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.

Mmmmmm....Coffee

Alright.  Recently I've been on the project grind.  That means not sleeping well, constantly doing a minimal amount of anything physical, and neglecting other aspects of daily life.  My skin has been trashed for two weeks now.  The joints in my fingers ache from a lack of rest and my body feels like it's been beaten slowly by small hammers.

Biggie Shorty has been something like a water hazard haunting me in the back nine of Montlakes' golf course.  Only this one, you start in the hazard and have to climb your way out.  I've always wanted to do this climb, ever since I moved here 6 years ago.  Only recently now though, I have gotten stronger and able to climb at this level.  With that confidence, I thought I should commit to get it done.   This climb kinda represents my anti style too.  Short. Crimpy. I've been able to knock down the hard power-endurance classics more quickly than those of this nature.  After getting sick and having a bad session, I totally wrote this thing off and started concentrating on other climbs, only to return in a different form, solo, where I was carrying two pads, a camera, and motivation to do work until this thing was done. So, it was very satisfying to prove to myself that I could do this thing.  

Here's a video!

With that being done I was amped to go climbing with out the pressure and anxiety of performance and execution.  My homie Preston A.  came up from Atlanta to climb with Kit and I at LRC yesterday.  It was a dirty type work day too.  The day went like this.  Pocket Pool, Scarecrow, The Chattanoogan, The Law, and Dragon Slayer.  Whoa.  I am absolutely destroyed.  Looking at my camera roll I can tell I got more drawn into the session as the day went on because I don't have any pictures from anything after scarecrow.  Damn!  Although, I did get some killer footage of P. on The Chattanoogan.  Psyched for him.  He'll send soon.  

So here they are:

So, I guess I'm psyched on The Law now after making some moves on it and quite frankly, sport climbing and maybe some sessions on the Dayton roof.  Head change.  

Cheddar.  

Some pics

Not much has been going on around here recently.  Rising temps have left the entire southeast biting their fingernails hoping that the winter temps will grace us once more so that we can avenge our failed attempts on projects.

Here are some photos from the past week.

Tomorrow I'll be at Little Rock City in the morning.  If anybody wants to go with just hit me up!

Cheddar.

DONE!

OMG!  When I left the gym in Greenville, SC it was ten o'clock.  The forecast was showing snow from the mississippi river all the way across the southeast.  I had two options.  One was to stay the night in Greenville with some of the nice people from Half Moon Outfitters.  A HUGE thanks goes out to them and Climb @ Blue Ridge gym for promoting the demo and helping out.  The second option was to suck it up, bite my lip, and drive straight into the winter storm that may or may not claim me as a victim.  Well, it's been a while since I've put up a good fight.  Game on.  Whirling winds and the blasting blizzard conditions were no match for my motivation to get back home safely.  Frankly, I don't think I would have been able to handle any mishaps.  The five days of travel and EORA festivities had left me completely fried.  With that said, I made it back in four hours flat.  That could be a new record.  It was two in the morning on Thursday and I was finally flopping onto my own bed.  Shwooh.

Kurt and I spent a lengthy amount of time talking about the game of rep-retailer relationships.  I learned a lot too.  Things are looking good for twenty eleven.

Friksn

My new rope.  9.2 Nano!!!

Geshido  

Optimus Prime Lace-up.  I will definitely where these.

And these.  The Shaman.

Here are two shorty video clips.  One is a problem I did a couple of days prior to the footage and was unable to video the send.  I was kinda bummed not to capture one of the biggest and baddest problems I'd done on video.  Fortunately, we had plans to go back there in the next couple of days anyway.  So, I made it happen and did it up!  The second is a little taste of the trade show.  Consider yourselves attendees of the clinic.

Hope you enjoyed it. 

Cheddar

EORA

I left Chattanooga Friday afternoon around 5 p.m..  BAD IDEA!  Traffic was horrible.  It took me 30 minutes just to get to I-75, which usually takes 10.  Ugh.  I was trying to get to Stone Summit as quickly as I could to session one last time before my week of trade show debauchery.  My session was pretty brief but productive.  I tried hard on the boulder problems and burned out on the campus rungs.  That night I crashed just down the rode at Preston's place, woke up at 6 a.m., and moved forward in my journey to the EORA Trade Show in Greenville, SC.

I pulled up to the convention center around 8:30 a.m., thirty minutes ahead of schedule.  BOOM!  And not a minute later began assembling the best looking booth in the building.  Kurt has this stuff d-i-a-l-e-d!  I couldn't think of a better rep agency to be working for as he truly has built his name into an empire of knowledge and top notch climbing brands.     

Before and After

Sitting in the booth at the end of day two (day one was setup) I am enlightened from what I observed today.  I'd never seen this side of the industry until now.  It's really cool to see the interaction of retailers and reps as they talk about new products and next season orders.  Between appointments Kurt gave me a one on one clinic on the Evolv, Sterling, and Metolius brands.  This gave me a little insight into what each company stands for and how they operate.  Got it!  Cool.

Here are some shots of the last two days.

Until tomorrow's busier schedule, the word on the streets is Super Bowl party at Don Pablo's mexican restaurant.  PSYCHED!  

More to come in the next few days. 

Cheddar

All night long

The past few days have been absolutely exhausting.  Having been filled with hiking all over Chattanooga's hillsides my knees and the arches of my feet are sooo sore.  On Friday, Jimbo, Kit, and I returned with pads to a place we had checked out a few days before. WHOA!  Climbing here is really good.  It's littered with 20-30 ft. roofs that are pocketed and juggy enough to keep most everyone psyched, just don't get pumped! We managed to climb the best lines on what we saw as the best rock.  I know I did three knew problems, which I am very glad to have done.  Projects await as others fall.  We will be back for sure.

Jimmy cleaning up a PJ.

Saturday was interesting to say the least.  With the installation of a nice 8 car parking lot, Pep Boys has made a name for itself calling people from all corners of the south.  I pulled up at about noon and to my surprise there wasn't a spot to be had.  And I wasn't the only one, people were already lining the side of the entrance in an effort to enjoy the serenity of the wilderness just down the Cumberland Trail.  However bummed I may have been that there were soooo many people here the time could not have been better to rally the pads for serious attempts on Salo's Roof.  We KILLED it too!  Andrew and I were focused on the take down.  So, after about 20 minutes of trading burns and refining beta I topped out and Andrew followed soon after.  Perfect.  I am sooo stoked to have done this mega-roof climb.  From here the plan was to try Big Gulp, but sheesh, I was starting to feel tired.  So, I called it quits.  

Antman on Undercover Cutie V8

Brion on the hard start to one of many exits.

Sunday was all about the solo mission to take down Big Gulp.  I got all psyched around one that afternoon and drove out feeling pretty good, until I pulled on to climb.  UGH!  I was soooo sore.  The previous two days of 20+ move V8's and harder had taken it's toll.

Here's a shorty from Friday.  I can't say this is the best spot to go check out as the parking and access are not ideal.  

On the horizon awaits the Eastern Outdoor Reps Association show this weekend.  I'll be in SC for 5 days kickin it with The General, Kurt Smith.  With tons of knew products from Evolv, Metolius, and Sterling we will have our hands full.  Hopefully, I'll return the following week well rested and feeling good.  

Later.