GL2

I'm back!  My second Evolv tour of the Great Lakes was a success; the van didn't break down, weather was good, and I made a few friends along the way.  I left Chattanooga headed for Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Missouri.

Here's a picture story courtesy of my iPhone....

And there you have it.  Chandler and I are at the RRG right now.  BooYahhh!

Cheddar.

NURPU Event

I am on the road this week doing a round of Evolv demos in the Great Lakes region.  The first state on the list was Indiana.  I had the privilege of hanging with the Hoosier Heights crew on night #1 of my tour.  This gym has a great scene...always psyched to visit and can't wait until the Indianapolis location opens!

Next stop on my tour was  The Ruckus at NURPU, located just 2 hours north of Hoosier Heights on the other side of Indianapolis.  I spent the weekend "camping" at the shop for what ended up being an awesome event despite the first grey day of grim rainy weather.  These guys have a truly unique and genuine gear shop.  Anything you could ever need is in there.  Day two made for a great day to have your camera out.   I think I took one of my favorite pics ever while trying to capture the splash of a fly fishing line hit the water during a demo.  It took several attempts, instructions, and direct hits to my camera to get it.  I'm super psyched this guy worked with me....and was on point!

Next stop is Vertical Endeavors in Warrenville, IL just outside of Chicago.  Then I head to WI and MN before I turn south toward St. Louis and Climb Soill. 

Wish me luck.

Cheddar

Spring is here!

Welp, just when we all thought life would suck for the next four months of summer....Spring shows it's beautiful self and blesses us all.  The last month has been completely crazy.  It started off with a trip to Ohio and Kentucky that ended at the Red River Reunion.  Miguel's did it RIGHT this year.  The weather was good, improvements to the campground, and live music made this one of my favorite events that I have been too in a while.  The Frenchies were all there speaking all that French and stuff and making me feel weak by never falling.  Envy.  Peep the pics....

Enzo Oddo and his signature Sterling purple Nano flashing Dracula 8a.

Some dude on Paradise Lost 7c+/8a
I did this one!!!

Warren Hulsey on Hellraiser 7b+

I finally found a hard route to try.  Yeeeeehawwww!!!!  Unfortunately, it's an hour away.  Wilcutt's Abandon .13c is a newly bolted addition to the concave, which is pretty rad.  Psyche is high, but I just left for two weeks after my best go yet.  Bummer.  I'm in Indiana and the rest of the Great Lakes region for another round of Evolv demos.  Wish me luck.  

Abandon 8a+
 Photo by James Pullum

On a more depressing note, I've been having some back pain and what I just found out was radiating pain to my stomach and should blades.  I finally sought some treatment after a month of self diagnosis and rehab.  The chiro x-rayed and explained that I have 4 thinned disc between my T10 and T6.  NOT PSYCHED!  I can't deny the x-ray. Even I could see that the space between vertebra had thinned.  However, I wanted a second opinion.  I gave my friend Adam Macke a call and got all assessed and what not from a muscular perspective.  He was a huge help in pinpointing weaknesses and imbalances that may have caused this to happen to my back.  He does something called muscle activation techniques that re-fire those muscle our brain has lost contact with after not using them regularly. Very interesting and kinda fun when he was working on me.  So, I look forward to working with him and hope it is the ticket to recovery.

That's all for now.  

Cheddar.

Transition

As we make our selves aware that the last attempts on our boulder projects were futile, we try not to care.  For some of us, it simply marks the point at which we decide to make the transition from testing our strength to testing our endurance.  And this is the case.

 I don't know how or when it happened but we totally skipped over the end of winter and went straight into spring, leaving me searching, wondering what to focus energy towards. This time last year temps were still decent for bouldering or hard sport and very nice out.  So, we tied in early this year....and I'm psyched!  I usually spend a few weeks climbing on long quickly sendable routes, building up my endurance for the time when I find a project to work.  This time around, however, our time has been cut short....not psyched.  We had nice weather about two weeks ago, but that is long gone and it is simply too hot for small holds.  The only solution I can come up with is to chase the shade around the steeper cliffs in search of hard moves on better holds.  This game is always tricky this time of year.  The temperatures rise as do our high points on our route of desire.  So, the question is do you fight the conditions and will it out?  Wait till the fall?  My attitude has taken on a breezy characteristic.  I have no attachments and will go where ever with the crew to scope out and try anything.  Bring it on!

Here are some pics of Preston and Blake on Apes on Acid .13d

That's all for now.

Cheddar