Life on the Road

I guess I'll start this where I left off.  In the last two weeks I've been climbing non-stop, setting at UrbanRocks, and am now on the road.  After an amazing three days of climbing and partying at the New River Rendezvous I am now on the road doing Evolv demos in Cincinnati, Pontiac, and Ann Arbor.  Prior to the trip I was battling the conditions of the changing seasons.  I had given myself one month to send my little project in Little River Canyon before it got too hot.  After multiple frustratingly wet days, you know the ones when the cliff is sweating due to the extreme change in temperature, I was still able to one hang it.  Then a dry spell came, which was all I needed to dispatch The Man Show .13d.  My hardest route yet for sure.  Not only am I proud to have sent it,  I no longer have to drive an hour and spend $20 on gas.  Yeauh!  So, from here on out I have decided to climb in town until gas gets cheaper and the temps get cooler.

Brent is always psyched.  I was fortunate to have him rally with me on so many questionable days.

And until the temps do get cooler you can find me in the gym or under the shady cliffs of Chatty.  June 3rd is the first of three comps in Evolv's Summer Series at Urban Rocks.  The comp is gonna be high energy with professional setting and formats with an Evolv shoe demo at each one.  Get psyched.  Here are a few pics from the SCS Youth Regionals last weekend.

As for the Rendezvous, I met a lot of awesome people in the industry and climbed on some kick ass cliffs.  The whole Southern Fried Team Evolv was there in full force kicking ass and taking names in the Redpoint, Boulder, and Dyno comps.  Word!  Here are some pics from the event.  I somehow left my camera in the car on both crag days resulting in an unprofessional iphone photo shoot.  

Peep it.

I'll be back Friday night, just in time for Chandler's graduation.  BIG DEAL!  All is good.  I think I'll have a Part 2 of this post ready in the next week or so looking into the trials and tribulations of the life on the road as a rep/climber.  

PeAcE YaLL.  

Shaman Field Tested

Here is a clip I made to get some media out for these cutting edge shoes.  The Shamans are the best shoes I have ever worn.  No questions asked.  I feel like I have the equivalent to Ferraris on my feet.  Smooth lines that contour your foot provide the highest performance and support in all the right places, which is made possible by Evolv's new triple velcro closure and the "love bump".  From my experience climbing in them the last two weeks I've noticed that the quality and durability of production has risen to a new level.  Check your local gym or retailer for availability.

Hope you like it.

  http://evolvsports.com/shaman.htm

Home...is where I want to be.

After a long road trip to The Red River Gorge and The Great Lakes I am home.  I left last Friday and drove straight to Miguel's.  SHyeAh!  The weather was great Saturday and Sunday, lending us perfect conditions for red river pocket pulling.  It was funny to return just 4 days after breaking down and becoming dependent on the community at Miguel's for transportation to and from my broken down van.  I am very grateful of those who helped Alex and I out when we were truly stuck with no way out.  Thank you.

So, there I was again in this amazing river gorge for the weekend.  Climbing was good.  I did another .13a, Beer Belly, which is a nice sustained little route.  It climbs longer than the others on the wall and it maybe one of the better ones.  While Drive By holds some nice routes, the real excitement was over at the Bob Marley crag.  A slew of capable climbers were taking numbers for their burn on Ultra Perm.  I had planned on jumping in for a few goes but when I found out the line was like 6 deep I reconsidered.  Sheesh.  Next time I will try it for sure.  It's always a struggle for me to decide what I want to climb on.  Should I try classic routes I can do in 2 or three tries or maybe put in the work for a future hard send?  The dilemma lies within the amount of climbing I'll be doing.  If I can climb a route from the bottom to the top and fall, then there is a gain in strength at least.  On the other hand, if I'm going to spend two days dogging up a route pulling up my rope and going in direct I might as well be at home where I can visit the crag more frequently.  Does that make sense at all?

Anyway, Kurt and I left Miguel's Monday morning to start our tour of the Great Lakes.  Kurt summed it up like this;  5 days, 5 states, and 2020 miles.  Yep.  We drove a lot.  Each day we'd visit retailers and do demos at the end of the day until the crowds thinned at whatever gym we were visiting.  We saw a lot of rural america and drove right through the industrial land of Michigan.  And just when I thought I had made it home, not 10 miles away from my own fluffy sheets and pillows, my van overheated again.  WTF!?  It was 1am and I had no choice but to get towed home so I could sleep.  The next day would be filled with F words.

 Here are some pictures from the trip.

 And here are some pretty flowers I picked yesterday.

 I'm not feeling very blog-y right now.

Later.

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.  

Jah Video

Here's a little edit of the Jah Natty.

The Haps

Well my car broke down in Boone, Nc on my way back from doing an Evolv shoe demo at App State.  Which ended up not being so bad. With Pat and Jessa's hospitality I climbed for two days while my car was being fixed.  We hit Lost Cove the first day and Grandmother the next. The weather was soooo nice too.  The day I arrived it was dumping rain, the same kind that just dumped on HP40 last weekend.  Then the sky opened up and rocks were dry!  Yes!  I had always wanted to do Matt's Prow and Zen Master ever since Triple Crown of 2009 when I hurt my ankle and was unable to climb any the day after the comp.  From what I saw they are the best of the grade at each boulderfield.  Here are some iphone photos.

Matt's Prow @ Lost Cove

Zen Master @ Grandmother

So, I finally made it back to chatty after a nerve racking 4.5 hour drive back to chatty as I had literally driven my car out of the shop's garage and hit the road.  Sheesh!  

Not two days later I was headed to HP40 for the HP Rocks festival and comp.  Amanda, Alli, and I left Friday around noon.  The temperature was 65 or so and the skies where darkening.  I thought it'd be cool if we stopped at Little River Canyon and The Citadel on the way to get some real rock climbing in.  That is opposed to squirming our way up slippery slopers.  It ended up being a killer day. Amanda did her first lead route, which was Booger .11b.  Boom!  Then I put some burns in on The Word gaining beta each go until I was confident in sending next time. 

All I'm gonna say about HP Rocks is that it rained for a solid 20 hours and the ground was soggy.  Daniel Woods has a clone (Tyler Wilcutt who is now Krusty the Clown).  And the dance party friday night was a mockery of frat parties with all kinds of grinding and dance floor face sucking.  This one guy, and I'm not even kidding, it's a good thing he had his pants on because the girl he was humping would probably be pregnant.  I'm talking hands on the floor and tapping that ass type dancing.  And Nate got it allll on video.  Hilarious.  

Well, yesterday Tim Hinck and I went to the Concave to take care of business.  I sent The Word .13a first try and quickly shifted my attention to Silverman .13b, which was Tim's objective for the day.  This route is all about the recovery.  You can break it down into two sections separated by a three move traverse on decent holds that lead you into the red point crux, 11moves of nonstop pulling on overhanging terrain.  He is pretty freaking close to sending and I hope to follow.  We both got the one hangy, falling a few moves after the rest and sussed out some efficiencies that will save us energy and help us get that much closer to the top.  I'll probably start trying Word Up now too as it also is a pure endurance style route.  PSYCHED!!!!!!!

Cheddar.