places I climb at have no guide book, no real concensious on the grade, and mostly NO NAME!! I find my self describing routes by trees, streaks, features, spiders.... Why not a name??? Especially some of the routes that would be 4 or 5 stars anywhere, have a name like "the warmup" "the 12""the route on the arete"... If there is a named route on the wall, it's the only reference point.. Everyone has ?????? on the 8a card....

What's the ethics? Can you name a route that you didn't do? For example, the past two routes I have been on at Adam's have been stellar. . If you ask Adam what there called, he will probably say something like " Capt Dick Head, put that on your 8a".... He doesn't name ANYTHING! The way Hp40 problems got named can make a grown man cry. Does the name even matter to people. Is it just a way to decipher a route? Or do people really put meaning in the name...

ETHICS? I named a route that I did the other day, for the sheer fact that it wouldn't get named if I hadn't. In this case, we think I was the first to do it. But who knows? It deff takes away from a route if it doesn't have its own name.

Question: Can you name a route that you didn't get the First Ascent on? (with the respect that the equipper didn't and wouldn't name it).