ROUTES!!!

The season has changed and I am welcoming it.  The days of waking up to freezing conditions wondering which problem I will dedicate a weeks worth of skin to is over.  As the Redbuds bloom and grass turns green most of us here in the south are pulling the ropes out of the closet and heading to the sport crags.  We talk the same, rally troops and heckle, and even begin our days the same as those in the winter, at Greenlife.

Jacob Fellers at the 300 boulder chilling in the sun.  

And we are PsYchEd!!!  The concave has been a hot spot recently.  Mini projects are going down as fitness is gained.  Tim Hinck, Mark Williams, and I have been frequenting the area trying to get our fix while the ideal sport climbing weather lingers.  Tim and I were both able to fire Silverman .13b, which is a nice linkup that offers really nice sustained sequences separated by a decent rest.  WORD!  Word up actually.  That's the name of one of the proudest lines at the crag.  The name of the game is recovery.  This super steep, near horizontal .13b climbs the left side of the belly of the concave for a solid 50ft of .13a (the word) to finish out with a 20ft section of lock offs on edges as the concave's bulge turns.  I am hoping that one goes down the next time I'm there.

Crux of Silverman .13b

Tim Hinck on Hooligans .13b

Tim Hinck on the Man Show/Silver-whatever you want start.

Mark Williams on Showboater .13b

Laban Swafford on The Word .13a

Other than the sport climbing action not too much is new.  Although, I did buy a van!  Ford Club Wagon up in this BiAtch!  So stokes to have this big rig.  I built a raised bed and threw a futon mattress on it and added some curtains.  Next on the build list is a bench/storage box and maybe a nice housing for a cooler that also doubles as a bench seat.  ???  We'll see.  

Ole Silverado.  What was this guy thinking?  Krusin Karts?  Ha!

So, that rig got Alex M. and I to The Red River Reunion and that's about it.  When we got there the radiator was dumping coolant from more than one spot.  GRRRR!!!!!!  It could be worse though, we were in the red river gorge so we went climbing.  

Alex on a belay shift.

Todd Clark on Kaleidoscope .13c

We tried to leave on Sunday and didn't even make it a mile down the road.  Damn.  So, we got towed to the only shop that was "open" on Sunday, which wasn't really open.  Turns out the the thermostat was stuck shut, which was preventing coolant flowing to the engine.  Sheesh!  The good news is that we got another day of climbing at one of the best areas in the world out of it. 

So, I'm back home now and well, headed back to Kentucky!  I hope to be at Miguel's early tonight and climb Saturday and Sunday before Kurt Smith and I take off.  The plan is to leave from Miguel's Sunday evening and head north to the Great Lakes so that we can introduce ourselves as the new Evolv reps for the region.  BOOM!  We'll be doing demos and clinics with the top accounts and hopefully opening a few new ones.  We shall see.....

Cheddar.